Random...

Tonight will mark four weeks living in Estonia!  We absolutely love it even with the chilly and seemingly endless amounts of rain we receive.  There are periods of sunshine nearly everyday, and ironically it seems to always come out at bedtime for the kids.  

Anyway, what do you do when it is still cool and rainy outside in June...well, you put some water in the deep bathtub and put the kids in swimsuits!  They had a blast and Clara determined she could sit up on the side and slide in.  Our bathroom is like a giant shower stall with a drain in the middle of the floor so I'm way more relaxed about water on the floor here.  Seriously.  Our shower water drains that way.  

The kids and I rode in to work with Charlie one morning to start our tick-borne encephalitis vaccines.  Since we were already in town, we walked over to Old Town to explore a little before taking the bus back home.  It wasn't raining and was quite festive.  This is outside Goodwin's steakhouse.  Zach later gave this guy a big hug.  He was quite taken.  

 I'm looking forward to eating at Old Hansa one day.  If anyone visits we will definitely do this.  To see why, click here.

 As you can see, there are lots of people out promoting museums, shops, and restaurants.  The hooded characters below gave me a brochure.  As we walked away I flipped it over and saw that they were promoting the Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments.  While I'm intrigued, I'll catch it when I do not have the kids.  As a disclaimer, I wouldn't check out the picks in the link I provided if there are wee ones around.  They might ask questions.  Well, after I read the brochure I had to snap a pic of them.

 Of course, after shots, I had to offer the kids a treat.  McDonald's!  They enjoyed their happy meals.  Just as a bit of interesting information, you buy your condiments here in Tallinn and they do not offer all you can drink self-serve soda.  

 Clara's birthday was a fairly nice day.  We rode the bus into town to meet up with Charlie.  We went to   Rocca al Mare mall and let the kids explore all the toy stores.  It was fun, but we found nothing really for Clara.  She did find some Polly Pocket stuff but when I looked at the prices I told her I knew it was a bummer, but we could order on Amazon and our money would go much further.  Reluctantly, she agreed.  We then ate at Mack's BBQ there in the mall.  I ordered the catfish and the kids did too.  We really enjoyed our meals.  Chuck ordered a combo platter and I don't think he enjoyed his very much.  It was nice to try it out though.  After eating, we stopped at Prisma grocery store to let Clara pick out a birthday cake.  I've not discovered a place to order a traditional birthday cake, nor are my household goods here so I didn't make her a cake.  Anyway, we let her pick out what she wanted and tried to help but this one called to her.  (I apologize the pics are in reverse order below.)  We took the cake home and let her blow out the candles.

Our advanced shipment arrived last week, so the kids now have their bikes.  Clothes from our dressers also were in the shipment.  I'm not sure what happened to Zach's bin, but hopefully it is in with the household goods when that shipment arrives.

This past Saturday was the first day where the family had zero obligations since we arrived here.  While the kids and I have been exploring quite a bit, Charlie has mainly been occupied with work.  I asked him what he would like to do and he responded with, "I'd like to go visit Old Town."  I admit I can be a bit focused, but I also rarely let things get in my way.  Like rain.  It turns out that Charlie had not looked outside when he made that statement.  I assumed he was game.  So, we grab rain coats and buy an umbrella on the way.  It was POURING.  And windy too.  I'll not go into great depth, but we managed to find a pricey Italian place to eat in Old Town.  It was ok.  Definitely not worth the price though.  Anyway, after eating, and me battling to hold on to the umbrella, we decided to call it a day and go home.  As we were walking, Clara keep making comments like, "My feet are freezing!"  "I can't feel my feet!"  I was laughing as it was the Hollowell version of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  If you've seen it, remember Audry became frozen and couldn't see the tree?  Well, I'll forever remember that day as National Lampoon's Tallinn Vacation.  Luckily we made it home, got into dry clothes, and enjoyed the rest of our evening.  It wasn't really THAT cold though.  I know Charlie thought I was insane for dragging us out, but we are only here for a short period of time.  I've got to enjoy every day!

It looks like we are in for another day of rain though.  I start my seventh class today too.  If I do not take any more breaks I think I should be finished with the degree a couple days before Christmas!

I apologize for the compete randomness of this post.

Google Translate

I've got to give a shout out to Google Translate.  It makes my life easier.  It also adds humor to my day. I find myself grabbing products from the grocery store to learn how to prepare items, or even what they are.  I use it to help fill out forms so I can get grocery store discount cards, translate letters from the cable company, etc.  The humor comes in the translation though.  I was scoping the menu for the restaurant we are going to eat at for Clara's birthday.  By the way, it is an American style bbq restaurant.  I have discovered that a lot of the websites will have an English version, but it is often limited. This menu had English labels, but the description is in Estonian.  Enjoy!

Southern Style French Cafe Chicken  I think this one is easily detected.
Translated description:  Southern States concerned to burnt sugar-marinated chicken

Grilled Pork Neck  I do not recall ever seeing pork neck at a restaurant!  A little research determined that I am just plain ignorant (or was).  However, it is not your leanest cut of meat but apparently tasty.
Translated description:  Grilled pork chop with mushrooms fried in butter

Catfish  I've not been able to determine what the last word of the description is.  Google Translate failed me but with further research determined it must be lemon curd.  
Translated description:  Crackers breaded boneless white fish tartar and sidrunivõiga

I spared you the whole menu, but was in the mood to share.  It really is helpful and I am so thankful to have such technology at my fingertips as I learn to navigate in a new country.

Happy Birthday Clara Grace!

It is amazing to think that my little Clara is now eight years old and soon to be a third-grader.  She has turned into quite a fine young lady and continues to do little things each day that make me so proud of her.  Clara has handled our latest move admirably.  She has embraced all the change and plays along with her new friends as though she has known them always.  She is such a trooper! She is smart, tender-hearted, generous, silly, sweet, and sometimes a little ball of fire.  I am blessed.

Happy Birthday to my little sack of sugar!

Sayonara and Tere

Nearly a week ago we boarded a plane and said goodbye to Iwakuni, Japan.  We loved our nearly three year stay and had many adventures.  Japan is the only home Zach knows.  It took just over 25 hours from the time we left our apartment and walked into our new home in Tallinn, Estonia.  In case you were wondering "Tere" is hello in Estonian.

While the trip was long, I think it went as well as it could have.  Our cat didn't make the flight.  That is a whole different post but was by far the biggest glitch.  Let's just say that I have spent a lot of time on the phone trying to get the kitty here.

We love it here!  Our biggest wish was to have a yard, and we have a nice big yard with plenty of pavers for bike/scooter/skating fun.  Our home is very nice and meets all of our needs.  I must admit that I have had to adjust to European appliances.  Although the loads of laundry must be smaller here and take 4 to 5 times the amount of time per load to complete, I am getting it done.  I've not been brave enough to run the dishwasher, but we have so few dishes it hasn't been necessary.

Everyone has been so very kind to us here and kept us quite busy.  My sponsor has introduced me to quite a few people and shown me how to get around.  We had a tasty lunch at Vapiano one day in which I had the Asian Pasta.  Yum!  The kids each had a bear shaped pizza and loved it based on how much they consumed.  We went to a yard sale where I scored an alarm clock and hair dryer for 1 euro each!  It was so nice drying my hair without the transformer today.  Anyway, I've also had a cappuccino at Gourmet Coffee in Kadriorg, and enjoyed dinner with several ladies last night at another neat place but I do not recall the name.  Today the family caught the bus into the city and did a little stint into Old Town, did some shopping at a couple nearby malls, ate at McDonald's and came on home.  Next week I'll be touring a couple of schools to consider for Clara.  Charlie has been very busy learning things at work.  Clara has already been able to play with several children although she still misses her friends.  As you can see it has been a whirlwind of activity for us and we've not even been here for a week yet.

I must admit it is a bit cool here.  We are expecting it to warm up a bit as we begin the warm time of year. It is 5pm here and 54 degrees F.  Not too cold, but for June 2nd it is a little cool.  We are also adjusting to the long days here.  It wasn't completely dark last night at 10:30pm when Charlie and I went to bed.  When the kids go to bed it is still quite bright.  Luckily the blackout shades help make it a bit dimmer in the bedrooms.  I think it is cute that Zach likes to vacuum!  I plan to drastically increase the number of chores each child performs while here.

 Here are a few pictures while we were in Old Town.  I am really looking forward to exploring it in more depth and going on up the city wall (3 Euros a piece...I wanted to wait for a warmer day) you see here in the picture.

 Zach fell and needed a little first aid on his finger.  That is what Charlie is doing.  The little shop behind them is a neat children's shop.  We found several items we would love to get friends and family in there!

 This is the exit from Old Town.  

 This was inside Solaris shopping mall.  Although coats are needed outside, they wanted ice cream.  This was Zach's first cone and he did really well!  There were lots of people eating ice cream.  I'm guessing the locals consider this quite warm right now, although they are still bundled up right now. I've heard the locals will actually lecture you if you do not dress your children warmly enough.

Grocery shopping has been an adventure.  I've been shopping at Selver and have found that while it isn't quite what we are used to, we will mostly be able to get what we need.  So far the kids haven't complained about the juice, milk, eggs, etc.  My sponsor has been helpful and I've also downloaded two Estonian language apps to Clara's itouch that are helpful as well.

Oh, we also discovered we can have pizza delivered!  And we did.  It was pretty good.  Now we just have to get a car.  Aside from work, that is Charlie's main mission for this coming week.

I've rattled on enough at this point.  More to come later...