Blogs from Estonia, Europe - page 40

Before we made our 30 minute journey to the bus stop, we enjoyed the breakfast that the very nice owner made for us (we had to leave really early and we told him he didn’t need to worry about our breakfast but he insisted—so nice). Our bus was actually quite small, and ridiculously hot inside during the entire 6 hour ride. The scenery however was beautiful. At one point we passed this field full of yellow flowers. It was amazing. About an hour before we arrived in Tartu we started talking to another girl on the bus. She was Estonian and was actually going to be studying in the States for the fall semester. Before we got off the bus and headed in search of our hostel (apparently the only one in Tartu), we exchanged names ... read more

Early in the morning we left our hostel, backpacks on, as we made our way out of Old Town to the #2 bus stop once again. We had to wait for a bit before the bus came and we ended up having a conversation with an Estonian man who claimed to be an ex sharp shooter and was quite clearly drunk. He wished us farewell with a God Bless America as we boarded the bus. I actually managed to sleep a bit on the way to Kuressaare, waking up shortly before we boarded the ferry. The ride wasn't very long, but it allowed us to stretch our legs a bit before we had to hop back on the bus. After buying bus tickets for the following day, we followed our hostels directions (it was actually a ... read more

Oh its sooo hard....yet another day of sunshine and blue skies. Luxury of not having to be on duty as it were until 9.30am. Myself Sarah and Carol were collected by our host Sylvi and strode out on a 20min walk to see a local Kindergarten. Spent some time looking at the classrooms and talking to the teachers. Found many similarities with our own system. Although children don't start a formal education until 7 the state actually heavily supports childcare in these kindergartens at a cost of 25 of your British pounds a month. No wonder parents are falling over themselves to get there children in. AND they have teachers working with each age group from 1 year old to 6 who have qualified teacher status. Their aim is to have children reading, writing and able ... read more

We arrived to sun. After the weather we had in London we were slightly relieved. Since we needed to take the bus into town from the airport, the first thing we did was stop at an ATM. The first one we tried wouldn’t give us any money. Luckily, I spotted another one which bestowed our money upon us without hesitation (thank you Hansapank!). Then, after breaking our large bills (I bought some postcards, and Alex accidentally bought a $2 pack of gum—she was a little confused on the exchange rate), we caught the #2 bus to the city center, and eventually found our way to the hostel. From there we wandered into old town, taking pictures along the way and stopping to look at the various merchant stands that were set up. Tallinn’s medieval old town, ... read more

Today we visited Tabasalu school. This is a typical school. It has 716 on role aged from 7 to 19. Staff were split up into the age ranges they taught and went off to see what happens in those lessons. We all saw three lessons and then went for lunch and had a tour of the school. Came back to the hotel and had an 2 hour! meeting about what we had seen, what had been learnt and could be cascaded to our schools at home. Teachers were impressed with the set up and teaching in the kindergarten. We were all impressed with the state of the school building.... read more