Stuff to pack

These are some thoughts before we go. Later I'll post what we ended up needing. Duffle bags. Sure, we have some, but not enough for all 4 of us to be gone for an extended period. We got some rollers and some plain duffles.

Warm: jackets, pants, boots, hats, gloves. Being from Michigan I have a pretty good idea what's warm. Outfitting the family is getting pricey though.

Inverter from 220v 50 Hz to 120v 60 Hz, we have to plug in a few things.

Laptops (2), the computer will be our phone (Skype), music source, movie source (iTunes), and oh incidentally used for work. Two is the bare minimum for us.

New Garmin GPS with a map of Europe - we'll get lost anyway I am sure, but this will help.

Zipped portfolio for all the documents we have to carry along to Estonia. Later it will help organize all the receipts we'll end up trying to keep track of for tax purposes. - Can you imagine how much fun it will be explaining rent in Kroon during an audit?

That's all for now. Less than 3 weeks until we depart.

Flying to Tallinn

We have to Fly America, and that's OK with me. It's a bit tricky though. If you use Expedia for example, you can get from St. Louis to Tallinn for ~$1,000, or maybe to Helsinki for $800 (the ferry is about $60 round trip). But that's on SAS or Lufthansa and I need an American flagged carrier. American, Delta, United all list fares of about $2,000 to Tallinn, or higher. Continental says $900 to Helsinki or Stockholm, but you can't get a fare all the way to Tallinn. SO, I bought 4 round trip tickets to Stockholm on Continental for $900 each. It's only $200 each for round trip airfare to Tallinn from Stockholm. So for the minor inconvenience of picking up our baggage and checking right back in on another airline, we save about $900 each. Since we go through customs in Stockholm anyway, it's not a big deal. Why is it so difficult to work out travel?

Tickets purchased, don't use onetravel.com

I bought the tickets, we're leaving St. Louis on Friday the 15th of January. I won't ever try to use onetravel.com again. Yesterday I booked 4 tickets on Continental, through Copenhagen, to Tallinn. In the middle of the night I got an e-mail stating that because of the short connection times they had to change the flights to Lufthansa, and it would be $700 more. Never mind that they had advertised the flights, now it's too short. On the phone I told them it wasn't too short, if I went to the Continental website I could pull up the identical itinerary as far as Copenhagen. Then they said it was the high season, all sold out. I said "expletive! It's 2 weeks after the holidays, that's not the high season, and I can see available tickets on the Continental website." The biggest issue of all is that I went from an American flagged carrier to a German one, so it was not acceptable. Finally they agreed to cancel the tickets without any cost to me. No confirmation yet, but they have not tried to charge anything to my credit card, and I called the credit card company and told them I'd be disputing any charges from onetravel, so I think I am safe. I'll post the actual ticketing process in later.

Finnish countryside

There are a lot on Finnish people in the upper peninsula of Michigan. I think that the U.P. does look a bit like Finland. Lots of lakes, birches and other mixed hardwood trees, and it is also cold.

Coffee

Finns love coffee. It's a fact that they drink the most per capita. My anecdotal evidence:

Today I had breakfast with coffee followed immediately by registration with coffee. Opening session for 1 hour followed by coffee. That takes us up to 10:30. My session lasted until noon, then lunch. Coffee anyone? Another session from 1 to 2, then coffee, a technical tour and finally the city reception (will there be coffee?)

Wired in Finland,

Eric

Speaking English "over there"

I always feel bad that I don't speak a second language. There is something very surreal about going to a conference and giving a paper, in English, to an audience where English the second (or third) language of everyone else in the room. I kept thinking either "I'd better speak really well since it's my language" or "I don't have to worry about my language skills, they are the best in the room." OK, that second one is an ugly American point of view, and I really did make an effort to speak slowly, clearly and enunciate as well as I possibly can.

Crossing the Gulf of Finland in a storm

Oof. Even on a large cruise ship size ferry it was rough crossing yesterday. The spray was hitting the windows on the front of the ship on deck 8. Up and down, up and down. It was hard to walk. The vikings must be naturals at sailing though. I saw hundreds of people eating pizza, drinking beer and generally enjoying themselves. Nobody got sick that I saw.

Dinner

The food is great. I'm pretty adventurous when it comes to eating, so I'd probably order by pointing at unknown words if I had to. Menus always have translations in the touristy areas, so no problem anyway. I had grilled salmon and rice last night, and for appetizers we had a selection of eel, herring, dried-salted-raw beef (a Georgian dish), pickles and other stuff. All good to me. I did pass when the dean of my college suggested vodka with the pickles, opting for a local beer instead.

Ferry

The smaller ferry is a bit faster and runs more often. When it runs. Today the Gulf is choppy and I was not looking forward to the ride in the small ship. My wishes were granted, it was cancelled until tomorrow. However, tomorrow morning I am to give my paper in Helsinki. I was able to switch to a larger ship on a different line. The small ferry is not in an area where taxis (takso) are available, but the helpful woman at the desk said "no problem, you can walk in 20 minutes" (I had 3 hours to kill). The reason the first ferry canceled is the waves, driven by a fierce north wind. walking around the end of the harbor in the wind at about 4C was a brisk adventure. At any rate I did arrive and am waiting for the ship to leave. Have I mentioned that wifi is free all over the place, including ferry terminals where you are a captive audience? In the US at an airport this post would cost $10 (and therefore not exist).

Breakfast in Tallin

I hate to take time to blog; I am having such an amazing time here. This morning I had pickled eel, among other things, for breakfast. Sort of like pickled herring in my opinion, which was also on the buffet. Other than that, the breads here are wonderful, the yogurt, cheese and dairy in general is terrific, and all in all I can't complain about the food.

Getting to Estonia

I left Rolla at about 7 am Saturday and Polly drove me to St. Louis. I got on the first plane of the trip at 10:20 and flew to Chicago, then to JFK. From JFK I flew over night to Helsinki, arriving at about 8:30 am local time. I also lost 8 hours in the process, so it was actually 12:30 am in Rolla where I started. Bedtime. It's hard to sleep on a plane, and it's even harder when you are trying to go to sleep at 7 pm, so I only managed about 2 hours over the course of the flight. It did not help that Finnair has these nifty screens in the back of the headrest and you GET TO CHOOSE A MOVIE. There were probably 40 movies, as many TV shows, music radio channels, albums by specific artists, games, and, 2 cameras to choose from, one pointing down and one pointing out the front of the plane. The latter was interesting on take off and landing.

Anyway, from the airport I took a bus to the center of Helsinki. I don't speak or read Finnish, but somehow I got to where I wanted to be. Just in time to watch the boat pull away from the harbor. It was OK, I hadn't planned to catch that one anyway. I walked around the harbor area a bit and then caught the noon ferry to Tallinn. It was a bit rough, but I was asleep most of the 1.5 hour trip anyway.

Note to fellow travelers following in my footsteps: If you take the Linda Line, when you get to Tallinn you are not near anything, and they will only change Euros to Estonian kroon. I only had a few Euros, not enough to exchange to get enough kroon for a takso (taxi), so I had to bargain with a taxi driver to accept dollars instead. She wanted $20 but I talked her into $10.

Tallinn here I come

Great news, I have a paper accepted at a conference in Helsinki, and I got approval to travel. Since I'll be "in the neighborhood," I'm going to Tallinn for a few days, then back to Helsinki to EuroInfra 2009. On October 10 I fly St. Louis - O'Hare - JFK - Helsinki (arrive the 11th), then take the 2 hour ferry to Tallinn. That will be quite the trip. I have 2.5 days in Tallinn, then 2.5 days in Helsinki, then back to the USA.

My background - work

I realize my prior posts don't give any background on myself. I currently am in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering (CArE) at Missouri University of Science and Technology, located in Rolla MO. I have been here since the Fall Semester of 2000. I currently teach several classes, all senior level. Every semester I teach CArE 298, senior design, to all the graduating Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineers. I alternate between CE/ArchE 348, which is Green Construction, and CE/ArchE 346, which is Cost Control (estimating and scheduling). I have also taught CE 345, construction means and methods, CArE 210, senior seminar and CE 241, engineering economics.

When there was or is enough demand I teach CE 442, a graduate class in construction administration, and CE 445, a graduate class in advanced construction methods.

I have been the advisor to the Solar Decathlon team at S&T; currently I am the advisor to the Blacksmithing Club. At a previous university I advised the concrete canoe team.

I am the academic advisor to about 40 freshmen every year, and another 40 in Civil and Architectural Engineering. Most of the incoming transfer students see me at least to select their first semesters classes. I also advise incoming freshmen during their orientation. Whew!

Where is Estonia?

Estonia is south of Finland (across the gulf of Finland). It is also north of Latvia, west of Russia and east of Sweden (across the Baltic sea). Tallinn sits at about 60 degrees north latitude. For contrast, Churchill Manitoba, on Hudson's Bay, and Anchorage Alaska are both around 60 degrees latitude.

What time is it in Tallinn?

Tallinn is usually 8 hours later than Rolla MO (USA Central Time). The US and Estonia don't switch to daylight savings on the same date, so sometimes we are 7 hours different.
Today, August 13, sunrise was 5:33 a.m. and sunset will be at 9:16 p.m. For the surveyors out there, the sun came up at 59 degrees northeast by east and sets at 301 degrees northwest by west. The sun is not too far below the horizon yet, so "civil twilight"adds another 2 hours to the day.

The only word I can think of for old town is "picturesque," although that seems lacking. Search the web for Tallinn and you'll find a many beatuiful photos. I'll be adding some of my own come January.

Thanks to LabPixies for fixing my Tallinn weather gadget to actually read Tallinn. Great support!

If you want to visit the website of the University where I will be working, it is http://www.ttu.ee/. It is in Estonian, which is interesting to see, but hard to read.

On the other hand, there are pages in English. You can click the little British flag on the homepage or go directly to http://www.ttu.ee/?lang=en.

Why Estonia

I am often asked "why did I choose to go to Estonia?" I don't have any Estonian roots. The easy answer is Estonia chose me. There was this great "construction engineering" -specific opportunity on the CIES website. That's my area of experience, education and teaching. Their interest in green construction fits with my interest in teaching green construction. So it is a good fit. At that point I didn't really know much about Estonia. I started to learn about the history and culture of Estonia and I knew it would be a great experience for me and my family. I have heard nothing but good things about Estonia and Tallinn.

What will I do in Estonia?

Professionally / academically:
Teach a green construction course.
Develop curriculum in advanced building technology.
Write a conference paper comparing some aspect of Estonian construction industry to that in the USA.
Take part in other academic work in the department.

I understand there is some flexibility as to what I will do exactly, but this is the general idea.

Personally / socially / family-wise:
Learn about Estonia and the people. See the old town of Tallinn, the parks, other cities in Estonia.
See Eastern Europe.
Visit neighboring countries.
Enjoy the cultural opportunities of opera, symphony, other music, food....

Interesting things I have learned about Estonia:

Even though it is cold, dark and damp for much of the winter (like Houghton Michigan, where I spent 6 winters) apartments don't typically have dryers. I guess we'll send towels to the laundry(?)
The seafood is reported to be excellent.
I can't seem to find a craigslist for Estonia. Maybe I should start one. I'm told they don't have anything like Goodwill or Salvation Army either. What will we do for cheap dishes?
The currency is the kroon, pegged to the Euro. right now $1 US is about 11 ro 12 Kr. They hope to go to the Euro soon.
Estonian language is extremely difficult. I have a "teach yourself" CD, and it sounds like nothing else I have ever heard. On the other hand, the people reportedly speak english well, and appreciate any attempts by Americans to speak Estonian. Tere! is hello, and I can say please and thank you, but I don't think I'll be conversing in the native tongue.

Welcome, here is my blog for the trip to Estonia. OK, so maybe Dr. Construction isn't the most inspired name, but I was put on the spot.