Tonight's concert of the Grammy Award-winning Eesti Filharmoonia Kammerkoor in Tallinn's 13th century Niguliste kirik has been postponed until May 18. Individuals, so young that they have lived in the Republic of Estonia longer than they lived in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, continue to loiter a few short blocks from the kirik, to throw rocks at police officers dressed prophylactically in riot gear, to smash benign storefront windows, and to pillage stores selling liquor and cigarettes - many in front of television news cameras.

These young people, whose most recent hot meal was undoubtedly prepared by their short, stout, hard-working mothers, have either Estonian or Russian passports. Their Estonian passport gives them access to nearly every country in the European Union, which has a GDP second only to the USA. Their Russian passport admits them to country with the 11th largest GDP in the world. What's their beef?

The Eesti Filharmoonia Kammerkoor's May 18 performance in Tallinn will be preceded by concerts in Norwich, Edinburgh, and Manchester and will be followed by concerts in Italy and Norway.

Which trip would you take?

Cost.
Trip A: 3,000EEK – about $250
Trip B: 3,100EEK – about $258

Length.
A: 3 days – about 75 hours
B: 6 days – about 135 hours

Time in Transit.
A: 8% – about 6 hours (on train and plane)
B: 55% – about 76 hours (on bus)

Hotels/Hostels.
A: 1 hostel - 7 to a room
B: 4 hotels - 2 or 3 to a room

City Stops.
A: 1 - London (about 69 hours)
B: 3 - Prague (about 40 hours) plus Karlovy Vary and Prachovské Skály National Park

Fellow Travelers.
A: 7 - High school seniors, all girls
B: 45 -about 40 high school seniors and 3 adults

I am taking both trips this summer: to the Czech Republic in June and to London in August.

Happy Easter

Suur Reede

The movie line-up on Kanal 2 for Good Friday, a national holiday for this otherwise agnostic nation, is:

• -Krippendorf's Tribe (1998) with the always annoying Richard Dreyfuss,
• -The Crocodile Hunter (2002) with the late Steve Irwin, who was memorialized here in Tapa last fall by being the topic of one of my multiple choice clozes,
• 
  -Vice Versa (1988) with Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage - a father and a son who exchange bodies - as well as Richard Kind, whom I saw at Chicago's Goodman Theatre in Stephen Sondheim's Bounce!,

-MacGyver: Lost Treasures of Atlantis (1994) with Richard Dean, who made a comeback as Jack O'Neil in the Saturday afternoon sci-fi tv show Stargate SG-1, which, ironically, evolved into Stargate Atlantis, where Dr. Elizabeth Weir ain't no Captain Janeway but still she's putting in yeoman service,

-Grumpy Old Men (1993) with the odd couple Lemon and Matthau,

-Money Talks (1997) with the sharp-talking Chris Tucker (or is it Chris Rock), and

-You've Got Mail (1998), which seems to be run ad nauseam in every country in the Western world.

On the other hand, errrr, channel, ETV, the Estonian PBS station, is showing Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, which I have never seen. So, since it's bloody snowing outside this afternoon, I'm curled up on the couch in front of my Finlux television with a blanket and cup of tea.

Tapa Muusikakooli 50. Aastapäev

It was another "Who's who?" event in Tapa as the music school celebrated its 50th anniversary. A student concert was held Friday night, March 16, and students and graduates of the school performed in a concert Saturday afternoon, March 17. Both concerts were held in Tapa's culture house.

Those in attendance at the Saturday concert included Lääne Viru's governor Urmas Tamm, Tapa's mayor Kuno Rooba, Tapa Gümnaasium's director (and my boss) Elmu Koppelmann, and many, many flower-bearing friends and colleagues from throughout the country.

Tapa Music School opened in the fall of 1957, sharing rooms with the city's elementary school. In 1960, it moved to the old culture house, and in 2000 it moved into the same building as the public library. This building, recently renovated, dates back to 1930, when it housed the city's government offices.

Ilmar Mägi was the school's first director. Peeter Kald (pictured above with Tamm and below with Rooba) has been the director since 1979.

Many Estonian towns have music schools, where they are often second only to the local elementary in educating children and preparing them for successful lives as teenagers and young adults.

Believe

To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream. Not only plan but also believe.

Anatole France said it, but Becki Heimerle gave me a mug with that written on it. Becki, a speech pathologist at the Illinois Children's School and Rehabilitation Center in Chicago, gave the mug to me when I left the center in 1992 to become a rehabilitation services supervisor for the Illinois Department of Rehabilitation Services in Champaign. While the mug broke into a few pieces flying from Chicago to Tapa in 2006, my dreams to accomplish great things have not been shattered.

Three Men and A Baby

1. Andrus Ansip, the Prime Minister of Estonia (to the right of the guy in the black hat), at the flag-raising ceremony on Independence Day.

2. Jüri Ratas, the mayor of Tallinn, in his office, during the open house on Independence Day.

3. Me (with an ice sculpture that hadn't melted a lick in a month), in between coffee shop stops on an unusually cold Independence Day.

4. The baby, a month earlier in a Helsinki shopping mall.

My Fatherland

Today is our country’s birthday. A country that indeed is our fortune and our joy – we love our country unconditionally, as a parent loves a child. We grumble and scold, because actually we worry about for our country’s well-being. We take offence, deeply, if someone says so much as a bad or unfair word about Estonia. We take the criticism to our hearts if there is even a grain of truth in it.We are not indifferent. We are guided by our faith that this country, brought forth by our forefathers and –mothers, will persevere grow and flourish. We feel responsibility, and the will to learn. We feel obligation to speak out loud and clear, or through the written word.

On 24 February 1918, the Estonian Republic was proclaimed. At first this was merely a decision made on paper. True independence was fought for, over the period 1918 to 1920, during the War of Liberation. The struggle was crowned with success, and a treaty was finally signed with Soviet Russia, which revoked in perpetuity all claims over Estonia.

Looking back at Estonian history today, we see it was in Tartu that the foundation of our statehood was laid. This is where the Tartu Peace Treaty – the birth certificate of our nation, making us an equal among other nations – was signed in 1920.

What began as an idea, became reality; our state was born on a foundation laid by civic organisations – societies, congregations, choirs. Just as the restoration of independence in 1991 would have been unthinkable without the Estonian Heritage Society, student societies and fraternities, Citizens’ Committees and the Popular Front in late 1980s. All these were civic initiatives, not a gift from somewhere. Not something received from above, but something that rose from amongst us, and from within us.

I want the voter [in the March 4 national elections] to know: you get what you vote for. The wisdom and complexity of governing is greater than any slogans, any promises. Voting for a slogan, you will receive in exchange a policy not of governance, but of hoarding money for the next elections. I ask you: chose wisely, be demanding, weighing not promises but deeds. Let us make use of democratic choice and create a country to our liking. Let us show we are not indifferent.

Yet let us admit that, unfortunately, the approach to the elections we have witnessed in the case of some politicians, reproduces indifference. Indeed, I too am troubled and saddened by the fact that our election campaign slogans and commercials, with their simple-minded claims, underestimate the voter rather than inform him. The issues and figures that have been dragged into the campaign have little in common with the serious questions that we face as a people and a country.

Our forefathers went to war to win the right to vote on their future. Not voting therefore shows contempt and disrespect not only for one's self, one's friends and family, but also to one's parents and forefathers. Not voting is also a personal loss: he who does not vote shall be voiceless for four years, with no right to pass judgment on development of his country.

On 22 September 1944, Soviet troops conquered Tallinn. The Estonian flag was torn from the flagstaff on Pikk Hermann Tower (pictured here) and was replaced by the symbol of the new occupation, the Soviet banner. Just prior to the events of 22 September, an attempt was made to restore Estonia’s independence. The Otto Tief government, appointed by the acting Estonian President, remains, to this day, historically significant from the standpoint of the legal continuity of the Republic of Estonia.

The birth of the Republic of Estonia 89 years ago, the long-cherished idea that was shaped into our country, rescued the Estonian nation from peril of death. Considering the merciless annihilation of Estonians who lived in Soviet Russia in the 1930s, we may but imagine what the fate of our nation would have been at the high tide of the Stalinist repressions. We know what happened to our Finnish-Ugric brethren at that time. We know, for example, what happened to nearly two hundred thousand Ingrians, of whom only a tenth survived to witness the collapse of the Soviet Union.

We Estonians were saved by our state. This means also that Estonia cannot move forward, while fearfully glancing over her shoulder, shaping her political decisions proceeding from the injustices of the past. We must break free intellectually from that sphere of influence to which we were consigned against our will by two criminal regimes in 1939.

Estonia succeeded in regaining independence from the Soviet Union by way of the Singing Revolution of 1988. She was fully independent once more since 1991. From the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Republic of Estonia was born of the common aspirations and efforts of educated Estonians. So too, the continued development and well-being of Estonia is dependent above all on proper education. This is what leads me to turn toward the entire nation, to parents and pupils, to ask you to think critically about the future of the educational system of Estonia.Our universities are producing a multitude of experts in fields whose utility is sometimes hard to grasp. Today, the success of a country is no longer dependent on the existence or non-existence of natural resources, on cheap or expensive labour.

The success of Estonia will be determined by the share of people specialising in the sciences and engineering in our society. A society that considers a university degree to be a value in itself, and concentrates on marketing and business management, will not, in my opinion, go far. In the highly competitive world economy, Estonia will be propelled forward by people who are able to create new medicines, write computer programs or contribute to the creation of new sources of energy. Our success depends on having many scientists. We need people with a technical education; we must value vocational skills, professionalism and inventiveness. From President Toomas Hendrik Ilves’s speech on the 89th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia.

Fingertips Orange with Cheese

Last month, Heather sent me a gallon can of Garrett's CaramelCrisp and CheeseCorn popcorn. Of course I opened it. On a Saturday, I think. To make sure it was fresh. And it was. So I ate a little.

Then I stopped. I thought I would share it with my 11th grade class, which is kind of my favorite.

A couple of days later, I opened the can again and ate a little. I told myself that I could buy pre-popped white popcorn here in Tapa, mix it with Garrett's popcorn, and my students would think I hadn't eaten half the can already.

The next day: forget the kids. I ate the rest of the popcorn, delighting in the thickness of the cheese building up on my fingers

What Sunrise about 7.15 Looks Like

What -25 Degrees (F) Looks Like

Helsinki

Yes, you can see the Helsinki (Lutheran) Cathedral and the Uspenski (Eastern Orthodox)Cathedral from the Port of Katajanokka. Uspenski is the largest Orthodox church in Western Europe. Ah, Western Europe, the euro zone, mozzarella sandwiches, high speed trains without the clickety-clack, "Hei! Hei!" from sales associates - oh, how civilized the weekend was.

I spent the last hour of December 31, 1999 and the first hour of January 1, 2000 - the first hour of our current millennium - on the steps of the Helsinki Cathedral. I discovered fireworks laws were a little more liberal in Finland (as well as alcoholism laws) as I was stuck underneath a tall man's outstretched arm holding a canon that launched colorful balls of explosives.

Minus 25 and Still Alive

Yes, it was sunny but very cold and extremely windy as the M/s Rosella left the Port of Katajanokka in Helsinki on January 28 with me, my good friends from Tapa, and a boatload (literally) of Finnish senior citizens.

[Second] City on the Make [in Estonia]

...[O]nce you've come to be part of this particular patch, you'll never love another. Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies. But never a lovely so real.

It isn't hard to love a town for its greater and its lesser towers, its pleasant parks or its flashing ballet. Or for its broad and bending boulevards, where the continuous headlights flow, one dark driver after the next, one swift car after another, all night, all night and all night. But you never truly love it till you can love its alleys too. Where the bright and morning faces of old familiar friends now wear the anxious midnight eyes of strangers a long way from home.

So...bypass the forest of furnished rooms behind The Loop and stay on the Outer Drive till you swing through Lincoln Park. Then move, with the lake still on your square right hand, into those suburbs where the lawns are always wide, the sky is always smokeless, the trees are forever leafy, the churches are always tidy, gardens are always landscaped, streets are freshly swept, homes are pictures out of Town and Country. And the people are stuffed with kapok.

-- from Chicago: City on the Make by Nelson Algren, 1951


The hard necessity of bringing the judge on the bench down into the dock has been a peculiar responsibility of the writer in all ages of man. ...[W]e are now in a gavel-and-fingernail era. The struggle is not to bring the judge into the dock, but to see who can get closest to him on the bench.

For Chicago lives like a drunken El-rider who cannot remember where he got on nor at what station he wants to get off. The sound of wheels moving below satisfies him that he is making great progress.

-- from Chicago: City on the Make with an afterword by Algren, 1961

No School

I think the last time I was off between Christmas and New Year's was my senior year at Rosary College - 1982.

Tartu: The Second City of Estonia

There's lots to see in Tartu, officially, the City of Good Thoughts, including the KGB Cells Museum, where there must have been many good thoughts. Estonia's Second City is arguably built around the University of Tartu, which will celebrate its 375th anniversary in 2007.

I hadn't been to Tartu since 1999 or 2000, when I was still in the Peace Corps. So over the Christmas break, I met up with a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer still living in Tartu for an insider's tour of what has become, I believe, a fairly Westernized yet incredibly walkable city of 100,000 residents.

Here is the main building of the University of Tartu; city hall, constructed in the late 1780s, and, in front of it, the city square; and the steeple of St. John's Church, founded around the 14th century.

Apostlite Peetruse ja Pauluse Kogudus

At last, inside the Cathedral of the Apostles Peter and Paul, the only Catholic church in Tallinn, it felt like Christmas. From the plywood manger scene outside to the lingering incense clouds inside, here was the joyful Christmas that I had not yet really seen, smelled, or felt.

Bishop Philippe Jourdan, a Frenchman, said Mass in Estonian (his sermon was little long for any language), and we sang the "Gloria," the "Holy, Holy, Holy," and the "Lamb of God" in Latin. The male cantor was excellent, and the accompanying, mostly male choir it sounded like, had a bit of a funky African folk rhythm in them. A woman sang a beautiful song at communion, and I wished that, throughout Estonia, they'd move the damn choirlofts to the front of the church so we could see who was singing. No one applauded at the end of Mass, though. In fact, many people knelt back down to pray.

Interestingly, right before the final blessing, there was some adoration of the Infant Jesus. Folks got in line like they were going to communion again, but they went to kiss the statue of the Baby Jesus, which the bishop held in his hands. It was a little too much like idol worship for me. So I just watched to see where people kissed the statue; the up-turned toe, the knee, the back of the hand, and the forehead were popular spots.

Christmas Day 2006

On Christmas Day, the sun was rising in Tapa as I was walking through town to catch the 8:43 train to Tallinn. Early morning (with a cup of coffee in my hand and, now, without an 8 o'clock class) is still my favorite time of the day.

I had brought Chicago: City on the Make by Nelson Algren with me to read while the train jerked and bounced towards Tallinn. But I ran into one of my students, and we talked until the train slid into the Balti Jaam. Why is it some students carry on a conversation in English in public but freak out when they take a test in the classroom, while other students ace their tests but can't put three sentences together to tell me in English what's going on?

In Tallinn, my camera and I had a little more than an hour in the Old City to record hints of Christmas. Electric candelabrums appear in windows everywhere here on the first Sunday of Advent. They have either five, seven, or nine candles and, very simply, both phsically and metaphorically, they bring light to a time of darkness. While I doubt the candelabrums with seven candles celebrate the seven principles of Kwanzaa, I think all of the candelabrums may be connected to St. Lucia Day, which Scandanavian girls celebrate by wearing candles on their head. Go figure.

The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on January 7, two weeks after the Western World. They use the old Julian calendar instead of the 16th century Gregorian calendar. So, in Tapa, the Christmas program at the Russian high school, which I attended, was actually a New Year's celebration.

A variation of the candelabrums in the windows is the citronella-like candles (I mean, they are big like citronella candles but don't smell like them!) in front of shops, bars, and restaurants - really, in front of anywhere you are welcomed to come into. Notice that the sign says "Open", which is not Estonian, Russian, or Finnish.

The House of the Brotherhood of the Blackheads dates back to the 16th century, before there was acne as we know it today. Actually, St. Mauritius, a black Egyptian, was the guild's patron. His black head is the guild's mascot and on its coat of arms. The state banquet Estonian President T.H. Ilves threw for Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh was held here in October.

That's A.H. Tammsaare, who wrote the great Estonian novel Truth and Justice, checking out the Christmas tree in the park named in his honor.

Finally, steadily, as the day progressed, from 10 a.m. when I got off the train to 2:00 when I headed back to the Balti Jaam, more and more people strolled around the Christmas Market.