Woke up around 11 today. It was nice to have a relaxing morning and take my time getting ready. Once it hit 12 I headed outside to take care of some errands. My first stop was the dean's office of my faculty. This is also the building where all of my classes would be, so I wanted to scope it out anyway. There are a few ways to get there, but the quickest is to walk up Lossi street. Unfortunately, this street is a rather steep uphill climb, and also happens to be quite icy. I'm sure it's not always iced over, but with the melting snow and mid-30 degree temperatures I think it will remain that way for a while. Luckily my trek up this street did not result in my falling on my face, but I anticipate it happening at some point. Upon arrival at the office I discovered that they didn't have hours available for international students until after 14:00. So back outside I went!

I decided at this point I would go get my library card. I had thankfully stopped at the library the day before, so I had a vague idea of where it was in relation to the Computer Science building. The library doesn't look like much from the outside, and honestly didn't look like much on the inside. But I only went on the first floor, so perhaps the other floors are nicer. The process of getting my library card was simple enough, fill out a form, pay 1.60 euros, receive card.

Once that was done I made my way towards the financial office to pick up my stipend for the month of February. This would be the only time I had to physically go to the office; for the rest of my stay they'll be depositing the stipend directly to my bank account every month. I had a bit of trouble locating the office, as the directions I received during orientation were a bit fuzzy. But after wandering around for a bit I found it. Inside I found who I needed to talk to, gave them my bank account number, and received my stipend.

At this point it was almost 14:00 so I decided to head back to the dean's office to get my school ID. I ended up waiting outside the office for around 10 minutes until I could go in. Again, a fairly simple process: I gave them my passport and a document photo and within a few minutes I had my ID!

I was very pleased to have gotten all of this done in one day. Now all I have left to do is pick up my debit card (which I'll do tomorrow) and get my residence permit (which I'll have a workshop for on Thursday). Other than those two things I can now focus on schoolwork. My first class of the day is Cryptology I at 16:00.

I left at around 15:40 to get to my class. It was a good thing, because it took me a little under 20 minutes to get there. Walking to class and seeing no familiar faces along the way was a new experience for me. It was almost frightening in a sense; I'm used to walking the same path, seeing smiling faces and friends on my way to class each day. I felt almost bereft of happiness. I felt somewhat struck by loneliness again because I was running errands alone, walking to class alone and learning alone. But, I hope to remedy this by making friends within the Computer Science Faculty.

My classroom was easy enough to find, although it was tucked away in a corner of the second floor. There were chalkboards on the front wall and a teacher's desk in the front corner. The entire far wall was covered in windows, something I'm not quite used to, as most of my classrooms at CofC had either no windows, or small windows. The student desks were set up in rows of 3, with 2 seats per desk. The students that knew people in the class obviously sat together, while everyone else picked a desk alone. It was interesting how some college social habits seem to stretch over cultures (or rather over oceans). There were a lot more females in this class than I expected, although we were still outnumbered by the guys.

The teacher was a middle-aged German man who was very lively without being overt. He said that he had lived and taught in Tartu for 3 years. It was easy enough to understand his English though, the accent was present without being overbearing. He also had a very strong voice, so it was easy to hear him throughout the whole classroom. All things I was hoping for! He has an interesting habit of taking pictures of the board before he erases them. He said that he would post them on the website for our perusal later, which is nice. He also had a strange method of erasing the board, he had a large squeegee-type device that he would wet in the sink and use to wipe off the chalk. It was quite efficient and I am curious to see if that's something specific to him, or if the other teachers here at UT do it as well.

The lecture material itself was also somewhat interesting, though I wasn't completely enthralled with it. We went over simple ciphers such as the Caesar Cipher, Vigenere Cipher, Substitution Cipher and the Enigma Machine.

Class lasted from 4pm until 6pm, and though there was a reception scheduled at 6 I ended up not going. It was completely dark at that point, and also raining. I wasn't inclined to walk through the cold and rain to a location I was not entirely sure of. All I knew was that it was a 12 minute walk from my current location. Therefore I elected to head home, stopping at the market for some cereal on the way.

The rain was...different. It was almost eerie in the way that it fell. There was no noise from it and I could not feel it as I was wearing a hat and gloves. Except for the occasional drops that would make it to my face, it almost seemed as if it was not raining at all. If I had not seen the downpour highlighted by the streetlights or the small puddles created on the ground I honestly would not have believed it was raining. It was such a turnaround from the rain I'm used to in Charleston, where there is a cacophony of noise, multitude of puddles and people with umbrellas. All that aside, it did create an interesting and somewhat beautiful pattern of ice on my jacket.

Saturday

Everything went as planned on Saturday. I slept in until 2 and didn't go outside at all. I did however spend most of the afternoon looking at my class syllabi and materials. Some of them are pretty intimidating. Randomness in Computer Science is a class I decided to take last minute after I discovered that Data Mining was in conflict with another class I was taking. Like most of my other classes, it is master's level, so that is a challenge in and of itself. The teacher stated on the course page that "we will not repeat basic probability in class." So I've been spending a lot of time reveiwing the undergraduate course on Mathematics for Computer Science at MIT and reading the book for the class. I'm a bit worried, and I wish I had my notes from the Statistics class I took at CofC. But, we'll se how it goes. All of my other classes look pretty intensive, but contain a lot of material that I've been wanting to learn about. I'm pretty excited. For those that are interested I'll post links to my course pages. The only one that doesn't have a course page is Cryptology I, so I'm not sure what to expect for that class.

Introduction to Coding Theory

Principles of Secure Software Design

Randomness in Computer Science

Basics of Cloud Computing

The rest of Saturday I worked on some javascript and just relaxed. I was bored for a while but it was nice to not have to walk around in the snow.

Sunday

It was positively warm out today, it was the high 30s and the sun was out. This resulted in most of the snow around town melting, which is quite a sight for me. I was starting to forget that grass existed. Of course, this also caused a lot of the snow to melt off of the sidewalks and roads, but the ice remained. So walking around town was slightly treacherous.

This morning I met up with the Head of the Computer Science Department, Dr. Starr. It was nice to see a familiar face from Charleston. We chatted for a few minutes until his colleague from another school and an alumni from this colleague's school showed up. The alumni, Jesse, was living and teaching in Tartu. One of the girls from CofC was also with us, as she knew both Jesse and myself. We all went to a French cafe for brunch. Everyone ordered crepes but I just got coffee, as I wasn't that hungry. After this Jesse took us all on a small tour of Tartu. It was nice to discover smaller tidbits about the city, as opposed to a general overview like I got from the orientation tour. We walked around for roughly an hour and 15 minutes, but conversation was interesting and I had a great time.

After the tour they went to a restraunt called Werner Cafe and got cake. I left them at this point to meet up with Ariail and Sarah, two of the girls from CofC. We all went to the Kaubamaja mall to get school supplies and photos for IDs. It was slightly frustrating, as notebooks here seem to favor graph paper over lined paper. But obviously something I'll have to adapt to. I managed to get 5 notebooks, pencils, a highlighter and sticky notes for under 16 euros. Quite a deal if you ask me. We also stopped in a store to purchase some more towels; while the selection here was more expensive the towels were of vastly superior quality, so I may have splurged a bit to get a nice large, fluffy towel.

Once we finished our shopping we were all a bit hungry, so we ended up stopping at Werner Cafe and ordering cake. It was quite delicious and we all enjoyed our food.

At this point I am in my dorm anticipating the start of classes tomorrow. I'm not sure how different the teaching styles will be to what I'm used to (I'm thinking the difference will be huge, but who knows) but I'm sure I'll adapt well enough. Mostly I'm excited to start learning again, school is easily one of my favorite things and I'm generally bored if I'm not in class or learning on my own. So I'll be glad to get back into the swing of things. Unfortunately, (or perhaps fortunately) my class on monday does not start until 4pm, so I suppose I'll be sleeping in a bit!

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 :)

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."