I STAY

"Patriotism is the secret resource of a successful society. " - Michael Ignatieff

Am I going to stay? Yes, I'm going to travel but in the end, I will end up living in Estonia I'm certain. "Mina jään" ("I stay") was the main quote for the song and dance festival I took part in last week. The week I spent in Tallinn at the 2017 Youth Song and Dance Celebration was LIT. Firstly, I didn't wanna go because I thought it was gonna be exhausting and boring. For sure it was exhausting but it was an experience of a lifetime. I was so wrong at first and I'm glad that some individuals convinced me to come. The days were tough, we had to fight with both sunny and rainy weather, we woke up early and went to bed late. We had 3 performances but one was cancelled due to bad weather but thanks to that the most memorable thing happened. Young participants, like me, organized an event a Freedom Square and noone expected that there would be so many people in there. The feeling was amazing, it felt special because it wasn't fully planned, it made me feel like we proved our worthy of our country's freedom again. Many cried because of happiness and if you were there, you would understand. Most of the pictures aren't taken by me and I have no idea who made them so if one claims his or her work, I may take them down.

I stay 

No weather could've stopped us 

Battleground 

 @ Freedom Square

It's fantastic to write about these moments I had because I get to relive everything

Anyway it was splendid to dance with my dance partner Maarja and befriend many new people like Anett with who I and Maarja spent much time together. Also I "re-met" Karl who was in a volleyball training with me a few years ago. I hadn't seen him a long time and it was nice to have a nice singing circle with him playing ukulele while beatboxing and the others singing. I spent lots of time with my dance group too, for example with Sander and Helen. Went out to discover Tallinn's Old Town with Keili, Kunnar and their friends - amazing. Actually, the craziest night was the one we had with Kunnar. We went out to meet up with our choir buddies (we both sing too yes) and drank maybe too many beers in a bar, afterwards I talked with some random Germans, we met up with Kunnar's relative Mari-Liis and her friend Johanna and they somehow tried to introduce some shady locations in the Old Town.. Anyway, the night was crazy-fun.

Late sunset 

Collage

When we finished with our last performance, it was really emotional to see several people cry. Maarja was such a great partner and I hope we can dance together in future too (in university for example). I had a nice evening with Anett the last night we spent in Tallinn. It would've been even more cooler if we weren't forced to go back to our safehouse so early.. The song celebration wasn't as epic as the dance celebration but it was cool to see so many people listening. I never thought I would feel myself so patriotic as I do now.

Maarja, Anett, Sander, Helen & I 

Good luck, Sander 

Youth Song Celebration

When I came home, I had a 12-hour sleep which my organism really needed. My friend Härold got 18 and had a small BBQ with his friends. I couldn't hold up there too long because I had to work the following day and currently I love my job. More to come!

-

WATCH THE DANCE CELEBRATION

-

Welcome to the Jungle

"The best things in life are often waiting for you at the exit ramp of your comfort zone." - Karen Salmansohn

I'm afraid of heights but yet I was crazy enough to put skydiving into my bucket list, right? No, don't think I've already bailed out of a plane. I'm going to get over with it step by step. I got the chance to test myself by rappelling down a suspension bridge in my town. Actually, I didn't plan on doing it but we were bike riding with Mark and we ran into his father who coincidentally arranges leisure events of such kind. It wasn't as scary as I thought at first, I just overthink too much. After I had gotten my adrenaline rush, we cruised around for a while and Mark took some pictures of me and my bike.

Acting like I wasn't frightened

Mark surely knew that he has to capture that moment

Guns N' Roses - Welcome To The Jungle

Enjoying the view

There was another night song festival in my town and it was cooler than ever because this year I participated too. I sang in a choir and besides that spent time with friends by singing and dancing together. The pictures at the festival were taken by Ako Lehemets. Later on, I attended a birthday party which I attended too. Meriliis and Johanna celebrated their aging and it was so fun I don't even remember everything quite well.

 The festival took place at my school's basketball court

 Rock'n'rolling with Kristel, Katharina and Adeele

 Squad

My choir (I'm in the left, behind the speaker)

Light & Power

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Thomas A. Edison

I have so many thoughts crammed in to my head. First of all, school is about to end so I'm constantly thinking about exams and what I should be doing next. Whether should I go to the Defence Forces or university next, I'm not sure yet. Yesterday, I visited Tallinn University of Technology with Kermo and the event that took place in there that day helped me to clear my head a little bit. I have three major choices for my Bachelor studies. The first one is Electrical Power Engineering and Mechatronics which I'm afraid is too damn difficult for me. I love physics but it's not one of my strongest sides. I want to deal with energy problems in future and especially I'd like to make progress with green energy technology. That's where my second choice seems to fit in - Environmental, energy and chemical engineering. It's more about sustainable energy but still the first one manages to impress me more. The third option is Business Information Technology. That's my oldest choice and a year ago I was certain that this would be my choice, now it seems a bit boring for me. Anyway, the day was great. We walked around the campus, had a chat with some students and met up with our other friends.

@ Tallinn University of Technology

BEST Estonia 

If there is Kermo, there is light and power

Because of these delicious pizzas, we were almost late for our second lecture

BMW i3 - unfortunately, test drive wasn't an option

Last week, it was my teacher's birthday and as we brought him a cake last year, we wanted to celebrate the birthday this year with eating too because then we don't have to do math. Ain got 43 but when someone asked how old he is then he answered that he's having his 18th birthday's 25th anniversary party.

43 - ain't Ironic?

Well, my weekend was rad. I had a choir camp and besides singing, we had sauna and many more "activities". Sauna was awesome - we sang and after first round of sauna, we wanted to go swimming but we didn't see the ice at first and Lars fell right onto it. It was crazy! The following morning our conductor/teacher told us that we were too quiet at night, she was worried if we partied at all. Well, she wasn't in the same house as we were.

QUIZ TIME

 Musicians Lars and Triinu

 Cozy

Agnes with her fish sticks and ketchup

Bass-bariton-tenor

Furthermore, I visited my hometown's new cinema with my friend Ketter. We watched Get out and it was okay, casual thriller in my opinion. Mark arrived from Austria and brought me Austrian beer. I watched a series called Harley and the Davidsons. The intro song in there was amazing - listen it and have a great day.

Little Lions - Stronger (unreleased)

Love is the Way

"Life is the question and life is the answer and God is the reason and love is the way." - Johnny Cash

The holiday is about to end and my week has been quite diverse so far. I said in the last post that I'm going to visit a university in Tallinn to try out the life as a student, so I did visit the place and it was interesting - I went to 2 lectures, met new people and realized how huge the campus really is. One of the lectures was about databases and the other one teached the basics of organization management. My shadower warned me that the first lecture is going to be really boring and she was damn right, I couldn't understand almost anything. The second lecture was way more easier to listen and I liked it because I didn't feel lost or stupid in there. Anyway, the day was great and I'm really thankful for the opportunity to visit the university.
This week hasn't been ordinary also because of the Independence Day of my fatherland. On Thursday, I performed at the ceremony concert with my choir and dancing group. The day wasn't easy but it was worth the effort. I remember exactly how my legs ached at the end of the day but I still went to see a concert with two of my friends afterwards. The following day I watched the parade from the TV and in the evening went to see a movie with a couple of friends.

The three photos above were taken by Kris Süld

Yesterday, I went to celebrate my great friend and classmate's aging. Günther didn't invite anyone but still about 10 people managed come over and the party was awesome. Oh, and on Tuesday I had a barbeque night with Kristo, Lars and Kermo. The weather maybe wasn't the best for grilling outside but that wasn't an obstacle for us.

Workin' out with my classmates at Günther's

 Pae grill

Today, February 26th, one of my biggest idols would've got 85 years old. It's Johnny Cash's birthday and I'm going to celebrate it by listening to my favorite songs by him. I even drew a picture of him, it's not perfect but I'm proud of it.

Johnny Cash - Hurt

Johnny Cash - She Used To Love Me A Lot

Johnny Cash - Personal Jesus

Outlandish

"The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today." - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

It was hard to write a post on the right time if I didn't have my phone with me. We changed our phones with Merili for a couple of days and all of my pictures that I was supposed to post in here were stored in my iPhone so the post had to wait. Thankfully, she "allowed" me to use my phone so I got the photos I needed. School is also going pretty well. Just got my Russian test 5 and even though I thought my grades would've gone down by this time, I was wrong. 12th grade is way more easier than I expected.

Selfies

The previous weekend was surprisingly awesome (actually the weekend before the previous weekend - I wrote this text almost a week ago :D). I was planning to stay at home on Friday to rest and sleep because I knew I had to attend my friend Raiko and cousin Marek's birthdays. But well, somehow things didn't go as quiet as I had planned. My lad Kristo came over to play some video games together and drink whiskey - still seems like a quiet evening, right? But we just couldn't sit on our asses all night so we went out. We visited different bars and ended up in Viljandi's most hipster-friendly place Romaan. We met so many cool people there that night. We talked about life and discussed about many outlandish topics. We sat there and time went really fast, suddenly it was about 6 a.m or sth and the place was closing so we had to leave. For our luck, one guy invited us to his place and we drank some wine there. If I remember right then there were 8 of us and we all went there. The night only turned out better and better. I got along with everybody so well that I still keep in touch with one girl. Her native language is Russian but as she studies in Viljandi, she speaks Estonian fluently as well. It's fun to practise my poor Russian skills with her - she can have a good laugh every time thanks to that.

Rock 'n' rollin with Kristo

Birthday party at Raiko's turned out great but as I was tired of the previous night, I went to my safehouse quite early. I was so exhausted that when I arrived to the bedside, I crashed onto it and fell asleep instantly. But the weekend got even more pacey. On Sunday, I had to help Mariel with her physics and I hope she got the help she needed.

Helping the poor soul out

Wednesday was one of the most important days of this week. Our choir had to prove that we are worthy to sing on the 12th Estonian youth song and dance celebration. We succeeded and the song we sang, came out better than ever.

Photos taken by Marko Saarm

On Friday, our folk dancing group had a performance. At first, I was surprised that I wasn't nervous at all but that changed when we had a few minutes left till the act. But as it was our first performance, I'm glad that I didn't make any major mistakes.

@ Sakala Centre

The following day we decided to visit Tartu with Merili, Mark and Katharina. Merili and Kata wanted to go shopping and that's pretty much what we did that day. We were so bored with Mark at some point that we even discussed religion. Finally, we went to see a movie too and after that headed home.

Horizon

Making pretty faces is not really my thing

 Corsa

Which one is better?

I ended my week with a visit to granny's. She guided me how to make cinnamon rolls her way and you have no idea how delicious these were.

Nom-nom