Some Estonian music🎶

I thought it might be interesting for you to listen to some Estonian music, because there is so much great music here. I love Estonian when its sung it sounds so beautiful.

Here is a playlist with all my favourite songs :)

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLudzMImIG3ZF3KDmsDIPeSWvIYz1NE7MF

And here a playlist which shows a bit more variety.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSaAP5KQYjD_OqNevreuYw9GcsWCU-wcP

Narva | 81 days

Narva, the third biggest town in Estonia is different from all the others. While walking through the streets, you can only hear Russian speaking people, even in the supermarket the woman on the cashdesk greets you with "privjet" instead of "Tere" and there are also many signs which are written in Cyrillic script. Narva is the most eastern town of Europe and with a Russian population of 95%, also one with the highest percentage of foreigners in Estonia. It doesn't really felt like Estonia anymore. Once it was a really nice town similar to Tallinn, but everything except one house got destroyed during the 2nd world war.
There is only a river seperating Estonia from Russia, I somehow hadn't imaged Russia to be so close!
We went there from Thursday to Saturday and stayed in the only Estonian school in the town. We also had the opportunity to do some activities with the students on Friday morning and in the evening. Besides that we just walked around and visited the castle and some sort of underground tunnels that provided refuge for the citizens of Narva. It was such a great weekend with the best people in the whole world. I have only known them for such a short periode of time, but I can't imagine a life without them and I don't want to think about the fact, that we are going to have only the Latvia trip and the End year seminar together. Less than 3 months in Estonia. Soon I will be back in Germany. On the one hand I am looking really forward to it, but on the other hand everything will be entirely over and it's never gonna be like it is right now. 'Don't count the days, make the days count.' This quote describes it perfectly.

Russia!!

The bridge between Estonia and Russia

The last winter days (Pictures)

Trip to the sea❤️ 

 

Breathtaking sunset

At the lake in Kadrina

Ice fishing

Frozen Waterfall 

Saaremaa theaterfestival❤️

Oh how I hate it, when you finished writing a post and then you can't open the draft anymore. Thank you blogger app.
However this weekend was the school theatre festival on Saaremaa, for me the first time to visit the islands, but I didn't see anything besides the view from out of the car window and the aula of the school, where the performances took place from the morning till the evening. And as everything here it was of course not only a festival but competition.
I am still impressed how high the scale was set and I really enjoyed watching the plays, although it was impossible to concentrate in the evening after a long day trying to figure out what the actors were telling me.
On Sunday we performed our play, 'kuu peal on parem' or 'it's better on the moon', which is about the life of dogs, living on the street. I would say we did really well. Best actor and best actress, a nomination for the best play and a few special awards too. It means a lot to me and I am incredibly thankful for the experience and the amazing days I had.

Only in Estonia- a loaf of selfmade bread as a prize :D

Head aega 💕

Change of host family

Only 3 1/2 months left and time is runnig. I want to make the best out of my exchange and that's why I decided to change my family.

I was actually thinking about changing for a long time, we just didn't fit and had different expectations of each other. I don't want to write more about it, because it's something too personal to post on the Internet. But still, I am very thankful for everything my old host family has done for me. I had also really great moments there. And for every other exchange student, who is reading this and who might be thinking about changing family too: you're not weak because you want to change and you are not a worse exchange student. It is something completely normal, because no one knows before if people fit or not. 

Now I am already for two days in my new host family(I could stay at my old school) and as far as I can say that now, it was absolutely the right decision. 

My new host family is so wonderful! I have four host siblings, two sisters in my age, one 5year old brother and one 9year old sister and I'm sharing a room with my oldest sister. And not to forget the two cats and the two guinea pigs, of course! It's so great having a cat again, I didn't know how much I have missed that*--*

Yesterday we went sledge riding, with big rings (?) and it was really fun! After that we ate Viinerpirukas and drank hot peppermint tea, and it was just a wonderful day. Today I built a snowman with my sister, and I think we did really well :D

I am really happy here.:)

February

 I was basically at home in the last two weeks. I travelled in turns to Tartu und Tallinn, holding presentations on different schools in English and Estonian together with past exchange students from Estonia and sometimes even with other current exchange students. I really enjoyed giving the presentations and I think it was a quite useful experience. I can definitely know better now how it feels like to be in the teacher position &how difficult and exhausting this can be. But mostly it was fun and I really liked talking about my exchange .
And on the weekend was already the Mid Year Seminar We talked about the first half of our exchange and what the second half is going to bring. We also had a language test,just for yourself, which was quite hard, but in the end it turned out quite well for me.
I had a bit time in Tallinn and Tartu and I finally took some pictures :)

YFU people ♥

Then Valentinsday came, which is here also called 'Friendsday', friends give each other chocolate bars for example, and because it was on a Sunday this year, we had a little celebration in school. There was a little surprise waiting for everyone in our lockers: a bonbon with a nice quote and a lotterie number (but I wasn't lucky :D)

Maize balls with caramel called like a part of the eye: Iris :)

Tallinn

And now the pictures of Tartu:)