Sunset on Toompea Hill

A few more photos of me hitting the ice....

Social butterflies -- the only ones to survive the winter

Despite the wretched cold and bitter wind, I was not holed up in my cozy apartment all weekend at least. In fact, compared to my normal weekend activities back in good ole Lincoln, I was quite the social butterfly!

Saturday night, we were invited to an Estonian student's apartment to partake in a traditional Estonian meal. So, after meeting up and shopping at Rimi, the supermarket, we had a lovely dinner of meat and potatoes -- followed by chocolate ice cream, which we ate straight out of the carton with spoons. Just the way I like it. There were 10-12 of us maybe, several Estonians, but also French, Lithuanian, Finnish -- who I should be meeting up with in Helsinki this spring!

Yesterday, we went ice skating! It's been a while since I've done it, so I was just enjoying the fact that I wasn't falling down and it was sunny, and then I looked and saw this:

Photos courtesy of Miss Adina :)

and remembered, oh, yeah, I'm in the heart of Old Town in Tallinn, Estonia ice skating with my friends from around the world. How crazy is that? After being over here for so long, getting into a rhythm, a routine, thinking about the weather and the classes, and buying groceries, it's so easy to forget that this isn't normal at all! Once in a life time and all that. :p

I really can't wait for spring, though. It's hovering around 0 degrees (Fahrenheit) with a wind chill that I can't even explain. And I realized that I really miss my nice warm car! Walking around for even ten minutes outside is just plain painful! I also have been informed that Nebraska is experiencing some 50-60 degree weather. Rude.

Missing Nebraska's random weather, but missing you guys more,
jennywren

Chocolate!

Rasmus and I tried out the Pierre Chocolaterie today, tucked away in one of the many nooks and crannies in Tallinn's Old Town. It was absolutely amazing. The decor is old fashioned and kind of hodge-podge, but the hot chocolate is to die for. It was actual melted chocolate (imagine dipping cappuccino flats) and milk, and it was so rich that, even with a little help from Rasmus, I had to leave some in the cup. Even just a little bit of it was incredibly satisfying....mmmmm.

The letter E

So, the other day I heard "Total Eclipse of the Heart" on the radio. But it was in Estonian....I think. Languages are hard -- and there are so many of them. I wanted to buy some fabric softener, but I couldn't tell which bottle to buy (There was no cuddly bear on the front of any of them). I looked on the back and there were fourteen languages on the back. 14! And I didn't have any chance at all with a single one of them. Not even some norsk or espanol for me to stumble through. Needless to say, my towels are not huggably soft. *sigh* I should probably do some research before attempting to buy things next time.

I'm in a women's choir here in Tallinn. It's a little difficult, because the instruction is in Estonian, as are most of the songs (the rest are in Russian :p), but everyone is incredibly nice. And I love to sing :) obviously. We'll be recording the songs we are singing, so hopefully I'll be able to share some with you!

missing home, missing you,
jennywren

What *is* knowledge management?

I spent over six hours reading articles, watching videos, and writing summaries about what knowledge management actually is, just to discover no one actually seems to know. Go figure.

Stop ganging up on me.

I'm in Tallinn. It's icy.

I've blogged.