Broadcasting Estonia!

Terre! That apparently means "Hello" in Estonian!!

Well, I am in Estonia... its a big change after nine months in Kyzyl! I have just been relaxing, moving through a bit of culture shock I think. Things went well with the trip here. Moscow weather was great and I lucked out and got to see a few other fine ETAs who magically were also visiting. I took a train to St. Petersburg, stuck in a whole compartment of art students. I didn´t realize before this that artists had to carry so much stuff! These guys were pretty epically loaded down with odd shaped easels and bags as they took the train, presumabley to paint the wonderful cultural landmarks, bridges, statues, palaces, monuments, museums of St. Petersburg.

After a day of sleep-deprivedly wandering St. Petersburg streets, I caught a night bus to Tallinn. I was a little nervous for the border crossing, but was pleasantly surprised. There was a little station set up, just like at the airport. They marched us all off the bus at about 3am to stand in lines and get stamped. I slept the rest of the bus ride, except for at one point when the cheery Estonian border guard (what a contrast from the sulky Russian ones!) woke me up. I guess I was really struck by the contrast. The Estonian guard was thrilled I was an American and super friendly, while he was cold to the mostly other Russian passengers on the bus. The Russian guards thought I was suspicious and took longer with my documents than other passengers, but in the end did all the stamping and tearing of things which I needed. I came to Estonia because I was interested in learning more about politics of language, and I haven´t had to look far to have some interesting experiences...

The next part of my journey was a little surreal. Showing how tired I was when I left Russia, I didn´t wake up when the bus arrived... a nice motherly Russian lady shook me awake. It was 515am in Tallinn and pouring rain. The bus station was on the edge of town, I was supposed to catch a tram to the center, but trams werent running. I didn´t suppose the hostel wanted to see me that early either! Luckily, I wasn´t alone. A Russian girl about my age was standing nearby. We made friends and decided to walk to the center of the city. This girl spoke very fast and was very friendly. I started to pull out my map to plan a route to the center but she shook her head."Proidyom, potom podumaem!" she said. This literally means, "letś walk through it, then we´ll think about it!" She set off down the nearest road, and shoulding my pack I jogged after her.

If the last few months have taught me anything, its that I should expect coincidences. Turns out that my new friend was from Siberia, in fact, she was from Minusinsk, one of the towns nearest to Kyzyl! We drank their tasty fizzy water all year in Kyzyl. Her father worked as a driver on the road to Kyzyl in Soviet days, now he is a pensioner. So we had a lot in common, which made our walk pleasant, which was lucky, because it turned out the road that my new friend had picked was actually leading us further out of town to the cemetary and prison! We ended up walking for several hours, making a huge loop around the city. Luckily, Tallinn is not a huge city. We were quickly soaked and I was starting to think about finding someplace to wash up and have a rest, when we came to the ferry terminal, which was an ideal place. We set up our soaked things to dry and we shared our food for a tasty breakfast. Then we explored old town a bit, then I was running out of energy so I said goodbye and found my hostel. But it was great to meet a Siberian friend in Tallinn, also cool to see the city through Russian eyes for the first few hours. One thing I think I will always remember is the look of awe on her face when she saw the bike path and cried out "oh, wow! a real velosipednaya dorozhka!" One of the things most lacking in Russia is infrastructure, and I guess witnessing this young Russian person of my same age meet their first bike path with awe and wonder was tender and pulled at my heart strings. It made me think.. what would my students think of Estonia? Probably most of them will never leave Russia, a great number will never leave Tuva. The difference in wealth of our countries (well, between Estonia and Russia... but America as well) is striking and a bit heartbreaking!

Then I slept. Tallinn is a cute city. The old town is very medieval. I wandered into a festival of childrens choral singing, so ever corner I turn theres a choir of young Estonians in national costumes. Its great. I also rented a bike one day and spent a whole day riding my bike on the seacoast. After nine months of not riding a bike, the experience was poetic!! I really missed riding a bike in Tuva. Estonia is a lot like Ohio in some ways. They have great bike paths.

I guess the logic in my choosing to visit Estonia had to do with wanting to compare language politics in Estonia with those in Tuva. I have only been here a couple days, but already the comparisons seem very apt. Historically there is a connection as well, because the two regions were both annexed by the USSR in the same post WWII land grab, though people didnt realize that the independent country of Tannu-Tuva was gone for several years, whereas I assume people noticed about Estonia (Im not much of a historian!). I have been speaking mostly Russian in daily life, and have been getting mixed responses. Theres an obvious generational divide with language abilities, the younger generation of ethnic Estonians knows Russian much less well than the older Estonians. Many of the Russians I meet have a bit of an accent. Im no expert in Russian accents, but I hear a difference from both what I would call standard Russian, Moscow Russian, and Russian as spoken by Tuvans (obviously). Some of the people are a little cold to me at first, but then if I explain Im an American that just happens to know Russian its a 180, and suddenly theyre really charming and interested in me. I guess the situation with Russia is something like Tuva, except Tuva is still part of the Russian Federation, and so the prestige of Russian is still somewhat higher-its affiliated with the state apparatus.

Well see how Latvia compares! My next few weeks will be busy-Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, and Czech Republic, then back to Russia. Tomorrow Im going to the south to visit a friend from college and her family, so hopefully I can get some more language politics insight into Estonia. And also seeing friends will be nice... I think solo traveling is really healthy for me right now, as it gives me so much time to reflect on the past year in my life, to meet people on the way and just sort of relish the freedoms I didnt have in Tuva. But its definitely a little stark without company-I have been talking to myself some the past couple days as I was biking around, and its a weird mixture of Russian words, English words, and Tuvan words. I think this is culture shock really, although I suppose its a possibility that Ive lost my marbles. Hopefully it will fade soon... my grand plan in taking this trip was to induce my culture shock in advance of actuallly going home, so that when I go home Ill immediately be able to enjoy being home... well see if it works or not!

Anyways. Thats about all to write for now... I guess the last story to close this email could be to say that Im writing at an Estonian public library. In Estonia, a library is a very political building! I got a one day reader card to use the internet and when I was filling out the card in cyrillic letters, the librarian told me in her best librarian voice "We only use Estonian letters at this library!" "Oh," I said, and proceeded to rewrite my name. But it seems like kind of a strict policy... last time I checked the Russian population of Estonia was pretty large, something like 40% or so! But who knows. Certainly I admire the Estonians a lot for using nonviolent protest to get their country back! Just read about the Baltic Way if you want a shock (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Way) And a part of me wonders if Tuva would be like Estonia if the Tuvans were able to do the same thing to get their freedom.

Anyhow! Post-sovietly yours,
Riley