Nädala Üks on Lõppenud! (Week One is Complete!)

I survived my first week of learning Estonian. I am really enjoying the class, I like my classmates, and our teacher is pretty great (she has a good sense of humor as well). The class is moving fairly quickly, but at the same time it is relaxed and I don’t feel too overwhelmed. I am amazed by how much I can already say in Estonian. At this point it is difficult, but manageable. However, I expect that it is about to get a lot more difficult. Tomorrow we are supposed to start learning the 14 cases in Estonian.

In addition to my Estonian class, the Summer Language Institute offers some cultural/social opportunities. For instance every Monday and Wednesday there is a yoga class. I decided to go this week, despite how tired I was after five hours of class. I think it was a little intense for my taste. I have never been to a yoga class where we did pushups with one foot in the air. SLI also shows movies from different countries on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Tuesday I went to see a Polish film called “80 Million” about Solidarity activists trying to withdraw money from their own bank account when Poland was under Soviet Communism. It was certainly very interesting. The movie that was being shown on Thursday was a Slovak film called “Music”. After contemplating whether to go or not for about half an hour, my friend from class and I decided to study for our test on Friday instead.

The test went very well and I got an A. The four hours I spent studying for it were probably more than was necessary. On the other hand I’m not really studying Estonian to pass a test or even to pass a class; I am studying to learn as much as I possibly can before heading off to Estonia in a few months.

Every Friday SLI does a picnic called “Happy Hour”. Every week a different language group cooks traditional food from their country for the rest of the program. This Friday was Polish Happy Hour. We had pierogi, potato salad, some sort of open faced sandwich, and gingerbread cookies/biscuits. The pierogi were definitely my favorite. I am looking forward to Baltic Happy Hour when I will learn how to cook food from Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. This Friday the three Baltic language classes also got together to watch “The Singing Revolution”. I think this was the third time I’d seen the documentary, but I was happy to watch it again. The last time I watched it with my dad because he was interested to learn more about this country I wouldn’t shut up about. It is the movie that, in a way, initiated my interest in Estonian folk music. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to learn a little about Estonia’s history of occupation.

Photo by: Real Epicurean