May 18th

It's been another exciting yet pretty normal month. April was almost as busy as March but towards the end I took some time off work to celebrate my birthday! It was so great to see some friends that I hadn't seen for a while and of course the ones I see all the time (still like your faces). We went to a lounge called Butterfly which had a great atmosphere and the cocktails were nice and summery. I also got my biggest birthday present ever! A teddy bear called Rupert:

I have to thank Joonas and Triin for this. I don't have quite enough space in my bed anymore but at least there's always someone to improve my mood with his fluffiness :)

I got lots of other amazing gifts such as books, a movie and lots of gum (now that I think of it maybe that was a HINT?!). 

After a fun weekend reality hit me extremely fast. I had about 4 days to write two essays which I hadn't even started yet. At least I had an idea what to write about so I ended up working hard and saying goodbye to the rest of the world to focus. Luckily, I was interested in writing about the subjects in hand (relations between the U.S. and Latin America in recent times and the state of Belarus' democracy) so I finished both papers in time.

Last weekend was the Eurovision Song Contest (all you non-European people look it up). My friends threw an awesome viewing party. We all dressed up as one of the countries performing and I picked France. They were three guys singing about wanting a moustache which was hilarious (they came in last in the finals but I still think their song was awesome). Most of the time was spent on laughing at the nonsense that is Eurovision: the absolutely tacky dance moves, terrible outfits, shaky vocals and of course fireworks/confetti/glitter. I hadn't watched it for a few years but it was surprisingly fun to play the guessing game of how the results would be. In the end Switzerland won with a beautiful song. I think the performance carried a moving message. There has been a lot of talk about the singer who performed it but all I can say is that I support anyone to show who they are and feel free as long as they are not hurting anyone. 

The next day was Mother's Day. I had prepared a cake for my mom. Actually I baked it three days earlier since she usually gets home before I do and I wanted to be a surprise. I was just hoping it would still be good to eat! Surprisingly, it was and we had a nice little breakfast together. Right after that I took her to the Tallinn Botanic Garden. We both enjoyed looking at different plants and especially flowers despite the chilly weather. I took a few photos as well: 

The Cacao Tree

Cherry Tree

Some type of tulip

In the afternoon we went to see the final game of the season of handball with a few friends. The game was intense and shockingly loud! After we went to see my friend's grandma and stopped by my grandma's grave on the way there. It was a complete coincidence that the two places were so close to each other but it was a nice adventure around Northern Estonia for all of us. 

Since this week was pretty rough it was lovely to get out of Tallinn for a day. My mom and I went to Pärnu which is known as the summer capital of Estonia. It definitely lived up to its name. The sun was out the whole day and we even went to the beach and I'm hoping to wake up with a tan tomorrow (I tanned for less than an hour but still!). Some pictures from today: