Tallinn Tales: Exploring, preparing for classes and a Chabad Shabbat

Well it has been a full week- and I am feeling more acclimated and settled. I am also looking forward to what the beginning of classes next week will bring. The weather continues to be worth mentioning, it has been consistently just barely freezing (which is much better than Minnesota which has been having double digit sub-zero temps). There were two mornings when there was a beautiful sunrise (at about 7:30 am) and blinding sun light, until about 10 am when the clouds rolled in. And yesterday it was sunny all day. Yesterday, I decided that if I weren't already a nature worshipper, I would immediately become one...the power of sunlight is palpable here. (When I used the afternoon to explore with my camera, I was drawn to the altar of one of the ancient churches in Old Town. There was a golden sun surrounded by many delicate rays of gold light and in the center, was inscribed in Hebrew letters the name of God. I thought ..."yup, you got that right- God IS light" The sun is probably one of the most incredible, miraculous things in this time of year in this part of the world.) But I am getting ahead of myself:

The primary focus of this week has been preparing for classes. I met folks in the department, my department head and was shown around the two lovely buildings where I will be teaching my classes. (Imagine a beautiful medieval stone building painted many different pastel colors and filled with creative and expressive arts students and faculty. Now add to that that the equipment, as well as much of the insides of the rooms are sleekly modern in a beautiful clean-lined Scandinavian style. And then add that almost all offices seems to have dishes of Kalev* chocolates available for eating. If you can put all those pieces together you get a sense of my home department.)

I will be working with extremely supportive and helpful colleagues at Tallinn University. They are patient with my pitiful attempts at remembering Estonian and my millions of questions. I will be teaching at least three classes (for both BA and MA students as well as one for choreography students) and possibly more workshops...so far it seems that once I get my syllabi and readings to the department secretary (which I did by Friday, thank you very much) I can make changes as I need to. This is good, since I don't really know what students already know and what they can manage to read and understand in English. I am both excited and a bit nervous about meeting folks next week, I love what I do and love to teach about it, so I hope they will love it as well......I have already been warned that Estonians are somewhat shy with teachers as well as with their English speaking skills, so I am prepared to be met by a wall of silence. Although I will do my best to make it more of a revolving door or window.

I have been continuing my explorations as well, trying to find my way around streets, discovering what is carried in which markets and trying to discover the cheapest wine shops. I have been having fun cooking but also finding fun restaurants for eating out (This town is amazing so far at least 3 Turkish kebab houses, a Vietnamese restaurant, several good Indian places- I have been told- and lots of Italian and pizza, not to mention basic Estonia restaurants and cafes with yummy soups. Yesterday in my exploring I stopped for coffee and solyanka - a traditional soup- in a green gazebo next to the kiek in de kok - and old guard tower. It was almost empty but had sweet wooden tables, two fire places and an amazing view. So I stopped to journal and watch life go by a bit. And it is only about 5+ minutes from my apartment)

This weekend has been particularly wild. Friday evening I went to a wine and cheese party for staff and other folks from the Embassy. It was held in a lovely apartment in Toompea (The upper town, where the rich-folk lived). I was able to meet some really interesting people, many of whom have served in many different countries for the state department. For most of them, Estonia is a 'reward' placement for folks who have or will be serving in more challenging locations of the world (e.g. Afghanistan or the Middle East). It was a wild mix of government employees, marines, and locals and everyone was relaxed and very inclusive. It happens that there are a number or Minnesotans currently working here so we traded weather stories and suggestions for good places to eat. (There are also some Californians as well.) So a diverse group of folks. I particularly appreciated that I /we were included, since Fulbrighters aren't automatically included in these type of functions.

This morning I walked to the only synagogue in Tallinn, a new Finnish designed building that is absolutely beautiful, filled with light. The interior is filled with carved tree-of-life wood panels that are simple but elegant. I had met the rabbi last week in my earlier explorations, so I thought I would go check out services. It is about a 25 minute walk from our apartment but I was able to easily enter the building (memories of needing letters of permission, passports and pleading to prove I was Jewish to get into services in Istanbul flitted through my mind as I approached the building and saw two beefy guys in windbreakers blocking the gated entrance. But they just said 'tere' and in I went.) For those of you who are not familiar with Jewish services much, this synagogue is connected to the Chabad branch of Judaism and the Lubavitch Rabbi. This means it is pretty orthodox and is one of the few branches of Judaism that focuses on bringing people of Jewish heritage back to Judaism. Luckily I had brought both my kippah (head covering) and a scarf, in case I need to have all of my hair covered. I was point upstairs (normal for orthodox Jewish services) and sat down. There were about 10 women there and about 15 men downstairs in the main prayer space. Most of the women had their heads covered, and had prayer books in Hebrew and Russian in front of them but most did not participate or speak any of the prayers. (Later the rabbi told me that this was because they were visiting Lutherans...although they all seemed to be speaking Russian, a strange combination.)

Services were nice and somewhat familiar...although the rabbi seemed to be doing most of the leading and work. I joined in for many of the almost familiar melodies (one of the tunes he used for the standing Amidah was hava nagila...and ha tikvah). After services I was invited to a light lunch and sat at a table with three other women. We actually were able to hold a bit of conversation...between their Estonian, Russian and occasional German, one recent convert's Hebrew and lots of body movement. Quite amazing to me that we could understand each other at all. The other interesting part of the lunch was an older man with a long grey beard who stood and sang Shabbat songs throughout the meal, It turns out he is a Christian pastor who is drawn to Judaism...and he really got into his singing...I wanted to join him a bit, but wasn't sure if that was permitted so I just listened.

Afterwards, I talked briefly with the rabbi who explained that most of the congregation were Russian Jewish and they knew very little about Jewish traditions, so he had made many adjustments in the service to be more accessible to the congregation.

So, it is now evening here, it is grey and there is a wind blowing. Outside my window immense white sea gulls swoop and dive on the wind currents. Tonight, perhaps a quiet evening...hanging out and reading a bit..or working on an outline for my first day of class. Bruce arrives on Thursday evening so we will be able to share Tallinn together. In addition, as part of the festivities for Tallinn2011 (Tallinn is one of the two cultural capitols of Europe this year) there will be a Chinese new year celebration and ice carving in Freedom Square (near us) and at a slightly further away park.

This is a wonderful time to be in Tallinn...have I mentioned it is an amazing place?

I hope all of you are well...Oh, news update from the Fire Sculpture Competition. No surprise... Lithuania won, followed by Latvia and Estonia.

* Kalev is the main Estonian hero. I haven't finished all the stories, but he was a powerful giant of a man who fought sorcerers and married his wife Linda before dying. The legend has it that he is buried under Toomea Hill...the upper part of the old town...so he must have been a huge guy. Anyway, the 'best' Estonian chocolate is named after him. And chocolate is big here, similar to Lithuania.

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