Friday, December 26, 2008

Ah, Home At Last

I spent three nights at my parents home. They live pretty close to the airport and it was Christmas! There was a lot of stuff going on, a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while, and a lot of food that I hadn't eaten in a while. It's not like I was starving in US! I just hadn't eaten boiled potatoes sprinkled with dill, pork seasoned and well cooked in an oven, blood sausages with cranberry jam (not odd cranberry jello stuff), mottled dog cake (kirjukoerakook! ) and this year's addition: marinated home-made lamper eels.

It wouldn't be OUR Christmas tree without the clashing colors

There was only a little bit of snow in Tallinn and Viimsi (peninsula near Tallinn) but when I finally saw Tartu, my current home town, I saw thick white snow covering all the lawns and sideroads. The streets here looked SO SMALL! There seemed barely enough room for two cars side by side. I think my perception is skewed after all those 8-lane roads.

Barely any snow in Viimsi at Christmas

Me and Erkki (dearest husband) got some late evening food from a gas station. So what is the first thing to buy after such a long time? YOGURT! Good fresh Estonian yogurt with bits of fruit and 2,5% fat. Well, fresh only in the sense that it's fresh-tasting, as yogurt is by definition sour milk created after specific fermentation process. But it was so good. I casually drank almost an entire liter of it.

I have to admit I'm very glad to be home. It was nice in the sunny California but it just wasn't Estonia there. It's the small things. When we were at the gas station I noticed that they sell only one kind of milk and it's simple 1-liter carton of 2,5% milk. It wasn't 1-gallon (3,8 liters) A and D vitamin added fat free "milk" buy two get third for free. I also discovered that my home looks much better than I remembered. I knew it looked good even earlier but when I walked in, I noticed the comfortable-looking (nice illusion) couch, wide screen monitors, all that open space, large windows, Xbox, MY COMPUTER!!!! I'm home! Nice feeling.

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