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Nature in Narva
Narva is filled with wildlife. There are so many different types of trees, plants, and animals, as well as hills and rivers. Birch trees have been my favorite here. At home I am partial to redwoods, though those are a long drive away. We have spotted several hedgehogs and I saw a fox running along…
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Week Four- Not so different?
This past weekend we had the opportunity to visit the capital of Estonia, Tallinn, for the quadrennial signing festival. There are a few notes that have stood out to me in the past two weeks. Breakfasts, malls, trashcans, and the patriotism of Estonia are all points of interest for this post. Breakfast Our group has…
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Letter to Myself
For my last blog post, I decided to write a letter to my former self about my four weeks in Narva. Hopefully, this blog post will be useful for me to reflect at the halfway point of our program and it might be of use to future students of this program. Firstly, logistics. Do not…
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Intergenerational Appreciation in Estonia
Over the last two weeks I have expanded my cultural appreciation of Estonia’s rich and vibrant traditions as well as grown in my understanding through the passing moments that occur in my daily life as I settle into Narva. Last week I had the opportunity to attend Estonia’s midsummer festival, Ivan Kupala. As a group…
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Week 3 – Celebrations of Art
Our week was one that was quite busy, in the sense that we had the chance to explore a number of different parts of local culture and history. We began the week with a tour of an Industrial Park. Walking through this area, we got to see, firsthand, a huge part of the city’s history.…
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Sir Duke
“In Estonia you can never have too much music” The Estonian Singing festival has been a staple of Estonian culture for over 150 years. During the Soviet Occupation of Estonia the festival continued on its four year cycle but many of the traditional Estonian folk songs were outright forbidden. During the late 1980s, Estonian restlessness…
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Sunshine and Rainstorms
We made it almost halfway through! Welcome to the end of week three, the speed this moves at is… terrifying. The last two weeks since I’ve last posted has been action-packed. We’re in Tallinn, the captial of Estonia, as I type this, for a song festival that happens once every 5 years. Our group hadn’t…
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This Week’s Excursions
This week’s cultural immersion exercises were among my favorites so far. For starters, the tour around the abandoned factory was eye-opening. I can not imagine the working conditions in a factory town during that time, where there was not adequate healthcare and work was up to 15 hours a day. The experience made me grateful…
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Soundtrack no one asked for
Week 2: I’ve been stuck on the same few albums since arriving, and specific songs will now be associated with places here like a time capsule. These albums may change, they may not. I have to post 3 more times so let’s see if I can manage to branch out slightly. I’m thinking maybe I’ll…
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On Narva
Many places in Europe and across the world hold the title of “The Crossroads;” The Crossroads between East and West, the crossroads of right and wrong, even the directional crossroads of simply going left or right. All of these places bearing this nickname are distinct and often honored for holding a special place in history…