It's been snowing

every day since Thursday: a little on Thursday and Friday, then more on Saturday morning and evening and storming today. We stocked up on supplies yesterday so as not to have to go fight the wind today. We watched movies and cooked. But in the evening, after the wind had died down and the snow took a break falling we were given a spectacle. In no other place of course than outside our windows.

See, there's this renovation or improvement project going on in the theater across the street and there's a parking lot behind a raisable barrier bar where construction workers' cars stop every morning and line up on the street to honk and wait to be let in. Anyway, there was a bunch of cars parked on the lot, and three of them with their lights on and drivers in, ready to leave.

... Seems like it could have been a good story. Unfortunately, I don't remember how it happened exactly. (See the next post and read the note about not paying attention to the publishing date.) But one of the cars with their lights on was too weak for towing so the other one had to take over. It was an SUV and for some reason the towing rope was connected from the back of the SUV to the back of the towable car. I was afraid the unmaneuverable car would hit the fence post but it passed it closely, or that it would hit another car parked near the entrance of the parking lot but thankfully not and then it gave a little nudge ;) to a car that had stopped at the side of the road to drop off some folks. I thought that was funny. (Sorry.) How was it that the drivers didn't see it coming? Must have been the first snow for these brash young men. The SUV stopped in the middle of the road and the driver got out. I assumed he wanted to leave the car there for when the police arrive but no, he got out to talk to or more likely yell at the unfortunate driver whose car was hit. Then the driver of the towable car left. That made no sense to us. Until he came back and passed a passel of bills to the victim. Police were not called.

We didn't see the morning of 5/20

in Tallinn because we woke up in an airport in Ireland but the morning of 11/20 in Tallinn one could even say we wished we didn't see. Not that we don't like mornings; I generally like them. But to wake up to a white speckled landscape after a weekend of stating how surprisingly lucky we have been for not having had to see the snow is a bit dreary.

Oh, that creepy fan gal

If I were a mind reader then I'm afraid there might be at least one person I'd catch thinking those thoughts the next time we run into each other. Well, and I don't understand what I did wrong. See, it happened the day after the Phillies clinched their division title and I was riding, what should we call it - the metro or PTA or - a bus! Then I noticed another passenger wearing the said team's hat and I figured he would be a real fan and perhaps a real American and therefore happy to chat about the game. I was wrong. There was something that made him basically run away from me after we got off at the same stop. Well, he could have filed it off as another odd foreign experience and be done with it but no - we happened to ride on the same bus again, only two days later.

Two sets of triple paned windows

are the best and the worst asset of this rental place called home. I think that at any given time I'm more likely to believe that its virtues outweigh the flaws. Sunday mornings, however, may be when I turn a side thinking: Oh, I hate those windows. Sunday afternoons are usually different. Take today. Tim left and took summer with him so it's gray outside the windows and we sit on the couch in the living room. The living room window is open. When cars drive by we hear the splattering sound they make plowing through half an inch of rain. But even over the sound of cars and water and occasional dribble of rain we hear music. It's classical music performed by the Estonian National Opera on a temporary stage set behind their building and almost directly across from our windows. It's their market day with a medley of popular tunes from this season's repertoire and discounts on tickets. Since there are trees though in the park, we can't see more than few members of the orchestra, occasional ballet dancers hopping by when it's their turn and clusters of colorful umbrellas in front of the stage. We've already heard Wagner and Rossini and some local composers; they'll save Verdi, Bizet and Strauss for the grand finale.

Normally, and yesterday was no exception, we get a fair idea of how many couples get married on a given day. You see, the department of vital statistics and their civil marriage unit are just a few blocks up the street and even though there's a major crossroad between the Palace of Happiness as the building is called and our house we still get a good amount of wedding processions. So, I'd say three a day on a summer Friday or Saturday was the norm as we learned. And a week after 8/8/8 there was just the same amount of newly married couples cruising by under our windows as there were on that big day: 5, I believe. What has surprised me is that most of the corteges are short, up to three cars. But there are, of course, 15-car lines as well. And one thing Mike and I have learned this summer that I doubt we would have in Fred is to differentiate between the hoofsteps of a horse and loud tapping footsteps of a high-heeled lady.

Speaking of corteges, when was it that the German chancellor visited Tallinn? Two weeks ago? - Yes, Aug. 26th, shows a quick research. Anyway, the police closed some streets for her drive from the government building to the president's residence and our home with its street-facing windows happened to be on the route. We had a good seventh-floor view then of the dozens of shiny black cars and of policemen in yellow safety vests trying to keep pedestrians from crossing the street.

I thought the double rainbow

and the thunder that followed it on Thursday night were going to end the rainy streak and bring us a nice Indian summer. Well, not quite. I don't even know if the first ever outdoor movie showing in the Kadriorg park took place or not (the grass, sure, must have been wet) but not much fun could have had outdoors on Friday. Maybe we'll have our Indian summer for today and tomorrow though - whether believing the weathermen or looking out of the window.

Let me now give a short overview of recent events. In two weeks, we've been at public events with TV cameras twice. The second time was on Wednesday when we went to the Square to stand (in drizzling rain, of course) with "thousands" of greeters to welcome home and honor the Estonian Olympic winner and the team of two silver medalists.

Wheels and more

I drove my car yesterday. After months of waiting and submitting paperwork and more waiting, we drove the car out of the port parking lot. It felt great! Furthermore, we were able to claim all our stuff. Opening all our boxes was like Christmas. Dishes, baskets, shelves, art, our nice clock, baseball mitt, and lucky doormat... All back!

We only have temp tags on the Subaru, so there's still a bit of paperwork left, but the end is in sight. Ave's done a unbelievable job navigating the bureaucracy and personalities: researching, documenting, sweet talking, and even strong-arming a couple times.

We've been having a lot of fun here lately. I swam in the Baltic Sea, which was chilly but perhaps not more so than Laguna Beach in the early summer. The beach itself was great. I played some volleyball with Arx and Janno while Olja and Ave got some sun. Last weekend we went to Otepaa for Grandma Kikas's birthday.

We had to take care of A&O's mutant cat while they were in Tunisia. They came back tanned and I'm not sure the cat recognized them anymore because he tried to run away from them as they took him away.

Not a picture of a riot

Ok, so as on so many sunny days or evenings before we visited the Square today. But as I/we had temporarily run out of ideas to do I checked the city's website to see what's going on and found out just in time that some military band, or Ottoman orchestra if you will, from Turkey was scheduled to give a concert at the square. The web site didn't say the players would be marching through the streets, singing and rhythmically raising and lowering their flag, mace, and sticks bearing bells (paraphrasing Wiki here). Luckily, we figured that out ourselves after having waited at the square wondering why were the people lining streets and why there was no stage with instruments on it. The touristy crowd followed the orchestra around all four sides of the square and then we settled in front of and behind the men playing their war songs to us. Mike thought some of their songs seemed suitable for snake charming and I would have associated some others with elephant riding. Music itself was good.

Jaanipäev

Jaanipäev, which is Estonia's big summer holiday, was today. Monday is for bonfires and grilling and parties, much like Fourth of July but bigger. Most Estonians get Monday and Tuesday off work. It's technically "St John's Day", but is more a general summer celebration and is merged with Victory Day, a holiday for remembrance of the Estonian War of Independence following World War One.

Ave and I went to Otepää Friday afternoon with Arx and Olja. The usual great food and relaxing countryside over the weekend. Ave made wonderful chicken fajitas and I made pretty good refried beans and guacamole on Saturday to share some mexican cuisine with the Estonians. They seemed to enjoy, but I'm not sure they'll be making these recipes in our absence.

On Monday I played soccer in the rain with Argo and some of his friends. It rained most of the time over the long weekend. Apparently, in the past 15 years or so they've only had a couple dry Jaanipäevs. But dry or wet, I'm not real good at soccer. Afterwards we went back home and Arx made me partake of the sauna, another thing I'm not real good at at. But I survived the heat (110 degrees celsius or 230 fahrenheit) for about 10 minutes which was about as long as Argo stayed, though he went back in later.

Then grilling all evening and lots of eating! It doesn't really start to get dark until about 11:30 (and even then it's just sort of dusky until the sun rises again at about 3am) so we could grill till late at night. Most of Ave's extended family was there, and it was nice to see them all.

Oh, and Thursday before we left we went to a "walking play". Not sure what else to call it; it was sort of like a thespian pub crawl except no pubs. Just outdoor areas and the Patarei prison. This is a very old, now abandonded, prison was as location in much of the movie "Stalker" by Tarkovsky, which is one of my favorite movies. Pics here.

Estonian Cuisine

We haven't quite filled our cupboards and fridge yet (even though they're rather small), but we have been shopping for one or two meals at at time so far. We've made sushi twice: salmon, cucumber, and avocado so far. Delicious, fun, and pretty quick. I've suggested to Ave we try making a different sushi once a week.

Eel is popular here in Estonia, so maybe we can do eel next time. Ave's mom gave her an eel to bring back with us for dinner. I like the taste of eel, but I must admit I don't like having a giant black eel sitting in our fridge.

No celery salt to be found so far in Estonia.

Permits nd paperwork

We submitted my paperwork for work and residency permits yesterday. Everything seemed to go just fine. Ave had everything organized and ready to go, so the lady at the desk appeared pleased by our preparedness. The official line is that it can take up to three months, but we're pretty confident it will be less.

My car has been loaded on to the MSC Diego. Diego will have to drop Kiisu off with another smaller ship, and then it's off to Tallinn. Looks like early July we'll have our car and our stuff.

I never mentioned that we went to an Estonian soccer game a week ago or so. Estonia beat Faroe Islands. It was a lot of fun. They don't play again in Estonia until August though, I think.

An honorary russian for the day

Chrissie was indeed a cute and smart little girl. Pusta Pusta, Pusta Capusta! She taught me this was Russian for "empty, empty, empty hen." It means nothing but is fun to yell.

I would also point out that Olja's family thought I would make a good Russian, as I knocked down vodka almost as handily as O's father while remaining more-or-less coherent.

By the way, our first batch of pics are here.

How I begged for a nickname and how nuffle found an admirer

So for A and O this was the first real weekend of summer and they agreed to take us along to O's sister's summer cottage out in the countryside. It was to be a grilling/birthday party with O's sister, brother-in-law, niece, mother and father. And it was, but with Russian influence. Three different languages were spoken to include all parties and four different types of alcohol drunk to include all tastes. Birthday boy was toasted as well as Jackie Chan and senator Obama. Everyone had a jolly good time.

Now back to my story. In my eagerness to prove myself better Russian speaker then, let's say my brother, I asked for a salad bowl in Russian. I wanted a "moshka" and when that didn't provide any desired results then a "moska". Only when I gave up and asked O to translate ("miska" was the word I had needed) did I realize that I had demanded a mouse. A word that I knew (and reminded myself to avoid in situations like this) at least a month ago when I had practiced for the upcoming move. The funny thing is, I've been called mouse before, Mousy, to be more precise. And that in a class by an older gentleman who couldn't memorize my name. I wonder why he picked that name... ;)

Now, let's call O's niece Chrissy. She is four years old, a cute and smart girl. She can count to ten and name several animals and colors in English. She does not understand Estonian, though. You know how nuffle likes children and how he gets along with them. Chrissy and nuffle didn't need any outside help (read: interpretor) to teach each other new words or make the other giggle. Whereas at first Chrissy was a bit shy as any normal kid would be when meeting adults, by the dinner time she chose a seat right next to him and afterwards took him to walks around the yard and climbed to his lap making it clear nuffle was her best buddy at the party.