Classes Start

Things have kind of picked up a bit the last couple of weeks as classes finally started up. They had a meeting with all the PhD students and those here for research earlier in the month. I was hoping to get to meet some of the other students, but one guy spoke the entire meeting and then everyone went to their classes. I did meet one of the other visiting researchers though, Ruchira from India.

The next day we had some meetings with the faculty just to get familiar with the department. Ruchira and several others talked me into attending a class being given by Carlota Perez, a professor well known in the field of technology and development. The class that evening was mainly an outline of concept of technological paradigm shifts, wherein every 40 to 60 years there is a major change in technology that reverberates through society. It was an interesting class, however, I couldn't commit to continued attendance as it had virtually no connection to my research and it met for four hours every evening for the next two weeks.

Later that week, the department gave an honorary doctorate to György Jenei, an academic and former politician who was involved in opening the Hungarian-Austrian border, the first hole in the iron curtain. He gave a speech about what he did, but over a week after the fact, I don't remember much of it.

Since Ruchira had only arrived a few days earlier, so I figured it was a good excuse as any to go to Kompressor, a fantastic pancake restaurant in the old town. She also wanted to visit one of the history museums, so we stop by there as well as a few other sites she hadn't seen yet. The history museum we visited was one that I had been to during my previous trip to Tallinn back in 2005. All I remember from it was that it was tiny, consisting of one large room and a smaller room showing a history film from the Soviet Era. I was greatly surprised to find that it had been completely redone in the last 6 years. They had expanded the museum into some of the adjoining rooms as well opened up an entire lower floor, more than doubling the floor space. Almost everything was brand new (excluding the artifacts on display) with interactive displays and an updated film about Estonian history. We ended up spending a lot of time there.

We eventually made it to Kompressor where it so happened we ran into Anna Lisa (with whom I spent Independence and Iceland Day) and one of her friends that had just arrived. It seems I always run into people I know at Kompressor, of course, Tallinn isn't that big of a city. I often see the same people around town although I don't know them.

Also earlier this month, an Estonian friend, Kadri, invited me to an English-language comedy show being held at a pub. It was nothing big, just a jam-packed pub with a handful of comedians each doing 15 to 30 minute sets. Only one of them was Estonian, the others were ex-pats from English-speaking countries. It made for an odd mix of jokes, as I didn't get many of the Estonian political jokes (one guy did impressions of Estonian politicians), while my friend was lost on jokes that only made sense to native English-speakers or Americans, such as one that involved bears and picnic baskets. She knew of Yogi Bear, but not well enough to get the reference. They do this comedy show once a month, so I'm hoping I can go again.

Back in the apartment my roommates and I have started a small art project. We had been collecting cans so that we could take them back to the store to get a refund, however, we ended up stacking up them up on this shelf and now we're trying to see if we can fill the entire shelf up to the ceiling. We found that the distance between the shelf and the ceiling is almost exactly 5 half liter beer cans and 2 soda cans. Unfortunately, my consumption of soda isn't keeping up with my roommates' beer consumption, so we have a few unfinished stacks. I'm thinking we should sell it as art. The current asking price is 5 Euros (the approximate refund value of the cans at 8 cents each). Any bidders?