I know it has been a while since I last updated, but there has been a lot going on in my life and so things have been pretty crazy.
I guess the first thing to write about is Wroclaw. The time that I spent there was great, I loved it! It was really nice to get out of Estonia for a while, and with new people. I guess I was ready for a change. The city itself was really pretty, and I was astonished at how big it was. I guess I was prepared for a city like Tartu, and it was so much bigger. When I first arrived at the airport in Wroclaw and saw the population written on the wall I was really shocked to realize that like half the population of Estonia would fit in Wroclaw. The old parts of the city were really beautiful, especially the Rynek (spelling?). I think though after spending some time there that I am glad that I chose Tartu for my place of study, I liked Poland, however it seemed to me that things were so big and busy there, and I liked the quiteness and slower pace of Tartu better. However, I really liked the Polish food, or at least the food that I tried, which was the Porugi (again, spelling?). It was really tasty. Overall I really liked my time in Poland, it was fun, and all the parks and such were beautiful, and like I said, it was nice to get out of Estonia and into another place with new people.
I suppose the next thing to comment on would be our trip to Russia. I really enjoyed the trip. Since I had been to St. Petersburg before I was seeing a lot of the same stuff that I had seen before, but everything still looked so different since I was there in Winter before. We also got to see some stuff that I hadnt seen before which was also nice. As for ways of improving the trip I would definatly suggest all of us trying to get our visas before we leave the states. I especially had a hard time trying to get mine, so it would definatly be much easier to get our visas before we leave the states. The next suggestion I would say would be to give us one day where we can go out and explore the city on our own. So that some of us can go see things we want to see but others may not see, and things like that. The only other thing was communication. It was hard to get all the information passed around from the professors to the students in poland and the students in Estonia. Even with the blog things seemed to get lost, or information to just not passed on as quickly as needed to be. As students I also felt like we were just kinda lost in what was going on. It was like yeah, im going to Russia, but I dont know when or anything else about whats going on. But overall I think it was a great trip, and I think that it was a great expirience and I am glad to be a part of the honors abroad, it was definatly a good addition to the whole expirience.
As for life since returning from Russia. Things have been pretty crazy. I got back and had two huge papers due, and then the monday after we got back my grandfather died, so that was just all around difficult since I couldnt return home to be with my family or attend the funeral. Then this past weekend I took my last big trip before leaving Tartu, and that was to go to Helsinki, Finland. Helsinki and Tallinn are much alike, it hardly felt like I had left Estonia, yet at the same time things were very different. It was a really good weekend.
Today I had to go to the doctors here for the first time. I have this disorder thing in my hips that causes pain when I walk, well since I have been here it has gotten worse, so finally my doctor at home decided that i needed to be checked out by a doctor here. That was definatly interesting. The doctor that I went to was in this old building where there were a lot of doctors. The office was made up of a waiting room and two offices. One doctor in one of the offices and two doctors in the other. I went to the doctor who shared her office. You walk in and theres their desks and stuff and then just this really uncomfortable table. It was very different than doctors offices at home. Usually their office is not the same as the patient room like it was here. Well after all that they dont know anything and I have to go get X-rayed tomorrow which I am not looking foward too. Luckily the family I know here is helping me get around and going with me to the appointments to translate. Otherwise I dont know what I would do. But I am going to the major hospital to get x-rayed tomorrow and that shall be interesting to see how that is like. I shall blog about that after all that is done. Well I guess that is about all for now...
Kristen, Kathryn, and Alejandra at the Zoo
