"The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read." - Oscar Wilde
The seminar is over, sadly. The 7 days I spent in there were unforgettable. The seminar was located firstly in Laulasmaa which is near Tallinn and the last three days in Paide. At the start, it was kinda hard because I came there straight after the Weekend Festival and I was totally exhausted. The exciting part of the camp was that I didn't know anybody in there at the beginning. I had to slowly fade in and start making some friends. The first aquintances were made at the bus stop before we went to Laulasmaa. I introduced myself to my future roommates Paul and Kaarel. Paul is an amazing photographer and took many pictures of the camp and Kaarel is a social butterfly who's also really skilled at basketball.
Lecture
Releasing my inner tiger
It wasn't always warm so Kaarel and I brought our blankets with us
The first day at the seminar was pretty quiet. The second day when the lectures became, I met with this charming girl at a coffee break. She has a name too and it's Mery-Ly. When I was waiting for my coffee she was like: "Hey, can you hold my cup for a sec?" and I was like: "If you pay me well then yeah." - that's where our relationship began (not that relationship, we're friends, just really good friends). OK, no messing around. We spent most of the time together and she was my companion for the whole seminar. It was really hard to concentrate on the lectures because we didn't sleep much at nights - we had to watch movies, chat and laugh and eventually pass out due exhaustion. She speaks fluent Estonian and Russian so thanks to her I also made some Russki-speaking friends. Julia, Ilona and Andrei were part of our main squad. They have been learning Estonian for ten years already and understand pretty much everything we said in Estonian. It was nice to see that they really want to learn the language and they even took some notes to improve their vocabulary of their free time. Of course they weren't the only ones that improved themselves. I did too. My Estonian vocabulary was improved a lot because I was surrounded by intelligent people. They used words I've never heard of - now I can play smartass in front of my friends and talk in a "language" they won't understand, ha.
Robert & Karl jammin'
My niggah Joosep
It all started when I wanted to take a photo of me and Joosep, suddenly everyone came :D
Fun af
Inside jokes are always the heart of great friendship. Mery-Ly, Julia, Ilona, Andrei and I got along so well and now I can't wait to visit the capital city to see them. They called me "kutsikas" (in English: "puppy") at the beginning and in the end "tiiger" (in English: "tiger") because I was with Mery-Ly all the time and they considered me as her pet - well, where did I go wrong? :D There were many more inside jokes but you wouldn't understand them and they wouldn't be "inside" anymore if I told you - "Suu kinni, istu oma kohale!"
Emotions after having a 4-hour sleep (Mery-Ly said that this pic is the cutest, I agree)
We were sulky because Mery-Ly was about to leave - Mery-Ly squatting, from left to right Toomas, Andrei, Ilona, Julia
However, talking more about the educational part, even though I'm not planning to study journalism in future I find that the media seminar was totally worth the time. I made some new friends and contacts with in future I can hang out or work together on some project for example. Firstly, we visited Postimees, ERR and Kanal 2 which are the biggest media channels in Estonia. Secondly, we went to Arvamusfestival 2016 which is an event where people can attend lectures and have a voice in. Our job with the seminar was to interview people and film it. We interviewed president candidates like Siim Kallas, Allar Jõks, Mailis Reps and even some regular visitors to hear what they think of the festival so far. I also attended some drug-related lecture with Joosep but didn't really have time to attend anything else. In conclusion, it was a great experience for all of us.
Posing like we were about to drop the next hit album in ERR studio
News anchors
Interview in progress
Our team - from left Nadja, Grete, Joosep, Toomas, Sarah, Robert, Siim
Resting after hard work with Joosep and Olle
I can't believe the seminar ended. It was so much fun, I wanna go back. I would like to thank Anu Viltrop, Julia Amor and Ivo Rull for making this amazing thing happen. I hope I see my friends again!
The whole package
Collage of Mery-Ly, Ilona and Julia - Где Андрей?
