Oh, Happy Spring!

What a feeling it is to wake up with light in the morning. Just this week I noticed on the bus ride back from Narva on Tuesday that it is still light at 7:00 p.m. Perhaps my dwelling on light seems a bit melodramatic, but I contend that it makes all the difference. Today, on the vernal equinox, I am feeling more spring in my step, even if the temperatures have dipped and there are skiffs of snow hanging on.

From Around Tartu

A visitor from Budapest helped me to put it in perspective. It's so amazing how seeing your life through someone else's eyes puts you to thinking about how things really are in a whole new way. His sharp camera eye and insightful comments/questions caused me to pause and reconsider my life here in Tartu. After a short walk around my current hometown, my visitor commented, "You really love it here, don't you?" Uff! For once, even I did not have an instant reply. I thought about my weather-related complaints and sometimes sour mood about living abroad lately. Indeed, it did seem rather incongruent with the pitch I was selling to my guest. I stopped to think. Was I lying? If so, why? If not, was it true? Do I really love it here? Yikes.



Later in the day, this guest visited my classroom and had a chance to meet my students and see the teacher-me in action. In the conversation afterwards, I found myself explaining my job and my students and glowing about my work here. I am rather enthusiastic these days about my teaching; at any rate, I am feeling energized.

From Around Tartu

Still later in the same day, we went to a public lecture and discussion with other faculty members from the University of Tartu. In this warm atmosphere and in the presence of this guest, I had more than a fleeting thought about how special Tartu is and how much it is beginning to feel like my home. Somehow, these familiar faces and places are important parts of my daily life. I don't know if I would have recognized these truths on my own, but, despite my lack of or abundance of awareness, they are nonetheless true.

I don't know if it is the increasing number of hours of daylight, the passing of a rough patch of culture shock, or a late-coming settling into the local culture (after one year and five months here), but I feel good these days and cannot wait for the onset of spring. I'll be waiting by for those tulips poking up out of the earth, spring rains, and warmer, sunnier days.

As they say around these parts,
Häid ülestõusmispühi!
Häid lihavõttepühi! Häid lihavõtteid!
Häid munapühi! Häid kevadpühi!