Sleepy and Cultural Times

Last night we set the clocks one hour back, which meant one sacret hour more of sleep for me. That was also very nicely timed, because I seem to be coming down with something that I am trying to fight off by sleeping. I hope what I am fighting with is not the flu that is running around, even though the symptoms might bear a hint of that. But - optimistic thoughts - I think the sleep has cured it. After sleeping for almost 12 hours last night, I was exhausted after 4 hours at the art museum, and fell asleep for another 5 hours when I got home, I now feel slightly better.

My trip to the art museum nicely fit into my otherwise very cultural week. All cultural things like concerts, opera, ballett etc. are so cheap here, and some we are invited to for free through the embassy, so it is a nice chance to experience some things that I normally wouldn't. The last week and a half, we have had something called Norwegian Week here in Tallinn, that ended with a piano-Grieg-concert Wednesday, which was really nice. Then I went to my first ever opera on Thursday, to see Tosca. Opera was really different from what I had imagined - and in a good way.

But now I have been awake for almost two hours, and my eyes don't want to stay open anymore. It is time to get some much needed sleep ;)

Central Heating System

If anyone has anything favorable to say about having a central heating system in appartment buildings, please speak up. Because personally, I am quite puzzled! I can list several cons to this system, but not think of a single pro... And the cons are quite important ones; like it's environmentally unfriendly, it's unhealthy, and it's annoying.

About a week ago they turned on the central heating system in my building. Now I have a massive cold, recovering from a headace, and I "fyrer for kråka" (Norwegian expression that is hard to translate - like "heating for the crows"). I cannot use heating very much because that tends to give me headaces. Which makes is quite unfortunate that I cannot turn the radiator off. So I have to regulate by opening the window to get some fresh airduring the nights. Hence the massive cold. And the warm, happy crows. Trying to come up with a better plan for the next two months..

Otherwise, everything good - but quite hectic - in Tallinn!

Vilnius-Weekend

Last weekend, Stine, Morten, Michael and I, went to explore the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. It was a great trip, and Vilnius is a very nice city - which after careful consideration ranks second on the list of "most-beautiful-Baltic-capitals" - after a very close fight with Tallinn about the first place, I have to admit. Vilnius should also consider being renamed "the city of weddings", because during the one Saturday we were there, we saw almost 30 weddings! Apart from that, we also had time for sightseeing, hanging out with the trainees in Vilnius, spend a few hours in the Sky Bar - testing out the drink menu while overlooking the city, and to try an unknown number of cafes and chocolate cakes and teas...

Since I have not yet learnt that taking lots of pictures of buildings only seems like a good idea in the very moment of taking them; I owe a big thanks to Morten who has understood the trick that pictures with people on them are a lot more fun when you look at them later...

Week and Future

Since I have seen a tendency that I seem to update the blog every weekend (or slightly after every weekend), I guess I can't break the tradition this week either. Every week seem to just fly by. I have tried to get into a rutine of working out again, and this week I tried a new form of training that I had a lot of faith in - swimming. For the first time I experienced one of the big drawbacks of not being a student any more.. You don't get the student discounts! Therefore, swimming does not seem to be something I can take up after all, it's one of the few things that are actually expensive here in Tallinn. But it's OK, it wasn't as much fun as I had expected either. Especially since I lost one of my contacts after 5 minutes in the water, and everything on one side just became a big blur...

I have also had time to practice my French a little bit more this week! Maybe the atmosphere of the little French cafe where we have the classes is doing it's tric after all - or at least it's so cozy that it makes it temping to go there and read.

On Friday I saw my first ever Estonian movie, Autumn Ball. It had gotten some prizes internationally, so I figured it was worth a try. It was a good movie, but very sad and depressing. So if it ever comes to Norway - be aware.

In addition, I have also started to think a lot about planning. That has never been my strong side. Usually I have trouble planning a week ahead, but I think I have done some sort of progress lately. I have at least been able to plan some trips, and my weekends ahead here in Tallinn. But then it suddenly became very clear to me that I have no plans after Christmas. I have always thought that sounded very good, but lately it has also seemed a little scary. Quite scary in fact. Since time is flying so fast, there isn't that much time to come up with a master plan either. So last night I started to look for an appartment to rent in Oslo. They were all scarily expensive. So if someone hears about a great job or a good place to stay in Oslo - send a pip my way...

Girls Trip to Riga

Last week end, Stine and I decided to explore one of the other Baltic capitals, and headed for Latvia and Riga on Saturday morning. As we had been thinking that we should get as much out of the day as possible, we booked the tickets for the bus at 6 am... Now, in hindsight, that was probably not the best plan. We got a few more hours in Riga that way, but were sleep walking through most of them.

Miracolusly, I had remembered to take my guide book along for the trip. According to said book, Riga should be the biggest and most cosmopolitan of the Baltic capitals. To be so big and cosmopolitan, it was surprising to find almost no people in the centre on a Saturday. Of the ones we did see, however, 80% were Norwegian... So many Norwegians that they actually provided an extra sightseeing bus with a Norwegian, recorded guide. So there we were, stuck for 1,5 hours in a bus with a group of middle aged Norwegian women who were sipping from their small liquor bottles, and listening to an over enthusiastic guide on the loudspeakers - who sounded more like he was telling a fairy tale than the story about Riga. But it was an interesting bus trip, and I learnt quite a lot about Riga. The rest of Saturday we spent in cafes, meeting trainees from Riga, and going to the movie theater. We stayed at the appartment of the Norwegian trainee in Latvia. With a lot more sleep than the night before, and the sun shining over Riga on Sunday - the impression of the city was also a lot better the next day. We walked around the old city, and we also hunted down what I think must have been the two things that made my guide book call this a cosmopolitan city. A miniatyre Eiffel Tower type building, and a bridge that on a good day might have a certain recemblance to the bridges in New York or San Fransisco...

Oh, and I shouldn't just make fun of my guide book - it also had an excellent tip: about a chocolate cafe that we just couldn't miss. After all - chocolate makes a girl happy, that is scientifically proved (and if it isn't, I'll happily sign up for an experiment).

It was a good, relaxing girl's trip to Riga - which is a nice city. However, it is not as nice as Tallinn. Objectivly speaking - of course!

What's with all this Whipped Cream???

If anyone asks me if I want whipped cream on my hot chocolate, my obvious answer would be yes! However, if anyone asks me if I would like whipped cream on my coffee-to-go, my obvious response would be ??? Only problem is - they don't ask. They just put it there. Like drinking coffee with a ton of whipped cream on top is just the most natural thing in the world. Well, to me, it's not. It's quite disgusting in fact.

I went to a coffeeplace the other day, orderning a latte with Irish Cream to go. While they were making my latte I was more busy people-watching than actually supervising what went into the paper cup. So when I got it it already had the lid on, and I tried to start drinking on my way out the door. Only, no coffee came in my mouth. I took the lid off to investigate, only to discover that over half of my cup was filled with whipped cream. The other half apparently consisted of 3/4 Irish Cream syrup, and 1/4 coffee... I decided that this coffee chain was weird, and decided never to use it again. Then yesterday, I was standing on an information stand about Norwegian Develoment Cooperation for several freezing hours. So I decided to go into the shopping mall to get a coffee and warm up. I asked for a latte, and waited impatiently for them to make it. Unfortunatly, it didn't occur to me to point out that I wanted a latte free of whipped cream.

Mistake. Huge mistake.

Nostalgia

Today I decided to have a completly relaxing Saturday. And what better way to spend it than to sleep the first half of the day for then to bring a couple of fleece blankets and a pillow into the living room and spend the second half of the day on the couch in front of the TV? The only small catch is that the TV program selection is quite limitied. It doesn't help to have 70 TV channels when over 90% of them are either origianlly in, or worse still, dubbed into Russian. But as I was aimlessly flipping through the channels I stumbled across something truly great: VH1 has a "Smells Like the 90's"-theme week end, playing 90's music videos non stop! It has made me really nostalgic sitting here hearing all there songs again, laughing, slightly blushing, and remembering the times when I was a teenager and these songs seemed to be the greatest things ever made... Right now they are showing Ace of Base's "The Sign" which (I'm sorry to say) was one of my absolute favorites for a brief, confused phase of the very early 90's. But the worst thing is not (though it is really bad) the song itself - but the hairstyles! (With the clothing style in a very good second place). Blushing slightly, I now remember the times when I used at least half a bottle of extra-mega-hold-hair-spray and mega-mega-hold mousse every day trying to make my bangs as high as possible. Jeez, it that really what I looked like..?

Saaremaa

Yesterday I came back from a two-day trip to Saaremaa (the biggest island in Estonia), arranged by the Ministry of Agriculture. We got to learn about windmill energy, organic farming and soap making, the challenges for the fisheries, and also eat a lot of good food, get to know some really nice people, live in a great hotel - and also to visit a biowaste handling factory where they use the waste from 40 000 pigs to make gas, electricty, and fertilizer. Although used for a good purpose, it was unfortunate that there was no way to take away the smell from the waste of the 40 000 pigs... Anyway, here are some of the kodak moments caught in Saaremaa

Apple-Pie-Happening

Yesterday ,Laura, Morten, and I invited people over for an applecake-eating-experience of huge dimensions. Inviting guests over for something eatable, however, also requires a few preparations - which in a foreign country can take a little longer than one is used to...


Laura googled apple-pie to find some tempting recipies. She found four very good ones, and, since I get off work first, my job was to go to the supermarket to find the ingredieces. Now, that doesn't sound too hard, does it? Well, it can be.. when everything in the store has some Estonian name very VERY different from the Norwegian one. Even though Laura had translated some of the igrediences needed into Estonian, and some helpful supermarket employees did their best to help, it still proved to be quite a challenge. Still, one hour later - I was on my way home; ready to bake, and with only two wrong things in my plastic bags!


Baking was fun, but not without it's challenges. Our kitchen doesn't have all the equipment that could have been desired for making four cakes - but Laura convinced me to see the possibilities rather than the obstacles. And even though a electric mixer would still be preferable for making whipped cream, at least I discovered that my upper arm strength is a lot better than initially believed; I made the whipped cream into butter by mistake...


But still, the cakes turned out really good, the company was great - all in all a very successful apple-cake-happening!

In Over my Head...

Yesterday seemed to be the big day for challenging myself. I am not quite sure how well I handled the challenges.

I have been saying lately that I want to take a language course to improve my French. I take that back. I am now saying that I want to take a language course to learn some French. See, yesterday was the day for the French language level test. Even though it is 6 years since I last spoke a word of French, I didn't fear the test too much. I had the French books from high school in my bag, and after work I went to a French cafe - secretly hoping that the atmosphere, the cafe au lait, and the fairly close presence of the grammar books would whipe away the devestating effect the last six years have had on my language skills, and that it would all come back to me in mysterious ways. That is what you call wishful thinking. And let me tell you something; it doesn't work!

I showed up for the test convinced that it would take max 20 minutes, and be the type where you checked box a, b, or c - whichever one seemed more likely or convenient. Then the test started. Everything was of course in French, but I understood that the test would consist of four parts. EH?? Part one - dictation. Auch! Part two - crossing of boxes. OK, "prepared" for that. Part three - write an essay. WHAT?? AUCH! (could it get any worse? Oh yes it could..) Part four - conversation with the teacher, one at a time. AAAAAAAAAAAUCH! OK, so I can understand some things, but I have no words to answer with, except "tres bien" and "merci". And the teacher didn't speak a word of English (or so she said at least). The whole thing took almost two hours. And the result didn't make me very optimistic. Apparently, my written stuff is "pas mal", but the oral part was crappy. No, she didn't say crappy, but she would have if she was less polite. Maybe she even did say it, I only understood half of what she said anyway. I wonder what I have gotten myself into. But I really want to learn French. Wouldn't it be great if I could just snap my fingers, and voila - it was already there?

Rock and Helsinki

The weeks just fly by these days. I have heard that they do that faster the older you get, but I choose to believe that they also fly faster the more fun you have. Because there was a lot of fun stuff happening also last weekend (and week). I had a visit from my mom and her cousin, I took a Norwegian rock band out to lunch, dinner, and the pub, and I went to Helsinki!


The rock band in question was Heroes and Zeros, who were here to perform at an event called Nordfest (organized by the Nordic embassies here in Tallinn and some others), where one up-and-coming rock band from each of the Nordic countries were playing. The Norwegian band had won the Urørt-competition for new bands in P3. I really liked their music, and they did a really good live performance too.





And on Sunday it was time to go abroad! Helsinki is only like 50 km away. Too long for a swim, but short enough for a convenient boat trip. And during the summer there is even the super-fast-boat, that takes only an hour and 45 minutes. Inland-animal that I am, I was a little bit sceptical to get on a boat, but the travel sickness pills did the trick.. On the little boat on the way to Helsinki, the waves were pretty big. On my search for breakfast (read: chocolate) in the tax free shop, I almost knocked over all the stuff in the shop because I could hardly stay on my feet. I think I would have walked more steady even after a bottle of vodka than in those waves... But we got to Helsinki, and had a great time there. I even got to meet up with Marjaana for a little while. On the way back we had the bigger boat - the cruise boat if you want - with the big buffet.. I got to show my enormous appetite for chocolate realted dessert to the whole diplomatic association (lot of laughter), before I rolled over to the piano bar to enjoy the rest of the trip back to Tallinn.

Fort Knox

Getting into, or out of, our appartment lately, has been like trying to enter Fort Knox. This place is hard enough to get into in the first place - with three different keys in three different parts of the building, plus having to work up the nerve to take the tiny, Soviet-style elevator (which isn't too hard if you think about all the stairs you have to climb in 30 degrees otherwise, actually..). Lately, though, there has been an additional obstacle to getting into or out of Fort Knox appartment 27. The key doesn't work! And believe me, it isn't that much fun to be in your appartment trying to unlock the door from the inside, realizing that you might be stuck inside on the 5th floor with no way out. It isn't that much more fun to come home in the middle of the night with a flat battery on the cell phone, and really needing the bathroom, realizing that you are stuck in the tiny hallway where the lightbulb doesn't work, either. But it does make some pretty funny excuses for why you are late for work, or turned up to an appointment 15 minutes too late...

Today, we had had enough of Fort Knox. Patience is a virtue I don't possess, especially at quarter to nine in the morning trying to get out the door and to work. So today we contacted the landlord.. Who straight away dealt with the problem; by unlocking the problematic lock, and locking the bottom one instead. The one that we don't have a key to, that is. So when I came home with all my groceries and picked-up dry cleaning; Fort Knox wasn't just difficult, but impossible to enter. After some hectic phone calls the landlord came 10 minutes later - speaking only Russian. I think she was trying to say that we must have that key, and I was trying to say that no, we absolutely did not have that key. But after a lot of njets and pointing and head shaking - we came to an agreement and Morten discovered the hidden keyes.

And tomorrow - I have no excuse for being late anywhere.

Dream Weekend

Friday afternoon.
Home from work.
Nothing that HAS to be done, nothing that SHOULD have been done. (Except relaxing.)
Temperature of 30 degrees, sun from a cloud-free sky.
Grab a few things, go to the bus station.
Sit on the bus for a couple of hours.
Arrive in a beautiful little town, staying in a great appartment close to the beach.
Going to a restaurant to eat some great food affordable on a student budget.
Sleep.
Going to the fresh fruit and vegetable market to find something for breakfast.
Discovering that the beach is 1 km of fine graided sand, and that the water is amazingly refreshing.
Having a barbeque and wine with friends in the great appartment.
Going to a disco on the beach, cheap drinks and good music.
Taking a morning swim in the sea on the way home at 6 a.m.
Catching a couple hours of sleep.
Spending Sunday on the beach, in cafes, relaxing.

I could be discribing a dream weekend scenario.
I am actually discribing my weekend in Pärnu.

Yeah, life is good.

Facade

They are renovating the facade of the Soviet style building I live in. What I think that entails, is that they are applying an extra coat of grey concrete. Now, I don't mind this place being treated to a slightly darker shade of grey. The thing is just, these construction workers just have seriously strange working hours. That crash with mine. They work only Saturday. Mornings. They start walking around outside my windows on the 5th floor a little before 7. And yelling messages down to their co-workers on the ground non-stop. This week they decided to turn up on Friday too. Just to make sure I didn't get an overdose of sleep or anything.

Tallinn Update

First week at work is over, and so far I have to say that my theory holds true: Weekends feel a lot better and more relaxing in working life than in student life. I think the main reason for that is simple: no bad conscience for things that should have been read, should have been written, or unprepared exams coming up… (To all of you who have been working for a while and are probably rolling your eyes at me right now – let me live on my illusion, reality will hit me soon enough).

As you might have read between the lines by now, my weekend in Tallinn has been fantastic. The sun decided to reappear just in time for the days off, and after a movie and some research of the nightlife in my new home town Friday night, the beach was a fantastic place to be on Saturday afternoon; swimming, reading Harry Potter, and listening to old hits over the loudspeakers. We had invitations for a concert on Saturday afternoon, and decided to go and see what that was all about. It turned out to be a operaish kind of concert, attended by us and quite a few pensioners… I decided that I was not quite ready for that kind of high-culture yet, but maybe in 30 years or so.

Sunday was nice and relaxing as we decided to walk around the old town catching Kodak moments and testing cakes at a really cute café. There are a lot of great cafes and restaurants here, and the scary thing is that it is almost as cheap to eat out as to make food at home. This is simply dangerous… I have been thinking about going jogging in the park close by, but so far I have left it with the thought...

I ended the weekend watching the sunset and having drinks at a bar on the 25th floor of the SAS hotel, with a view all over Tallinn, with my flatmates Laura and Morten. Here follows a few snapshots of there, from the Old Town, and the rest of Tallinn

(I wrote and saved this post a couple of days ago, but I am too lazy to make a few changes to it even though it is Tuesday already, so I am just posting it as it is...)

Experience

Day One

So, finally I'm in Tallinn.. I arrived last night, and on the way here I thought about that I am actually closer to home here than I was in Tromsø. The flight is shorter, and a lot cheaper, too!

I have now gotten settled in my new appartment, and had my first day at work. Both the appartment and the job seem really good! And the city has showed itself from it's best side, with a blue sky and bright sun - finally I found the summer ;) So after work I went around the city a bit, or actually a bit longer than expected... My colleague showed me the supermarket, but then the way back from there was up to my map and me. We didn't really manage. Not at all really. (Some things never change...) After about 20 mins I ended up exactly where I started. And had to try again... Oh well, the weather was great, the city really is beautiful, and a little sightseeing was good (and would probably have been even better without my bleeding blister...). And I found my way home!

And now I am sitting at home reading the city guide that I bought, deciding what place to explore next. On the page I have gotten to they provide some key phrases in Estonian. They have chosen 27 important words and phrases (including the numbers from 1-10), ending with "will you marry me?".. Key phrase indeed..

Harry

Jeg er nå halvveis i den store viljestyrketesten. Eller faktisk ikke helt halvveis en gang... Klarte aldri å somle meg til å forhåndsbestille den siste Harry Potter boka. Det viste seg å være en stor tabbe. For når jeg etter en hel dag med flytting ikke orka å dra til Røros klokka 01.01 på fredag kveld, men bestemte meg for å dra lørdag formiddag i stedet, var Harry utsolgt. Ganske harde nyheter for en Harry-fan som meg. Så nå får jeg ikke kjøpt boka før onsdag morgen. Og i løpet av den tida må jeg prøve å stå imot å åpne linken til Harry Potter-diskusjonen med "OBS: avsløringer" på VG nett... Og DET er ikke enkelt! Og det ender vel med at om jeg klarer å stå imot må jeg bare bla opp på siste side med en gang jeg får boka. For jeg har lest på VG nett at den siste setninga visstnok er perfekt. Åh, nysgjerring ja. Viljestyrke, viljestyrke, viljestyrke...

Jakter på Sommer'n

I begynnelsen av juni var det hetebølge med over 30 grader flere dager på rad, og det føltes som om det aldri kunne bli no annet enn sol og finvær. Men det kunne visst det... Etter at hetebølgen ga opp, har det bare regna, regna, og regna litt mer. Og jeg har jakta på sommer og solingsvær både i Køben, i Oslo, på Sørlandet, i Dublin, og i Nord Østerdalen, uten noe særlig hell.

Men selv om det ikke er strålende solskinn, er det jo sommer likevel, og grillmiddag på verandaen må man ha uansett! Da er det godt at man har en overbygd veranda, og et ullteppe å tulle seg inn i, og at det er sånn rimelig temperatur selv om regnet pøser ned samtidig :) Nå håper jeg imidlertid at regnet har gitt opp litt, har i hvertfall fått gått en dag i fjellet idag uten å bli bløt. Håper og at jeg skal få i hvertfall en dag med soling på verandan før jeg drar igjen. Men enn så lenge fortsetter jeg jakten på sommeren, og i morra er det i Trondheim det skal jaktes. Aftenposten har meldt sky med en sol bak, og jeg er optimistisk som få...

Top of the Mornin' to ya!

I have just come back from Dublin. For some reason I love Ireland, with it's cute brick houses, green fields, cozy pubs, and pints of Smithwichs. But most of all I love the Irish accent. I think I could just close my eyes and listen to it all day. (If anyone shares my facination for this beautiful language, I really recommend "Irish Language Lab" on YouTube).

So when I saw that Ryan Air had really cheap flights there, I decided that visiting a friend in Dublin would be a great summer vacation trip! And it was :) Ryan Air was an interesting experience, though, with 150 Norwegians without a sense of "queue culture" battling for the best places in line to secure a good seat on the plane. That kind of situation can bring out the competitive spirit in anyone! Well, after a couple of hours in a half good seat (I have to work on my tactics), I finally reached Dublin. Friday I spent wandering around the city, doing a bit of shopping, a bit of cafe-sitting and people watching, and I even visited a museum (quite proud of myself!). In the evening my friends got off work, and we went to the pub for a real Irish pub-meal and of course the much longed-for pint or two of Smithwichs. On Saturday we rented a car, and drove a bit out of Dublin, to see some see-worthy places outside the city.

I had a great time in Dublin, but now it is time to be home and re-pack my bags - the departure date for Tallinn is getting close! I am excited to go - especially after going to an internet publishing course on Monday and meeting many other people who are also going to be interns at different Norwegian embassies around the world, and also realising that my job of updating the embassy's homepage will not be as complicated as I feared!