A day in the life of (statistical) Estonia

I came across this article on the fantastic website ERR News. I love statistics and was thrilled to discover that there is a celebration called World Statistics Day. While not bigtime enough to warrant a day off, the celebration does illuminate some quantifiable aspects of our daily lives. ERR News printed these stats from one day in [...]

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Bar for the Pet’s Owners

    More than a month ago when I first went to meet with my landlord to check out my new digs, I came across a sign for the bar, Basilio: Bar For The Pet’s Owners. What a find. There is so much to love about this sign. The happy obese cat and the interesting [...]

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Trip to Narva with a Busload of Ambassadors

This is the first in a two-part post about my recent trip to Estonia’s easternmost city: Narva. In part 1, I’ll share some details on what was an enjoyable and informative journey to this historic city thanks to the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research. Part 2 might get a little heated as I would [...]

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John Constable! Double Rainbow!

Recently the British Council lent a helping hand setting up an exhibition of artist John Constable’s work at the KUMU (the big time art gallery) here in Tallinn. It is by-far the most expensive (in terms of insurance) exhibition the gallery has ever hosted. The opening was a fancy affair full of important people and [...]

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Missed opportunity…

Ummm…. had a social media training session yesterday and I have a lot to think about concerning the direction of this blog. As I mull this over — here’s this. Estonian is a Finno-Ugric language which means it sounds nothing like any other language in the world except for Finnish (and Hungarian…kinda). A few Estonian [...]

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God, deliver me from Oliver

A Japanese friend once explained to me the idea that all people have a God presiding over certain aspects of their lives. Some people have a God of work, meaning that they always manage to find a good job even in tough times. Some have a God of love blessing them with an unending stream [...]

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Estonia’s New Jersey-bred president dishes on his country’s precarious population ‘situation’

Are Jersey Shore references beyond stupid at this point? I have no idea because I live in Estonia. Either way… a big topic lately here in Estonia is ‘brain drain’. A new report estimates that 130,000 Estonians are currently working abroad, with 20,000 leaving every year. Many of those are the best and brightest the country [...]

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