Take 2 in Tartu

Our first night back in Tartu was not the greatest of days we've ever had. We got off the bus somewhere around 3:30 in the afternoon. We didn't really want to take a taxi and even though our hotel was on the other side of the city, I figured that we'd done enough walking around in Pärnu for the last few days that we could handle the walk across Tartu. What I didn't comprehend anymore was how much larger Tartu really was than Pärnu and how hard it was going to be to haul all of our baggage all the way across town. About half way there Spencer starts asking for rough estimates of how much farther we need to wak and was not so thrilled when I pointed to a far distant yellow building and told him that we would turn on that street to walk a couple more blocks to our hotel. :) Sorry Spence! We definitely should have taken a taxi! It was too late though to grab one now, so we walked ahead, a bit more grumpy and tired than when we had started.

When we finally reached the hotel, it had probably taken about 45 minutes to an hour to walk there and we were exhausted and hungry (not a good combination). We walked into our room and felt like we had walked into more of a prison cell than a place where we had paid to stay the night. The bed, which was WAY smaller than the other hotel beds we'd stayed on during the trip, took up almost the whole room. We barely had enough room to lay our suitcase down and change our clothes and on top of that, the room was swealtering hot. We felt like we'd gone back to Ghana and had all of our fans taken away. Needless to say, as much as we would have liked to lay down and rest, we opened the bedroom window and headed right out to get some food.

After dinner, we decided to catch The Last Airbender in 3D. We were so excited to see it because we'd been waiting for so long to see how the cartoon (which we LOVE) and the movie match up. We were so sad in Ghana when the movie came out in the US and we couldn't go see it with all of our nerdy Airbender friends, so when we saw that it was coming out in Estonia while we were there we made sure to catch it. Sadly enough, like the rest of our day, it didn't quite go as we would have wished. We showed up to the theater, had to leave and get cash because they wouldn't take our card, subsequently forgot the card IN the ATM and didn't realize it until after the disappointing and anti-climactic movie when we were at the cash register of the grocery store trying to get some food before we went back to our hotel cell. We then tried to go back to the ATM to find the card - of course it was no where to be seen by now - missed our bus home and then had to wait another 45 minutes for another bus to come along and get us to our resting station for the night. Needless to say, the next morning we were positively thrilled to be checking out of the so-called hotel. My friends, Swen and Ivika Hirs (who were married and baptized while I was in Tartu) had come home from Finland late the night before and rescued us! We were so excited to see them and it was so much fun to go stay at their house and spend the next day or two with them.

Our first venture with them was to stop by the outdoor market and pick up some fresh vegetables and fruits for our meals together. We then stopped at a place right in center called Creppe for lunch. Upon ordering, Swen, Spencer and I decided we wanted Lemonade. I had apparently forgotten what lemonade in Estonia was like because I forgot that it was more of a carbonated soft drink than the lemonade we were used to. When it came out we all just kind of stared because it was in huge A-le-coq glasses (beer glasses) and has the brownish-yellow look of beer too. Ivika immediately commented and made sure that the contents of the glass really were lemonade and that it was NOT alcoholic. We couldn't help but laugh and feel just a little bit awkward sitting in the middle of Tartu, on an outside table with hundreds of onlookers, drinking what looked like beer but happened to be lemonade. "Avoid the appearance of evil" just kept runnng through my head over and over again - but we laughed and joked about it and prayed no one who knew us would walk by and notice what was going on. I mean, look at this picture - what would you think we were drinking?

Ivika was just glad she has stuck with the overly-priced water :)
After lunch we headed back to Swen and Ivika's place, which is also quite nicely situated in the center of town and relaxed for a little bit before deciding to go see an early movie. Spencer and I needed a better movie to remove the sour taste the Last Airbender left for us, so we were all for another movie. We decided (or really Ivika and I decided) to go see Letters to Juliet. We ended up labeling it as the cheesy tear-jerker because Spencer almost laughed at all the cheesiness through the whole movie, while Ivika was tearing up. Having Ivika on one side and Spencer on the other made it hard for me to decide which emotion I was feeling. I actually kind of liked it that way because I hate crying and laughing at the cheese kind of ruins the movie - so I was at a great happy-medium in my spot and thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

We then headed out to Lõuna Keskus to make sure Spencer and I had done all of our last-minute shopping before leaving Estonia. It was Saturday now and our ferry was leaving Tallinn Sunday night - so we weren't going to have another chance to buy something if we wanted it from Estonia. This little shopping trip made me very happy. I basically splurged on every piece of chocolate I had ever craved since leaving Estonia 20 months before. When we walked out of the grocery store, this is what we had finally ended up with. Our chocolate goes from the yellow bag up to the green divider thing. Ivika thought it was quite an amusing sight, and thus insisted on getting a picture of it.

Spencer really didn't have much say in what we chocolates were going to buy - but in this linen store, he was very adament about NOT getting any of the over-priced things. Even if I HAD wanted something, I don't think it would have gone over too well. We did have fun trying on the sauna hats though, although I still can't figure out why you'd want to wear a hat, especially a linen hat, in the saune.
After playing around in the linen shop for a while we headed back to the apartment for more food and games. We had the most delicious stew from all sorts of fresh ingredients and played Ticket to Ride Europe - which Swen and Ivika had just bought. We were so excited to see a game other than cards that we could barely handle it. After all summer with only facecards, Skipbo, Monopoly Deal and Phase Ten, we were definitly ready to play something else.

That night I slept better than I had in a long time. It was so nice in their apartment and I think I was just grateful to be with some familiar people again and have fun like we would with our friends back home.

The next morning we headed off to church and had a great time meeting new people and seeing the old again. I tried translating for Spencer - but most of the time he just got to sit and listen to the Estonian while I tried my hardest to comprehend what was being said on my own. I'm not sure why it seemed so much easier in Pärnu to understand and translate everything, but my brain must have been completely fried or something because I was completely lost. I really enjoyed being with the Tartu branch again though. They are now in a completely different building than when I was there, but it's so much nicer and it was so fun to see everyone and talk to them about how much they like the new building better than the old one.

Anyway, once church had finished and we had gone home to eat some more of that delicious stew we thought we'd spend our last hour or two going on a nice walk around town and enjoying our last little bits of Estonia.

This fountain is right in the center of Tartu's Raekoja Plats. As missionaries we used to meet people in front of this kissing fountain all the time to teach lessons. I had always wanted to bring whoever my sweet future husband would be back to this very place and get a picture like this. So now that I had my sweet husband right here I couldn't miss this opportunity :) The only thing we're missing is the umbrella and rain. We continued to walk around and Ivika made sure that we didn't miss a single picture moment. This is the Tartu town hall - notice the fountain in the background.
This is some monument to the Wilde men, Oscar and Eduard
These are their statues with Spencer and Swen admiring their beauty :)
You think Spencer's jealous ?
Not going to lie - after being in Ghana where husbands/wives, fiances, boyfriends and girlfriends never even touch eachother in public - it was really nice to see some public affection again.
Mine? Oma, in Estonia is basically the all-around word to make somehing possessive. So this is MY mural on the side of the building.
Cute Swen and Ivika! I'm SO glad they were game for so much fun!
Tartu University main building. I love it here!
We didn't do it! I promise!
Swen, Ivika and Spencer just walking down the street. Yay for candid moments!
We had to check out the botanical gardens. They have so many beautiful flowers and plants. This picture makes it look like Spencer's allergies are going crazy - but deep down, I know he really does appreciate the beauty of plant life.
Swen and Ivika in front of their apartment building where we stayed.
Our train left that night at 5:30 from Tartu so we could catch our ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki at 9. Here we all are at the train station. After a long summer away from home we were ready to get going, but it was so bitter sweet to leave such a wonderful people behind and not know when we'll be able to come back and see this beautiful place again. Hopefully someday!

We love you Swen and Ivika, all you other Estonians and just Eesti in general! Thanks for such a great visit!

Last 4 days in Pärnu

It is now August 17th - the morning after my parents needed to leave. Spencer and I woke up in our apartment and had NO idea what we wanted to do. So we decided that going to the beach was going to be the perfect activity!



It took us a while to actually get up and out - but as we did, my friend, Janeli, gave us a call and wanted to do something. We invited her to come along. She insisted it was too cold to get in the water, but agreed to come along with us and enjoy the sand and water fully dressed.

When we met up with Janeli, Spencer and I were both in our swimming attire and Janeli was in a full-on sweat outfit. It was awesome! What was even greater was that it started to rain not long after. Needless to say, it was a little bit cold for a beach day - but we played around on the toys anyway.

This swing was a blast - especially when Spencer and Janeli joined me in it.

I didn't get a picture of all three of us, but here's one when Spencer decided to get out and give us a push.

We then went to lunch with Janeli and just happened to run into the missionaries at the same place. We joined in on their lunch and had a great time!

After going home and getting ourselves little more presentable, we headed off to the little church building for English classes. Sister Nelly Osula was so excited to see us there, and she was very adamant that we get a picture taken together. She had even called me earlier that day to make sure that I didn't forget my camera because she could not handle the idea of not getting a picture with us.

We were pretty beat after English class, so we headed home with some food to get some rest for the night.

The next day, we were able to make some fun rounds to visit some of my favorite people. We started off the day with Sister Linda Hamburg. This lady is one of the most kind and patient ladies I've ever met. She is SO optimistic that it's hard to have a sad or foreboding thought in your head when she's around. It really is incredible to be in such an amazing person's presence. Spencer was an absolutely wonderful too because he didn't hardly understand a word of what we talked about, but he nodded and smiled and waited patiently while Sister Hamburg and I talked our hearts out.

Spencer, me and Sister Hamburg - the camera timer was a wonderful invention! From Sister Hamburg's apartment we went straight to catch the bus to Ülle Tilk's. We missed the bus we should have gotten on, so we had to wait another hour for the next one. I hate it when that happens! But since we were lucky enough to find her on Monday when my parents were still there with the car, I was able to call her and make sure we could still get over there with the next bus. I was so excited to see her again and talk to her about her life and everything that's been going on. Again, Spencer didn't hardly understand any of our conversation - but I am grateful that he was so willing to sit through these wonderful visits.
Once we got back into town, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed off to Sister Pruel's house again, where Janeli surprised us by joining in the fun and eating the most delicious chocolate cake ever! While here, the rain started to absolutely pour and the power went out! Spencer and I had fully been planning on walking home, but apparently we didn't end up doing that and had to catch the bus home.

While at Sister Pruel's, Janeli invited us to go to her family's home in a small town called Kabli that is situated right on the Baltic, almost to the border of Latvia and Estonia, which is about an hour bus ride out of Pärnu. I had the opportunity to go there once as a missionary and was so excited to go again with Spencer.

The bus didn't leave the next morning until almost noon, so while we killed time that next morning I took Spencer to the Pärnu market to see if we could find any cool things to buy. We had a great time looking at all the fresh veggies and mostly enjoying the interactions of all the old Estonian ladies selling their stuff. Spencer especially enjoyed watching this old lady on the right, in the red. We didn't find anything we really wanted, so off we went to the bus station. After all our experiences in the Ghanaian buses this summer, we had mixed emotions about getting on another bus. We were not too excited to be on a bus period - but absolutely thrilled that we had soft seats and smooth roads to travel on.
Once in Kabli, Janeli took us straight to the Baltic to show us the beautiful and scenic route along the beach. I don't know how well you can see the sea, but it's there and it was gorgeous.
We then stopped by the store to pick up some sausages for lunch and headed right to Janeli's to do some old fashioned, Estonian grilling. This picture is of Janeli's grandpa, Spencer and Janeli on the right holding our bowl full of goods for the cucumber, tomato and sour cream salad (an Estonian classic) :).
After Janeli's grandpa started up the grill and about burned his hand off with syrup-like lighter fluid, Spencer was put in charge of the grilling. Boy were those sausages good!
The whole crew around the table. Janeli's cousins were visiting from Germany for the month, so we were so excited that they could join us in the feast.

Janeli's friend (whose name I don't remember), Janeli, cousin, aunt, grandma, me and grandpa.

Although the visit was short and sweet, I am so glad that Spencer got to see more of the Estonian countryside and have a chance to interact with more Estonians in their native environment. They absolutely LOVE the country and believe the land and all the nature to be very sacred. When you go to the country you can tell how well they take care of it and they take great pride in making it as beautiful as possible.

Spencer and Janeli on the ride back.
This Thursday in Kabli was our last day in Pärnu :( We left Friday at 1:00pm to head back to Tartu. Sister Osula was so sad to see us go and hurried to the bus stop to see us off. It about broke my heart AND Spencer's to see her sitting right outside or window waving and following the bus as it took off. I will definitely miss the people here and all the wonderful times we had. Hopefully someday we'll get to go back and show our children how wonderful all of it is.

Pärnu Vanematega

Pärnu! How I love this place! I spent the last 6 months of the mission in this amazing little city. It is situated right on the Baltic Sea and it so incredibly beautiful! The people are wonderful and amazing too and it only took about a day for me to realize that I was going to LOVE my last 6 months there.

My parents were with us here for the first 4 nights were stayed here, then they had to leave to go home. So this is our post with the adventures we had with my parents. Our last few days here will come next.

We left Tartu later in the afternoon on Thursday, August 12th and headed for Pärnudiis (or paradise, as many of the missionaries called it).

Our first adventure on the Pärnu soil took us straight to the beach. This is where my companions and I would go running every morning that the weather wasn't being ridiculous. It was not always easy to wake up at 6:30am every morning, but running on the beach was something I always enjoyed doing.

Spencer and I on the beach

My dad and Spencer had to try out Pärnu's version of a see-saw - isn't this thing great!? They would NEVER put this is approve this as something safe to put in a public place in the states. It would definitely be too dangerous. Sad - that all the "dangerous" toys are the funnest ones.

We then went to dinner at the missionaries' favorite restuarant - Stefani's. Their pizza is incredible and it was so fun to be back there again.

The next day we spent the morning at the market that had sprung up on the main street in Pärnu. They had so many fun things to buy and we took quite a bit of time shopping around, trying to find the most perfect thing for each of the kids who got left at home.

It was especially hard to find something for the boys. Here my mom is contemplating wool socks...

The girls were easy - they all got this awesome jewelry with Baltic Amber in it.
The wool socks idea was nixed - but my dad thought this blacksmith stuff was awesome.

This guy was letting the kids make their own nails here.

All the really cool stuff cost about an arm and a leg at the blacksmith shop though... :( So the boys ended up with candy - edibles are always a good backup plan!

We still had fun shopping though!

After our shopping trips and enjoying our time in all the touristy sights of Pärnu, we got to go to the branch family night! I was so excited to see everyone again and to be a part of family night! The games were all so much fun and it was great to get to talk with the missionaries and hear how everything in the area is going now.

Going to FHE was also a great thing because I was able to give our Estonian phone number to the members so we could set up some times to visit with them all. It was perfect! Saturday we then got to make a visit to Sister Ülle Pruel's house. It was so much fun to see her again (as she did not come to FHE, but received my phone number from someone who had) and to have my parents and Spencer meet her. She understands English, so we were all able to talk as long as I translated her Estonian for everyone else because she won't speak English.

We then had a dinner date at the Lastsenko residents. Vilma Lastsenko and her son Tarmo fed us til we were about to drop. Vilma's other son, Indrek, was out with the missionaries so he had to miss out. I loved eating all the Estonian food again! We had potato salad, meat pastries, chicken schnitzel, bread, beans, like 4 different desserts - it was heaven!
After this filling dinner and time talking with everyone, we headed out on a drive to an outside little town called Audru, where we spent some time working when I was a missionary. There are a couple members that live out there and it also has some very beautiful area that I wanted my family to see.

Here's part of Audru. This is my favorite bridge in Estonia! Not sure why, it just is.
The next was Sunday!!! Anyone who hadn't come to FHE that I wanted to see while there in Pärnu, I was hoping I would see at church - so I was pretty excited. To my surprise (with only a couple exceptions) I wasn't much disappointed.

The members there are so wonderful and so much fun to be with. We got to church - I was asked to speak AND say the closing prayer, my mom was asked to lead the music and Spencer was asked to play the piano. Boy do they know how to utilize the resources they have when they're available.

Here's some pictures after church of some of the branch members. I love them so much!

My parents had to leave Estonia the next day, so after church and dinner was all over we wanted to make sure there wasn't anything we'd missed as far as things to see. We decided to go a walk through a park and down to the beach. We found this wall of rocks that separates the sea from the river that flows through Pärnu into the sea. I had seen pictures of it before, but never been here. I was so excited and we all made it our goal to walk all the way to the end of the wall of rocks.

We didn't quite realize how far out it really went. This picture is looking back to land at maybe the halfway point.
This is looking out the "end" - We couldn't even really see it yet!
It took us a good 30 to 40 minutes to walk all the way out there - and with only a couple falls along the way we made it!
It was so beautiful out there and I loved seeing the sunset and the sailboats there in the background.
My dad really went out on the edge here
Spencer and Dad
This is me and the view of the walk back the was awaiting us.
Spencer and the sailboats.

I love it here! It's so beautiful! The sun literally sets here for hours. It's gorgeous!

We were feeling pretty artistic. Cool huh?
Anyway - our adventure on the rocks was the end of our Sunday evening and Monday morning, as we got everything packed up and ready to go, we had just enough time to take my parents out to Paikuse (another area outside of Pärnu that we worked in). I taught a wonderful lady there who didn't show up to church and I really wanted to see her. Her name is Ülle Tilk. She was baptized just a week or two after I left and when she didn't come to church I knew I had to track her down and see her again. By an amazing stroke of providence (because I wasn't positively sure which building she lived in) we ran into her as I walked into one of the doorways. This was the last person that I really wanted my parents to meet - and even though we only had enough time to set up a visit with her after my parents had gone, I was so grateful to have found her and gotten her phone number, along with introduce her to my parents before they left. It was a true miracle!

It was sad to see my parents go, but how grateful I am that they got to experience at least part of this wonderful place. It was so wonderful having them there and I only hope they were able to enjoy it as much as I did.