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.

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.

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.

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.