The title really says it: there are so many museums in Paris. I’ve been here for a month and only been to a handful on them, but I already feel like I’ve seen so much art. The best part about them is that they are (usually) free for residents under 26, so we have hours upon hours of activities in Paris for free. Just a heads up – there are a lot of pictures of art in this one!

I will start by adding a couple of pictures of the trees I mentioned last time. I tried to take pictures, but I’m not sure how well you can tell the shape of them. I understand that they are for aesthetic purposes and help with keeping the shape once there are leaves, but I still maintain it’s a little funny to me.

With that out of the way, I thought I would bring out some of the museums I’ve been to. It’s mostly been art, but that takes many forms, doesn’t it? The first one we went to was Musée des Arts Décoratifs or MAD. There was an exposition called “Cartier et les arts de l’Islam. Aux sources de la modernité”, which was about the influence of Islamic Art on Cartier’s designs of jewellery.

Now the next place wasn’t really a museum, but it was very historic and interesting. We went to the Panthéon, which according to the Paris tourist office is “the temple of the French nation”. Under the church there is a crypt that since 1885 has been the last resting place of many great writers, scientists, politicians etc. I didn’t really know what to expect of it at first (and didn’t know famous people were buried there), so I was blown away by being surrounded by all that history.

Going back way further in time, we also visited the Musée d’Archéologie Nationale in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. It was quite interesting, since it started from the evolution of humans (if I remember correctly, from homo erectus) and went up to the iron age, after which came some more modern stuff. Since I know some important discoveries in the evolution of the human species have been made in France, it gave the exhibit a more interesting air for me.

I will leave some (very) modern art for my next post in an attempt to not make this one too long, but I just have to post pictures from Musée d’Orsay, Musée de l’Orangerie and Musée du Louvre. We saw so many paintings and sculptures from so many famous artists and we didn’t even have time to see everything. We definitely want to go back to Musée d’Orsay and Musée du Louvre since there were many things we didn’t see the first time around (if you’re planning on going, save a lot of time for it).

Obviously there are many many more famous artists and pieces of art featured in these museums, I just picked a few (more famous ones) to post. There is actually a line that goes to the Mona Lisa, but we didn’t have time to wait, so I snagged a picture from the side. In general to anyone visiting museums in Paris, I will reiterate – if you really want to look at the artwork, save a lot of time for it. For example the Louvre is huge and we only did a quick run-through of a couple sections, which still took us an hour and a half.

One of the things I love about France is how much history there is to experience here. Every once in a while in a park or a castle I go back in time in my head and think, ‘wait, but royals walked and lived here’ and just try to imagine the life back then. It kind of gives a different perspective to the everyday problems we have now. I will finish with another picture from the Louvre and until next time!

Au revoir!

Hello friends!

It’s been a while since I have written in this blog… a lot has happened since my last post, but one thing stayed the same – we are still in a pandemic! It’s funny to think back to a time when this was not our reality, but we have to learn to live with it, which is why I decided to go for an Erasmus+ student exchange. I moved to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France at the beginning of January and after three weeks, I finally got around to writing something. If you don’t know what Erasmus+ is, here’s a quick explanation: Erasmus+ connects universities all over Europe, so students from partner universities can do an exchange for a semester or a year. I will be in France for about five months, studying at SciencesPo Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

My first couple of weeks here have been full of exploring both Saint-Germain as well as Paris, which is about a 40-minute train ride away. When I first got here, I thought to myself “Am I insane? Why would I move to a country where I can’t speak the language even a little bit?” (learning it on Duolingo for a month doesn’t really count), but luckily people seem to speak English, or if not speak it, at least understand some of it. Although, when I was coming here from the airport a girl did try asking me for directions and when I asked if she spoke English, she waved her hand exasperatedly and walked off to find someone else. So I guess not everyone, but so far I’ve been pleasantly surprised.

Now, we all know some stereotypes about France and pastries/bread, so here are my thoughts: yes, they do eat a lot of baguettes. I’ve probably seen someone walking on the street with a baguette almost every day. One day on the way to school, I saw someone’s broken bag on the ground and there were four baguettes coming out of it. Croissants are delicious and I definitely prefer them over baguettes, however the real (pleasant) surprise has been crêpes. You can get a Nutella crêpe in Paris for 2.50€ and they are a delicious little snack! You can also eat salty crêpes (also known as galettes?) with ham and cheese for a meal, and while they are more expensive, they are still delicious.

One of our first activities was visiting the Versailles castle, which was truly majestic, extraordinary, stunning, incredible *insert all the adjectives*. It’s just so big and there are so many little details in the rooms and it’s truly a little overwhelming to think that kings used to live there. We also had a fun little challenge to take funny pictures in the rooms of our choice and we had a lot of fun with that. I don’t think words can really describe the castle, so I will add pictures instead.

I think that’s enough for one post, so I want to bring out one last thing that I’ve noticed in France (and thought is a little odd): in (perhaps fancy?) parks the tops of trees have been cut in a straight line, so they are all the exact same hight. I don’t know how to explain it better and I also don’t have any good pictures of it, but I am very confused by it. I will try to get a picture of it for my next post and until then, I would like to finish with a meme we made at Versailles:

À bientôt!

This will be my last blog post for a while. With the rapid spread of COVID-19, I have now returned home to Estonia. It was sooner than I expected and I’m sad I never got to go to Vietnam, but it was the rational decision to make. At least I had a very fun adventure in Maui before I left. Thank you to Malle and Tiiu for taking me in and showing me around!

I left for the airport at 4.30am to take a small Mokulele plane to Maui. It fits only ten people plus the pilots, has a propeller at the front and I sat right behind the pilots so I could see all their screens and everything.

Malle (there’s two on the Hawai’ian Islands, this was Maui Malle) met up with me at the airport, where I got my small Ford Focus rental car and we started driving toward Tiiu’s home in Haiku. If you couldn’t tell by the names, they are both Estonian.

We had breakfast at Tiiu’s, where I also met her mom Ülle, and then we left for the Road to Hana. The road itself is very narrow and windy, through the rainforest on the edge of the mountains and cliffs. It is very beautiful and we were so lucky that the weather was good, because there is a danger of mudslides when it rains. We had clouds and some sun, but no rain thankfully.

We stopped at the Ke’anae Arboretum (I think that’s what it’s called), where I saw lots of banana trees, rainbow eucalyptus trees and they also grow taro there (the purple sweet potato).

It took us all day to take the Road to Hana and drive back on the other side of the mountain. It was cool that we got to go in a circle, since I saw the landscape change from the rainforest to tundra. We passed canyons that were made a lot bigger by the 6.7 magnitude earthquake in 2006(?) that looked gorgeous.

My second day was a lot more chill – in the morning we went for a walk with Tiiu, Ülle, and their friend Stephanie and her daughter. It was very interesting to talk to Ülle, since she and her family had escaped from Estonia in 1944, when she was only 9 years old. The stories from that time are always unbelievably sad.

After the walk we went to the beach with Tiiu and Stephanie, where I actually ended up falling asleep. After I woke up from my little nap, we went to a different beach – Little Beach. Now that was an interesting experience since it’s a nude beach known as a hippie hang-out place and there was a lot of interesting people there. We sat there listening to the drum circle and joined in doing some African dance.

My last day I went to Lahaina, where I just explored and walked around. I could already see the effects caused by the corona virus – quite a few places were closed – but I still learned about Hawai’ian history. Lahaina has the oldest lighthouse and the oldest courthouse in Hawai’i.

As I mentioned before, I am now back in Estonia. As borders were closing in Europe and my 90 day deadline coming up, it was obvious I couldn’t go to Vietnam and in order to not get into any trouble with US immigration I started flying back on Tuesday. Luckily everything went very well with the flights, I even got an upgrade to first class for my longest flight from San Fransisco to Frankfurt.

It was truly an incredible journey and I feel so lucky to have been able to do everything that I got to do. Thank you to everyone who welcomed me into their homes and lives! I will forever be grateful and if you ever come to Estonia, my door is always open. Everyone’s kindness is humbling and overwhelming and makes me think, that maybe there’s hope for us yet.

Thank you!

While it finally snowed in Estonia, we celebrated independence day with clear skies and sunny weather. It’s been very different to spend the winter in a warm and sunny place, but I love it.

I’ve been helping Malle out with lights on photoshoots and learning a lot. We did a wedding, two maternity shoots and a family shoot in the last two weeks (I think). I’ve also been learning how to edit the pictures, which might not show on the ones I post here, but I’m getting better, honest!

I love doing photoshoots with Malle, because I get to meet so many interesting people. They are usually visiting from a different place, different backgrounds and it is fun that we all meet here in Hawai’i. We get together for a couple of hours and all have pictures to remember them by later.

I finally got to swim with manta rays! As they say – third time is the charm. I saw them on the observation platform at first and when I noticed groups of snorkelers going in I ran in after them. I didn’t want to be in the way so I stayed further away, but I still saw the giant fish up close and I’ll be honest, their giant mouths are a little scary.

We also decided to go camping for a night in South Kona. I took the bus to Kona in the morning and Malle picked me up in the afternoon with the kids. We stopped for coffee and delicious cheesecake at Kona Joe Coffee, which has an amazing view of the green mountainside and vast ocean. Sometimes I forget that we’re in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

We drove down to Ho’okena Beach, where we had decided to camp for the night and got settled in. I have to say I had never before gotten instructions to “put the tent behind the palm tree line” before, but when in Hawai’i. Of course, used to the great weather in Hawai’i, none of us had checked the weather and right as we started to eat dinner it started raining.

We saw some lightning, heard thunder, and huddled up in the tent. Malle finally checked the weather, as I didn’t have any service, and we found out it was going to rain the entire night. We decided to eat and wait to see how the tent would hold up and whether the weather would get any better. It did not get better, and the tent started leaking pretty soon.

At one point I needed to use the restroom, so I took off into the dark in the thunderstorm in search of it. After a bit of exploring, an encounter with a mute and seeing the gate get locked, I finally found it. I also realized that we were stuck there, because I saw the gate get locked. So we tucked ourselves in with the many blankets we had brought and made it through the night.

I woke up a couple of times during the night – around 1am it stopped raining, started up again around 3am and when we all woke up around 7am it was a beautiful clear morning. Malle and I attempted yoga on the beach, the kids played in the sand and water and I went snorkeling. Our true camping adventure was over, when we had to head back for another photoshoot.

Kaimana turned four this week, so we celebrated his birthday. He is very happy about all his new Legos. Thomas had a gig at the ukulele festival that we all went to see and later on was Kaimana’s and Papa’s birthday celebration. I finally met everyone in the family and we played a Hawai’ian version of Cards Against Humanity.

Last but not least, we went on a boat on a whale watching expedition. It was a fundraiser with the West Hawai’i Mediation Center and they took a bunch of people out on a catamaran. We saw a lot of dolphins who came to say hello and three humpback whales – a mom with her calf and their escort. It was so cool to see them close by and they are truly giant.

After our eventful morning with the marine life, I fell asleep in a hammock, which is also a very normal thing to do. I always realize these things are out of the ordinary when I tell my friends. Anyway, I’m going to Maui next weekend and the weather forecast says it’s going to rain the entire time, so let’s hope it’s wrong, but if it’s not, I’ll be sure to have more adventures.

This Sunday marked four weeks in Hawaii for me already! As always, I’m keeping it busy, which is why I’m a little late with this post. Better late than never

First off, Stefaniya and I went on a hike to Kīholo Bay. On our way there we met a man (Brad?), who guided our attention to the pond he was sitting next to. It’s called Queens Bath (Keanalele Waterhole) and it used to be where the Queen would take baths. It was very cool, because it was cave-like in an old lava tube and you could swim through a rocky tunnel to an opening. Unfortunately only Stefaniya has pictures of that on her disposable camera.

After a quick dip in the chilly water we continued our journey towards Kīholo Bay. We had both heard great things and it is still so interesting to me to see beaches with solidified lava. There were also supposed to be sea turtles, but we only saw two. They were very cute, though, kind of struggling in the waves.

I also tried proper boogie boarding on good waves and it’s so much fun. Hāpuna beach is perfect for that sort of thing and even though it’s a little crowded, I think it adds to the comradery. A man saw I was struggling to find the right moment to hop on a wave, so he helped out by very loudly yelling “go!” at the right time. A couple of times I caught really good waves and made it all the way to the sand.

Now starts the Hawai’ian culture appreciation portion. It somehow happened, that I was exposed to a lot of traditional Hawai’ian things on consecutive days and I loved it. First off I finally made it to the luau show, which is traditionally a celebration around feasting on traditional cuisine and entertainment, including hula and Hawai’ian music.

The show I went to was just that – a show, no food, but I didn’t mind at all, because I feel like that is the more interesting part. I loved how through dance and song they told stories about ancient Hawai’ians and their gods. They had variety as well – besides regular hula, a guy performed with fire and they even taught kids how to hula. It was all so much fun.

I think I’ve mentioned before that Līlia (full name Līlialanaikawaiola) goes to a Hawai’ian school and they had a big event, where all the Ke Kula ‘o Nāwahīokalani’ōpu’u schools came together and did performances. Kids sang in Hawai’ian, danced hula and chanted. There was a small market, where they sold food, jewelry, and other Hawai’ian handcraft.

Malle took me around campus and explained, that they grow everything themselves. There were coffee and mango trees, fruits and vegetables that I hadn’t even heard of, and some pretty big pigs as well. All the classes are in Hawai’ian and the whole point is to keep Hawai’ian culture alive.

For lunch we had kālua pua’a (pulled pork) with rice, taro (a purple sweet potato) and haupia (a coconut milk based dessert). As I knew our next stop would be Mauna Kea (the mountain) I also bought some triangular earrings to represent the three big mountains – Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa and Hualālai.

There is a big fight going on about Mauna Kea right now, because some governments want to build new big telescopes at the top, but for the Hawai’ian people it is holy land. For them it is unacceptable that they would destroy the natural state of the mountaintop to make room for buildings, so people are literally camped out, living in tents, at the summit to keep the machines from going up.

The mountaintop was very windy, but we had snow ball fights, made snow angels, people were using boogie boards as sleds and we even found this cute snowman. Quite a few cars were shoveling snow into the back of their cars to take it down with them and potentially build a snowman in their back yard (even if it will melt in a few hours). I loved how excited the kids got about snow.

Last but not least, I went to the Sheraton resort in Kona, which is at a very historic spot when it comes to the Hawai’ian royal family. I learned about King(s) Kamehameha I, II and III and the changes they made in Hawai’ian governance. They had to make decisions about the traditional laws when westerners came, like can you own land and should people accept Christianity.

Moving on from Hawai’ian culture, I had a very fun game night at Stefaniya and Nick’s. After a day at the beach we all tried AcroYoga, walking on a slackline and played Cards Against Humanity. Since my body is so used to waking up early, I went out on the terrace for the sunrise and had a really nice view down the mountain towards the ocean.

This week has gone by so fast and I don’t have many pictures, but I’ve been going to the beach and the park with kids and helping Malle out with photoshoots. One night I hung out with people and we played beer pong, which surprisingly had more rules than I thought it would. I think Americans like making things more complicated than they need to be (e.g. American football).

It’s so cool to see sea creatures in the wild. Kind of in the wild. If you’re out and about near the ocean, keep an eye out for whales. I’ve seen so many of them spout – blow out water – and occasionally there are dolphins jumping out. We saw turtles pretty closely at Hilton, since they came to say hello.

Malle took me to a few farmers markets in Waimea, which were also very fun. There were live musicians, a lot of local produce and things you can’t really find anywhere else. I saw a stand with girl scouts selling cookies and it was so American that I just had to buy some.

I hiked down to the Captain Cook monument to see another iconic place in Hawai’ian history. It took me about an hour to hike down and another hour back, but it was well worth it. The monument reads: “In memory of the great circumnavigator Captain James Cook, R N., who discovered these islands on the 10th of January, A.D. 1770 and fell near this spot on the 14th of February, A.D. 1779. This monument was erected in November A.D. 1874 by some of his fellow countrymen.”

It is a great spot for snorkeling, so it was so unfortunate I couldn’t do it. They have a nice coral reef, and I could see small bright yellow fish right by the shore and dolphins playing around a little further away. One of the dolphins jumped high up in the air, showing off.

Another busy week has flown past. I think this time I will write less and mostly share pictures with commentary about where I’ve been.

When I heard the words “black sand beach” I expected completely black sand, but it was actually mixed with light grains. The contrast gave a really cool effect in my opinion.

I went to see the ancient Kalahuipua’a fishponds on the grounds of Mauna Lani Resort. I think it was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. It was so calm, I enjoyed just sitting in the shade and looking out at the water and trees. There’s also a historic trail close by, so I learned some new things. Fun fact: ancient Hawai’ians used to live in lava tubes.

We had a really fun tour guide at the coffee farm and I learned a lot about a drink that I don’t actually like. Nevertheless, here are some fun facts about coffee: coffee is a fruit – they grow cherries, the bigger the seed from the cherry the better the coffee, and last but not least – light roast actually tastes the most like coffee.

We went to the east side of the island – Hilo, Pahoa, Kapoho – to see the lava flows from 2018. Over 700 homes were lost and it was crazy to see how roads just ended, because they were cut off by lava. It was a bit of a different atmosphere there anyway, because the east side is known for hippies and marijuana. Early in the morning we went to a market, where we met a man named Rufus, who grew coffee, chocolate, papaya and so many other local plants. He let us walk around and told me about the different plants. I came away from that meeting with a business card and a fruit that I can’t remember the name of. It was very interesting.

At one point when we were driving there was actually steam coming from the sides of the road. It’s a little scary that there are officially four active volcanoes on the Big Island and really no where to go if they erupted. Unbothered by that, I thoroughly enjoyed the jungle feeling nature on the east side of the island. It’s incredible to see giant mango trees in the wild.

After our adventures on the east coast, we got back in time for “talk story” – a concert that happens every month on the saturday closest to the full moon. The moon was indeed very bright and we had a nice evening listening to music by the ocean.

Yesterday we wanted to go cliff jumping with Stefaniya and Nick and we did, even though we all only jumped once. I also managed to scrape my knee on the rocks when I was climbing out. The water was a little too rough, but we’ll try again next time. So after our one successful jump we went up the mountain to see some woods, an old house and some animals, after  which we enjoyed a movie and called it a night.

Aloha! I have made it to Hawai’i, where I will stay for the next two months. Mahalo to Malle and Thomas for taking me in and being so welcoming!

The first week went by in a flurry of activity, so I will try to remember everything and write the names of people and places correctly. First impression: I love it here! It’s always warm and sunny and green and the ocean is close by.

Right off the bat we went to Kona on my first day here. We saw some Estonians, had lunch and went to the beach. The water is warm and so clear and I’m trying my best to get a tan without burning. We went to Four Seasons to look at the sunset and it was a gorgeous resort. Made me think it would be kind of nice to be rich.

The next day Malle took me to a petroglyph park. Petroglyphs are lava rock carvings etched into stone centuries ago by Native Hawai’ians. It was so interesting to wonder along the trail in the woods, an occasional petroglyph sealed off somewhere, and then making it to a big field full of them.

Hawai’ian culture is so interesting to me and I love that they’re putting in more effort to keep it alive. Malle and Thomas’ daughter Lilia goes to a Hawai’ian school, where all the lessons are in Hawai’ian. The petroglyphs are still thought to be a mystery, though.

After my little exploration in the park I once again headed to the beach. I feel like I’ve gone to the beach almost every day, but it’s been a different beach every time. This time I started at a rocky beach, but a short walk took me to a nice and sandy one.

The next day I went to a ukulele lesson. Honestly, I don’t know if I could feel more like a white tourist, but I plan on going again and it would be cool to say I learned to play the ukulele in Hawai’i. Of course it takes a lot of time and practice to master it (as it does with any instrument), but it’s a beginning.

I’m already getting fuzzy on the when and where exactly, but one day I went exploring in Kona. I wondered around the downtown area by the ocean, found a cool thrift store and made my way to the Royal Kona Resort for a concert. There is a Hawai’ian artist performing there every Thursday, so I laid down by the pool, watched the sunset and enjoyed the music.

After the concert I decided to hang out and watch beach volleyball. There is a volleyball court at Coconut Grove, where people get together and play almost every night, I think. It was certainly interesting to watch and they kept going for hours.

The next day we went to see tanggu drums in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year. I love how multicultural everything is and how the differences are celebrated. Afterwards Malle dropped me off at Mauna Kea resort so I could go snorkeling with manta rays. The manta rays unfortunately did not show, but I still enjoyed a magnificent sunset at the beach and learned how to snorkel.

Saturday took us to another beautiful beach once again. We hung out in the ocean, snorkeled a little bit and just enjoyed the sunshine. It feels like there’s an endless amount of beautiful beaches here, but I’m not complaining in the least. That night we had some people over for a barbeque and Malle and I sang some Estonian songs.

Yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday and I got to experience my first Super Bowl live as well as go to a Super Bowl party. I’ll be honest, we didn’t pay that much attention to the game, but it was lots of fun and it was interesting meeting some locals who are more my age. I learned that Super Bowl is about three things: the commercials, the half-time show and chicken wings.

So many things to do on the Big Island, I can’t even wait to go cliff jumping, hiking and up Mauna Kea, the world’s biggest mountain (measured from it’s underwater base).

*the Greater Los Angeles Area to be more exact. Days filled with (mostly) sunshine, lots of traffic and friends. A huge thank you to Monica and Jeff for hosting me and to Ryan for helping me out and taking me around!

I got to experience one of the notorious things about LA as soon as I got off the plane – traffic. It took us two hours to get to Ryan’s parents’ house with lots of sitting around, but it was a good chance to catch up. We got Chipotle for dinner and just chatted with Ryan’s parents where I was staying.

The next morning Jessica picked me up and we went to Griffith Observatory. We hiked up the hill, decided to go off the beaten path and made it up to a beautiful view of Los Angeles. It was a really warm and sunny day and I, of course, was happy to see the Hollywood sign, even if it was far away.

I was really surprised you can go in to the observatory for free, but they had some interesting stuff there. To be fair, I have learned most of it in school, but it’s always fun to watch eclipses, a demonstration of the Tesla coil and see how much I weigh on Jupiter. It was also the only time I’ve had mac and cheese in the States.

Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling well once we got back, so I took it easy for the rest of the day. I went to dinner with Courtney and we had ramen in Fullerton. I went to bed early and had a very chill next morning at the house, watching Netflix and enjoying the sunshine in the yard.

Ryan and I went to Hollywood and the arts district later that day as I was feeling better. I also got to see Ashley at the church where they work and it was so much fun chatting again. Hopefully we can see each other again this summer in Estonia.

In Hollywood we went to the Chinese Theatre, walked on the stars and looked at the handprints on the ground. Since Ryan studied film, he told me all sorts of fun facts about the movie industry while I was there. We walked in the Dolby Theatre, which is where the Oscars take place, and I got to walk up the same steps all those famous people do every year.

We decided to have hot dogs in the arts district and our journey there was once again long because of the traffic. We drove by all the movie studios though, which was very interesting. Universal Studios has a theme park next to it, Warner Brothers looks exactly like it does in movies and they’re all surprisingly close to each other.

We went exploring around some beaches with Ryan and Daisy. First Laguna beach, where it was foggy and windy, but still beautiful. There were cliffs and rocks in the water with smaller areas with sand that you could go down to. Just as it was getting warmer and starting to clear up we headed to the next beach in Newport.

We hoped to see some bigger waves at the beach in Newport, but it was actually even calmer than Laguna. It was still nice, with palm trees, yachts and summer-y feeling houses. I just love being by the ocean.

On our way back we took the tiniest ferry to Balboa island and stopped for frozen bananas. They also sold Balboa ice cream and I’m not sure how that’s different from regular ice cream, but the frozen banana was delicious. We also made friends/ felt threatened by a bunch of pigeons. They were really aggresive.

That night we went to worship night, since everyone I know in LA are from WACC. Courtney and I got together at Ashley’s other job before the worship night and enjoyed a little drink and snack. The worship night itself was very different from what I’ve been to before. There were a couple hundred people there and at times I felt like I had just come to a concert that I could sing along to. Afterwards we went to In-N-Out to hang out with the younger people and I saw real life cheerleaders (the wondrous things for foreigners).

Now, going to Disneyland was always in the back of my mind when I knew I was going to LA, but I hadn’t really made any plans before I got there. So in the morning of my last day Ryan texted me, that he could get me a ticket for 40$, do I want to go? So obviously we went to Disneyland (the ticket is normally about 150$). At first we thought I could only go to California Adventure, but when we got there we realized it was to both parks and had a fast pass.

So with this new discovery of having both parks at our disposal, I had to see everything. Ryan was once again a great tour guide, since he has an annual pass and has been going there for years. I could learn all the tricks of a local and heard a lot of fun facts about the different rides.

We tried to go on as many rides as we could without waiting in line for too long. There was a lot of people visiting that day and we still wanted to enjoy our time without stressing about all the rides. I think the longest wait we did was for Pirates of the Caribbean for about 30 minutes. The roller coasters were all quite mild compared to what I thought they would be.

Ryan took me to all the different “lands” within the park and it was so interesting to see how fast they could change the landscape, how intricate the details were and how much effort has very obviously been put into the parks. You could go from the streets of New Orleans to the greenery of the Critter Country to the new and futuristic Star Wars in just a couple of minutes.

Unfortunately we didn’t see that many characters walking around, but at least both Minnie and Mickey were there. We also caught glimpses of Cinderella and Prince Charming, and Princess Tiana. We also managed to get a picture with Pluto.

I think my favourite ride was Soaring, where it feels like you’re flying over some of the most famous places on Earth. It just felt so incredibly realistic and I wasn’t expecting that at all. Time went by so fast and suddenly it was time for the final shows after an absolutely beautiful sunset.

We saw the fireworks from afar and stayed in California Adventure for their final show. It was all done with water, sound and lights – they showed clips from Disney movies on the water that formed kind of a screen. I don’t know how to explain it exactly but it was magical to see.

We ran over to Disneyland for their final show as well, which was more of a combination of reality and movies and I finally got to see a lot of the characters. It just reminded me of how much I love Disney and musicals. What an epic end to my adventures on the mainland!

A chill week in North Carolina has come to an end. I wanted to do all the really “American” things so it was filled with stores and fast food places, but some southern things as well. A big thank you to Morgan and her family for having me!

I stayed with my friend Morgan in Winston-Salem and since she is a college student, I had the chance to have a look around Salem College as soon as I arrived. I walked around the college campus while she was in class and then we went on to Two-Step Tuesday. I thought two-step would be like line dancing, but it was indeed not. Actually it has more in common with swing dancing.

We went grocery shopping the next day, starting with Lido (to make me feel more at home), moving up to Walmart and Target. The true sights to see in the US. I think Walmart amazed me the most, because you can really buy anything you can think of there. Need food? Go to Walmart. Need a vacuum cleaner? Go to Walmart. Need clothes? Go to Walmart. Need a gun? Go to Walmart.

I feel like out of the places I’ve been and am going to, North Carolina looks the most like Estonia. Although the weather has been mostly nice which is not common in Estonia. The culture, however, is quite different.

For example in Chick-Fil-A, there were police officers at the table next to us. I didn’t realize they were police at first, since they were not in uniform, however I definitely noticed their guns. Now, I feel pretty comfortable with guns since I have been taught how to use them, but I am not used to eating next to them, so that made me a little nervous. I would also like to note the lack of cowboy hats in the streets. I was told it’s because of winter.

I also met up with my friend Holly, who I hadn’t seen in four or five years. It was so much fun catching up and I loved the more serious conversations we had about politics. We got dinner from Bojangles, which is famous for chicken and biscuits. Now I have to say – biscuits are not cookies! We had a good laugh about that one since I knew they had chicken and waffles and didn’t think it was that much of a stretch. Biscuits, however, are salty, round, and soft pastries. Nothing like cookies.

Winston-Salem itself gave me kind of an artsy vibe, mostly because of all the red brick buildings. I especially loved Design Archives, a vintage store with local handcraft. There were modern art installations and parks scattered about, but also more historical buildings. It is a fairly old city by American standards and it was interesting to see the differences between old and new.

Friday night we went to a hockey game – North Carolina Thunderbirds vs Delaware Thunder. I really enjoyed it, even though it was a little chilly. I’ve never been much for sports so I haven’t been to any games before, but I was surprised by how enthralling it was. The game rarely stops and the players move with impressive speed.

I tend to be a pacifist, so the violence made me wince at first, but I got used to it. The first time someone got put into the penalty box the crowd booed and I said to Morgan, “Why are they booing? That guy looks like he really got hurt.” I mean, their head was bleeding!

There was a guy sitting behind us with a thick southern accent, giving commentary on everything happening in the game. I also got to witness a military homecoming, where a man, who had been stationed in Eastern Europe, was reunited with his family. It was very cute. And they were throwing free T-shirts into the crowd so I got one!

Saturday happened to be the one day that was raining and that was of course the day we had decided to go hiking in the mountains. We didn’t end up going hiking, but we did drive up to Boone and walked around in the rain. We had talked about culture shock and I think it finally hit when we went into a western wear shop. You see, cowboy boots and hats etc are not a part of European culture and there were so. many. cowboy boots. What amazed me even more was that people were shopping there in all seriousness.

We had a bite to eat, Savannah showed us around for a bit and we saw some really cute shops. There was a lot of emphasis on buying local goods, which I thought was really cool. We also walked around the college campus and almost got lost. Never underestimate small towns.

Sunday we went to Old Salem on a museum tour that turned out to be very interesting. They don’t teach us that much about American history so it was fascinating to learn about the cultural differences in the same time period. It’s mind-blowing to compare how short American history is compared to Europe and I also felt that in Arizona.

We went by a gunsmith’s workshop, where a man was actually making these kinds of rifles. He does commission work so we could see the different stages of building them. I also held one and it was almost as tall as me and when I asked about it, he said there are several theories but no good answers for why the barrel is so long.

We also went by a tavern, a joinery and a bakery. The man in the joinery was in the process of making a violin and a banjo that we could try. I also got to use one of the machines for shaving(?) wood off bedposts. You know, to make the nice patterns.

We also visited the spot where the first official 4th of July celebration reportedly took place in 1783 with George Washington in attendance. It’s in the park right in front of Salem College, which Morgan gave me a short tour and history lesson on.

We went by Krispy Kreme, where the red sign indicates that they have hot and ready donuts. You can watch the process of the donuts being made, cooked and glazed and eat them fresh (delicious!). Morgan said I should also get the Krispy Kreme hat so I did.

There are some things North Carolina and Winston-Salem are known for. One of them is Krispy Kreme, but they also have Pepsi and Camel cigarettes. An intriguing south-specific fast food place is Waffle House, that I didn’t end up going to, but heard a lot of interesting stories about. I also had a corn dog from Sonic! Lots of firsts and fun memories to take with me from North Carolina.

I’ll be honest, as someone who is not yet 21, there is not that much to do in Las Vegas. Or more specifically, the Strip, I wouldn’t know about the rest of it. It is fun to see the different casinos and the craziness of it all, though.

I only had one night to look around and I think that was enough for me for now. I might go back once I’ll be able to put a quarter in a machine and pull, but I could really see how it was a place designed for partying.

I started off at the Bellagio watching the fountain show, opposite the Eiffel tower. Walking on the streets there was music coming out of speakers connected to lights. The stores were big and luxurious, there were modern bridges for crossing the streets and getting from one casino to another, palm trees and wide sidewalks designed to make you feel like you’re in a movie.

I went into a casino called New York New York and it was a little scary how elaborate these places can be. It was like entering a different world – it was dark, they had built streets inside the building (resembling New York) with lots of places to eat pretty much anything you could dream of. That led to the gambling machines and I felt like it kept going and going. It felt like time stopped and I was just there, existing.

For me, the biggest reason for going in there was to find the rollercoaster, which I did, eventually. The ride itself was actually really fun, I hadn’t been on a rollercoaster in years. I moved on, just taking in the sights and went looking for a bite to eat. I ended up at a food court getting Del Taco (which was not the best food I’ve ever tasted) when a funny incident happened.

I was sitting there, minding my own business, when a police officer or security guard or something of the like came up to me and said ‘I’m going to have to take you in.’ I just sort of looked at him with wide eyes, in my head wondering what I did wrong and he said ‘I’m going to have to take you in for being so beautiful’ which just made me laugh. That is definitely not something that has ever happened to me before.

Everything on the Strip is designed to pull you in and make you want to stay. Whether it’s shiny lights or cheaper deals or extremely elaborate buildings – I mean they built a New York, Paris, Venice and who knows what else – I can see how one can be sucked in to the idea of living life like the rich and famous.

I saw people in costumes like Mickey Mouse, Scooby Doo, a stormtrooper and a Chewbacca, but also girls half naked with fluffy feathers around their heads. I mean, I feel like I wear more clothes when I go to the beach than they were walking on the streets of Las Vegas. Not that I’m judging.

I feel like Las Vegas really is a unique experience, whether you go there to gamble, to party, or just have a look around. I would definitely go back one day, to experience again the crazy, beautiful, shiny and luxurious life in a place where there is nothing else.