Estonian Day No. 70.

Well... Saturday. I stood up quite early so that I wouldn't miss anything, and I didn't. Ilona stood up about half an hour later and made breakfast. The first thing she told me was "did you know that your mother and Eva called at midnight? They sang for me!" She seemed to have enjoyed that a lot. Then she happily and excitedly took my mother's package from the mantelpiece and sat down, only to jump up again at once to answer her phone. While she was receiving lots of congratulation, I went to get my presents for her and brought them down. Finishing the call, she decided to keep the best for the last and opened several other letters first. She was really happy reading Eva's letter and laughed when she read the first sentence of my mother's one and asked me "did you tell her this?" - it was in Estonian. I frankly answered that I hadn't and then remembered that she must have copied it from her own birthday card that I had sent her. Ilona thought that this was really funny. And everybody was very (!) happy when she pulled the Lindt chocolate out of the envelope. :D

not this one (it's far older and more used), but it looks the same

Well, she liked my presents too. I had found the DVD "Dorian Gray" and bought it since Janika had recommended the book - and unwrapping it, Ilona told me that this book had been her favourite during her university time. And when she found that pretty old book I had finally managed to buy - you can't imagine how relieved that guy in the shop was! - she liked it, too. I had decided on "Nils Holgerssoni imelik reis läbi Rootsi" (Nils Holgersson's strange journey over Sweden), which was pretty and old and kind of worn out, but still nice. And Ilona said she had read the story once or twice a long time ago, but she didn't own the book and was happy to have it now. And she appreciated receiving some more chocolate. :D

Later, Rainis and I helped to make the cake for the party and had a lot of free time afterwards. The party started sometime in the evening. Lots of guests came and I tried to be polite and sit around with them and got really frustrated after some time. Being at adults' parties is never easy for young people, especially when they're the only young people there (except some 6-9-year-olds running around). So after about two hours of staring somewhere and trying not to look too depressed and bored, Rainis took me upstairs because Ahti had asked him to do so to cheer me up. Juhani joined us and Rainis decided to make me speak only Estonian. So far there was no problem, but when he somehow refused to speak slowlier and wouldn't even have me ask for explanations of different stuff in English, I got even more frustrated. I mean, I am trying to learn, I really am, and I may not be perfect, but I am good. And speaking is really hard. So whenever people don't understand that (or refuse to listen to me when I try to explain it, because I can explain it only in English and not in Estonian, at least not when I become passionate with fury and have to keep calm somehow at the same time), I'd like to cry. Really. Same happens in several situations that are based on the same problem - the language.

Some time later, Rainis and Juhani left to visit some friend and I went downstairs again to join the party. Some people had already left and when I sat down, the discussion suddenly settled on me. When they asked Ilona stuff about me, she told them to ask me themselves. And thus they did. Sometimes Ilona still had to interprete but all in all it went quite well and I felt welcome and wanted and home again. This feeling had never really left me, but it's hard to keep it in mind when so much different stuff is going on. They all said that they had thought me to be really serious and severe and humouless which turned out to be wrong once I was involved in their discussion. Soon afterwards the topic changed again but I didn't feel as lost as I did before. When the guests left at about 0.15, I was chatting with Iris via FCBK about change of cast of Tanz der Vampire and about Alan Rickman. I went to bed at about 1.30 a.m.

I woke up on Sunday because it was so bright outside - compared to how bright days usually are in this time of the year. I thought about going on sleeping, but I didn't want to miss everything that was going on, so I stood up. Checking the time, I realized I had already missed the better part of the day - it was 12.33! I had slept for eleven hours and felt really relaxed. I called my mother later, since there were so many people at home now (my mother, my little Estonian sister Eva, my oldest sister Evi, my brother Henry and my brother-in-law Keith) that I thought it might make most sense to call that moment. But somehow calls are easier to make when you have only one person to talk to, and after having superficially chatted about several stuff, Evelyn said she didn't know what to talk about anymore, and we finished the call after not too long a time. Eva talked to Ilona for some minutes and that was all. It was okay but unexpected, and all that somehow hit me. I mean, I haven't been home for two months and nobody knows what to talk about?

Afterwards, we visited Ahti's parents and went to Lõunakeskus where Andreas and me watched some 4D-short-movie. That was funny: all the people around us were screaming, and even I had to work on keeping calm and not breathing too hard, while Andreas was complaining about how boring and unexciting it all was. He's a freak, and I like him for that.

Then we bought a new headset. That excited me and I could hardly keep calm all evening while my brothers were using the computer. So when I could use it, I tried to look normal although I was really burning with curiosity to find out whether skype-ing would be possible or not. It was! And talking to my beloved Jasmin for 1h 26min 42sec was the best thing I had done in what seemed like a lifetime. I laughed freely and slagged with her over several people and chatted about senseless and unimportant stuff - long story short: I lived again as I had used to live with her. And that felt so liberating, you can hardly imagine. I knew again what I had missed in all my time here. I mean, I love minu elu Eestis, but without Jasmin it's sometimes hard to manage.

This morning, I told Ilona what I need for trying to make the potatoe soup. We'll try cooking it together, which I had asked her for since I don't want to do it alone, and afterwards I'll go to Tartu and meet Leonie, then stay the night at her home and spend a day in Lõunakeskus together tomorrow. That's gonna be a lot of fun!

Estonian Day No. 68.

Today's videos:

Today's dialogue (translated from German):

Jasmin and me via Facebook.

Eva is so cool!
Good to hear. But even my little sister can't outdo you.
I don't get it. You don't have any sisters in Estonia when Eva is here, do you?
But she is my sister all the same, my love.
But you don't know her at all yet.
But she is my sister all the same, my love.
But you don't know her at all yet.
But she is my sister all the same, my love. - My mother's daughter -> my sister.
But you can't know whether she is unable to outdo me or not while you don't know her at all yet.
I don't need to know her to know that.
Cute!
True. ♥

No offence, Eva, but Jasmin is simply the best!

Estonian Day No. 67.

Wednesday was boring as always. But in keemia, the teacher said, I could do whatever I want. So I drew some patterns on my vihik. That was nice. And in the evening, I realized that since I don't understand much Estonian yet, I didn't know when and where we would have our choir performance on the next day. I asked Indra from my class. She told me that the performance would be on Friday, two days later. That was kind of embarassing. But at least I knew what was going on.

On Thursday - yesterday - was our school's 52nd birthday. So we decorated a cake in the first lesson (klassijuhatamine). In kehaline, we stayed inside (thank God!) and played saalihoki. After about ten minutes of playing around senselessly, I somehow scored the first goal. That was amazing. Especially since I had been very lethargic and indifferent before and suddenly I was burning with enthusiasm. Another two minutes later the other team scored. And another five minutes later the lesson was finally over.

After noortekoor, I went with Janika to the dormitory. My traditional skirt had been broken and she showed me how to repair it. Additionally, we had some "Pirates of the Caribbean" sparkling wine, because I had promised Janika to bring it next time we'd meet - she'd been so exhausted and kind of depressed on Monday, I had just had to cheer her up somehow. Then Janika went to have dinner in school and I stayed with Rainis in his room. When Janika came back, she changed and we went to the running event that was included in our school's birthday. I just watched (nobody had asked me if I wanted to take part and I was glad about that), and Janika and Rainis took part. It was raining all the time and after about ten seconds (!) my feet were all wet. After running, I came with Janika to the dormitory again and she had a quick shower. Kristiina, Janika's roommate, tried to make me pronounce several Estonian words right, but I failed in trying most of the time. Still, it was great to see how both Estonians and learners can become desperate. :D Janika came back and we went to school to watch the "Erki ja poisid" show. That was a show that showed some guys (Erki and his boys) from class twelve perform in such a weird way, that it was hilarious. Afterwards, I watched some video clips with Janika in her room and then went to Rainis's room and just had a nice chat. At 22.15 I went home. Having entered the kitchen, Ahti said "we have cake because we're having a little party", and I asked "why are we having a party?", and Ilona said "you've been with us for exactly two months now". That was sooooo amazingly cute!


Today, Janika braided my hair for the folkdancing performance. I was kneeling on the floor in the corridor, and she stood behind me. That was funny. Some people watched, but it wasn't very spectacular for most of them, because such things happen all the time in our school. :) During the fourth lesson (yay, I missed bioloogia!) we practised our dance again. One boy hadn't come to school (I think he was ill because everything else would be impossible, but I'm not sure - as always) so we had to change our choreography a bit - two hours before the event! It was easy, but still...! [And now I just went online on eKool, and it told me the following: 21.10.2011 was absent from Bioloogia (lesson 4, without reason, Helle Järvalt) Ilona told me that it's always like this, because only the class teacher can give a reason online - so everything's fine, but I was shocked all the same.]

After the fifth lesson, we went down to the teachers' room to change which took a while - ten people plus our trainer running around in a small room helping each other to dress which isn't as easy as you might think! So we missed the choir performance, since they wouldn't wait for us, but our dance went well. Afterwards I realized how short a performance and how big an input it had been - for those five minutes on stage, we had been training that hard and such a lot, and we had needed about twenty minutes for getting dressed and another twenty for changing to our normal clothes again.

me as the only one with real traditionally braided hair

me in a real traditional Estonian costume

me and a real Estonian boy

I thought I would've missed my bus to Tartu - it should have left at 14.33 - but there was some problem and so it was still standing at the bus stop with half of the passengers outside waiting for their turn to enter it when I arrived at 14.40, and I managed to take it, and I didn't even have to pay because of that problem! Yay! In Tartu, I met Lisa from Austria, but she went to Tallinn soon after I had arrived. I had a look through the town and visited some nice shops, including a subterranean bookstore. (Tartu's bookstores are somehow on the top of the list of the best bookstores I have ever seen in my life.) Then Leonie called and said she had some time, so we met, had kohuke and talked a lot (a lot!) since we hadn't seen each other for quite a while. Then we went back home.

Rainis is gonna stay with us all week. If I got it right, which I am pretty certain of this time.

Tomorrow is Ilona's birthday.

Something I discovered today: my name exists on the school homepage! Just like every other student's name does, but still!: http://lahte.edu.ee/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=75 So coooool!

Later the same day.

Since Ilona never reads my blog (or at least not at once), I can write the best shop dialogue ever:

In the bookstore.

"Can I help you?" (Estonian.)
"Sorry, I don't speak Estonian."
"Oh - can I help you somehow?"
"I am looking for a book."
"Aha." (Remember: this dialogue's taking place in a bookstore!) "What kind of book?"
"It should be old and pretty."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"Hmm - something else?"
"It should be in Estonian."
"Okay..."
"Yeah, it's for my mother."
"Okay...?"
"Yeah, she speaks Estonian."
"Okay...?!"
"Well, she is only my host mother. It's for her birthday."
"Ah, okay. When is her birthday?"
"Tomorrow."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"What should it be about?"
"I don't know. It only has to be pretty and old."
"Okay... what does she like?"
"Well, I don't really know - she is Estonian teacher..."
He laughs. I realize that I must be really ridiculous.
"...and she likes folkdancing."
"Hmm - maybe postcards?"
"Okay..." I think 'what exactly did he get wrong about "I am looking for a book"?'
"We have these. And these."
I have a look at them. "Okay..."
"Well, I don't really know how else to help you..."
"That's okay! I don't know it either. I'll just have a look around."

Estonian Day No. 64.

Sunday was amazing. Ilona and me went to Tartu and watched "Thank You For The Music" in the Vanemuine theatre. Its production was quite similar to the one of "All You Need Is Beat" which was shown in Gera some time ago (it was so adorable, I watched it three times) - just with Abba instead of the Beatles. Really good.

Yesterday was calm. In ajalugu, my teacher asked me how I wanted to get the marks this term since it's impossible to grade me exactly as the others. I told her that I'd rather have her just giving me some tasks instead of having to choose myself because when you are allowed (or forced) to choose yourself you can't complain as easily. She smiled and told me that that was exactly why she wanted to do it this way. Then we both laughed.

After noortekoor, I gave a bottle of that Tom&Jerry sparkling wine as a present to Janika - I thought she might need a present after having spent seven hours with me. ;) And I just wanted to show her that I appreciated her help. Then we had folkdance training again which was exhausting as always but in another way this time. Usually we are exhausted by doing so much, this time it was "just" hard to have energy to do the same five minutes choreography again and again (and again!) for two hours.

Today in kehaline, we had some orienteering race. The weather was nice, sunny and dry, but really cold. I found out that sports lessons are even easier to hate when you can hear the green but frosty grass crashing beneath your feet while you're running cross-country around the school and the teachers stay inside the gym because it's too cold outside.

After school I went to Tartu and met Laura, my younger support person. That was nice. We just had lunch and a walk through the town.

Estonian Day No. 61.

When I woke up this morning, everything was white. Not covered with snow though (Thank God!) but with frost. So before even having eaten anything, I took my camera and two jackets and went outside to take some photos. My family thought that was weird, taking pictures at that time of the day, but I went anyway. After some minutes, my hands were totally frozen. When Ilona came inside again after feeding the cats (which took about 30 seconds) she said: "You are right - it's really cold!"

Today we had a YFU meeting. This meeting took place in Tartu and Tallinn, so you could choose where you wanted to go. Ilona, Ahti, and me went to Tartu, of course. It started at 11 a.m. in a kohvik near the university and at first all the people got seperated into four groups: host fathers, host mothers, host siblings, and exchange students. We went to the YFU Office and did a language test there. I got 39,5 of 50 possible points and am quite disappointed, but when I try to consider it objectively, this is quite good a result. Afterwards, we had some sweets and everybody had to talk in Estonian about their school and family life here. Some spoke better than me, some worse, so I was quite satisfied in that point. Then we discussed - in English now - about topics like main differences in cultures, our support persons, internet and so on. At about 2 p.m. we went back to meet the others again in that café and had lunch. Then we went home.

Estonian Day No. 60.

Sooo - about yesterday...

School was okay. I learned some Estonian vocabulary with my self-built flash cards, and when I became unable to concentrate on this anymore, I just stared at the walls, pretending to be thinking. That's a good thing to do, because nobody suspects you to be doing nothing, or at least not, when you're holding flash cards in your hands and don't look too sleepy.

Then we had füüsika and wrote that test. It was quite okay, I actually understood quite a lot of the tasks, so that went fine. I still couldn't do about half of the test but that was partly because I'm simply not that good at physics. Afterwards, we had ajalugu, and unlike the last time, I refused to write the test, because I hadn't understood anything during the last lessons and just learned vocabulary all the time.

Well, why did I build the flash cards? I'm not sure if I told about that already, so I'll just do it now, probably again. You know about that Estonian exercise book of mine, the one they gave us in our arrival camp near Tallinn, "E nagu Eesti". It sucks. Of course, it was astonishingly kind of YFU to give it to us, but it is for Germans, Finns, Russians, and English native speakers. So there are absolutely no explanations in it, and you have to look up every single word in the multi-lingual vocab list, which does not even contain phonetic transcriptions. And after having somehow done the first nine of thirty units, I didn't want to do any more of them and started making those flash cards. And after having finished doing those flash cards, I started using them. By this, I could avoid having to go on doing units in my beloved "E nagu Eesti". You could say that I started learning because I was too lazy to go on learning.

Kehaline was senseless as always and German was okay. But this time, while the others did some writing exercise, I had to speak Estonian. I don't have anything against practicing speaking it, but it doesn't need to be in front of my class. Still, I managed quite - hmm, not well, but I managed somehow. We discussed about similarities and differences between Estonian and German grammar, and soon the lesson was over.

In the break before noortekoor, we all were already in the music room, and I went to Iris and Janika. Iris and me started raving about "Dance of the Vampires" and became - well - energetic. We were just so amazed by each other's joy and passion that we became joyful and passionate ourselves. And poor Janika, sitting between the both of us, was simply staring. That was so cute, because usually she is the most joyful and passionate person around, and seeing her being amazed by us being like her was simply an adorable sight.

After noortekoor (4 p.m.), I went to the dormitory with Janika. I had asked her if she can help me to learn some vocabulary with those flash cards, because there's always a difference between doing it alone and doing it with somebody, especially with some native speaker. So we sat in the kitchen, drank tea, and she prepared some chocolate candies that she wanted to give to her friend as a birthday present, and in between, she would ask me some words. There also were some people sitting around us, who seemed to be more and more astonished by the number of words I knew. I told them that I'd been working intensely with those flash cards for three days and that although I knew the words, I was unable to use them, but still they were quite impressed. After some time (6 p.m.), we went upstairs to Janika's room and went on learning there. We sometimes went off-topic, and so we happened to be talking about important people in our lives' pasts and presents for a long while, and then we became hungry (8.30 p.m.). We went downstairs to the kitchen again and had dinner and a nice chat with some others. Upstairs (10 p.m.), Ilona called to tell me that Juhani had gone to some training in Lähte and that he could take me home after it had ended. So Janika and me gave up learning and decided to do the chocolate candies in the kitchen. We had a lot of fun doing them, and they looked (and tasted) really delicious after we had finished (10.45 p.m.). We took our clothes and went to the gymnasium to wait for Juhani to take me home. He came at 10.54 p.m., Janika and me said goodbye to each other and Juhani and me left. So I had spent seven hours in the dormitory, learning and laughing and crying.

Yes, crying. For the first time (except some minutes with Leonie on the phone) I cried in the presence of another person. But it was okay. I like Janika and I trust her, so it was easy.

Today, I had bioloogia and used that pretending-to-be-learning-while-sleepily-staring-into-nowhere-trick. In ajalugu, some üliõpilane taught us, but it was quite boring. I became very happy when my teacher gave me some German material (!) and although it was about political history, I read all of it - just because it was in German. In keemia, we wrote a test. I hadn't understood anything during the last lessons, but I had to do it, and the teacher came from time to time to explain something to me - in Estonian, but I somehow understood. So it went quite well.

Then, our class went to Tartu to watch some theatre play, "Aja lugu muusikas", history in music. One man was talking about European history and some other man, who was also the dirigent of the whole orchestra that was also on the stage and played some music pieces in between, said some sentence or asked some question from time to time. It seemed to be funny. I got all the historical facts, but no jokes except one that wasn't too funny. And I had to confess that I had been wrong all the time: it's not depressing to sit in a class and everybody except you is laughing. It is depressing to sit in a full auditorium and everybody around you is laughing!

It ended at 2 p.m., so I went to the kesklinn and met Leonie. We had pitsa, kohuke, and pannkoogid. Then we went home.

Estonian Day No. 59.

Spent seven hours (!) in the dormitory with Janika. Now we're waiting for adverse reactions...


Tomorrow probably more 'bout that.

Estonian Day No. 58.

Running around with my drop-dead gorgeous (thanks to http://dict.leo.org/ for teaching me this new phrase) hat was quite a lot of fun. Got already some compliments for it.

Kolmapäev is always the worst day, or at least the combination of subjects is the worst: bioloogia, geograafia, keemia ja kunstiajalugu - afterwards matemaatika, inglise keele ja ajakirjandus are quite funny, but you need to get through to them first! It's not how the lessons are taught, it's just the fact that these are not exactly my favourite subjects (and today we even had another keemia lesson instead of inglise keele...) and in Estonia it's even worse, because they're - of course - all in Estonian! But today I used the time and my self-built flash cards to learn some Estonian. I already did 9 of the 30 units in my "E nagu Eesti" exercise book but I somehow always forget the words, so practicing them seemed to make sense to me and I learned quite many of them today. Hope I'll still know them tomorrow...

Today the school newspaper containing the article about me (page 9!) was published. When I asked my ajakirjandusõpetaja where I could get one, she told me that they'd only printed 70 copies of it and unlike usually they were probably all sold out already. That made me proud. :D But Aveli from my class helped me to find a copy and I bought it (30ct) - so cool!

Estonian Day No. 57.

Today? I don't know.

We wrote a test in ajakirjandus and it somehow went quite well. The teacher was kind of surprised when she came to translate the tasks for me and I told her that I understood three of them already. That was nice.

Matemaatika was fun, too. We did some easy stuff - or at least easy for me - and when nobody knew the answer, the teacher asked me and I could say it at once. In Estonian! Thank God I know the numbers... ;)

In saksa keele, I had to talk about my experiences in and impressions of Estonia. Again. But this time, I had to do it in German (makes sense) because my life here is gonna be part of the next kontrolltöö. Well, that at least makes people talk to me and be interested in me. Or I hope so. Of course, I've already got quite a lot of friends, but there are still people staring at me but not daring to talk to me.

Then we had the photo shoot. It was nice. I did some friends pictures with Triin and Kristi and again with Ivika and Helen. I would have liked to do some with Janika too, but she had had to go to Tartu.

We got the füüsika test back. It was a protocol of some experiment we did last week. I got a 4. My second 4 already... :( (Just kidding. 4's great.) At the bottom of the back page, he had written: "Although you did not follow the instructions, you got a result that makes physically sense." That made me laugh. I'd thought I would've been "following the instructions", but seems like I actually didn't. Well, whatever!

After the last lesson, I finally found a chocolate kohuke that really tastes like chocolate. Kristi recommended it and actually I didn't have the highest expectations of it because it was the cheapest kohuke, but since it was the cheapest kohuke, I tried it. It was delicious!

Then I took the bus to Tartu and met Leonie. We had a look at another souvenir shop on the raekoja plats (and I bought a drop-dead gorgeous hat in the shop we'd always been in the last times - one that my mother would love: wool outside, soft warm fleece inside, and nice ear flaps!) and met Monique in the Kaubamaja. I took some nice photos along the Emajõgi and some back home:

Estonian Day No. 56.

Got my first 4 yesterday. In kehaline. Now I don't have all 5s anymore... :( And I wrote the fifty-fifth postcard. So till now I wrote average one postcard per full day I've spent here in Estonia. :)

Today, I was introduced to Iris. We're kind of fascinating each other: we both loved Alan Rickman for quite a long while (and still do somehow...), and we are totally thrilled by the German version of the musical "The Dance of the Vampires", plus we both play the guitar. All this we found out sitting in Janika's room in the dormitory which I saw from the inside for the first time today.

Estonian Day No. 55.

Somehow, everyday I had a look at my blog but was always too lazy to write something and thought, c'mon, let's do it tomorrow. So somehow, over a week passed. And now it's gonna be quite a loooong post.

When Ilona came home last Saturday afternoon, she asked if we wanted to go to the swamp. Just like that. We agreed. So, wearing already our outfits for the night, we climbed through a forest and suddenly arrived in the swamp. It was amazing. It looked sooo magnificently pretty! Ilona told us the Estonian word for swamp - raba - and so I found out that one of the songs we're singing in the noortekoor is about how hard the Estonian farmers' lives are. (♫ Raba on maa, mida künda ei saa. ♫)

The reggae party was great. Luckily, Ilona had offered to bring us to Saadjärve by car - we had a lot of stuff with us: Leonie had a backpack with her clothes and another bag with her school stuff, I had a big bag with clothes and so on, too, and we carried two sleeping bags and a big basket with muffins. We were the first guests to arrive at Kätlin's summer house and after having had a look around, we found out that we would be less people than expected - only eight, all of us girls, five of us Germans - and that the others would come in an hour's time. We helped Kätlin prepare the food - or rather watched her cooking and doing the salad and entertained her with talking - while waiting for the others.

When they arrived, we first ate something together and then had a "fight" in the pallimeri. That was fun! Kätlin showed us around and we watched a beautiful sunset above the lake. When we found the big batuut in the garden, I and the other Germans climbed it at jumped around for what felt like an hour. It soon became quite cold outside so we went inside again, had another fight in the pallimeri - it shouldn't be the last one... - and watched a movie. Afterwards, we ate again and watched another movie. Then, everybody was so tired that we started dancing around. Sounds weird? Yeah, it was, but it was fun, too. Unfortunately, Kätlin's friends Lisanne and Janeli had to leave already - at about midnight - and Juliana and Isabell went to bed. Kätlin, Leonie, Maarie, and me went upstairs and danced Zumba. Actually, doing wild dancing and laughing with friends is one of the best things to do against fatigue. So after having jumped around and having had another fight in the pallimeri, we decided to watch another movie. Everybody was really happy, that there was a big screen opposite the pallimeri - so we could always watch and be in the pallimeri at the same time! Soon, Kätlin and Leonie fell asleep, but Maarie and me were more awake than ever before during that night. When the movie was over, we decided to go to sleep all the same, so we woke Kätlin and Leonie up and went to bed.

In the next morning, some annoying noise woke Maarie, Leonie and me up after only a few hours of sleep. It was a mobile phone alarm bell. Happy that it was over, we fell asleep again, only to be woken up again ten mintues later. This went on for one and a half hours until finally Isabell got up after quite a long time of sleeping and turned it off - it had been her mobile phone. Leonie and I were too awake to go to sleep again at that time so we had some of the cookies that were left from the party for breakfast and started tidying up the upper floor by collecting all the balls that were covering all the floor and throwing them back into the pallimeri. When Kätlin had too got up half an hour later, we had proper breakfast and took the bus home at 12.50 - somehow the bus driver seemed to be half asleep still, for the bus took nearly twice the time it should need to every station.

Back home, I just threw all my clothes out of my bag because Ilona had offered me to take me to Tartu at once since they wanted to visit the grandparents anyway. In Tartu, I met Leonie, who had missed her bus home because of our weird bus driver and was waiting for the next one that would leave four hours later. Together, we had some kohuke and looked for sports shoes for me but didn't find any. What we found was the sparkling wine that we had been looking for the day before in Lähte. Lisanne had first brought it to Janina's goodbye party just for fun - it was non-alcoholic sparkling wine with a big High School Musical picture on it and had been delicious. We didn't buy exactly the same one again since they had many different sorts of it - Pirates of the Caribbean, Micky Mouse, Disney Princesses, Cars, etc, etc - and decided for a nice Tom&Jerry-wine that had the words "Best Party Ever" on it. Although the reggae party that we originally had wanted to buy it for was already over, we bought it. This appeared to be more complicated than expected: the bottle stood at the back end of the highest shelf. After trying to reach for it by streching and jumping for five minutes, I finally got it by pulling it carefully with my purse. That was kind of exciting.

The same evening, Rainis moved out. We had some cake and salad and I finally gave him the postcard he had wished for while watching me write the first 49 ones. Afterwards, Ilona, Ahti, and me went to Monique's family's summer house where they had built a fire and had a small party there. I got to know Ninnettra from Thailand who had arrived later than the other exchange students, and I had the possibility to explain some English grammar to Monique - who comes from Australia and whose mother tongue is English. :D

On Monday, I went to the folkdancing group for the first time. It was a-m-a-z-i-n-g! Totally exhausting, too, but especially amazing. Janika had invited me to come and since I wanted to keep up dancing somehow anyway, I loved the idea. My history teacher is the trainer there, and her and Janika's English is really good, so when they would explain something to me from time to time, I would understand at once, but there wasn't that much of explaining necessary, because by watching and simply trying, I understood most of it.

On Tuesday, I went to Tartu again - just to go to Tartu. And to get rid of the Tom&Jerry sparkling wine. So I met Kätlin, we went to her home and two minutes later Leonie came along too. Together we had the wine while Leonie talked about the first two days of her fox week. Then Kätlin had to leave for her driving lesson and I went to Zeppelin with Leonie. We bought kohuke and some special-looking bread. Trying it all, one of our nice philosophical discussions developed:

"Hmm, this bread tastes exactly like the deep-frozen baguette we have in Germany, just cheesier and herbier, and somehow entirely different - but exactly the same!"

"This kohuke is not as caramelly as the other caramel kohuke - might be because that caramel kohuke is not as kohuky as this one -, but it's more caramelly than the chocolate kohuke is choco-y."

Especially funny about those examinations and speeches is the fact that we always create new words - like "herby", "kohuky", or "choco-y".

On Wednesday, we had the Teachers' Day, when all the twelve graders are teachers. It was supposed to be funny, but most of the six lessons we had were taken more serious by the students than they usually were by the teachers. The worst was the last lesson - English: not one English word was spoken during all the lesson. They did not even say "hello" or so. They just explained something in Estonian and wrote some tasks on the blackboard that we had to do. The students that "taught" us were already bored and tired from the day, so they were just looking forward to the end of the lesson.

In the afternoon, I watched some football match of some classes behind the school in our "stadium". When it became too boring, I called Leonie and we talked till Ilona came and we went home together.

When I went to bed, I set the alarm for 1 a.m. It was the night of my mother's birthday and I wanted to call her exactly at German midnight. We talked for 50min. That was nice.

On Friday, I went to Tartu after school. I met Leonie and we bought some sparkling wine - this time the Disney Princesses stuff. I also sent a small package. We then went to the YFU Office to meet some people there. They talked in Estonian all the time but even so we understood almost everything. That felt great! Later, we met Aire, Leonie's host mother, and went to a folkdancing evening. I slept at Leonie's place where I finally covered all my school books and then we together watched a movie and ate lots (!) of cookies and chocolate. At about 3.30 a.m., we went to bed.

Yesterday, I came home at kolmveerand kaksteist. I chatted with Jasmin for a long time. She tried to call me with one of those dial around codes, but somehow this didn't work. Then we had lunch - at 4 p.m., as always - and afterwards Ilona and I watched TV together and talked. At about 5 p.m. I fell asleep on the diivan. When I woke up again, we had dinner - it was veerand üheksa.

Today was quite unspectacular.