Back from the sunny Egypt

Arrived back here late Sunday night after a week of sunshine and warmth. The good thing here - most of the snow is gone now and the worst slosh was here while we were away!
Egypt was fab. Similar temperatures to Singapore (+28C) but very dry, so it doesn't make you sweat at all. And it cools down quite a bit in the evenings, so really pleasant. The sea was +26C - still warmer than the unheated swimming pools at the hotel. And we loved it! Just on the beach of the hotel was a beautiful reef, dropping down 10 meters or so just some 10 meters from the shore. They had their own jetty, so you could walk to the drop-off point. We usually swam but on the last days the water got very shallow, so couldn't swim from the shore. Beautiful coral and fish life! We spotted a giant puffer - about 1 m long and nice fat in a kind of cave on the shallow bit and it was sitting there and blinking its big dark blue eyes for several days. Then Robert scared him away unfortunately and on our last day the water was to shallow to get to it (him,her?). But a very funny fish it was indeed.
We also made a small half day trip to the Ras Mohammed nature reserve - more snorkelling and some other sites. It was more open sea so the water was too cold for the kids to swim. Beatrice swam out at one spot. Robert saw a barracuda, I didn't see anything that I didn't see at the hotel reef as well. They showed us the cracks in the desert that happened during 1981 earthquake. Now filled with water and up to 15 meters deep. First time for all of us to see anything like it, very interesting. And there is a small mangrove forest as well. Rather different from S-E Asian mangroves and a bit of a surprize there right next to the desert. Then we had a "buffet lunch" with a difference - sitting on rugs by the beach. Men had been cooking on charcole there and then. We were the first ones there but then groups started to arrive one after another dominated by Russians and it got very busy and noisy. Food was tasty though and nobody got sick.
The rest of the time we just stayed at our hotel - with the beach, several pools, gym and kids club there was enough to do for us. Beatrice probably liked the kids club best - a bit of a homecoming really with an Indonesian nanny Resa, who was the sweetest person you can imagine. Just like they are - happy and playful. It was in fact always a struggle to make them leave the club to come to the beach.
Food was great but we tryed to stick to a certain exercise routine and with all these stairs to go up and down to get to the beach and back managed to balance it quite well.
Would definitely do that again - such an easy break to take from here with direct flight and no time difference. There had to be a hickup at the end of course. Were on the plane already (that was delayed by half a day that we spent at the hotel)as they were calling for a passanger. She arrived finally. Then the captain announces that because of her delay we had lost our slot for take-off and the next one available is in 2 hours 30 minutes. I was sure there would be an announcement after a few minutes that this was a joke but there wasn't and it wasn't a joke. So we sat there for 2 hours! And with the Estonians being so calm and patient nobody even tryed to lynch the lady (who was in check-in before us!).
Meanwhile here - as I had expected my article was published in the beginning of last week and it had caused a real storm - 400 comments on the website within the first day, official replies from the ministry of education, teacher's association, student's association etc. However the only people who shared my views seem to be the ones who live or have lived abroad and have had kids in school in UK or other places. Everyone here seems to think 3 months summer break is fine because the kids are so tired of school and work so hard and there is so little sunlight most of the year! Well, I give up. But a great experiment in a way that one comment can stir such an upheaval!

Just sitting at the airport and waiting for our flight to Sharm-el-sheikh that has been delayed by an hour. Can't wait to get some sun and warmth on the skin! We have had more snow this week and even went skiing on Wednesday - Robert and the boys and me. After that it has started to melt and the streets don't look pretty. I wish it would be really warm while we are away and all this terrible stuff will be gone when we come back.
Beatrice has tryed the 2nd grade this week at school. She struggles of course with the Estonian at this level but I think we could work on it and get there in the end. However we have a much bigger hurdle to overcome - she has really grown fond of the girls in her grade 1 class and misses them badly, also she says the gr 2 teacher is mean. She is really kind of rough and it probably doesn't fit into her plan to have an extra student in class. So will have to see what we will do after the break. In a way I want her to work at the top of her abilities but on the other hand if she is so unhappy with the social side of it it does not make much sense. Quite tricky. Estonian school system doesn't apply individual attention that she is used to so it is a long uphill struggle. In fact I have started my quest in the education policy and written an article about school holidays. Probably they will publish while we are away and all kids will be expelled from school anyway! It's just that the 3-month long summer holiday has no more economical reason like it used to and only means that kids have less time in school than in other countries and the schedule is so tight to get all the curriculum done in a shorter time. More on that later.

Have had a bit of a change to our usual routine now! Robert is back from Croatia since 1 week. The last weeks there were a bit of a wild west atmosphere - subcontractors requesting their pay from the shipyard with Kalashnikovs in the car boot, fights and police investigations. It seems the Croatians are still a bit influenced by the recent war and more easily ready to draw a gun to resolve issues... The project team was removed from the island for the last week for safety reasons! But Robert got back safe and sound.
We also had our Swedish grandma here last weekend. She came while Beatrice was still down with a bad tummy bug that has been going around. The only ones in the family to be spared were Grandma Heli and me, everyone else got it - kids, Robert, my parents. Then last week the boy's kindergarten had 2 cases of scarlet fever so we have kept them out of there, don't want to take the risk before the holiday! Will have to check the situation on that tomorrow and decide what to do for this week. They are too bored staying at home of course.
Luckily last week the movie "Girl with the dragon tattoo" was still on and we managed to go and see it. Don't know if they have shown it in Singapore or UK, Swedish movie by Norwegian director. I liked most of it but they had changed some details compared with the book. Partly understandable but there was one particular scene that I found annoying - when Martin Vanger drives away after his horrors were discovered, in the book he just drives into the oncoming truck and Lisbet turns around - in the film his car makes a few turns and Lisbet stands next to the car while he begs her to help him and she just walk away after the car blows up. I fought this scene made Lisbet appear ruthless and mean which she isn't in the same way in the book. Now the second part is showing, looking forward to go and see it.
Spring is still not coming - we have days with lovely sunshine and +3 temp but the next night it might snow again. More of the same forcast for the starting week. If it goes on like that it will take until July for all the snow to melt. Of course it has given us a chance to do more ice-skating and outdoor snow fun.

This week we have become big fans of ice-skating. Beatrice went with her school on Monday and she liked it so much that we all went on Tuesday again and then again on Thursday. There is this lovely ice-rink in the old town just next to the Niguliste church with views towards the old town center with snowy rooftops and old church towers. Surprizingly Raoul and Karl absolutely love ice-skating as well and are amazingly good at it considering Tue was their first try. They didn't even want to use the frames to help with the balance, just off at full speed. This ice-rink attracts interesting crowds as well, lots of tourists just passing by and deciding to go spontaneously, young romantic couples, kids having fun, some grown-up first time on the ice - that's a fun site! The kids just keep asking every day if we can go ice-skating again. They are supposed to have a live camera on the web but last time we tryed it didn't work. www.uisuplats.ee

It has been a sort of holiday week anyway. 24th of Feb is the Estonian national holiday with military parade, president's reception for the 900 VIPs on TV etc. we went to see the parade for the first time. It was a lovely day -9 degrees, sunshine, light snowfall, just perfect. Waded through knee-deep snow to get high up on the hill-side of Harjumagi to have a good view. Was quite cool to see all this, Raoul especially liked it, kept asking "When are they going to shoot at the enemies?" Hope not in our lifetime (although they are in Afghanistan). After the parade kids could go and climb into the military vehicles, touch the canons etc. To my big surprize there were a lot of Russian-speakers around, waving Estonian flags. Found this a big difference compared to 12 years ago.
Mum and dad and sis and b-in-law came over for dinner and to watch the reception - the main past-time for the "commoners" that day, commenting the dresses etc...
Yesterday Beatrice had no school as well and we did a small winter olympics in the park with a Canadian girl from her class and her family. It has become milder and the snow is melting now. Everyone was quite wet after 1.5 hours and we really enjoyed the hot chocolate at their house. Also a good opportunity for the kids not to forget their English.
Today we are off to ballett - Snow-White and the seven dwarfs. Boys will go to the movies with my sis.

Happy New Year!

Who would have imagined it but we did end up celebrating Chinese New Year here last Sunday. We had tickets for a children's play that was really funny especially seen from the first row. Rushed back to the car afterwards to find the square near the carpark covered in smoke and fire - they had set off real chinese style fire crackers to welcome the year of Tiger. Also there were artists making snow sculptures of the 12 animal signs. Good fun. And then I got back to make my pineapple tarts. Just as expected the assembling part turned out too tricky so I gave up after a while and just made circles of pastry with the pineapple filling on top. Worked for us.
On Monday had my CNY class at B's school. Lots of preparations in fact - bought some forsythia branches, sheets of red paper, sweets, tangerines, collected all sorts of chinese nicknacks at home, decorations that the boys had made previously. Dressed up in our chong sams (both B and me). I gave them a short overview about the customs and traditions and then we made the ang pow envelopes. Think it worked really quite well. Was a good opportunity for me to meet the girls as well.
Karl has been at home with a virus for the rest of the week - ears and tummy! Luckily the others have been healthy. Today we are kind of snow-trapped again. It has been snowing more and more and today there is fierce wind and temperature around -15. B has a friend over to play and it is actually quite nice to have a Saturday without having all these activities. Was planning to go out in the evening to a concert with my sis but am getting quite doubtful in this blizzard.

Found this book in google about third culture kids. I have been feeling quite torn about bringing my kids here. In a way they need an identity and after having read parts of the book I feel assured that this is a good idea. On the other hand I keep asking if it is right not to give them an English language base education. Anyway, for all of you my expat friends, this is a great input. Have a look! Can't get the print version here, Amazon doesn't deliver to Estonia1


Hopefully a slightly milder temperature tomorrow - we need our weekly skiing exercise!

Finally got my car back yesterday in the worst snow storm so traffic was moving at 10km/h. With our rental car friend managed to figure out a few more buttons but still so much more to "unlock".
Have been preparing for the Chinese New Year! I always seem to adjust to the customs of places we live with a slight delay - best after we have moved to the next place. I suggestewd to Beatrice's teacher to do an hour for her class about the customs of CNY celebrations in Singapore and of course it has grown into a mini-project. First it took ages to find the right tone and thickness of red paper - will make some lanterns and ang pao's. Then of course searched the net for pineapple tarts. Corina thankfully sent a recipy but that seemed to require at least a degree from Larousse! So found a much simpler version and have prepared filling and pastry but putting them together still seems a bit daunting. Pastry keeps crumbling away so I might end up just cutting out round shapes and splashing some filling on top.
Last weekend we did another attempt of cross country skiing. Karl started askind "when are we there" after 10 meters skiing and was a total whimp even though his skiing was so much better than first time. Beatrice and Raoul however enjoyed it very much and after we were back at the start after the first round the wanted to do another one! And then one more. Just left Karl behind to play in the snow at the start. Will go again today. Beatrice's school does lessons for them and hopefully she will catch up some technique.
Also went to see a kids musical which was very very good - based on a few books of one of today's best Estonian kids authors (who happens to be a uni friend of mine). All kids know these stories by heart. The music was lovely, catchy tunes and dances, crazy costumes.
Boys went to an English playhour at the International School. Unfortunately there was only one other boy this week but hopefully normal group next time. This is probably the best I can do to keep their English going (apart from watching CN). They have had a great week at kindy as well - went to a trip to the old town by tram. And the "snow city". Also had a puppet theatre at kindy.
Beatrice and me went to a Mandarin lesson on Thursday. Mainly with the aim that she could keep some of what she has learned in Singapore. For me it sounds like Chinese! We'll see if we can keep it up. Either it is the age or total lack of reference to another language but it does not look very promising for me. As was to expected - after nearly 2 years in Singapore my Mandarin consists of less than 10 words. Will have to spent the next 1000 years learning in that pace.

not so smooth going...

What a turbulent week we have had! Our stuff finally arrived on Tuesday. Everything came but many items were damaged, among them our beautiful red chinese cabinet. I think this must have been the worst condition I have ever received our stuff. Luckily the moving guys here were very good and careful and did all the assembling and unpacking. As a typical Estonian "warm" welcome a downstairs neighbor came up in the afternoon complaining agitatedly about the empty boxes in the hall etc... Welcome home!
I am far from sorted as the rest of the week got a bit crazy. Raoul got sick and hasn't been to kindy since Wed. On Wednesday I went to pick Karl up by car which I usually don't do but as it was -22C, thought I'd drop Beatrice to swimming class by car instead of driving. Then on the way home from kindy we were nearly home when a truck rammed our right side. He started driving from a parking position when we were just next to it. Our Picasso was no match and the front part of the right side is basically gone including mirror, side distance sensors etc. Luckily both were moving low speed and the windows were not damaged. So there went my Thursday sorting out insurance and repairs and getting a rental car. We have had this car less than 1 month!
Mum and dad have been helping to look after Raoul while I have been dashing around to sort this stuff out and drive te other kids around. Beatrice had a little concert with her choir on Thursday afternoon. Then on Friday we had a meeting at school to decide if she will stay in grade 1 or move a year up. They recommended to leave her where she is basically because that will make her more confident if she is doing well and being afraid that she would struggle one year up. Agewise she should be here in gr 1. The tests show that this is where she should be. I am just still having sleepless nights being frustrated that compared to her classmates in Dover Court she has taken 2 steps back! In maths numberwise she could do easily in gr 2 but they have lots of text problems to solve that she still struggles with and also the pace in class is quite fast. Estonian writing is at very good level for gr 1 but would only give her low marks in gr 2. I am a bit upset actually about Dover court in a way - if she was in the top group in her class there then how could she be just average among children here who only started school in September!
Raoul still has fever today, so no football... And it is snowing again.