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.

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.