Yup, it's been awhile. :) After talking to my dad yesterday and him complaining to me that I needed to post some of the stories I was telling him, I decided well, I suppose that would be a good idea, since there are some cool stories. :)

So first I'll start out with the newspaper article. Yeah, that's right! See that backside of a person on the right side of the picture picking up a tire from the mud?! That's me. :) People I know here in Estonia saw me on this picture and on TV, so they told me that I'm now famous in Estonia. Of course this is not true, but it was cool for a lot of my friends to tell me they saw me on TV. :) And the red text by the picture is about how two USA girls knee deep in mud were helping clean up the massive tire pile up in the deep ravine. It was a fun day helping out to clean up this ravine for the swans with the Estonian community. Nothing makes you feel more part of something than when you come together with other people for a great cause. AND IT IS GREAT GETTING MUDDY ONCE IN A WHILE! :)

Another thing we're doing almost every week is going on a Food Hunt to find the best food in Tallinn with other couchsurfers who live in Tallinn. Last time we went to a Russian restaurant which was good. They served everyone speared sour pickles with sour cream in one bowl and honey in another to dip in. Interestingly enough the pickles dipped in honey is better than the ones dipped in sour cream in my opinion. Really what you're supposed to do they told us is eat a pickle dipped in one of these choices and then drink a shot of Vodka. Andrea and I didn't do this but many did. I can see how Russians got their reputation. :) Also, this guy next to me had PIG TONGUE and offered it to me. While trying to forget what it really was, I tried it and it tasted like tender sliced ham. It was surprisingly really good and not chewy at all. Everyone should try it! :)

Well, that's all for now, but I'll try to post more regularly when interesting things happen. :)

I love y'all!
-Shera

Yeah for language acquisition!!!

Today I reached a language milestone. As I walked into the grocery store I immediately saw a rack full of magazines, much like in the states. I looked at them and was surprised and excited that I could read one of the article titles! It said, "Mis rahvustest mees on voodis parem," which roughly translated means, "Which nation's men are better in bed." I laughed the whole time I shopped.

A day in the life...

It's me, Andrea, the prodigal blogger. Okay, first of all, in response to Shera's last post, yes Kadri and I did get lost. Who wouldn't? There are no road signs for anything. Second of all, the main reason (well, second main reason after getting lost) we were late was because half the road was under construction and I was driving on a washed out dirt/mud road for what seemed like forever. Besides, it was really nice getting to stay with Kadri's grandparents.

Okay, several people have asked, either myself or my sisters, what I'm doing here and what life is like. I'll try to answer that the best I can. Every morning I wake up, then I wander around in a daze for a little bit because sometimes it takes me a while to get my bearings after I've slept for a long time. Then I try to exercise for a little bit, get ready for the day and read the. After that I generally do what homework we had in language school, and I try to listen to a chapter of the Bible in Estonian. In theory, this will help me learn the language, it's still too early to tell. If I still have time to kill (I usually do), I check facebook or email, or something equally productive. Then it's off to language school!!

Every day from 12:15-1:45 we have Practical Estonian where we learn to say things like "Tere, minu nimi on Andrea. Ma olen ameeriklane, aga praegu ma elan ja õpin Tallinnas " (Hello, my name is Andrea. I'm American, but now I live and study in Tallinn). On Mondays for an hour and a half afterward we have Estonian Culture. There we learn to say things like, "Seal on Tiit; ta on külasant. Ta magab ruhis. Ei, ma ei taha jaheliha. Ma tahan mulgi kapsad. Kas laut on kaevu kõrval?" (There is Tiit; he is the village beggar. He sleeps in a dugout. No, I don't want meat jelly with bones. I want stewed sauerkraut with barley groats. Is the barn next to the well?) On Wednesdays we have Estonian History where we take field trips and our teacher tells us stories about that place. I love school. After school sometimes we have a late lunch, sometimes we just go home and relax for the rest of the afternoon. I try to play with my rabbit (that's right, my rabbit named Tumbleweed) a little bit everyday. On Monday evenings we have our Bible study, sometime during the week we have a team meeting, and then somehow every other evening is filled with something. I don't know how it happens, but there's always someplace to go. It changes depending on travel and the weather.

Our schedule has changed quite a bit since summer ended. There aren't as many trips and games at the park. Right now I want to look for a way to help the community and maybe get locals we know to join. Anyway, that's my day in a nut shell.

Cycling to the Island of Kadri

So as I promised, here is my story about biking to Vormsi.

It was Friday morning when the couchsurfer, Edgar (who I met at the summer camp in Southern Estonia), and I started our biking trip to Kadri's summer home on Vormsi island by taking the train about 30 km west towards the island. We biked the rest of the way to Haapsalu (70 km) where we had to wait for Kadri and Andrea. They were coming by car. The bike ride was actually pretty alright. It made my butt really sore but other than that none of the rest of me got sore and we did go at a rather fast pace. We did the whole 70 km in 4 hours. Not only was our time good, but we made that good time while 2 hours of our riding was in rain....so we arrived in Haapsalu soaked and wet, but luckily the sun came out when we got there so we found some benches and laid down to dry. Since we biked so fast to Haapsalu we had 4 hours to kill before Andrea and Kadri got there, so we ate a ton, went to an old train museum, biked some more by the beach, and then when to the port to wait some more for Andrea and Kadri.

It was getting really close to the time the ferry was leaving to Vormsi island, so we called Andrea and Kadri to see where they were. Well....they said they were lost, so Edgar and I decided to miss the ferry because there was no point going to the island without Kadri so all four of us ended up spending the night in Haapsalu at Kadri's grandparents apartment. It was wonderfully nice and cozy. :)

The next day, Saturday, we caught the ferry to Vormsi and settled into the house. I loved that it was a real summer house that has a real country feel to it, because you can only get water from a well (no running water) and everything you cook you must start a fire for. For the people that know, I love playing with fire. :) We also were able to pick lots of fresh fruits growing everywhere like apples, black current berries, yellow raspberries, strawberries, red berries, and other berries I didn't know what they were (but we are not dead or sick so I guess they weren't poisenous). :) The whole day was rainy so we set up a big tent covering and grilled and stay outside all day even though it was raining. Some of the older locals (probably most of the locals are old) came and hung out with us. One of them who is the island's local drunk hungout with us the most and gave us a plastic bag full of wild boar meat (at least that is what we thought it was) which I will tell you more about a little later. So once it got late we went inside and played card games. They taught Andrea and I how who to play a Russian card game and this game called Seven (I really like this one). Then we taught them how to play Slap Jack and Spoons. Oh how Spoons got vicious and bloody (Kadri got a gash in her arm from fighting over the spoon with me, but she almost was wrestling with Andrea for the spoon). :) After playing for quite so time we went to bed.

The next day, Sunday, we got up and got ready for biking around the island (Kadri had bikes for everyone who needed one). So we biked about 40 km around the island going in lots of muddy paths. One path was so muddy that we left our bikes and tried to walk carefully to not get muddy. Eventually I got so tried of trying to not get muddy that I started just walking right in the middle of the muddy puddles (lets just say my socks will never be white again). :) We went to all sorts of places and it was a lot of fun. When we got back 6 hours later from biking and looking around the island we grilled out again, cooking the wild boar meat that the local gave us and some chicken. We cut the wild boar meat with an axe and put it on spear sticks. Once it was cooked we ate it but we all of thought it tasted a little gamey (don't tell anyone this but we feed most of it to the local dogs). While we were grilling we realized the last ferry back to the main land was leaving very soon so we hurried up and packed and cleaned up and left. We left the island a little after 8 pm. After we got back to the main land, we ended up taking apart Edgar and I's bikes and fitting them with everything else with the four of us in this tiny car, so we could get back to Tallinn quickly. So our packed little car made it back to Tallinn and Edgar who is a bike mechanic put the bikes back together.

So in other words, THIS WEEKEND was AMAZING!!! :)

Festival Time

So it has been another month and you deserve some more stories. First I'll explain the picture. This picture is of the song festival that Estonia has every 5 years. Yes, that's right every 5 years. I felt honored to be able to experience this festival to celebrate Estonia with their songs that have literally brought them peace from enemies in the past. It was cool to see the Estonians sing together. They truly are singers at heart whether or not they can sing well. :)

Camping...so camping in southern Estonia is amazing! Not only is the scenery awesome, but the people are as well. We hung out, went to the black and white lake (I swam, well doggy-paddled across both really big lakes), picked wild blueberries, did the sauna, then jumped into the freezing cold pond, have deep conversation (and some not so deep), grilled out, slelt, then did it all again. It was fun and tiring all at the same time.

I'm trying out the biking thing and this Friday and will be biking more than 70 km to get to Vormsi, Estonia and then again to get back to Tallinn on Sunday. It will feel good to accomplish this goal. Next time I blog I'll tell you all about the experience.

Until next time head aega (good bye),
Shera

Greece!

Wow! So it has almost been two months since I last blogged.

Alright, so here is a quick update before I tell you about my week in Greece.

Andrea and I have been hanging out a lot with Kadri. Estonian lessons with Margit have been put on halt due to an international class to learn Estonian for free. Making friends has been slow but hopefully (God willing) that part will pick up soon.

So Greece...it was awesome!!! It was so good to be around like-minded people again and to see they are going through similar things you are. It was good to praise the Lord together and get reminded that in order to make an impact your relationship with God must be first and that your motivation must be to bring glory to Him.

Oh and someone told me it would be interesting to hear something that is different in Estonia from the USA. So here it is...milk comes in a bag not a gallon container so you must have your own container to put the milk in when you get home.

Christ, Clubbing & Mormons

Okay so a lot of time has passed since the last time I really posted stories...I'll try and be as descriptive as possible. :)

In the post before this one, it has a picture of us who went to Pärnu (Josh also went). When we went there, we actually met 6 Mormons (2 girls and 4 guys). They told us all about how they got placed in Estonia (they said nothing about being called by God, it sounded more like an obligation to me). After hanging out with them for a little while the 2 girls left, but the 4 guys stayed and wanted to talk about the differences between what we believe and what the Mormons believe. They started out with what they believe which is God spawn spirit children and he made them physically human on earth and that humans have to do good works to become gods themselves. It was disturbing what they believe, because it was like they threw the Bible out the window. They asked us what salvation is for us and we told them that if you believe Jesus Christ, the son of God, died as payment for your sins and rose from the dead, then you will be saved and have eternal life just as it says in the Bible. So we told them after this, salvation is by God's grace not by works. Works are a result of the love we have for God and His saving grace. They are not a requirement for salvation. We also told them our personal testimony in how we came to know God and His gift to us. Let's just say that was an odd day, but God only knows if they took any of what came out of our mouths to heart.

In other news, we've been hanging out with the two girls from Finland, Minna and Kirsi, and Kadri who is Estonian quite a bit. Playing games and hanging out at the apartment to playing sports by the beach. Friendships are forming! :)

LAST NIGHT, I went to a club with Kadri and her friend, Erle for the eve of May 1st which is a big holiday here (sort of like Halloween). So I thought it would be weird to go, but it ended up being really fun and worth while. The three of us hung out and talked (although it was a little hard to hear). Then we danced quite a bit (no worries, they don't dance dirty like in the US). After a while we went into the hall of the place to get less noise and some air since the place was packed. A guy came up to me and we started talking. The conversation basically consisted of what we were doing at this time in our lives, the difference between Houston and Tallinn, US and Estonian politics, and then spiritual beliefs. The conversation went to spiritual things, because I told him I was helping out churches. He was like your not Mormon, are you? I automatically told him no and then we discussed what we thought about Mormons. He told me how he respects people that are religious, but he doesn't believe in anything like a God himself. I told him what I believed about Jesus Christ. We talked about Jesus a little bit, but he doesn't believe that all the events surrounding Jesus really happened, because he didn't see them happen himself. I'm curious to see what he believes in the future. After over an hour of talking, we parted ways and Kadri and I went home.

Things are happening here in Estonia! Yay! :)