As the Time Passes By..

Warning - this post is a result of my emotional meltdown in the bus, therefore it contains a lot of pathetic weeping about how much I miss USA. :)

It has already been a little more than 2 months since I came back from USA.
I never expected to feel so homesick towards a place where I only spent 4 weeks. But I still do.
I stumbled upon some exchange students' blogs who are currently in America and I can't believe how much I miss the air conditioning (even though it is cooold in Estonia right now), the Reese's, the big cities (Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC), the smiling sales assistants, small talk with random people, the ice cream, and of course, the people.

I would have never thought that I would still feel this American Dream feeling after visiting the "land of freedom". I didn't get my hopes up because so many people say that it's not true, that the American Dream is simply a dream, just the result of a naive imagination.

I learned so much during this time. I probably now the American Constitution better than the Estonian one. I learned that sometimes you just have to agree to disagree. I realised that I can do anything. I found out so many things about myself that I hadn't noticed before.

But I'll be back. In a few years, when I go to university, I will definitely go to university in USA. Why? Because the universities offer an endless variety of courses. Because English is a world language and since I'm not going to live in Estonia in the future, I want to get my higher education in English. Because of the multicultural community.

Well, in a few weeks I'm going to take a TOEFL test to apply to an American boarding school I really like, so wish me luck!

The end that is supposed to be a beginning

One of the last things that we were told in America was: „This is actually not the end, it’s a beginning.“ Well, I can’t say I completely agree. I mean, of course we still have our projects and reunions and all kinds of interesting  BFTF-related things, but the institute as it was for 4 amazing weeks, is over. Over and finished.

I have been home for 3 weeks now and life is pretty much back to how it used to be before BFTF. After coming back I had a whole week of catching up with sleep and then I went to work for two weeks  in a row, so I had to concentrate on other things. I guess that helped a lot with the homesickness I felt towards the BFTF. So now it is finally time to pull myself together and write a short summary, mainly for myself.

These four weeks were definitely the most interesting, breathtaking, amazing, beautiful and, to be completely truthful, sometimes hard weeks of my life. I had so many new experiences, both small and big. 

I learned a lot about America. Before I started my trip, I still had the „American Dream“, but I was also totally sure that in reality, that kind of thing does not exist. But in USA, to my great surprise, I found out that there is an American Dream – it is the diversity, the fact that different places in America are so different that everybody finds their own special place, place where they fit in. I went to 9 states (Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, District of Columbia, Virginia), although I only drove through most of them. So I only spent some time in Indiana, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.

My absolute favorite was D.C. This city has so much space. It has many European-and-old-looking houses and kind of an old charm, but at the same time it is very lively and modern. People in suits and ties are cycling around the city, wearing backpacks and you can see people running everywhere. The city is pretty big, but it has many green areas and it very very clean.

I also learned that political opinion in USA is very important – whether you are a Democrat or a Republican. Indiana, the state I spent the most time in, is mostly Republican. As a European, it was sometimes a bit hard to understand their principals. People in Indiana are also very conservative, at least from my liberal European viewpoint. Maybe the conservatism has something to do with the fact that people there are mostly very religious. Young couples should not move in together before they are married (imagine how many couples in Estonia never get married and just live together and raise a family). If you are from Estonia, the world’s least religious country, it is impossible to imagine how big impact do their beliefs have on the people. But I guess until it helps people keep away from all kinds of bad things like alcoholism or crime and makes them better people, religion is a good thing.

Americans are very open and outgoing. The first couple of times we went shopping it actually freaked me out a little when everybody was always saying „Hi, how are you doing“ and asking if I needed any help, if I was looking for something specific or just trying to somehow keep up the conversation. At first I felt like I was constantly being pressured into buying more stuff, but as I got used to it, it started to feel normal, maybe even too normal because after I had come home, I felt like everybody in the stores was being exceptionally rude. 

Yesterday was Estonia’s 20th Reindependence Day (if there is such a thing like Reindependence Day in English language, but I hope you get the point). Then I started wondering what is the common thing that makes the nation patriotic? In Estonia, I guess, it is the feeling of one nation, our history and our songs (well, you know, the Singing Revolution and so on..). But what makes Americans patriotic, what ties them together? They are from very different ethnical backgrounds and cultures. Well, I think that there are two things – religion and the American Dream. Even though there are so many different religious beliefs represented in America, the country’s motto – In God we trust – says it all. And the American Dream, the melting pot, I’m sorry, a salad bowl (because it is not advisable anymore to say melting pot), the idea of freedom and equality.

I learned a lot about US political system, law system, different European cultures and so many other things, but I learned the most about myself. I learned that I am very liberal, open-minded about most things, but I can take comments about my country very personally and, even though I am usually the least patriotic person you can imagine, I got really really patriotic in USA. 

Every time I told somebody about where I was from, I said that Estonia is in Northern Europe just below Finland. I never mentioned anything Eastern just because then people think that we speak Russian. Do not get me wrong. There is absolutely nothing wrong about speaking Russian, but we have our special, beautiful and rather unique language. But one little girl came to ask me about my home country and the conversation was something like that:

Girl: „Hey, I heard you are from Russia.“

Me: „Where did you hear that from?“

Girl: „My parents told me.“

Now I want to point out that I had talked to the girl’s parents before and I gave my usual Northern-European-country speech. So I was very surprised, how they somehow could still relate Estonia to Russia. Well, then I explained to the girl how I live in Estonia and speak Estonian, which is totally different from Russian. I don’t think it made a difference, but at least I tried.

Well, I am definitely not done yet, I will write a couple of more thoughts on America, BFTF and everything else in general.

Road Trip, Philadelphia, DC

Well, the last week was too busy, so I'm doing a quick recap:
Road Trip to Philly was long. We departed at 6 am and reached our hotel at 8-9 pm. We had a really good busdriver, who took us to 9/11 memorial in Pennsylvania.

The memorial is dedicated to the 4th plane that departed from Newark (it was supposed to go to San Francisco). Shortly after the plane had taken off, the terrorists took over the plane, but people on board had already received texts from their loved ones about the other planes that had already hit the targets. So the people somehow managed take back the control over the plane and they made an impossible decision - they crashed the plane on the empty fields of Pennsylvania, in the middle of nowhere. Every single person on that plane died. There were quite a lot of people visiting the memorial and it felt really sad, but at the same time walking there made me admire those people, who very possibly avoided the plane crashing into the Capitol (that's believed to be the plane's specific target).

In Philly we stayed at the Red Roof Inn Trevorse, a small hotel that actually looked better than I expected. Although I spent half an hour on the phone with the WiFi customer line, after being put on hold for 3 times I finally got a fast internet connection.

The next day we visited the Independence Hall, the Constitution Center and later we got 4.5 hours of free time. Me and Karolina walked through Chinatown, on the main street and through the Rittenhouse district. Downtown Philadelphia looks exactly like New York in movies - busy and colorful. In the evening we started driving to DC. When we finally arrived at the UDC apartments, we were surprised, and not just because of the big apartments with kitchen and a personal bathroom. We didn't have any pillows, blankets, bedsheets, toilet paper or shower curtains. Thanks to our mentors' quick actions, we got the missing things a couple of hours later, only shower curtains remained missing, but it was no big deal, only the bathroom was flooded every time somebody took a shower. But our apartment was on the 11th floor, we could see the top of the Capitol from our window and we had a metro station and Starbucks around the corner - so it was pretty amazing.

We spent 2 days in DC. We visited the State Department, where we did a NATO simulation, which was really fun. One of the girls interning at the State Department was American Estonian and she started talking to me in Estonian. It was the weirdest feeling - all my languages got mixed up and I couldn't speak proper Estonian just because in my mind I couldn't link being in a totally American environment and speaking Estonian at the same time. In DC we also visited all the important places - the White House, the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial and the museums - Smithsonian, Newseum, the Holocaust Museum. DC is really stunning. It is a big city, but it has endless green spaces and everything is so clean. It also feels very safe. People cycle through the city wearing suits and backpacks. DC is definitely a city I would like to live in. It's completely amazing.

After two completely amazing days in DC it was time to face the inevitable - the goodbyes. I actually have to admit that I didn't cry until getting home - what can I say, I'm a slow Estonian. :) It didn't feel real, I didn't actually realize the fact that it was going to be over very soon.

But, after spending the late Friday night packing, it was time to leave on Saturday morning. After long goodbyes, checking in at the airport, doing some last-minute souvenir-shopping and the last absolutely amazing Starbucks frappucino, it was time to step on a plane and leave the USA. We were flying with Lufthansa and I really enjoyed the flight - it lasted only a bit over 7 hours, the food was good, movies were great and I had an aisle seat. In Frankfurt we said the last goodbyes and then I was on my own. I had almost 5 hours to kill and Pille-Riin, the WFU Estonian Fellow, was coming with a later flight, so I was alone. Anyway, I wondered around the airport for quite a while and then, when my gate was finally announced, I landed on a seat next to my gate and read the book I bought in DC until the boarding started. The flight to Tallinn was very boring, but I finally got an hour of sleep.

My mom and sisters were waiting for me at the airport with a "Welcome Home" sign. We went home, ate some soup and black bread and I showed others some photos.

I'm going to write one more post to summarize all my emotions, thoughts and experiences I got from BFTF, so stay tuned.

Not So Final Yet + Tying Loose Ends

On Sunday morning I went to church Sunday service for the very first time in my life. Even though for a non-religious person I have had quite a lot of contact with Christianity, it was still very different.
I liked going to the service because it strenghtened my confidence in my decision of not believing. I was listening to the pastor (?, not sure, maybe he was called something else, I apologize if it's wrong) and thinking that it clearly makes sense to many people, but for me it's far too conservative.

So, after church we came home, ate some lasagna and then I worked on my part of our project citizen. In the evening we had our Final Reception - which, even though we had another week together ahead of us, seemed frighteningly close to going home. But the dinner was delicious and we all received the certificates confirming that we have successfully completed the BFTF Purdue academic program. We also took a group picture and some photos with each other.

On Monday we had our Project Citizen presentations until 12 and then we went for the LAST time to eat lunch at Ford Dining Court. I wasn't even hungry, but I still ate double the normal amount food.

After lunch Kara and Joel picked me and Allie up, we picked up Hannah from the day care, went home for a few minutes and headed to Tropicanoe Cove - a small water park in Lafayette.We spent a few hours swimming there and me and Allie walked through the Columbian Park Zoo - a small petting zoo, free of charge. For dinner we had meatballs and potatoes. When I sat down at the table, I saw that in addition to a fork I also had a knife, which - believe it or not - was amazing. Here nobody really uses knives and I talked about how at home we always use a knife, so they made me a small surprise (not that it would have been hard for me to open a drawer and take a knife, but the thought was really cool :)). Me and Allie both got a gift bag from our host family. It had Purdue T-shirt and a photo of all of us in a frame. That was so sweet!

It's starting to feel like the end already and I'm not sure if I like ot. On the one hand, I want to see all the people at home and eat some healthy food, but on the other hand, this is so absolutely incredibly amazing!

I'm already in Philadelphia, but new post about our road trip here will be up in the near future, right now I'm going to enjoy our evening in a hotel.

Regards from Philly,
Elis

Premium Outlets + Western Riding

On Saturday morning we headed out to Edinburgh, Indiana (I know, the place-names here are so original :)), to Premium Outlets, which is a huge complex consisting lots of stores. I bought an Ann Taylor sweater and Levi's jeans(for 15 dollars!!!) and some other stuff. After we had gone through all the stores, me and Allie went to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and I ate a Pecan Bear Apple - a Granny Smith covered with caramel, milk chocolate and pecans. It was so big, but amazingly good. After hours of shopping, a sudden and long downpour and a lunch at Subway, we drove to Shrine and Yoanna's host family to ride. They have a farm with soooo many animals (tädi Terje, sinu loomaaeda ei anna sellega võrreldagi :)).

I was told that they have 4 ponies and 1 horse. We were supposed to ride the horse, but the horse was actually the size of a big pony. :) But he was cute. He was a Paint horse and his name was Jade (?). He was only 3 years old, which really amazed me because he was really used to everybody riding him. It was my first time to try the Western saddle and it felt very different, but fun for a change. Although in a long perspective I would stick to the English riding. :) After that we spent some more time there and I actually tried to milk a goat (my dear family, I can imagine you laughing at this right now) and, even to my own surprise, I almost succeeded.

God Bless the Air Conditioning

Hello again!

A little summary about Friday.

In the morning we met up at Earhart and took the bus to McCutcheon High School, one of the public high schools in Lafayette. We had a brief introduction to US education system in the auditorium by the principal and then a tour of the school. It is really big - it has ca 1900 students (?), but the school is almost only on the 1st floor, so everything is very spread out. They have at least 2 gyms, a pool, a huge cafeteria and so on. It was exactly like in movies. When Allie said that there's really no point in going to see American high school and it would be easier to watch High School Musical the night before, I didn't really believe her. But Friday proved me wrong. It is exactly like High School Musical or any other American teen movie in that matter.

After that we went back to DLRC (the place where most of our classes take place) and had a heated discussion about tolerance. Long after the class had ended, we were still discussing the controversial topic. In the afternoon we worked on our projects and me and Dejana went to Dairy Queen aferwards (I'm getting addicted to this place). In the evening we watched a movie and spent time at home. We watched The Pursuit of Happiness - who hasn't seen this yet, you definitely should. It's based on a real story and it made me reflect on the homeless shelter visit we had earlier this week.

Friday, in my opinion, was the hottest day we've had so far. I felt like I was about to have a heatstroke the whole day and the humid air was so extremely heavy. I'm starting to love the air conditioning!

The Windy City

Well, Thursday was literally the mos AMAZING day so far!

We went to Chicago!

So, enough excitement for now. :)
Anyway, I woke up 6 AM to videoskype with Helen (as you can see, she has become a regular on my blog :)) but due to some weird technical problems, I couldn't hear her so she tried to make all kinds of weird faces (ok, I'm exaggerating a little, but it was still pretty funny) and wrote messages.

In a little while it was time to head out to Earhart, catch a bus and go to Chicago. I had taken my blow-up neck pillow with me so I could sleep in the bus. Chicago was absolutely breathtaking - beautiful, big and classy skyscrapers (yes, classy, they have architecture, not just concrete and glass.

First we visited the Shedd Aquarium, which was nice, but I've been to many aquariums in Europe, so in a while, they start to look the same. Although we saw a 4D movie there (some Ice Age video) which was cool, but I like 4D movies in Tartu better. The best place in teh aquarium was definitely a cafe balcony that offered a impressive, breathtaking view of the Lake Michigan and Chicago Skyline.

The next thing on the agenda was the Willis Tower - the highest building in the U.S. After standing in line for some time, we could finally take the elevator to the 103th floor (Skydeck). The view was impressive. There were those places (like balconies) that had a glass floor and walls, so you could see straight down. I also bought some souvenirs from there (Yes, Helen, I bought souvenirs!!).

Finally we had 4.5 hours to walk around. We were dropped off at Millenium Park and me and Karolina went shopping on the Magnificent Mile (North Michigan Avenue), which is a long street surrounded by skyscrapers and really expensive stores. I did almost only window-shopping, since we are going to Indianapolis outlets tomorrow and I thought it would be kind of stupid to spend twice as much money on something. We decided not to eat during that time and since the weather was unbelievably hot (well, at least it wasn't as humid as Indiana), we actually didn't even want to eat. We just grabbed a sandwich from Starbucks before going back to the bus.

More posts about today/tomorrow coming soon!