Very Weird Ramblings From a Very Jetlagged Vivi - Pooping Babies Make Me Go Haha

     Reporting to you live from Helsinki Airport - "Very Loud Blonde Estonian Girl Sees Snow From Airplane Window - Starts Sobbing and Hugging Random Passengers." 

*Cough* That totally wasn't me, though. The part about me being in Helsinki airport is true. I just got off a JFK-Helsinki flight, which lasted for 7 hours and 25 minutes. The actual time here is 9:33AM, my eternal clock still says 2:33AM and "You should be sleeping fool". But(t), since I just ordered a caramel latte from the coffee shop (a coffee shop that IS NOT Starbucks - I forgot those existed), that ain't happening anytime soon. You know me on coffee - It's like if a normal person just went straight for the beans from the packet, took a handful and ate 'em. Raw. That's the effect any amount of coffee has on me. 

The flight was actually pretty decent. I took four books on the flight for me to read - so far have finished half of one of them. I chose to read "Paper Towns" by John Green, so far it's pretty good. I also had my music to keep me company and some Friends episodes, so I was good. 

When we were descending into Helsinki airport and I saw the snow on the ground...I kind of had a mini-heart attack of happiness. I almost started crying. Happy tears! But still :) I have no idea, if it's because I've been missing home so much and the snow actually signaled to me that I'm very near OR if it's because of very severe sleep deprivation. Probably the sleep thing. 

Anyway, now I'm going to continue messaging all of my Estonian acquaintances (Everyone I've ever met) the words: "I'M IN THE SAME TIME ZONE AS YOU - GET FREAKING HYPED. I'm on coffee - Sorry". 

PS! I am currently very scared of myself - I have been laughing at the following picture for 3 minutes now and it's still funny:

Either I'm REALLY tired or this baby is just a freaking genius. I presume the second option is the correct one. 

PSPS! Merry Christmas :)

The Wonderful Tales of Theatre Production, Mind-Reading, A Place Only for Queens and Sore Fingers

     The days where I could trick myself into believing I could blog every Sunday are LONG dead. The IB killed them...violently...with a machete gun...seriously, there's blood everywhere. 

No matter, as I am banking on the fact that everyone is feeling that Christmas spirit and will not be disappointed in me (or just kind of tipsy from the egg-nog, you pick.) 

Anyway, I have compiled a list of things I want to tell you about. The last time I wrote anything was in November, right before we ended the "A Thurber Carnival" rehearsals, so first up is the play. 

1. THE PLAY...

...was the awesomest thing in Galactic Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha ("Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy", anyone? :). Aside from the fact that I am a colossal theatre nerd and would be happy doing a play about a couple of bugs staring at stale cheese for two hours, I was really happy with how the play turned out. 

Here's some photographical evidence: 

"Happy" husband and wife (Yes, that is me.) - Aa, marriage! 

Hey, Mrs. Daley, keep your hands off my husband! 

"The machine is CREVULATING!" 

Yeah, seriously, we just butcher marriage left to right. 

"A Thurber Carnival" is a play written by James Thurber, a writer, about the 1960s. It is a collection of short stories touching on many subjects such as marriage, gender differences etc. The most famous sketch from that play is "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", which was recently adapted to a full-length film. 

I played the characters: 

• Miss Whittaker - A TV show assistant, who is past her prime and thinks she is too good for the show, anyway. The TV show itself is basically people sending in sketches and letters of their odd pets and The Doctor and The Assistant commenting on them. Think about a Dr. Oz kind of thing, but for animals. It was great fun playing her. I said things like: "We have a fish with ears and wonder if it's valuable" and "Oh, Doctor!". I also got to put on a southern/60s accent and be REALLY fake. Shout out to Sebastian, The Doctor to my Whittaker, it was awesome to work with you :)
• Mrs. Preble - A housewife, whose husband is trying to kill her. But as we see by the end of the sketch, the power does not lie where the audience would believe in the beginning. (I almost kill him with a monkey wrench.) My darling husband, Andrew, was also fabulous to work with! It's going to be genuinely weird not calling you "Preble" anymore. 
• Berg - A soldier in one of Walter Mitty's fantasies. It was different playing a male character opposed to a female one. (Of-course it was, you idiot.) And different in a good way. I learnt about female vs, male body language and it was very useful. 

But in retrospect I LOVED every moment of that production. Even the 10AM-5PM sessions in school on the weekends. And the cast were also some of the funniest people I've ever met. So Nana-Dawg, Lina, Lucie, Andrew, Seb, Nikola, Noa, Aditya and Francis - YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST. I hope to work with you a lot more. (Also, you make even dirtier jokes than I do and it's nice not to be judged.) 

       2.  THE FILM FESTIVAL

...was equally as awesome as the play. UNIS holds an annual film festival, where all the students can submit. This year there were 10 submissions. I'm in Higher Level Film, so I was supposed to submit a film for the festival as a part of the course...But I probably would've liked to submit something anyway. Good thinking, because me and my friends Yifan and Andrei WON IN THE SOUND CATEGORY. 

DiGregs - our film teacher - called the overall concept for the soundtrack very different and said the judges talked about the film a bunch and watched it over and over. So being the person who came up with the idea, wrote a good share of the script, directed and starred in it...It was good to hear. It was a HUGE learning experience and I am very happy we could pull even something like this off within a span of 4 days. (Seriously, the due date was right after the play came out and we all had tests, oh it was hectic.) 

Our film is called "Mind Over Me" and it is available for viewing on this website:

http://unisfilmfestival.weebly.com/ 

The short is about a girl who can read minds. She finds it difficult and questions why she ever got them in the first place. 

(Holy moly, I'm tired. Bedtime. Oh, wait it's 10:55PM. Anyway, lightning round!) 

3.  I'm coming back home to Estonia for Christmas. 

       

4.  I have scary exams coming up they call "mid-terms" and I'm so scared I could just eat                 my own hair. I won't though. That's gross, Vivian. 

5. I went to Queens, specifically Nan-Dawg's, specifically a White Castle and the movies             around Thanksgiving. Had thanksgiving dinner. Turkey and mashed potatoes and all. I  love           Nana so much, I could just marry her. I won't. But I could. She plays ukulele and has a British           accent, come on, I'm only human. 

WhiteCastle in style. 

6.  I bought a guitar. And I'm trying to learn how to play it. And that may take a while. My               fingers hurt. But I love it. My baby is a Fender Concert Series Acoustic-Electric. I don't have a           name picked out yet. 

That is all for this blog post. Thank you for reading. It is raining outside. 

Photos of the play by Mr. Van Kirk - https://www.facebook.com/UNISNY/photos_stream. Thank you!

The Super Post Extravaganza - UN Day, Halloween and "A Thurber Carnival"

    Autumn has finally arrived in New York City. The leaves are turning yellow, I have to put on a long coat and boots when I go outside and pumpkin spiced lattes actually feel appropriate now. Well, with the leaves falling, I have also fallen into a huge rabbit hole of schoolwork and that is why my posts have not been very frequent - sawwry.

    No matter, as I am confident that I can make what I'm going to call a "Super Post Extravaganza" and speed through the significant events during the fall time up to now. You ready? This is going to be some rapid-fire descriptions of things coming your way, get pumped! Maybe do some eye exercises? Stretch it out. Ok, 3...2...1 - GO!

• 24th of October - UN Day

    The 24th of October the girl who lives quite near the UN, goes to the UN School, celebrates UN day. It is supposed to mark the anniversary of the Charter of the United Nations, but for me it shall forever be known as ''THE DAY OF EPIC FOOD". One of the many traditions that my school has developed by celebrating UN Day, is that they have an annual UN day lunch where all the moms and dads of students show off their amazing skill of cooking their cultural dishes. (My parents brought store-brought fruit...The life of a diplomat is busy, OK?:) I ate and ate and when my food baby was the size of an actual baby, I let out my jeans and thanked the gods of cuisine (Nigella Lawson, Gordon Ramsay(?) that the UN was ever established. 

Amin and Tiff(wearing my hat btw) posing so eloquently...And Nikola munching away back there. Who can blame him really?

    After the food-fest, we learnt about the UN and watched the Cultural Talent Show (One of the more stand-out-ish acts was: A guy came on stage playing a tune on two little kid's toy pianos, which made cat sounds. And apparently he reads my blog sometimes, so Hey Joe! You did a good job - A wonderfully written piece which perfectly captured the feline culture of the 21st Century :)

   As my Mom works in the consulate over here, we scored some tickets to the actual UN-day concert happening at the UN. And let me just say - holy hell! Lang Lang the pianist performed, along with Sting and Alec Baldwin as our host for the night. Ughm, what? How? Did I just actually put those three names together in a sentence and truthfully say I bore witness to that? 

• 31st of October - Halloween

I have been excited for Halloween ever since I arrived in America. Many of my costume ideas were plotted out weeks in advance...But of course, since I am me, I left everything to the last minute. I ended up going as a mash-up of two very popular Halloween costumes - a nerd and a vampire. I went around saying things like: "I'm sorry, I'm going to have to suck your blood! If I don't my dad will take away my calculator."

Thumbs up for the random lady that stopped us, when taking this picture and wanted to pose with us!

      I went to school as a regular nerd (complete with braces and suspenders) and in the cover of night turned into a vampire.

    After school me, Emma, Lina, Tiff and Enkuush headed off to Tiff's for trick-or-treating. I was very excited for this for two reasons - a) I'd never been trick-or-treating for Halloween before and b) CANDY!

The awesomely decorated hallway at Tiff's and our loot

   The trick-or-treating itself was exactly like it is in the movies - You knock on the door, they answer, you say: "Trick or treat!" and they give you candy. Granted, some did respond with a: "Aren't you girls too mature to be trick-or-treating? We don't have beer for you guys, only Skittles." Eeh, I can't really blame them as we were the oldest trick-or-treaters I saw.
PS! I also spotted about 5-6 Elsa costumes from Frozen, which is really embarrassing because Elsa was one of my costume choices. But in the end I just had to LET IT GO...(Oh wow, I'll let myself out.)

A close-up shot of my vampire-nerdiness

• 1st of November - Epic Skype-a-thon with lovely friends from Estonia

I consider this an important event because my friends ARE super important to me and that Saturday, the entire day was spent talking to them, which I completely loved. 

Karl (and Kaspar), Kristel and Cassandra - LOVE YOU :)

• 8th and 9th of November - Rehearsal for Drama Club Workshop from 10AM to 5PM on both days...

...And I loved every second of it. Partly because theatre is somewhere, where I feel like myself, even though I am portraying a whole different character and partly because the people I get to work with are just plain cool.  I'm definitely going to write more about the play, but here's the gist of it: We're performing "A Thurber Carnival", which is a collection of short sketches taking place in the 1960s. 

The world is a complicated place, and there's a lot of division between people. The performing arts tend to unify people in a way nothing else does." 
-David Rubenstein, Chairman of the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts

Sneak Peek of the sketch: "Secret Life of Walter Mitty" 

Ok, that is everything. (Well, if you take out a few Math tests, history essays, existential crises etc.)

Thank you SO much for reading. Next time I'll write about "A Thurber Carnival" and some other cool projects I've got going on. Have a lovely day! 

Thought Vomit on Being Young, Fleeting Friends and Clouds

     I knew one of these posts was coming. I knew I was going to feel like I feel today, even before I wrote the first post to Vivian Breathes NYC. The the sun doesn't want to come out from behind the clouds...The time, when I sit down to write my blog post for the week and feel like sharing with you a happy little adventure of mine. But as an extract from an earlier post of this blog reads, ''I want to remember what it felt like to be, live and breathe NYC.", I feel fit to tell you about the dark as well as the light. 

      

   I think every person goes through feelings of self-doubt. I have never met anyone, who whole-heartedly said: "I have absolutely no fear for the future, nor have regrets of the past." It's damn near impossible to live like that. Even more, it's horrible to live like that. A huge part of life is making mistakes, feeling like utter and complete shit (excuse expression), starting to feel better, picking yourself up from the ground and then moving on, knowing that you might've learned from that mistake. The next time you encounter the same thing, you say: "Hey, is this situation similar to the one that made me feel like utter and complete shit (again, sorry)? Oh, yeah. It is! Might not want to make that mistake again." The situation is similar, you have experience to deal with it. 

   

  Being 17 years old, there's a lot of "new" for me to deal with. Something that I've never encountered before, had the privilege of making a mistake in, so I'd know what to do. And that is perfectly fine. It's a part of growing up. Yet you forget how terrible it is, working through something absolutely unfamiliar.  

     

   I know I will forget one day too. But today, I just made the wrong turn at the intersection, got lost somewhere between 3rd and 4th Avenue, can't make it home before dark and feel terrified. Tomorrow I'll know not to go left, but right and be just fine. Today I'm jealous of all my best friends posting photographs of them together on social media, of not being with them and feeling sad that they don't realize how wonderful it is that all your friends are a 30 minute bus ride away. In a months I'll see, that best friends are ones you keep, wherever you are and they want to be with you as much as you with them. 

   The concept of friends, people you care about and surround yourself with has been a topic rattling round in my brain for some time now. For people that move around a lot friends are a different concept than to others, who've lived in the same place for years. This is not speaking from my own experience so much, as from a lot of people's around me. There are a lot of kids at UNIS, who have moved around many times. Every year, a new environment, new kids, new teachers...You don't have the time to build long-lasting strong relationships, because you'll be gone in a year and may never see that person again. So what do you do? You start to treat people as a loan. I'll be your friend, have awesome times, hang out, yet not let you get so close that you'll actually know me. Why? Well, first of all getting to know someone like that takes quite a lot of time, something that I don't have much of. And secondly, what will happen when I have to go again? I leave a whole in my heart, where you occupied the space and feel miserable without you? Nope. Can't do that to myself. Over and over again. NO! So I just end up building walls, I don't want you to climb and knock you off when you still decide to try?

    I've come to the conclusion that you cannot live like that. I know that by doing so I inadvertently invite heartbreak into my future, but hopefully some lovely times for the present too. However painful, uncomfortable or scary "feeling" something is, I'll have to feel it all the way through. If I don't I never actually live. There's always a silver lining to every cloud. Right now, you might be in the gray, but tomorrow when those sun rays hit, you'll wonder why you didn't see the lining all along. 

PS! I know this has been different from what I usually post. I've just had some thoughts jumping around in my brain and needed to get them out. Here you go. Here's my thought vomit. (Nice visual for you there, I know.) 

During the following days you can expect a description of UN day at UNIS (Apparently, it's kind of a big deal for us. United Nations day, United Nations International School - I wonder why :) and the actual UN day at the UN itself. 

Thank you so very much for reading! 

Birthday Blast on Broadway, The Effect of Coffee on the Vivian Brain and A Trio Taking Over SoHo

   Welcome back, I know it has been a little while since the last post...I've been occupied with other very important things (Futurama marathon with Dad; eating everything bad for you, which has ever been invented; falling into a rabbit hole of information on the possibility of ACTUALLY existing unicorns etc.) 

First and foremost, I feel obligated to tell you that you are no longer reading the blog of a childish immature 16-year-old caterpillar in a cocoon, but one of a 17-year-old sophisticated young woman, becoming a  butterfly (BUTTerfly...Ok, I'm never gonna grow up, let's face facts here). 

A big fat juicy ''Thank You'' to you, if you bothered to send me a message or write a birthday wish on my Facebook wall - it might seem just like a ''Palju õnne!'' to you, but it means so much more to me. 

The 17 was sinking into the cake, I had to blow out the candles very quickly :)

My mom's gift to me was 2 tickets to see a production of Aladdin in the New Amsterdam theatre on Broadway. Words cannot express how it felt like to lose my Broadway virginity. The lovely Tiffany who accompanied me on this trip to Agrabah was luckily just as excited as I was. I would've felt really weird, sitting between the kids who came with their parents and crying/laughing/feelingallthefeels more than them. The thought of seeing a real musical on Broadway has been my dream for SO many years and my expectations were very high. I'm very happy to report that they were met (I mean, come on, they LITERALLY had a flying carpet up on that stage of theirs.)

Not going to lie - the kids in the seats next to ours gave us, the REAL Aladdin fans, some pretty weird looks. 

An honorable mention of a significant event goes to the ''night of 1 hour and 30 minutes sleep'', which took place on the 2nd (technically 3rd) of October. So...We had this research paper due in history. (I know, I'm going to learn how to manage my time better, you don't have to keep reminding me, Mom.) Anyway, I hadn't left it all on the last night - only like a half. It went by really quickly - I remember Google-ing ''Why did France go to war in 1914'' at 7PM and then realizing it was 5:18AM and that I had to get some sleep. Luckily, I have a special power for these kinds of situations. A cup of coffee. I am not joking, a cup of jo will keep me going for at least 6 hours. I've kept the substance as unreachable to me as possible, to make the effect more dramatic in case of emergencies. It clearly worked for me that morning, as my friend Emmett received a text like this at 8:25AM: ''HAPPY MORNING. I'M SO AWAKE. ZOOMZOOM. Cofee is DA best thing everrr." I am not even joking. This is a great representation of me on coffee (The Big Bang Theory fans represent!):

"I will be back before this banana hits the ground...ZOOMZOOMZOOMZOOM!"

Also I got a question from a dear friend of mine from Tartu (Erghmagerd, someone actually asked something. Success!):
What are the accents like over there? Do you have dialects, how different are they and how much do you notice them?
I go to an international school, so there are people from all over the world - that means different accents. I love doing all kinds of different accents, so it's all ponies and rainbows for me...The people I try to imitate sometimes don't take it that well. I always mean it in the best way possible, I don't want to make fun of the person or where he/she comes from. There are some awesome people who tolerate my attempts which is just rad.
I can just speak for the accents, everybody speaks the same dialect of English, I think. I'm sorry for my limited knowledge of the English language.
Bonus: People say I don't have an Estonian accent and they say that actual Estonian sounds like Sim-lish (From The Sims/2/3/4...n)

As far as today goes, I went to East Village and SoHo with my friends Lina and Tiffany. We got our nails done at a salon, ate at a Greek cafe and went Vintage-clothes-shopping (Old clothes are ones worn by fairies, but bought by the fairies's daddies that wanted to spoil their little princesses...Bottom line, very expensive :( )

 The Girl With a Snowy Beanie and The Girl Who lived in Gangnam (Style ;) 

In the evening, I went grocery shopping and had an out-of-the-blue experience of  feeling like a freaking badass. I was strutting down the aisles, thinking ''Look at me all grown-up, having responsibility...Am I gonna buy dark or milk chocolate? I don't know. But you don't have the power to stop me from making any choice. I might just go crazy, get 'em both.''' I have no idea why groceries made such an impact on me today. Oh, you know what, it might've been the Queen blasting in my headphones. Freddie just makes you feel fabulous, doesn't he?

Thank you for reading! (This is the tenth post on this blog. We've made it into double digits - great progress :) 

The Goofiest Smile, the President with the Best Bow-Tie Collection and Some Knitting

    Last week whoosh-ed past me, like mailboxes on a long drive through a street, blurring as the car accelerates. I'll begin my post with last Sunday -  meeting the President of the Republic of Estonia.

And before you say "no pic, no proof'':

Damn that bow tie, though :)

Let's take it back all the way to last Sunday afternoon (Sept 22nd), the date I met Toomas Hendrik Ilves. Right off the bat, I'm going to make the following statement - His hands are the SOFTEST I've ever shaken. No joke. I bet he moisturizes on the daily. (My dad confirmed the ''incredibly soft hands" thing a few days later.) But I'm getting ahead of myself.

While visiting NYC, the President stopped off at the Estonian House and everyone, who were "in the know" could come and take a picture with him. Right... This may be one of the coolest people I'm ever going to meet, the President of my own country...Do I give myself time to prepare for it? NO! Of-course I leave getting ready to the last minute and leave the house with wet hair and barley any make-up on. I run down 2nd Avenue as fast as I can (in 4 inch heels, I might add) and somehow still manage to make it there in time to meet my mother, who's already setting things up. It wasn't the best mother-daughter experience though, as after 2 minutes after I arrived my mother rushes back to the second floor, leaving me with a room of very well-dressed Estonglish-speaking people and comforting instructions to ''mingle''. 

After a little while the President arrives and everybody lines up to greet him. The professional photographer is on-set and ready. I say to myself: "Come on Vivi, this is just another really important person you will meet in your life time. Please don't make an utter fool of yourself"...And then it's my turn. It goes by so quickly that I don't even feel it. My mom takes my bag, the President sees me, I say Tere!, He says Tere! Palun seisa siia!, I smile the goofiest smile imaginable, click, Aitäh teile!, get my bag back and walk away. There you go. I just met the President :)  

After that nervousness I just go back home, get in my sweatpants (with  no intention of sweating) and look at an episode of Friends. Home isn't where the the heart is, it's where you can wear sweatpants (or no pants for that matter) without anyone judging you. 

In other news, there was a club fair at my school. You are reading the blog post of a participant of the New Music Club (a club where you jam, write lyrics, talk about music etc.), UNIS-KIN (United Nations International School - Kids In Need club where you help kids in need), Creative Writing Club (a club where you can share your ideas with your peers and maybe get something printed in the school paper) and... Knitters of UNIS (where you knit. Scarves and hats, maybe even socks. Don't laugh, ok? I've already got plans for everybody's Christmas presents.) 

Thank you for reading. I'll try to make the blog posting a regular thing. Let's try over every weekend, shall we? (It's Monday right now - shitake mushrooms) Starting this week.

I Have Become a Subway-Tamer, a Controversial Question-Answerer and a Drama Geek

   As I sit here at 9:36PM looking back on my week (when I really should be revising for my Shakespeare vocabulary test tomorrow) I see that it has been an eventful one. I have not yet reached the inevitable point of ''nothing is new anymore'' and for the sake of this blog and myself, I feel happy about that. Thankfully, I have many firsts I can tell you about. 

Example A: I joined a club for the first time in NYC. I know that is more school-related, but just roll with me here. Our drama club meets on Wednesdays and Thursdays after school every week until the end of November, when we'll perform our play. I am so very excited. 

It feels like I found my peeps, people just as passionate about theatre and not afraid to look silly, like me. 

Example B: I rode in the New York City subway system. I was kind of dreading the thought of the underground for quite a valid reason - I saw a huge rat on the street on one of the first days I was here. It ran into the Subway and I have had no desire to reconnect with it. 

It has been great for cardio, I have been walking EVERYWHERE. 

But today, as I needed to get about 30 blocks Uptown and to the other side of the city, there was really no choice. I planned my trip out carefully with Google Maps (Yeah right, "carefully" you had 3 minutes to figure out where you were going before you bolted out the door) and got to walking towards Grand Central Terminal. 

I have to tell you, that is one beautiful building. I nearly got lost in between the wonderful architecture. I'm definitely going back to appreciate it a bit more. Preferably when I don't have to literally run through it, sweating like a pig and freaking out over where I'm supposed to be like a headless chicken. 

I was supposed to get on the number 7 to Times Sq, but as (bad) luck would have it, that particular train path had been closed for the day. So I raced through Grand Central to find the S Times Sq shuttle (that was thankfully working) and squeezed myself into the huge mob of people on the train, just before the metal doors closed shut behind me. I had to problem finding the no 1 train to take me to Lincoln Center. A proud feeling of accomplishment crept over me as I exited the underground to the street level. :) Why was I at Lincoln Center again?

Example C: I took part in my first activist event in NYC. It was the People Climate March - an invitation to everything. As I now read on Wikipedia, I was one of 300, 000 activists, which makes this the largest climate march in history. WHAT? :)

''Yo momma's so hot she's about to experience desertification and rising sea levels"

I was supposed to go with the UNIS group, but due to a series of unfortunate events, me and my friends couldn't locate them and went with just the four of us. It was still great though!

Now it's time for the questions you guys have asked me about the whole experience. (Yeah, you want to know SO many things, I totally didn't have to message my best friends yesterday saying: "Please-please-please ask me something about living in NYC! I have nothing to blog about." No. I didn't do that. At all. Totally.)

What does it sound like?

Sound is a funny thing in New York. It's a mixture of cars driving, wind, car horns, people themselves etc. You can't really put it into words. It's the sound of fast-moving life. What I can say, is if I open my window in my room and my mom or dad tells me something from the room next to mine, I can't hear it. 

What are your classmates like?

Oh, they're superb. Everyone's been quite friendly. Because it's an international school there are many different people from different countries and it's always cool to hear from which corner of the world someone comes from. (+ I get to learn SO many new accents,I'm like a kid in a candy shop. Or come to think of it, me at a candy shop.)

What food have you had?

There's no magical New York food, that doesn't exist anywhere else. But of the day-to-day popular foods I've had bagels (toasted and w cream cheese - heavenly), pizza and sushi (my favorite food). Ooh, and Starbucks. They are on every corner, that's no lie, but it is justified as they do make a mean cup of coffee. 

Is there anyone cute you've noticed?

I guess so. No more comments on that question. 

Do you have friends there?

Yes, I do. I am so lucky. The people I've met and who've become my friends have already made an impact on me as a person and I have to work hard not to lose any of them. (I'll just casually insert the phrases "I live in an anemone", "Nah - It's on my list" and "Not on the leather seats Kayla!" in here and see what happens.)

Do you have anything to do after school?

Yes. I study. It's fun. (But drama club and hopefully vocal lessons will be added to that list.)

Do you guys have dark bread (leib) over there?

We have something resembling dark bread, yes. Not the real thing though. Appreciate it, while you have it, my Estonian friends. 

How many times have you been to McDonalds?

Once. Probably not going back. 

What do you miss most about Estonia?

I miss my friends and family. It's been hard being away from them. In the beginning of the year, whenever I'd feel nervous or anxious, I'd imagine my Estonian friends beside me, laughing or goofing off or giving me a pep talk. My real friends as my imaginary friends. But luckily, I've been doing that less now. 

What question should I ask you?

Mis sul viga on? No ma küsin, mis sul viga on? (Bad joke, I know, but it's 10:48PM now, give me a break.)

Natural History Museum, have you been there yet?

No, but definitely planning to go. 

Oh baby, this was a long one. If you still have any questions, I'd still gladly answer them. Thank you for reading. (I'm going to dream of words like rapier, abhorred, vexed and allay now. Great!)

PS! Oh crap. I forgot. I met the president of Estonia today. He came for a visit here. Damn! But this post is already so long. I'll tell you about it in the next one. Short version: When I shook his hand, it was really soft. 

The Giant Que for Passage to Brooklyn, First 9 days of school and a HIMYM Joke

It is 10:13PM and we have just come home from the East Village. (Girly moment: I was in between racks of shoes and felt a very Carrie Bradshaw-like feeling. Of course, being me, I started humming the theme song of Sex and The City and doing a little dance...Until I saw a saleslady giving me a quizzical eyebrow. I smiled, she smiled and a situation, which could've been a VERY awkward one, turned into an anecdote I could bring myself to share with you in my blog.)

I have survived 9 days of the IB Diploma program and I see why the graduates talk urban tales of turning into zombies and sleeping in the library. Although, the teachers are all really nice and seriously know what they're talking about, the workload is pretty legitimate. I got my first Math quiz grade, which was a 6 (on a scale of 1-7). It came as a surprise to me, because I went into it literally shaking. 

Last weekend I and Mama went to IKEA. Now you might think, why is Vivian writing about this - it's just IKEA. Well, the unexpected journey to IKEA required not only travel by land, but also by water. We took a water taxi :) 

It all went down on Saturday. We took a bus to Chinatown and after that walked to Pier 11. We found a huge que waiting for us - we weren't the only ones, who wanted to take advantage of the free passage across.

We got there 40 minutes early and still didn't know, if we were gonna make it on.

Somehow, we did make it on the rocking yellow boat and saw beautiful views, including a teeny glimpse of the Statue of Liberty.

A pirate's life for me. (Riding on this ship is going on my NYC bucket list.)

I went with the IKEA-style, wearing a yellow top and blue jeans. 

After the 25 minute ferry ride we found ourselves in the untamed land of Brooklyn.We didn't get to explore more of it, as the rugs and lamps were beckoning to us. 

We made it out with 2 10kg bags + whatever we could fit in my humongous backpack. 

Coming back to today and the trip to East Village...I am very content, that we didn't just find treasures to put in our closets, but also a new business venture of mine: 

I swear to you, when I saw this, I said: 

My Mom can witness to that reaction. 

Thank you for reading another one! 

PS: I thought it may be fun to ask you to ask me some questions about NYC. I know, I haven't acquired a lot of wisdom yet, based on my 30-day stay here (30 days already - Really?), but I'll do the best I can. Just leave a comment below or to facebook or just message me. I'll answer them gladly in the next post. 

My First Day of School,Abnormally Large Popcorn and the Secters of Central Pa(e)rk

I've just had my first day of school. It is 10:25PM and my brain is empty of clever ideas to use for writing my blog, but completely filled with worry and How-the-hell-am-I-going-to-ace-the-IB-Diploma-program related feelings. I'm not completely having a nervous breakdown yet (talk to me in a month ;), so I still remain optimistic and excited for the school year. I'll try to fight my writer's block by telling you a bit about the IB curriculum. 

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (The IB Program) is defined as ''an academically challenging and balanced programme of education with final examinations that prepares students, aged 16 to 19, for success at university and life beyond. It has been designed to address the intellectual, social, emotional and physical well-being of students.'' Pretty definition, huh? I can say, with all my heart, that based on the 3 days I've been at UNIS that statement stands very strong. But again, talk to me in a month. 

Anyway, in IB there are 6 academic areas, from which you have to choose your courses for the next 2 years -1st Language and Literature (There isn't a possibility to study Estonian at UNIS, surprise-surprise! so my ''first language'' is English), 2nd Language, Social studies, Sciences, Math and the Arts. To complete the Diploma program, you have to take 3 courses in standard level and 3 higher level. My highers are: Math, History and Film, the standards are: English w Performance, Physics and Russian. The one I'm most worried about currently is the Maths, because although I am an alright mathematician, I'm no Dexter in Dexter's Laboratory. (I know he was probably more the science guy, but come on, it's all a big confusing family.)

Putting the academics aside, I had a great time discovering NYC this past week. Me and my mom walked around quite a lot in the city, but what sticks out for me was Central Park and going to the movies. 

The popcorn in my hand is a medium size and the drink is the smallest they had. 

We went to see "A Hundred Foot Journey", which was wonderfully directed by Lasse Hallström. A short synopsis is: ''The Kadam family leaves India for France where they open a restaurant directly across the road from Madame Mallory's Michelin-starred eatery.'' (Thank you imdb.com for that ;)  

I am a total movie-nerd; seriously I would pack up my bags, move into a cinema any day of the week and I found this film very enjoyable. 

Leaving aside the film itself, the experience of going to a US cinema was definitely different than in Estonia. First of all, the ticket prices are through the roof. We got the cheaper tickets by going to see it in the morning and even those were 8 dollars (6 euros), which I think is a bit much. The tickets also didn't have seats on them and let me tell you, navigating in a dark movie theatre to find a seat, while you have a drink and popcorn in your hand, being a person with 2 left feet was not my favourite part of the experience. Also, as I said in an earlier post, the serving sizes of food were ridiculous. That drink in my hand is the SMALLEST they had; it is a solid large back home. (I'm not complaining though, don't get me wrong, it's just that, I'm probably going to have to throw the scale out the window after a few months of being out here. Keep in mind, that I live on the 31st floor.)

Moving on to Central Park, I have one word for you - paradise.

Those beautifully pedicured nails are my mother's, don't get any ideas.

Everybody was so friendly and bubbly. There were people rollerskating (dancing, would be more accurate), street performers, caricaturists, children playing in the fields etc. The park reminded me of home a little bit - I am seriously starting to miss the nature. (Estonian territory is roughly 50% covered in forests, let us not forget that.) I could go on and on about Central park, but I think my words are not enough to express its true beauty. 

The day we went to Central Park was also the day of the rain. And I ain't talking no ''seenevihm'', I'm talking full on cats and dogs, like a storm was brewing. This was the first time, I'd got to see a storm like this from a high place, so it was quite absolutely terrifying. 

That fog in the second picture is not fog, it is rain.

I have finished writing this blog post! (Yay, I'll do the patting myself on my back later...;) It is now 11:10PM and if I want not to look like a zombie tomorrow, I probably should go to bed. Thank you for reading and good night! 

PS! All students who just started another school year, I wish you persistence and good luck. We'll get through this one also without having a nervous breakdown. I'm optimistic. Very optimistic. Quite optimistic. Yeah... (Ask me again in a month.)

New York City in Photographs: My first days

Hey, so I had this really weird thing happen to m... -- I can't blog like this. I'm hungry. You know, what? Let's go to lunch. Anyone want to come with?

Mom did -  Awesome!

 Let's go along East 49th Street and see, what we can find.

Oh, this is a nice pizza place, let's step in. (New York pizza is the greatest :) )

 Let's stop and smell the beautiful flowers. I got some food to go anyway.

Oh wait, I think we got lost. Might as well see Times Square, while we're here.

 You know, what I'm still hungry. Mcdonald's anyone?

I've had such a wonderful day.

 It's surreal, that I have a view like this to come home to.

Well I'm too tired to blog now anyway...;)

Glamorous NYC Life - Ants, Friendly people and A Possible Drug Bust

   Last weekend consisted of two things - cleaning and shopping. There might have been some eating, sleeping, digestion and going to the bathroom etc in between, but you get the picture. The apartment as we got it, was covered in dust. Nothing unsanitary, they took care of those problems before we got there,(The now completely white walls were verging-on gray and apparently there was a big hole in the bathroom ceiling...New hair-curling technique gone terribly wrong? I think so.) but we do have ants walking around in our cupboards. Not the best thing to wake up to on a Saturday morning, I'll tell you that much. But as much as I've asked around, ants seem to be a pretty standard thing in an NYC kitchen.
To our surprise, the kitchen cupboards had other non-living things in it as well. It was generally just expired Asian-looking sauces and about 8 packets of Ramon Noodles and Cup-A-Soups, but there was a substance, which neither me nor my mom could find a name for. It was generally in old coffee pots and had a sort of grain-type powder quality. The color wasn't quite white nor yellow. The only thing that was missing were the gangsters in suits and gold necklaces saying: "Girl, why you messin' with our stash?" (Imagine if there actually were full-grown men cramped together in my kitchen cupboards...)

    The shopping part of the weekend was fun. The clothing prices here are ridiculously cheap compared to Estonia and the choices are immense. Don't get too excited though, because the food on the other hand is very expensive. I mean, if you want to live a life, where you spend your free time shopping and only if you're about to faint, eat a cube of cheese, then NYC is the place for you. (Is that why so many high-fashion models live in New York? Whoa! Apply water to the not-really-the-greatest-burn-I-can't-be-mean-to-save-my-life area.)

    On Monday and Tuesday, I had my United Nations International School orientation. The only thing that stuck with me most was that the people were SUPER FRIENDLY. I have never seen so many kind and talkative people in one place, which is awesome. It seems like the school is very oriented towards making sure that they treat their students as people not grades or test results, without giving us so little to do that we slack around. Seriously, we have a guidance counselor on-call every day to make sure we don't lose it with the workload. The International Baccalaureate Diploma program, which I am doing is quite challenging and rigorous.
I will write about living in the city and the IB program in the next post, so stay tuned! And definitely going to have some photos too. Totally not going to forget my camera or the USB cord or both at home, so I can't put any up next time...We'll see how it goes. As always, my thank you to you for reading - Bye :)