Kohviks and Kultuur

Greetings. Barbara's mentioned our occasional sojourns to local coffee cafes, and I include two photos here to illustrate: the pastry case at Reval Kohvik (cafe) on our block (many coffee cafes, in addition to serving light meals, specialize in all sorts of pastries and cakes, often with a chocolate theme much beloved by local folks). In the other photo, Barbara is happily working on her laptop at Mamo, another favorite, light and airy with whimsical artwork on the walls and the almost-standard wi-fi. Such places are nourishing places to spend an hour or two, and an enjoyable place to people-watch among other pursuits.

But we've also been enjoying cultural traditions, in addition to foods. We've been to the ballet (with full orchestra), seeing "Swan Lake" in a rather dizzying juxtapositon with the film "Black Swan," and will soon attend the opera a short walk from our apartment.

There is also in this part of the world (but perhaps especially here in Estonia) a strong choral tradition in the form of all sorts of non-professional choirs, coming together in song festivals every couple of years which can involve over a quarter of the entire population of Estonia (more about that another time, as it was an essential part of Estonia's struggle for independence from the Soviet Union twenty years ago). We recently enjoyed a concert by a local girls' choir (teen-agers) at the national library, and were amazed and impressed by it; see the photo to the lower right. The music seems to draw on both traditional "folk" sources as well as modern works.

A significant minority of Estonia's population is ethnic Russian in origin, and another part of local culture are Slavic folk traditions (in song, dance, and faith). The photo to the lower left is a small Slavic women's group that performed at a celebration of Slavic cultures, wonderfully lively and energetic.

A small part of the celebrations for the annual Independence Day celebration on February 24th (the independence gained from Russia in 1918) was a performance by girls from a local ballet school, and I conclude this post with the photo above. Song, music, and dance, in both their "folk" and "classical" varieties, have their distinctive expression and energy here in Estonia, and remind us that we are someplace a little different at this point in our lives.

Explorations and National Day

It is Friday evening..Shabbat, and we are finishing dinner in our apartment(On the menu: paella surprise...made with local  produce and canned goods from Latvia and other places east of us, and yummy apple dumplings with apples from Poland.  One of my fun challenges is cooking with local options and sometimes mystery food...because I can not speak Estonian, Latvian or read Cyrilic.)  We have a fire in the fireplace and are watching BBC news report on the natural and human violence that is occurring in so many other places of this world.  The frigid temps of the past few days (-3/-4 degrees F) are supposedly softening a bit tomorrow....so its time for a blog entry and photos. 

We have been exploring and also enjoying the inspirational celebrations that are part of Estonian Freedom Day (the actual day was yesterday..Feb. 24th).  Before details of the day itself, a brief synopsis of other adventures and discoveries:

main sactuary from the women's section

Bruce in front of the main entrance

This week, we visited the Tallinn synaogogue and we were treated to a wonderful private tour of the museum, complete with an in depth history of the Estonian Jewish community accompanied by photos, documents and personal stories. Our guide was quite knowledgable, and was an amazingly good English speaker. (We used Hebrew as a fall back for words he didn't know, since he had lived for several years in Israel.) We hope to return for services and Purim (costumes are supposed to be something Chinese...an interesting idea...) A few photos of the synagogue are above. Hopefully you can see, that it is a beautiful modern building. It was designed by non-Jewish Finlanders, and details include   wooden carved screens of the tree of life as a design throughout the building and large windows showing the sky and trees. 

Food and coffee-wise, we are starting to find places that feel like 'ours'.  A local coffee cafe called Mamo, that has free wifi, good coffee, windows to view the street and quite delicious, inexpensive dishes- like curry on rice, soups and salads. The other people we see there seem to be local workers, students and couples who come to grab a short bite in the middle of  their busy schedules. (Estonian seem to be proud of the fact that they are overwhelmingly busy all the time. The consistent unstated assumption from most people I meet, is that no one else in the world is as busy as Estoninans.) 

Inside the National Library

Bruce and Artwork

Stained Glass at the Library

From our apartment or Mamo and a 10 minute walk in the other direction is the National Library. It is a vast fort-like edifice with books in many languages (including English...woo hoo).  The building is filled with sculpture, photos and paintings as well as a beautiful stain glass window above the entrance.

We happened to visit in the later afternoon and arrived in time for a free choral concert in one of the library performance halls (next to the ever present kovik/coffee house) and we join a group of mainly older women, dressed in stylish dresses and a few men, to listen to an amazing girls' choir singing a mix of folks, traditional and international songs. We started with everyone standing and singing the national anthem and the rest of the concert included wonderful singing, choreography and songs that included bird calls and another with witch-like shrieks and cries as the singers swooped across the stage like birds of prey. The choir leader was an older woman who conducted with vigor, wagged her finger at the audience when we didn't sing loudly enough and at at times, joined the audience as her 'girls' sang away in front of us.  It might sound corny but the singing was amazingly wonderful and the pride of song and love of music was overwhelmingly beautiful. 

Soldiers at Parade rest

Ceremonies for Freedom Day 

The next morning was the actual DAY OF CELEBRATION. We chose to NOT get up for the sunrise flag raising and service, (in part because the event was outside and the temperature was hovering around -4 F.) We did make it later for the parade, joining many other Estonians gathered in the frigid temperature to view the festivities. The crowd was an amazing mix, small children waving small Estonian flags, women in fur coats with matching  fur hats, old men with red noses and teary eyes, plus a smattering of foreigners...all trying to keep our footing with frozen feet on the piles of snow and trying to stay warm in the cold temperatures.

Fur and Khaki...check out the guns 

Soldiers and more soldiers (officers too)

tanks on parade !!

Estonians watching the parade

The parade itself was basically a huge military show. Earlier, as I had walked back to Vabaduse Valjak to meet Bruce from a morning rehearsal, it was a strange juxtaposition to see the old town filled with khaki colored tanks and military vehicles.  The young soldiers nearby were smiling and chatting with friends and family and photos while tall medieval towers stood in  the background, a reminder of earlier military battles.  

The parade was quite inspiring, and we got to see it several times again that evening on TV. 

Tanks in the old town

It has been an interesting week for different views on the military. I am aware that as an American who grew up during the Vietnam war times, I have a somewhat disparaging view of warfare and soldiers.  I also know that for some Americans, often those who are poor or who have fewer possibilities and job options, the army provides an opportunity to have a better life, better education and a living income. But, I still tend to look down my nose a bit at the military.  

However, this week, I am also seeing the army in a different role. Watching the news unfold in Egypt and now Libya as well as other parts of the Middle East I am seeing a different side of the military.  In the Middle East these days, soldiers are often the primary peace keepers in battles between dictators and the people of the country.  The parade in Estonia is another example.  Here people celebrated Estonian's recently acquired liberation with military flair. (toward the end of the parade two helicopters and then two fighter jets flew overhead. The crowds shivered and cheered in awe and appreciation. I wondered if their air force was comprised of these 4 vehicles.)  Watching the young men and a few women soldiers parade past me, mere feet from where I stood, the soldiers seems eminently human and courageously willing to defend their country from invasion.  It was quite a different view from my views of soldiers when I was a young adult.  What are the differences between a valid show of pride and empowerment and a show of power that is more abusive and violent. And who gets to decide which is which.  Later, I was talking with a young Estonian playwright who also questioned the value of celebrating freedom with a military show, but she ruefully concluded that the military show was acceptable and had a place in her Estonian day of freedom.  These seem like important questions, especially as I watch the news in the quiet, introverted part of the world.  Ones for which I dont know that I have many answers.  

Nagemiste !!!! (apologies for funky formatting this time around...the blog site is being a bit hard to manage)

Ancient clock in Old Town 

People Here Speak a Whole Different Language

Tere (Hi)! OK, it's time to talk a little about the Estonian language, bits and pieces of which we're attempting to learn--at least for purposes of courtesy if not actual comprehension. Not that courtesy doesn't count or isn't real: we've always believed that we should at least try to speak a little of the language in countries where we are guests, and it's nice to be understood as trying as well.

But Estonian is a challenge, as implied in an earlier post. First, it's a member of a different family of languages than those spoken by most Europeans or those (like many Americans) whose people came from places that spoke a European language. Estonian is a part of the Finno-Ugric language family, rather than an Indo-European language (which includes Germanic, Romance, and Slavic languages, among others, including Persian and Hindi). The other two main languages in this family are Hungarian and Finnish (to my surprise, the languages spoken by the indigenous Sami peoples of the far north of Scandinavia also belong to this family). See the map below for a bit more on this--it's not super-clear, but the Finnish language area is in pink, Hungarian in green, and Estonian in yellow.

This means that knowing English, or a bit of German or French or Spanish, doesn't give you much help in understanding Estonian. We're pretty much starting from scratch, except for the words Estonian has borrowed as a result of centuries of being a small place on the edge of larger empires, trade (a long-term member of the Hanseatic League), foreign occupation, modernization, or the ease of communicating across borders with new electronic media.

But in addition to being from a language family unfamiliar to English speakers, the Finno-Ugric languages also just seem more complicated grammatically. For example, many languages have some "cases" (confession: I'm getting in over my head here), which means the form of a noun or pronoun may change depending on how it's used in a sentence. An example in English might be "I, my, me," reflecting the three cases we have in English. Even these three can be confusing for native speakers (my students sometimes mixed up when to use "I" and "me"). German has four cases, and Latin eight.

But Estonian has 14, and Finnish 16! This sounds overwhelmingly complicated to me: would you either have to grow up in an Estonian-speaking household to get the case right when speaking Estonian, or be so deliberate and careful in how a word was being used in a sentence you might never get it out? No wonder we're still at the "hi," "thank you," "please," and "one-two-three" (uks-kaks-kolm) stage of our conversational attempts.

What does this mean in actual speaking, this variety of cases? An example might help. Suppose we have the words for "beautiful house," a noun and its adjective. In English, those words would be constant, while we would indicate the context with other words like "to," or "from," or "on top of," things like that. In Estonian, the words themselves (noun and adjective) take different endings.

In other words, they would be spelled different depending on whether we are saying a beautiful house, into a beautiful house, in a beautiful house, from a beautiful house, onto a beautiful house, from on top of a beautiful house, turning into a beautiful house, up to a beautiful house (but not going in), like a beautiful house, or without a beautiful house (and so on). Wow. A bit daunting for the beginning speaker! (Thanks to Urmas Sutrop's informative booklet Estonian Language for these and other examples.)

At one level, I love how human beings have been so creative in using and changing their languages, and how complex, nuanced, and attentive a language like Estonian is in helping us see the subtleties of our experience. One language might help us see something different about our everyday life than another, providing a new lens or framework for seeing (and shaping?) the reality that counts for us. Estonian has a word for "anticipation of thunder in the evening," for example, which seems to indicate a connection to natural life it's easy to lose track of in our modern world. At another level, as someone who's often felt challenged trying a new language, knowing more about Estonian makes me wonder if I'll be better learning about the language than actually using it. Fortunately, even my meager attempts to use a little Estonian are usually well-received, or at least afford a moment of humor for someone in their busy day.

To continue: In addition to cases, there are also additional vowels in Estonian, nine rather than the five in English. That's not such a big deal, as lots of languages have extra or different vowels from English, or extra or fewer consonants (Estonian doesn't have the English c, f, q, w, w, or y). And it can be charming, or sound lovely, so there's a little built-in intrigue or motivation to make the most of it. There often seem to be words with more vowels than consonants, or double vowels. And Estonian has 36 different dipthongs, or vowel combinations, just to make things more interesting.

The word for "edge of the ice" (and think about what it means about where we are, that this culture might actually have a word for this concept!) is jäääär. We pay rent monthly on our apartment here, the word for which is kuuüür . (Note that those "umlauted" a's, o's and u's are three of the extra vowels in Estonian--they are separate vowels, different letters, and don't come in the order one might expect when looking them up in the dictionary.)

On the bright side: unlike Thai or Arabic, in which Barbara and I have taken courses during our overseas programs, Estonian is written in "regular" (Latin) letters. And it's pretty phonetic: if we pronounce the letters right, we can say the words more or less correctly, so words sound like how they look (like German and Spanish, not like English or French, in my experience).

Now if we only spoke Russian, as do over a quarter of the people here, we might have additional skills to work with. Perhaps Barbara can revive her Serbo-Croatian? But that's another story. In the meantime, we will have to depend on the kindness of strangers, as we so often have when far from home--in this case, local folks who, luckily for us, often speak at least some English.

Paikest! (Sunshine!) Bruce

p.s. Congratulations if you finished this particular post. You are eligible to receive two (2) Continuing Education Units (CEU's) for this achievement.

Swan stories and the return of the sun.....

It has been a week of ice and cold made tolerable by sunny days, gradually increasing sunlight and of course the requisite local chocolate that makes everything better.  We are settling into a rhythm and as the city becomes more familiar I notice my attention is becoming more relaxed and internal. Of course, when the ground itself is inconsistently icy and slippery, it is hard to walk and take in the amazing beauty of medieval buildings and red-tile roofs sparking with snow and sunlight.  I wonder if the Estonian reputation for being so internal is, in part caused by needing to make sure you don't slip in the winter and the need to watch the ground to navigate through the least slippery options available.  

Bruce grading papers in a local bakery
 and coffee shop

Our days are quiet and gentle: In the morning we wake up, later that normal for both of us- to a sky that turns first deep blue, then brilliant purple/orange/yellow with the sunrise.  We make toast and coffee to the sounds of the rumble of the street trolley passing by, five floors below our window.  Watching BBC World News, I glance out of the window, to assess the outside temperature, to see if people walking to work are wearing gloves and hats. I watch the   soaring seagulls and neon smoke from houses nearby, to see if there is a wind blowing. We spend our mornings puttering- Bruce catching up on world news while I take some time to work on classes or prepare for school.  Later, once the temperature is a bit warmer, we go exploring- sometimes it is to a local museum, church or new area of town.  Bruce checks out English language books at local bookstores, I note cafes or craft stores of interest. We both 'book mark' churches or other historic buildings for future visits.  We are constantly discovering new places, often as we meet local friends for coffee and the mandatory ultra-sweet and chocolatey cake or pastery.  (See photo of Bruce)

Ice Sculpture up close

If I am going to school I walk down Roosikrantsi- our street and pass first,  an inexpensive and fun 4-table size sushi restaurant (it if is late enough, I notice its waitresses wearing cute Japanese style 'cat ear' head bands and and the Japanese cartoons dubbed in Estonian playing on a large TV screen. Further down the street I pass a flower shop, an ultra-hippyesque youth hostel, a travel agency and a sex shop. Its quite a mix! At the end of the street, I go down some steps, through a short underground tunnel, and ascend to Vabanduse Valjak (Freedom Square) which still has its circle of ice sculptures from the Chinese New Year celebration. I continue - past the square, past a small ice rink playing loud rock music in English, and then several tall stone church buildings from Medieval times.  From there I enter the central square of Old Town. This square is a vast expanse of older stone buildings that are now mainly restaurants with the ancient town hall, topped by a tower that resembles a Muslim minaret on one side.  The square is usually filled with camera toting tourists, young men in capes whose basic job is to invite hungry people into the restaurant they work for (if you wanted to enjoy a medieval-style meal complete with music and costumed 'wenches' you have a choice of several places), and more soaring birds. 

One of 'my' class rooms

From there, I pass through a low stone arch, past another church, three different coffee and chocolate cafes (usually filled with older ladies and couples on dates by the afternoon) and at least five different art galleries and performance centers. (As you can tell, Tallinnites love art, performance, coffee and chocolate)  The I make a short left and right until I arrive at the heavy green door that is the entrance to my department.  I enter and am greeted by the sounds of music and singing and I glance at the plethora of posters listing local performances on all the walls. I nod and say 'tere' to the door attendant and go up to offices that always have the makings for tea, coffee and a changing bowl of chocolate for any of us who might need a boost. 

Beyond our daily rhythms, our days are also filled with adventures, successes and new food and learning experiences.  First WE BOTH GOT OUR VISAS APPROVED ON OUR FIRST TRY!! The extended stay visa process is incredibly complex and convoluted (see earlier posts) and other Fulbrighters have been having a hard time  getting their visas without several return visits and additional documents. We were lucky so we are now legit (and can vote in the next election we are told). 

Town Hall- topped by a muezzin
inspired tower 

Buildings in Old Town

This was also the week of double swan stories: First we attended a local production of Swan Lake in the National Opera and Ballet Theater (A five minute walk from our apartment). The theater itself is a small jewel box of a space, not too large and the audience for this performance included a mix of small girls with tightly ponytailed hair, physical theater actors from London, short wide older ladies in elaborate hats and fur coats and a few folks from England on holiday. The production was good, except for the plastic swans that floated across the mirror-lake  to indicate the arrival and departure of the flock. But it was a treat to see the whole ballet, rather than excerpts, as is more normal in the US.  Compared to theater in Lithuania, I missed the older-style formality I remember from Vilnius, where everyone was dressed as elegantly as possible, little girls wore pink tights and had their hair pulled back in tight buns topped with huge bows.  I also missed the intermission activites- thick hot chocolate that you had to 'drink' with a spoon and the carousel-like circular promenade of couples going around and around until the call to return to our seats. But there was still champagne and the love of the theater that seems to pervade all ex-soviet places we have visited. 

Statue in the Danish King's garden..
or at least a garden in the spring

Then, the  following day we went to see the new movie Black Swan at the local Solaris Shopping Center. Wow, talk about opposite experiences!!  To see this movie, we entered a huge theater with seats like lounge chairs and a bone-vibrating sounds system.  While to local, live production ended somewhat happily, with the prince and his 'virgin swan-love' exiting upstage together (unified either in life or death, but they were together for sure) the movie ended in a shockingly different way.  Black Swan continues to impact me, days later.  The movie (in case you haven't seen it) is quite intense, depicting the challenges and often less than healthy demands of being a ballet dancer. It is powerfully acted and, for me, portrays the dark underbelly of a world I know well.  I simultaneously relate to the ecstatic experience of being one with the movement in a performance, an amazing high that is almost spiritual or as stated in the movie 'perfect'.  But the cost of this perfection in the Ballet world is also painfully portrayed in this movie.  The physical, emotional and human cost of such dedication to an impossible goal. Plus the way that performance also has a voyeuristic side, with the audience sitting as judge and jury while the performer pours their soul into their work...for me the movie also shows this dark side of the ballet world as well.  The next day, in a movement class, I noticed that my movements often mirrored scenes from the live ballet and movie and the polarities of light and darkness continued to haunt my thoughts and dreams. The night after we saw the movie, local news showed pictures of people feeding swans at a near-by Tallinn park (Kadriorg). Life mirrors art, once again.

Tompea from outside the walls 

In addition to swans and chocolate, I have had a wonderful time getting to know several Dance/Movement Therapy (DMT) colleagues from Germany and Prague, as well talk about DMT in Europe.  I also hope be teaching some workshops and classes in other institutions in Tallinn and getting to know more about people's stories here. 

Finally, I am also finding it challenging to read about the political events that are happening in other parts of the world. I notice the absence of conversations and topics coming up with people we are meeting (or perhaps those topics are for later discussion). I asked one of my colleagues about his thought related to the events in Egypt. While he was clearly aware of what was happening in other parts of the world, he also seemed to be more focused more on his own family life and work efforts here.  It is strange to be in the far north corner of the world and enjoying the local happenings and national pride, but I also miss conversations about events in the rest of the world. One of the things I appreciated about the Middle East (and felt a bit intimidated by) was the level of awareness of world events that colored almost any conversation that occurred.  Or perhaps, this absence is due more to my newness and lack of language skills. 


To be continued....(and one last photo)

From the Tallinn City Museum

A Quiet Sunday

Tere hommikust (good morning!). It's Sunday morning, and Tallinn is very quiet. I've had my breakfast of toasted leib (rye bread, many varieties of which can be bought here) with lingonberry jam, and coffee, and Barbara's doing her morning stretches.

Later we'll walk up to the Vannalinn (Old Town) area shown in the photo to the right; Barbara's meeting some other dance/movement therapists visiting from Germany at her university (ulikooli) office (photo on the left), and I'm going to explore some of the churches which should still be open towards the end of their Sunday morning services--including St. Olav's (St. Olaf's) Church, the one in the top center of the photo, with the tall tower (said to have been the tallest building in the world in the 13th century)....

(Writing again, Monday, from a kohvik or cafe in Old Town, part of a small theater complex Barbara found the other day, where a few local folks are slurping their supid or soup while browsing their laptops, connected with the ubiquitous wi-fi, pronounced wee-fee here)...Yes, I did get to St. Olav's after dropping Barbara off for her meeting, and enjoyed the music at the second service which started mid-day when I arrived. The loosely-Lutheran Estonians, by which here I mean the ethnic, Estonian-speaking Estonians, are said not to be particularly observant about church, less so than the Russian-Estonians about their Russian Orthodoxy, so I was surprised to find the music at the church supplied by a large, youthful choir whose voices filled the large sanctuary.

And that's all for the moment, from the house-spouse half of your foreign correspondents (Bruce)

Bruce's First Impressions of Estonia

Barbara dining at a pizza/pasta bar, with the opera house in the background (left); St. John's Church on Freedom Square with Chinese New Year celebration and ice sculptures (right)

Tere (hi!) from Bruce. Barbara's been here in Estonia for over a month, but I joined her less than two weeks ago. I've been enjoying our apartment, on the fifth floor of an older building that's been nicely modernized inside (as you may have noticed from earlier photos on this blog). While my body catches up with the eight-hour time difference from the Twin Cities, Barbara and I have been exploring, eating out, and going to a dance performance, art opening, and the well-designed art museum on the edge of town--plus the (surprising!) celebration of Chinese New Year with an opera troupe from Peking!

I often find myself making comparisons between Estonia now and Lithuania (where we had another Fulbright in 1997-98, thirteen years ago). The differences are many, in spite of my unconscious expectations that Estonia might just be a variation on our Lithuanian experience. For examples, though both countries won their independence from the Soviet Union in the early 1990's, Lithuania was (understandably) much closer to their experience under Soviet rule than is Estonia today, and Estonia has had much more time to turn its politics and economy towards western Europe than had Lithuania.

Perhaps for this reason, Estonia seems noticeably better off than Lithuania, and adopted the Euro as its currency as of January 1 of this year (I do admit I like the old national currencies in Europe, which often reflected history and tradition and were simply more beautiful than the Euros which have replaced them). In Lithuania, the capital where we were living simply could not afford to turn on the heat in public schools and other buildings as winter approached (including our old apartment), and everyone kept piling on additional layers of clothing to make do even when indoors well into November. What a relief the day they were able to turn on the heat! Here, while it's often cold outside (we're as far north as Hudson's Bay), indoors we're comfortably warm. We have lots of running hot water in our apartment (rather than turning on the small hot water heater hanging over the bathtub as we did in Lithuania when we wanted a bath).

The electronics revolution has swept through Estonia now too (and perhaps it has in Lithuania, which we'll eventually be visiting). Skype was invented here, and virtually every public venue, including coffeeshops and cafes, seems to have wi-fi ("wee-fee" as they say here). Laptops are quite visible, while none of my students in Lithuania could afford a computer in 1997. People here, especially younger people, often dress like other Europeans--by which I mean they dress in "fashion-casual," lots of dark colors, rarely dressing "up" in the way we often saw people in Lithuania doing. This may have reflected a cultural difference, or our sense that Lithuanians (often educated but poor) more often dressed up to reflect the dignity they felt, while Estonians feel more confident and secure in dressing "down."

These are rather sweeping generalizations, risky because I'm experiencing Estonia almost twenty years before they gained independence, while my memories of Lithuania are stuck half a generation ago. And I do sense similarities between the two countries as well: a strong sense of pride in their national history and culture, for example. They also speak languages I despair of learning, though for different reasons: Estonian is a Finno-Ugric language (like Finnish and Hungarian, and not part of the Indo-European language family), full of vowels and double vowels (especially a's, o's and u's) (for example, I'm going to look at books later, which in Estonian is "raamatud"), while Lithuanian is a relatively archaic or less-changed Indo-European language which knowing English (or a bit of German, French and Spanish as I do) does not help one understand. Fortunately (for me), Estonians now often speak some English as their second or third language, so I can get by (in Lithuania, English was usually, at best, a fourth language, after Lithuanian, Russian, and Polish).

All of which helps explain why yesterday afternoon we were sharing a meal at a sushi cafe around the corner from our apartment with a local colleague of Barbara's and her two little girls, and could have a lively conversation. The girls, both pale blonds, would softly yodel their vowels to each other, but also could make pretty good sense of our questions, and their mom speaks English quite well. (The "blond thing" is another similarity with Lithuania--lots of blond people, including lots of tallish women.)

Sushi, you ask? Another difference between Estonia and Lithuania. At least when we were in Vilnius (Lithuania), there were almost no "foreign" cafes--one Chinese cafe by the train station run by Chinese folks washed up on the far shores of communist solidarity, one Indian cafe which had just opened, some attempts to make pizza, and that was about it. Here in Tallinn there are far more eating options, partly reflecting the open borders that Lithuanians just did not really have available back then. And the sushi was pretty good (no Japanese chefs in sight, but still good)--the difference was that all the fish seemed to be salmon, from Norway, rather than the tuna and other fish sushi chefs prize. But we're not complaining, and our bodies are now saturated with omega-3's.

Enough for now. Paikest! ("Sunshine to you!") Bruce

Finally, it is colder in Tallinn than it is in Minneapolis

I am typing in our cozy apartment, the sun is shining- but we discovered in our early-afternoon exploration adventure that it is REALLY COLD AND WINDY outside.  This week has been a time of increasingly bigger forays into this city that we now live in, alternating with work and preparations for teaching for Barbara (class schedules here are usually alternate weeks, so last week was very relaxed and laid back...next week I will be teaching all my class...some class periods being 4 hours long!!) and more getting oriented for Bruce.

Our new explorations have included: 

Well to start, Bruce is investigating all the local book stores and coffee houses (kahviks) which should take him most of his time here to complete.  Tallinn is a city with much coffee, book stores and cultural events in general (opera, ballet, music, theater, alternative dance performances, art openings...and it is not even the warm season with tourists.) He is also trying out local bakeries and searching for good dense chewy bread. (Locally there actually is lots of good bread: dark rye and darker rye- but most of the baked goods at local coffee shops are rich, multi-layered and include some combination of chocolate, butter, creamy stuff and fruit.  How people here remain skinny I will never know.)  We are starting to locate favorite bread stores and have also found some coffee places that will be wonderful in the spring, all of them are bookmarked in our minds for return visits. 

We took a bus (my second ride, Bruce's first) to Kadriorg park and KUMU the new and impressive Estonian Museum of Art. The bus was fun and tickets are on the honor system (although if you are caught with out a time-punched ticket you get charged a hefty fine).  So, we dutifully punched our tickets and the bus meandered through areas of town that we have never seen before. We passed through  a  very upscale section with colorful wooden houses and and an area of old block concrete 'soviet' bunker style apartment buildings. Finally arriving at the KUMU stops, with the museum designed so it merged into the hillside, barely visible from the bus stop.  


KUMU is located in Kadriorg park, a large park on the edge of the city center. It is, we are told filled with lilac and chestnut trees in the summer, but now it is covered in snow.  The museum is an impressive collection of Estonian artists including many whose style reflected a mix of European impressionism and Estonian folk traditions.  Plus one who wing was filled with art from the Soviet times.  

Peter the Great- Palace in Kadriorg

After the museum, we wandered back into town, past a palace built by Peter the Great of Russia for his wife Katherine and a similar slightly smaller building next to it which is the 'official residence' of the current Estonian president. Both beautifully ornate pink buildings are surrounded by trees and expanses of snow.

The only synagogue in Tallinn

We then continued toward town, passing a recently build synagogue. (It was designed by Finnish architects and is quite modern and beautiful- inside and out). We plan to attend services at some point, although it seems to be a small congregation, with mainly Russian members who are newly discovering their Jewish heritage. 

We also attended an art opening, curated by one of the students in my class and a dance event of two local rising choreographers.  So we are hobnobbing with the local arts scene and learning more about the artistic voices of Estonian youth.  

Other adventures followed on other days: Bruce had his first full day of exploring alone, with out Barbara, discovering many new sights and book stores. Why without Barbara.....well Barbara was presenting at a local Music Therapy conference held in celebration of 20 years of existance of the local Music Therapy association.  At the conference, I had a wonderful time teaching and meeting local Music Therapists who are doing some exciting work in settings that range from schools to homes for orphans to creativity programs. I taught  in English but had translation help from  some wonderful young women.  One of the high points for me was at the closing ceremony of the conference where three musicians/Music therapist improvised a surreal and celestial soundscape, using voice, bells, chimes and large golden cymbals to weave an amazing tapestry of sound and vibration. By the end, everyone was vocalizing in multiple harmonies together. (Music and choral singing is an important part of Estonian culture. It is how they maintained their sense of identity throughout the Soviet era and how they moved toward independence. Everyone sings easily here and in multiple part harmonies.  I am in heaven !!!! (and of course I join in.)

Snow on one of the walls around Toompea

Barbara- cold but how cool is the color of the house? 

Today, we explore just outside of the old town near an area called Schnelli pond. It was on the side of the old city that is near the port and the bay, so it was cold and windy. But this weekend there was an area of snow sculptures built for kids to play on. As we approached from a distance it looked like mounds of snow covered by multicolored ants, but as we got closer we saw the various constructions were actually crawling with brightly colored children and surrounded by parents dragging their omnipresent snow sleds, used to drag kids around town.  We paused, took a few photos with frozen fingers and then headed into town to return home. On our way we discovered the best bakery so far. (OK so lots of other older couples and young families had already discovered the bakery before us...it was filled but the ladies behind the counter were friendly and helpful in translating the types of bread they were selling (including, rye bread, dark rye bread, rye bread with oatmeal flakes, rye bread with seeds and spices....you get the idea.) After buying a loaf of bread we headed home to drink tea, get caught up on work and just hang out. 


Signing off with photos of the kids and snow: 

Kids playing on Snow sculptures near Schnelli pond 

More snow sculptures 

Ice Sculptures- still going strong in daylight 

the arrival of Mr. Bruce !!!!!!

View from Toompea

Yes, Bruce arrived....after a long, long flight with some unexpected, but not dangerous surprises. Once in Tallinn it was a short and quick taxi ride home, and the past few days have been filled with exploring and (for Bruce) getting adjusted to local sleep and eating times. This has worked well with my schedule, since I am working on my classes and challenging myself to create powerpoints for each class. (I am slowly being dragged into the 21st century....first a local cell phone and then using powerpoint...what is next????? )


There have been several highlights....some fun and some a bit scary:

Ice Sculptures for Chinese New Year 

First the fun. This weekend, as part of the year-long celebration of Tallinn as one of two Cultural Capitols of Europe, we celebrated Chinese New Year!!! Complete with ice sculptures in Vabandage Valjak, a Dragon Dance (the performers included one of my students) and performances by the Beijing Opera (called Peking Opera here...)  Saturday evening, families crowded into the square and up to the performance stage (I was surrounded, sardine-like, by short, wide Russian speaking seniors on all sides of me.) The dance was brilliantly colorful and the acrobats were quite skilled. However, they seemed to have moments in their routines for applause (which in China would DEFINITELY happen), but in Tallinn, between clapping that was muffled by gloved hands and a general tendency to under respond, the crowd was appreciative but somewhat silent. (see photo below).  At the end of the evening there was a grand display of fireworks...which we heard and saw reflected in nearby building windows from our warm cozy apartment. 

Dragon Dances

The next day, I had been offered free tickets to a 'clown show' in Toompea..."Piip and Tuut". We entered an house in the Old Town to find the entry filled with coffee, apple cider, kringle and many small blond- haired, long-legged Estonia kids. We might have been the only adults in the audience not related to at least one little one.  What fun !!!! The show was great..the two actors/clowns were quite skilled and enacted a story about a man in a kitchen who is preparing for a female guest. She arrives and they have many misunderstandings about food and dancing that involved much juggling of plates, chairs and glasses which had the kids in the audience howling.  

Audience members

At the end the performers passed out pieces of sausage, lettuce, cucumber slices and cherry tomatoes (which the female clown had been wearing as a necklace throughout the skit.)  It was fun and afterwards, we talked with the young woman clown. She told us that she and her partner lived in the performance space (we had been using their kitchen tables as benches to sit on) and hosted other types of performers as well as weekend birthday parties for the children. We were smiling the rest of the day and our mood was reflected by the bright sunlight as we continued to explore the upper old city.  

View from Toompea

more views 

The next adventure was less fun. Monday, Bruce and I went to the immigration office to apply for temporary residency visas, so we could stay here for 5 months (technically, we can only stay for 90 days without a permit). It was a somewhat nerve wracking process, although at this point it has hopefully ended (we hope).  We entered, had our photos taken (they didn't accept the photos Bruce had brought from home). Waited our turn all the while hoping that we would not end up with one of the staff who had a reputation for being more grumpy and arbitrary.  We sat down With separate officials, and submitted our forms. We were asked for lots of documents including proof that we were renting an apartment in Tallinn (I brought the contract from our landlord), proof that we were married (we had brought an apostilled document from home) proof of my graduate degree (similarly apostilled), proof that Bruce is actually employed and being paid by St. Olaf (so he would not be a burden on the Estonian state), proof that he is covered by US health insurance, contact information for family members, signatures and finger prints of our index fingers (both right and left hand). At the end of the process we were told to go pay..but surprise -surprise..we had to pay cash (and alot of it). I had assumed we could pay with our bank credit card (credit cards here are easy to use and extremely safe. Everyone uses them. In part because it is probably much better for everyone considering that one of the problems with Estonia's recent switch to the Euro is that there is alot of counterfeit money around. Most places have scanning machines to make sure the paper cash they get is the real thing.) OOPS !!!! The line behind me got longer and longer as the cashier looked sternly at me and asked how could I possibly have a bank account if I didn't have a residence card. (Funny, the bank seemed fine with me opening an account based on my passport....)  Luckily, between both Bruce and my 'cash on hand' and borrowing from the other Fulbright family who were applying for visa at the same time, we paid and left the building. Hopefully we will receive our visas in the next 10 days to 2 months.  Whew.

more views...same location...

So, thats all for now, we are settling in, Bruce will hopefully write some of his impressions once he finishes grading papers from his students. Meanwhile, more photos......(notice the stretch hummer next to the wedding party building- they do weddings in 'style' here.) 

Wedding Hall

Bruce with a new hat and not much sleep...

Katerine Kaik (Passage) in the Old Town 

Stretch Hummer for the wedding....