Narva Week 4

Week four has been quite a busy week! We are all preparing for midterms which has been pretty stressful. Most of this week has been spent studying, doing everything we can to succeed on these exams. On a brighter note, it has been great to spend even more quality time with everyone else in the program and make our relationships even stronger. We have all bonded over the study grind. We have also gotten a solid amount of rain this week, which has given me a lovely break from the heat and has brought some beautiful rainbows. Amid the tough studying this week, we were able to take the time to learn about Estonian art and architecture during a great lecture this week. We even came up with our own slogans for Narva which was such a fun exercise. It was wonderful to see how much the language and the culture of a city are affected by architecture, and vice versa. I had never noticed how connected the two were. On Thursday, we had the incredible experience of meeting the US ambassador to Estonia while on a boat on the Narva River. It was really cool to get to ask him some questions and it was really nice that he made a point to talk to all of us at least once even though there were a lot of people wanting his attention. Getting to ride the boat and hang out at dinner were also some really fun experiences. It’s always nice to get a little dressed up and spend some time with friends. This weekend has been very chill with not much going on as all of us are really wanting to perform well on our midterm exams. As fun as all of the excursions and cultural experiences are, this weekend has been a nice break that has allowed us to really buckle down and study hard. I have had an amazing week and I cannot wait for Tartu next weekend! – Natalie Peters