Exchange in Estonia, April 2017 by Franzi

Hey there, 

My name is Franzi and I stayed for one week with my exchange student Mari-Liis.

Estonia is a very small country, it has a population of 1.3 mio, which feels, in comparison to Germany, like there lives nobody. The town, where I am staying, is called Kanepi and there are living about 700 people. Even though there are living not so many people, it is a really nice, but small village. I was really surprised, when I heard there are two shops. They are really small, but you can get there whatever you need for your daily life. 

My family was really nice and I am glad that I was able to stay at their place. They lived in the middle of nowhere about ten minute’s drive away. It seems to be quite cool living in the middle of nowhere, because it is silent and relaxing. My family had a big property and a sauna in their garden. I have been in there twice and I wish I would have one at home, but I don’t have one and anyway there isn’t space for it. 

Living in Estonia is different than living in Germany. One point is the standard of living. It is lower than in Germany, but it wasn’t a problem for me, but I think I was lucky to stay in that family, because everything was really clean and comfortable. 

The program we had was great as everything during our visit in Estonia. The school were shown to us, we took part in lessons (they are so different from ours), we played games in the nature, we played basketball against the Estonian exchange students, we met the major, we had an art workshop, we had a kind of party with all the exchange students, we visited the AHHAA science centre Tartu and the Aura centre, after that we had time to go shopping, we were rafting on the river Võhandu, we were in Võru and visited the military base Kuperjanov. The program was really good and the best thing was the rafting on Wednesday. On the weekend I did somethings with Mari-Liis and her friends, who had German exchanges as well. On Saturday we were in Tartu. We ate a big burger all together and went to a souvenirs shop. The shop assistant told us a lot about the Estonian sauna and it was quite interesting. When we passed the old town I met a friend I didn’t see since last summer, because she is an exchange student for a whole year. After that we were driving to a shopping centre. In the evening we, my exchange and two friend of her with their exchanges, were in the youth centre and played Billiard. On Sunday was a kind of Workshop in school with snakes. There was a man who has a lot of snakes and he brought four with him to school. There were three small snakes and one big snake. After that we were at an Estonian road museum with more or less every exchange student. We were also bowling with the same people as always and in the evening we were at Angela’s. The other evening we spent with the same people at different places and one evening we, just me and Mari-Liis, watched some films.

I am really sad that the week is already over, because i enjoyed the time i spent in Estonia.