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!
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