i really love canoeing... 

fairy tale mushroom 

okay, okay. it just dawned on me that all the pictures i just added to this blog posted backwards so bear with me...

friday i left tallinn behind for a relaxing weekend in the country. a friend at school invited several people to hostel soomaa for a few days of sauna, hiking and canoeing in exchange for some help around the hostel. so i'm imagining some window washing or maybe some sweeping, etc.. however, when we arrived friday night i soon found out that "help around the hostel" actually means eight hours of manual labor... we spent saturday cutting wood out back and carrying it to and stacking it in the front, piling up scrap metal, bottles, paper tubes, and carting out loads of concrete chunks, glass, and tiles. by saturday evening we were exhausted but what had seemed impossible that morning managed to get finished with all of us pitching in.

our reward began just a few hours later with sauna! imagine the saunas you have seen in the states at your local gym, they look about the same in estonia... now imagine 70 - 90 degrees celsius ( that's about 160 - 190 degrees fahrenheit ) whoa... and don't think that i'm exaggerating, i saw the temperature gauge... this heat was intense... but cured my aching back! sauna in estonia is a ritual, many people go once or twice a week with friends and family, you spend some time inside the sauna, rinse off, then cool off outside, talking and drinking. when the cold air starts to get to you, back into the sauna! this is repeated two or three times and takes a few hours, a great way to socialize and relax at the end of the day.

sunday our reward continued with an all day canoeing and hiking adventure... we started off at eight thirty with 12 kilometers (7 miles) of canoeing, the sun still rising, birds in the trees, leaves starting to change colors, beautiful... then we pulled our canoes on shore and began a hike through the forrest. we picked delicious apples, saw red mushrooms straight from a fairy tale, marshland, deserted log cabins, a black river... after a few hours we headed back to our canoes for another 8 kilometers along the river. when we returned to the hostel at five pm we were exhausted and hungry but happy to have spent the day in the wilderness.

monday morning we were up at six am to catch the two hour train back to tallinn... with an open-ended invitation to return to soomaa for hiking or even cross-country skiing in exchange for more "help around the hostel"

monday, morning train to tallinn 

almost home.... 

some rest.... 

hike through the forest.... 

our reward 

sunday, play day on the river 

a long work day..... 

saturday, work day 

out to dry in soomaa 

yay! yay! yay! i finally have a work bench! yay! yay! yay! after weeks of searching and asking and looking for a suitable bench i now have one. as i said before there isn't enough room for me to have my own space at the school so it was very important to find a bench that i could have at home. trying to find one seemed impossible though, everything was too expensive, or too low ( it needs to be 39 inches or about 100 centimeters so that i don't have to crouch down to work ). the other day i ran in to some luck, i was talking with the shop assistant at the art academy about having a bench made by one of the sculpture or metal students, it would have been expensive but seemed to be my only option. another student overheard our conversation and said that he could easily find me a bench, in fact there were several desks in the dormitory that are not in use and we could try to find something there. as luck would have it i found something suitable, a wooden desk, very sturdy, that was already old and banged up a bit so i don't have to worry about messing it up. we then found some 2x4 blocks in a scrap bin that we used to extend the legs of the desk to the perfect height and cut a half round opening in the front of the work area so that i can easily saw and file. getting the bench to my apartment would be the hardest part, with the help of a first year student we were able to get everything the seven blocks to my building and up two flights of stairs into my living room! in all it took just four hours to get the bench i needed after weeks of searching....how lucky! the best part has to be that i only spent 50 cents on some screws and sand paper!

work bench 

below is a snapshot from the kulakost exhibition at the academy of art here in tallinn. the work was created by twelve students from the berlin university of the arts. the show featured a nice mix of sculpture, installation, photography, and video. apparently this exhibition follows a show by students from the estonian academy of art that was held at the berlin academy in 2004. it's really nice to see how prevalent cultural and artistic exchange is between neighboring countries in europe.

kulakost exhibition 

many of the students i meet in tallinn are studying abroad through the erasmus program. erasmus is a european exchange program that allows students from 31 countries to study abroad for a portion of their degree. the academy of art has one dormitory where most of the erasmus students live while studying in tallinn. last night i attended one of their weekly potlachs. it was a great way to meet people studying in the arts from all over europe. below is a picture of the music and singing that took place after our dinner.

during the meal i was able to taste my first smoked herring which was prepared by an estonian student named uulo. he had caught and smoked the fish himself! i was a little aprehensive to try this delicacy; the head, bones, etc. were still intact. however, the taste was amazing, like nothing i have ever had before. maybe i'll be able to learn how to make this dish while i'm here.

i'm still in the process of obtaining necessary equipment to set up a small work space in my apartment. i am able to use the school's studio for specialty equipment but there is no room for me to have a bench there, many of the students even share a workspace. today i was able to obtain a much needed drill, not exactly what i'm used to working with at home but it will meet my needs. now i just need to figure out where i can buy tanks of acetylene gas! when my bench is set up i'll be sure to include a picture.

thanks to everyone who has been visiting and commenting on this blog. even if you are not a member you can always post as "anonymous" just be sure to leave your name at the bottom of the message! i appreciate all of the warm wishes and helpful suggestions, keep it up!

erasmus party 

the gulf of finland - you can almost see helsinki on the horizon 

rose on viru street in old town 

view of old town from toompea hill 

another view of my apartment, the kitchen is around the corner

just 15 years ago my 39 square meter apartment would have been home to a small family, at the time each person was only allocated 12 square meters.

bedroom 

my living room

first weeks

so that everyone is on the same page, here's the intro:
i've recently graduated from the university of the arts in philadelphia with a bfa in crafts - jewelry/metals. i'm now spending ten months in tallinn, estonia on a grant through the us dept. of state fulbright program. i hope to learn more about ancient estonian jewelry, including the work of an indigenous population called the setus, and how jewelry in this region has progressed over the years. i will be affiliated with the estonian academy of arts in tallinn and will also be looking at contemporary jewelry. all of this with the hope that i will be able to make a body of my own work while i am here in response to my research and experiences.

so it's been almost two weeks now and i'm loving tallinn. the first week was busy with getting adjusted, finding an apartment, getting a cell, etc. everything's been going pretty smoothly, except that time i got on the bus and suddenly didn't recognize anything. i wound up just staying on until the end of the line then going right back to the section of the city i was familiar with. even that was a good experience though, now i know where the zoo is!

my sister rose was here for the past week helping me get settled. we spent lots of time decorating my apartment and eating in restaraunts, everything from medieval food to a swanky restaraunt that includes apples in every menu item. we even conducted an experiment to find out if estonian mcdonalds tastes the same as in the states, it does, exactly the same. we found that to be a bit disturbing.