Tartu, Estonia (Sept 16-23, 2003)

[nibot]

Tartu, academic capital of Estonia, full of signs of student life. Sister-school of Uppsala, contemporary of Lund. Theres a ´sacrificial stone´ from pagan times where now, supposedly, students burn their notes after exams. I have a nice little room all to myself just 2km out of town. Meelika met me in the central square and tonight we´re going to her roommate´s birthday party. Last night I stayed at the apartment of a guy who I met at an ATM. In the store there is Maribou chocolate. And Kalev sells advent calendars for EU ascession: eat the little bit of chocolate when that country ratifies ascession.

In Tartu I felt almost established; I had my own place a few kilometers out from the city center, and when I came home late at night I'd knock on the window and the komandant would unlock the door and let me in, then I'd climb the five flights of stairs to my floor. One night the temperature dropped to 4 degrees C, and the sudden chill on my face reminded me that the seasons really are changing, that winter is coming and I'm really not prepared for that. It's funny to be on a trip and have the seasons change. (And by the time I came to Luleå and then to the Arctic, Nils and I were able to throw snowballs at each other.) It makes the journey seem longer. In Tartu I felt I was there exactly for the transition to autumn, the verdant, healthy trees turning golden almost as I watched.

It's very difficult to write about travels in retrospect. It's one of those things that you just have to do in the moment, and the writing becomes part of the travels, truer than anything that could be written later. Unfortunately there's little time to write while travelling, so I'm left with all these little snippets of text, in addition of course to a legion of memories. I also have my notebook, with various artefacts pasted in, addresses and expendiatures and little notes to myself. I love to page through them and recall the adventures.

I think most of you know my Estonia story by now. My first trip may have been cut short, but it was still enough to make some friends and discover what a fascinating place Estonia is, and so I had to return. From Riga I took the night bus into Tartu and later met up with my friend Meelika.



girls and guys at meelika's roommate's birthday party:



i really like the silhouette above the couch. meelika's roomie served as the model.



(usual party scene: http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~tobin/pictures/europe2003/tartu_party.jpg)

we played this game where the girls and guys would go into separate rooms. each girl would "pick" a guy. then, one-by-one, the guys would return to the girls' room. the guy would then have to guess which girl had picked him -- he could ask one girl "was it you?" ("did you pick me?"). if he was right, then he could stay in that room. if he was wrong then he had to go back to the guys room and wait his turn. once all the guys had succeeded in figuring who'd picked him, then the roles switched.

another small adventure (before the party) was to figure out local custom about birthday parties. you see, i'd heard that it was customary to bring flowers to someone who was having a birthday, but i didn't know what kind of flowers or how many or anything like that. there was a sort of flower market in town, but the grandmotherly types selling flowers spoke not a word of english and were quite eager, in a quiet but persistent sort of way, to sell me all the flowers they had. finally one of the flower sellers lit up when i asked whether she spoke english. she gesticulated with her hands excitedly that i should wait right there... and momentarily she reappeared with a girl i presumed to be her 12-year-old grand-daughter. if anyone is more in tuned with the social customs of the times, it's probably a 12 year old girl, and she also spoke English quite well. she helped me pick out an appropriate bunch of flowers, explaining the rules for flowers for birthdays: always an odd number! never even. and it doesn't matter what kind or how many, other than that. later, i noticed that the other boys at the party each brought a single flower -- the smallest odd number.

nifty fountain in the town square:



that's the estonian national flag in the background, with horizontal bars of blue, black, and white. the flag actually originates with a student organisation in Tartu and has been banned for great lengths of times, most recently during the 40-year soviet occupation. http://www.vm.ee/eng/kat_174/4561.html has a history.

(also: http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~tobin/pictures/europe2003/tartu_fountain2.jpg)

tartu university building:



tartu university is a great old university with wonderful university grounds. i maintain secret plans to see if i could work there for a year, or something.

tartu university was actually founded by a swedish king during the short time during which Estonia was included in the swedish empire (rather transient itself). i'm not sure if this is the reason, but Tartu has student clubs similar to the Nations at the two oldest Swedish universities, Lund and Uppsala. At Tartu they are called corporations, and the name is almost always abbreviated and exclamed, as "Korp!" followed by the name of the corporation.

meelika and her roommate with alf:



young consumer:



i thought this scene was hilarious, this little kid who could barely reach the controls listening contentedly at the cd listening station. after independence, modernization has been lightning quick in estonia, pursued with a most inspiring pride.

me on the bus near tartu:

Comments

[erinmack.livejournal.com]

That boy in the plaid shirt looks like someone I would have a crush on, though it's hard to tell completely from pictures of course. Ha.

Kicking myself for not taking that ferry to Estonia! I totally lose.