To combat one of my previous posts (WHY I LOVE LATVIANS?), I have decided to type down all the reasons why I would never think about moving away either forever or too far from my lovely homeland.
Firstly, I know most youngsters will claim that jobs here don't pay enough to live. Well, in my opinion that is a load of horse shit. If you want to buy this and that, drive a luxury car and go out every weekend, then yes, you probably will find it hard to get a job that will enable you to be an asshole. But if you simply want to be a decent human being, I think, it's possible to work and earn enough to live. I mean, I don't make a shit tons of money and yet, I get to travel at least a couple of times a year. I get to attend festivals and concerts. I even have enough to buy clothes and keep up my Netflix addiction. This money issue is one of the main reasons why people move away. Our country will never be able to fully function, if we don't work and pay our taxes. That is something they teach the youngsters in 9th or 12th grade in school. In social studies (I guess that's the correct translation for this subject). They teach us, that a country functions mainly on the money it makes from taxes people pay. And paying taxes is super easy for us, it happens totally automatically. But if our workforce is either small because people work abroad or not legally, our country will be lacking in its funds. I despise people who complain, but refuse to do their part in keeping up with the national restaurant bill. Figuratively speaking.
Secondly, the weather here is interesting enough, that you never get bored. I mean we have, officially, four seasons. The temperature can vary in the summer up to 30 degrees Celsius to -30 in the winter. Well, thanks to global warming, our winters are kind of lacklustre nowadays. I think some parts of Estonia had like -15 weather this past winter. Anyways, the weather always keeps you guessing. It's so changeable, you cannot listen to the weather forecasts, the best forecast is sticking your nose out the door before preparing for the day. They claimed we would get this super hot end of April, but instead we got some snow. You can only, maybe, predict the weather one day ahead.
Thirdly, Estonians love to gather. The people seem to enjoy protesting just as much as concerts and festivals. Our population is (if I'm being generous) 1,3 million, but still, we are everywhere. It doesn't matter where, let's say for example a football match (soccer) happens, there are always Estonians to cheer. It's the weirdest thing in my opinion. We as a nation, are not that good at many sports. We have some talented rowers and fencers, but other than that, it's quite sad. At the moment. And still, fans are always there to wave the Estonian blue-black-and-white. It's amazing how much pride a nation this small can possess.
Also, I feel that I am special, because I can speak a language only about a million people in the world know. I know our population is 1,3, but out of that, the .3 speak Russian. I am being lazy here, I don't want to google the correct percentage, so just take that number as a maybe. Anyway, speaking a language, that isn't a popular college course, makes our nation special. Every small nation is special because of this. And that's why, in school, you should pay attention and learn as much about your language as possible. Estonian grammar is so hard for me. Harder than English, to be honest. That's another big plus that comes with living in a country with a small population. We are forced, by our size and also location, to learn many foreign languages. We begin with English, because it is the most universal language in the world. Then we either add German or Russian to our skills. I went to a private school and therefore I learnt both Russian and then French. Later in secondary school I had to switch one of those for Latin, I chose Russian, because I felt I had a better teacher for that and learnt more in my 4.5 years of studies. Well, that's the grown-up reason. I think I just wanted to go for the easier option. Getting sidetracked, yet again! Learning languages you might actually never even use is amazingly important. With the language comes the culture and it only opens up your mind to another perspective. But, please, don't come here and expect all of us to speak all of the languages. That is very presumptuous of you and also annoying.
Lastly, our culture is so bizarre. We are very proud of our national symbols, we take pride in regaining our freedom from the Soviet Union by singing (true story, broh: The Singing Revolution). And not one person died in Estonia during that liberation process. We love to make fun of ourselves and unless someone else says something offensive, we are able to turn even the most depressing situations into a joke. Here's some videos you could check out (English subtitles available):
Just some politically incorrect jokes about our culture. We love to complain and what if is our best friend. Estonians would probably fail some random personality tests, because we have so many sides to us.
All in all, I would never leave this pot of weird for the unseeable future. I wouldn't mind living somewhere for a short time period or if I were to ever move somewhere permanently, it would be close by (for example, Latvia is still very tempting). And if you want to learn a bunch of trivia about this faraway land, here's a Geography Now! video about us:
For you, Estonian, someone has taken the time to translate it into Estonian, so just change your subtitles and enjoy the fast-paced information avalanche. If I'm perfectly honest, I could have given my answer by just showing this video. Everything I love about my nationality and country has been summed up with this. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
In conclusion, I apologise for the random and long post. Hope you find some comedy in the videos and that makes up for the extra long rambling.
Külmad tervitused külmalt maalt,
Regina.
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