My first weekend

I finally got to go grocery shopping on Saturday (everything was still crowded on Friday night). I got a good amount of groceries for about $14 US and then I came home and made some turkey chili that I can bring for lunches during the week. There isn't much near my work for lunch options, only the cafeteria I went to on Friday with Merit, Julia and Ksenia. I haven't had anything food-wise here that I just love with the exception of "puuviljaleib" (fruit bread); it is a dark wheat bread with fruits and nuts in it and makes a yummy breakfast with a little butter on it. I've tried a little bit of the candy here but it is a little too sweet (I like the plain milk rchocolate though) and fresh fruit is kind of expensive (though I did get some great strawberries from a street vendor). I noticed on my last post that an Estonian named Oliver gave me a primer on their dairy products...that chocolate covered cheese sounds good so I will pick some up next time I go shopping (thanks for the tip, Oliver!)

I went to the theraputic dance class with Merit last night. It was fun...imagine 50 Estonians (ok, 49 Estonians and me) dancing their own dance making eye contact (very unusual for here), yelling "Jaa!" and sometimes dancing with candles. That's the best I can explain it...you just had to be there to really understand.

I got lost today looking for LUSH. I went about a half mile out of my way and by the time I found it, I had made basically a big circle (I was only a block from where I started...d'oh!). They have the same stuff that they have in the US and they had "Mr Butterball", my favorite, on sale 2 for 1...score! Now I can take a soak in my nice deep tub! So that's two places I've found so far that are familiar...LUSH and McDonald's (I tried the fries...they taste the same but the ketchup here is sweeter).

I'm posting some pictures (yes, Manny, there is one of girls just for you!) I ordered a hot dog today and see what I got? They put cucumbers and tomato on it (Mike, it's not Johnny Rockets for sure!); it was ok but I probably wouldn't order it again. The pictures are mostly from Old Town though there are some street signs that I thought were kind of cool and a few graffiti shots. The streets here are extremely clean but there is graffiti everywhere...it's not even particularly imaginative either, just mostly names. I took a few shots of some of the better graffiti I've seen so far. There are also some pictures of my apartment including my washing machine which is in Russian and Celsius (Jamie, there's the picture of my Eesti keyboard, per your request).