http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Byrklei/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Byrklei en-us Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:50:37 +0000 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:50:37 +0000 Mexican food night was an adventure. It was held in a dorm that is on the school grounds so everyone that came had an easy place to get to. Then my friend PilleRiin and I started with making rice krispy treats not Mexican food I know yet it was technically dessert. When we had that set up then we started making burritos and lastly nachos with meat. I found no idea how yet I managed some ch http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Saaremaa/blog-401474.html I know that this entry is much too late however here it is.Ever since I moved from my last host familiesrsquo house which is about two months ago now I have been so busy. More than I can believe still has happened. Here are a few pictures of my new host familiesrsquo house. It is a cabin and is real wood. There are four rooms a sauna two bathrooms and a television room as well. They h http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Saaremaa/blog-401479.html I thought I would tell you a bit about Saaremaa. Living here for about three months and you guys still don't know too much about it. Here are some random things that I notice... still Half the days especially here on the island of Saaremaa are filled with either snow or rain or extreme clouds that look like either could happen at any moment. Once in a while if the wind blows just right you http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Saaremaa/Kuressaare/blog-386235.html Just a few days ago I visited the capital of Estonia Tallinn to see a few friends and to see the parliament building. The other exchange kids met us there in Tallinn of course too. When we got to the parliament building we met Estonia's prime minister Andrus Ansip. He is a funny man and showed us just for a joke a letter that George Bush Jr. hand wrote. Not meaning to be the sound hypocriti http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Saaremaa/Kuressaare/blog-383049.html To ski. Being an exchange student should have one golden rule. Well a few yet one above all else Expect the unexpected. It is not as easy as it appears and is just as rewarding when you figure out how those two sticks work as well as moving your feet with little boards attached to them. A couple of us exchange students the one in Estonia all went to this place that is in southern Estonia to g http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Saaremaa/Kuressaare/blog-375867.html I am sorry that this has taken so long to write yet I have been quite busy lately. To start it off I moved from Tartu to Saaremaa the biggest out of the three Estonian islands. I live right in the capital city called Kuressaare and it is wonderful. My family here is made up of my host mum my host dad and three host brothers. One of them Taavi lives in Tartu and goes to University there so I http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Saaremaa/Kuressaare/blog-364835.html I will start off with some news that some people may find irrelevant weird and out of the blue. I got my visa Officially I am allowed to stay in the country until three months past the end of April It is exciting that I donrsquot have to deal with that any more. My host sister took me to this place kind of like the post office and we waited for our number to be called took up my passport http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Saaremaa/Kuressaare/blog-355112.html I love Lapland It is in a very northern part of Finland and I was there with the other exchangies for about four days. It was so wonderful If you have ever heard 'walking in a winter wonderland' imagine that in REAL LIFE That is pretty much exactly how Lapland was. There was so much snow that someone from Arizona and New Mexico would have thought that it was impossible except for on televis http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Tartu/blog-351634.html It seriously was Actually there has been so much that has happened.Today first. There have been a few mornings when I go outside to get in the car to go to school and there is frost on the ground. No big deal since it just signified that it was a little colder than before. So when I walked outside this morning I noticed that there was frost. Fantastic. Now I start walking into the building of http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Tartu/blog-345990.html This whole week I don't have school because of fall break and I find it rather interesting. Of course Halloween isn't nearly as popular here as it is in America yet some people go trickortreating and have costume parties. I hope to find some in town soon. My adventures today consisted of the following searching for some soap telling someone of New Jersey and seeing HSM 3. My day started off http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Tartu/blog-339702.html This cat pretty much makes my night. Whenever I am in my room reading or online she always comes to visit me. We are pals and I decided that this cat makes me giggle so much that I am dedicating an entry to her. Sohfie is her name and she is one of the best host cats ever. Just take a look at the video and some of the pictures I know it is weird because this is a travel blog site yet this is a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Tartu/blog-340145.html So many different things have happened that I find it hard to summarize everything that I want to write about. First off last weekend I went on Estonian tour and it was grand Basically that is the topic of the authorsrsquo choice right now. The tour started on a Thursday I know and lasted until Saturday evening. Not only was it fantastic to see the other kids it was so stupendous to get t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Tartu/blog-335570.html So I did a really bad job explaining some stuff during the last entry sorry guys. Usually Rotary exchange students get two to four families that they stay with during the exchange. They change when their new club tells them that they will and it goes from there. I will be changing after Christmas and I will move to the Island of Saaremaa the biggest island that belongs to Estonia. I will stay w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Tartu/blog-333570.html Last weekend I went to Helsinki to attend a district conference. While there I met some kids who have been there for eight months already. All of them Aussies and Kiwis New Zealanders of course. All of the Estonians that are living here now attended as well except for the my Mexican friend Mariandrea and it was a blast. We had five hours to ourselves in Helsinki... sounds like trouble I kn http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Tartu/blog-328488.html This entry is long overdue and I apologize. My birthday. Definitely adventurous. I went to the island of Saaremaa. Alright before I get too much into detail let me start at the beginning. Lea and I started off my day with giving me roses and a present sounds like another mum I know cough MUM cough. We finally got out onto the road and were on it for about two and a half hours or so. After http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Tartu/blog-325051.html School as it turns out is not hard... yet. I imagine that it will be and very soon too. From what I hear people who go to my school are loaded down with homework and have to do loads of tests all the time. Kids come from all around Estonia to come to this school because of how fantastic it is. I am taking my classes and I am not really understanding most of it yet I am getting there.I have foun http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Tartu/blog-322002.html Lasted only an hour and a half long. Well that was how long I was in class anyway. It is so different from America yet also similar. I supposedly have eight classes in one day and my day starts at eight. It is nice to have a later start that in New Mexico So excited for that So today we had an opening ceremony and there was a guy I met back in Finland who happens to be going to the same schoo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Tartu/blog-318674.html So today my host sister and her friends all took me out to Tallinn. For those who don't know it is the capital of the country I now live in. It was about a two hour drive so that was boring yet once we got there it was so sweet It reminded me of America in the 1920s because of the old coca cola signs and the dresswear in the windows. Then as the day went on the old buildings didn't fit the A http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Tartu/blog-316536.html It seems like it would never come yet here it is. Full and total boredem. And let me tell you the Olympics were never so much fun to watch. Do it at home and it's not NEARLY as much fun as it is in another country. American music seems to be what everybody in Estonia listens to and a bit of German. Can't really remember their names yet it is good stuff. OH I play soccer in the back yard with th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Tartu/blog-312190.html I thought I would try to wait until I had something to talk about much like a story yet nothing has really come to mind and I know that I have become a somewhat newspaper articleistjournalis by starting my blog. So here is to all my dedicated fans It is different here. Very different than say most of New Mexico and most of Arizona... which most of my readers are from. It is so rainy and I f http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Estonia/Tartu/blog-310916.html