Yosef, Tallinn ?

Ah Tallinn, majestic capital of Estonia, the equally majestic capitol of frigid nowhere.

But don't let that mislead you to assume I'm not fond of the place, in fact it's quite to the contrary. After the whirl-wind trip from Selcuk to Istanbul on an overnight bus (not recommended) to a long flight from Istanbul to Riga, a quick overnight, and then a very short flight (on a very small plane) and suddenly I'm in Tallinn, the smallest big city in the known world.

It's a surging metropolis of 400,00 people with sky-scraper hotels and mostly cobbled-stone streets. That's hardly the end of the contridictions that criss-cross this Baltic country and former Soviet nation, but it's a good indication of how things work here. They speak Estonian, in Estonia, for example, and are quite proud of the fact that they aren't Russian. at all. But they all speak Russian, of course, and most of them have Russian family members. Oh, and they've all been to Russia, a lot, even the children.

Tallinn is my first destination that is more than pure recreation, and man is it proving to be a LOT more. I'km working as a volunteer in a small English language camp for 9-13 year olds in central "Old Town" or Down Town Tallinn. And I mean it, I'm in the thick of things in every possible way:

The camp is located 2 blocks from the central (tourist) square, within the largely-existant ancient town walls, and a mere 4 blocks from the city's largest (only?) mall. For a city of only 400,000 it is ridiculously metro - cafes, trams, buses, trolley busses, taxis, fast food nation, and everything else.

The only thing I don't have in Tallinn is time. We work every day from 9 am to 6 pm (lunch with the kiddos) and then we spend our evenings planning the next day. On the plus side, this latter step can be done while watching Euro Championship football (and occasionally visiting a pub). On the downside, we work 13 out of 14 days straight, and we have almost zero free time for simple things like laundry, blogging, etc.

And let me warn you: if someone ever offers to treat you to "Estonian Cuisine," get busy with something else, fast! As the international volunteers we've been showered with home cooked meals twice a day for the past 5 days, and I've now had more bland boiled potatoes, over-cooked cabbage and a variety of sizes of meat-ball mash to last a lifetime. Even the standard drink - "Siirup water" is hard to get excited about. Does the name tip you off?

Otherwise, the people of Tallinn are great, and the weather is cool, but nice, when it's sunny. And because we're so far north, it's always sunny. Always. The sun sets sometime between 1-2 AM and then promptly rises again between 3 and 4. It's cool, it's weird, and day-to-day I can't tell if I'm getting used to it, or just not getting enough sleep to tell.

I want to tell you more, about my arrival in Tallinn, the (not-so) exhaustive training they provided, and the (exceptionally) exhausting work I've been doing for the past 3 days especially. In Soccer (sic - football) they have a "group of death" where all the hardest teams wind up. Well, my group of 10 little angels is the camp's equivalent, so I now have a few battle stories to share, but that will have to be another time.

The only thing in Tallinn that isn't cheap is Internet time, so after spending almost $10 US, my 1 hour is practically over.

I'll try to share more about my camp, my experiences, my volunteer teammates, and much more as opportunities arise.

For now, please be satisfied with what little I can offer. More news (and a few deep thoughts) I'll try to scribble down while I'm away from the keyboard, and relate them as honestly (and quickly) as I can.

Thanks for hanging with me, after this I should have a quiet week of much travel, but also much, much more internet time, and I'll be able to catch up and reflect for hours on end.

Yay!

Best wishes (from the lamb)