Chapter Two

Before I say anything else I first want to thank you for reading my blog for the past 5 months. What has made this experience so enjoyable for me was being able to share my experience with you. I am so blessed to have such wonderful people who support me. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for sharing in this incredible and wonderful experience with me.

This will be my last entry before I take off on a backpacking trip over the next month with Sean. We will be spending the next month making our way to London, where we will be meeting his family. We are spending time exploring:
Riga, Latvia
Vilnius, Lithuania
Krakow, Poland
Prague, Czech Republic
Berlin, Germany
Frankfurt, Germany
Antwerp, Belgium
Brussels, Belgium
From Belgium Sean and I are heading to London where we will be meeting his family. We will be staying in London for 6 days. We are planning to see Wicked, a Shakespeare play, and spend a day a Wimbledon as well as sightsee around London. I will be leaving London to come home to Nebraska on July 3rd.

Since this will be my last entry I wanted to share with you how I have grown as a person through this experience.

At the beginning of this experience, I would have had a hard time trying to find anything positive to say about my experience in Estonia. It was a very difficult transition from kind, friendly, caring Nebraskans to cold, quiet, independent people. But I think it took me that difficult transition to teach me how to accept and appreciate others who are different. Being away from home has taught me how to be independent. I no longer need to rely on others and this experience has shown me that I can make it on my own. I have learned how to be patient with not only others but also with myself. I have faced many situations where I could have easily gotten upset, but I have stopped wasting my time worrying about things that are not important in life.

At the beginning of this journey I would have never considered calling this place-Tartu, Estonia-my home. Little did I know that spending five months learning and exploring a new culture would soften my heart and I have grown very fond of where I have spent my time. It will be very difficult to say goodbye to a place that has become a part of who I am. Estonia has helped shape who I am and who I want to be. I will deeply miss Estonia, but I know that this will not be my last time here. This has been my home and there will always be a special place in my heart for Estonia.

This is the closing of one chapter of my life and the beginning of the next when I return home. What I have learned on this journey has prepared me for what adventures lie ahead in chapter two.

With appreciation,

Collin

Day trip to Helsinki

I have traveled many miles this past week with 2 trips to Tallinn and a trip to Helsinki. Kayla and Hannah went home on Saturday so we took them to Tallinn to say goodbye and then Sean, Corey and I continued on to Helsinki, Finland. We took a two hour ferry to Helsinki and spent the afternoon wandering around and exploring. Finland reminded me of being in Sweden. The architecture was beautiful and very similar, however, there was not an Old Town in Helsinki like the in the Baltics. The Estonian language is derived from the Finnish language, but I was still not able to read or understand any Finnish. After wandering accross town, we took a three hour ferry back to Tallinn and then a 3 hour bus back to Tartu. It was a great little day adventure to spend the afternoon in another country.

Tallinn-Helsinki ferry.

Main Square. The Main Square was right next to the harbor and was filled with many tents selling souvenirs.

My favorite musical "Wicked" was playing in Helsinki.

Russian Orthodox Church.

Boat harbor.

Lutheran Church.

Chruch in a Rock Church.

The church was built in a rock with over 13 miles of copper strips in the ceiling.

The Baltic Sea.

Tallinn

The day before I met the President of Estonia I went with Sean to visit Tallinn. We have both been there a few times, but we have not walked around Old Town Tallinn. Old Town Tallinn was like walking into a medievil fortress from a story book. Everyone in Old Town was dressed in a medeivil costumes making the experience that much more enjoyable. Old Town was surrounded by fortess walls and the streets were cobblestone. One of the most exciting parts of the day was running into tourist groups from America! You could tell they were Americans because they would look at you, smile, and then say "hello." Old Town Tallinn is a beautiful part of the city and it was a great way to see what Estonia used to look like.


The enterance to Old Town Tallinn.


The town square with merchants selling souvenirs. Medievil music was also playing throughout the town square.


Russian Cathedral.

Stone wall fortess.

View overlooking Old Town.

The United Methodist Church in Tallinn, Estonia.

The Baltic Sea.

The Song Festival Grounds. The Song Festival is the largest amateur choral event in the world. It is held every 5 years and has over 30,000 singers singing together in the staduim for over 100,000 spectators.

Mission Accomplished!

So I set a goal for myself and told everyone that I was not going to come home until I accomplished this task. Well watch out Nebraska, I'm coming home because met the President of Estonia this afternoon!!! This has been the highlight of my study abroad experience. Now let me explain to you how this all played out.

Small World Story:

My mother was at a graduation party talking to one of her friends. She was explaining how I was studying in Estonia this semester and her friend asked her if I was in Tallinn. Let's face it, not many people know a whole lot about Estonia, so my mother asked what her connection was to Estonia. It turns out that she was very good friends with none other than the President's ex-wife! My mother told her about my dream of meeting the President so she said she would contact her friend to see if anything could happen. A few days later I received an email from the President's ex-wife with the President's email address and I was told to email him. I wrote him a message telling how thrilled I was to meet him if he had the time. His secretary (apparently Presidents don't answer their own emails) said "Mr. President could meet with you on June 3rd at 12:00." So off to Tallinn I went.

I took a bus at 8 am this morning to Tallinn giving me plenty of time to walk to the President's house by noon. I went to his house, but I was not sure where I needed to go so I called his secretary and she came downstairs to meet me. She told me that I needed to go through the front door. I was early because I wanted to make sure I knew where I was going, so I had to come back later. I was very surprised that I was just supposed to walk into the house of the President of Estonia. I'm pretty sure you can't do that at the White House. I was very hesitant to just walk in the front door of this man's house, so I went to the side door. I really was supposed to go through the front door because the security guard told me I was supposed to go through the front door. I was very nervous because there were 2 military men standing guard at the door, but I slowly made my way to the doors. The minute I walked up the steps the giant double doors opened like I was being expected. I walked into the house and was greeted by a nice man in a military suit. He had me set my backpack in the coat room and then led me upstairs to a waiting room-and I didn't even have to go through any security. The military man told me to make myself at home while I was waiting...so I did. I got up and started wandering around his house and taking pictures. After about 10 minutes he told me the President was ready to see me. I walked into his office and there he was! I gave him my mother's books as a thank you for taking the time to meet with me and then he invited me to sit down with him.

The next part is a little hazy because I was just too excited to be sitting and talking with the President. But, we talked about why I came to Estonia and what I have been studying and then he told me about some beautiful places that I should visit if I have time-like the many little islands of Estonia. I talked with him for about 20 minutes before he had to be on his way to another meeting. The military man led me back downstairs and thanked me for coming and I went on my way with a giant smile that has yet to leave my face.

It was truly an amazing experience and something I will remember for the rest of my life!

The "White House" with the 2 military guards in the front.

Getting ready to go in the house.

I wandered around to a window over looking his beautiful backyard.

The Grand Staircase.

The military man's hat.

The doors to the Office of the President.

Mr. President Thoomas Hendrik Ilves

So Long, Farewell

There was a farewell party for all of the international students put on by the international student organization ESN. The party was held in an old abandoned warehouse which really gave the party some character. People came dressed in crazy mismatched outfits and we danced all night and we also played a few games. It was a great way to celebrate an awesome time in Estonia as an international student.

We had a dance contest where we had to dance on a newspaper and when the music stopped, we had to fold the paper to make our dance area smaller.

We eventually ran out of room so I had to get on my dance partners back.

We didn't end up winning but we still had a blast!

Where Heaven Meets Earth

Last weekend I went on a hiking trip with some other international students to what is known as the most beautiful part of southern Estonian. We took a bus to Põlva which is an hour away and then we hiked 10 km to Taevaskoda. Taevaskoda translates to "Where Heaven Meets Earth" and it was beautiful. The only terrible part about the hike was the mosquitos. Because Estonian had such a harsh winter they are having an unusually warm spring, which means that there are even more mosquitos than usual. I came home with about 34.6 mosquito bites. We could not get away from them...and they seem to be immune to bug spray. We were also hiking along the river which did not help with the mosquitos. However, even with all the bug bites we all the a wonderful time.


Before we went into the forest we found a nice barn with a giant stork on the chimeney.

There were a couple houses in the middle of nowhere along the trail.

There wasn't a clear path to follow so we had to climb over and under and across trees.

All of the girls went swimming in the river.

Sean is wearing his protective mosquito gear since the bug spray didn't work.

Sandstone cave with a natural spring.

"Where Heaven Meets Earth"

Taevaskoda was a giant sandstone cliff surrounded trees and the river below.

The most beautiful place in southern Estonia!