Hight on the Fulbright
Part I: Coming to Estonia

Professor Hight's Sabbatical Website | Sabbatical Pictures | Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV

           Tere! (Greetings!) I write to you from Tartu, Estonia, the northernmost Baltic country in Eastern Europe. I arrived here 10 August of this year to start my Fulbright fellowship for the academic year at the University of Tartu. During the year I will be working on research projects with colleagues here and teaching philosophy.

            The university (formerly known by its German name: Dorpat University) is celebrating its 375th anniversary this year, as it was founded in 1632 by the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus II. Estonia has had a tumultuous history, being dominated first by the Swedes and then the Russians for centuries, although most of its cities were founded as German Hansa towns for their trading importance. The capital of the country, Tallinn, is one of the best preserved 15th century walled cities in Europe.

            Since Estonia declared its independence (or rather its re-independence, since technically independence day in Estonia commemorates its original independence from Russia in February 1920) from the former Soviet Union, it has become one of Eastern Europe’s most surprising success stories. Last year it had the fastest growing economy in the world, built mainly on its new and modern information and technology sectors. Many (even in the US) have started referring to Estonia as ‘e-stonia’ because of its impressive IT infrastructure. Checks are unheard of here: everyone uses electronic banking to pay bills. Internet cafes and wi-fi ‘hotspots’are commonplace – as are people of all ages using laptops. I am told that there are even some buses here equipped with wireless.

            After deplaning in Tallinn on the 10th, I took a two and a half hour bus ride through the Estonian countryside to reach the university town of Tartu, which is home to about 100,000 people. Despite the population (and about one quarter of that total is students studying at the university), the city is compact and has a ‘small town’ feeling. My flat is on the third floor of a building that overlooks the town square – the center of everything. I am also in the middle of the university, whose main buildings are all around me. In the square is one of the town’s most famous monuments, the so called ‘kissing statue’ which is a fountain in front of the town hall. The town is picturesque in the summer and filled with events – both traditional and definitely 21st century. As I write this account to you right now I can hear the blare of megaphones and the shouts of a crowd – there is an ‘extreme sports’ exhibition going on in the square below. People who heal much faster than I are performing all sorts of stunts with bicycles and skateboards on huge wooden ramps and other dangerous looking props. All of this is occurring in a town where many of the streets are still made of cobblestones.

            Living in the city has already been an adventure. As I had expected, it is the small things which prove the most daunting. I was ready for the administrative problems of getting a residence permit and a national identity card, but it was the unusual washing machine that first gave me fits. The washers here work differently (and are small). I managed to figure it out: after nearly six hours of trying I had washed my first load of clothing in my new home. My HSC students might find it interesting to know that beer is essentially cheaper here than water. A glass of tap water (‘kraanivesi’) can cost up to 40 kroons for a half liter; a good brand of beer only 30 or 35. Estonia boasts two domestic breweries and Tartu is home to one.

August 29, 2007