Let's play catch up

Hey everyone,

I’m am not as good at bloging as I once thought I might be, but I will do my best to catch everyone up on my first three weeks in Tartu. I’ll also up load all of my pics so you can see what some of the things here are like a well. I haven’t taken pictures of the town yet, but I figure I have plenty of time to do that.



On the plane ride over I couldn’t sleep at all. I stayed up for the whole flight and watched the movies that they would put on in coach. I didn’t know that in coach everyone had to watch the same movie. Go figure. I arrived at Frankfurt the next day, where I had my first German beer. It wasn’t everything that it was made out to be. I thought it was pretty nasty to tell the truth, but the sandwich that I had with it was great. I caught my connecting flight that afternoon and flew into Tallinn, the capitol of Estonia. From there, I rode a bus to Tartu and arrived late in the evening. I think I traveled for about 22hrs, and was glad that it was over. A friend from Wesleyan helped me get settled that night, and was pretty frustrated to find out that I had a few more amenities in my room than she did. I got to bed early that night because I hadn’t really slept for about a day.
On Wednesday 2/4, I got up, went to the grocery store for food and found out something very interesting about Estonian stores. They don’t give you bags to put you stuff in. You have to either buy the bags or carry the stuff back in your hands. After the trip to the store, I went to Orientation, which was really boring, but I learned some pretty useful info. One of the most interesting presentation was about living with Estonians. Estonians aren’t really the nicest people in the world, and their out look on life in completely different than ours. For example some of there proverbs are “don’t smile or laugh to much because something is bound to happen to you” or “Speaking is silver, Silence is golden.” Generally speaking Estonians are very shy, quiet and reserved. That’s not as true for the students, but that’s just because they drink more often. They don’t smile when that walk by or ask you how you’re doing. They actually find doing those things quite strange. If you ask them how they are doing they will say, “normal.” The presenter described it this way. Generally speaking, If you live in a cold and dark climate, you’re more prone to be a cold and reserved person. While, living in a warm climate makes people more warm and inviting. That night, I went to a pub crawl, just like an American bar crawl, that was organized by the Erasmus Student Network (ESN). I got to know a few people and had a really good time. I also had my first whiskey sour, my new favorite drink.
I’m not going to go through every day but I will tell you about a few of the highlights these first three weeks. My second weekend here I want on a ski / snowboarding trip. It was a really good time. I went with a snowboard, and hurt myself a bit. After snowboarding the bus took us to get some food and then to a couple of cabins that we had rented out in the woods. It was a great night. The place had a hot tub outside. At first, I wasn’t going to get in it because it was snowing, but after a few shots I changed my mind. It was really great. There is just something about the snow hitting you and melting instantly that is so nice. They also had a steam sauna. I had never done sauna so I was a bit wary and first. I’ve never understood why people would want to put themselves in a boiling room. When I walked into the sauna, I said, “Wow! This is just like Houston in the summer. Why on earth would you do this for fun?” Everyone laughed. I suggested that if anyone really liked sauna they should just move to the south they could get it year round. I stayed up until 6am playing pool, dancing, and having a good time. The next day the bus took us to a place to ice skate but I was so exhausted from the night before that I just stayed on the bus and took a nap. It was a great trip
This past Friday I went to a dinner party at someone’s house. It was organized to help a few of the exchange students get to know a few locals. There was some pretty good food, but it definitely was not what I’m used to. Another thing unique to Estonians is really small portions. The people hear hardly eat anything. Club Illusion with a group of friends, because it was rap and R&B night. We started off the night with a round of mojitos, which I’ve never had before. They were delicious. We danced the night away. They played mostly stuff out of the 90s and early 2000s. It was a good time. I met this Russian chick that could dance like nobodies business. That was a pretty great night. I had to leave at about 1 though so that I could come talk to Amy. We make it a regular thing to talk on Skype every night. Its been working out pretty well for us. On some days, it’s the best part of my day.
The firs two Mondays here I went to Karaoke with a group of friends. One of them is from Houston. Its always great because you really get a mix of singers, the people who got so drunk that they thought they could sing, the people who know that they can’t sing and do it any way, and the people who can actually carry a tune. I’ll let you decide which group I’m in. The first week I sang I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing, with the PhD’s. The second week I sang The Eye of the Tigre with the PhD’s again and Oops I Did I again with Morgan and the Gang. I rocked that one. It’s great because when an exchange student gets up the place really comes alive that there are usually a lot of people dancing in front of the stage for us.
This past Sunday I finally made it to a church. It’s called Risttee . It’s a place that’s geared toward teens. They had a translation system, so I was able to understand everything except for the songs. The sermon was pretty good. The pastor there is relatively young. The people there are so great. They made me feel so at home. Several people came over after church to get to know me and Introduce themselves. I met this really nice guy named Daniel who is originally from Idaho, but his family moved here when he was seven to be missionaries. Most importantly it felt so nice to be back in the house of God.
This weekend I am heading to England to spend a week with Amy. I know that it is going to be wonderful. I hope that it doesn’t take me another three weeks to update this blog, but who knows. If you’d like to talk to me some time, I’m on Skype and Facebook everyday. My email address is jthomas@nebrwesleyan.edu.

Everyone take care!

Going away party in Cleveland

Yesterday, Sunday Jan. 31 my family threw me a great going away party. It was sort of like a late Christmas and Birthday party combined. However, my mom has never cooked that much food for my birthday or Christmas. Not to mention the fact that I had 5 cakes. We had a raffle going on that only cost $1. The sign read, "Hear ye... Hear ye... Buy a raffle ticket and the winner gets it A.L.L." There was a nice stack of cash building up in the shoe box. I wasn't to happy about it until I found out what was really going on. I kept saying things like, "If somebody else wins then the winner takes half." When one of my cousins won the raffle, he got crazy excited and started running all over the house and throwing his hand up in victory. But when he opened the gift that came with the raffle and found out that all he won was ALL washing detergent, he and his girlfriend, who had already started making plans for the money, had the same look that many celebrities have after being punked. Fortunately, I was right there with the camera to catch it.

And of course all of the money was mine. If you like that idea and want to pull it off at one of your parties let me know. I have another version of it. In the end, It was really nice to have seen so many faces that I haven't seen in such a long time. Before we all left, every one gathered and said a prayer for me. I am so blessed to have a family that prays together and I know we will stay together. Look forward to a blog about my trip to and first day in Estonia.