Sunrise, Sunset

On the Summer Solstice, sunset is at 10:45 p.m., and sunrise is at 4:00 a.m. The sun sets about 36 degrees west of north and rises about 36 degrees east of north.

It turns out that a "normal" lens (50mm) on a 35mm film camera has an angle of view of about 39 degrees, so you took a sunset photo with the sun on the left edge of the frame and then a sunrise photo with the sun on the right edge, you could paste the 2 together and have both sunset and sunrise.

I took 3 photos and stitched them together. Sunset is over the shipyard. Sunrise is over St. Olav church. Had to get up at 3:30 and climb Toompea hill for the second shot.

Back in the USA

I didn't blog like I thought I would, I Facebooked a lot at the expense of writing longer thoughts. Anyway, we're back in the USA.

I find myself missing Tallinn more than I expected. Part of it is going from a European capital of 400,000 people to a midwestern city of 17,000. There was just a lot more to do in Tallinn on any given day. It was also fascinating to explore the thousand years of history.

Off to Russia

Humana

Humana is a little like Salvation Army or Goodwill in the USA. Used clothing at a good price, the money goes to charity - in this case African aid. However, here in Estonia I am addicted to Humana more than I ever was to Goodwill back home. First of all, clothing in stores here is really expensive. Estonians like designer duds, and since they aren't the huge market that the US is, you have to pay a premium above the already high prices. Second, Humana has clothes donated from all over Europe (judging from the languages on the labels) so you find high quality interesting stuff. Third, the prices are pretty good 3 weeks out of the month. Not as good as Goodwill; here a men's shirt might be the equivalent of $15, in the USA at a charity store the same shirt would be $7. BUT, every month at Humana they clear out the old to make way for the new. First you get a day of -30%. Then a day of -50%. Then days where nothing costs over 50 kroon (about $4,50), on down to 10 kroon (90 cents). $400 Norwegian Goretex shell - $4; $200 official Audi jacket - $2; designer jeans - $2, and so on.

Here comes the sun

If nothing else I can write about the sun. I understand that on an annual basis we all get the same hours of day. Here in Estonia they save it up all winter. I think it's light enough to read a newspaper outdoors until at least 10:30, maybe even 11 pm. In the morning you can do the same by 4 am. Crazy.

Ferry - Tallink

I'm trying to make a reservation for my son to return from Helsinki to Tallinn. Tallink Silja apparently has never, in the hundreds of thousands of trips it must have sold, encountered one person trying to buy a ticket for another person. The website won't allow it. SO, I am on hold with the company on the phone. Lucky for me I have Skype, and I pay the flat rate, so it's free to be on hold to GERMANY(?) for 10 minutes so far. In case I wasn't irritated enough, the customer service line was designed by (fill in your favorite German here). No exaggeration, there is 2 seconds of music, then it says "guten tag! Bitte something something..." (have your customer number ready). In German only, on a customer service line that I was directed to from the English page of an Estonian website. 2 more seconds of music. "Guten tag!...." 2 seconds of music. Repeat ad nauseum.

Meanwhile I am looking for a different ferry line.

Latvia and Lithuania by bus

We are on the Eurolines luxe bus. Leather recliners, coffee and tea, power outlets, TV, wifi. It's kind of like you imagine first class on an airplane will be like (in reality this is better). It's actually an enjoyable way to travel. We are close to the Baltic Sea, the terrain is flat, with streams, birches and pine trees. If looks like northern Michigan, until I try to read a billboard. Apparently we are now in Latvia, because we have a new flavor of uninterpretable letters and words. It's a 10 hour trip total, split roughly in half by stopping in Riga for 45 minutes and a bus switch. Then on to Vilnius.

Stuff I wish I didn't bring

I posted a while back that there are things I wish I had, like clothes pins (I found those here eventually). I wish I hadn't brought 2 sport coats. One would have been enough, along with 3 ties, for my time here. I also wish I we hadn't brought blazers for Lucas and Nathan. Sweaters have sufficed for all occasions for them. 5 microphones (that was Nathan). Are we starting a studio?

We also have a lot of heavy clothes that I am really glad we had, but now I wish it would magically go to Missouri so we didn't need to haul it back.

Self portrait

I've been bitten by the photography bug. More to the point, the film photography bug. I didn't bring a film camera to Estonia, but there are a lot of old cameras in the markets and "antiik" shops. 60's and older cameras have a nice heft to them.

After reading a lot of good reviews of the Soviet copies of Leica cameras I decided to try one myself. I bought a FED 3 (with a bad shutter), and then immediately went out and found a FED 2, which I really like. I've had a manual Praktica SLR since the early 80's, so aperture, f-stop and manual focusing are nothing new. Rangefinders are new, but no big problem.

Lack of an internal light metering system take some getting used to. I ended up with an old selenium based Soviet light meter. It seems to work, unlike some old ones, but I don't have a lot of confidence in it. I carry my digital Lumix as a light meter too. I probably look strange, with my modern digital camera to check the light, then double checking with a light meter, then finally shooting with an early 60's rangefinder. But I am enjoying the deliberate pace of shooting on film.

Spring?

Sun came up at 5:40 this morning. I hung 2 jackets in the window last night, otherwise I’m up with the sun. I made it until 6:45, better than Sunday when I was up by about 6. When I was younger I could sleep a lot later, but I seem to have gotten to where no matter how late I go to bed, I can only reliably sleep until 7:30 or when the sun comes up, whichever comes first. It was also –1C when I got up. Spring here is different from Missouri. We are used to the cold now. Yesterday at mid day it was +10, all I wore all day was a windbreaker and that seemed a bit warm. Sun goes down a few minutes after 9 pm now.

Photography

One thing about being away from the routine is I have a chance to do some things I don't get to do so much at home. Lately I have been experimenting with photography. It turns out that after WWII, some of the spoils of war the USSR got were German camera and optical factories. Leica was and is one of the most respected names in cameras. The Soviets copied the early Leica's and then actually improved on them. They produced millions of them. Now, a classic Leica rangefinder might cost $800 or more. A similar (very similar, pretty much the same in terms of performance) FED can be had for $30 at an antique store, or maybe $10 at a flea market. The advantage at the antique store is you can sort through 20 or 30 cameras in one place, and they seem to be cleaner than the ones in the market.

Now that I have this great camera, with wonderful optics, the first thing I did was remove the lens and make a pinhole for it. I used a metal candy box about 2.5 inches square, and a bit of aluminum can for the actual pinhole. I've worked my way down to a hole about 0.25 mm in diameter. The pinhole replaces the lens. It's not as clear of course, but it's f157, so the depth of field is almost infinite, and it shoots photos with a certain quality you can't get with a lens.

So here's one example: St. Catharine's walk in Tallinn, f-157, 6 second exposure.

Dogsledding

We went dogsledding. North of the Arctic circle. If you are a little fuzzy on where the Arctic Circle is it's the line at which you have 24 hours of darkness on the winter solstice. Above the line you get more days of dark, below the line the sun does come up, however short, each day. It was "mushy" mushing for us. The weather was above freezing, and we were probably one of the last groups to go out this season. We were given boots, snowsuits, gloves and hats to wear, which was good since it was really wet. We got paired up on the sleds: Lucas and I on one, Polly and Nathan on the other. We swapped back and forth several times during the time we were out. We had 6 dogs pulling each sled, Siberian Huskies, Alaskan Huskies, and Malamutes. The dogs all know what to do, so it's pretty easy. Just hang on and let them follow the trail. You do have to stand on the brake once in a while, going downhill or if the sled in front slows down. It was a really great experience.

Overnight to Rovaniemi

We went to Rovaniemi. It's a 1000 kilometer trip from Helsinki, about due north. We took the 10:30 pm train, and the station is mostly closed at that time of night. And the signs are in Finnish. And our tickets were too for that matter. So I asked a security guard for some information, and he told us which track our train would be on. He also told us this helpful tidbit "the train is only here for about 5 minutes, so get on as soon as it arrives."

SO, the train pulled in. There's nobody official near it, or on it for that matter. We had been told we'd have the upper deck in a double decker train, with our own shower (!), but this train had no double decker cars. We got on the car that we decided was ours (they are numbered) and found our 2 tiny cabins. Pretty soon the train pulled out. By now we were really hoping this was the right train.

About 5 minutes later the conductor came around and punched our tickets. Whew! We were on the right train.

The cabins had 2 bunks, although there is a third that can be folded out. The bunks are not bad, about twin bed width. The cabins are about 30 inches wider than the bunks, and they are the same length as the bunks, about 6' 6". Cozy. There's a little sink in the corner.

We wandered around the train a bit, then slept pretty well. The train stops quite a bit. In the morning I happened to think we might not get off at the right place, especially if we were in a different time zone, so I asked at the lunch counter. We were in the same time zone all the way, and due into Rovaniemi at 10:30 am. We arrived on time and got off at the right place.

Residency Cards

No visa is required to visit Estonia for up to 90 days, which is great for vacations and business trips. But we are staying longer than that, and since no visa is required, you have to do the paperwork here, under a deadline. The problem we have is that there are 4 of us, only 1 of us is working here, and 1 of us is 19, therefore an adult, but neither working nor a full-time student.

So here's our tale so far (but keep in mind I generally require 2 or 3 trips to renew my drivers license in the USA):

All four of us went to the migration office to do the initial paperwork (1 working, 3 dependents).

The next day, three of us went back to finish up some loose ends.

Then I went on one followup trip to police for more paperwork for my own (working) permit.

Then Nathan and I went once to police to submit different (student) paperwork for Nathan.

I went to the migration office after getting a notice that my card was ready (it wasn't yet, the notice said it would be ready later, not it is ready).

So I had to make another trip to pick it up.

Lucas, Nathan and I went to pickup Lucas's card (the office was closed).

Lucas went back to pickup his card.

Nathan still didn't have the right application filed, so he and I went again to the police station (the "independently wealthy" option).

Polly went to pickup her card and got it on the first try.

I think that's 10 visits to various offices so far, sometimes we all go, sometimes we go individually. We are hoping that with just one more trip to get Nathan's card we'll be done.

Bread

For some reason, the Estonians have mastered baked goods. Even the most "wonderbread-like" bread is whole wheat and has some body to it. But there's no reason to eat the pre-sliced sandwich loaf anyway. For 7 kroon, about $0.63, you can buy a loaf of whole grain or rye or pumpernickel or something else wonderful. See the photo. It's really good stuff.

A person that is only here a few days might not realize how cheap breads are. Everything is priced by the kilogram. A loaf marked 18kr seems a bit steep. Then you find out that a kilogram is close to 3 loaves.

March 25th, Tallinn Estonia

On the way home from work I walked through Freedom Square. People were lighting candles. Lots of candles. I went home, got a camera and came back. They were still unloading boxes and boxes of candles. I ask a woman next to me "what's the occasion?" She said 61 years ago the Soviets deported 20,000 Estonians to Siberia.

20,000 candles for 20,000 people.

Speaking Estonian

Vabandage. I am sorry.
Ma ei räägi eesti keelt. I don't speak Estonian.

But I am trying. Every week I have over 2 full hours of eesti keel. It's enjoyable, but I don't think I'll ever really be able to do much beyond say hello and goodbye, please and thank you, and perhaps use the correct change in the market when the clerk says "kakssada viiskümmend seitse." That's two-hundred fifty-seven. Kaks (2) sada (hundred) viis (5) kümmend (turns the word for 5 into 50) seitse (7).
I struggle mightily to understand the differences between me, you, them (no he or she) in both plural and singular form, and how every verb changes depending on who I am talking about. For example, "I study Estonian language" is:
Ma õpin eesti keelt.
You (singular, specifically you) study Estonian is:
Sa õpib eesti keelt.
They study (specifically them, those people right there):
Ta õpib
and of course, the plurals of the above, in the same order are:
Me õpime
Te õpite
Nad õpivad

So far the verb "study" has 6 forms. Don't even ask about studied or studying. In fact, there is no continuous tense, so you can't say studying exactly.

Another fun fact to know and share: unlike English, the object in an Estonian sentence is a different form. In English, "Tom killed the tiger" is not the same at all as "the tiger killed Tom." However, in Estonian, "Tom tappis tigri" is exactly the same as "tiigri tappis Tom," because tiigri is the object form of the noun for tiger.

Vabandage.

Maritime Museum

Estonia has a long maritime history. In fact, it's always relied on the sea, so it has a maritime prehistory as well. The Maritime Museum covers the earliest to the most recent history. Almost everything has an explanation in English along with Estonian and Russian, a first among the museums we've been to. It's located in "Fat Margaret," the old cannon tower next to the gate facing the sea.

I really liked the copper deep sea divers claustrophobia inducer. It was never actually used, but it looks like a prop from a horror movie. The home made, open, 13-foot boat that was rowed from one of the islands to Sweden was memorable to say the least.

Museum of the Occupations

We went to the Museum of the Occupations. I liked it. I think it gives you a feel for life in a Soviet occupied country.

Most of it is everyday life, a phone booth, Soviet automobiles, clothing, kitchen utensils. The descriptions tell about how hard it was to get an auto, and how the owner toweled it dry if it ever got wet. It also tells how the designs for many things like automobiles were "liberated" from factories in East Germany.

There are videos, you

can choose your language to hear a translation and see people talk about the occupation.

There are 2 things that stick out in my mind. The first is a display of prison doors in the middle of the museum. Just a long line of steel doors with peep holes and slots for food. The other is in the basement. Next to the toilets there are 7 or 8 larger than life statues of Soviet heros. Now they just sit in the basement, sort of guarding or perhaps welcoming you to the restrooms.

Independence Day

We got up early and went to Toompea hill. At 7:33 the flag was raised on Tall Herman. Then we went into the courtyard of parliament and listened to some speeches in Estonian. It was shoulder to shoulder, lots of flags, uniforms, students wearing university caps, young and old. After a nap we went to Vabaduse Valjak, Freedom Square, and saw a lot of soldiers and military vehicles on parade. Two French Mirage jets flew over. A band was playing. More speeches. It was actually a great event.Two college age girls overheard us talking and asked if we

were Americans.

They both go to UConn, doing a semester abroad, one in France, one in Germany. We saw them twice more today; it's a small city for a capital.

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away"

- Percy Bysshe Shelley

In the Museum of the Occupations there are several statues of Soviet leaders and heros. Now they are in the basement, next to the toilets and lockers. There are no exhibits down there. Just these statues and the toilets.

Teaching

Teaching here is different from teaching in the US in many ways. My classroom was scheduled the week before classes started and I didn't actually teach until the second week. Nobody knew how many students I might have until they showed up for class. Estonians are definitely not tied to a schedule like we are in Rolla. It's OK, just different.

I teach a 4 hour class. In the US, that would mean four hours of teaching, although since an "hour" of class is 50 minutes, it really means 200 minutes per week. If a lab is included, that's 3 hours of lab per one credit, so you might have a 3 hour lab plus 3 of the 50 minute lectures.

Here in Estonia a 4 hour class is different. We meet once a week for 2 hours. The hours are 45 minutes, so I lecture for 90 minutes. After that, we have another 45 minutes of something like recitation. I can give them a quiz, or we can have a discussion, or I can just let them go. In addition to the lecture and recitation I have "contact hours." Contact hours are when I am available in my office. I have 4 hours of that per week associated with this class. Again, it's OK, just different.

City Walls

Old town was surrounded by over 3 km of masonry walls and 20+ towers. About half the wall and towers remain. Some of the towers are open for visiting, and you can walk on top of the walls. They are of course, not handicap accessible in any sense of the word. The "modern" stairs are in a tight spiral. The original stairs are spiral-ish, the treads are tall and not of even height, and the stone treads are not flat.

It's worth the climb anyway. There are great views, and you can imagine defending the city by shooting arrows out the slit windows. It's interesting to a civil engineer to imagine how the rooms were constructed, how materials were moved, how the roofing must have been put on.

The upper rooms of the towers have fireplaces with chimneys built into the corners. I can't imagine that the uninsulated stone rooms (with no glass in the windows) warmed up much, but maybe it improved the mood of the soldiers on guard duty. My favorite feature in one of the towers is the toilet, kind of a bay window with a hole in the bottom. It's on the outer side of the wall, of course.

Apartment! home sweet home

We found an apartment pretty quickly. It has everything we were looking for: 3 bedrooms, almost 2 bathrooms (only a stool and sink in the second, it's enough), furnished, and convenient location. It's in old town, which is pretty cool. We have a sauna for those days when we just can't get warmed up. There's a big ceramic tiled fireplace and we buy little bundles of birch for it. The whole thing heats up and continues to radiate heat long after the fire goes out. The walls are a little bare like all new apartments. We've got more closets and drawers than some apartments we looked at. So far it's quiet; the walls are a meter thick masonry and we have double pane windows plus storm windows outside those. The door to the street locks, and there are 2 doors separated by about 16 inches, both with locks, to get into our apartment. It seems pretty secure. We'll see how it is in the summer with thousands of tourists on the streets. We are pretty happy here.

Stuff I wish I had

I don't think there's anything big that I wish we had. A few spring clothespins for closing chip bags and hanging things up, a handful of rubber bands, a few more pens and pencils. Those things can be bought here I am sure, but the trouble is always finding the things to buy. I forgot a needle and thread, and it took a few days to find the right store so I could get them. I'll probably wish for a roll of duct tape before the trip is over. A ball of string usually comes in handy at some point.

The migration office

In order to stay for more than 90 days in Estonia we had to apply for a residency and work permit. We brought all kinds of documents proving we have insurance and income, birth certificates, marriage licenses and so forth. There are forms on the web that seem pretty clear, but everyone seems to have a slight difference of opinion as to what is exactly needed. After working with the international affairs office at the university for a while and not getting anywhere, we just went to the migration office. Luckily we had an Estonian speaking friend to help out, but even if we didn't I think that would be the way to go. Just cart all the documents down to the office and get started. The migration people will ask for more if you are missing anything, so there's not much harm in just going there directly. All in all, it was like a trip to the DMV. The people don't mean to not be helpful, they just have to go by the book, and the book is pretty strict. Never mind that in the US you need a birth certificate to get a passport, here in Estonia you need both to apply for a residency permit. That's what the book says, and they have to get a copy of a birth certificate whether it makes sense or not.

Weather

They tell us that this is unusual weather, but we are pretty far north, so I don't know what to think about that statement. The first 2 weeks were bitter cold, like-25C, sometimes with a wind. The past few days have been just below freezing, with constant snow. It doesn't seem to be accumulating very quickly, but it never stops. I'd guess we are getting from 3 to 6 inches per day. This weather is more like Michigan, not so bitter, with lots of snow in the air.

Language

Külm valik is a sign in the cafeteria at work. My ipod translator says valik is assorted. My translator has no ü with the 2 dots over it. So I typed kulm. Kulm (no dots) is eyebrow. How wonderful is that? Assorted eyebrows at the cafeteria! OK, külm (with the dots) is actually cold. But to me, it will always be assorted eyebrows.

Day to day

If I say everything is an ordeal it would be an exaggeration. On the other hand, almost everything takes three times as long as you expect. For example, a short trip to the grocery store is a "learning experience" in more ways than one. The sugar is not near the flour. Even though I know that chicken is kana, Estonian tends to mash words together so if the chicken is cooked (like in a deli) then it's a 16 letter word with kana in it somewhere. The Estonian - English dictionary isn't much use, because of all the variations (14 tenses also) in words.

Of course, it's -20C, so we have to add quite a bit of time for bundling up and unbundling. I don't know how it can feel damp at that far below freezing, but it is a really penetrating cold.

Finally, we walk or take the bus everywhere, so that adds time as well. We are used to jumping in a car and going where we want to go, filling the trunk and going to another store, and so on. Yesterday we bought sheets, towels, blankets and pillows. We each had a huge armload when we got on the bus. Luckily it wasn't a very crowded time of day, because each of us needed 2 seats.

Apartment hunting can be a bit frustrating. Real estate photography is not well developed (pun intended), If there are 10 photos, one will be the stairs up to the apartment, one the front of the building, 2 will be of toilets (just the stool), 2 will be looking in through doorways into obscure rooms that are mostly blocked from view, one might be from a different apartment, and 3 will show living room from more or less the same angle. So it is a guessing game.

Estonian food, first few hours in Estonia

We ate at Kompressor our first night in Tallinn. It's a place where you can get pancakes with chicken and feta (Polly had it), smoked cheese and bacon (me), just grilled chicken (both boys), or lots of other options. They come with a sour cream sauce. Really good, and pretty cheap eats. Lucas could barely stay awake, Nathan was a little better off, none of us had much energy after 24 hours traveling. by about 8 pm I think we were all asleep.

We made it

Thursday we packed like mad all day, until something like 1:30 am. Of course, when you are getting ready to go is when Nathan and Lucas's friends all show up and hang around, picking up interesting things that I had piled neatly to pack - "hey look, an adapter for European sockets" - and setting said things down in random places.

Friday, up at 6 a.m., left for the airport by 8:30. 12:30 flight to Newark, about 2.5 hours later (1 hour delay) we took off on a 7 hour flight bound for Stockholm. Arrived 8:30 a.m. Stockholm time (1:30 Rolla time). At 1:30 p.m. we took a one hour flight to Tallinn, losing another hour. Finally go to the hotel about 5:15 p.m. local time, or 9:15 am US Central time. Went out for pancakes, in bed about 7:30. Whew!