Christmas time is here

happiness and cheer... love and dreams to share... beauty everywhere... joyful memories there...oh, that we could always see...such spirit through the year...

Here's wishing all of you out there who are dear (and, sadly, not always so near) to us a Christmas that is filled with all that is wondrous, magical, and worthy!

(Greetings from balmy Florida and the Magic Kingdom)

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Luke 2:14

(and some angels who visited our snowy backyard in Tartu)

If this had been Washington...

...stores would have been immediately out of bread, milk, and toilet paper, people would be driving like crazies, school would be canceled, and the entire federal government might be shut down for a week.

From Winter Storm December Tartu 2010

From Winter Storm December Tartu 2010

From Winter Storm December Tartu 2010

From Winter Storm December Tartu 2010

However, this being Estonia, everything just keeps moving forward when two feet of snow are dumped upon us within twenty-four hours. I realized I was experiencing some delayed cultural adjustment when I double-checked to see if my evening German class was canceled or not (for a little snow? of course not!).

Tartu Happenings

Once back in Tartu, we celebrated the University of Tartu's Anniversary with a wintry torchlit procession and plenty of dancing at the annual ball.

From UT Anniversary December 2010

The only unclear part (for me) is how many years to celebrate. The university webpage celebrates 91 years as an Estonian language institution, but I distinctly remember celebrating 375 years when I was here in 2007. One thing I am sure of, however, is that this ball is definitely the anniversary of Uli & Jenn. I guess it is best to just say, Happy Anniversary!

UT Ball 2010

From UT Anniversary December 2010

UT Ball 2007

From UT Ball Dec 07

UT Ball 2006

From DrUlno

Finnish Happenings

One of the benefits of a looser fall schedule has been the opportunity to be a bit more mobile. I took advantage of this mobility a couple of weeks ago and spent ten days visiting Vaasa, Finland. Although there are many reasons to visit Vaasa, one of the best is Thanksgiving! I headed up early to spend some time with my good friend and the hostess and to help in the yummy preparations. There were no disappointments -- the company, the visit, the food, and the sunny weather were well-worth the twelve-hour train-boat-train trek!


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I got to see the tree lighting in the square, complete with a visit from Santa and fireworks.

From Finland Thanksgiving 2010

I could oggle more flavors of licorice than known the the rest of the world at the market (I sampled raspberry - delicious!).

From Finland Thanksgiving 2010

I also attended a small, cold and very wintery Christmas market of crafts.

From Finland Thanksgiving 2010

Although the visit prompted purchases of warmer winter boots and a coat, I reveled in the blue skies and sunshine of Finland's sunniest city!

From Finland Thanksgiving 2010

Knitting happenings

From Finland Thanksgiving 2010

Phew! I finished my first scarf and am on my way to becoming a knitting diva. I have had a refresher course and some guidance from a crafty friend, and am currently working on some undisclosed Christmas projects. More to come!

From Finland Thanksgiving 2010

Deutschland Happenings

So much has happened and I suddenly realized I have written so little. (This begs the question, if something happens but is not documented... did it really happen?) :-) Here are a few of the latest happenings.

In November, Uli and I traveled for a week to his homeland, Deutschland, for some conference tourism. We were invited to take part in a panel discussion related to gender issues. The topic? Dual-career marriages. I initially scoffed at the proposed theme. After all, this hardly seems to be an emerging issue -- women have been working outside of the home for decades! Furthermore, Uli and I are hardly "expert" informants as we seem to be struggling with this balance in our daily lives as well as our future decision-making, especially considering that one of us is on an academic career track. The end result was better than expected, I must say, and I think we perhaps took more from the discussion than we gave... and we did have the excuse to explore a bit more of Germany.

From Nov 2010 Germany

During our working vacation, we had a chance to explore Frankfurt a bit, with a particular emphasis on culinary and commercial exploration. I was impressed by the bustle of the city and convinced that Germany is a rather liveable place. My language courses have enabled me to engage more with the language around me -- and this is exciting! Germans came off as quite friendly people on this journey. Perhaps it was the warmer climate (about a 15 degree difference centigrade from Estonia) or the Ebbelwoi, but I was surprised to find people approaching me and strangers speaking to me (in German!) on the street and in the train. I guess the cultural contrast with more reticent Estonians and my faster emerging German skills were surprising and exciting!

From Nov 2010 Germany

Leaving Frankfurt, we headed to Koblenz, a city situated on both the Rhein and Mosel Rivers. The train ride to Koblenz from Frankfurt is absolutely gorgeous, with the hills rising from the river banks and castles sprinkled every few kilometers. Our visit to the city and to a neighboring castle was wonderful. We even had a chance to hang out with a local, an old friend relocated from Aachen, who guided us around the city, gave us a hand-picked wine tasting, and prepared the most lovely cup of coffee!

From Nov 2010 Germany

From Nov 2010 Germany

From Nov 2010 Germany

From Nov 2010 Germany

From Nov 2010 Germany

Estonia is the small world

A friend shared this with me today and I could not resist passing it along...

Craftiness

I thought that I would post a quick visual update about some of my crafty pursuits here in Estonia. I've been learning much and have made some visible progress on knitting projects. Unfortunately, I think my fledgeling skills and time management will not mean knitted socks for everyone during the holiday season. However, "tuleb nagu tuleb" (it comes how it comes).

These are my second and third pairs of slippers, inspired by my knitting mentor. They turned out roughly the same size (bonus!) and are quite comfy. I finished the first pair and decided another pair was good practice and an efficient way to use up the yard, so there is a bigger pair and a smaller pair (on purpose). Take a look.





My next project involves a new skill - purling. I am trying my best to wrangle my fingers into order and achieve the correct effect. I started a "simple" scarf that was supposed to be ribbed, but I keep forgetting whether I am supposed to knit or purl in the pattern, so I have created a sort of checked option. Even if the pattern turns out rather irregular, the yarn is soft and it's in my favorite colors!

From October craftiness

Finally, I've also been trying my hand out at creating good pie crusts. This weekend, I produced a fairly successful, buttery and yummy version using apples and sea buckthorn as filling. The result, if I am to judge by how quickly it disappeared into tummies, was completely successful.

Vastseliina Ruins

By no stretch of my imagination did I think that such a beautiful spot would be so well preserved. When we stopped to visit some "ruins" on our way back from Misso, I imagined a few rocks left over from hundreds of years ago and the need to use much imagination, but Vastseliina was a breath-taking surprise!

This 14th century Livonian Castle surprised me with its majesty set upon the rolling hills and above a stream in this remote location. Take a look for yourself!

From October 2010 Trip to Pullijärv and Vastseliina

From October 2010 Trip to Pullijärv and Vastseliina

From October 2010 Trip to Pullijärv and Vastseliina

From October 2010 Trip to Pullijärv and Vastseliina

From October 2010 Trip to Pullijärv and Vastseliina

More on the castle and area from Visitestonia.com or (in Estonian) the homepage for the castle and museum.

Weekend Trip South

We headed down south to the border of Estonia and Latvia, and not far from neighboring Russia, for a weekend in nature and in the sauna. Our journey took us to Misso, and, although no one in the car even giggled my dry-humored attempts to joke about miso soup, there really is no connection.


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With a couple of friends, we rented a cottage for the evening on Lake Pullijärv, a very quiet and gorgeous spot. As there had recently been a hard freeze and a bit of snow, everything had that crisp, brisk feeling of fall. Coupled with our rustic accommodation - no running water and good wood-heated ovens and stoves - we really felt as if we had left the city far behind and could enjoy a simpler, more peaceful existence for a couple of days.

Shopping without a car...

...can sometimes look a little bit strange

Fall meanderings

In the quiet of Saturday morning, I found myself crunching through Tartu on the way to a meeting and admiring the way the sun lit the colored leaves. Modern technological woman that I am, I captured a few of these shots on my mobile phone so that you could also enjoy this soft autumn meandering.

A few Estonian quirks

I've enrolled in an Estonian culture and history class for faculty and staff at the university, mostly because I am enticed by some guided tours to otherwise less linguistically accessible sites such as the Estonian National Museum, A. Le Coq Brewery, and a ballet based on Luts' Kevade. As we've met now twice, I wanted to share some insights from the course as a means of also making you as readers Estonian insiders of a sort.

"We will discuss the peculiarities of Estonia and Estonians" was the opening line of the course meeting. As a group of foreigners, we were then encouraged to stereotype our Estonian expereince with qualities and characteristics of Estonians (our list included some of the following adjectives: earthy, honest, musical, poetic, individualistic, quiet, reflective, etc.). We then launched into a review of Estonian history starting from the 14th century, our teacher pinning those characteristics from our list to historical events which may have embodied or encouraged such qualities in the Estonian person. It was an interesting, if unscientific, way to review history/culture, and I was left pondering stereotypes and self-labeling. Somehow these labels seems so acceptable when it comes from a small, unknown nation.

I cannot imagine presenting my own country in the same way without offense or animosity. Earlier this summer at a conference I attended in August, a presenter focusing, ironically, on intercultural competence and language learning repeatedly stereotyped the gregarious American (thanks to the presence of another Amerian and I in the crowd) and the introverted Estonian. At one point she declared that Americans are "daunted" by Estonian silence, a statement and interpretation that does not sit entirely well with me. However, I suppose it is a sort of identity-seeking that is more comforting when thoes qualities are perceived positively and you are from a rather small group (app. 900,000 Estonians!). I cannot imagine being at all accepting of any sweeping generalizations about English speakers or Americans (or not even necessarily the gun-toting, independence seeking Wyomingites -- and we are only 500,000 in number) because there is so much pluralism and variation. For the record, there are also quite a few contraditions in the Estonian persona that I have noted, and I am not exactly "daunted" by their silence at all.

This last week, we discussed the Estonian national language day (Emakeele päev, March 14) during which there is a nation-wide dictation. With elongated vowels or consonants in words like töööö (worknight), jäääärel (the edge of ice), and kukkki (rooster) there's no doubt that it could be a tough test. I got to thinking about what a national dictation might look like back home -- wot a deesaster dat cud be for da averedge jo.

For our housewarming party a couple of weeks ago, we received an enormous jar (a gallon?) of pickled mushrooms, a delicacy that I mentioned to a friend casually. She responded that she could not imagine them as a snack accompanying a casual beer. Yes, that is exactly what they are meant for and we tested out the hypothesis on a recent sauna evening. The mushrooms were one of the most popular beer snacks (next to smoked meat, of course).

¡Viva México!

Although it was a bit of a belated 200th birthday, we celebrated México in the Nordic countries this week. Today, I attended a phenomenal lecture by Dr. Beatriz Espejo, story teller, author, feminist, academic, and, without a doubt, Mexican patriot.

Relishing the chance to sink into a two-hour lecture in the lilting cadence of Mexican Spanish, I was captivated by this woman's narrative as she brought to life the letters of a Scottish woman, Madame Calderon de la Barca, who spent time writing letters about her new experiences and chaos of Mexican independence as she accompanied her husband there in the 19th century.

The lecture reminded me of the color and brilliance of México - exotic Mangos, leaders such as Miguel Hidalgo, the murals of Orozco in las Cabañas... Espejo as such an animated story teller of Madame Calderon de la Barca's life in México brought me back to my own former life in México and realize how much I adored the chaotic, vivid way of living. So, I wax a bit nostalgic for those days and also cry in earnest, "¡Viva México!"

Curious about Espejo? I definitely would like to dig up some additional reading. Here are some additional links about her (I couldn't find anything in English, which is a pity, as I was so impressed by her person):

• An article (in Spanish) about winning the Bellas Artes Prize
• An extended written interview (in Spanish) about feminism, writing, and life as a woman

Just another weekend adventure

The weather here in Tartu over the last weeks has been abnormally beautiful with sunny, crisp autumn days, vibrantly colored leaves gently falling down. On such days, you must jump outside to enjoy every minute of this dry, pleasant weather and take in as much Vitamin D as possible (apparently Estonians don't get enough -- see the related UT Newsletter article) before the weather turns to the short, rainy days of November.


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We decided to hop on our bicycles to enjoy the day and hunt down an Estonian adventure. Taking out our bikemaps and studying a good route for a daytrip, we decided to head eastward out of town in the direction of Kallaste (Lake Peipsi) with the hopes of reaching a cultural highlight described on our map, a huge bolder called Pollikivi. Never heard of Pollikivi? That doesn't make you strange at all. In later describing our biking adventure, we didn't find even one Estonian who knew what we were referring to! However, I'll let you in on the secret here, and you'll have a leg up when it comes to Estonian geographic landmarks.



The day was absolutely delightful and we stopped to check out St. Bridget's church near Vara where you can also see a very, very big "sacrifical oak tree." Without more narrative in our guidebook, I can just say that it was pretty and that I really enjoyed being outside and taking my new bicycle to a road test (it passed with flying colors).

As we road onward past Sookalduse, we noted that there were no road signs for our destination, and we frantically tried to figure out from our biking map and the description where to turn off. After veering onto an unmarked dirt road and riding for a couple of minutes, we saw the following sign indicating that Pollikivi was only .8 km (.5 miles) that way.



Yep. We had reached the destination... almost. The sign pointed directly into a nearby forest. There was absolutely no path, and the ground was marshy and overgrown with tall grasses and weeds. We had no choice but to lock our bikes to the sign and continue on our quest, bushwhacking our way in the direction indicated by the sign. As we were about ready to give up and head back to our bicycles before we were lost in the forest, we saw a small improvised bridge over a stream, and, yes, a really big moss-grown rock. Turning the corner, we saw the official sign for Pollikivi and knew we had reached our underwhelming destination.



Now, I know that you are thinking that this story is absurd and that such a destination must be a farce. Who would write about such a thing? Let me tell you a bit more about Pollikivi.



Pollikivi is the biggest boulder in all of Tartu County with a circumference of 29m, height of 4.3m, and length of 13.7 m. Not big compared to the schists and rocks of the Black Hills, but it's not really a fair comparison. Furthermore, this rock was purportedly thrown by the epic Estonian hero, Kalevipoeg. Admittedly, I have not read the national epic written by Kreutzwald (read it here), but my understanding of this mythic national hero is that he was extraordinarily strong and brave and his weapons of choice were large stones that he flung at his enemies and also used to help form the Estonian landscape. Pollikivi is one of those stones left from his slingshot.

It was a funny adventure and perhaps not the most notable of all destinations, but I do have to say that the leaves seemed to color and intensify during the ride. Upon our tired reentry to Tartu in the evening we were surrounded by autumn's brilliant gifts.

Palamuse Pops

I know you are thinking, "Where/What/Why is Palamuse and how can it possible pop?"

Where is it? Why, it's just about half an hour northeast of Tartu.


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What is there? Why, it's just a cute little town to visit with some historical places related to a famous Estonian author (Oscar Luts, author of Kevade, etc.) and a famous pharmacy where you can buy a mysterious elixir to cure any ailment (this one is more than a bit mysterious to me as it was explained in Estonian, but I suspect it is something like schnapps).



Why Palamuse on a September Saturday? Why, there is an enormous fair, the XIII SUUR PAUNVERE VÄLJANÄITUS JA LAAT with some of the following highlights:

Gigantic Pumpkins



Folk Dancing



Smoked Fish in Every Shape, Size, and Color



Portable Sauna



Mushroom Carvings (Maybe some inspiration for my favorite wood carver out there?)



Rustic Hot Tubs



Old Time Band Apelsin
Click the link to hear a music sample -- they are really pretty good!



Lots of Handicrafts and Shoppers
(I modestly walked away with some beautiful orange wool for knitting, sea buckthorn honey, and handmade goat's milk soaps. I resisted the temptation to buy a beautiful jacket, mittens, jewelry, handmade baskets, and so many more treasures!)



How does it Pop? Why, with Popsid, of course!



Upon my return to Tartu, I picked up with the crazy but quite talented group with whom I played while I was here before. It was fun to reappear at a rehearsal a few weeks ago and to be readopted (without much fuss or fanfare) to the group. They are funny/weird/playful and also serious about their music. It reminds me a lot of pep bands in high school and college, but with a steeper learning curve. They keep hundreds of songs in their repertoire so that almost every concert involves quite a bit of sight reading and they operate in Estonian, this ever-elusive language that I continue to attempt to learn and understand better. I'm happy they've accepted my pitiful language competency and mediocre horn talents -- it is always fun to be in their midst.



Curious about the sexy uniform? Yes, we wear green overalls for concerts :-)