Day Nine - Day in Paide
Wednesday July 2
The Girls Choir of Järva County were quite the hostesses as they had many great activities planned for our short stay in Paide.
We met together in the morning and took a long bus ride out to visit the house of and property of Estonian author Anton Hansen Tammsaare. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Hansen_Tammsaare Once we arrived, the kids were divided into three groups and were off learning the history of this author, playing traditional Estonian relay games from back in the day, and then I think the highlight, swinging on a külakiik, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/301514174/kulakiik-the-village-swing, a village swing. Hannah said this swing was her favorite part of the museum. After all the effort that her group put in, she said they still weren't able to get very high. In the olden days, this swing was used for boys to court a girl. They also used this swing as a competition, where they would tie themselves to it, and swing it so hard that it would do a complete 360! We weren't able to go that high, but high enough. It was fun.
Once we were done there, we headed back to Paide, had lunch and a little rest period. Some of the kids went back with their home stays and did some shopping, of course, at local thrift shops and other stores. Ellie came back with a H&M sweater and some other goodies.
After rest period, the girls choir met us at the dorms and took us on an orienteering adventure through Paide. We saw many historical landmarks, and the kids had to take a group picture in front of all 8, and make it back to the dorms in a reasonable time in order to win. Those who were in Abby Wilson's group were hurried along through the rain, making sure to hit all the landmarks first, and sure enough, we finished in under an hour, first! She was quite happy!
When we were done orienteering, we played several rounds of "Pony," which was a HUGE hit amongst all the kids. Kay said they played until she lost her voice. It was lots of fun. The Estonians caught on quickly and didn't want the game to end.
Dinner was then served, boxes and boxes of take-out pizza. We were ALL thrilled! It was delicious!
After dinner, the parents of the girls choir had some more ice breaker games set up. The kids had to do silly things like get themselves in order alphabetically, by age, hula-hoop races, and then this silly game where they had to thread a spoon with string tied to it, weaving it through their shirts. There were three teams, and it was quite the competition! They all had a blast. Kay especially enjoyed sewing herself to Alex with a spoon!
After the games, some of the girls came back to the dorms and hung out with our choir, and then it was lights out. The next morning we needed to be up early to head back to Tallinn!!
Click through the slideshow below to view some highlights from today:
