marlene-in-estonia-blog

[marlene-in-estonia-blog]

aitäh, eesti

aitäh kaunite metsade eest, mis kõrguvad mu palja pea kohal

aitäh rabade ja soode eest, mis pakuvad kaitset ja hingerahu

aitäh meelekindluse eest, mis meile jõudu on andnud

aitäh kultuuri eest, mis on meid läbi sajandite edasi kandnud

aitäh sinise taeva eest, mis meie kohal läbi kõige on seisnud

aitäh nende kannatuste eest, mis meid tugevaks on teinud 

mu südames eesti laulud, mu soontes eesti veri

mu hinges eesti vägi ja mäslev tormine meri

ja mujale ei olekski ma soovind sündida

[marlene-in-estonia-blog]

[marlene-in-estonia-blog]

First semi-final of Eesti Laul is happening today!

It starts 21.35 Estonian time.

[marlene-in-estonia-blog]

Oh, how the time passed by.

Hi, it’s me again. Long time no see, right? I know, but of course I did not forget my blog. My last blogpost was about my birthday, which was in november. Not it’s the 3rd of january and I cannot believe, how fast the time passed. Everyone told me, that the whole thing slows down after 3 months, because you get used to everything, BUT: no. Apperently not. I can’t believe christmas is over already. Of course we don’t have snow (saaremaa is the warmest place of estonia, we tend to have rain more often than snow in winter), but my christmasfeelings were stronger than ever. The reasons might be my school, my hostfamily and the bigass (sorry) chtistmastree in the citycenter, that I see every day at least twice. My school started to decorate te whole building in the end of november. It started with some small christmas lights in some classrooms, but then it went on to bigger stuff. They just decided to put a christmastree on the roof, for example. Some classrooms were just full of everything related to christmas.

Also we sang a lot of christmas songs in choir, everywhere was christmas music and just in general, Christmas was all- and everywhere exsistent.

Christmas was a really fun experience. On the 24th my hostparents and me went to a church and after that visiting some friends. After that we came home and made food together. All my hostsiblings came (5) and the house was really full. We ate a lot, talked and had fun. Then the most fun part began: giving out the presents. Following the traditional estonian culture, everyone had to show a talent, or read a poem, or sing a song first, before he got to open his present. I, for myself, learned two estonian christmas poems by heart and sang a german christmas song. After that I skyped with my german family, which was very nice.

On the 25th my hostfamily and me drove to south-estonia, to my hostuncle+hostaunt. Because we arrived quite late in the evening, we decided to go into the forest and made a campfire. Because there actually was snow, it was really beautiful and warming.

On the next day we visited my hostgrannie, with who I finally could talk, because I learned some acceptable Estonian. Also I got to know the second half of my family, so I’m basically totally confused right know who’s the husband of who and who’s the daughter of what uncle now. But they were all super nice and I really loved getting to know them.

On the next day, we went first to Tartu and went to the upside-down-house, what was quite an experience. After that we visited the Eesti Rahva Muuseum (Estonian National Museum) and it was really interesting. The whole building is huge and we visited only a small part, but even that was really big.

Then we went to Viljandi, ate something and headed our way back home.

Head uut aastat @ you all, and I hope you had a nice New Year’s Eve.

[marlene-in-estonia-blog]

Feelings of an exchangestudent (A thread).

I might add some points during the year. Feel free to text me, if you have some ideas!

Hearing the name of your country in the language of your exchange-country and react to it immediately as if it would be your actual name.

Hearing your name in a sentence in the foreign language and feeling weird bc you don’t understand what they are talking about.

“Why tf did you come here???”

When a stranger starts talking to you in the foreign language and you answer with the only sentence you can say: “I don’t speak *language*, I am sorry. I am an exchange student.”

Everyone finds you cute when you talk in the foreign language.

Copy+Paste the classchat into google translator.

Forgetting words in your mother tongue.

“Can you teach me some swearwords in your mother tongue?”

Messing up some similar words in the foreign language and accidentally asking if you should put the girls on the table, instead of the plates. (Never happened to me. No.)

What do you mean with you don’t feel at least 4 completely different feelings in the same time???

Constantly being afraid of falling in love.

Is it strange if I’d just go to this person I’ve never talked to or

Awkwardly following people around everywhere.

Google maps is your life saver.

Falling into a weird mixture of your mother tongue, English and the foreign language.

Feeling super grown up because you are doing your laundry by yourself.

“Do you mean your natural mother or your hostmother?”

Never having to do homework (besides English).

Trying to figure out which words are slang.

What am I eating. Wtf is that. And why is it so good.

Feeling 24/7 confused and overwhelmed.

“Shall I break the damn dresscode or nah?”

When you see a stranger and in the first moment you think it is someone of your homecountry.

(For my USA-pals)

When you feel like you’re sounding *so* american and then someone tells you “omg I love your accent.”

(For my German pals)

Talking more about Hilter and WW2 than ever before.

When they want you to say something in your mother tounge and you accidentally continue speaking it.

Asking “what?” a couple times, still understanding nothing, just nodding and smiling hoping that it wasn’t a question.

Learning to really appreciate how simple english is.

Some day you don’t feel like talking in your new tongue and the next day you don’t feel like talking english anymore. (Thx @farfalaracine)

[marlene-in-estonia-blog]

Estonian Winter aesthetics

You turn on your TV. The channel you turned on is showing skiing. You change channel, but there is also skiing. You can not escape skiing, and you are not even willing to try. You sit down to watch skiing, to be inevitably disappointed as Estonian skiiers will place in top 10 - from the bottom.

Your grandma comes after you for not eating enough garlic. You dare not to disobey grandma and eat the garlic - how did these woollen socks and pants get on your legs? Oh you, grandma.

You are walking outside and see person falling down. Tourist, you mutter, as you try to ice skate on the icy pavement with your boots, for falling over would be so un-Estonian.

Is that sunlight you see? No, it is gone. It must have been your imagination, for sun never rises in Estonia during Winter.

Your cousin tells you about driving car on the frozen strait between Estonian mainland and island of Hiiumaa. You are not concerned, for it completely normal thing to drive object weighing 2.5 tonnes over layer of ice at 70 km/h.

You are wearing skiis, but you have no recollection of putting them on. You start skiing, because there is nothing else to do. Maybe one day in the far, far future you’ll take part of Tartu Marathon.

[marlene-in-estonia-blog]

Things that make me feel uncomfortable:

The fact that the Dutch word for “jazz singer” has three z’s in a row.

Jazzzanger

[marlene-in-estonia-blog]

“ei viitsi” basically means that person doesn’t want to do the thing just because they don’t want to do the thing in english��

[marlene-in-estonia-blog]

The mulled wine flavoured yogurt and gingerbread flavoured curd snack are now on sale in Estonia

[JINGLE BELLS INTENSTIFIES IN THE BACKGROUND]

[marlene-in-estonia-blog]

Today was my birthday.

Tere-tere!

Today was the day many exchange students are afraid of. I was afraid too. It was my first time not being home while having birthday. A very different feeling, but the day was amazing.

I woke up having a big shock: My hostfather connected his phone with the musicbox in my room and turned on a jazzified (?) birthdaysong. Full volume. I nearly shit my pants.

After that, I went downstairs and saw my whole hostfamily with a big smile on their faces waiting for me. They all wished me happy birthday (in estonian of course) and gave me presents and the big package of my natural family.

The next thing I saw, was the big, beautiful cake on the table (pictures follow).

After eating this really healthy breakfast, I went to school, bringing some candy with me, to follow the tradition. Arriving at school, my friends came and gave me hugs and much love. All my classmates also wished me a happy birthday andI gave them candy in exchange. (I love that tradition!!!)

Then there was this moment, in which I had a full conversation in Estonian with one of my classmates. That was amazing. I didn’t understand everything on th first try, but after a repetition, I got everything. I know that it wasn’t that big of a deal for her, but if you read this, that brightened my day even more! (Liis <3)

Before the second lesson my friends gave me their present (pictures follow) and told me, that they will kidnap me to the theater. I love theaters. They told my hostfamily before, so everything was already planned. It felt like a movie.

Even my classteacher gave me a present, mostly because of the presentation I gave on Monday, but still: Nii armas!!!

After school I came home and opened all the presents of my German Family. I think I can feed three families with all the candy I have now.

The evening came and so my hostfather gave me a ride to the theater to my friends, where we watched an amazing play. (It was without language, only mimic, gestic and music.) I fell in love with that play immediately.

Coming out of the building, I saw my hostfamilie’s car driving towards me. When I came in, I realized that everyone was in the car, and that my hostmother brought my laptop with her. They planned a surprisedinner for me and took my laptop with them, so that I could skype my German Family.

It was one of the best days I had so far. Dear future exchange students: don’t be afraid of your birthday. It’s the best.

(I’m sweet sixteen now.)

[marlene-in-estonia-blog]

Hey, I’ve SEEN this one!

An old house in Kuressaare, Saaremaa

[marlene-in-estonia-blog]

Some impressions of St Petersburg. This is the most beautiful city I've ever been allowed to see.

[marlene-in-estonia-blog]

There’s snow. In October. There’s snow in October!!! (And I was in Russia.)

As you can already read in the title: It snowed. It snowed in October!!! Halloween didn’t even happen, but there was already snow. That’s the reason why I’m sitting in my room and listening to Christmas Songs. In the end of October.

But actually I didn’s see that much of the snow, because of two reasons:

First: I was in Russia, St Petersburg. And I can say, without lying, that this city is the most beautiful I was ever allowed to see. The buildings, churches, streets, bridges and even streets are so beautiful, that I couldn’t stop smiling when I was walking through the streets. In spite of the deep, deep coldness, the trip was so much fun. I ate basically just Pasta, Pizza and candy. A lot of candy. I don’t want to eat candy ever again, but then my hostbrother decided to bring me sweets from Hungaria. So I might probably not follow my own rule in this case.

Second: I live on Saaremaa. It didn’t snow on Saaremaa.

(Some photos of St Petersburg will follow. But my phonecamera is pretty bad, so do not expect too much.)

[marlene-in-estonia-blog]

texting a friend in your mother tongue and then accidentally talking in the same language out loud instead of the local one. (Aitäh, aile 💙)

Feelings of an exchangestudent (A thread).

I might add some points during the year. Feel free to text me, if you have some ideas!

Hearing the name of your country in the language of your exchange-country and react to it immediately as if it would be your actual name.

Hearing your name in a sentence in the foreign language and feeling weird bc you don’t understand what they are talking about.

“Why tf did you come here???”

When a stranger starts talking to you in the foreign language and you answer with the only sentence you can say: “I don’t speak *language*, I am sorry. I am an exchange student.”

Everyone finds you cute when you talk in the foreign language.

Copy+Paste the classchat into google translator.

Forgetting words in your mother tongue.

“Can you teach me some swearwords in your mother tongue?”

Messing up some similar words in the foreign language and accidentally asking if you should put the girls on the table, instead of the plates. (Never happened to me. No.)

What do you mean with you don’t feel at least 4 completely different feelings in the same time???

Constantly being afraid of falling in love.

Is it strange if I’d just go to this person I’ve never talked to or

Awkwardly following people around everywhere.

Google maps is your life saver.

Falling into a weird mixture of your mother tongue, English and the foreign language.

Feeling super grown up because you are doing your laundry by yourself.

“Do you mean your natural mother or your hostmother?”

Never having to do homework (besides English).

Trying to figure out which words are slang.

What am I eating. Wtf is that. And why is it so good.

Feeling 24/7 confused and overwhelmed.

“Shall I break the damn dresscode or nah?”

When you see a stranger and in the first moment you think it is someone of your homecountry.

(For my USA-pals)

When you feel like you’re sounding *so* american and then someone tells you “omg I love your accent.”

(For my German pals)

Talking more about Hilter and WW2 than ever before.

When they want you to say something in your mother tounge and you accidentally continue speaking it.

Asking “what?” a couple times, still understanding nothing, just nodding and smiling hoping that it wasn’t a question.

Learning to really appreciate how simple english is.

Some day you don’t feel like talking in your new tongue and the next day you don’t feel like talking english anymore. (Thx @farfalaracine)

[marlene-in-estonia-blog]

It’s getting darker.

Hello. Today is the 8th of October and I am sitting in my bed. The weather’s bad. The wind is howling, the trees are shaking, clouds are quickly passing by and the sound of the rain on the roof gives rhythm to your life.

Seems like octoberweather. It is getting colder. My hostfamilie’s ovens are on everyday and I’ve been wearing my wintercoat since the beginning of october. Unimaginable.

But the most important thing is: It is getting darker. It was a sudden blow. At the end of september it has still been bright when I got up to go to school. Then, after the weekend, I got up and you couldn’t see anything anymore. Pitch-dark.

You don’t only notice the darkness when you look outside. The darkness also changes the whole mood of many of my classmates. Where you could hear laughter and excited talks in september, you can now only see tired faces with bags under the eyes and sometimes you can hear sighing.

When does it start snowing...?

[marlene-in-estonia-blog]

Es wird dunkler.

Hallo. Heute ist nun also schon der 08.10. und ich sitze in meinem Bett. Das Wetter ist schlecht. Der Wind tobt, die Bäume fliegen hin und her, die Wolken jagen über den Himmel und der Regen trommelt auf das Dach.

Oktoberwetter also. Es wird kälter. Die Öfen in meiner Gastfamilie sind nun jeden Tag an und ich trage seit Anfang der Woche bereits meine Winterjacke. Anfang Oktober. Unvorstellbar.

Doch das wohl wichtigste ist, dass es dunker wird. Es kam Schlag auf Schlag. Ende September war es noch hell, als ich aufgestnaden bin, um zur Schule zu gehen. Dann, nach dem Wochenende, stand ich auf und es war stockfinster.

Die Dunkelheit bemerkt man nicht nur, wenn man nach draußen schaut. Die Dunkelheit ändert auch die komplette Grundstimmung vieler meiner Mitschüler. Wo im September noch lautes Lachen und aufgeregtes Plappern zu hören war, sind nun müde Gesichter mit Augenringen und gelegentliches Aufseufzen.

Wann es wohl zum ersten Mal schneien wird...?

[marlene-in-estonia-blog]

Feelings of an exchangestudent (A thread).

I might add some points during the year. Feel free to text me, if you have some ideas!

Hearing the name of your country in the language of your exchange-country and react to it immediately as if it would be your actual name.

Hearing your name in a sentence in the foreign language and feeling weird bc you don't understand what they are talking about.

"Why tf did you come here???"

When a stranger starts talking to you in the foreign language and you answer with the only sentence you can say: "I don't speak *language*, I am sorry. I am an exchange student."

Everyone finds you cute when you talk in the foreign language.

Copy+Paste the classchat into google translator.

Forgetting words in your mother tongue.

"Can you teach me some swearwords in your mother tongue?"

Messing up some similar words in the foreign language and accidentally asking if you should put the girls on the table, instead of the plates. (Never happened to me. No.)

What do you mean with you don't feel at least 4 completely different feelings in the same time???

Constantly being afraid of falling in love.

Is it strange if I'd just go to this person I've never talked to or

Awkwardly following people around everywhere.

Google maps is your life saver.

Falling into a weird mixture of your mother tongue, English and the foreign language.

Feeling super grown up because you are doing your laundry by yourself.

"Do you mean your natural mother or your hostmother?"

Never having to do homework (besides English).

Trying to figure out which words are slang.

What am I eating. Wtf is that. And why is it so good.

Feeling 24/7 confused and overwhelmed.

"Shall I break the damn dresscode or nah?"

When you see a stranger and in the first moment you think it is someone of your homecountry.

(For my USA-pals)

When you feel like you're sounding *so* american and then someone tells you "omg I love your accent."

(For my German pals)

Talking more about Hilter and WW2 than ever before.

When they want you to say something in your mother tounge and you accidentally continue speaking it.

Asking "what?" a couple times, still understanding nothing, just nodding and smiling hoping that it wasn't a question.

Learning to really appreciate how simple english is.

Some day you don't feel like talking in your new tongue and the next day you don't feel like talking english anymore. (Thx @farfalaracine)