ESC Rustavi: Laul eestimaast or how I discovered Estonia.

Tere! This story started exactly one year and a half ago, when I was in need of something new in my life. I tend to change my life much often, but now I was looking for some extreme and dramatic change. So, one day in march, I found the EVS (now ESC) volunteering project in Estonia. I used to be a volunteer in AIESEC in Georgia from 2015, on different positions, so going as a volunteer wasn't a big change that I was looking for, however, the only things I knew about Estonia, is geographical location and the fact that it's EXTREMELY cold there in winter. After Georgian summer, that definitely sounded like a very big change for me, so I applied immediately and got accepted after 1 month!

After a few months, on 3rd of September, I was standing in Batumi international airport with a big suitcase and a winter coat in my hands. I still recall the looks on me that day, as outside was 35 degrees and I was dressed like I just arrived from the North pole. Nevertheless, my decision to have my winter jacket carried by hand was one of the smartest ideas I ever had - as soon as we landed in Tallinn Airport, the cold breeze of the wind welcomed me and reminded, that I have a very big and hard winter to go through.

I clearly remember the feeling of the first month - I was feeling like a tourist with a long term stay and even small things caused a big excitement in me. However, this excitement faded as soon as November - the darkest month of the year knocked on our doors. I had no idea that in Estonia there are white nights or dark winters. The fact is, that day becomes really small in winter and the sunrise usually is after 9am and the sunset around 4pm. So, basically, if you work in Estonia, you go out in the morning in darkness and when you leave your work, it's still dark. Seems very depressive - yes it does! In reality I filled up the lack of sun and warmth with the love of the kids in my Kindergarten, Vitamine D (which is essential in winter!) and long movie nights and cozy blankets.

One of my big expectations this year was to see a snowy winter, but it almost didn't snow at all! Without snow, the humidity was really big and I was feeling cold in my bones, that's why every month in winter I escaped to some warmer country - once to Malta and twice back to Georgia.

Covid-19 crisis was really intense. Estonia didn't have a tragic situation, however there was more panic in people - everyone buying a lot of stuff, if someone sneezed on the bus, the whole bus was looking at this person and running to the other part of the bus away from him or her. However, this panic also faded away much quickly and everything became back to normal in a very short period of time. If you are interested, how I did my project during corona, please view this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R30KlRGGUdo

About her majesty - the Baltic sea and summer: I was really tuned for summer this year, especially after cold and dark winter, however the winter lasted until the middle of May and I got used to cold weather very much. This summer, it was only for 2 weeks the temperature above 24, however the other days it's chilly and a bit cold for me.

Even though summer did the early spring's job here, I had the opportunity to swim in Baltic sea several times (even though the water was cold) and really enjoyed it :)

My project is finishing in a few weeks, if I had the opportunity to go back to march 2019, I would apply for Estonia once again. YES, I had a lot of difficulties with too much nationalism in estonia and the understanding of the project description by the kindergarten, I got enormous love and emotions from kids, learned the essential parenting skills for future, decided to continue my life in Estonia for 2 more years ( for University), got involved in activities of Georgian embassy and Georgian NGO's in Estonia to spread the awareness about Georgian culture and found the love of my life.