Okay, so I am really bad at keeping up this blogging thing. I am also really bad at journaling. I looked at my journal this week and I hadn't written in it since my birthday. Which was at the end of august. I suppose I should work harder on this. So update. The weekend after I wrote last I went out to Haapsalu, which is on the northwestern coast, to have a weekend with the other exchange students and Liis, who was our estonian tutor. we had a good time, and it was good to see liis again, as she is moving to australia next week. The week after that I went to Tartu with my host mom's brother's wife, and just relaxed for a while. Luisa came back to Tallinn with me on thursday, and on friday we all went to finland for the weekend. we had a great time in finland, saw all the other exchange students in our district, and went to an old house for the weekend to hang out, sauna and enjoy ourselves. of course, because we are in europe, we went to a castle. another castle. but it was really quite cool. this last week was exam week, so i slept a lot, studied estonian and saw the queen. yep, queen elizabeth 2 was in tallinn, so we went to the concert in the townhall square, and i saw he with my own eyes. it was really really cool. i wish i could have been closer, but it was still really cool anyway.

anyway, new pictures. i cannot format to save my life, so we have arik with his flag, luisa, who is german, with rogério, who is brazilian. then we have gustavo, arik and rogério together at liis' summer house. then we have katie, american, me and rogério contemplating apples at liis' summer house. that is all for today, so i will be off. tomorrow i go to a birthday party for annika, who is estonian and turning 17.

Hello I promised a while ago I would post after the Estonian tour, which I didn't, and it has been two weeks, so I figured I should get on with it. It was a ton of fun, I loved seeing the other exchange students, most especially another Canadian, John, although he is from Ontario, but we will forgive him for that. We had a great time, saw lots, and lots and lots and lots of castles, and just when you thought we couldn't possibly find another castle, well, we found one. The Australians, who have been here 8 months already, say that Eurotour is much the same, but that it was still absolutely amazing. I love the castles, and am still fascinated by the idea of having so many, but after having twisted my ankle many a time, the cobblestone streets are starting to lose their effect. Below are some pictures from the tour, as well as some other extras added in, and I hope you enjoy them. This weekend I go to Haapsalu, and if I remember and have the patience and the time, I will post pictures from there too.


Okay, first and most impressively is my statue of Lenin. Can you guys at home even imagine being able to touch a statue of Lenin. It was spectacularly cool. I couldn't believe it. It was such a weird and wonderful experience. I really am in some place completely different than home. This is in the Narva castle court yard, which is right across the Narva river from Russia. Really awesome.
This is me and Russia, bad picture, but it shows I am about 300 metres away from Russia, how wickedly cool is that. Like AMAZINGLY COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So spectacular.
This is John the Canadian and a fireplace. In one of the many manor houses. Mom would have said write it down. But they all look the same. This was the second day of the tour if that helps. I think





Okay, so I think that is all today, I will get more pictures up later. I love you all, and miss you lots. And there will be more mail and postcards on the way, I am just hopelessly behind in that respect. I am having a good time, although still a little awkward, but always getting better. Elisabeth