Sophie schreibt

My impression of Estonia

In the beginning I was quite excited about my stay here in Estonia. I was unsure how I would feel in my host family, what I would think about the Estonian culture and which experiences I was going to collect.

When we landed in Riga I first noticed the beautiful nature in the Baltic countries, as it looked as beautiful as in Estonia and around Kanepi later as well. I also enjoyed the amount of snow lying all over the trees and fields. As there was a lot of snow, it was also quite cold. This cold was shown to advantage when we went for example on a walk through a forest to play some team-building games or when we went snowshoeing. 

During my stay here in Estonia I did not only enjoy the nature, but was also able to collect some expressions of the Estonian culture. Before my trip to Estonia I have only known a few things about the country, its people and the Estonian history or culture. This way it was quite interesting when we did activities to get to know both nations better. For example there was an Estonian festival in the culture house of Kanepi. On this evening our German group was not just able to learn something about the country itself or on its history, but was also able to try out some typical traditional Estonian dances, which was quite a lot of fun. There was also some Estonian food given, which we were able to try.

In the beginning I already knew that people in Estonia are a little different than in Germany, by having other attitudes, traditions and a little different way of life. So when I arrived here I was very unsure, how I would get on with my host family and all in all the people here. After some days when we all got to know each other better, I was quite surprised as I was getting along with the Estonian people quite well. Everybody was friendly and kind, which enabled a really interesting and multifaceted exchange. It also lead to a quite good communication between the Estonian and German group and the host family.

All in all I am going to keep good memories about the exchange, especially on the Estonian people, their culture and way of life and the beautiful nature.

Sophie