Mina ikka olen siin

Yes, I am still here...
in Tapa, soon-to-be viisavaba Estonia...
teaching the Queen's English (when was the last time you heard someone from Joliet say "I'd rather we had left home a bit earlier, then we wouldn't have been caught in the rush hour traffic on the Stevenson"?) to 23 sixth graders and 50 high school students...
for 11,044 Estonian kroons (EEK) a month before taxes - that's $920 on the days the dollar is really strong...
or about $7 an hour for a contractual 35-hour work week.

According to Eesti Statistika, in the second quarter of 2008, the average gross monthly wage in Estonia was 13,306EEK ($1,109). The highest monthly wage was in the financial sector (21,876EEK; $1,823); the lowest was in the hotel and restaurant industry (8,323EEK; $686). The average wage in the education sector was 13,907EEK ($1,159). So I really can't complain. Crew jobs at the McDonalds on the corner of North and Wells in Chicago, on the other hand, pay $1,050 a month for a 35-hour week, or $7.50 an hour.

It seems to me more and more that I am earning Estonian wages but paying American prices. A small jar of Barilla spaghetti sauce costs $2-$3. You can't buy a brand new pair of tennis shoes, no matter how pimped out they aren't, for less than $75, even when everything is on sale. My friend Oleg has always said that the price of a movie ticket in Tallinn is more than in Riga and Vilnius. A matinee at Coca-Cola Plaza costs 70EEK ($6); an evening screening costs 120EEK ($10). Comparably, a matinee at the Kerasotes City North 14 in Chicago costs $8.50, and an evening screening $10.50.

Speaking of movies, the title of this post Mina ikka olen siin means I am still here. Mina olin siin (I Was Here) is the name of one of the latest in a string of Estonian movies to come out. Click on the Estonian title above for a YouTube trailer. Detsembrikuumus (December Heat) is yet another new Estonian movie. A portion of this one was filmed in front of the train station in Tapa, which in the movie is the train station in Tallinn. The film will be shown an unprecedented two times in the same day at the culture house in Tapa, which is grossly inaccessible to people in wheelchairs. Click on the Estonian title above for a YouTube trailer with English subtitles. Click on the English title for the English version of the movie's website.