2014. 9. 22.

Pictures added at the bottom! :) 

Happening, happening,

stuff has been happening

with me.

Right now I am just giving you guys an insight to my life these days, without pictures. Now I am more or less getting used to the life here, which is very busy - I am always that stupid maximalist over-achiever, who wants to aiming high but ends up taking up too much, but still kind of enjoying it - but at the same time, envying those having less. I study 4 languages at the same time and attend the language classes of these + twice a week for 1,5h I have Estonian folk dance classes, in the beginner group of the folk dance ensemble of the university, which makes my schedule already pretty full. When I have some holes in my days, I try to get some weekly shopping done, I wash my clothes, and run some other errands - I still have a lot to do, the Erasmus documents - the Learning Agreement and the Agreement of the financial support is still not ready, I had to run up and down, scan documents, print documents, get them signed, scan them again, send them, print them, post them - this has been going on for so many days. And just to make it even more complicated, I am also running for the Russian visa - but that is more expensive than complicated. I guess I must really love Kalevala if I am going there practically to see them - of course I cannot wait to discover the beautiful city as well, no doubt! Finally my ISIC card seems to be ready - this process was kinda even longer than in Hungary - I sent my application to their e-mail on the second day of the orientation week, then they took like two weeks to reply that until I don't send the money (what money? send? where? nobody wrote about this), they cannot send the card to production and if I would like to get their bank details. Yes, said I in an e-mail. They took another almost one week to send the - incomplete - bank details, without the BIC code that I had to search for myself. Money sent, in some days later I got a reply that the card is ready and I can go for it for some office - where the address was incomplete and it didn't include the letter of the building of the building complex - and I didn't manage to find it. True, their earlier mail included the whole address but that was sent weeks ago... So I ended up going to another part of the city for nothing - or well, almost, because I found some cool shops, and places, among them - a traditional Hungarian restaurant! It was very very unexpected and surprising, but of course heartwarming and the decoration in there is just so nice! I should go there once.

Fortunately, at the weekend of 20-21. September, I had some time to relax and forget about all the worries and the duties. I really feel like I am missing out on all the awesome things - I see all the friends doing things, exploring the city and the surroundings and sometimes I feel I am just wasting some time, while there is so much to explore - and then the cold winter will come and I will have no opportunities. Laziness is going to kill me.

Nevertheless, the past weekend I joined the Autumn Trip of the International Club, around Estonia. It was a two day trip visiting Tartu, Viljandi, Põltsamaa and the areas around them. In the first day we went to the Põltsamaa wine cellar to taste some awesome tasting grape, berry and apple wine, they really taste well and turns out they are also pretty cheap. It is the oldest winemakers in Estonia and the wine is actually taste, and intead of the expected 12-16 eur, a bottle costs only 4 euros in a shop! After this we continued our journey to Tartu where we had a short sightseeing in the old town, in the botanical garden and around the church ruins, and made the day awesome in this old town confectionary with lovely cakes. Then we moved on to Viljandi area to go for our accomodation, which was a guest house in the middle of nowhere - midst a forest in guest house complex, with a sauna. This later, after the dinner, became the most expected and most enjoyed part of our trip.

It was already completely dark and rather cold outside, but 80*C in the sauna. Which was built next to a river, being maybe 10*C cold in this time of the year. It was completely awesome, especially that almost noone got hurt while trying to get down the wooden stairs to reach the water - now I kind of know what it may feel to be blind, because many times we actually did not see our steps. But it was an awesome company, nice warm sauna, refreshing awesome blood boiling cold water, and a never before seen beautiful starry sky! All my life I have lived in cities - areas full of light pollution and I have never ever seen similar - the sky was so beautiful like in a fairytale, just all full of stars! I wish it was warmer, it would have been also a beautiful experience to just be sitting on the grass, star watching, sharing drinks, stories, and laughs - but with the sauna (drinks, stories and laughs included) it was also perfect! Around midnight 3 of us were the last men standing in the sauna, but after it we also decided to hit the shower and then join the party going on in the main building with some dancing and snacks. I was having fun and had some drinks but tried to be responsible and save myself from being extra tired and extra hungover the day after so I went to bed after some dancing.

The next day we went into the city of Viljandi, which, with its 20 000 inhabitants is the 6th biggest city of Estonia, and its folk culture center. For sure this area was the most pleasing-to-the-eye part of the trip - the old castle ruins, the hills, valleys, the suspension bridge and the panorama from the ruins to the lake Viljandi was just beautiful! We had some fun there enjoying this warm late-summer day and finding the most perfect swing ever! Video and pictures later! After having lunch we headed to the Alma-Pedja Nature Reserve and had a two hours long walk in the forest and among fields. Everybody was very tired, but it was a nice walk nevertheless. After this we just went home :)

The program was awesome but very packed, I think all of us could agree that these two weeks rather felt like a week, we did, saw, and experienced so many things. The people were great, I really enjoyed this company, because all the international-oriented, open-minded, mostly-erasmus-people are just awesome, accepting, non-judging, fun, cool and friendly and that is awesome. I think everybody had a blast and I was happy to meet some cool new friends and finally go to the sauna again...

Pics later, now I should write my Lithuanian homework and run to class in 15 minutes. :D

Edit. PICS :D