Exchange in Estonia at Kadri (30.03.- 07.04.2017) by Sophie and Emmi

Hello,

We are Sophie and Emmi from Germany (our host student Kadri visited Emmi last year).

Our first impressions from Estonia were kind of different to Germany. When we woke up  on Friday morning everything was covered in snow and we thought we were in a dream because in Germany it`s actually becoming spring. That means there was a green Germany with beautiful flowers and we had a grey and cold Estonia. Although it became a great experience. We´ve enjoyed the games in snow covered nature on Friday and especially the landscape around. 

Because we had the best family ever (love to Kadri, her family, and Gucci, Armani, Misu and the chicken) we had such fun  at the weekend. On Saturday Emmi and Kadri hiked through the forest and relaxed in their family`s sauna in the evening while Sophie visited her friend in Tartu who is living in Estonia for one year. On Sunday we visited Tartu together and Kadri showed us some cultural history in a museum which was really interesting. We love the fact Estonias are proud of their country`s culture and make such an effort to it. There was also another museum which was visited on Saturday without Sophie (forever alone). It was about an Estonian childbook author and it was pretty cool because they watched an artist drawing some pics and drunk tea together. 

The programm was better than we thought except for the festival on Monday and the rafting on Wednesday.  On Tuesday we were in tartu again. The AHHAA Science centre had many features that German science centers also have, so we new some things already. The workshop in the Enter was about seeing your own DNA and it was kind of disgusting, but also interisting. After that, we relaxed in the Aura aqua park. I usualy dont like to swim, but the spa was quite relaxing and it was nice to talk to each ohter. On Wednesday the only thing we did was rafting. We never did that before and our feelings about this are splitted. On the one hand it was very funny and exciting, but on the other hand it was also terrible, because we got very wet and were the last ones, also the tour was quite long. On Thursday we visited a boring gardening centre and a military basis.

We wondered how much estonians eat and we became much fatter here because on some days we ate four times.  Kadri`s mum can cook great and even though we ate way too much it was still delicious. The house we lived in was very different to the usual ones in Germany. They produce many things on their own, like warm water (water in general), honey, eggs, fish and so on. It is a very good way to live, its biological and ecologically. Also, all members of Kadri´s family are very talented and creative people. I think the whole visit is just too much to put it in words. Everybody we met here is so nice and friendly, we are so thankful that we were here and that we had such a great host family. 

Emmi can`t wait to see Kadri  again  and wants to see this country in summer.