I am sitting at my desk at home -the sun is streaming in the window, although I know that outside it is bitterly cold. I will be going to the airport in a few hours. I am trying to collect my thoughts before I put everything into my bags and go. The time for leave-taking has arrived.
Welcome to our blog !!! Once again we are off to another intriguing corner of the world- and live in a place we never thought we would be able to get to know more intimately. (Apologies to the lovely city of Tallinn, Estonia, spelled incorrectly in our blog name because the correct spelling was already taken.)
To start, I should probably fill some of you in on the details. We, Bruce and Barbara- are off again to live and experience life in another part of the world. This time we are going to Tallinn, Estonia- one of the three small Baltic countries on the edge of what was the Soviet Union (now Russia) and across the Baltic Sea from Finland and Scandinavia. This is not our first time to this area of the world. In 1997, Bruce received a Fulbright grant to teach Women's Studies at Vilnius University in Lithuania. We were there for 5 months and had the opportunity to learn about the joyful and painful process that come with a people trying to rediscover their newly liberated identity.
We will be in Tallinn for 5 months as well, only this time Barbara is the Fulbright Grant recipient. She/I will be teaching Dance/Movement Therapy at the University of Tallinn, which is housed in the Department of Applied Creativity (how is that for a great name?). If you don't have any idea what D/MT is, check out: www.adta.org for more information. I don't know what my schedule will be, but I hope to be able to meet alot of people, learn about psychotherapy and Creative Arts Therapies in this region and also have time to explore and travel and learn more about this area of the world. Bruce will be joining me in about 3 weeks, after he finishes teaching January term, but I will let him tell his part of the story when he arrives.
As I sit here typing, I realize I have some memories of Tallinn from our last time in this area of the world. I remember an amazing old medieval city, with massive walls and an inner center courtyard surrounded by buildings and shops. I remember wandering down small dark alleys, towered over by tall dark stone walls, just beyond the central square. I also remember walking to the bus station and noticing how quickly the neighborhoods became a bit run-down and rural. I remember friendly people, but being frustrated that I did not know how to communicate with them (Estonian is nothing like Lithuanian. Instead, it is related to Finnish, Hungarian and Turkish- one of the more complex languages of the world, I am told). I am curious what will have changed in the 14 years since our last visit. I wonder how it will feel to live here for a while, rather than to just be passing through, on our way to someplace else. I look forward to the experience of arriving during the darkest time of the year and being able to enjoy the growing sunlight since we will be here through the Summer Solstice (although we might not be in Estonia on the Solstice).
For me, this journey is also on two levels- external and internal. The external one is about sharing what I know and do with a community of colleagues who, hopefully are interested in my experience. I look forward to being able to learn and collaborate with others in the Baltics, so that I will also have the opportunity to continue to learn. It will be interesting to be in a different role than the one I usually take in our travels (usually Bruce is the one teaching and I am the one organizing and managing other details)
The internal one is more of a mystery. I will be experiencing several landmarks in my own life journey. Last month, I (finally) completed the requirements for licensure as a Marriage and Family Therapist (duplicating what I had already done to become a BC-DMT). I will also turn 60 years old while in Tallinn. Rather than a time for 'black balloons', this birthday feels like a wonderful and unknown mystery, that I will gradually be discovering and transforming for the rest of my life. I wonder what it will mean to be celebrating NOT in the USA.
So, the time to pack has come. see you later....and Tanan....(look it up) Barbara
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