Estonia left me feeling restored. The bite of the cold mixed with the warm of the sun on my face as I skied through Estonia's forests in Kääriku. I get silly thoughts about how it's good to know that I can still feel both, and how I can feel them at the same time.
I love to muse about this duality expressed in life as well. This is strangely how the entire Estonian school felt to me. I would be sitting in the most enthralling lectures on sovereignty, nation-state, memory, identity, or a host of other topics when I would stop and think to myself, "this is complete garbage." After a few minutes of bitterly thinking about the program, someone would make a comment that sparked my interest again, throwing me into a whirlwind of theoretical political science.
The sauna was a definite highlight of the trip. Eastern Europeans have an absolutely splendid tradition of going to these hot saunas, then dipping in cold water. The sauna at our ski retreat was possibly the most picturesque sight I've ever seen. Picture a quaint cabin on a lake surrounded by forest, with a chimney poring smoke into the clearest sky I've seen in months, with a hole in the lake acting as the cool water part of the ritual. I got to be the lucky participant who hacked a hole in the ice (which, of course, I did almost completely naked). The feeling of an overheated body dipping into a tiny, dark, icy hole is inexplicable. The real rush is when you run back into the sauna and feel your lungs and skin throb as your body fights for equilibrium that doesn't exist.
There will most likely be pictures, and a better explanation of the trip itself to come. I just wanted to get some of my weird ideas down before they weren't here anymore.
I love to muse about this duality expressed in life as well. This is strangely how the entire Estonian school felt to me. I would be sitting in the most enthralling lectures on sovereignty, nation-state, memory, identity, or a host of other topics when I would stop and think to myself, "this is complete garbage." After a few minutes of bitterly thinking about the program, someone would make a comment that sparked my interest again, throwing me into a whirlwind of theoretical political science.
The sauna was a definite highlight of the trip. Eastern Europeans have an absolutely splendid tradition of going to these hot saunas, then dipping in cold water. The sauna at our ski retreat was possibly the most picturesque sight I've ever seen. Picture a quaint cabin on a lake surrounded by forest, with a chimney poring smoke into the clearest sky I've seen in months, with a hole in the lake acting as the cool water part of the ritual. I got to be the lucky participant who hacked a hole in the ice (which, of course, I did almost completely naked). The feeling of an overheated body dipping into a tiny, dark, icy hole is inexplicable. The real rush is when you run back into the sauna and feel your lungs and skin throb as your body fights for equilibrium that doesn't exist.
There will most likely be pictures, and a better explanation of the trip itself to come. I just wanted to get some of my weird ideas down before they weren't here anymore.
What an interesting trip! I would never dare to jump into an icy lake, no matter how hot the sauna was. I hate to be cold. Are Russia and/or Estonia ever warm? Maybe in the summer? Because otherwise I'm afraid I'm too big a wimp to visit them.
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