Spring Days in Tartu

Kevad on käes! - Spring is at hand, so all Estonians celebrate the warm weather.
In Tartu, the city stops during a week with the traditional Student Spring Days.

During the weekend, there are many concerts, competitions, and events for young people to celebrate! Take a look at some of the events in the 2009 Program:

Wednesday - Wet T-shirt Competition
Thursday - Downhill Box car racing
Sunday - Red Bull Flying Machines

Or you can see the pictures from the events of previous years, like:

Wet T-shirt competition

Female Mud Fight

Beer cage climbing

Bambus - Downhill kart racing

Red Bull Flying Machines

Sounds Interesting? All this together with a great mood, beer and food waits you in the city of good thoughts

Estonia and Brazil - Tallinn Winter Tropics Festival 2008

Tere!

Since 1992, the international community in Estonia has grown a lot! Also the relations between Estonia and Brazil flourished, with many Estonian traveling to Brazil, and Brazilians coming to Estonia.

Many Estonians are learning Portuguese (with Gustavo), practising capoeira (with Lauro), listening to Brazilian music (with Denise and Jay in Clazz every Tuesday 21), and even eating in a Rodizio (All-you-can-eat meat) Restaurant (Ipanema Rodizio), among many other things.

This weekend, the First Brazilian Music Festival is happening in Tallinn. Brazilian vibes, with international attractions.


Tallinn Winter Tropics Festival!
(Tickets sale online)

Check out more about the biggest attraction, Elza Soares, anthological samba and bossa singer, awarded "Best Singer of the Millennium" by the BBC.

See you all there!

Estonia National Holidays

When coming to Estonia, is good to know about Estonian Holidays - or in estonian Puhkepäevad.
From the astonishing number of 12 free-days, is interesting to note that more than half of them are religious (as Estonians often define themselves as non-religious). Check the dates for the Estonian Holidays in 2008 below:

· 1 January - New Year's Day (Uusaasta)
Nothing unusual here (except perhaps for the Estonian president pronunciation in TV on the 5 minutes before midnight in new year's eve).

· 24 February - Independence Day (Iseseisvuspäev)
Day of declaration of independence by Republic of Estonia from Russian Empire (1918).

· 21 March - Good Friday (Suur Reede)
Movable holiday, always on Friday :)

· 23 March - Easter Sunday (Ülestõusmispühade)
Movable holiday, always on Sunday :)

· 1 May - Spring Day (Kevadpüha)
Come again, Spring day? Wasn't that Worker's Day? Not for Estonians, though...

· 11 May - Pentecost (Nelipühade)
50 days after Easter, also on Sunday :)

· 23 June - Victory Day (Võidupüha)
Coincidently one day before midsummer day :) - Commemorates the victory of Estonian forces over the Baltic Germans' forces in the Battle of Võnnu (Cesis) in northern Latvia in 1919.

· 24 June - St John's Day or Midsummer Day (Jaanipäev)
Midsummer Eve is a traditional celebration held on the night of 23-24 June. This day marks a day closest to the longest day of the year when twilight and dawn appear to merge. The evening of the 23rd and well into the morning of the 24th is celebrated with bonfires and a traditional festive menu.

· 20 August - Day of Restoration of Independence (Taasiseseisvumispäev)
Dramatic developments in the Soviet Union in August 1991 resulted in the three Baltic countries finally regaining their independence. On 20 August 1991, Estonia issued a decision on the re-establishment of independence on the basis of historical continuity of statehood.

· 24 December - Christmas Eve (Jõululaupäev)
The day before Christmas, a full-day holiday...

· 25 December - Christmas Day (Esimene jõulupüha)
The first Christmas day...

· 26 December - Boxing Day (Teine jõulupüha)
And the second Christmas day! 3 Days of Christmas vacations, isn't that great? Combine that with new year's day and a weekend, and you have almost every year one week of free days! Specially useful to cheer up unmotivated souls from the long nights of winter.

What do you think? Too many, too few? Post it in the comments!

Would you like to visit Estonia ? :)

I will not try to explain what is Estonia,
perhaps you should see with your own eyes... ;)



Rafael Karamázov - Brazil

Last weekend was a beautiful knock at summer’s doors. The sun beamed joyous rays relentlessly onto a sparsely populated park in Tallinn, Estonia. Lying at the water’s edge with gentle calling of birds and crashing waves acting as an ambient to the usual city sounds, the wind was blowing ever so gently (the most perfect of speeds), not too fast to give you chills and also not to slow so that the Sun slowly raised your body temperature to an uncomfortable level, but at a perfect pace. A couple of beers that had been bought before at the local store around the corner had been opened and were being passed around to be shared with friends. The cold bottle glistened as they touched the warm air and as I looked up at the beautiful blue sky, noticing the slight intricacies of the clouds that made my imagination run wild with shapes of cats, dogs, and dragons—I took my first sip of my beer. I put the beer down and lay on my back for a minute or two. It could have been a lifetime, for time had stopped, and I became entranced into my self-spun web of thoughts. I contemplated the future, the past, the people that I have met that weekend, and most of all, I contemplated how much Estonia has changed me. To use words like ‘good’ or ‘bad’ seem shallow to try to describe my feelings. I believe that words would fall rather short of how I really felt, and to be completely honest, I don’t think it is a feeling that can be felt anywhere else in the world.

Estonia is a beautiful place. Most of the time I am to wrapped up in my own world to see it, but it is moments like this that cut through everything inside of me and just brand me with happiness. It is times like these that I am reminded of the wonderful friends who have turned into my new family and the wonderful strangers I have yet to meet here. I look forward to the journey that is on front of me. That path is long and hard with many obstacles and I still have miles to go, but sometimes I can rest on the side of that road with people on the same journey and just take it all in with one breath then exhale the experiences out and feel a renewed sense of hope and optimism for the past, present, and future. These are the moments that truly make me happy—the moments that are collectively shared that lie beyond the realm of known communication.

Christopher P Kedzierski

USA - Estonia