Estonian dude

Song festival was on again last weekend. I started a song with a friend of mine. In about 2 minutes, everybody on the stage, that is 14 000 people started singing along. On live broadcast, the interviewer and interviewee were completely dumbfounded and surprised. Everything is freely visible online on the homepage of our national broadcasting corporation webpage, PM me if anyone wants to see/hear it. Once in a lifetime situation and deed. Also, life takes some really [bleep]ing weird and awesome turns, but that is for the relationship thread.

Damn, if that's a once in a lifetime experience, then I feel bad for you. About a monthly occurrence here. Saw 3 separate herds of elk just last week when driving to Stockholm. Does and foxes are so numerous that counting encounters would be pointless... We also have freerunning lemmings and wolverines and everything.

Hiking or going out to the nature works wonders aswell. Being in the middle of nowhere, in the county of nowhere, in one of the least sparsely populated countries in the world, with the nearest settlement 40 km's away I only have way too many chances to go out in nature though. Might be worse in Jersey or whatnot.

Screaming, swearing and shouting my lungs out somewhere I cannot be heard too much. Drink myself to near coma and suffer the hangover without any meds or anything. After the hangover is gone, usually all mental troubles aswell. For the duration it is pain though... In other news, single again! Gonna have to go back to meeting new people. Haven't done that in, well, over a year now...

Hmm, I remember Noxx posting something about earning more in six months than an average American in a year... US median income, according to wikipedia is currently $41k. In here, €9,5k. Granted, for the States it is probably before taxes, here the stat is after taxes. I don't know a single person anywhere here who had something even remotely resembling a maid, not even part-time for cleaning. And I did go to one of the best high schools in the country. As I said, the wealth disparity is huge there. Also, telling people how poor they are and then flaunting with new BMW M3's is quite of a paradigm, isn't it?

I think we just about hit the $40k mark. For the whole 5-member family. While 3-4 of us are working 3 months in Norway. I'd say we are about middle-class here. Had a friend stay in South Africa for over half a year. Stayed a friend's place (white guy). The guy was telling how he was the lower middle-class and so poor. Didn't know anyone poorer than him. At the same time, my friend could not even take her own dishes off the table (servants were for that). The guy had never washed his own dishes. Wealth disparity is insane there. (and everywhere really)

Nope, they suck. Have to share everything with them. And argue with them.

White-people lower-spectrum middle-class in SA is something like high-end middle-class everywhere else in the west. Did you have servants/house-help? Or rather, how many? If you did, then your argument is invalid.

Credit card is a godsend when travelling or buying stuff online. I pay off every month and incur no interest, as it starts collecting only after a month has passed from the payment for me. Also, free travel insurance when I pay with the card. Had an opportunity to use it and got back more than I have ever paid into the card. Win-win for me. [bleep]ing boring here. However, it is really calm and peaceful aswell. I work around 6 hours a day doing that stuff pretty much automatically, while moving a lot in the fresh air. Rubber boots are ruining my feet at the start, however that should get over in a week or so. Can already feel my health improving, so much better than office work.

You guys have weird governmental systems. Get on our level (parliamentary republic). Prime minister is the head of executive system and is not a member of the parliament after accepting the position.

Terrorist attacks in Europe are nothing new. Have happened all the time and will happen all the time. It is a part of life like death itself. Only difference is, it hasn't been called terrorism all that time. And it certainly wasn't given that much coverage. UK was pretty much in a guerrilla war with IRA for decades. Peace was brokered not too long ago, and then were bombs and stuff common. I haven't recently followed how things are going in Spain with Basque radicals. Russia has "terrorist attacks" in Caucasus region bi-weekly, or so it seems. The thing is, the "terrorists" are mainly either the citizens of the country where the deed is done or at least long time residents. What good does hating outsiders help then?!?

I thought the election went well, what's wrong?

I see a swirly thingy and another swirly thingy and oh hey, we have a pair of friends! Seriously, I worked at an IT company for over a year and a half and I know jack shit about code itself. Yet I know quite a bit about the management and work sharing of a huge IT company. And me white boat goes in 15 hours... Me drunk af.

Last day here. 4 completely awesome years, but it's time to move on. Leaving behind my girlfriend, family, relatives, friends... Gonna be freaking weird. But then, 3 months in Norway, a month in South-West USA and Mexico/Guatemala/Belize, then a few weeks on some Pacific island until eventually landing in New Zealand for a year... Can't say it's gonna be awesome, maybe I'll get homesick or I won't find a job or something, but life's an adventure.

Turns out second time's the charm, I am now a licensed driver! Had to take a 6 hour bus trip to the exam place though... And shitty stuff is, I can't get the plastic card thingy pretty much before July, meaning I can't drive abroad...

Second weekend in a row abroad... Hurt my other, healthy foot... Party up all day?

No one else would get so pissed up drunk and start mooning hundreds of millions of viewers around the globe. If anyone is wondering what was meant by it:

That mooning. Aussies are the best.

And now it turns out I can't go to DMV yet, cause I passed my school too quickly and some internal system doesn't allow the diploma to be given out before there has been at least a year since entering the drivers' school... Also, it's [bleep]ing snowing in May. I had to do my riding exam in the snow. And it is snowing every [bleep]ing day. In [bleep]ing May. Even though I live quite up north, we usually don't get that white shit in [bleep]ing May. In June, specially on Midsummers' Eve, okay, we get it, that's karma for us, but in May? Also, Eurovision, yay! Australians on Eurovision, yay!

That's insanity! My car drivers test was no where near that bad. Somethings like speeding and failing to stop were automatic fails but there was no pretrip or anything and it was bonus points that I put my seatbelt on before starting. Then I had 40 demerits for various minor infractions. Then for the motorcycle test I actually had something very similar, although I did a weekend motorcycle safety course for my license, where the final test was a balance portion going slow through turns where you could only put your foot down once without failing, a high speed curve like you said (which the instructor was surprised to see I rocked because people are usually too nervous on it), and I think there was figure 8s and stopping as well but that was nearly 2 years ago. The craziest thing for you to think of probably is that when I finished that test I could have gone out and jumped on something like a hayabusa the next day. Also, there was no road test portion just a weekend of driving on a closed off street/compound and the test before we were free to ride on the streets. You can't get on a test before passing driver's school first, which is 40 theory classes and 23 driving classes for car and 40 theory and 13 riding for motorcycle. Also, I can only get on a bike that has less than 35 kw of power. I need to have my motorcycle license for 2 years before I can even think about getting the unlimited power motorycle license and to get that I have to retake and pass the exams. But I just passed my drivers' school final exams, now only DMV exams left and I can finally hit the roads.

Well, that's one way to combat bots at least. Wow, forgot about the boards for a moment. Haven't been here in days, which is telling something. Joined a disc golf training group, and now thinking about heading to a disc golf competition, which happens around where my mom and grandparents are from. They are setting up 100 baskets to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the country. It's a pretty fun, cheap and easy game. Also, pretty much done with drivers' school in just one month for both car and motorcycle. Which is pretty awesome and really uncommon around here. Now only to get the time for exams at the local version of DMV... Nearly 60% of first exam attempts fail. So gotta say I am pretty nervous about it. You pass the speed limit by 3 for once - fail. Cross a line - fail. Not stopping completely at the stop signs, even when there is noone coming and you can see it a hundred yards away - fail. Choosing wrong speed and gear for a turn - fail. Not showing turn signals at least 3 seconds before a maneuver - fail. Not checking tire pressures, cooling liquid and windshield washing liquid levels before starting off - fail. Not adjusting mirrors, seat and wheel and not fastening seatbelt before turning on the car - fail. The examinator touches the brake pedal for one moment - fail. On motorcycle - not turning your head to look at blind spots while changing lanes, turning or whatever - fail. Not turning left from the left edge of the lane or right from the right edge on the lane - fail. Putting the wrong foot down while waiting at a traffic light - fail. On a roundabout, being over 50 cm from the outer edge of the roundabout for the whole duration you are on it - fail. Also, to even be let out to ride on the streets you need to do a slalom, a figure 8, a high-speed turn using counter-steering, high speed braking (have to finish on a line), riding on clutch at a pedestrian speed, and so on. I hate the figure eight. You have to do 2 of them in a row within a small rectangle. You hit a cone, instant failure. You fail - see you in at least 6 weeks (the minimum amount of time you have to wait before you can re-take an exam). And gotta pay for the exam as well. Over 100 euros for one attempt... And I've got to procure my own bike and protective equipment. And as you can't ride without a license, to take a bike exam you have to rent a trailer at least aswell... Or have someone else ride a bike there. Just to receive a drivers' license...

Saw the best live performance that I have ever seen on Sunday evening. Winny Puhh, contender for the weirdest band of the world title performed at our fraternity house. Absolutely full house, packed, more than a thousand people came. One epic thing is that the band is about as old as I am, and they perform only a handful of concerts each year. Each member of the band has another, more paying job, so the band is just for fun and thus they give 110% on every performance. They also like to research a bit about the event and where they are and they have full unique costumes for every concert. This time, the main singer (dude) wore a red dress without anything beneath it and he also showed his bare butt once. The bass player ripped his shirt apart at the end and threw it at the public. For opening song they invited all the girls from the first row on the stage to dance. And had a 15 minute complete dance party. It was epic, to say the least. After that, the real metal began. I do not know a single other band that has 2 drummers. And where both are used a LOT. At the end of the concert, the 2 drummers did like a 20-25 minute drum solo after the rest of the band had left the stage. All alcohol was drunk up at the house, we had to drive around town to get some additional alcohol. In other news, got my first ride around town on a full motorcycle. A2 license compliant Honda CB500 was the wheels, 2016 model. Pretty cool, except I am a bit of a monkey on it, the bike is too small for me. Also, it behaves somewhat unpredictably at lower RPM's.

It's pretty much Walpurg night. All of Eastern European students come to Tartu to celebrate it. It's an old German tradition and it has pretty much died out everywhere else, but it is gaining popularity in here. Of course, there aren't many that student-centric towns left anywhere here either, which helps the cause here. But yeah, we are expecting buses and planes of Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles and Germans to party here. Gonna be a great party. And I'm at a funeral at the same time. Kind of a moodkiller, isn't it?

It's not uncommon for me to fluctuate a few pounds a day. I eat a lot and I poop a lot. And I drink water and piss out a lot. But yeah, maintaining weight ain't rocket science. I have been around 87-89 kilos since December and I do not count anything. Nor really exercise or whatnot.

Hot damn, I didn't even realize any of my posts went through :D My phone froze on the posting button, couldn't do anything.