Vilnius (and a little bit of Riga) Weekend Trip

We had a three day weekend because Monday was Estonian Independence Day. I probably would have wanted to say in Tartu if anything big was being celebrated here, but the parade was being held somewhere else, so we decided to make a quick trip to Lithuania.

Ariail, Laura and I left our dorm at about 1:40 am to walk to the bus station. We had assigned seats but some people were already sitting in them so we sat somewhere else. It ended up actually working better because we each got a row to ourselves. The ride went by pretty quick since I was able to lay down and sleep. We arrived in Riga and had about an hour and half wait until our next bus to Vilnius. We were all still so groggy that we just wanted to be on the bus already! Once we got on the bus we each had a row to ourselves again. The ride went by quickly again and we arrived in Vilnius around eleven. We stopped for lunch at McDonalds (don't judge us) and then continued to walk to the apartment we had rented for the weekend. Ariail found the room through Airbnb and it was a really nice place! The woman who lived there was very nice and showed us around the small but charming apartment before she left. She left all sorts of stuff for us so our stay would be comfortable such as lots of blankets, towels and maps of the city. Her only real rule was to not store meat in the fridge since she is a vegetarian. We had been planning on taking a nap once we got there but found our lunch had seemed to wake us up. We watched a little bit of Harry Potter before we decided to head out and just take a quick look around. The architecture of the town is very mixed but beautiful. We walked through some shops, crossed a bridge where there is a mermaid fountain and looked quickly through a small market. We headed back to the apartment, finished the movie and at around five thirty headed out for dinner. We had decided to eat out one night and then cook the other. We went to a german restaurant and holy crap was the food amazing. Ariail got a bratwurst and Laura and I got schnitzel. All of our meals came with pan fried potatoes and red or sour cabbage. Once we started eating I'm pretty sure the only words said for about ten minutes were "this is so amazing" and "I love the Germans." We were stuffed by the end but still decided to get two creme brûlées because we could. We watched another Harry Potter movie and debated about making brownies that night, but decided instead to wait until the next night.

We woke up at about eleven and Ariail made pancakes with chocolate! Yummy! We then walked through some shops again, the cathedral square and walked through the Cathedral of Vilnius. We walked a little more until we went into a grocery store. There was a section with these really cute ready to drink cocktails. I decided to try a rum and coke/gin and tonic because they weren't that expensive and I wanted to see if I like anything alcoholic. I also got a box of Vanilla Rooibos Te because it's my favorite. We then walked up the Hill of Three Crosses, a pretty major symbol of Vilnius. The hike was pretty but it reminded me how out of shape I am. We took a few pictures of the pretty view and then headed down the steps. This was probably worse then walking up because they were steep and I was worried about tripping. We headed back to the apartment and then Ariaii made a yummy dinner of potatoes, hot dogs (closest to sausage she could find) and tomatoes. After we ate Ariail started to make the brownies (Anyone else notice a trend here? She is the reason why Laura and I didn't starve this trip) and they were amazing! We had vanilla ice cream on top to make it even better. We decided to watch Pirates of the Caribbean but we were all a little distracted. We decided to get up at ten so we could go to a few shops before we headed to the bus station.

After Ariail made pancakes in the morning, we packed up and then headed back to a few shops we wanted to look at again. One of them wasn't open even though it was their business hours, so that was sort of a bummer. We couldn't spend much time looking since our bus left at noon, so we headed back to the apartment to grab our stuff and then we walked to the bus station. We got there at a pretty good time and didn't have to wait around long for the bus. We got on and, once again, we each had a row to ourselves. It was another perfectly fine bus ride and we arrived at Riga at around four in the afternoon. Our next bus didn't leave for about three hours, so Laura and I went to grab something to eat while Ariail checked out a church before the sun set. Once she rejoined us, we walked around a little until we found a cafe. We sat and drank lattes for about half an hour before we walked around again. We didn't really see anything specific but we were enjoying the architecture of the building.

We headed back to the bus but this time it was a very full bus, so none of us got to sit on our own. Laura and Ariail got to sit next to each other but I was next to a stranger. Let's just say I don't think she was playing with a full deck. Also, there were tv screens for us to use but the one in front of me was broken, so I had nothing to do for four hours. At first I thought the woman might be sleep talking but then I realized she was just yelling things out and yelling at the bus driver. Admittedly, the bus ride did take longer than it should have, so she did have some reason to complain. I'm still not sure what happened but we were going in circles for a bit and then at one point started the direction back to Riga. A girl sitting behind Laura and Ariail told them she thought the driver said we had lost someone so we were going to get them. I had no idea what this meant. Only one person had gotten off the bus, a sort of drunk guy, and he had gotten back on. For a minute I thought she meant we might be heading back to Riga, about two hours back, but then we started to head back to Tartu. Weird. A couple sitting in front of me got off about forty minutes early which meant I could move into their seats. This was very good since the lady next to me had started fighting with the drunk guy for talking and was doing weirds stuff like grabbing my hand to hold her yogurt. Once I moved to the other seat I was able to watch a movie until we got to Tartu.

As you can see from the pictures, the trip was full of very beautiful things to see. I'm very glad we were able to take advantage of the long weekend!

Going Downhill

Crap has officially hit the fan.

The day started off pretty normally. The night before I went to the International Food Fest the university puts on and I brought Bunuelos. The United States students had signed up to make Tex-Mex. I walked over with Ariail and some of her friends and stayed about an hour and a half. There were a lot of foods to try and it was a little overwhelming, but it was really interesting what people chose to make to represent their culture. When I got back to my room I was planning on finishing up the last of the paperwork for my residence permit because my tutor was picking me and Shay up to go to the police station in the morning. While I was filling out the paperwork, I realized I didn't have one of the pages. Commence major stress eating. However, Laura messaged me to let me know the multi media center (the place we have been using to print stuff out) opened at eight in the morning. This made me relax a lot because my tutor was picking us up at nine thirty. With that taken care of, I went to bed.

I woke up at seven thirty so I could be at the multi media center at exactly eight. I got there at eight ten and the doors were still locked. Commence minor melt down. I waited on a bench across the street for a few minutes until they opened the door. Once I got it printed out, I headed back and finished printing everything out. Then I went to the ATM next to my dorm to get money out to pay the fee for the residence permit. My tutor picked us up (can't explain what a major convince it was to be driven to the police station and not have to take the bus) and we got there in about ten minutes. The process to get the residence permit was pretty simple. You take a picture in this booth that gets saved into their computer system and then you take a number. We got called up to be helped by two officers pretty quickly. The officer who was helping me spoke a little English, but I was very glad my tutor was there to translate a few times where things were unclear. The only time I panicked a little was when she pointed out I forgot to put my parents birthdates and asked me to fill it out. It wasn't my best moment but I started repeating "oh crap, oh crap", and I'm really hoping the officer doesn't know that word in English. I know the the day and month of my parents birthdays of course but I can never remember the year. However, I remembered my dad is turning fifty this year. The officer handed me a calculator when she saw I was trying to do math on a scratch piece of paper. As far as my mom, I subtracted forty seven from 2014 and the year I got looked right. I'm pretty sure it is right. I should probably ask my mom. Once that was done I payed my fee but then I got called back by the original officer to sign a part of the paperwork I forgot. I was relieved to get it all done with and I hope everything gets approved as soon as possible.

It was only about ten thirty when we finished, so my tutor suggested we go to a large mall nearby. We have a few malls nearby the dorm but this one is known for being the biggest. We just walked around to see what they had and walked into a pet store to see what kind of animals they had. There were normal animals, like bunnies and fish. Things did get a little weird when we saw the raccoons and porcupines for sale. I can't imagine picking those two animals as pets. My tutor then wanted to go into a grocery store in the mall (every mall here has a grocery store inside it) and we grabbed some slices of pizza. We headed back when I needed to get to my one class for the day. The class was fine, a little heavy on statistics for my taste, but she said we wouldn't be going over that again.

I was walking back to my dorm when I ran into Ariail who reminded me that we had planned to meet with Laura in the town square to go the bank. We are leaving for Lithuania in the morning (2:10 am) so we needed to exchange currency since they aren't on the Euro. We decided to go this weekend since we have Monday off for Estonian Independence Day. The process at the bank was pretty simple, Laura and I were helped by the same woman together, and the only tricky part was the teller didn't speak much English and couldn't tell if we were saying Latvia or Lithuania. We got that cleared up and got our Lithuanian money.

Ariail needed to get her University ID card so Laura and I headed back to the dorm. This is when the crap hitting the fan started. I went to the ATM to get more cash since I had used it all to pay my permit fee and to pay Ariail back for our room in Lithuania. I went to get my debit card out of my wallet and it hit me. The ATM I used in the morning doesn't have you insert the card and then take it out but instead holds the card inside the machine the entire process. I realized I had forgotten to take back my debit card when I had finished before. Commence completely losing my crap. I went back to my room and made the decision to cancel my card. I don't have a phone here so I asked Laura if I could use hers, but then I realized I could report it lost online so I didn't need to call the bank. So I canceled the card and messaged my mom about doing a wire transfer to my Estonian bank account so I could have money to eat/pay for a Russia trip/have spending money for my Finland trip next month. However, we realized I don't have the right information to do the transfer so I have to go the bank on Tuesday. I'm trying to not freak out but it's stressful and it doesn't help this situation is my fault. I have two emergency credit cards I can use for stuff like food in restaurants and grocery stores but it's annoying to not have access to my own money.

I did some laundry and I'm all packed for our trip. There is KGB museum I would like to go to but there are also some really nice churches to look at. Also, forget everything I said about it being warm again. Everything is covered in snow once again.

Back to Being (Semi)Productive

This weekend was nice and peaceful, as it should be. I dragged myself out of bed at noon and I walked over to the mall with Arielle. I needed a dustpan and I hadn't found one at the small market next to my dorm, but I figured the department store in the mall would have one. I found the dustpan and then we headed downstairs to the grocery store. I like the market next to the dorm, but it has a small selection, so we wanted to check out what this one had. While paying, I experienced something that I'm pretty confused about and really want to ask an Estonian about. I was paying with cash and a few coins, so I tried to hand it to the cashier. She scolded at me in Estonian and gestured to the small plastic dish on the counter. I'm not sure if this is something I'm supposed do all the time or if she just personally likes being able to count out the change on the dish. It just feels rude to me to put money down on the counter.


I forgot how much I hate waking up for classes. I don't mind going to classes at all and I enjoy the fact many classes here are seminar based, but I still want to throw my phone across the rooms when my alarm goes off in the morning. I can't even claim to be waking up that early, my earliest class is at ten fifteen. I have had a lecture from each of my courses except one, which is going to be doubled this week since she was out of town for a conference. I was pretty surprised she was able to do this when I saw the class added in on my online calendar. I can't imagine a CofC professor doing that. I can't help but wonder if she was somehow able to check if people registered in the class had a class after our first one because if not how was she sure the second class was not going to conflict with another class for someone? The lose class times is something I'm finding kind of odd. For example, a lot of classes say they end at even times like 14:00, but in reality they almost always get out at 13:45. It's like this time has been built in just in case class goes over. The seminar class Shay and I have together is an interesting case. As I said be before, we watch a movie on Monday classes and discuss it and other articles on the Tuesday class. Last Monday, the professor expressed that due to time lengths, the class might run over. Fair enough, but since the class is from 16:15-18:00, I don't think I was anticipating the class running over more than fifteen minutes. Today we got out about an hour late. What if people have classes after that class? My friend has a French class at 18:00, so would she have to drop out of the class because the class always goes late? Very, very different.


So far I like all of my classes and I'm very interested in the topics. There are various topics I've never explored that are specific to Europe and Estonia, so I'm looking forward to learning more. My Estonian culture class is pretty awesome. We just watch movies, go to museums, and at the end of the semester we have to relate what we learned to our normal studies. Interesting and pretty easy, sounds good to me! I like my European Union class because I know so little about the EU and it's history. My European Media systems class is interesting, but we only meet about six times during the semester. We have to write an essay comparing a European country's media systems to our home country. I'm looking forward to learning the similarities and differences of a European country and the United States.

No Longer Completely Freezing

As the title of the post suggest, it's gotten significantly warmer over the last few days. It's thirty four degrees today and it will stay about the same temperature for the rest of the week. It's still incredibly icy though. I have a few classes in this building at the top of a very steep hill and I know I'm going to slip very soon. I walked out of my room on Sunday and I was amazed that I saw grass for the first time in a week! Now that it is warmer and sunnier out, it seems like everyone is in a better mood!

We had a two day orientation starting Thursday of last week. The day before was not an official day of orientation but we were able to take tours and meet with our tutor. Tartu assigns foreign exchange students an upperclassman (who is in charge of about ten students) to help the exchange students adjust to life here. My tutor was very nice but was clearly distracted during the lunch with our group. If you have a final at Tartu and not just a final paper, often several dates are offered for you to take the final. Because of other finals he had to take, my tutor selected one of the later dates for a particular final. Unfortunately, he did not pass, so he was studying for the retake. That's a pretty common thing here because usually there are very few assignments and you final is all or a majority of your grade. It's nice in a way because you don't have so much busy work, but the thought of not doing well on the single test that makes up your grade is a little scary. The day I met with my tutor I also had a tour of the main building and of the town. The main building tour was interesting because we got to learn about the university's beginning and their traditions. One thing that was really interesting was the lock up room. Apparently in the earlier days, students would be literally locked in a room on the top level for crimes varying from not returning books to the library, dueling, or insulting a lady. The time spent in the room could range from days to weeks. According to our guide, it was something that almost every student went through during their studies. Our tour of the town was interesting but it was freezing when it started. Also, the guide had a thick accent and spoke softly, so it was a little difficult to hear what she had to say. It was still nice to see the places she thought were the most important so I could go back and investigate them later.

Classes started yesterday and so far I have had only one class. Well, technically I have had two lectures from the same class. We meet back to back so we can watch a movie on Monday and discuses it and outside articles on Tuesday. I was excited for this class because it was the one class I was able to get approved for history credits. There is no mistake it's a history class. It's a class focusing on memory in history and politics, which is actually something my Historian's Craft class touched on last semester. The professor is very nice and I'm able to understand his English for the most part. Another girl from CofC, Shay, is in the class too, so that's really nice. Today when he read off the class roll I encountered a slight problem that's been common here. On American passports, your first and middle name are in the same section titled given names. Somehow that's translated here as both names being my first name, so everyone keeps calling me Sarah Nicole. When he read the roll today I didn't think he was calling my name because I couldn't understand the way he was pronouncing Nicole. We have three Sarah's in the class, so it might just be easier for him to call me Sarah Nicole!

Before class I went back to the mall, which is very close to campus, to pick up more school supplies. I had bought one notebook before but I decided I was going to use notebooks for all my classes. Here's a tip for anyone planning on studying abroad: bring your own notebooks. I knew Europeans tend to use graph paper but I figured they would have some regular lined paper. I wasn't wrong, but these kind of notebooks are a lot more expensive than the graph paper ones.

My housing situation is a six out of ten right now. I have my own room currently, so it's nice that I just get to come to my room for quiet time when I need it. The room to my right currently has no one in it or they haven't come back from winter break. The room on the left has two girls in it but only one has come back from winter break so far. She's nice but very quite, essentially the perfect stereotypical Estonian. I learned a lot about Estonian stereotypes at orientation. I felt like a lot of the Europeans at orientation knew these stereotypes beforehand, but I had never heard anything about Estonians before. Essentially they like to think of themselves as reserved, hardworking, but they also believe they move at a very slow pace in life, nothing is rushed. But back to the room. It's not that I don't like my living situation, it's just a little… awkward. When my suit mate is here (which is very rarely) she always has her door shut. I don't really mind that, I just want to ask her questions such as do we share plates and cooking utensils? The first time we spoke she said we would all get together to make a cleaning schedule but because no one else has come back yet, we have not done this yet. I also feel kind of bad because when she told me her name I couldn't understand her because she was speaking so softly and has an accent. I think it started with T. It's kind of weird to not know her name but it would be kind of awkward to ask for it again!

My housing situation has significantly improved now that I bought my own router. Arielle, another girl from CofC, bought her own and had fast internet immediately. You can pay for internet in the dorm but it is so incredibly slow and makes Skype (which Estonia takes full credit for) impossible. Other than the dorm, you can get free wifi anywhere in Estonia. To them, wifi is seen as a necessary thing to live and should be free for everyone. Can't argue with that.

Possibly my most exciting news is that I will be taking a week trip to Finland in March. ESN (a interntional student organization) organizes trips and parties in 36 countries. This trip to Finland is apparently something you can not miss. Items on the itinerary include Lakeside saunas, ski lessons, seeing Santa's village, seeing reindeer, a husky sledge ride, and possibly the Northern Lights. Seeing the Northern Lights has been on my bucket list for a while (blame it Balto) so I'm really hoping that all the right conditions come together to see the lights. It was a little more than I wanted to spend on a trip but the convenience of having someone plan everything for you will make it worth it. Plus, I had been planning on spending money to see Aliya Mustafina compete while I am here and was aiming for the European Gymnastics Championships in Bulgaria. Unfortunately for me and fortunately for her, Russia is finally giving the poor girl a break from competitions for the next few months. Maybe I'll go to Rio if she is at the Olympics!

I'll try to post a few pictures of the snow melting so all of you can see the sudden change!

Finally here!

I'm exhausted, hungry, excited, and did I mention exhausted? I started my trek from Chicago on Friday night. My mom and aunt dropped me off and I began to miss my mom once I walked through the doors of the airport. I'm not sure I would really call it homesickness yet. I'm used to being very far from home and not being able to see my parents for months at a time, but this is a little different of course.

The flight to Copenhangen was nothing too exciting, which I guess is a good thing. They served us dinner almost immediately so people could get some sleep. I wasn't too tired after dinner so I watched The Little Mermaid. I was getting sleepy after that but I have trouble falling asleep on planes even when I am tired. I've found that listening to a podcast I've heard a million times helps me drift off better than listening to music, so I started listening to a Nerdist Podcast and quickly fell asleep. Once I woke up I was happy to see that we only had an hour and a half left! That was pretty surprising to me. When Rachel and I flew to Amsterdam, it felt like time was just crawling by and I almost had a panic attack. But this time the flight was over in a second.  

Once we landed, I found my gate for my Tallinn flight. It boarded an hour later and after a quick one hour flight I was in Estonia! Getting my bag did not take long and all I had to do was wait for my bus to Tartu. There was a indoor spot where you could wait for the busses but even inside it was cold! I also realized that the buses do not wait around or give people inside any time to get on. You have to be outside when the bus pulls up to the curb or you are not getting on! The bus came at five minutes after seven, so I left the warmth and stood on the curb at seven. A younger couple was standing next to me and when the bus came the very nice man helped me put my bag in the storage area on the side of the bus. The bus ride was about two hours but it seemed like a lot longer.

Once I got off is when things got just a little difficult. There were no signs for Taxis or anything like that when I got off. There were a few taxis in a parking lot across the street, but I wasn't sure if they were available or if they were waiting for someone. It was already dark so I couldn't see their lights well. So I asked a man who was picking his girlfriend up about the taxis since they were speaking English to each other. He said I didn't need one. He pointed towards another building and said my dorm was very close to that one. He helped with my bag and once we got to the corner he said he and his girlfriend couldn't walk with me anymore. His girlfriend did not look too pleased about this and said they should walk with me. I didn't want to bother him anymore, so I said I was fine and walked myself. It wasn't really that far, but the streets weren't shoveled, so it was hard to roll my bag and the cold air was making it hard for me to breath. Another college student walking down the street asked if I needed help (first in Estonian and then in English) and she helped me find the dorm. She agreed the dorm was relatively close but because of the weather the man shouldn't have told me to walk. She helped me to the door and then she left. But once I got up to the counter I realized I didn't have enough Euros to pay the deposit so I had to run outside again to an ATM. Once I got my keys and got to my room, I realized that some of the other girls were already moved in, but none of them were in the room. Then I had to make up my bed. I decided to just buy the sheet, pillow and comforter set offered at the front desk so I would be able to sleep well my first night. I was kind of irritated to find it didn't come with a fitted sheet, so I'm just tucking in a regular sheet for now. I decided to write this now so I could charge my phone a bit. My mom bought me a convertor but I can't figure it out and I don't want to burn the place down or ruin my phone or computer, so I'll wait until someone can help me.

(I tried to go to bed at around midnight when I wrote this first part but I woke up at about three thirty in the morning. I listened to four Nerdist podcast trying to fall asleep but no luck).

It occurred to me when I woke up this morning I ate nothing yesterday. This is out of the norm for me since I am always hungry and can rarely go an hour without needing to eat at least a little something. They served us a small breakfast on the plane to Copenhagen (some yogurt, orange juice, granola and a sandwich) but I was nauseous when I woke up as usual. I drank the orange juice and some tea to calm my stomach, but now I really want some food. However, as hungry as I am, nothing sounds good to eat. I got fries from the cafe I am in and I bought some yogurt, bread and cheese from the store next to my dorm. I admit I was a little scared to leave the dorm but I knew I needed to find wifi so I could tell my parents I was safe. Everyone is Estonia is very nice and very understanding of my lack of Estonian. I'll probably go back to my room and rest for a bit. Talk you all later!