Getting off at the Slutstation.

Now, because my family reads this blog I feel I should explain the title of the blog at the start rather than humorously leaving it until the end like I usually do. Slut is the word for 'end' in Swedish, and was one of many many words that to a native English speaker looked absolutely hilarious and on the train to Malmö, I was repeatedly informed that Copenhagen (or Köpenhamn in Swedish) was the slutstation. Tee hee!

My journey began Wednesday last week when I took a late bus up to Tallinn, my flight was at 5:10am so I needed to be up there at night. What I didn't plan was what I was going to do so the start of my trip was terribly boring with me sitting in the airport until I could check in. After a very brief visit to Riga airport, I arrived in Stockholm where I promptly boarded a train to Malmö! The train was very nice but you had to pay for wifi if you wanted to use it (Estonia has spoilt me obviously). Upon arriving at Malmö station, I was greeted by Emma and Dan who I know from Melbourne. That night we proceeded to drink a litre of vodka and harassed his dorm mates who had just gotten back from the sea battle!

The next day we spent in Copenhagen where we saw The Little Mermaid statue and the Lego store and it was generally lovely before I boarded a plane back to Stockholm where I spent the night drinking with David Stock and discovered the joys of McDonald's cheese sauce! Yum!

On Saturday I caught up with old school friend Britta Dahlborg and super schalger fan Lina Paulsson before Lina and her friend Johannes came out for a karaoke party! There was Bengtzing, Carola and almost every one of the last 20 Swedish entries sung, as well as a heap of MF entries! Amazing times.

With that over, I spend Sunday doing bugger all and then went back to Tallinn.

Thats about all I can say, there will be photos on facebook!

Currently I'm sitting in the press centre in Yerevan for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest! Woo!

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!

Finnotastic!

You know what they say, third time's a charm! And this is apparently true when it comes to poorly planned weekend trips to Finland! Although this time I actually bought my boat tickets ahead of time so my sense of stinginess forced me to actually go!

My boat!

So at 4:30am after drinking heavily, I got my shit together and ran to the bus station. I almost missed it because of the actions of someone who shall not be named, but he knows who he is and will probably be pissed at me for vaguely alluding to him, but this is for almost making me miss my bus! mwuhaha!

At 8:00am I was on board the Lindalines Karolin boat bound for Helsinki and immediately fell asleep. I woke up to daylight and perhaps one of the bleakest skylines I've ever seen upon arriving in a foreign country. A far cry from last month's brilliant blue dutch sky!

Don't worry, the rest of Helsinki was much nicer than this!

Once I arrived I sent the message out to my friends to let them know I'd arrived, but as it turned out, everyone was busy until 3pm. So I killed 5 hours walking around Helsinki randomly and in the process seeing one of my lecturers from Tartu. This time was passed as follows: Wandering, drinking coffee, sitting in the middle of a public square since it was the only place I could find free wifi, drinking coffee and wandering. Adventure! My hands eventually went purple from the god damn cold-ass Helsinki.

3pm rolled around and I finally caught up with my friend Saara and her friend Helmi, who explained the dramas that caused the delays and we scooted off to a nice restaurant where I had some good reindeer meat burger thingy and some ice cream which cost more than I spend in a week on groceries here in Estonia. It was at this point we were joined by another friend, Axel! Then we went clothes shopping, it was at that point when people kept staring at us that I suddenly remembered I was clothes shopping with famous Finns! An interesting experience for sure!

After purchasing a new jacket and almost losing my scarf Axel and Saara went to see a play while Helmi and I wandered around and looked at stuff. Eventually we all rejoined and took some photos in the train station! Neat!

This is just an odd photo for all involved. Saara looks good though!

After a quick run through the supermarket we said goodnight to Axel and went back to Saara's for power smoothies and bed! It was awesome to finally meet Saara and Axel and cool to hang out with the very quirky Helmi, but alas all good trips must come to an end and that took us a about 200km to the north west, to Tampere!

After a ticketing issue which meant I had to pay €50 for my train ticket I arrived in Tampere to meet my other friend Eveliina! Tampere, like Helsinki is perhaps not a touristic paradise, but it was a very peaceful pretty town, and it was actually a little sunny on Saturday! Eveliina cooked me some food and listened to her potential Euroviisut 2012 entry and then it was off to the Karaoke bar! I got my sing on in Finnish all over their 1973 entry 'Tom Tom Tom' and then Eveliina helped me discover how terrible of a rapper I am as we painfully dragged ourselves through 2009's 'Lose Control'. After each performance we received great applause and someone even came up to me to thank me for singing in Finnish. I guess it means something that a random Australian appreciates their weird ass language!

Eveliina mopping the floor with Christina Aguilera's Beautiful

We also went to the Näsinneula, a big ass tower in Tampere where we could see all the lights in the town and caught a movie; Abduction startting Taylor Lautner! Decent storyline, good action and just enough instances of him not wearing a shirt, a winner all around, except I almost lost my scarf AGAIN.

When Sunday came, I had to say goodbye to the effervescent Eveliina and head back to Helsinki and spent several hours trying to find the west port as my boat was cancelled and I had to take the Tallink back. The rest of the story is less exciting and pretty much the highlight was watching three episodes of 'Bones' over the shoulder of the guy next to me on the bus back to Tartu, thank god for subtitles!

All in all, I would describe Finland as a nice country that is reasonably uneventful, particularly at this time of year, but it's definately a nice place to visit with friends and as you can see Horace made some new friends!

Final thought: If I hadn't have interviewed these guys, I'd never have made friends with them, so I guess the thought here is always do stuff you love, because you might end up friends with a bunch of people who are famous in Finland!

Oh, I dunno. Hanging out I suppose?

One can't help but notice that I have been absent from my blog for a litte while, is this the beginning of the end? The point where I forget about my blog and leave it to obscurity?

Hopefully not! I think it's more likely though that I have not left Tartu since I got back from the Netherlands so I assumed that nobody would want to hear about my doing nothing. But I guess most of you have lives far more boring than mine, and who I am I to keep you without your only source of entertainment?

Narcissism aside, I did actually leave Tartu once! Last Sunday in fact. After an overall lazy day in my room, at about 2:30pm I casually strolled to the bathroom to find roommate Mark Lemon frantically getting ready to leave to pick up a guitar he'd just bought from the Estonian version of ebay and asked if I wanted to come to Tallinn to get it, so I said yes! We travelled all up 5 hours there and back, and were only in Tallinn for about 2 hours, but overall it was worth it!

Just Mark and his guitar

But I can't say I've done a huge amount since then. I went to a 1920's theme party but didn't feel like dressing up, cheered on a fellow exchange student to Karaoke championship victory and aside from that just did some homework. Possibly my most boring week and a bit to read about, but it's been fun living it!

I've started to get back into the swing of the Eurovision writing now that there is actually some information flowing about and soon I will be really busy trying to balance University, Eurovision and travel, but thats the dream isn't it? If anyone wants to check out my articles; click here.

Thats all really, aside from drinking more than I should there isn't much more that I'm allowed to say, so here's what you all come here for anyway, photos of Horace!

Horace in front of Riga's famous Laima clock and in front of the Heerenveen Windmill

Final thought!

If you want to write a blog about your adventures in Europe, sometimes you should actually do something. Alternatively make a note about them so you can remember what you did and blog about them later.

Fauxsian.

Those who know anything about the usual delights of my culinary world know that Preston's Noodle Kingdom is perhaps one of my favourite places to eat in the world. With this in mind, along with the fact that there are a whole host of other fine Asian eateries I frequent (Ben-K in Hawthorn, Dae Jang Geum Korean BBQ Hall in the CBD, Basil House in Preston and random food stolen from awesome colleagues Yasuko Murakami, Cyndy Chan and Bridget Kinsik) can mean only one thing:

The thing that I am most homesick about is Asian food.

I managed to last nearly a month without any Asian food whatsoever, and believe me, it's been hard. During my trip to The Netherlands almost two weeks ago I finally caved when Paul suggested Wagamama's for dinner, and after a delicious bowl of Ramen, I knew it would be only a short amount of time until I bit the bullet and tried out Tartu's very own Žen Žen Buffet.

They didn't even have friggen chopsticks!

I really wanted this to be at least semi-authentic, I'd have accepted even an Albury-Wodonga level of Asianity to my food but alas, even this was too much to expect. From the minute I walked in and realised that not a single Asian person even worked in this restaurant, I knew I was doomed.

The pasta, as I am going to call it because referring to what I ate as noodles would be stretching it a bit was full of some very inauthentic ingredients, I can not recall eating a single dish in China with pieces of tomato or olives in them, yet here they were. Rest assured I complained about this to dining companion Mark Lemon throughout the entire affair.

"Spring Rolls w/ Tomato Sauce"

Our entrée arrived after the main, which would not have bothered me, but what did bother me was that the dish we ordered barely resembled what I requested. I thought that it would be nearly impossible to mess up spring rolls, but lo and behold, the samosa/pastie combination which was placed on our table with a little bowl of tomato sauce left me without any amusement at all.

At the end of the meal, the only real highlight was the cherry juice they served us. It's a regular Estonian brand, but at least it tasted like I expected it to.

Final thought?

God damn I could go for a good laksa right now...

The Netherlands sans Amsterdam.

Thats right everyone, you heard me. I went to The Netherlands without going to Amsterdam!

Okay so technically I went through Amsterdam, but considering one of my oldest friends is from the north, I feel it's time for a geography bomb to hit y'all!

Okay, see that map? That is The Netherlands! Now you may note that I have thus far not said Holland. Thats because Holland is actually just a part of The Netherlands. See those pastel red and pastel yellow bits? Thats Holland! Amsterdam is in there right along with The Hague and Haarlem yay! My Dutch-venture took me to the two northernmost provinces, Friesland and Groningen which as y'all can see is not Holland.

Also I chose not to go to Amsterdam this time because I thought it would be more fun to see the town where my friend Paul is from, and thus we hung out in Heerenveen. Simply no regrets at all! The countryside was beautiful, I saw a windmill from inside and out and I got to meet Paul's mum who was really lovely! Then I went to Groningen where Paul lives and stayed in his tiny ass bedroom where exciting things like video gaming, beer drinking, napping and strange 'joppe' flavoured chip eating went on. As I said multiple times throughout the weekend it felt much like a high school sleep over weekend except with more people speaking Dutch.

I was enticed by it's seductive cries of 'Limited Edition: Fabulous Taste'.

It was also the first time I had played video games for a while, so it was nice to geek out a bit. Mind, we did do a little sight seeing in Groningen as well, but it was quite small, we rode around for a bit and I delighted in not having to wear a helmet on a bicycle which felt super weird.

Other than that, I spent a lovely day in Riga doing lunch with a friend who lives in Riga and coffee afterwards with a classmate who coincidentally was also wasting time in Riga. Riga is beautiful and fairly laid back so I recommend it for everyone, including myself as I really need to see more!

A significant thing that has happened since my last blog post is that after two years, I have left the eurovision website escdaily and along with much of the team I wrote with, we have formed a new site escXtra. Due to the fact that we all agreed to split as amicably as possible I won't really go into the reasons behind the split, but I feel that this new project is a better fit and I hope I can have nearly as much fun here as I did at the old site! As we are starting from scratch we are without most of the following we once had, so if y'all want to keep up to date with Eurovision and support my "work" on the side, please help us out by 'liking' our facebook page here!

The rest of my week and a bit has been filled up with homework which is finally hitting hard. I received a book in the mail this week which contains a 351 page saga I have to read in the next two weeks, major Estonian test on Monday and an essay which was due on Wednesday that I franticly wrote on Tuesday, on the wrong topic. All this has meant the second attempt at a trip to Finland has also been cancelled so I hope to see things get done soon so I can go to Finland!

And on that note, it's only like 50 days until I head to Armenia for Junior Eurovision! Woo! My application for accreditation was sent off two days ago, so it won't be long now until I get my official press stuff sorted out and get my first real taste of what it is like to be press on the ground at a Eurovision event, albeit a smaller one. With the sudden withdrawal of San Marino today and only two songs left to hear properly, My current tip for jESC victory is last weeks holiday destination, The Netherlands! If you wish to hear some darn infectious teen pop, here's the video for you!

And now it's time for the now traditional final thought:

Puffins? Puffins!

Adventure!

This week has seen me only leave Tartumaa (my county) once, and that was when I briefly forayed into Valgamaa, which is the next county to the south west. So how does that constitute my most exciting week week so far?

Well, last weekend was a monument to laziness in which I'm pretty sure I did absolutely nothing of note, and this week was shaping up to be not much in particular until Erik's girlfriend dropped in from Germany! In convenient timing, my flatmate Mark went back to England to graduate from university so I slept in his room to give Erik a little privacy. This meant giving up my spacious mansion-room and living in a room surrounded by stuff from two people that I wasn't allowed to move at all. Thankfully I was allowed to return on Friday and it was good to be back!

Meanwhile I revived four packages in the mail this week! Two from Australia containing living essentials such as Tim Tams, Vegemite, Paprika and for a reason that I can no longer why I requested, Post-Its. The other two were from Threadless and Sharing Machine and I now have 7 new T-shirts which makes me feel good! Now I have options again! Hooray!

I made a big purchase this week of a Sony Handycam in which to take with me to Yerevan and I am now trying to find people in my dorm to talk to so I can get some practice in editing videos. So standby for a cool video introducing my fellow residents of Raatuse 22!

On the previous topic of mail, on Wednesday I received notification that my application for residency had been approved, so until July next year I am now an EU Resident and I get to pick up my Estonian ID card tomorrow morning. Pretty neat!

My biggest adventures however took place on Friday and Saturday. After speaking to my mate Indrek about his plans this weekend, I managed to snag an invite to the high ropes adventure course in Otepää in the afformentioned Valgamaa county. I rustled together a group of people to tag along and gosh darn it, we had an ADVENTURE!

Me feat. Kevin from Georgia

Overall it was a pretty awesome day! Full photos will be up on facebook soon. Friday night lead into Bloody Marys at Antoine and Ginger Tamás' apartment in which I got a migraine part way in and soldiered through with some Neurofen +. Awesome night and may I just say Neurofen plus I love you.

The next adventure took place in a two stage attack yesterday, when we took part in the Exchange Student Network's 'Do A Good Deed Day'. This led us to the Tartu animal shelter in which we got to see a heap of poor abandoned dogs. It was nice and a bit sad too. The animals all had their own little doggy houses outside but had to be chained up so they don't run away. All the dogs normally get one walk a day, but yesterday they all got a few walks and seemed very grateful for it. However, not being much of a dog person, I spent my time gardening! I removed as many reeds as I could from the pond without getting my sneakers wet and then pruned all the lower branches of the 8 or so trees surrounding. Overall I felt I didn't get as much done as I could have with some gumboots and better tools, but they seemed quite grateful nonetheless.

It rained heavily on the way back and we all got soaked to the bone, so what perfect way to get out of the wet clothes than to go swimming! Two of my German friends, Katja and Justus invited the whole dorm to go swimming with them, but surprise surprise, I was the only one foolish enough to want to go swimming while it was raining. It turned out to be awesome anyway, as there were some damn cool waterslides! I also finally enjoyed the quintessential Estonian experience of Sauna! This is in my memory my first major foray into public nudity and was much less awkward than I had expected. Although if I don't have to see another old man's né-né for at least the rest of my trip here, I will be happy.

All in all, upon returning to the dorm yesterday I finally got some long deserved sleep.

Oh and today? Just pissed about mostly.

AND NOW MY FINAL THOUGHT!

Adventuring is fun. You should always do more, and if possible shout 'ADVENTURE!' and throw your fist in the air to alert everybody nearby you are on an adventure.

I can get you anything, but no prostitutes.

Well another fantastic week has gone by jam packed with adventures and hangovers, so sit tight kids while I drop these truth words in your faces!

Last weekend saw a delightful jaunt down the road to Vilnius, Lithuania where we saw a bunch of churches, walked around some tiny adorable cobbled streets, saw a shit ton of basketball related stuff and Lithuanian flags, and had some drinks. Vilnius is a beautiful city and really is a gem of a hectic little city!

Lithuanian flag shots, which we of course drank.

I suppose the biggest thing I noticed about Lithuania was that despite being only 500km down the road from Tartu, It was a very different place indeed. Aside from the superficial difference that the style of architecture was very different, it just seemed culturally very different. The constant presence of churches was very different to Estonia's predominate religious indifference and the people in Lithuania seemed much more open and friendly. You could also tell that Estonia was a much wealthier place. However there were some similarities, the soviet occupation obviously left its mark and there were a few things scattered around that gave Lithuania the feel of being in a gang with Latvia and Estonia in their fight for independence.

The 'Stebuklas' Tile, the point where the chain of people singing for freedom from the USSR that stretched from Tallinn, through Riga and finally finishing there in Vilnius.

Overall, I would highly recommend anyone who is in the area to jump on a cheap flight to Vilnius and check it out!

Horace was there too of course!

However a few days have passed since I returned! Pray tell, what have I done since then!?

Monday was Karaoke at the Gun Powder Cellar, which was awesome. I again proceeded to get drunk on beer that cost me €2.50 for a litre and then get up and belt out a Vanilla Ninja classic, Club Kung-Fu! The international students were confused, but the Estonians in the room loved it!

Tuesday was tea and biscuits with my tutor group on the fourth floor where I met one of the formerly missing members of our group, the sassy Ruta from Lithuania who missed the start of term due to commitments dealing blackjack in Nevada, which just further highlights the kind of interesting people you meet in the dorm!

Wednesday was the first of my famed Eurovision parties to take place in the Northern Hemisphere, and despite some cynical moments with some Europeans who suspected it was all some sort of elaborate hoax, the party was an overwhelming success! My neighbour Jürgen who I had at that point not met showed up and helped me and my friend Emilia drink a bottle of vodka and everyone was merry until Thursday morning when Emilia and I felt like death and like a true Estonian, Jürgen was fine (bastard).

The Eurovision party also confirmed something I've come to call the 'Algo Pequiñito' theory. Which is basically that at any Eurovision party where 2010 is shown, the first time Daniel Diges performs people will be underwhelmed and not really care, but come the second performance everyone is drunk, will sway and sing along as best they can. Awesome!

Finally yesterday was the ''Buddy party'' where students in the exchange network here got assigned to other people for some sort of reason! I'm not entirely sure what the point is, but it was a good excuse to meet some new people. I'm in a group of three, one of which I already knew and the other was Sandra, the president of ESN! Now I'm really making contacts!

Speaking of contacts, I feel that I should really explain the title of this blog post!

On the bus back from Lithuania I happened to sit near the Director of the student theatre here in Tartu who was very drunk. I heard a multitude of ''interesting'' stories from him including his failed attempt to defect to Sweden during the cold war, the night he got drunk with some random people in Canada and his current work with Russian avant-garde theatre performed in Estonian and how I should come see. However the real highlight was at the end of the night when he gave me his card complete with hilarious headshot and told me that ''He had many connections in Tartu and could get me anything, except prostitutes''. At that point it was revealed that almost the entire back half of the bus had been listening as everyone burst out laughing as I confessed that I felt that I would be alright. However it didn't stop there, he then confessed to knowing some prostitutes and then expressed his approval with Filipino women.

Well thats all for this week, with one final thought:

I feel that this week has seen the students from France shine through the most. All of them are absolutely lovely and man, they were sure in fine form last night! Jacques was salsa dancing to electro music with a lovely lass from Poland, Emeline was strutting around slappin' booty and Antoine was flirting up a storm with any object that came into his path whether it be human or inanimate. Go you Frenchies, y'all are good people!

The Finland trip that wasn't and the first week of classes.

So, my planned trip to Finland last weekend failed incredibly early on!

I got as far as the bus station when I discovered that they wouldn't take my credit card and only took cash. Defeated before I even began. After half-heartedly attempting to hitchhike for a few minutes I decided that these problems were more than likely to repeat themselves and packed it back home.

No regrets though as I ended up making a few friends Saturday night in Tartu, even convincing a few of them to sit at the top of the arch on the bridge and have a beer until everyone eventually wigged out. I used to be so afraid of heights, my mantra of ''Will I regret not doing this later'' has helped me overcome a lot of fears in the last year or so. So that's this weeks life lesson, if you think you'll regret doing nothing, suck it up and do it!

I also had my first classes this week! Estonian classes have highlighted how little I know about English grammar causing me to become confused right from the word go, but I've been promised some additional reading assistance by one of my American friends, so I should overcome this!

Lithuanian class is now cancelled due to the class taking place in Estonian. Why it was published on the list of classes taught in English is beyond me, but oh well! In replacement I've picked up two classes that each have half as much credit points, History of the English Language and Nordic Viking & Medieval Literature. I've yet to have the History class, but my Viking class has set me 4 poems and 10 chapters of Icelandic Saga to read before next class!

The bright side of all this timetable switching is that I know have an extremely streamlined timetable! I only have classes on two days; Monday and Wednesday. Both days classes start at 12 and run until 4 and 6 respectively. Long days but it gives me plenty of time to piss about.

As for my last two subjects; Minorities in the Media in the Baltic Sea Region is kinda dull but looks like it might pick up, and my online subject English in South East Asia and the Pacific has yet to be worked on. Should really do that soon!

But not this weekend! Tonight is the Raatuse International Food Festival where we all cook national dishes and share them on the 4th floor! I made ANZAC Biscuits that turned out pretty swell, we shall wait and see how Europeans feel though, and tomorrow I am going to Lithuania for a few days! So I shall see y'all soon with fresh tales of Vilnius adventures!

Oh, and Hungarians are this weeks Germans, with about 5 new Hungarian friends! Hooray!

Liam Clark is now friends with GOD DAMN EVERYONE

It's been widely commented on among those who remain in Australia that I have added 'a lot of people with foreign names' this week and that is probably the best way of explaining what I did this week.

In absence of classes, as all mine seem to start next week and with a broken computer all week, I've had little else to do but socialise! There was the Rector's welcome and an epic tea party on Tuesday leading in to a International/Local meet and greet (w/ trivia) on Wednesday. Thursday was the Exchange program's official welcome party and this doesn't even describe all the lunching, random drop ins or ceramic fox making that has been going on as well!

Chez Bianca for a spot of tea

So as a natural result of all this partying, partying (yeah!) is that my facebook has exploded with a record influx, a massive 41 friends! Interested in the breakdown, see below!

11 Germans

5 Estonians

4 Americans

3 Latvians

2 Finns & Czechs

1 Georgian, French, Hong Kong, Azerbaijani, Slovakian, Mexican, Belgian, Polish, Croatian, South Korean, Lithuanian, Dutch, Hungarian and Briton.

However, I'm probably going to a party tonight, so this is more than likely to change!

So to everyone I've met this week, whether I've got you on facebook yet or not, thanks for making this week rad!

This is how I feel this week.

Aussie now actually in Eesti!

So I have finally arrived! Well, I've actually been here for a little over a week now. But why no blog updates until now you ask? Well the answer is quite simple!

I'm an idiot.

Yes, correct, I'm an idiot who forgot that shipping your desktop PC to the other side of the world is only a good idea if you insulate both outside and inside. So essentially the hard drives fell out somewhere during the flight and damaged some of the internal components of my computer, so I'm stuck borrowing my dorm mate's computers until it's fixed, which means yet another blog post without pictures. Sorry kids!

Now, on to what I've actually done! Sit around children and let me tell you a tale...

So basically I got to Tallinn last Friday on the tiniest plane I'd ever been on and was greeted at the airport by the effervescent Kristiina Veerde who greeted me with mostly inflated balloons and a bottle of beer as well as some other treasures. We were promptly whisked into the old town by an efficient bus and with the help of our Krissu, we found the hostel and I got some food and my new favourite Tallinn café 'Must Puudel' which is owned by several Estonian celebrities including Vaiko Eplik (Eurovision 2003 lead singer!). Later that night I joined my friend Fred to check out a few bars where we ran into another friend of mine Janno. In the second bar they played several Eurovision songs. It was pretty damn fun.

On Saturday we went to the re-independence day concert 'Vabaduse Laul' in the national song festival grounds where I saw a number of musical acts from the always quirky Brainstorm to the eccentric Kerli and the bizarre folk warblings of some Norwegian chick who didn't even seem to know why she was there. I saw an unfathomable amount of Estonian flags and it was an amazing experience. I also met Kristiina's Mum and Sister and her Mum bought me an Estonian-English dictionary which has already guided my culinary expedition through a few supermarkets! Aitäh Mrs Veerde!

With Sunday just for relaxing, I arrived in Tartu on Monday around midday. After a quick tour and a run to the shops with Krissu, she headed home to Rapla and I began to settle in. I met my room mate fairly soon after that; Erik Müller, a German medical student doing his placement at the university hospital. Sharing is not nearly as hard as I thought it would be! The room has plenty of space and we're both respectful and pretty easy going. We hung out at a local pub on Monday and that was the end of that.

Tuesday through Friday have blurred together a little bit in a whirr of drinking, orientation, making new friends and meeting new dorm mates including Mark from Chippenham, England, another German called Ferdinand and a Frenchman called Alexander. However there is still one spot free, so who knows who will show up!

Friday was the international student pub crawl, which ended as messily as you would expect, however on the plus side I made a whole swag of friends. There should be photos of this. I shall at this point take a moment to point out how damn cheap beer is in this country. Dayum.

Saturday was hangover recovery, not much to see here aside from the mysterious Kangaroo meat dumplings I found in the supermarket next door, moderately delicious!

So that leaves us with today when along with 14 others I boarded a bus to the adorably named Kauksi to enjoy the last weekend of summer in Europe's 4th biggest lake, Lake *Peipsi! With the lake being so huge, there were waves just like you would get in the ocean, except with fresh water. I met a whole lot of new people, swam, sunbathed (note I didn't say tan, I still don't tan), and walked a heap. On paper it's not so exciting but I assure you it was, again photos to come.

So thats it for now! Stay tuned for my next blog where I discuss my first week of classes and a probable visit to Finland next weekend! That's right bitches, I'm going to Finland.

Oh and final point; damn this country has some attractive people. Like seriously dayum!

*apparently this is called something else in English, but this is what everyone here calls it.

United Kingdom Super Kawaii Road Trip Desu (Part II)

When we last left you, our brave heroes (Me and Dave) were bravely going where millions of people have gone before (Down a highway from Northern England to Southern England). Lets find out what happened next!

Location: Nottingham
People Met: Georgie, Lorna & Scott
What I Did: *Saw some deer in a park
* Hung out with some of Dave's friends
* Watched Britain & Ireland's Next Top Model (Imogen for the win!)
* Took a nap at Nottingham Uni
* Saw the Robin Hood Statue
* Made fun of UK with Scott from Auckland
* Went to a sweet petting zoo and saw so many goats and ducks, nearly died from cuteness.

Location: Leicester
People Met: Random football fans from Bristol
What I did: * Watched the glorious Bristol City defeat the lame Leicester in Football
* Had lunch at some shitty supermarket place (Morrison's perhaps?)

Location: London
People Met: Will Kerr-Muir & Luke Fisher
What I did: * Lay about with a migraine
* Eat a sandwich
* Catch up with friends; old and new
* Was unable to get access to the queen's tut.

Most memorable moment for each place

Manchester: Being greeted by David Rawlings with a Slovenian flag after a 24 hour flight and jumping straight into the car to go to Scotland.

Glasgow: Being confronted with the owner of a B&B who had a massive love of Australian Culture (well, for Kevin 'Bloody' Wilson at least) and wholeheartedly failing to understand most of what he was trying to say.

York: Discovering that Ryan Forster has developed a hilarious slight Northern English accent. Also meeting fellow ESCDaily.com editor Nathan Waddell for a delicious lunch and a hilarious trip through the Jorvik viking museum.

Nottingham: Definitely the petting zoo. Anyone who hangs out with me at uni knows how I feel about ducks. There were hundreds and I got to feed them. <3 <3 <3

Leicester: Bristol City fans chanting "I wanna go home, I wanna go home, Leicester's a shithole, I wanna go home" followed by Dave's comment: "It's funny 'cause it's true".

London: Lively Eurovision discussion with another fellow ESCDaily.com Editor, Luke Fisher and ending the best roadtrip I've ever been on!

Special thanks of course go to David Rawlings for driving me the several hundred km's around the UK and more importantly for being one of my best friends. Love you David!

Thats it! I'm in Tallinn now and you'll get a full report of my first weekend in my new homeland once I'm settled in to my dorm in Tartu!

Head aega!

Goodbye Australia, Hello United Kingdom!

Greetings from the motherland! Lots of stuff has happened since I left Australia so this post will be a little more summary-esque than deep and meaningful, but considering I've moved to the otherside of the world, that's probably a good thing, so lets get into it.

Location: Coburg, Australia

Staying with: Chris, Jeremy, Ben & Kiera

What I did: Epic going away, super hangover and just hanging out with friends.

Reflection: Was lovely to hang out with close friends before leaving the country for the year!

Location: Melbourne -> Dubai -> Manchester

Staying with: Emirates Airlines

What I did: * Watched 4 movies (My Best Friend's Wedding, Beauty and the Beast, Paul & Hercules) C4 episodes of TV (Glee, How I Met Your Mother, We Can Be Heroes & IT Crowd)

* Flew over 15 countries in 25 hours

* Met four interesting people who I sat near (Mara from Melbourne, Craig from Cambridge, Lynlee a Mezzo-Soprano opera singer slash music teacher at Eltham High School and Fatima a Zairian woman who lives in Manchester who was returning from her pilgramage to Mecca)

* Drank 4 bottles of San Pellegrino

Reflection: I could barely remember my life before getting on the plane as we descended into Manchester

Location: Glasgow, Scotland

People Met: Chris O'Brien, Adam Scott, Andrew Leitch

What I did: *Met Dave at the airport and we drove to Glasgow

* Visited Hadrian's Wall (Wall from thousands of years ago that used to extend across the England/Scotland border)

* Failed to understand most Scottish accents or pronounce place names

* Jet Lag

* Discovered that I forgot to get my PIN set up for my visa.

* Crashed with Chris & Andrew

Location: York, England

People Met: Lyndsey & Ian Megarry, Ryan Forster, Nathan Waddell

What I did: *Played an extensive game of Snog, Marry, Avoid on the way back down from Scotland.

* Visited the gorgeous city of York.

* Discovered the major similarities in housing in the UK.

* Went to the Jorvik Viking Museum (Hilarious feat. Lame)

* Drove to Nottingham

Thats pretty much it for now! I'm in Nottingham for a few days now and then off to London on Wednesday finally arriving in Tallinn on Friday, so stay tuned for pictures and further reflection later!

Bunnings goodbye, Bunnings farewell!

I don't want to lie, 'cause we can't stay together my friend, this is the end.

Okay so E.M.D were singing about a bad relationship ending, but my other potential Eurovision related reference was CatCat who were not only also singing about a bad relationship, but also in Finnish.

So after five long years, in full time, part time and casual roles, my 'career' at Bunnings Warehouse has finally come to an end. I'm not sure this will be an entirely permanent result as I will need a job when I return and my now former complex manager Rob Tucker in a rare burst of seriousness told me how much I'd be missed and that I was welcome back any time. Even so, this is already a major change in my life and I thought it would be neglectful of me to not to spend a moment to reflect upon it.

I heard that Ass Rope is at least three times as expensive as this in Estonia. Bargain!

I started my job at Bunnings on the 5th of August 2006, a month and a half after I returned from China at the Wodonga North branch of the store. The time after I arrived back in Australia is very hazy for me, I honestly can not remember a single detail of events after my return to Wodonga aside from a feeling of dread up until the point I handed in my resumé to Bunnings. Funnily enough it was the Wodonga South store I applied to, but somehow they gave me a job! I later found out they decided my six months abroad made me behave a lot worldlier than many of the other applicants and in August 2006 I was one of 17 successful applicants from a pool of around 300 to 400, and one of 3 who ended up at Wodonga North.

I was originally a register operator and did the occasional shift as random floor guy and quite often I hung down in the trade section selling timber or operating their register, so my beginnings were quite paint-less, I can remember eyeing the paint tinters enviously from my register as I longed to have a go. It wasn't until one of the people who I started work with started training in paint that I marched myself right up to the ops manager's office and asked how come I wasn't allowed to do paint, to which he responded "you are, go learn!".

In mid 2007 the two stores in Wodonga thankfully merged to become a warehouse and I was moved permanently to the paint department. It was in that period under the former master of paint Tony (who sadly passed in 2008) from Wodonga South that I gained most of the knowledge I have of paint today. It wasn't until December 2007 that I became so jaded and restless with Wodonga and requiring more of a challenge that I sussed out a job in Melbourne, and within four days of casually searching I had a full time job at the Box Hill store!

Honestly, in reflection I do not know how I survived my first year and a half without being fired. I was lazy and quite frankly a highly blasé and unreliable team member and I remember several cases of "just not feeling like working" and not showing up for work that and I was late a lot for no good reason other than reluctance to cycle the 10km from my house to the store.

So to just pause, people I specifically need to thank from Wodonga:

Siân Sims & Holly Regener - You two were my best friends at that store and I will never forget that. Even though our lives have taken us super far away, I'm absolutely certain that I would not be as confident or nearly as sassy as I am these days without you guys to laugh with all day.

Tegan Evans - We were a damn fine team at Wodonga and again had lots of fun, but more importantly you helped me realise that everyone out there is kind of a jerk and that I need to toughen up a bit if I'm going to make it. I regret not hanging out with you more when you moved to Melbs!

Becc Wynack - You were the first coordinator to talk to me honestly and bluntly without

talking down to me, and despite being as unreliable as I was you saw that I would grow out of that and you helped me get the job at Box Hill.

And I need to say no thanks at all to Chris Vidovic; you were an ass to me and now you're fat. Karma?

I've missed a lot of people here, but time to move on!

Why fork when you can tumble indeed!

So it came to be that on the 17th of December 2007, I not only was living in a city around 40times bigger than my hometown, but I was working a full 38 hour week. My reasons for moving to Melbourne were admittedly quite foolish (I moved for a boy- it didn't go well and now we don't talk) but even though I made the decision with a naive outlook, I don't regret it at all. At Box Hill, I rekindled my love of all things Chinese! I hadn't felt very positively about my time in China when I returned, and with the large Chinese immigrant community of Box Hill out and about needing paint and selling food, I was reminded of how much I missed! Box Hill also made me appreciate how weird I was and that weird is cool and I shouldn't be ashamed. It was also the first workplace I was completely out to which was a very important step in accepting who I am.

I learnt a lot at Box Hill, while I will freely admit that even today I am very likely to stand around talking when I should be working, I reigned it in substantially. Box Hill also saw me earn enough money to achieve a lifelong dream of attending the Eurovision Song Contest, and really after that I was a changed man with a new fire.

I was only at Box Hill for just under a year, but I changed a lot in that year and came out of it with a much better understanding of 'buckling down and doing what you gotta do' and the

importance of having a goal to work towards.

And people I specifically need to thank from Box Hill:

Gerard Renato - Now I know we worked together at Hawthorn too, but the context and circumstances were very different. Gerard opened his spare room to me and became my housemate for a good portion of 2008, saving me from nearly fleeing my Dad's house and going back to Wodonga (I love my Dad, but Croydon is awful). He was also my first proper gay friend and instrumental in helping me come to terms with who I am.

Sally Tyben - I don't think I ever properly thanked you for making my 21st birthday at work special. You brought me a cake at the paint desk and called the store to sing me happy birthday. Naturally I was terribly embarrassed but not so secretly I loved it. I don't like making a big deal for my birthday, but I always kinda hope that someone will. I'm glad you too have moved on to something so perfectly suited to you!

Ken Bedford - Again, we worked together at Hawthorn, but we established our power paint team status early on here so I feel it deserves a mention here. We could not be two different people, but damn do we work well together! I've always appreciated the way that when I asked you to be blunt to me about what I was doing wrong, you honoured that, the way you let me yell at you when I felt I needed to make a point and the fact that you respected me enough as a person to take my point of view into consideration despite your far superior experience. I'm so happy you're back in paint, and I wish you all the best.

Again, thanks/sorry to everyone I missed!

Me embracing my weirdness, encouraged by my fellow oddball, Bron Burns.

And that brings me to the end of this marathon love-in, Bunnings Hawthorn.

Bunnings Hawthorn was weird. Right from the start the context was different, here I wasn't just some kid from the country, I was the paint expert and all of a sudden I was responsible for training new team members and my role was increased dramatically, not only that, all of a sudden I was a lot more valued as a team member. I honestly can not begin to explain how much has changed at Hawthorn as it's taken me this long to explain two years already, but Bunnings Hawthorn has been the best of the stores i've worked at by far (sorry Wodonga/Box Hill!). I've felt far more valued and i've been recognised for my work here more than any other store,

granted that is probably because in my time I evolved from bratty teenager to awesome young adult with a killer jawline, but Hawthorn actively did stuff to get me to want to stay. I don't think I've ever felt so wanted!

My controversial headband (formerly my normal scarf)

So because this is going to cover most of it anyway, my Hawthorn thanks:

Keirice Farley - Now nobody is surprised at all here. Keirice you are one of my best friends and if I was into girls nearly as much as you were, I w

ould marry you. I talk a lot about becoming comfortable with myself, but nobody in the world has made me more comfortable to be me than you have. That's all I need to say really.

Lisa O'Neill - For putting up with my constant barrage of mini crises in 2009 about what I intended to do with my life. For recognising my strengths and giving me accountabilities that you knew that I would enjoy and be good at. For hiring Keirice because you knew, you just knew. Finally, thanks for just being so damn bubbly all the time!

The Entire Paint Team - You've been the greatest people to work with and I'll miss you all.

Idaishe Mandinyenya - Because she'll be super pissed if I don't mention her. <3 u

The Window - Seriously guys, do you know what it's like to work in a Bunnings with a window in it, particularly one right next to your desk? It's luxury.

And of course, thank you every single team member I have worked with there. I've been annoyed with some of you from time to time, but try as I might, there is nobody I actively dislike, and I've never had that anywhere.

My Legacy: Do any of y'all have their own paint tint machine named after them?

Okay, that's it. If you've made it this far you deserve a 'you did good' card. haw haw haw.

In closing I would like to say I never understood why it was called Wodonga North when it was further South than Wodonga South. Probably best it doesn't exist anymore...

One Week, Four Days...

Acceptance!

So after an agonising month of waiting for my acceptance package to arrive from Estonia, I decided to bite the bullet and ask Piret (UT's International Coordinator) if she knew what was going on and if she could help.

Her response was simple, "It might have just got lost in the post" and with the email she attached a scan of the acceptance letter and online versions of everything else.

They like me! They really like me!

However, the email excitement didn't stop there! On Friday I received another email, this time from the mysterious Ülle Tensing, an email completely in Estonian!

I was extremely excited until my mate Janno translated it and I discovered it was just confirming the details of my monthly scholarship I get while I'm there, which I already knew about.

The most exciting thing about the email was the reality of the task of having to learn Estonian finally dawned on me. With words like 'majandustoetuse', 'tegevusvaldkonnad' and the multi accented 'Vahetusüliõpilaste' I've been confronted with the fact that this is not going to be as easy as I would like. But as I've said before, it's not fun unless it's a challenge.

Three weeks, Three days!

Meet My Travel Companion!

Often when I tell people about where I have been or plan to go, they comment on how brave I must be to travel by myself. The simple answer to this is that I don't really think about how scary travelling alone is, I think more about how boring everyone else is and how they don't really want to come to where I want to go and if I waste all my time trying to convince people to come with me, I'd never go anywhere!

With all this in mind, I cannot say that I travel alone entirely, for there is always someone with me wherever I go. Let me introduce you to Horace Giraffington III

Horace and I enjoying the pyjama themed night at Soden's - 2007

Horace is a plush giraffe purchased from the Myrtleford post office in mid 2007 while I was on a road trip with my good friend Shom. Ever since then he's accompanied me on all of my big adventures around the world for a couple of good reasons.

1) He's a good ice breaker.

Horace enjoys a beer and a chat with Holly - 2007

Now don't get me wrong, I don't take him everywhere, but while I'm bored and sitting around in an airport, train station or in a hostel, people will often comment on how cute he is, launching me into a conversation with someone I may not have had the chance to meet otherwise.

2) He reminds me of home.

Horace says goodbye to rainy Melbourne on the way to South Korea - 2008

I love my hometown (although Myrtleford isn't really Wodonga, I got him while I was still living there) but there isn't a lot these days that ties me to it, so having Horace with me is a little memento from home that I can carry with me everywhere and it reminds me of good times.

3) He takes good photos.

Horace in the town square of Herceg Novi, Montenegro - 2008

Most people come back from their travels with a bunch of boring old photos of tourist attractions, old towns and interesting people, while I come back with the same photos with a toy giraffe in them! It's what makes great photography people!

4) He's a comfortable emergency travel pillow.

Horace makes the most of the second bed in my hotel room in Seoul - 2008

Most of the time I have to travel pretty light, and when you're stuck on an uncomfortable bus that is going to take 12 hours to reach the next country, you need something to use as a pillow! Horace's hooves fit neatly around my head and I can just lie into him against a window and enjoy a less shitty transport experience hooray!

In conclusion the main reason for this blog post was to show off a whole lot of cute photos of my giraffe, I hope you find him as adorable as I do!

Four weeks, four days...

Raatuse 22

Well, things are simultaneously getting super exciting and awkwardly boring here in Melbourne! It's just under two months until I leave and I have only one exam left, Anthropology which goes down tomorrow. So I'm starting to do a little research on my destination and finalise my paperwork and generally trying not to spend money (not very well).

Back in April in my first blog post, you may recall that I received an email from Tartu's international coordinator congratulating me on my acceptance to the university and giving me some info on what I need to do next, at that point I signed up for my dormitory room.

My new address will be the dorm 'Raatuse 22', which according to my good friend Kristiina (who has been helping me with a lot of Estonia related info!) is the best dorm in Tartu!

The website for the dorm shows a few pictures of somewhat sparse shared accommodation with plenty of modern facilities and plenty of room to jazz it up with personal touches. Since i'm unable to take my flag collection with me I think I'm going to have to visit the nearest Ikea and raid their supplies to make it a little less bland! The dorm itself seems to be segmented into sort of apartments for six people, with shared toilet, bathroom, kitchen/living area and three bedrooms (two people in each). You can view the floor plan below!

The biggest challenge for me in this endeavour will be sharing a bedroom. I've not shared a room with anyone for a length of time since my brother moved out of my grandparents house back when I was a teenager, so I'm not very used to sharing my personal space, particularly when there isn't a lot to begin with! Then again exchange is about challenging myself with some new experiences!

So in a very short time I will go from sharing a big house with two girls to sharing a small apartment with five guys. I already know my room mate will be Estonian (I ticked the box requesting a local student as a room mate) but as for who the other four may be, is anybody's guess. Lets just hope they're fun and not homophobic!

Well, that's it for now! More news of my preparations as they happen!

Seven weeks, Three days...

Baku or no Baku?

Well, The Eurovision Song Contest is over for another year, and despite the majority of my favourites making it through to the final, only Sweden was in the top ten, at third place. The winner, as I'm sure you've heard by now was the land of fire itself, Azerbaijan, which I am sure is everyone's favourite baijan.

Initially I was thinking I wouldn't be going to Eurovision 2012, as Azerbaijan would be far to expensive to travel to, but I have recently discovered not only are the fees for exchange less than I thought they would be, but I am entitled to more grants than I thought, making Eurovision 2012 much more feasible. And as my colleague Emma Backfish said; "When else would I get to go to Azerbaijan?"

And you can view my favourite from this year, Estonia (of course!) below!

Should not have been second last!

Oh, and Two months, Twenty four days...

Three Months, Thirteen Days...

Hi there!

Some of you may know me, some of you may not. My name is Liam and i'm originally from Albury/Wodonga on the border of New South Wales and Victoria in Australia. At the moment I live in Melbourne and attend the Bundoora campus of La Trobe University.

This blog has been created to hopefully act as my travel journal to chronicle my adventures as an exchange student in Tartu, Estonia. However there is very little to talk about at this point as I don't leave until August 12th.

So I suppose I shall end this here, but I will post the first line of an email I received from UT's Student Exchange Coordinator:

Dear Liam,

Congratulations on your admission to the University of Tartu! We’re looking forward to welcoming you in Tartu in August.

I still can't believe it! It frequently causes me to giggle randomly. Well, I suppose the countdown continues!