We got a package!

was what I thought to myself as I opened the house door and looked over at the section of mail boxes that had a very U.S. looking brown package on top of it. And I was right! No one else gets packages here, except some guy around Christmas time. But his packages look local (no customs stickers and with different looking stamps) and are covered in flowery or curly patterns. I didn't ponder on why we would get a package but I was very surprised to find it in the entrance hall. I guessed it must have been a new mail person delivering it, not knowing that one is supposed to leave the package into the postal warehouse and take the slip containing a phone number for impossible-to-get-hold-of-anyone number printed on it. I was so happy we got this new person delivering the mail and I was so happy to find good memories boxed up in the package. Thank you to those that made it (the memories and the package)!

Also, I've been meaning to record for my own track keeping that it was about a week ago, last Monday when nuffle came home from work and said the wind was chilly and fall-like. I sat on the balcony - up some floors, closer to the sun, and hadn't realized it. On the next day, though, it was clear that the two month long real summer (with temperatures over 75, even 80, that is) we had had this year, was over. Too bad for us - we like real summer. But good for local people like my grandma that can hardly tolerate temperatures over 80 F. Keep in mind that as a rule, there is no air conditioning in homes and offices.

So we get rainy days now and chilly nights but summer hasn't given up entirely. Take last weekend - it was reasonably warm. And we found a unique way, I'd say, to celebrate what could have been the last warm night. We celebrated it by camping out. In our front yard, err balcony... Which brings me to the topic of our nearest neighborhood. For my own sake, I hope I can jot something down in the near future.

The 5th day of spring

Well, no, not really. But Mike has remarked how he can tell the spring is coming and the temperatures have been above freezing for five days straight. Before that, we had 70+ freezing days which some sources say is the longest winter in parts of the country. And starting tonight, we'll get more snow and colder air.

The games in Canada are over and here's what I wanted to say on that note on Friday (I think). So we sat around a lunch table and there were four people and the games were on on TV. One of the guys mentioned how these haven't been the best games for us. I was about to nod vigorously in agreement when Mike asked what the luncher meant by "us". Turned out he was talking about the sportsmen and women representing Russia. Then, of the four diners at the table in Tallinn, Estonia I was the only one rooting for Estonia. For the other two, "us" meant Lithuania and U.S. Talk about multiculturalism!

And on something I wanted to write about today but did terrible researching so I can only give hints and have you do the research. Anyway, from somewhere on the news I heard some organization here is running a campaign where people from English and Russian speaking countries can participate in an online game trying to answer questions on Estonia. And a winner will be drawn later (in May perhaps) and given a round trip here as a prize. I guess it's like the one you, M & S, found out about last year (?) and tried your luck in. We'll keep our fingers crossed tighter for this round.