Helsinki 1997: Helsinki, Finland to Tartu, Estonia
From the archives: It turns out that I was blogging long before anyone had ever heard the term “blog.” Twenty years ago I worked in Helsinki, Finland for a summer with the Finnish National Agency for Education to fund my studies as an exchange student in Estonia. While living overseas I created an online travelogue to keep my family and friends apprised of my experiences. My life has 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.
July 30-August 5, 1997
The emotions that were hitting me as I left Finland are hard to describe. I was very happy to be getting out of the situation that I had been in and very happy to begin my stay in Estonia, but at the same time Finland was a wonderful experience and the people that I met there will stick with me for a long, long time. Yes, at times it was very rough, but despite it all I am glad that I went.
Saturday, August 2nd, my life truly began anew. I left Helsinki for Estonia at 17:00 with Kairit, an Estonian friend who had been in Helsinki visiting her boyfriend. We rode over on the ferry Vana Tallinn. It was a decent boat and on the way we bumped into a couple of my CIMO friends who were on their way to Tallinn for the weekend. After clearing customs, Kairit and I dashed to the bus station and caught a bus to Tartu with only five minutes to spare. It was a long bus ride with several stops in the middle of nowhere, places we were not scheduled to stop and places where no one ever got on or got off. Add to this the crazy driving and bizarre habits of the bus driver and we really knew that we had arrived in Estonia.
I stayed with a friend over the weekend and got myself reacquainted with Tartu. I attended church at a Lutheran church nearby. It was not a particularly wonderful service, but I did bump into one student who invited me to visit his church next week. Apparently it is a larger, younger and more vibrant congregation than this one. I am looking forward to it.
Monday was the best day that I have had in a long while. I was walking with a friend and all of a sudden a woman approached us and asked us if we would be willing to be in a movie (ed: later discovered to be “Tappev Tartu”) Of course, we said, “sure” and spent the next half hour being part of the crowd waving to the “president” as he gets out of his car and runs into the theater. Apparently this is one of the only movies being made this year in Estonia and is a fairly low budget operation (1000 EEK, aprox. $95, to be exact). Indeed, some of the crowd that happened to be wearing dark suits and sun glasses got invited to be bodyguards for the president. I can’t wait till it comes out and I get to see myself on screen. Who knows, Hollywood may be just around the corner!
After our cinematic debut, we headed downtown to one of the local watering holes. While we were sitting and talking, three Americans came and sat down at the table beside us. Tartu is a small and out of the way enough place that people speaking English tend to attract my attention so I turned and started chatting with them. It turned out that they are part of the group Manhattan Transfer. They are here in Tartu as the final stop in their European tour. I enjoyed getting to know them and even got offered complimentary tickets to the show Wednesday night. It’s amazing, you never really know who you will meet. Just think, the president and Manhattan Transfer in the same day. It doesn’t get any better than that!
Today, Tuesday, August 5th, I moved into my new room in the dormitory and began to get myself settled. I have my own room. It is fairly nice; small, but not cramped, with the kitchen next door and the university doctor’s office just down the hall. (I hope that is not an omen.) I am on what is to me the second floor, but what Estonians call the first floor. I have a nice view of the main park from my balcony and am incredibly close to everything in town. The main square is only a short five minute walk away. The only drawback to this room is that I am now on the traffic side of the building, so I am going to have to get used to the sounds of cars and trucks going by all night long, at least until the cold weather strikes and I have to start closing my windows.
All in all, I am very happy here and am finally starting to feel relaxed and comfortable once again. In many ways, coming to Tartu feels like coming home. This is definitely promising to be a great semester. Life is good.
