Estonian Day No. 41.

 Yesterday was amazing!

Monique's host mother had (some weeks ago) the idea that on the fair in Palamusse all the South Estonian exchange students could come with their families and meet. So we did that yesterday. At about 9o'clock, Ilona, Ahti, Andreas, and me left the house and arrived in Palamusse 40min later. There we walked around. Ilona told me that 40 years ago the most famous Estonian movie (among Estonians) had been filmed in Palamusse and that's why everybody (in Estonia) knows this place. It was really nice, but I still didn't know why we had left so early. The evening before, Ilona had said that we would leave quite early because otherwise there wouldn't be any parking space left. But when we arrived, there was plenty of space, and not many people walked around.

So we met all the others at 11. There were ten of us: Eduardo (MEX), Monique (AUS), Isabell (GER), Lisa (AUT), Ursina (GER), Matthias (GER), Aaron (BEL), Marlis (CHI), Maarie (GER), and me (GER). We talked a lot, but later left our families and had a closer look at the fair. We soon more or less lost each other and went on walking in smaller groups. Step by step, it became clear to me, why we had to come so early: Ursina said, that usually about 20'000 people visit this fair in Palamusse every year, and really, there was an astonishing lot of people there! The shops were nice, and you could find nearly everything: traditional clothes, warm clothes, jewellery, fruits, pans, wellies, soap, candels, books, wooden statues, blacksmith's stuff, ... There were even ten or twelve Krishna Discipals, but they were not for sale.

All the time we had really good luck with the weather, it was very cool (autumn...) but the sun was shining. Later, it rained a lot, so we quickly searched for our families, who wanted to go home anyway. My family had already left, so Lisa's parents brought me to Lähte. When I left their car, the sun was shining again, and all the ground was nearly dry. I started walking home. Five minutes later, it started drizzling. Another two minutes later, it rained hard. The wind was so strong, that the rain came nearly horizontaly from the right. I walked faster and indeed managed the way that I usually needed exactly 30 minutes for in 23 minutes. That was nice.

Today, I'll have a look at Tartu's second hand shops, together with Lisa. Afterwards, I'll meet Laura, my younger support person.