Estonia 1998: April’s Showers of Joys

From the archives: It turns out that I was blogging long before anyone had ever heard the term “blog.” Twenty years ago I was an exchange student in Estonia. While studying at the University of Tartu, I created an online travelogue to keep my family and friends apprised of my experiences. Both my life and the nation of Estonia have changed a lot the two decades since. This reprise is providing me with a glimpse at who I was back then and the excuse to learn more about more recent developments in my temporary home, even if some of the opinions that I expressed back then may make me a little bit uncomfortable today. It is interesting to see how people grow and change.

April 20-31, 1998

This was a busy time as I started to hit to crunch time in my studies. We are getting closer and closer to the end of the semester when all of the papers and projects that I have put off until later finally come due. It is now “later” and I have been scrambling to get caught back up with everything.That doesn’t mean, however that I have been only working and not enjoying myself. On the contrary, it seems that the harder I work and the busier I am the happier and more excitement that I have. In this week and a half I have made contact with a good friend from Brooklyn, and am trying my utmost to live every moment of time that i have left here in Tartu to the fullest.

21 April 1998
Tuesday

What an incredible feeling! I just made contact with a Brooklyn classmate now living in Iowa City. After so long without talking to her, I sent her an email just hoping desperately to find her, and then within just a couple of hours her response arrived. Despite all of the other things that I got done today, the simple fact that I have gotten back in touch with a person from that far ago in my past makes the day a complete success. I am going to bed tonight happier and more excited than I have been in a long, long while.

In other news, we yet again did not have Gordon Leman’s class. He must be seriously sick. I have to try to find out how to get a hold of him and send him my best wishes. In the afternoon I went to the Väliseestlased course. It was an interesting class talking about the Swedish Estonians. It was good to hear Europeans talking about people having two nationalities and having cultural connections to two separate countries. It is a phenomenon that we in the United States take for granted and something that most Europeans can never quite understand. It is just the legacy we have of from so many centuries of integration of groups from all over the world. The Swedish Estonians have had much the same experience, providing a concrete example to Estonians of what exactly we mean when an American says “I am German/Swedish/Estonian” etc. Helps to clear things up.

22 April 1998
Wednesday

A pretty good day that was spent mostly doing research for a project in my one law course this semester. I am researching the Estonian citizenship situation as it applies to Russians in Estonia and found a lot of things on the internet to use for future reference.

23 April 1998
Thursday

Today we had a very interesting human rights class. Neil, our normal lecturer was out of town at a conference, so instead we got to listen to Juhani, a law lecturer from Finland who has taken a case before the European Court and so was able to give us a good look at this from a personal “been there, done that” point of view. In the evening we went to Nuri’s place for a potluck. We had wontons and a wonderful conversation that lasted well past a logical bedtime. It’s nice to have some truly intelligent friends.

24 April 1998
Friday

A really good day. I got to all my classes today and I actually managed to learn a lot about the Estonian community abroad. We learned about the “foreign Estonian” language and it was quite humorous to see some of the loan words that have made their way into the Estonian language through English, Russian and Swedish. In the evening I had a good evening at home with Raivo and Ene, sometimes spending some time with other people and not doing anything is a lot of fun as well. I haven’t done that for a while and I’m glad that I had the opportunity tonight.

25 April 1998
Saturday

Today I went Rollerblading with the German contingent or Jens, Kersten and Silke. We had a good time and enjoyed the beautiful weather that covered Tartu today. I surprised myself by not falling too badly and actually managing to do a few tricks that I had never managed to pull before. A little bit of courage is all it took.

26 April 1998
Sunday

A beautiful day in the park, blue spring sky and wonderful warm weather. Estonia has truly brightened up. Winter is at last behind us.

27 April 1998
Monday

Every now and then I am just struck by how surreal my life has become. I am living everyday experiences that most people in the world can only dream of. In the past few weeks I have socialized with the Austrian Minister of Justice, traveled through three countries and met more fascinating people that I can even begin to relate. I wake up every day and look out my window into a world that is so far removed from where I grew up, yet still has become a part of me. The world is so huge, and I am such a small part of it, but somehow despite all that I have managed to experience an incredible amount of it. This life is beyond belief, I’m the one living it and even I can’t comprehend it. How did I get so lucky?

After Tiina’s course I went to get my airline ticket home. In a little over two months I will be on my way home. Another incredible sensation. In the evening we had a short X-Files night. I walked with Nuri part of the way home. We passed the town square and were simply overwhelmed by how many people have come out of hiding and are now reappearing in Tartu. This is an entirely different town in the summer than the winter. The contrast is beyond explanation. I love it here.

28 April 1998
Tuesday

I had a pretty eventful day today. After Tiina’s course Silke and I had lunch at Rüütli Bistroo. Later I bumped into Amar. We had a wonderful conversation about everything from Iraqi drivers to Estonian medical studies to Finnish night life. It is truly fascinating to have this much contact with another culture that my own government has spent so long trying to deionize. In the evening before Russian culture class I enjoyed a good beer in the park with Christopher from Germany.