I made it to my host families house!

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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 article-ist\journalis 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 freakin love it! Also, I live in the middle of the country side which is also not very different from most of Estonia. My host family speaks English yet I told them that I want them to speak only Estonian because I really want to learn the language and the faster the better. If I am in dire need to speak English, then tough for me I guess. My family consists of a woman named Lea and her daughter Anette. Most of the time, Anette's boyfriend stays over so he is practically a host brother too (Martin is his name). That is it. Anette has a brother yet he lives in Tallinn so he is not around in the least bit.
The food is also very different. Not bad, actually quite enjoyable. Although it is a single mother, food is very cheap here so I am fed VERY well! Which is good because I have quite the relationship with food. Despite the fact that I eat so much, I notice that my pants are fitting a looser. AH! I went out to town earlier today and ate at a cafe with my host sisters friends and it was so funny because I ordered some pasta and a mocha and that was lunch for me. One thing I remember Alice Cooper talking about was when he was drinking sake with some friends, he did not feel that he was getting drunk so he just kept drinking. About an hour into this almost constant drinking, he got up to do I think go to the bathroom and he notice- all of the sudden that he was wobbly and could not really stand straight. He got all of the effects all at once and sort of like... BANG! Instant headache, and so on. Well, I ate my pasta and drank my drink and then I got up to go to the bathroom and I felt sort of the same except no headache and no drunkiness. It was just the whole wobbly part and couldn't stand straight. That was one of the weirdest things in the whole entire world so I sat there at my seat wondering if someone slipped something into my drink or my food... I didn't taste it yet I don't know about eating there anymore... Of course it could have been me just being the clumsy teenager that I seem to display at the worst possible times.
Nothing much more has happened. I feel like my English is getting worse already though. I pick up broken English so fast! EEEK! One thing I have noticed is that I am constantly lost in my own thoughts because Estonian is a blur for me most of the time. Except for those rare moments when I can pick out a colour or a number- then I get excited!
AH! Another thing! Lea (my host mother) kind of laughs- not so much at me yet sort of at the fact- that I wave and smile A LOT!!! This morning I came down and she was sitting at the table talking to Anette and I waved to her and she started giggling because I waved- she stopped mid-sentance to giggle at me waving to her! Oih. This whole meloncholy thing is really bugging. I smile at people randomly- forgetting that I am trying NOT to stick out like a sore thumb so they either assume that A) I am insane, B) I am drunk, C) I am American, or D) all of the above. I met my neighbors and they are from Russia visiting an older woman who is my real neighbor. Anywho, so I met them and hugged them because I would normally hug people I meet that are not weird. They kind of giggled at me- sound familiar?!- and then they asked my name and I smiled and remembered that I knew that in Estonian so I recited it in Estonian for them. They started smiling after I told them a few phrases that I knew that told about me in Estonian. You might have thought that they were smiling at the fact that I knew anything in Estonian, yet then you would be wrong. They stated talking to each other in Russian- my host mother knows Russian as well as Finnish, English, and another language I can't remember at the moment- and she responded by nodding and talking a bit back. Then I look over to the Russian woman who started the conversation and she is signaling to make a smile and she starts fake laughing- THEY'RE MOCKING ME!!!! AHHHHH!!! I have screwed up and managed to give other people the opprotunity to make fun of me already and it has only been three days! Only I think I could have managed that one. Later, after Lea and I got into the car, she told me that they were saying how sunny and happy I was by smiling and giggling a lot.
So those are all of the interesting stories I have to tell right now so check in in about a week or so because this was a really long one so tsau! Means bye in Estonian and is pronounced chow. Like Italian. Tsau!

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Comments

[Heater]

Yay!!!! I miss you so badly!!! I envy you so mush right now! I can't wait to go to Germany! Well we start school tomorrow so I'm going to start leaning German!!!!!!!!! Well love you lots. How was your small time in Deutschland? How are the men? They hot?

[Lauren]

I miss you so much this practically made me cry. Youre going to go and get all these cool new best friends and im missing you like crazy you have no idea. you are so amazing byrklie. i miss you so much. I love you! trust me your smiles and waves always make everyones day

[Piret]

that's sort of freakishly cute that your estonian friends teached you that the word good-bye means in estonian "tsau". i mean, of course it does, everybody uses it but it's actually a slang word, meaning nothing at all in literary Estonian. ah, nevermind. .) you're american? must me tough here in estonia, we're known for cold and angsty people and reticence. anyhow, best of luck and be strong (, Piret, a girl from Tartu (who discovered your blog accidentally and is not sure she should be reading it)

[sloan]

Tsau
So you have learned the language. Fabulous. I'm sure it was difficult. But what have you learned about the differences in our societies? I imagine that the Estonian elders were quite suppressed when the country was part of the USSR...do you think that is right? When I went to Hungary, a former soviet block country, I was absolutely SHOCKED to learn that many people were sorry that the iron curtain fell. That was theretofore unconceivable to me so I really wonder what the Estonians think. What customs do they have that you think are strange? Thanks for corresponding with me. Love, Sloan