Mrs.B

We are back in London now after 6 days in Tallinn. It was a shame that we didn’t see any snow, but it meant that we were able to get around town with the pram and do a bit of sightseeing and shopping.

Will reflect on Christmas later on, but here are a few snapshots from our walks.

My little one has just started to call me “mommy”. He’s almost 3.

Puzzled?

The thing is that in our household I have always been “emme”* and J has always been “issi”** – the kids call us that even when they speak English to us. [...]

Nondigitally Estonian is the name of a photography exhibition that we went to see today in the Europe House. The photos were all taken by the children who go to the Estonian School here in London – for a week in March they had a disposable camera and the “homework” was to take photos of their life in London.

The exhibit was fascinating, mainly because at first glimpse the photos are random and most of them sort of blurry, but when I read the descriptions written by the curators, the photos all of a sudden became very intriguing – I guess that’s what good curating does :) [...]

The Estonian School in London started with lessons this Saturday. From now until next summer, half or most of our family will be spending every other Saturday morning in Chiswick – Oskar will be at school and others will be hanging out in the nearby Chiswick House Gardens.

There is a playground there, plenty of green space for kicking the ball around and a cafe that has very slow service but decent coffee and a great selection of cakes. There are always lots of people with dogs in the cafe, it’s almost like a dog show every time we’ve been there :)

All in all, it’s not a bad place to hang out on weekends. When it gets colder, we’ll venture inside the Chiswick House one day to check out the beautiful rooms inside. [...]

Saturday morning, Notting Hill.

The Estonian School in London started its third school year in the Estonia House in NH on Saturday. There are no classes until next weekend, but there were a few speeches, a lot of good food and a lot of time to catch up with friends whom we haven’t seen most of the summer.

After the official event, many of the Estonian School moms went to continue the catch-up. I wanted to have an afternoon with all my 3 boys so I sent my proxy, as I’ve done previously.

The proxy is my mother of course – my mother does indeed hang out with my friends. Weird, but everyone seems to think she’s a kick a** mother :) And the benefit for me is that I hear all the gossip and prevent anyone from gossiping about me :D [...]

13 girls and 7 boys came to our reunion. Most of us had studied together for 8 years so no one had trouble recognising each other. Except for that one girl who didn’t have flaming red hair anymore, she left a few people puzzled.

Amazingly our teacher, let’s call her Mrs S, didn’t recognize me. I know I was a bit ugly and awkward and had humongous glasses and big frizzy hair back then, but I didn’t think that I had turned into an unrecognizable stunner in the 20 years since :) [...]

Last Friday I grabbed my backpack containing two dresses and nothing much else and hopped on the plane to Tallinn.

I was flying alone and almost read an entire book during the flight. Flying without kids is really so very nice.

My sister and brother in law picked me up from the airport and after a quick stopover at their place, we drove 100km south to Haapsalu to stay at my mom’s place for the weekend. [...]

If you’re Estonian this looks delicious to you and you can’t wait until Christmas.

If you’re not Estonian you’re thinking “what the heck ist that???” and probably feel slightly disgusted. [...]

Well, the party’s going to be on Saturday actually – it’s been 20 years since I graduated from 9th grade and I’m flying to Estonia to catch up with a lot of people I haven’t seen for TWO DECADES!

If THAT doesn’t make me feel old, I don’t know what will :)

9th grade is sort of a big deal in Estonia, after that is high school for 3 years, but not everyone goes to high school or to the same high school or to the same class in the same high school. After 9th grade you therefore say good-bye to a lot of people you have been in the same class with since year 1. [...]

Chapter I

It was summer of 2005, I had just given birth to my first son. As he was being examined, the nurse said “Oh by the way, he’s tongue tied. Look!” and she lifted his little tongue up revealing the thin strip of skin underneath making the tongue look almost heart shaped.

I had been a tongue tied baby myself, so assuming they’d snip the tie right then and there like they’d done for me, I asked the nurse about it.

“Oh no, in this country we don’t do that. It’s not necessary, unless he develops a speech problem, but just wait and see if he does.” [...]

Haapsalu has had a castle since the 13th century.

In my childhood it was a bit of a scary place – the green space in the centre was used for sporting activities and the little hills used for sledging in the winter, but all around on both sides of the remaining castle walls was rubble, thick bushes, broken bottles and probably a drunk sleeping off the last bottle of cheap alcohol-based perfume consumed.

The beautiful large cathedral had been used as a warehouse by the Soviets but by the 1970′s had been abandoned and no one dared to try to break in.

Since the 1980′s things have started to turn around… [...]

I have written at least a few times in the past how Estonians tend to have an issue with expressing their feelings verbally (here and here most recently). Whenever a nation has that kind of a common “issue”, you’d think that they would be a nation that’s really reserved, meek and modest.

Reserved they can be, but meek and modest?

I still am amazed every time I go to the beach there at how everyone is flaunting their bits (and often lots of them) in little bikinis. In other countries you often see large elderly women in the sea with bathing suits that have little skirts and maybe even little ruffles in the middle, but that kind of attire is not to be found in Estonia. In fact, you’d have a hard time to find even the skimpiest bathing suit on a beach in Estonia – it’s always a bikini. No matter your age or size.

I find it a bit confusing as it doesn’t line up with Estonians being emotionally reserved, but I also find it liberating because in wearing a bikini myself I can be sure that I look better in it than 98% of the people around me :) [...]

There are more photos of Haapsalu coming, but while I sort the hundreds of them, here’s a snapshot of our day in Tallinn – no kids, plenty of sunshine, some shopping :)

It’s so hard to come back from a long holiday in a country where the pace of life is about a million times slower than it is here in London. I feel like my head is still up in the clouds and I find myself walking at a slower pace than normal… at a pace [...]