In all seriousness, it has been a while. Many things have happened in the past month. Sidenote- I feel bad that I haven't posted any pictures on this blog so I think I will do that next time.
The first day is September 1 for most schools, but my school, Gustav Adolfi Gümnassium, started on September 3. The first day is a formal sort of ceremony. Everyone dresses up and goes to their homeroom class and then there is a ceremony in the outside courtyard.
I am in the 11th grade here. Estonians schools do not offer choices in the courses that students are allowed to take. The only option is to choose a stream. I am in the A stream (English/French), there are also B,C, and D streams. The A stream usually has the least amount of boys; my class only has 4 boys.
On Monday we have 7 classes:
Estonian, Geography, English, Math, French, Guide (learning about the history of Tallinn in English so they can basically guide tourists around), and Chemistry.
Tuesday: History, French, English, Biology, Math, 3 periods of Estonian+Estonian lit.
Wednesday: Physics, Math, 2 periods of P.E., Estonian, Music, French, Russian
Thursday: Chemistry, English, Estonian, Math, French, Biology
Friday: English, History, some sort of family/relationships class, Russian, Physics, Math, British History
Each lesson is 45 minutes in length, with the same class for the whole year.
Estonians are very shy and quiet and no one really spoke to me the first week. Now the situation is improving and people are inviting me places and talking to me. I'm sure it will get even better when I can understand and speak more Estonian. My host family, classmates, and Mari have been really been trying to help me learn.
I have to wake up at 6:30 every morning so that I can catch the "Koolibuss" at 7:20. The koolibuss looks like a transit bus, but it's red. I should take a picture of it.
School starts at 8 every morning, except it starts at 8:55 on Mondays. However, I got a new schedule on Thursday which is effective this Monday. It is the WEIRDEST thing ever.
I mean, what even? :D
I understand the Estonian classes with 2,3,4 graders, but MATH, come on :D
My days are much more different now, but I still have to get the schoolbus at the same time. So now I have to think about what I am going to do for an hour. Also, what am I going to do during those spares on Friday? I can't go home because I live in Tiskre which is pretty far from the school. My third host family lives on the street right behind the school so the issue of where to stay won't be a problem then.
I've also started to attend dance classes at "Tallinn Tantsuakadeemia". They teach classical forms of dance like ballet and jazz type things. So as you can imagine, I'm not too good :D In fact, I'm the worst in the class. :D I can't do pirouettes for my life, and that is why I am at a dance school thing- to learn :-)
I'm in the 15-18 year group.
Before school started, Miku and I went to Viljandi (a more southern city) to visit his grandparents. We stayed there for two days. Here are some pictures:
Random abandoned rusty slides
Miku's grandpa driving his seriously old car
There were locks on this bridge. The locks are put on bridges (I think) when Russian couples get married. I have more pictures from another place that I went to with Reet with TONS of locks.
Reet and I took a little afternoon trip to Paldiski. It's a city to the East which has a lot of Soviet history. Estonians who were living there were forced out of it, and it became a military base.
There are very sad, grey buildings. In fact, there are some areas of Tallinn that are very reminiscent of this time in Estonia's history.
Tallinn is also populated 50% by Russians. So everywhere you go, you hear Russian. There are some areas in Tallinn that are populated primarily by Russians. Russian and Estonian a are part of two completely different language groups. Estonian is a Finno-Ugric language, whereas Russian is a Slavic language. Even when I had been here for a few weeks, people were telling me that I knew more Estonian than most of the Russians here. Being an outsider, and being told these things, makes me feel as though there is tension between the two groups (as you'd probably think).
Estonian cinemas have subtitles in Estonian and Russian (simultaneously) at the bottom of the screen.
I've seen Moonrise Kingdom, and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World in the cinema here.
Russian must be learned in school here. I understand nothing in my 11a Russian class :D Well, now I don't have Russian anymore, but I am going to ask if i can go to a beginning level Russian class.
Most of the kids here don't want to learn Russian for obvious reasons, and the kids in my class don't really care for it. One of the boys said that he's been studying Russian more years than French, but he understands more French.
Today was Miku's going away dinner. He is leaving tomorrow afternoon for London, England. I think he is coming back for Christmas Break.
I hope to update this more often now :D
There are many more things I have to say about Tallinn, Estonia, and my school, but those will be in another post.
Tšau!
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