Hotel London Tartu

... and then Riga. My flight leaves from Riga at 22:50, so I'll have a few hours to kill there, but I've done it before so I'm not too worried. Maybe those bus rides and dead hours in the airport will allow me to catch up on this blog....<br><br><br>We'll see :)<br><br>Catch you on the flip side.<br>

... with Estonians. On Wednesday I introduced two of our Estonian friends to Serenity, and they seemed to like it. Genevieve also watched, and we've been watching Firefly too, so it seems we can chalk up another convert :) Speaking of converting, I was approached by a Mormon today in the town hall square during the May Day celebrations (more on that later). I had been told about them by Jim, one of the Americans involved with the local Baptist church, so I wasn't too shocked when he ...

... outdoors. There will be markets and festivals and things once it gets a little warmer, too. Some interesting things have happened, though, including meeting some more Estonians and hanging out with the ones I had met before. One of the girls (Kristiina) and her boyfriend (Indrek) have applied to spend next year at UNC Greensboro, and there are 3 UNCG girls here this semester, so it seemed like a good idea for them to all meet each other. That night one of the local bars was showing a few ...

... been the experience of grocery shopping. People here go get the food that they need, exactly when they need it, so they may go 3 or 4 times in a week depending on the schedule they eat on. It's been strange for me because, as most of you know, I eat A LOT. So at one point last week when we went, I ended up carrying 2 of the little handbaskets filled with food (because the stores are really too crowded to efficiently use a wheeled cart) and people were really giving me odd looks ...

Our day goes more smoothly than I thought it would. Today I have a long list of things to in getting our January/February Good News annd other literature mailed out. It's a bit different this time because we have received many many new subscription requests from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Moldova. This will more than double our mailing from this time. OK. We start. First, I print out the ...

... in the US. Fifteen minutes after we returned to the Aparmtent Britt and Andrus came back. They had gone on a walk about town and visited a medical library/museum. Katrin had been with them earlier, too. Tartu University has a medical faculty. We talked some more with Andrus present. He had some philosophical questions. He then left on his bicycle for home. The four of went back to town. We wanted to visit the KGB cells ...

... a new gentleman and his son Ivers. Of the Estonians we had Helga, Helgi, Katrin, Andrus and Toomas. And there were the four of us Americans. Sunset came at 9:43 PM and that's about when we ended our meeting. Robert Schultz suggested that we pray to God at that point and Britt Taylor asked a meaningful blessing mentioning of various nationalities meeting for a common purpose. We said farewell to the group driving back to ...

... many ethnic restaurants. While I was walking, I noticed Middle Eastern, Italian, Indian, Greek, Turkish restaurants. Tartu is also becoming a very modern and economically vibrant city. You can see construction all over town (mainly coming from Finnish and Swedish investment). Estonia has the fastest growing economy in Europe mainly due to favorable tax rates and trade restrictions ...

... favorite pair of poles (wouldn't want to damage your favorite pair on the asphalt) and a few friends et voila! Skiing in the summer! You don't need Dubai's fake ski resorts, you have roller-skis! Which is what I saw the people of Tartu doing yesterday. They were very into it, too, practicing form, working their way up those hills, going into tucks on the downhill. Rather funny and incomprehensible for someone like me, who had to take cross-country skiing in high ...

... and talk through a telephone. It took a little getting used to doing this, but after while it was OK. He is from the border city of Valga which sits on the Estonian / Latvian border. It was a good visit and I intend to come to see him each time I visit here. Tomorrow we're scheduled to visit another prisoner here. Bev got a hold of me on Skype and I was able to speak to my granddaughter and ...