In general, Estonians are avid outdoorsmen that lovingly refer to themselves as a “forest people.”
Community service was a valuable part of my life in the U.S.A., so I have tried to stay involved in Tartu nonprofits and social work. I recently started volunteering at the International House, Tartu where I work with refugee families and sometimes give lectures about the U.S.A. Since my family is from Hawaii, I will be hosting a cooking event and hula dance training in the future. I also work with the Tartu Art Museum to build their English-language resources; here in Estonia, a lot of museums and cultural sites only have materials in Estonian or Russian.
Tartu is a UNESCO City of Literature which means there are a lot of museums, book stores, and art shops here. I have been to two museums so far, including the University of Tartu Museum and the Tartu Cathedral ruins. I climbed the many stories to the top of the ruins to look out over Tartu. I also visited the Tartu Observatory, a famous astronomical site connected to the Struve Geodetic Arc, the first accurate measurement of the meridian!.
Since Tartu is a university town, I have made friends with a lot of international students. My closest friends are from all over, including Poland, Romania, the United Kingdom, Georgia and Ukraine. I have had a hard time growing close to local Estonians since I do not speak the language yet, but I am enrolled in my second Estonian language class. The Estonian language has fourteen cases, or endings of words to indicate things like location, and it is one of the most difficult languages to learn! Hopefully, once my Estonian gets better, I will be able to read the labels on jars and cans in grocery stores.
