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.