… that’s what I kinda felt like this month.

I mean, yeah, I also came to Estonia to think about university choices and future careers, but being a Youtube- host was definitely not on my list of realistic future goals. Well, luckily, sometimes secret dreams get fulfilled and I was very pleased to combine two of my major skills and interests in this work month: Communication and Environment Protection. But how did the project work, and why did we do it?

Well, an environmentally friendly lifestyle is something I am trying to achieve for quite a few years and I felt like more people could need a little push to maybe do some easy changes in their lives, too. So why not organize an environmental month? Since I was still in the Valga Youthcenter, we tried to move all the activities I wanted to do with the Youngsters in the Internet. So we started producing crafting videos. The materials: My personal trash. It was amazing to see, how versatile you can use different materials,  e.g. did you know that you could use Tetra packs not only as purses (like in the video), but also as planting pots and “paper” bags ?  The only negative aspect of my crafting was the growth of a dumping ground in my room… whoopsi 😅

The second thing I contributed to the topic was to star in the cooking videos. Actually, I thought Vallo would continue hosting them, and I was just searching for the recipes, but like one hour before the shooting it turned out that I should be the cook… Well, I can tell you, talking in a foreign language while multitasking would probably have needed some more (mental) preparation … Nevertheless, it was a really funny time, especially the “Quiche” episode was the a crazy production haha (only those involved will know why xD). So, if you want to learn how to make vegan carrot cake, Quiche out of wasted food, homemade bread and granola bars, I can highly recommend you to watch our videos! (If not, I still hope you will check them out to support us 😂)  -> Youtube @AnkValga, Insta @ValgaAnk

                                                                        

 

Ok, but now enough with the work stuff, even though the preparations were especially at the weekends a bit demanding, I still managed to do several hikes- because what else can u do in a lockdown? One time, Matviy, Aysegül and I went to Elva, - it started as a photo walk, since all of us went with our cameras, but it ended up as a quite longish hike lol. My highlights on the excursion were definitely the discovery of a rainbow bridge (fancyyy), the nice weather (finally!) and that I asked a woman about the way in Estonian😂 (you have to start small… but still… I am proud lol). Ah yeah and hanging around with friends and the nature was of course also quite fine 😋

 

                                                         

 

The second hike led me to Ööbikuoru, the nightingale valley. Well, sadly the Estonian spring starts probably just in May, which detained us from hearing the birds singing and walking in the blooming nature, like they described it in my travellers guide. Nevertheless, we still had a lot of fun, a great view from the watch tower and of course some “great” surprises, like in nearly all of my hikes: Rain, hail and snow. Yeyy. Estonian weather. Väga ilus. Never mind, this didn’t degrade the experience.

               

 

Next to hiking, my fellow volunteers and I decided to do a bigger trip on the Easter weekend; you could call it a holiday 😅 We took the train to Jõgeva and from there a bus to Põltsamaa to visit the castle and the food museum- which was *unexpectedly* closed. So we got a quick overview of the city and decided to also visit the Laiuse ruin. It was quite epic to eat chocolate easter eggs in this scenery, but as usually we got caught by a little hailstorm. After this little sightseeing activity, Dasha and Matviy went back home, while Mylene and I stayed in Põltsamaa overnight. On the next day we planned to go hiking in Endla, but due to bad connections we spontaneously decided to take the bus to Rapla. We took a walk there before we drove to  Türi, the so-called “Spring capital” of Estonia. April is already spring, isn’t it? Well, in Estonia obviously not, consequently I was a bit disappointed of our visit. At least the last station of our journey was very convincing: Paide is such a cute little town with sweet wooden houses and a fancy ruin (yeah, I saw pretty many ruins that weekend lol) All in all I can say, that this easter weekend was properly spent and I discovered a lot of new parts of Estonia. And I drove a lot of busses…

 

                           

 

Ah, and in this month, I also visited Taagepera castle, studied for some university application tests, went montainbiking with colleagues and I had my Mid-term-training. Thankfully, this was more interesting than expected and so I didn’t feel sorry about spending a weekend at home.

Yep and this was how I spent April: pretty packed, wasn’t it? I am glad lockdown didn’t stop me from enjoying my time here in Estonia. Let’s see what May will bring us… (hopefully good weather and a glance of spring haha)

Nägemiseni!

 

                                      

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Ok ja wie ihr erkennen konntet, bin ich in diesem Monat ziemlich viel herumgekommen, auch wenn Corona hier noch fast alles (außer die Hotels) in der Hand hat. Arbeitsmäßig war ich im April ziemlich happy, denn ich durfte einen Umweltmonat organisieren und auch Youtube-Videos moderieren? Bin ich jetzt famous in Valga? Nein. Hat der April trotzdem mein Öko-Herz erfreut? Ja, definitiv. Und mein Wanderherz (freizeitmäßig gesehen) auch. War also ganz solide, der April. Hoffentlich kommt nur im Mai auch endlich mal der Frühling…

Naja, wenn ihr mehr deutsches Zeug lesen wollt, kann ich euch wie immer meinen Ösi-Blog empfehlen:

https://vicigoesabroad.jimdofree.com/