Spring and our Road Trip to Haapsalu

Spring in Townhall Square...

The days are getting longer and sunnier in unbelievably huge increments (In actuality, we are probably gaining 5+ minutes a day, but it feels like half hour leaps of light every night). At 9 in the evening (21:00 here) you can read a book outside, as long as you wear a warm coat and hat. Hurrah for the sun!!! I understand why someone might want to shed their clothes and dance for hours into the night-come mid-summer/St. John's day. And, incredibly, it is only mid-April.   To be clear,  it is still cool and there are occasional brief snow flurries but they melt away quickly.  

Ice floes on the bay

Birds with the Vanalinn in the distance

This weekend we took a walk along the water beyond Kadriorg Park and the bay was covered with a lunar landscape of floating ice. We were surrounded by deep blue-purple or green bands of water edging ice blocks and the reflection from a brilliant blue sky.  In the melted areas of water, swans, sea- gulls and geese perched on dry rocks and chased after small children who seemed to enjoy chasing  and taunting the bigger birds. Couples in colorful jackets scattered millet seeds on the ground, ignoring the signs strictly forbidding any bird feeding. (This is a perfect example of Estonian anti-authoritarianism, which I both respect and relish.  Those of you who know me, will understand why!!!)  On the horizon the church steeples of the old town were overwhelmed by the looming car and tourist ferries that are  arriving more frequently as winter wanes.  Yes, the tourists are coming.  In hoards!!! (I try to blend in to the scenery or look Estonian, but that is almost impossible. I am too short and my legs are not thin enough. Plus I don't wear suicide heels on the cobblestones- which betrays my foreign heritage.)  Vanalinn is becoming a place of many languages and even more cameras.  The local shop keepers, who are skilled at guessing what country you are from, now approach and greet you in your native language- 'hello, are you from America? Do you want to come eat in our lovely medieval restaurant? (Insert any other country you want for America...China, Japan, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden..they are all here- it's like a big international party.) This reminds me of Egypt, but with a much less assertive body language, and the inviter is usually dressed in a large medieval-style cape to go along with the 'ancient but old town feeling'. 


However, we are becoming familiar with Tallinn and as we settle in to familiar routines and places, we continue to try to find new areas of town (and places to eat) to explore.  Last night we had dinner at an Azerbaijani restaurant near the Baaltijaan turg (train station market..the one with lots of Russian merchants, where you can buy anything at all---I kid you not).  Azeri food is basically fire roasted kebabs/shashlik with cabbage salad. But it is GOOD.  We had lamb and lamb dumplings with an optional sour cream sauce. It was yummy.  Inside the restaurant, the only language spoken and understood was Russian.  When we ordered, I thanked the owner in Russian- spaciba...and was rewarded with a large smile)  


Classes are winding down and getting more intense at the same time. When there are only 8 - 4 hour class sessions that meet every other week, time goes by quickly.  I continue to enjoy working with these students, although I am learning to change my assumptions and expectations a bit each class session. For example, students here seem to be used to showing up for class and then doing all the reading and assignments at the end of the term.  Each class session I experiment using carrots and sticks to get them to turn in assignments when they are due (weekly) but have had only minimal success.  To my surprise, students are very comfortable speaking up in class, despite multiple warnings that that class participation would be a challenge. Supposedly, this is partially because that is not the way education works here but also because students are shy about speaking English. However, while students are good at remembering alot of 'head'  information, they are less skilled at applying what they know to their own experiences.  There is often a tendency for them to think in black/white terms and accept what ever they learn as being 'THE TRUTH'.  The other challenge for me, and this was an easier adjustment, is that almost all forms of psychotherapy here are depth work. So, when we have experiential exercises in class, students go very deep and the class becomes a form of group therapy (I continue to be struck by the many ways that generational trauma is present in most of the people I meet).  As a result, my image for how students approach learning is that they either skim the surface of the 'pool of knowledge'  so only their toes touch.....or they dive to the bottom of the lake. And I never know which will happen or when. 

Communal office space- we all use it and everyone
 brings cookies and chocolage to share

I have also been teaching several community classes. I am discovering there is a huge desire for deep but less intense embodied experiences.  Most of my community workshops have focused on self care (Authentic Movement, for those who know what that is), expressing emotions or self acceptance, and  people seem to want more classes than I have time for.  I wonder if this interest/need is so strong because it helps people toconnect with a spiritual level of being. Bruce and I have had a number of conversations with local Estonians about the absence of any strongly visible, persistent religious practice. Almost everyone we talk to confirms that Estonians DO NOT go to church or have any sort of formal religious practice. (The exceptions are the Russians who seem to attend more frequently).  However, many Estonians have a deep,  visceral connection to nature and the wild (traditionally men's territory).  Many of the women and younger people I meet, seem to gravitate toward meditation, esoteric and pagan practices (At one studio where I teach, the women are aware of moon phases and talk about earth power and nature goddesses.) 


The relationship to formal religion also seems to be changing. We had a conversation with some Estonian women at a gathering hosted by the US ambassador - yup, all the Fulbrighter's were invited...and yup I am shamelessly name dropping. In our conversation, the women were explaining to us that since liberation, Estonian women had lived with their partners and had families without getting 'officially married'. However, more recently, they were wanting to be married 'properly' in a church. We also found out that the wedding building down the street from us, is the ONLY one in Tallinn!!!!

Town hall square of Haapsalu

Road trip: Last weekend we (all three Creative Arts Therapist Fulbrighter's in Tallinn) went to Haapsalu, a small town on the coast of Estonia, to participate in an International  Healthy Living Conference. We also taught a day of classes for the Health Promotion students at the local college.  The workshops and classes were intense but fun (three 1.5 hour classes in  a row).  Students were excited, involved and seemed to love doing anything creative with movement. The conference was a bit more challenging at first.  Other presentations for the conference included topics like- the sexy side of seat-belts', reports on road safety statistics and a session from the military on Estonian defenses.  And here we were a bunch of Creative Arts Therapists. It seemed as if we had entered a game of "what doesn't belong on this list?". But we got a huge group of participants and filled the room to overflowing. It was  fun to get a sense of  how each of us works. In addition, our presentation was in a children's museum dedicated to the person who illustrated Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Pikksukk) Ilon Wicklund, who is Swedish but grew up in Haapsalu !!!! The museum was filled with her whimsical illustrations as well as many other pictures done by more contemporary Estonian artists. 

Remaining tower of the Episcopal Castle 

We enjoyed exploring Haapsalu- the Venice of Estonia, which has a huge Episcopal 'Castle' ruin which dates from the late 1200's as well as a small Swedish Estonian museum. What was even better is that Haapsalu is on the water/bay and it is only a 5 minutes walk before you are surrounded by brightly painted wooden houses, tall sea grasses and flocks of bird - many new to us and probably migrating north.  The town also has a promenade and a lovely Russian Orthodox church on the edge of the water.

Russian Church on the edge of Haapsalu

 "Three Fubrights from the states are we..."
(sung to the Mikado - Three little girls...tune)

 Because it has a lake in the middle of the town and is surrounded by water on three sides, it is easy smell to sea air and watch the colors of the sky and water change. We walked and explored and slept whenever we could. We also got to watch different news channels (watching CNN in Haapsalu confirmed for me, that I am a BBC, Al Jazeera, EuroNews kind-a-gal).  Meals ranged from great to awful (great was a rich fish soup and bruschetta at a local kovik (my first crispy bread, basil and tomato in a long time), awful was our first night's dinner of spaghetti with sauce that tasted like catsup.)  The final evening, there was a dinner for presenters at one of the fancier hotels on the water. The wine kept coming (complete with Estonian toasts of terviseks and you have to meet eyes or repeat the toast again), we were surrounded by people from Finland, Norway, Great Britain, Estonia and more. The party was going strong when we left to catch the last bus to Tallinn.  


Well, there is much more that we are doing, but this blog is getting pretty long. The next month will be busy. In addition to the end of the term, I am teaching some workshop in Tartu, leading some classes and workshops in Riga (Latvia) for International Dance Day and also attending a workshop in Copenhagen.  I also hope to be doing some relationship workshops for community participants and a separate one for Imago practitioners.  Lots of work but also lots of fun to get to know more about Estonians than if I were only visiting museums and churches. I am also making some slight progress in my communication skills. The other day I realized I actually understood a poster for a singing and dancing festival. (OK it's a small step in language comprehension, but it's a step.)

Haapsalu, spring is arriving !!!!! 

Bruce will have more to share, since he is also doing some exciting things in the community. But enough, I will close with thoughts of sun...and new spring sprouts. (and some wee-fee- or it would not be Estonia)

Can you hear me now?? Wifi (wee-fee) is everywhere