And so...perhap...this might really be spring..(or not)..or maybe soon (or not)

Spring is here !!!  We are having some friends for dinner tonight, and I walked to the store wearing only a t-shirt and jacket, I was HOT!!!  While there are still dirty pebble-topped mounds of crusty snow in darker corners of the buildings, the earth it becoming green. In some places gold, purple and white croci are blooming and everyone seems to be finding it increasingly difficult to be inside and work. (sigh).  Plus as spring arrives I am painfully aware that the time I have already been in Tallinn is now signficantly longer than the time that is left. I  notice that I am reluctant to plan my class, in part because there are only two class sessions left.  In my thoughts, I keep wishing I could start over.  (Not to worry, I always have 'teacher's remorse' after teaching many of my classes, and wish I could go back and spend more or less time on any particular topic.) 

Children's Singing group at Solaris

Tunnel figures...

In addition to spring flowers springing to life, I am noticing an explosion of art in many forms, in every possible corner of the city, where ever I walk.  The tall piles of snow have melted to reveal stone and metal sculptures of famous people, abstract forms or bodies in tight embraces (How is that for a perfect spring image?)  Festivals of all sorts abound- Jazzcars, Bobby McFerrin, poetry readings, theater, performance art and Japanese Anime not to mention the classics of ballet and opera.  This weekend for example, there is a childrens' choir festival in town. This morning, our closest and most reliable market (in the basement of a nearby shopping-center/movie theater/mall/ performance hall), was crowded with teens in costumes preparing to perform on a small stage in the central atrium.  Among the older parents-with-cameras, there were teens toting large Asian fans and kimonos and others dressed as animals, witches or queens. All of them members of a singing group and preparing to perform for anyone who wanted to stop and watch. Yesterday, we saw the same scene but with children so small then needed to be lifted up to the performance stage.  The day before, as I was walking to school I noticed a colorful washline of clothing hanging across the old town street, two stories up. Later, on my return that evening, the clothing was inside a local gallery that was packed with people attending a wine opening for the new exhibit.  At the national library, we wander into the wrong auditorium room (we were actually looking for a theater performance down the hall) and caught the end of a reading by an Estonian novelist (it was free and the room was packed!!).  The tunnel under the street that I walk though at least twice a day to get from our apartment to the old town has sprouted strange and whimsical figures filling the passage way. These figure are dressed in untypical Estonian fashion and seem to be saying 'Dont' reject me because I am different".  In Tallinn, arts seem to be intrinsically part of life in the town.

Raekoja Plats...the tourists are coming..the tourists are coming

Of course with spring, it is now tourist season.  The restaurants surrounding Raekoja Plats (Townhall square) have sprouted large wooden porches, complete with tables, umbrellas, tables and medievally-dressed wait-staff.  The square is filled with large packed clumps of people slowly meandering, fish-like across the square. (Their eyes big and unblinking, their mouths slightly open) It is impossible to walk at a normal rate or without walking infront of someone peering upward, camera pointed and clicking.  Some mornings I hear German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, French and Hebrew, on my way to school.  They are like locusts, but also good for the economy.

Bruce among the smoked fish

Selling fresh and smoked fish- so yummy

Fox and Barbara (my friend Epp in disguise)

Our wanderings have taken us further outside of old town. This weekend we explored an older neighborhood that is being lived in by many local artists. It is called Kalamaja (Fishhouse) because it used to be the old fish market area.  We walked past ornate wooden houses (see some of the photos in previous blogs) some of which have been  fixed up and painted beautiful pastel colors while others are collapsing with old dark smoke marks on their outer walls (from a fire, we assume).  We found an bakery which I think might be of of German ancestry based on the giant pretzels and 'kuchen' for sale inside and we buy peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. 


Our destination is the Saturday fish market on the water. On the way we pass people doing clean-up work in a boggy area and I am warmly hugged by a friendly 'ecology wolf' who is handing out literature to children about recyling. This is not just Estonian friendliness, but the wolf is actually my friend Epp, who I met at the airport while waiting for my ride, when I first arrived. At that time, she had offered us tickets to see a clown show and we met afterwards for a lovely coffee conversation about feminism, artists and the arts in Estonia.  So, there she was. It is magical and also starting how Tallinn is beginning to feel like a familiar small town!!!!  


To finish our exploration, we walked the other direction to an old soviet factory, now housing artists lofts and a yummy alterntive restaurant.  Of course we had to have lunch and it was delicious: Chicken on a bed of lentils and spinach and I had a salad of salmon and red lentils with plum juice. Plus all the bread you could eat (if you had any room for it.)  As we ate, I saw several dancers I knew from school and also watched parents with children enter to either share a piece of chocolate cake with them or walk their child to a kids play room, allowing the parents some quiet time for coffee and a conversation.  Walking home we explored the Baltiturg (the old Russian-populated market by the train station) passing older Russian women who had added bundles of pussy-willows and spring herbs to their usual sale items of home-made cucumber, beet and cabbage pickles, honey and medicinal herbs. 

Lunch at Telliskivi, in the art loft area

If perhaps our time here sounds a bit idyllic- it is.   I watch what is happening in the world and feel as if I am in a land protected by some sort of magical charm (I also realized this is a superficial perception, there are a number of things that could use change lurking below the quiet politeness of daily life.) I read the news from America and feel powerless to add my voice to the politial changes that seem to want to disempower the weakest and least protected in my own country and culture.  I also hear sad news from friends who are facing challenges in their personal life.  A friend emails me and they closes by wishing me: 'stay safe'.  Somehow this wish seems anachronistic for our lives here. (OK, maybe it would have been more relevant in the winter, when walking involved taking your life into your hands (or feet) due to hidden slabs of lethal ice and surprise attacks from killer melting icicle from above...but all of that has melted away.)  This idyllic impression won/t last either, I suspect.  Estonian society is just beginning to acknoweldge the voices of the more mariginalized members of its society (LGBT folks, Russians, women and Jews to name a few). And there is lots of trauma from soviet times, still lurking in the collective psyche. But, at this point these issues are not yet able to be addressed and some of the important conversations don't easily occur or are very brief and extremely polite.  I am curious how this nation will evolve as the next generations mature without a visceral experience of soviet oppression.  
With wishes for a gentle spring for all of you, and Hag Sameach, Happy Easter and enjoy the return of warmth in the world.