Six months at Tartu University

On October 25^th began our first snowfall around 3 PM in the afternoon.  Through my office window, I could see the sky become a steely gray.  First there was a mix of rain and snow and then it all changed to snow.  We had tickets for the theater that evening.  I decided to leave a little bit earlier to give us time to eat and walk to Vanemuise, Tartu’s largest theater.  I am so glad that we live but 10 minutes by foot from Center City. Theaters are conveniently close and well within walking distance.

[singlepic id=482 w=320 h=240 float=left]All the Estonian plays that we have seen so far have been very well done.  Early in the season we decided to purchase tickets to go to various plays and concerts almost every other week during our stay here. The acting has been good, the sets and productions very professional.  The first play that we saw back in September was a tragicomedy titled Panic (Paanika, ehk Mehed närvivapustuse äärel) by a Finnish playwright Mika Myllyaho.  The play consisted of only three male parts and revolved around the lives of a graphic designer, an engineer and a TV personality.  Each of the men was going through a midlife crisis.  Their lives were intertwined, however, with each other in fun ways– but thank goodness, not in a homosexual way.  The latter theme I find is just being overdone in the US.  This play was at the “Sadam Teater” (Harbor Theater) right next to Emajõgi.  This theater reminds me very much of our small American Theater in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The second play was a drama “Puhastus” (The Purge) and is based on a factual story taking place between 1936-1992 and surrounding the author’s (Sofi [singlepic id=481 w=320 h=240 float=left] Oksanen’s) mother’s side of the family who was Estonian and lived in Estonia near Haapsalu. The book is available from Amazon books.  The play is about two sisters who are caught up in Stalin’s horrific acts toward innocent people and their deportation in cattle cars to Siberia. Over a tenth of Estonian’s population was affected:  If people were not outright executed, families were separated, and the men, women and [singlepic id=484 w=320 h=240 float=right]children were sent to Siberia.  Many died in Siberia.  Survivors eventually – after ten to twenty years in exile- were able to return to Estonia.  Some were sent back again.  In the play via multiple flashbacks, it becomes apparent that one sister was sent to Siberia, is still alive, but has not yet returned.  The play, however, focuses on the other sister who survives in Estonia, but in a way, did so by selling her soul. The play begins with her Siberian sister’s grandchild entering her now rather lonely life in 1992, right after Estonia’s newly regained independence.  The book has been translated into more than 9 languages and the play has similarly been on the stage of as many countries in Europe. As I understand it will be also at the Mama Theater in New York City. This play was at the Väike Maja of Vanemuise (a small theater up the hill from Vanemuise). Click on single pictures for captions.

The play we saw on the evening of our first snowfall was “Mary Poppins”.  The play and songs were all translated into Estonian and was very entertaining! [singlepic id=483 w=320 h=240 float=left]This production was in the Great Hall of Vanemuise. The original theater built in 1906 (see model below of the original theater)  was completely destroyed during the Soviet occupation [singlepic id=488 w=320 h=240 float=right].

The present day Vanemuise Theater occupies the same site as the original.   Mary Poppins was quite an international production with the Director from Sweden, Music Director and Stage Designer from Estonia, costume designer from Scotland; lighting was done by a Swede, and the choreographer was from the United States….Reading about the play, it appears there is a special arrangement with a Music Theater International group in New York City to present the play and to even obtain performance materials, set design, costumes, props, etc from this same group.  It seems a good way to be able to put on plays of this caliber and to do it in a cost-effective way.

Present Vanemuine Theater, as viewed from one of the restaurants at the shopping mall.

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When we left the theater to walk back home, it was still snowing.  It continued into the night and not until next morning did it began to clear. We got some nice pictures.  It has been now hovering around freezing temperatures during the day and below freezing at night.

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In regards to concerts, one pleasurable one was a group called “Kum-Ba-Yah”.  They sang at the historic St. John’s Church (Jaani Kirik).  I was intrigued, because this group was from Germany, but they were to sing our US Negro spirituals and gospel songs.  A German group singing our Negro spirituals??  Interesting!!  So I went and have to say I enjoyed it!  I like our US Negro spirituals, but this was somewhat different- a German rendition of them.  I have heard Negro spirituals sang in Charleston, South Carolina which was close to what I would think would reflect quite closely the spirituals of the American South before the Civil War.  Kum-Ba-Yah’s version was not quite the same –but not bad. The conductor of the group really got the audience involved with clapping to the rhythms of the songs. He was quite an exuberant conductor! They also sang African folk songs, gospels, and spiritually up-lifting songs as “Climb Every Mountain”.  After the concert, the singers mingled with the audience. Two people came over to talk with me. Unfortunately, they did not speak English (although they could sing it) and started to talk German.  I had to pull myself together to try out my German that I had learned in high school and college. Five years of German in all, but when one does not practice speaking, it becomes very rusty.  Surprisingly, I was able to manage to a point that they understood me and I them as well.  Jüri did not come with me this evening, as he was having some hip problems that I think developed from his taking part in a 10 km walking race the week before.  He walks a lot, but 10 km and at a faster clip??  I was still in the US at the time of the race and was not able to “dampen his enthusiasm” for taking part in it.  He came in first for his age group, but as he smilingly said, he was also the only one in that group…. Matter of fact, there was no one in the above 50 age groups!  Apparently, the seniors in Estonia conserve their energy for the cold winter months.

I have been busy with my grant writing and research plans here at Tartu.  As a result, I have gotten a little behind with my blog reports.

Our lives have settled now into a routine.  We get up around 6:30 AM-7:00 and have breakfast.  Jüri has found the farmer’s market (turg) especially to his liking and is whipping up wonderful breakfasts.  Having worked with really early stages of chick embryos, I know what fresh eggs look like.  Tartu’s farmer’s market has the freshest, most remarkable  eggs I have ever seen.  The egg yolk is almost orange in color and when you break it open in the pan, the heavy white albumin forms a mound around the yolk.  Fantastic!  He fries local smoked bacon with it, that doesn’t seem to have too much fat and adds freshly picked mushrooms (more about this later).  Estonia has what is termed in direct translation ‘sour milk’ (hapupiim).  It is somewhat like buttermilk in the US, but has a different taste to it.  I like it better than buttermilk.  One mixes a cup of hapupiim with a tablespoonful of ‘kama’, a mixture of ground, dried grain types of all kinds, as well as ground dried peas.  Although it may not sound like it, it makes, however, a very tasteful drink.  I like it slightly sweetened, preferably with local honey.  After a cup of kama, we have coffee with a fresh pastry.  One thing I have noticed about Estonian pastries and desserts, they have a lot less sugar than we usually see in our pastries and cakes in the U.S.  So, we have a rather good breakfast. As one can imagine, I should not have too much for lunch, and usually don’t. I allow myself these good breakfasts every other day. On the alternate days I have just some type of granola with fruit. I rationalize the large breakfasts with my being much more physically active here than back home in Florida.  Here we do not have a car and as a result we do a lot of walking. On the way home, I get off the bus earlier than needed so that I can take a 30 minute walk back to the apartment through the old historic part of the city and through the center city square.

I usually catch the 8:27 AM bus to get to my office by 9:00 AM. I bought a monthly bus ticket that allows me to jump on any bus any time of the day.  So, if I miss one bus, I can walk to a main transfer point about 15 minutes away and take another bus that will take me close to my destination.  This works out well.  If one buys just one ticket that can be only used within the hour, it can create problems.  City bus overseers can board any bus at anytime and if you should be riding without a correct ticket, you are escorted off the bus and fined 40 euros.

My office is quite large with large windows looking out over fields and a forest further off in the distance.  To the left is a view onto a large mall that is about a 20 minute walk away. On that side I have a view of a large smiley face that has been placed at the entrance to the mall.  That smiley face is a nice way to start out the day! For taking a bus home, I go to the mall, because most buses go there, as their last stop.

In the lab are 4 nice young people:  Triin who recently finished her Master’s and now is working on a genotyping project, including SNP analysis, related to a certain group of cancer patients.  She plans on starting her Ph.D soon.  I will be working with Triin specifically on our stem cell project.  Triin is an attractive, very smart, young woman with a lot of interests.  One is music and she sings in Tartu’s Women’s Choir.  We went to one of her concerts one Friday evening at a local Lutheran church, Maarja Kirik.  The congregation presently is quite small and is headed by a young minister. This church has quite a history.  During the Soviet takeover of Estonia in 1944, that part of Tartu was bombed and most of the wooden buildings burned to the ground.  Only the walls of the church remained. Rather than rebuild it as a church, during the Soviet period the building was restored to be a gym where a local basketball team played for years.  The small congregation is now in the process of restoring the building back to the original church layout and they are trying to rebuild the congregation.  There will be years of work ahead of them. The pews are in place and the present alter is literally a large mural photo of the original altar.  I have never heard so many songs dedicated to Ave Maria, as I heard that evening.  With the old gymnasium/church setting, subdued lights, and religious music being sang, it was somewhat melancholy and served to again remind one of the hardships endured by this small country and its people..

Many Estonians are involved with music at some level. Most of us in the US who follow classical music, most likely have heard the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s music which is often played  at concerts or on the classical music stations.  Two Estonian conductors Neeme Järvi and Eri Klaas are world renown.  We have heard the young Estonian female conductor Anu Tali with the Sarasota Symphony Orchestra in Florida. Her concerts tend to be sold out when she conducts there. I read that she will be conducting in Sarasota again in January 2013. Every city in Estonia tends to have several choirs and and there are numerous concerts going on all the time, that it is hard to pick and choose.  An ensemble that I hope to hear in December is Hortus Musicus. This is a group that has been singing and playing for 40 years.  They chiefly sing Renaissance music, wear period costumes, and play period instruments, as they move and jump around on stage and sing.  They are very popular all over Europe. Music was the underpinning for Estonian’s push to independence at the end of 1980’s and 1990, as witnessed by James Tusty’s movie Singing Revolution that played at theaters around the U.S. and now will be aired by PBS.

Alar, another person in the lab, is a Senior Research Specialist who is also a father of four children.  The last child was born this summer, before I came.  Then there is Anna, who seems to be a person who likes sports and Kristi, a lab technician with a young child who just started school. They all seem to be bright, energetic young people, in general on the quiet side and very respectful in their attitude. I have been working on my grant pretty much nonstop.  It was submitted September,25^th, so I feel I have not had the time to get to  know everybody very well yet, except for Triin.

You may be wondering what Juri has been doing with his time, while I am at the lab.  He is busy as ever and says that there is no way that he could be bored.  He visits the different bookstores in Tartu and is reading a lot about Estonia’s history and especially what happened in Estonia before and during the Soviet occupation.   It indeed is a sad and horrible time in Estonia’s long history.  I worry about how we will be able to take back all the books that are appearing in small stacks in the apartment.…. He may take a bus out into the countryside and takes short hikes along various trails. In the early fall, he went on a trip organized by one of the museum’s of Tartu University to go mushroom picking.  You’re probably thinking –  ‘Mushroom picking’??  At the end of summer and into the fall, mushroom picking appears to be a national pastime in Eastern Europe and certainly in Estonia.  The Museum wanted to have a special exhibit of all the different types of mushrooms that grow in Estonia and organized the trip to collect them.  Jüri signed up to learn about the local fungi, and especially the poisonous ones.  The white Ammonita is one of the most poisonous.  Jüri had the dubious honor of finding the first one for the exhibit. I felt safe eating the mushrooms,that he brought home , however, because they had been checked over by the experts in the field. Indeed, needless to say, we had an exceptionally fine mushroom dinner that evening!

On one Saturday, a couple that we knew previously and who had visited us in Florida, invited us to go on a hike with them to see a bog and mire in the Southern part of Estonia – about 2 hours away, not far from Võru.  They picked us up and as we left Tartu, it was pouring rain.  As we made our way toward the southern part of the country, it began to clear and by the time, we reached the bog, it was only cloudy.  I read somewhere that bogs and mires cover almost a third of Estonia. Where we went is a National Park area (Meenitunno Kaitseala) with a trail made of planks that takes you across the mire to a small picturesque lake.  From there we continued on to the other side where a pine forest takes over, as the land starts to climb away from the mire.  On that side, there were a lot of mushrooms and Jüri and my friend’s wife started picking.  I’m not too keen on picking, since I know nothing about mushrooms, nor which would be the poisonous ones; Rein does not care for them, so the two of us walked on ahead. We decided to follow a trail through the woods back to the car, instead of going back on the mire.  Unfortunately it began raining and the hour was getting late.  I was somewhat concerned that we would not make it out of the forest before we were overtaken by darkness.  None of us had a flashlight.  That is rule number one, when one goes hiking…. We pass a large anthill as we make our way through the woods.  We just made it back to the car, but at times it was hard to see the trail, because the pines were quite tall and blocked out what little light there still was. We drove back to their home and had a tasty late dinner that Viivi had prepared that morning, knowing we could be late getting back.  Conversation flowed and when I checked my watch, it was already past 2 AM!  We called a taxi and got back to our apartment within 20 minutes.  All in all another nice day spent with friends.

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In Sillamäe looking down steps to a boulevard that leads toward the sea. In the summer palm trees were placed along the stairs in the 1950’s.

September has now arrived. Unbelievably one month of my sabbatical is over. The time has passed much too quickly. We decided that while the nice summer days are in place, we should do our sightseeing, because as work moves to the forefront and as the rainy days of fall begin, it will be much harder to take the time and to walk around outside.

In the early part after our arrival in August, on a beautiful sunny Sunday Dr. Everaus and her son invited Juri and I to come with them to see the city of Narva at the northeastern part of the country. The city is situated right across the border from Russia and has probably the largest Russian population than other Estonian cities. On the way there we also stopped at Sillamäe that was a “closed” city during the Soviet occupation. What is meant by a closed city I learned, is that it was not shown on any of the maps of Estonia or Russia, people could not go there without special permits. A post office did not even exist there. It was as if the city did not exist, although thousands lived there and worked at the chemical plants and nuclear facility located there. It was a planned city, built in the early 1950’s from the ground up. When one visits Sillamäe in the present day, one immediately sees that the architecture is different from buildings seen in the rest of Estonia. The city center not far from the sea and has somewhat an mediterranean appearance. Large boulevards fan out from the center with trees planted in rows. The trees are now around 60 years old. We drove around and saw in the distance the large port from which products were shipped back to the former Soviet Union. As one drives out of the city, we pass the typical grey colored, block apartment houses where the workers live.

We continued on to Narva and to the border with Russia. Just before the border gates, we make a right hand turn to go to the old castle. The large old fortifications exist on the banks of the Narva River, both on the Estonian and Russian side of the river. On a the day that we were there, there was to be a reenactment of a medieval battle between the Swedish and Russians. Quite a few were dressed in the dress of that time and exhibits were set up of food, dress, and military tents used in that period. We climbed around the old fort, as well as followed circular steps going to a top tower and observation post overlooking the river and countryside. Interesting to me was to see a large statue of Lenin with an arm upraised and pointing off into the distance. It most likely used to be in a prominent position in a central city square. It was now set in a rather obscure position in a small corner of the fort where when you walk into the fortification, one’s back would be facing it and would not really see it, unless you turn around. I asked why Estonia had kept the monument at all? Dr. Everaus answered it was still a part of Estonia’s history. Unfortunately, it remains as a reminder of of a very bleak time in Estonian’s history of being occupied.

The Estonian Narva Hermann Castle is to the right. In back on left is Ivangorod Fortress on the Russian side of the river.

Statue of Lenin at the Narva Castle.

Soldiers preparing for the reenactment of the medieval battle.

My older daughter and her family arrived in mid-August. Juri and I took time to go sight-seeing with them. We started off with walking around Tallinn. The kids enjoyed seeing the turrents and hopping from cobblestone to cobblestone. There are a lot of tourists from all over the world in Tallinn. On one day in the same week we were

Pastel colored buildings in the Old City line the main square of Tallinn.

there, it was reported that on just one day 12,000 tourists had been in the old Hanseatic city. It is a beautiful and picturesque city, well worth visiting. I always enjoy walking the old cobble-stoned paths. Outside the old city walls a new Tallinn is rising with architecturally interesting buildings.  We visited this area with a brother of one of the architects who  has designed some of these buildings.  While in Tallinn, we parked our car underneath a large square  (Independence Square of Vabaduse Väljak) where is located the large new monument commemorating the Independence War (Vabaduse Sõda ) and one of Tallinn’s oldest churches – St. John’s Church (Jaani Kirik). An interesting aspect regarding the underground parking structure is that while doing the excavations for it, more parts and alley ways of the old city wall were uncovered. The city maintained parts of the excavations and incorporated them into the parking structure. Everything is being kept very clean here – no graffitti in the structure nor litter to be seen. When we walked out of the underground parking structure, a woman was washing the parking structure’s windows. I don’t recall seeing that happening in our parking structures in

The new underground parking area with the excavated old city wall left to serve as part of the wall of the structure .

the big cities of the US. Windows usually are dirt and grime laden and one can barely see through them. Tallinn is, of course , not that big of a city in comparison. It has approximately 300,000 inhabitants, close to one-third of Estonian’s whole population. I have to say I was impressed by that parking structure.

After leaving Tallinn, we visited several Manor houses in the northern part of the country – Palmse and

Palmse Manor seen from the front gate leading onto the grounds. This is one of the nicest, restored manors from the Baltic German times. These manors were primarily built in the 1700’s and extending into the late 1800’s.

Sagadi that have been beautifully restored. Near Palmse, we ate at a new restaurant called Kohvikann owned by a German couple who came to Estonia from St. Petersburg where they had also owned a restaurant. Jamie declared that he had the best meal in that restaurant. I thought I would mention this, as we ate at quite a few during their stay, so to say this was the best, it meant something.

From there we went to Tartu, where they stayed with us, and we took day trips – we saw Tartu, of course, then took trips to Rakvere to see another castle and to Viljandi, Soomaa to see the bogs and marshes… Jamie only had a week to spend with us and returned to Seattle. Kadri and the two girls stayed on for another 10 days.

I had to leave them for several days to take a work-related trip to Tromsoe, Norway- way north of the Arctic Circle.

View onto Tromso in Norway, as seen from my hotel window.

I have a good colleague there with whom we are working on a large Program Project grant to be submitted for the end of September. Tromsoe is a lovely small town on the ocean in northern Norway. Ganesh had arranged for me a room with a wonderful onto the sea and across the bay. It was 3 degrees celsius when I arrived, but warmed up slightly during my stay there.
When I got back, Jüri and Kadri and the kids were at the airport to pick me up and we made one more trip to Hiiumaa, the smaller of two larger islands situated in the western part of Estonia. There are actually many small islands located all along the western coastal region, some inhabited and many more that are not. That whole area is rising and it is said those numerous islands will all join the mainland in the future. Now there are ferries shuttling year-round locals and summer tourists back and forth. We stayed at a brand new small hotel that was opened this past June. It is called “Lest ja Lammas” (Flounders and Sheep). In Kassari where we primarily stayed, fishing and growing sheep appear to be two primary occupations. In the morning we walked along the beach of a slip of land (Sääre Tirp) that juts out far into the sea. It is quiet and peaceful with only the sound of waves and birds calling to each other. Far off one can see swans swimming along the coastline. The tempo of life slows down and nothing can be more relaxing than just sea and sky around you.

In the last few weeks the air has a different feel to it. It feels more and more like fall. It reminds me of New England in the United States after Labor Day. It is currently rainy. Kadri and the grandchildren left last week. Our lives settle down to a new routine.