Hotel Park Tartu

Well, my time in Tartu is VERY rapidly coming to an end, and I suddenly have 20,000 things to do. I've spent the last 2 or 3 days trying to simultaneously get all my forms signed, close my bank account, write a 10-page paper, and see everyone that I want to see before I leave (which is quite difficult when some of them leave for trips where they'll return after I leave). I still have 3 more pages left on that paper, and I have to get one more ...

... talking to me. He started in Estonian, and I told him I speak English, and then found out he's an American from Idaho and Kentucky in his 2nd year of his "tour of duty" evangelizing to the Estonians. He was very nice, but I told him up front that I was happy going to the Baptist church in Tartu and that I would return to my church once I went back home, and he accepted that - I think he may have just been happy with not being stonewalled (as most Estonians will do) or ...

... games, so we went out with the two Estonians and wound up at one of the local bar/restaurants, Suudlevad Tudengid (Kissing Students; named after the statue in the town hall square of the same theme) for a few hours talking about music, life, and the impact of the Soviet occupation on Estonia. Indrek had some interesting comments about the effect on Estonian life and perception of Russia - he said that while Estonia has about 1 million people, Russia could raise a 1-million-man army in ...

... are usually very reserved people and they don't give a lot of emotional signs, so I guess I was really a weird sight. But now it's getting easier because I go every couple of days to get food and I've been able to not buy the whole store and alienate myself from the Estonian shoppers :) Things are finally starting to settle down a bit after the initial excitement of meeting everyone and socializing. The routine of class helps that, but we still manage to get together and have ...

... articles for the Good News that will go into the GN mailing which in most foreign countries as well as here requires an envelope. There are two articles from the current GN that are translated into Russian (by Natasha Weatherhead in Barbados) and two articles into Estonian translated by Toomas Schvak who lives in Tallinn. He has been a tremendous help to helping put more of our message into the vernacular. I ...

... which is about a 15 minute walk away. This museum is quite new and I had not seen it yet. Unfortunately, they closed at 4 PM and we were there about 4:30 PM. Next time. This is our last evening in Tartu. We decided to go to the Tsink Plekk Pang Chinese restaurant. Again, our two guests enjoyed the food and ambiance of another Tartu restaurant. Need to go home and pack. Tomorrow we take the bus back to Tallinn and Thursday to Sweden!

... It would be a 90 minute drive back to Smiltena. The pastor has a sermonette and sermon the next day at 10:00 am. His wife Elita has a children's Bible Study. A full day for all of them. They invited us to come and worship with them the next, but it would have been a bit much....next time! I wrote an article for the United News about Robert Schultz and this wonderful Latvian connection here. Bev and I stayed up another hour ...

... night we had a group dinner at a Chinese restaurant in town. I was a little apprehensive when told we were going here, but the food was excellent. There were lamb, beef, and chicken dished that differed in taste to what I was used to at our "100 ft." buffets. There were also quite a few curry dishes that seemed to have an Indian flare. My favorite dish was the "Angry Cow", a very spicy dish.

... gym and hated it. I am now in Tartu, the heart and soul of Estonia. Every local who's heard I'm coming here has been excited for me. I think they'd all live here if they could, and I must say I'm very much enjoying this university town. Founded as early as the 6th century AD, Tartu has been passed among greater powers for most of its history. In the mid-1800s, though, it became the centre for the Estonian national revival and in 1920, it was here the peace treaty ...

... her that I was coming home on the airplane very soon. We then came home and worked on the Russian data base as we had it. We have a separate data base for each country requesting the Bible Study Course. From this we will be making mailing labels and keeping track what lesson was sent out on what date. Right now we have requests from the following countries in Russian: Belarus Estonia ...