The first item of the day was more orientation! We went to an auditorium/lecture hall sort of room behind the main university building. There we received a welcome from many of the UT (University of Tartu) staff. In addition we were given 'welcome bags' that were filled with helpful information, a reflector (which I'll talk about later) and a SIM card for our phones. From there we were introduced to some student organizations, such as the Erasmus Student Network (ESN). After that was a brief discussion on practical matters: life in Tartu, the IT system and psychological counselling.

At this point there was a coffee break. Everyone piled downstairs into a lobby area where drinks and snacks were provided. I had my first taste of non-American coffee! It wasn't bad at all, less bitter than American coffee to be sure (or that might have been the overabundance of cream and sugar that I added). I also had a few cookies and a few meat pies (which was small, croissant-like bread with meat and onions in the middle; very good). While there, I met up with the fourth girl from CofC (she had been studying in France previously). I also talked to a few of the people I had met the previous day. Most of the international students were talking about the party last night: how crazy it got, how much fun they had, how drunk they still were or how bad of a hangover they had. It was fairly amusing to listen to.

Upon returning to the auditorium there was a brief introduction of the admissions procedure for master's programmes. Admittedly I zoned out for most of this, as it was not particularly relevant to me (or really anyone else in the room for that matter). Following this was a very interesting talk on Estonians, Estonian culture and traditions, and national character stereotypes. The woman speaking discussed that Estonians are typically viewed as introverted and conscientious. But when Estonian individuals are asked they identify themselves as extroverts and not particularly hard-working. She also told us a rather amusing (to me) joke regarding Finnish people:

How do you tell the difference between a Finnish introvert and a Finnish extrovert?

A Finnish introvert looks at his shoes when talking, an extrovert looks at your shoes.

Our lecturer also discussed how Estonians are typically silent people. They are more comfortable than other cultures with silence and pauses in conversation. There is generally no small talk. Additionally she said that you commonly sought out information on your own and did not ask for help or assistance. People only asked others if there was no other avenue of gathering information yourself. This was probably why I felt that people didn't wish to answer my questions. Ah well, a lesson learned. She also mentioned that you were not supposed to take a seat next to somebody on the bus out of respect...which of course was something I did on my way to Tartu. I'm already breaking culturally understood guidelines! Hurray.

After this, a former international student went over a few survival tips. These were mostly relating to classes: conventions for attendance, homework deadlines and communication with the professor. They were all similar to what I'm used to at home, so no surprises there. She talked about places to visit and a few important landmarks in Tartu. And lastly holidays! There is a midsummer festival on the 24th of June that is supposedly the largest holiday in Estonia. I'm really looking forward to attending this.

Next were some actual academic facts and advice from the Student Exchange Coordinator. And lastly a spiel about Russian language courses. The guy presenting this was very personable and funny. And, for lack of a better way to say it, he looked and spoke in a very typical Russian manner. He was tall, bald, somewhat intimidating looking and had a rather thick accent.

Once I took care of some class coordination at the dorm, my roommate and Sarah and I went out to run some errands. We first stopped at Swedbank, where they began their paperwork to open an account and I completed my process. I now have an overseas bank account, how exciting. I have access to internet banking and I will need to pick up my debit card next week on Wednesday. I was surprised at how easy it was, and they have interesting security measures in place. In addition to a userID and password you are given a plastic card with 72 pin numbers. Each time you wish to access your account online you must provide one of those pin numbers, randomly selected each time. I'd never heard of anything like this so it was an interesting idea to me.

After the bank we headed over to the shopping mall that a few of us discovered a few days ago. There we purchased a few household items, backpacks and a few school supplies.

We all split up to deposit our purchases in our dorm rooms, then met back downstairs to go get dinner. We ended up going to a small place just off of the town square by the name of Runnipizza. For dinner we got...you guessed it, pizza. It was surprisingly good. It was thinner and made with less sauce than the pizza back home, but it was still delicious and pizza-y. The kind I ordered was cheese, sausage and garlic.

A couple hours were spent at the restaurant just talking, which was nice. But we were all tired, so eventually we headed back to the dorm. Here I started to try and organize myself, my papers and all of my things. Not the easiest task but I'm slowly making my way through it. I've accumulated quite the collection of papers and items. Among them is my reflector! (I told you I'd talk about it later). These are worn on the right side, near our knees. It's part of Estonian law to wear them at night time so that cars can see pedestrians. It is especially important in the winter months, as it gets dark very early.

I've also gained quite the collection of coins. They are easily my least favorite form of currency and I was displeased to know that they are so commonly used here; there are no 1 and 2 euro bills, they are in coin form instead. This was something I found odd and am somewhat struggling to adjust to, I definitely prefer my paper money. But I did make a little box for my coins (or at least the ones I wasn't carrying) so that they weren't always strewn across my desk. That was entertaining for about 2 minutes.

Another good, but exhausting day. Tomorrow is Friday and the last big day of orientation!

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:

http://www.ut.ee/en/university/general/history

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!

Monday

Today I spent a bit more time in the cafe so I could have my precious internet time. Put away all my clothes and other items so that I could move my suitcase out of the way. It was nice to feel a bit more organized. I kinda wish that I could make my room a bit more...homey but I don't have the money for knick-knacks and whatnot, so I'll have to deal. Got a message from ATT today: I've exceeded $250 in international roaming charges, oh joy. It's a huge expense that I'd been hoping to avoid but I needed to talk to people and I have no internet, so I'll pay it somehow.

Went back to the dorm, did a whole lot of nothing for an hour or so. I then decided to venture back out into the icy wilderness and buy some more food. Went back to the same grocery store as before, since its location was so convenient. I spent a lot of time staring at different food containers trying to figure out what it was, how to prepare it, and if I wanted to take the chance of purchasing it. Ended up getting some pasta, rice, vegetables, ham, mayo and chips. I longingly gazed at some pizza for a while, but I had no oven to prepare it in. After carrying my purchases back across the tundra and up the stairs I made myself a sandwich and called some people. At this point I'm probably going to read for a bit, then go back to the cafe to check my email for internet.

Checked at 5:30, no such luck yet. :( I asked my mother to watch my email for me, so that I didn't have to make so many trips to the cafe. At this point I'm inclined to believe that I won't get internet until some point within the next couple of days.

By happy circumstance (or perhaps it was planned, I'll never know) my roommate is also from CofC! We'd met briefly before at the study abroad orientation. It's somewhat comforting to have someone familiar sharing a room with me. So far we're getting along pretty well, she's very nice, talkative and outgoing so it'll be helpful to have someone to drag me out of my shell.

Tuesday

I have plans this morning to meet up with some other people around 11 and go shopping for stuff like towels in one of the bigger shopping areas.

...

Phew, I am super exhausted. I met up with 3 other girls today and we all walked around Tartu and did a bit of shopping. I took tons of pictures. It was cold today, (obviously) but luckily not snowing. The ground was reduced to a gross muddy snow-mush. It was nice to talk to and hang out with other people, I had been severely lacking in the social interaction department here.

After introductions and whatnot we set off towards the shopping areas. Crossing the bridge over the frozen river was interesting, as I'd never seen such a large body of water frozen. There were a lot more people out and about than I expected. We walked up the road towards the Kissing-Students statue.

After taking a few pictures in that area we headed off towards the Kaubamaja Mall. It's 4 floors, the bottom floor has a grocery store and all the other stores are misc shopping. There was a book store on the top floor that we stopped at for quite a while. It was amusing to see familiar titles such as Harry Potter in other languages like Russian and Estonian. We spent a lot of time in the dictionary section, considering purchasing an Estonian-English language guide, but in the end decided not to buy anything yet. There were many shoe stores and trendy clothing stores spread throughout the mall. But all the prices were surprisingly reasonable.

After departing the store we headed back towards the cafe near the dorm to regroup and check our emails. I was frequently (and frantically) checking to see if I had gotten the information to use the internet at my dorm. Still nothing at this point, but someone had informed me that it goes into gmail's spam folder. So I checked my spam folder annnnd lo and behold, there it was. Delivered the previous afternoon. I was a mixture of disappointed and angry, I missed out on a lot of internet and communication time! Regardless, I now have internet, so that's a huge relief.

We relaxed for a while in the cafe until one of the girls came back in and told us that one of the water pipes on the 4th floor of the dorm had burst and was leaking into the other floors. It was sort of unbelievable at first, I couldn't believe something like this was happening so soon. Of course I went back to the dorm to make sure my room (computer) was okay, but everything was fine. Luckily I'm on the far left side of the dorm and the leak was on the far right. However I was impacted in some way: they have the water shut off in order to facilitate the repairs. Not sure when it'll be turned back on, hopefully soon.

For our next excursion we planned a little more. One of the girls got a better map and we actually had a destination in mind. Off we went! We walked a little out of the way in order to stop in front of the schools main building, where we'll be meeting tomorrow for an orientation tour. It's actually quite nice looking, as is the surrounding area. After sight-seeing for a bit we headed towards Swedbank. Once we arrived me and another girl began the process of opening our bank accounts. The lady helping us didn't speak much English but she was very helpful, if a bit stern looking. We filled out some paperwork and were told to come back in 4-5 days after receiving an email notification. So! It was nice to have that started and out of the way for the time being.

The last stop of the day was another shopping mall, a bit farther away. By this point I was basically walking on autopilot. Walking in snow is a lot harder than it seems, or maybe I'm just a wimp. Either way my legs hurt a lot. The mall we (eventually) arrived at was pretty well sized, but smaller than Kaubamaja. Here we purchased towels and sheets. I got a hairdryer and another girl got a straightener. In the shop where we purchased our hair things none of the clerks spoke English, so it was an interesting attempt to not completely garble up the little Estonian we did know. All and all it was a profitable outing.

Walking back was much faster as we went directly towards the dorm instead of a roundabout route. After returning I went back up to my room so that I could bask in the glory that was the internet once more.

Tomorrow I've got another busy day. Orientation begins, so I start with a main building tour, break for lunch and then have a town tour. I'll be sure to report on how it went!

Side-ish note. There were a ton of statues and a lot of park-like areas that looked quite nice with the trees and the snow.

Saturday

Woke up, got breakfast, the restaurant was pretty edgy. By the time I got down for breakfast the choices were pretty sparse, most of it was foreign to me. In the back of my mind I realized cereal is a pretty American thing, but it didn't really hit me until I couldn't eat any for breakfast. It was mostly fruits, breads, meats and yogurts. I ended up just having bread and water, not particularly filling but I haven't felt hungry all day. I felt very out of place, it was a semi-high class place. After breakfast I went back to my room and started packing up all my things. Eventually got it all together and made my way downstairs to check out. Talking with the people at the desk was somewhat stilted and awkward. Language barrier is a thing, and though most people speak English it's pretty choppy and they seem to have trouble understanding me. I realize I tend to string together my words sometimes, so I've been making an effort to talk slower and clearer. I asked the receptionist call me a taxi after checking out and I was off to the dorm. The taxi driver didn't speak English, so it was a minor inconvenience, and I had my pronunciation of the street name (Raatuse) corrected a couple times. All part of the experience I suppose. After arriving at the dorm I completed my check-in process, paying a deposit and signing a couple things. I learned that I wouldn't be able to get internet until I signed my housing contract. AND I can't sign my housing contract until Monday. In addition, the internet is a monthly fee and takes up to three days to connect. So it'll probably be a while until I'm able to get the internet. I was rather surprised at learning this, since the country practically boasts of its e-services and free wifi. I had expected the dorms to be equipped with free internet, or at least have a faster connection time. This is a huge inconvenience for me, as I was hoping I'd have the internet to keep myself grounded so to speak. It's something comforting and familiar, and would have provided a much needed distraction as well as given me an easier way to stay in touch with everyone back home. And communication is a serious need right now.

I won't sugar coat it: I'm alone and terrified. I'm waaaay far out of my comfort zone, the weather is something I'm nowhere near used to, the people and sights are unfamiliar and I haven't had any help. I've had to stumble around and discover how to do something or get somewhere on my own, until I can find people to ask, and even then I haven't met anyone who seemed particularly inclined to provide assistance. I've considered jumping ship a few times now, my instincts are practically screaming at me to turn around and go home as fast as possible. I'm miserably home-sick and I have no schedule at the moment. I'm doing my best to stay focused on the current moment and just get through one day at a time. On Wednesday I have orientation, so I will hopefully meet some people and get myself more familiar with the area. Until then, it's a struggle. I've developed a sore throat and runny nose, I'm still suffering from jet-lag and I've got a killer headache. Overall, I'd say the experience is miserable so far. I wish I could say I'm excited to start school and be in a new place. At this point, I honestly cannot. But after some encouraging words from the people I care about, I'm doing my best to stick it out. The small amounts of joy have come from surprisingly simple things: talking to my mother, talking to my boyfriend, and the sound of snow crunching under my feet as I walk. It's a very small sound, but brings me some semblance of happiness for no reason in particular. The sight of snow blanketing everything is also quite nice, and not as dismal as I expected. It's almost magical, especially at night.

Now that I've finished expressing my sorrows I'll continue with the day's story. After pouting over the internet situation for a while I went downstairs to ask a few questions and hopefully get myself a bit more oriented with the area. I was informed that a cafe down the street had free WiFi, so naturally that was my first stop. I didn't spend a lot of time there, just grabbed lunch, and a couple water bottles. I stayed long enough to post an update on my internet situation to Facebook, and Skype with my mother for a while. Also, while I was there they played "Call me Maybe" on the radio. I wasn't sure whether to be amused or horrified. After this, I walked back towards the dorm and stopped at a medium sized grocery store. It was a fairly familiar place, possessing a layout similar to the grocery stores back home. The one exception I found was, there was no cereal isle and the alcohol section (mainly consisting of liquor) was much larger and varied then I had ever seen. I purchased a few necessities, toilet paper, soap, bread, cheese and, what I hope, is milk. Most of the foods were labeled purely in Estonian, so it was a bit of a gamble with the purchases I made. The cashier did not speak English, and when I asked if she spoke she gave me an apologetic look and kept forging forth with her Estonian. Luckily the price was on the digital readout so I had no trouble paying. The bags were very very small, so I was slightly rushed trying to get all of my items until they were at least able to be carried. I managed, but just, my arms were killing me by the time I made it back to my dorm. Upon arrival back at my room I discovered that someone else was moving in, she is an exchange student from Korea. Still waiting on 4 other people to arrive, as there are 3 rooms and 2 beds per room.

After putting things away I discovered that the previous tenants had left a lot of food in the fridge. Unfortunately it was all well past its expiration date, so I'll have to eventually tackle cleaning out the refrigerators. Not a task I'm looking forward too. The bathrooms could also use a good clean, but I do not yet possess the mental fortitude to do that. (It's a pretty frightening prospect).

I'm feeling a bit calmer at this point, still pretty unhappy and terrified, but not to the point that I am crippled into doing nothing. Writing has helped a lot, it's a very cathartic process and it helps to put my feelings into words by typing. It got dark quickly here, around 4:30 everything started dimming and by 5:00, or rather 17:00, it was completely dark and all of the street lights were on. I'll be attempting to relax for the next few hours, then hopefully getting some sleep. I've yet to determine how comfortable or warm my bed is. Here's hoping for the best!

I decided to take a shower before going to bed. The floor in the shower is pretty gross looking, and there's no door, just an open area with a shower curtain. However, the water pressure was surprisingly good! Miles better than what I had at the dorm at CofC. There's a bit of irony for you. The hot water also lasted quite a while. I made sure to take a nice long shower, for research purposes of course. Getting out of the shower was a completely miserable experience. The room with the shower in it was warm, because of the steam, but as soon as I stepped out into the hallway. Phew. It was too cold for words. The cheap towel I was provided with also ended up shedding green fuzz all over me, so that was rather frustrating. My room was fairly cold as well, there's only a radiator for heat, and I'm not sure if I'm using it correctly or what, because I was shivering under my covers until I warmed them up a bit. Doesn't help that the window lets some of the cold in as well.

Roommate ended up doing dishes at 4 in the morning. A standard time, I'm sure. Luckily I fell back asleep rather quickly, but I spent a good few minutes glaring at the ceiling sleepily.

Sunday

I woke up around 9 and got myself up to eat breakfast. I was pleased to find cheerios at the store, and though my milk purchase was a gamble (as everything was labeled in Estonian) I managed to find the correct one. Though it did taste a bit sweeter and thicker than milk at home, it got the job done.

I also noticed that I was developing a small cough. In addition, my nose is still congested and my throat is still very sore. I'm hoping that this doesn't grow into something worse, as these are the usual symptoms before I get pretty sick.

Thankfully I am a bit calmer now. Still a far cry from happy or comfortable. But I no longer feel as though I want to crawl out of my own skin, and I didn't wake up crying. I feel slightly more equipped to tackle this study abroad experience. It helps that I have something to do on Monday and that I'll be one step closer to getting internet. Until then I'm going to try and sleep more and watch some movies to keep myself distracted.

Ended up sleeping until 5:00. Oops. Woke up feeling pretty miserable (health wise). I wasn't sure if I was feverish or it was just a mixture of my room heating up and my covers being too hot. I really wish I had someone to take care of me and bring me soup :(

For the rest of the day I basically did nothing but watch movies. Yay productivity. Tomorrow I plan on getting up early, signing my housing contract, starting the internet-getting process and doing some more shopping. I really, really need a proper towel. The one I was given sheds all over me and is quite thin. I'll probably also get some cleaning supplies. If I'm feeling up to it I might explore a little bit, we shall see.

Monday

Woke up at 11:00ish. I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep last night since I had slept so late the previous day. Got dressed and signed my housing, and internet contracts. A fairly easy process, and I was told that I could have internet as early as this evening! Unfortunately they contact you via email, so I'll have to make a couple trips to the cafe down the street to check it. Seems odd that an internet provider would email you, when they know you have no internet. Ah well, all I can do is pray to the internet gods and check my email as often as possible.

I still have a serious case of the "oh god how is there so much snot in my nose/how can I go through so many tissues" and sore throat/cough.

I also watched someone de-ice their care this morning. (inb4 creeper, I'm just observing!) I almost felt smug that I didn't have to do that, it's one experience I don't mind missing out on.

Exciting news! On my third step outside this morning I slipped on the ice. That's one thing off my "experience ice and snow" checklist.

Also, good lord the amount of American pop songs they play in this cafe is off the charts. Just suffered through "Wrecking Ball."

As I'm writing this I sit in my hotel room at Tartu, Estonia. The journey here was long and stressful. Jet-lag is definitely a thing, and I feel pretty miserable because of it. I've also been struck with a pretty bad case of homesickness. The excitement is minimal in the wake of my travels, but I'm hoping that will change after a good night's sleep.

Arriving at the Charleston International Airport was bittersweet. I never did enjoy saying goodbye, only if it was for a little while. Luckily no tears were shed at that moment, or it would have been much more difficult to leave. Passing through security was easy, everyone was nice and helpful. Waiting for the plane was, naturally, boring as hell. My first plane was rather small but obviously got the job done. Flying into Newark was interesting, as I'd never been to or seen an airport that large. I actually had to take a bus to get from one terminal to the next! 

In Newark I had a 4 hour layover, so I wandered about and fetched coffee and snacks. I'm mildly ashamed to admit that I walked the extra distance (with my luggage) just so I could get some Starbucks one last time before I left. Waiting was, again, boring. But I survived long enough to get onto my next plane. This one was HUGE, though I suppose it needed to be for crossing the ocean and whatnot. The interior was pretty snazzy, organized by first class, business class, economy etc. I found it somewhat amusing that the pillow quality was slightly reduced as you progressed through the classes. There were large pillows with nice floral pillow cases until you got to economy, where the pillows were reduced in size and covered in a drab white case. Takeoff was fairly smooth, we climbed for quite a while to reach our cruising altitude of 39,000ft. The outside temperature at this point was -74° F and our cruising speed was about 619mph. The flight was supposed to last for about 8 hours, but due to a favorable tailwind it ended up being just under 7 hours. We were served dinner shortly after we got to cruising altitude. The meal was surprisingly good. It consisted of shrimp,vegetables and rice, a salad and a roll. After eating I was, of course, very sleepy and spent some time trying to get comfortable. I was extraordinarily jealous of an individual who had all 4 middle seats to themselves. They ended up putting all the armrests up and being able to lie down across them. As I was looking sleepily, and hatefully at this obviously comfortable individual the woman sitting next to me offered to move to one of the other seats on the plane (as it was not quite full). Thanks to her generosity I ended up being able to lie down! I got a small amount of sleep, unfortunately not quite as much as I wanted. Side note: the flushing noise that airplane toilets make is absolutely terrifying. It sounds like a vortex into the abyss is being opened. A little over halfway through the flight I developed a terrible case of the sniffles. I blame Paul. After a few more hours they served a small breakfast and we began our descent.

The runways in Norway were completely covered in snow, it was somewhat terrifying but the landing was incredibly smooth. There wasn't even a jolt as we hit the ground. As I was arriving in Norway for the first time from an international location I had to go through security again and get my passport stamped. This would have been all fine and dandy, but I ALSO had to get my boarding pass for my next flight, which just happened to be leaving in under half an hour. The airport was huge, so between getting all of my things together and traversing between points I was very nearly late for my flight. I quite nearly had a panic attack in the middle of the airport, traveling is super stressful. To get to the plane we had to take a bus, and here's where it gets interesting. I had my first (memorable) stroll out into the snow, it was quite a novel experience. Oslo was completely covered in snow. Thankfully though I was so hot from running through the airport I could barely feel the cold. Looks like stress is good for something! I was walking through the snow to get onto a bus that would take me to my last flight. Unfortunately I did not get a picture, but the middle of the bus had a sort of compressed area in the center that would bend with the turns. It was quite odd to watch and experience. I referred to it as a bendy bus in my mind, but further research provides me with the correct terminology: articulated bus. (And yes I did just google bendy bus.)

After getting onto the last plane the stress was really starting to get to me and I felt super homesick. At this point I was ready to go home or at the very least just get somewhere with a bed. Unfortunately I still had several more hours to my journey, so I soldiered on!

When boarding was complete we taxied to an area where several machines operated by people sprayed the plane with a de-icing liquid. It was an interesting thing to watch and gave off a sort of sci-fi vibe. (At least to me). The flight was about 1hr50minutes, and went by fairly quickly.

After arriving in Tallinn I was already so #done with everything, so I grabbed my luggage and went to find the bus stop. I had purchased a ticket for a 1:05 bus, but by accident boarded the bus that was juuuust leaving. No harm done, as I would be able to get to Tartu that much quicker. Once I found my seat I was falling asleep instantly, but it was not very comfortable as the person sitting next to me was taking up a lot of space. Regardless, I survived the journey and got out at the Tartu Bussijaam. Now, please note that I left the nice, warm bus with extreme reluctance as it was -2° F outside! I was very bundled: hat, gloves, boots, thick jacket, thick pants, etc. It was still pretty cold, but luckily not snowing. I walked inside and then almost freaked out, because I had forgotten to get my big luggage. I was so used to walking around without it! No harm done though, I turned around and picked it up and went on to find a taxi. Found a nice driver who took me to the hotel, where I checked in and found my room. After communicating with important parties, I collapsed on the bed and passed out for a few hours, setting an alarm so I could get food.

I ordered room service, which has now been eaten. It was pretty excellent food. After having a few hours of sleep and something of substance in my stomach I am a bit less stressed and panicked. Still terribly homesick and exhausted, but I feel a bit more prepared to tackle my stay here. Hopefully a good night's sleep will put me in better spirits for the morning!

Do not expect well thought and distinguished musings from this blog. Most of the time my thinking process is disjointed at best. I will not toil over conveying my thoughts in the most sophisticated of manners. I merely wish to communicate the highs and lows of my travels, keep a record of sorts for myself, and share stories with those who would listen. 

The day that I depart for Estonia draws closer and closer. I have been spending the last few weeks in Charleston so that I might enjoy the company of my friends once more before leaving. This past month has been wrought with fear, excitement, anticipation and an amalgamation of other emotions. At this point I am feeling mainly anxious and giddy, my head is swimming with lists and questions. I find myself already missing Charleston, even though I have yet to leave. At the same time, I am almost unbearably excited to journey off on my own, leave the US for the first time in my life and experience the world in a new way. I'll be able to learn from classes not offered here at CofC which is a most enticing prospect for me, as I adore learning in all forms. I also believe that perhaps one of the most valuable things I will gain is a new perspective. But, the value of my travels is something that has not yet been determined. The only thing I know is that the next 5 months will be incredibly difficult and amazing.

I will finish this first post by noting the...odd circumstances surrounding my departure: Charleston is supposedly receiving snow for the first time in several years. This is happening mere days before I depart for a country with a snowy climate. Coincidence? I THINK NOT.