So I thought it would be time for an update! (You can read the first part here!)

I moved to Estonia 4 weeks ago, and my master study started 3 weeks ago. So I would say I’m getting in the rhythm of the study life here 🙂

Tartu:

First of all I really like Tartu, it is not so big (around 100,000 inhabitants) so everything is quite easily found. It has a lot of green, which I’m not really used to. I’m used to rows and rows of houses and flats. But here there are mainly houses with big gardens with trees, mainly apple trees, people have crates of apples laying in front of the door, which you can just take because they have so many haha. But also in between houses there is lots of grass and trees. Besides the green in between houses there are also some parcs, which are really lovely. When you just walk around through the city, you will also find some random beautiful buildings which is really nice! I will insert some photos throughout this post!

I absolutely love the looks of this church!

A random ruin in the parc – Which is beautiful though!

Okay, because I’m from the Netherlands I’m used to unpredictable weather, but I would say it’s even worse here. Most of the time in the Netherlands, the prediction was quite reliable 3-4 hours before. But here weather sites will tell you that the sun is shining at the moment, and your eyes will tell you it’s raining like hell!

What I’ve done here so far (mainly school stuff):

The first couple of days, when I was here with my mom, was just walking around finding my way. Also buying stuff for my dorm to make it my own little place 🙂 And then the school things started with an orientation of three days, in which I met quite a lot of my classmates already, so that was nice.

One of the less interesting buildings here :p

And then school started, which was weird, since the system here is quite different from what I’m used to. Here you can choose what kind of classes you want to take, when to do the exams, and the classes are longer (so that asks a lot from my concentration haha.. ). But now that we’re three weeks in, I start to find my way in the study. Like how to prepare for classes, how to make notes etc. We will see at the end of the semester, if I did the right thing haha.

Things I did beside school:

I of course went out to look for a book store, and I’m happy to say that so far I’ve found 4!! (and I think there is a 5^th one, but I’ve not been there yet) Which I think is quite a lot for the size of the city, but I don’t mind, it makes me happy 🙂 And all of them do have some English books, and the important thing is that they are books that I actually read!

I also went to register myself for the library, which I’m really happy with! I’ve not been registered for the library for maybe 8-10 years?? And now the library will be my main source of books, since if I buy book I need to bring them back home to the Netherlands, which can be a bit troublesome with their weight.. I will probably still buy some books, like new releases I want to read immediately, so I guess I will still have that problem, but I will try to keep it at a minimum!

I’ve also registered for the gym, which I really enjoy. Right now I’m trying out different classes so I can see which ones I would like to follow.

I also walk around town a lot (when the weather allows it) to just see what is all there. But also to find place to make bookstagram photos haha!

Things to still figure out:

I still need to find a good balance between reading and studying. I used to read at least a 100 pages a day, but now I read like 10-50 a day. Which I should be happy with, but it makes me feel frustrated, since now it will take me way longer to finish one book. But actually it is not so strange that I read less. I’m comparing to a time were I was in the train 2 hours a day, and when I came home after my internship I did not need to do anything. But now I will have a full day of classes and when I get home I need to prepare for the classes of the following day. So it is not so strange that I read less! I guess I just need to fin my peace with it.

The river that goes through Tartu – the name sounds something like emoji

I also need to find a good place for making photos! I don’t really have a place inside my dorm for making phots – bad lighting and ugly backgrounds. So far I used my photos I took back home as preparations, and I went out to make photos. But I’m not sure if I will be able to do that when it’s winter?! So maybe I should look around, for buying something I could use as a background inside or something?! #bookstagramstruggles