To Tap or Not to Tap

When you go to a warmer country, you should never drink tap water. Never. Not under any circumstances, EXCEPT, as it turned out, when you're thirsty. Well I couldn't help it - my new roommate offered me a glass of refrigerator-cold filtered tap water and I was thirsty. I didn't have any water of my own because I had just arrived from the airport. Well maybe I could have boiled it and then waited for it to cool down, but I didn't wanna! I figured it's only bacteria anyway, it's not gonna kill me. The worst thing that could happen is indigestion and then my body should grow immune to it. This would mean I no longer have to worry about lettuce that is wet with tap water, or accidentally drinking water when in the shower, or telling waitresses not to add any ice cubes to my drink even though it's so hot outside, that I would kill for a couple of ice cubes. (disclaimer: the last part is not to be taken seriously. I don't really kill. ). Anyway, it's been 2 days since I first drank tap water and I'm perfectly okay. I shall continue to drink the cold tap water. Besides, bottled water is expensive! It's not over 3 dollars like in the airport, but I think it's still about twice as expensive as in Estonia.

It's not just me! Everyone here is so thirsty that apparently they'd drink just about anything.

Well I was out doing errands and shopping today. As I found out right after I arrived, my phone doesn't work here. I have the contract for it to work abroad as well, but there's just no reception. I'm assuming my phone company just hasn't negotiated with the local phone companies so that I could use their reception. Well, I fixed that problem. I bought a local phone card. I really doubted that my phone will accept any other sim cards, since my phone is bought through my phone company. Well, I also bought a $15 mobile phone. And you know what's the sad part - the new phone is almost as good as my phone, except it doesn't have vibrate function. I spent another $25 on the phone card and got $35 worth of phone time. Phone issue should be covered for this trip since I'll also use Skype.

The other problem is that my bank card doesn't work in any of the stores. Stupid bank clerk said it would. Foreign debit cards don't work. I was thinking of opening an account in USA. I know I get charged every time I take out money, so perhaps I can reduce that cost if I just make a single money transfer to a bank in USA. Or perhaps I'll make a credit card because more stores accept it. I talked it over with my husband and now I think that it's easier to just withdraw money. I shoulda made a credit card in Estonia. Damn.

Ah, so warm. Every water puddle looked so luring although I had a water bottle with me.

I walked around quite a bit to get acquainted with my surroundings here. I ate at McDonalds, but I ordered a salad which was extremely fresh and healthy. My meal was healthier than what I normally have for lunch. I really do like healthy food, but when I eat out in Estonia, it's impossible to find anything good. Their idea of healthy is 1/2 plate of potatoes, 1/4 of yesterday's salad and 1/4 plate of white sauce with little bits of meat in it. I wish I was exaggerating. Me and my husband have been quite exceptional eaters since we often don't eat any potatoes, bread, pasta, or rice with our meal. We just eat meat and veggies or sometimes meat, cottage cheese and veggies. People think we're nuts. When I came here, my new roommate (we share the kitchen, but I have my own room) offered me something to eat - to my greatest astonishment, she offered meat and broccoli! That's like, you know, HEALTHY! What the heck is going on? And now that I'm on the topic, I haven't seen any fat people so far! There are some overweight people, but almost fewer than in Estonia and I haven't seen anyone who is obese!

I was walking along an 8-lane road and before long I had to cross it. There were traffic lights everywhere, but I was the only person nearby. First I realized that the light will never go green unless I press the button. Actually green is not correct since there is no green there. Traffic lights for people have red and WHITE! First there is a red hand and then there is a white shape of a walking person (almost like the one on the picture). So anyway, I pressed the button and pretty soon the light went "green". I started walking across the street with my regular brisk pace. When I was barely in the middle of the road on a slightly higher ground that separated the different direction lanes, the light suddenly turned red and started blinking. I stopped in the middle of the road because in Estonia when the light is red, you're not supposed to walk on the street. The warning "hurry up" is usually a blinking green or sometimes yellow. Well then the red hand stopped blinking and cars started moving. It didn't take me long to realize that the blinking red is just a warning "hurry up". And now I was stuck in the middle of the road and the light would never turn "green" because I didn't have a button to push. Fortunately there weren't many cars at noon, so I just waited until it was safe to walk and crossed the rest of the street with the red light.

Would you walk across 8-lanes with a blinking red hand when cars are going 56 km/h (35 mph)?

I thought I went to two supermarkets today. I had heard that those are so big that I'll get lost and so high I won't reach at least five of the higher shelves. But really the supermarkets in Tartu are BIGGER than the stores I visited (now I have a problem calling them supermarkets)! Tartu is my home town with 100 000 people, and San Diego has 1,2 million people. I quite liked the stores I visited here. There are aisles with processed food, but there's also many aisles on fresh ready-made food. In Estonia you can find perhaps one small section with pickles, olives and stuff like that, plus there's a small selection of salads and unhealthy-looking warm food. What I saw in the store I visited was entirely another story. I saw at least three shelves with pickle/olive type stuff. I saw huge sections with fresh salads, chopped 5 different kinds of lettuce, chopped other stuff, washed and half-prepared vegetables, fruit, chopped fruit, fruit salads, vegetable mixes, etc. And I would think half of it looks very iffy, like it does in Estonian stores, but it didn't look iffy at all. Everything looked so fresh and clean. I wonder why anyone would not eat vegetables and fruit when your stores have sections like this. Pfffff, but later I found I had just visited an elite fresh food store! The second store was also an elite store, definitely not a supermarket. And even though it wasn't a real supermarket, I saw something odd - there was an entire aisle on all sorts of food supplements. Those would be sold in pharmacies in Estonia. In the evening my roommate took me to the grocery store she usually visits, so I have food now.

A whole aisle on vitamins and other supplements.

There aren't any of the cheap supermarkets nearby since I live too close to the rich district of La Jolla. However, there are a couple of regular classic supermarkets within walking distance, so I'll visit them as soon as I get the chance. For now I'll just enjoy the beauty of warm climate.

Water fountain in the middle of heaven.