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.