My mood has increased significantly since I got my passport back on Monday. Ariail let me know the travel agency had told her our passports were back from the Russian embassy and we could come pick them up. I now have a giant sticker in my passport that is my Russian visa. At this time, there is a travel alert for US citizens for Russia. An alert is different than a travel warning though. A travel alert is just to let you know there may be some security issues going on, a travel warning is basically telling you not to go. For now, the trip is on, but obviously if a travel warning is issued then I won't go. Again, I'm safe and not going to any protests.
After I got my passport, I immediately went to the bank and was able to get my debit card and finally have access to my money. My mom mailed my American debit cards weeks ago but it still hasn't gotten here yet, which is frustrating because that means I can't book my flight to New Jersey or subscribe to Hulu plus.
Yesterday, Laura helped me get my Estonian ID card from the police. I really appreciate she went with me because I had never used the bus before. It was really easy to buy our bus tickets and even though we took a longer route than Laura did before, I didn't mind because I actually really like taking busses. We got to the police station after about twenty minutes and I only had to wait about ten minutes before an officer was able to help me. As she finished up some paperwork, I looked around at the twenty other officers in the room and realized they were all female. At first, I thought this was really cool that there were so many female officers. But then I realized there were only female officers working in the office. Crap, I thought, are female officers just treated as glorified secretaries here? It's not like the United States can act like we are much better,the first female officer was in 1910 and females have only been a notable presence in law enforcement since the 80s. Even then they weren't allowed to be actually out on the streets. When I looked up the history of police in Estonia, I found some interesting things. For one, while the number of officers has decreased since the reestablishment of the police, the number of female officers continues to increase. About 28% of officers are female. However, Estonia seems to be struggling in the same way the United States is regarding having female officers in higher positions. Out of 219 top ranking officers, only 28 are women. Out of the 114 superior ranking officers, only thirty are women. Estonia has no diversity programs or other tools to help women get hired, so this could be a contributing factor to why women are represented so poorly in these positions. As low as these numbers are, women have only been allowed to be officers since 1929. Estonia has only been independent for 1991, so they have had a lot of catching up to do when it comes to things like this. (I realized after I had been e-mailing with my former police explorer advisor that I forgot to mention women's police uniforms include skirts. Clearly, no one is expecting women to chase any bad guys down).
After that small adventure, I just relaxed in my room for the night. This morning I decided to go to the mall and get some things I've needed for a while. My skin hasn't been so great since I've gotten here since I haven't been using the right face wash. I headed over to the mall because that's basically they only place where you can get makeup. I went to this department store which quality is kind of between Macy's and Nordstrom's. Holy crap was everything expensive. For about 45 euros, I got foundation, razors, face wash, mascara and moisturizer. Yep, about sixty dollars for five things I could get for twenty five dollars in the US.
Yesterday I signed up for a trip that I am really excited for. ESN is putting on a traditional Estonian wedding in Saaremaa, the biggest Estonian Island. The future bride and groom are actors and not actually getting married. I think this is such a cool idea. A traditional thing like a wedding is something easily that could be forgotten by a society, so it's nice that this is a way a tradition is being kept alive. You get to take part in things such as a Bachelorette/Bachelor party, the wedding, and a wedding dinner party. I’m excited to see the wedding and see an Estonian Island.
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