Crazy Cousin Willie

I had a wonderful visit with Cousin Will the last few days. The weather was extremely nice, at least for those who went through an Estonian Winter. For those who have spent time in Southern California and the Middle East, it was bloody cold. It's all a matter of what you are used to I guess. Nevertheless, we had a grand time. Tartu will not be the same. Cousin will will never be the same again either.




One of the side-effects of his visit was that I thought a bit about my decision to come to Estonia. When I decided to come to Estonia I made the choice not to accept my job offer with the federal government. Instead I choose to be poor and do something relevant to an application to graduate school. It seems to have worked. I have gotten into DU. But no matter what choice I make there is always an opportunity cost involved, and these are the decisions that we must all live with. Perhaps now it is hard to see what a good experience this has been.


In that vein, it was great to be able to show Cousin Will my life here and tell him the history and neuances of this place. I think other Europeans fail to appriciate how different this place is compared to northeastern Colorado. Catherine the Great did not build anything in Colorado. But being here has also shown me exactly what it is that I love about Colorado. There may not be as much recorded history in Colorado, but history can be a double-edged sword. It is wonderful have all this history at your fingertips, but I think it can also be a weight upon novelty and progress, an excuse not to do the things that would make everyones' life better.

I am interested to go to Russia and see first hand what it is like there. Tonight I go to a Russian Ball. This will be quite interesting as well. The local Russian population should turn out dressed to the hilt. Look for another post on that soon. Well I must go now and watch Estonian fly their home-made aircraft into the river. Really there is more going on than I have time to post on this blog. It is all so interesting.