In a stark contrast to waking up to sunshine previously: this morning, I woke up to a dismal foggy sky and a rather fat cat wandering across the parking lot. After getting dressed and having a quick breakfast I went downstairs with my roommate to meet with the usual group for orientation. Went to the same room as yesterday and grabbed our seats.
The first talk was about Estonia, places to visit and methods of transportation. Apparently there are brand new trains and tickets from Tartu to Tallinn are around 10 euros. This is remarkably cheap compared to what I'm used to. Buses also run all over the city, there is even a discount for young people (under 26). The speaker also asserted that a car was the best method of exploration, suggesting that we make friends with a car or rent one. After my observations of the treacherous road conditions and crazy drivers...I think I'll pass. She continued on to talk about the different regions.
- South Estonia containing hills, hiking trails, little villages, observation towers, and some national parks. Apparently also famous for their onion plantations and yearly ski marathon.
- Estonian Islands being the biggest and most popular. They have cliffs, beaches, junipers, windmills, little villages, summer houses and manors. Interestingly enough, though you usually need to travel to the islands via ferry, during the winter there is something called an ice road. This allows an individual to drive to the islands!
- North and North East Estonia house the capital and its old town, old fisherman villages, cliffs, waterfalls, oil-shale mines and ash mountains.
The beaches looked quite nice, which is somewhat mind-boggling to think about considering I'm currently freezing and surrounded by snow/ice. Apparently most of Estonia is made up of marshes and wetlands, they look absolutely gorgeous and I'd love to go on some nature walks through them. Estonia also has a wine capital, but their wine is made out of not grapes, but other berries.
Next was a talk about the UT Academic Sports Club. (As I don't care much for sports, I didn't really pay attention to most of this.) The club has more than 3000 athletes and 20 different sports. Some of the more popular sports appeared to be basketball and volleyball.
Following the sports was a talk about more practical information: bank accounts, student IDs, ISIC cards, library cards and printing services. Apparently to print anything you need to go to a multimedia center, this seems strange to me as I'm used to being able to print at the library.
Annnnd next up was an info session on the Estonian medical system. (At this point I'm pretty hungry and ready for all of these long orientation talks to be over. Despite everything I am still a college student, don't blame me!) There was a brief mention of health insurance. They have a system of family doctors: this is the first person you consult for any medical issues (barring an emergency). These family doctors provide general help or refer you to a specialist if needed. Visits are free (FREE?! That's practically a foreign word to me in relation to health care!) or 5 euros for a home visit. Pharmacies were briefly mentioned. Ambulances were discussed, the number for them is 112 and there is a separate line for police (110) which I find interesting.
Lastly (I was starving now) there was a police officer to discuss the laws and regulations here in Estonia. She went over traffic laws for both cars and pedestrians, (no drunk driving, pedestrians must wear reflectors, etc) drinking, and finally smoking laws. Not allowed to drink in public areas other than bars, clubs and pubs. Not allowed to be overtly drunk in public (stumbling and whatnot). For public order there was to be no noise in public areas, no loud music coming from houses or cars, and no harassment. She said that Estonians are shy; if they don't want to chat then you can get in trouble if you repeatedly try to talk to them. In general, warnings are given before fines, especially in the case of foreigners. She closed by saying that Tartu is generally calm and safe, so that was nice to hear.
Regardless of the fact that the room was full of people from all over the world, it still felt just like home: almost everyone was on their phone during most of the lectures.
During the orientation I spent a lot of time staring at the floor for the irrelevant presentations. I've come to the conclusion that cleaning floors in Estonia has got to be one of the worst jobs ever. All buildings I've entered have had copious amounts of muddy footprints and puddles on the floor.
There was a quick overview of what we needed to do in order to get our Residence Permits for Estonia (there will be a more detailed workshop Thursday next week) and we were done for the day! Myself and 5 others all went out to lunch at a restaurant just off the town square. It was called Lokaal Suudlevaud Tudengid which loosely translates to the local kissing students; the place was obviously named after the famous fountain. It was quite a nice place. I ordered risotto with saffron and tiger prawn. Very delicious meal, but! I was a bit startled when the waitress brought the dish out and the tiger prawn was...whole for lack of a better term. Seeing its eyes and legs freaked me out a little, which is odd considering I'm not generally squeamish. Luckily my roommate peeled it for me so I didn't have to stare into its beady eyes.
After we'd all eaten and paid we went our separate ways. I headed back to the dorm and accomplished a whole lot of nothing for a couple hours. After that my roommate and I ventured downstairs to give the laundry room a try. In this dorm you must pay 2 euros for a token that will allow you use of one washing machine. Dryers are (thankfully) free. It was fairly straightforward and we did as anyone does when washing clothes, the process is universal. No strange Estonian dance rituals were needed to obtain clean clothes. Once all of the cycles were done and the clothes were dry I put them away and have been relaxing since.
It's kind of nice to have quiet time since for every single day I've been out all day with people, talking, walking and generally doing something every minute. That may not sound exhausting but for an introvert like me it is. Don't get me wrong, I adore being around people and meeting all of these individuals from different countries and learning their stories, but it does get tiring after a while and I need some time alone to recharge. The dorm is mostly empty tonight, as there is a huge pub crawl going on with over 100 people participating. I anticipate that they're having a lot of fun, and will probably return to the dorm very drunk, very late.
Saturday will be a lazy day where I sleep in and do nothing. I can't wait :)
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