What?! Another Week's Gone By?

Amazingly, it's the beginning of yet another week.

Friday, March 27
We decided to go the Tartu Art museum with Ali and Thomas in the early afternoon. The museum is in a bubble gum pink building that leans to one side. It is Estonia's equivalent of the Leaning Tower in Pisa, Italy. I was not really sure what to expect inside since I didn't do any research. So it was a surprise! 

The first floor was covered in sketches and statues by Anton Starkopf, an Estonian sculptor from the 20th century. The sketches were amazing especially since all of his subjects were people and it is one of my goals in life to properly draw people. So I spent a lot of brain power studying the different shapes he used for the torsos of both women and men, etc. His shading was pretty intense too. The statues were pretty interesting. In the first room, there was a wooden statue (oohh I know amazing!) called Devotion and I was like I need that. Sadly, there were no postcards of it at the desk. Then in the last room, there was a bronze statue called Embarrassed where the girl was crumpled on her knees covering herself spewing forth the emotion. I had to chuckle though because I could totally imagine that being me falling off my bike in London.

As I said I spent most of my time focusing on the first floor. The second floor was eh. A few paintings caught my eye but just because of the way it was painted (impressionism again!! *squee*). There was one of three men standing side by side and all had the same colour selection of jackets (greens and browns); however you could tell where one ended and one began. In that same room, there was also one of two hooded women in a field of grain that I enjoyed. I love when you can't see the faces of people in art. In the third room, there was a painting of an orchestra that Colin thought had tons of political meaning behind it, and I was thinking about the art techniques and how everyone was positioned and such. So I guess it's a good thing that I am studying studio art rather than art history since I am more concerned with technique vs. political implications.

The third floor was Soviet Art, which I think when I go back I'll find more entertaining, because by then I was dead and ever so depressed (which isn't the best way to tour a Soviet art collection). Going to museums make me this way due to the fact that I can never be as awesome as the people who created the art. One of the paintings that stood out was called Scorch and Burn, or something like that. The forefront was composed of reds and oranges with a black tree in the lower right corner and a black house separating the red sky from red fields. I really liked how there were globs of paint that weren't smoothed out. It just makes my day when artists leave that kind of stuff.

After the art museum we went to visit some churches that Peter had found. On the way there was an awesome playground, on which we all thoroughly enjoyed playing.


Saturday, March 28
Chillax day. Nothing really occurred except I bought my ticket to go to the Armenia v. Estonia World Cup Qualifying match on Wednesday. I also hosted tea for two Estonian students who may be attending UNCG next semester. Uh! Love our international scene! We then went to Illegard to pick up my ticket, watch some football, and celebrate Gen getting the Social Justice Position at her university. Sadly, I wasn't in a big partying mood (I blame the test earlier this week for messing up my sleeping schedule.). Eventually we went home and then I went back out with Peter for a walk. We managed to walk almost all of our routes, which was pretty cool because I wanted to go to some spots twice. He was a good sport.

Somehow during our walk we realized it was daylight savings in Estonia and started to freak out because Colin had friends coming in from Russia later on in the day (early morning for some people). We decided not to call him at 4 am but get up early, meet the girls at the station, and bring them back to Raatuse if Colin wasn't there at the station. So got home, went to bed, froze to death, slept, got up at 8:45, marched downstairs to meet Peter, and began to walk to the station. It was sooo nice outside. It was gray and almost rainy. I thinking if only it was spring with grass, perhaps this would have been my favorite morning! On the way, we were joking about how funny it would be if the girls missed their bus b/c of daylight savings. The bus comes...no Americans come off. So we call Colin and apparently, the girls did miss their bus and were coming later. Ah! It seriously made my morning. I love irony. Jeez! So went back to the dorm, cleaned, took a shower, and laid in bed listening to BBC radio, which had a panel of specialists debating about the relevance of Roman jokes in today's society. Alas! I adore the BBC. I was perfectly happy for an hour until I had to get ready for Werner.

So here, another Sunday afternoon at Werner at our table for eight with my cafe latte and quiche relaxing on pillows. Serenity in Estonia.

Oh! i forgot...watched a movie this week... ah! I remember "I am Sam." The movie was about a handicapped man with the mental capacity of a 7 year old trying to raise a daughter by himself. It was a feel good movie in the long run. I think I connected most with the lawyer who represented Sam in the family courts. She was so focused on her career that her home life was crumbling around her, which I am totally afraid of becoming and that's what killed me the whole time. I think if I had watched it by myself I would have emptied a box of tissues. And it was Beatles oriented. Heeheehee. Alas! But it gave me something to think about for the night.