Yesterday was something. I felt very much in the world with Krraka, who invited me over to make pizza together from scratch. We felt like carefree kids - squeezing the tomatoes in the grocery store, totally immersed in our quest for perfection; celebrating "tomorrow's diet" by purchasing 2 kohuke each, to eat on the walk home (I tried blueberry and orange for the first time); giggling about how awkward we feel and act with Estonians sometimes, who seem so much more composed than we are; standing elbow to elbow sipping our tea and staring at the oven, impatiently awaiting our final product; and finally trying "snuff," or snorting tobacco, which was horrible.
Then another friend and I headed over to a potato-pancake party, one purpose of which was to help our friend put a dent in the mountain of potatoes she currently possesses. She had spontaneously taken an opportunity to work outside for a day in exchange for 40 kg of potatoes! Somehow she used my bike to transport them all to her new dorm. And it just so happens that her building has a "potato room," a common storage space specifically for potatoes! (a fundamental part of general cuisine here)
We shared a nice half hour walk to her place, through a part of town we weren't familiar with. It was beautiful - old, colorful wooden houses, rustling leaves, tree-lined sidewalks, draping vines, quiet atmosphere. Tartu anew. We were so hungry that we opened the cookies before our potatoes were even shredded, declaring, "Our moms aren't here!" Then we realized we didn't have a corkscrew for the wine. When the neighbor didn't answer the door, we pulled a 'Raatuse' (original international dorm, where we all started out our first year) and let ourselves in, shocking a poor Estonian girl who was unaccustomed to both that behavior and foreigners in general. When she finally understood our dilemma, she instantly became focused and waved us into the kitchen behind her, as if we were all suddenly on a serious mission. She then joined us for pancakes and laughed loudly at our confessed perceptions and experiences of Tartu.
