2016 December 30th, 1940h Eastern European Time Zone

Ahhh…  right now I’m taking a load off my feet, sitting in big comfy chair, drinking a local Estonian honey beer called “Saku” (comes in both light and dark versions, drinking the light at the moment), and listening to classical piano music being performed live across the room.  It’s the jazz club café that’s below our classrooms, and it’s rapidly becoming the go-to hang out spot here for its convenience, good food at good prices, excellent service, and fantastic ambiance.  It’s a nice way to relax after a good but grueling day of intellectual and physical effort.

After finishing my last entry I shaved my neck with a razor I had bought at a supermarket the day before, and dried some still damp laundry using the blow dryer included in the room, and then woke Nick up at 0800h so we could get breakfast before heading to school.  He wasn’t exactly happy about it, but one cool thing about him is that he’s at least professional about it- he just does whatever it is he’s got to do, even if it’s not pleasant.

We got to school just in time for class, this time taught by Professor Eoin McNamara who is an Irish PhD student here at the University of Tartu, and a regular contributor to international periodicals on the topic of his expertise, which is NATO related security affairs.  His lecture was a long one- more than three hours long, but certainly an interesting and relevant topic: the intersection of NATO, Estonian, and Russian concerns, and the history of NATO expansionism in the region.  It’s certainly an interesting story of how Estonia went from being a member of the USSR until 1991, all the way through a long but determined path to membership in NATO by 2004.

After 3+ hours of lecture dense with material however, we were definitely ready for a lunch break though.  I ended up spending lunch with Professors Eoin and Greb in the jazz club after mentioning to them how much I liked it, where we continued to talk about international security issues, but also a bit about differences in higher education pedagogies and graduate studies between various nations.

After lunch we returned to the classroom to watch a documentary titled “The Singing Revolution”, obviously about the revolution of that name- the absolutely incredible story of how Estonia literally, LITERALLY sang its way to freedom from the oppression of the USSR.  It was stunning, and I highly recommend the movie.  After it was done, our program director Margot spoke a little about her own personal experiences as a youngster during the transition period between the Soviet era and regaining Estonian independence.  Estonia may be an almost unknown name to most Americans, but from all I’ve been learning I’ve been very impressed with the bravery and good character of the Estonian people, especially in the face of all the suffering they faced.

Almost immediately after we were hurried onto a bus which took us across town to the Estonian National History Museum, which was a massive and very modern installation that covers the history of this region of the world, from the stone age all the way through to modern times.  We had a tour guide who with seemingly characteristic Estonian humor zipped us through a whirlwind tour of the museum, but in the nearly two hours we were there we must have seen less than 15% of the museum.  I was particularly interested in the section they had on the linguistics of the populations originating in the Ural mountains, but the sections on the Protestant era, and of course, the Vikings, were also interesting.

We piled back in the bus towards the hotel, and then after a quick change of socks, Nick and I headed back to the school to listen to the classical performance and relax.  Since I’ve been sitting here typing some of our fellow students have shown up: Patrick, Claire, Morgan, and Kyle; and right now we’re all enjoying a nice relaxing start to the evening.  We might go out in search of a more energetic party in a little bit, especially as it’s Friday night, but we’re playing it by ear.  

Tomorrow will be New Years Eve, so we’ll see if I get time to write during the day at all, but it’s possible I’ll just try to catch up on the 1st.  In that case, a very Happy New Year to everyone!