Mis on sinu lemmik Koogi?

Hello everyone, I trust you've been well? Not a lot has been going on around here, just the usual writing, study, classes, drinking and partying although that doesn't mean that I havn't had an adventure or two!

Last weekend I went to the cute village of Koogi to hang out with my friend Liina and her family as they celebrated the birthday of Liina's brother's wife!

The bus sign for Koogi, a town whose name translates to 'Cake'

We arrived in the dead of night (aka about 5pm, stupid dark Estonian late-Autumn!) and met Liina's parents who were both really nice, despite not speaking much English. Her mum spoke more than she let on and to be fair I speak more Estonian than I let on too, but despite not being able to communicate directly her family were still very kind and Liina was there to translate. I also met two of her sisters, younger sister Margit and older sister Liis who both spoke great English, Liis having even spent time in Australia.

With some basic greetings done, we walked the massive 1:30 minute walk to Liina's brother's house where we had a very nice dinner. It turns out mushrooms in Estonia are friggen delicious, who would have known? I spent most of the dinner harassing Margit in Estonian asking her what her favourite things are, most of the time I was met with the 'I don't have a favourite ' response, although we later ascertained that her favourite cake was chocolate cake and her favourite singer was Beyoncé; both good choices.

After dinner we went back to Liina's house for tea and then to bed. I woke early the next morning but stayed in bed and watched movies on my computer, thrilling stuff!

Liina and I at the waterfall.

Then we went off and I saw the widest/biggest waterfall in Estonia, Jägala Falls which was very pretty and I discovered that I can't take a photo any more without looking fat in the face (Jury is still out if it's the fault of all the extra layers or I am actually fat) and drove around her village and surrounding areas and it was all very cute, however I've been assured that it's all much nicer in the Spring!

When we got back we watched Eurovision 1997 with Liina's family which was lots of fun until I it got right to the end when her entire family came to watch Love Shine A Light and then I remembered that Minn Hinsti Dans came next, that was a little awkward (Eurovision peeps will feel me here, everyone else click this for context) and then we just hung out and ate food until it was time to go back to Tallinn. A few uneventful hours later including Liina's first time in the First Class carriage of an Estonian train we were back in Tartu. That was pretty much it!

The other highlight of this week (highlight is a stretch) is that I had to make a poster of something to do with life in Estonia instead of attending Estonian class, however since half my classes had been cancelled I kinda forgot to go to the others (As we speak I should be in Nordic Viking and Medieval Literature, oops!)

I have also come to the realisation and acceptance of something that I've known for years: Despite my love of language, I'm really kinda crap at learning them! I just don't have the natural flair. As such, I will probably not be taking Estonian class next semester as I've pretty much already hit my ceiling there and the grammar has become too complicated for me to remember, but fear not, I hear that a Dutch class will be taught in English next semester, so I might take that and see how I fair at a language much closer to home. I hope nobody is too disappointed!

The second realisation was already known by me: I'm terrible with kids but awesome with Animals. Evidenced by my awkwardness around Liina's nephews and total lack of idea how to deal with them and the amount of love showered apon Liis' dog who loved me. So cute!

Well, thats all for now! Nägemist!