According to the experts, emotions are a form of energy and the better we are at managing our emotions and understanding what they are trying to tell us, the more positive our outlook and the healthier our bodies. Over the years, I have had ups and downs in terms of Read more…
Today is Estonia’s Independence Day and today we celebrate one hundred and five years since declaring independence. Independence from Russia and the German overlords wasn’t achieved on this day in 1918, but the declaration of independence known as the Manifesto to the Peoples of Estonia (Estonian: Manifest Eestimaa rahvastele) was Read more…
I love libraries. They hold secret worlds hidden on dusty shelves and inside plain brown or green covers. In high school I would ditch school and go to the library where I would read, read, and read: animal husbandry, history, novels. I would check out as many books as I Read more…
Some days I feel like the paternal side of my family came from thin air. Living in Tartu, the only traces I experience of my Estonian family are the tombstones in the cemetery and a scattering of photos. The Soviet occupation separated those who were inside and those who lived Read more…
(just a bit of IT humor to start off the year) I’ve been in Estonia since the end of August 2022 and arrived here without processing all the challenges I faced during the previous two years. But this is a new year and I’m thinking about being in a new Read more…
Tartu is not one of the oldest towns in the world, but everywhere you go, there are references to the first millennium of the common era, remnants of walls built to protect various peoples and places, and much of the town dates to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. I too Read more…
I’m struggling to learn Estonian. I study 3-6 hours a day plus 18 hours a week in the classroom. At home, I feel like I know the words and the conjugations. In class ,when the teacher calls on me, I freeze. This is a new experience for me as generally Read more…
One of the things that I did not consider when I moved myself from California to Estonia was shopping. Since I flew I had two and a half suitcases worth of possessions I could bring. I focused on cold weather clothes, a few books, including some some of my own. Read more…
“Tere” means hello in Estonian. Greetings from Estonia. I am in Tartu where my father lived, and where my ancestors are buried. I am poorly studying the Estonian language in an intensive course at the University of Tartu This gives me a fantastic opportunity to feel the emotions and frustrations Read more…
Yesterday I arrived in Tallinn, Estonia after a grueling day and day of travel. Or maybe it was day and a night. 26 hours from the time I left my sister’s house I was finally in Tallinn. Estonia is ten hours ahead of California in clock time, so my overnight Read more…