This morning I was greeted by, of all things, the sun! I hadn't expected to see it for quite a while so it was a pleasant surprise. Today was the first day of orientation (finally). And I started it by meeting some people from my group in the lobby of Raatuse so that we could walk together to the tour meeting spot.
We met up with a couple of guys on the street from our group and made our way towards the university main building. There we met with the woman giving the tour, very nice and easy to understand. She was a doctorate student at the University of Tartu studying Art History. She gave us a brief history of the University. It's founding, relocation, rebuilding, closing, reopening etc. It was all very interesting, I'd try and re-tell it here but I'd probably mess it up somehow. So instead I'll provide an actual source for those interested in reading it:
She was telling us the history of the university in the main building's auditorium. She also mentioned that because of its construction the room had great acoustics, and as a result many famous composers had performed there. Most notably the German composer Robert Schumann and the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt. She even said that Liszt had performed there 3 times. I guess you could say they weren't Lisztless. (Not sorry.)
After several minutes we left the auditorium and climbed several stories to get to the attic of the building. There we entered the "Lock-up"; a place where students were sent in order to be punished many years ago. The days they spent in lock-up varied depending on the severity of the offence. I recall that returning a book to the library late was worth 2 days and insulting a lady was worth 3 weeks. Students sent there were often bored, because although they were permitted to bring literature and paper there was not much else to do. As a result all of the walls had drawings or inscriptions on them. Amusingly enough, one of the German inscriptions read: "There is a flaw in gods plan that you cannot drink while sleeping." Apparently the students at the University of Tartu were big on drinking back then, as they are now. Our tour guide also noted that it was almost a tradition to get punished and sent to lock-up, and that you often weren't regarded as a real student if you had not been there.
Our next stop was the museum downstairs. Most of its pieces were replicas of well known art, created by students at the University of Tartu. Some original pieces were there, such as a mummy and the death mask of philosopher Immanuel Kant
With this our tour was over. Another student from CofC and I headed back to the dorm until we met with our tutors for lunch at around 1:30. My group was very nice and varied. My tutor was born in Ukraine but had lived in Estonia for most of her life. The girls were: German, Slovakian, Bulgarian and Finnish. While the guys were both Italian. We all went out to lunch at some place I didn't see the name of (I'm so observant). It appeared and tasted like an expensive place but my entire meal (schnitzel with potatoes, salad and mushroom/bacon sauce) was only €3.20. I was very pleased. Conversation was carried mostly by one side of the table consisting of myself, the Slovakian girl, the German girl and the Finnish girl. The guys were pretty quiet. Regardless, we had some interesting discussions. After about an hour and a half we went our separate ways.
I headed towards the town center to wait for my next tour: the town tour! My group was fairly large and my tour guide was very nice and quirky. Her English was somewhat difficult to understand so I only grasped the general concept of what she was saying. Mostly I spent time observing Tartu, talking to people and taking pictures. Met a lot of interesting individuals from all over the world.
The tour lasted for around an hour and a half, we went up hills, down hills and in and out of buildings. We stopped in the Town Hall, passed by the Old Tartu Observatory (outside we had an interesting lesson: she taught us a traditional Estonian dance, it was quite amusing), went into the Old Tartu Cathedral (the salvageable part of the building had been converted into a library, while the remainder were left standing as ruins), passed through the University main building and finished inside the St. Johns Church.
Once the tour was finished Sarah (one of the girls from CofC) and I stopped in the grocery store near our dorm to pick up a few things. After this we returned home, exhausted but happy.
I have plans to relax and take care of some misc. stuff for the rest of the evening. My roommate however, is going out to a party. Fun culture fact! Everyone here is a huge drinker and party-er. There has been a party in this dorm every single night since Monday. It seems to be a sort of European thing. I am not yet sure if I'll be taking part in these events during my stay or not.
Speaking of European things, or perhaps it's just an Estonian thing: when shopping they don't provide you with bags for your purchased goods. You have to bring your own or purchase bags from them. I discovered this a while back but forgot to talk about it. A strange experience for me to say the least.
Overall, today was long but good and I'm looking forward to tomorrow's orientation!
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