Languages Galore

I think that living in Europe for a while is one of the coolest things a person can do in life. I am certainly loving it, but it is also not easy on the brain at times. In the states you can cross a border and still speak English, you can even go to Canada and still speak the same language, not so in Europe. I have been in Estonia for two months, and I had finally gotten fairly comfortable speaking Estonian, well the little Estonian I know. I finally got the chance to go out of the country and do some traveling though, and that really mixed things up. Last weekend I went to Stockholm, Sweden, and I know that people are much friendlier to foreigners if they at least attempt to speak their language, so I went and found the girl I know from Sweden and got her to teach me some basic Swedish phrases. I was proud of myself when we got to Sweden, I was able to remember them and use them correctly! After the four days we were there I was feeling pretty comfortable saying "Hei" and "tak" in place of "Tere" and "Aitah" so returning to Estonia was interesting I got confused as to what language to use. Then after three days in Estonia we left to go to Riga, Latvia for the weekend. And as I did when we went to Sweden, I wanted to learn some basic Latvian phrases to use. I looked up online how to say at least "hello" "please" and "thank you" in Latvian, and managed to learn them well enough to use them while we were in Riga, most of the time that is. I found that most of the time I could use the Russian that I know because I heard more Russian spoken in Riga than Latvian. Again I was proud of myself, I could at least say something in their language, whether it was Latvian or Russian. Of course, also, throughout this time I was still relying on my English to talk to my friends and professors, no matter where we were, and throughout this time I am learning the Russian language in school. When I returned to Estonia on Sunday I tried to switch back on my Estonian and it was more difficult than I thought it would be. At this point I had like seven languages going through my head and trying to figure out which one to use where was so confusing. I found myself trying to use my Estonian occasionally in Sweden, and in Latvia I was trying to use Swedish some, and also Russian, and when I finally got back to Estonia I was just like, "ok, now which language do I use here?" At least now I can say I at least know how to say "hello" and "thank you" in seven languages! I certainly enjoy learning bits and pieces of so many languages, who knows when they might come in handy again!