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!
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