#12. Back to Estonia

The last two weeks before Christmas/my Estonian trip went by really fast. There was a Christmas party for the local Estonians on the 14th of December, we went out for a Christmas lunch on the December 17th with the nannies, and during the last week I did many of my Christmas shoppings. On the 22nd I had a Christmas lunch with my employer. My final-final shoppings and packings were made on that day as well.

I woke up at 6:15 AM on the morning of 23rd, was on the bus that took me from my location in France to Frankfurt on time as well. The bus wasn't late, I had to wait for my flight for an hour and I was in Estonia at 5:20 PM. Was quite heart-warming to see the blue-black-white flag and hear lots of Estonian spoken around me. I did instantly regret one thing, though.

I didn't bring my winter boots with me.

Right after that I thanked every possible deity (even though I'm not religious at all) that I did think to put on the winter coat even though it was really damn hot in it in France. In Estonia, however, perfectly suitable if not too little. I was still cold. :P

Somehow I made it from the airport to the bus station. And by 'somehow' I mean 'I didn't make it to the city bus on time, so I had to take a taxi with a guy who went to the bus station as well'. We split the taxi bill and the parted ways. Well, not quite since he kinda came to tell me that he took the last ticket for the 6:00 PM bus to Tartu. Nevertheless, I felt pretty lucky that I got a ticket for the 6:30PM bus and only had to wait an hour and not more. I would've booked a ticket beforehand, but didn't do it just in case the flight would be late or something.

I really, really tried to sleep on the buses/plane because I was so tired, but simply couldn't. No idea why, either. Maybe it was the nerves and the excitement that I was going to see my family in a matter of hours.

The last hours on the Tallinn-Tartu bus were a real pain, too. It hurt to sit down (because I had been sitting for the entire day) and I my sleepiness made me a bit impatient as well. By 9 PM, I was in the Tartu bus station and got pretty much tackled by my oldest sister and my oldest brother's girlfriend. And shortly after that, was hugged by my little bro and my mother. The ones, who tackled me, left when they had greeted me and my brother yanked my big suitcase to the family's car.

My little brother had got his driver's licence not too long ago and it was a little weird to sit next to him with him on the driver's seat. He wasn't that bad, though, even though my mum was telling him how to drive whenever she could. XP The first place we went was Sirius. It's a burger place in Tartu and that first bite was so incredibly nom. I hadn't had warm food the whole day, so it was a real treat. :P

A shopping trip and a bought CD later (because apparently my younger brother was in a very Christmas-y mood ;) ), we went to home-home. The time was 10 PM. I was quite curious to see how my dog would react to seeing me after four and a half months. He hadn't forgotten me and greeted me like he usually did. Had missed him. :P Then I saw my 'little' sister. I was quite stunned when I did. She has grown quite a bit and needs about twenty centimetres more to be the same height as I am. She also seems a bit older. :) More girlier and such.

My other sister snickered at my reaction and told me that I'd fall over when I saw her son, my nephew. When he walked in the next day, I almost did. Little dude is five years old, but he's probably the tallest 5-year-old I've ever seen. :P

When I got into my room, I almost fell over again. There was...lots of stuff in there. And very little room to walk in. Nevertheless, I somehow made it to my corner and started unpacking. It was around then I discovered that the charger didn't fit my laptop. I yelled for my little brother to come into my room and when he saw why...dude was a little crushed. :P I think it probably didn't help that I gave him his extremely late birthday present then as well. So, since people do love being extremely sneaky around me, he was sneaky as well and loaned his friend's laptop for a few days.

Yeah, my little brother is that awesome. :P And in general, too. Really missed him. :)

I went to sleep at about 4 AM and woke up at 10 AM. Even though the place had waaaaaay too many things in it and was so incredibly cramped, I still woke up with a wide smile on my face. It was my bed in my home and I was with my family.

With a lot of Christmas craziness included (and I'm not going into detail), we had a Christmas dinner, got our gifts and I was given a free pass to have a chat with Chris in the other room while they were playing a board game. I was quite amused by how they came into the room, listened a bit, even said a few words to him and then went away. Seems like they've got used to the idea and want to meet them as much as he wants to meet them. That only makes me glad. :)

My little brother took the loaned laptop back on the 26th. We went to Tartu on the 27th with him and got a charger that worked perfectly with my laptop. A universal one, which (on later research) I could've got from France as well. :P But on the other hand, it would've been about €30 more expensive in here. 03

After we got back to my home town, I went to visit one of my best friends. I stayed there for the night and went to see another of my best friends the next day. Was truly great to see them over such a long time. We chatted on both times until 4 AM.

I suppose it was on the 28th when the illness finally hit me. My brother and his girlfriend had been over for Christmas and I probably got it from them. Harsh coughing and runny nose and all. Felt pretty awful for quite some time, which kinda kept me home as well. Didn't want to infect more people. Did plan to visit the little guy whom I used to babysit and his family, but that kinda wasn't an option anymore. Which was quite saddening. :/

The year 2012 came with a bang (as it should) and there was lots of sleeping on January 1st. :P The remaining days of my vacation, I spent at home with my family. On January 3rd, we made a movie night with my little brother that was sort of a success. |3

Woke up at 10 AM on January 4th and was in the Tartu bus station with time to spare. Did my final shoppings and got some warm nom-noms from Statoil. After my little brother had hauled my huge bag on the bus, I started my way back to Tallinn with the 1:15 PM bus. Was a little sad that I couldn't say bye to my mum in person (she left in the morning for work and didn't wake me up), but we spoke over the phone for a bit and exchanged texts as well.

I was in Tallinn about two hours before my flight was supposed to take off and I treated myself to a hot meal in the airport's café. I didn't get bored, either, because Estonia is godly with its free WiFi areas. :P Right before the flight I saw one of the nannies there as well. We didn't get to sit together on the plane, but we sat side-by-side when going back to France from Frankfurt. We reached our destination about ten minutes before 11 PM, I think. A tram ride and about ten-minute-long walk later I was back in the France apartment. Made my bed, unwrapped some things I had got in mail, talked to Chris for a bit and then went to sleep.

All in all, even with all the craziness and stress, it was still good to see them after four and a half months. Right now it has been almost a month since the trip and there should be another six and a half more. So, the total sum would be seven and a half months.

To my friends and family, just keep in mind: if I can do it, so can you~ :)

With lots of love,
M.

#11. Long Absence

Welp. Been a while since I last posted anything on this blog. Feel like I should. If not for others, then for myself. So I wouldn't forget.

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Partly I can push the blame on this picture.

Can't exactly blame the picture, now can I? I can, however, blame the thing on the picture. It's my laptop's charger. And that wire that looks like a twisted leg finally broke and gave it's final puff of smoke (yeah, smoke) on 20th of November. It became semi-useable on 17th of November with the help of some acrobatic exercises, so I was able to get the main things I needed from my laptop onto my phone/mp3 player. After the 20th I was able to use my employer's laptop for a short amount of time when I asked (because, hey, hers and all), which meant that I was able to check my mailbox daily, reply to the letters and occasionally even sneak into the forum.

Was able to poke my brother about me getting a new charger and we did get one. The bad thing was that since it was December by that time, the postal office said that it wouldn't get here before New Years. That would've been pointless, though, since I had a chance to be in Estonia from December 23rd to January 4th. So, they didn't send me and it turned out to be a good thing. We discovered that the one my brother purchased for me, didn't fit my laptop. More about Estonia in my next post, though.

So. I was in France with pretty much no knowledge of the language for longer than a month without my laptop and with very limited means of contacting the outer world. What I had was about half an hour of laptop-time every evening (because it always feels weird to use someone else's laptop for a longer time), my two phones with texting abilities and the landline than enables me to call the landlines all over Europe.

Doesn't sound too bad, right?

Well...it certainly got easier by the end. At first it was quite difficult. When I look back at it right now, I just feel really lucky that I had and still have Chris. We had limited time we got to spend together (if you can call it that) as it was because of some issues he had to deal with, so it wasn't that bad, but it was still pretty difficult at first. I mean, I was used to having him around for hours and hours, I could talk to him, hear his voice and then it went to one hour (two or sometimes even three) over YIM and then...eight minutes or so over the landline. I guess it's not exactly cold turkey, but still not that easy and not that pleasant.

For a week or so, I got to talk to him about eight minutes a day because the phone he was using had a very bad battery. On 29th of November, he made me a really nice surprise -- they got a new phone. And he didn't tell me anything about it, either. Kinda went 'Hey, check the phone and see how long have we talked' during the phone call. XP Whoever is reading this cannot even fathom how happy it made me to see those 22 minutes on the landline's screen. This meant that we could talk however long we wanted without having to fear that the line on the other end would go dead any moment now. I got to say my final 'I love you', hear it back and then go to sleep with a smile on my face. It did make my sleep calmer and my days brighter, I can tell you that for sure. :P

I phoned home more frequently as well, got more active with my Pilates schedule, went for walks more often, read a lot, picked up writing again, did lots of thinking and during weekends spent time outside the apartment, often with the nannies. Just to get out and do something else. Have to say that this forced time away from everything got me to appreciate the importance of just...being and doing nothing. Just you and your thoughts. Can do lots of good for a person every now and then. :)

Right about now, I'd tell about my trip to Estonia. Since it'll be a rather long one, I'll post it as post #12. Will be easier to read like this.

Click here if you want to read it. :3

For now, however...cheers, lovelies~ :)

M.