Villa Margaretha Tartu

... we had time. We walked around the park on Toomemägi, then by the observatory over the Gunpowder Cellar, and finished up at the cathedral ruins and the former sledding hill. It was such a nice day! I took about 40 pictures, and I think Genevieve took 70 or so....there were so many things to capture. So then we returned to the dorm, I had some dinner, and then met with Ildiko (Hungary) and one of her friends from home who had come into town for this concert we went to ...

... finish, and too enormous, but it was tasty. After getting some food, we went to St. Olaf's church and climbed the ridiculous amount of spirally stairs to the top where we could look out over the city. It was an amazing sight, bit windy up there, but the view was spectacular. You can still see the wall (which is still pretty much intact) running through the city, and some of the main buildings elevated above everything else on a ...

... interesting rule differences, including the 24-second shot clock and different punishments for different penalties. Gameplay itself is also VERY different. It's much faster and more violent than the games I've been before. Tonight's game is to American basketball what the pre-lockout NHL is to current NHL standards. The players do a lot more pushing and shoving and general physical contact, and the refs allow it for the most part. But we got back from the game a little ...

... weekend in May available, I haven't decided when yet. But my semester will be finished early in June, and then I'm going to Rome and probably Malta for a few days. We're still trying to nail down some more concrete plans concerning returning to the states, but it's getting there :) Well, it's breakfast time for me, but I wanted to go ahead and get this update in before I get too busy this week.

... a few Americans here, but also a huge amount of other nationalities, so it's always an adventure. Sometime next week I expect to get a phone with an Estonian number, so I can call people occasionally if necessary. So that's about it for now...one of the pubs we went to is a converted gunpowder cellar, and they had live entertainment. The band's choices included "You Ain't Nothin' but a Hound Dog," "Pretty Woman," "Lookin' Out My Back Door," and other American classics...I kept ...

... News more relevant to people whose first language is Estonian, two of the articles from the GN are translated into Estonian. This is done by Toomas Schvaak. We really appreciate him doing this for us. This entire process was devised by Johnnie Lambert. There are a total of 320 pieces of mail that go out. The GN mailing list is 240 for Estonia. Then the Russian Bible Study lessons. We do not send them a GN because they know no English. Britt ...

... label. Bev would hear me moaning at the printer and knew that a bad sheet had been printed. I've had a bit of trouble with chkdsk errors on my disk that won't go away and I pray that this computer make it through the mailing!! Bev and I finish the Estonian part of the mailing. To celebrate, I take Bev for our third walk into town and we go to a little Georgian restaurant which is really good. Highly recommend it to anyone coming to Tartu. They ...

... parks, casles and caves. Spent some time just wandering around before hitting the supermarket to top up on pickles and then finding an appropriately löocated carpark. Had dinner and a few drinks at a local restaurant before retiring for our last night in hostel opel astra (a bit on the nose by this stage...). Our last day in the car consised of wandering a little more around Sigulda and then driving into Riga. Overall, a fantastic roadtrip and in its own way, a real highlight.

... their faults don't get me wrong, but the train to Tartu had vinyl seats of the leg-rippingly brown variety last seen on my parents Vauxhall Viva circa 1973. Add to this the soaring temperatures, body odour (not ours yet!) and the jammed windows and you have an uncomfortable 4 hour journey on your hands (or bums as it were). Regular readers (mum? Rosa?) will know that Tartu is Estonia's ...

... writing from Malawi in South Central Africa is a good read. If you haven't been following it, take a look at http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/pm yers/africa_2007/tpod .html or you can access it easily from my website at www.kubik.org It is a story about three young people who are on a LifeNets Medical Mission at the Chizeni Clinic in Balaka, Malawi. Phil Myers is an excellent writing and tells the story well.