Parnu International Choir Festival and the Wingate University Choir

     When I was asked by Uudo to take care of a group of American students coming to Pärnu for this Festival, I decline coz I already planned to do some activities with two groups of pupils learning French. With those two classes, I just played « Drawing is winning ». I show them cards with words or expressions on it they had to draw. Of course they couldn’t speak or use any letter on the chalk board. It was really fun with the second group since they were really looking for the clock (each person had one minute to draw and make his/her team mates guess), they were really into the game. The team made only of boys were a bit disappointed not to win, especially since they lost to a group of girls !

     So when I had to go back home I decided to go the gelato shop who happened to be open for the first time just that day. So I decided to go there and check out the new flavour they had. I couldn’t resist the Belgian Chocolate, Kiwi and Vanilia flavour. It was awsome to eat it. When I had to leave, I met some of the students who were chaperonned by Katerina in the end. They were really friendly. So we decided to go meet again after their performance of the night somewhere to grab a drink or two or three or…… We ended up on one of the playground on the beach. We basically talked until 3 or 4 am, when the sun was coming up.

    The next morning they had to be on the beach to take some group pictures before their performance on Ruutli square. Let say some needed more time to freshen up before taking the pic. ;-) At some point I had to leave them for lunch and after eating just before going back home, I stumble upon a small group of them. They were looking for the donuts place famous in Pärnu. So I took them there. They couldn’t get away from the counter and kept on ordering again. Of course, they had to share the information to the rest of the group. After their performance in a Tori Church, a few kms away from Pärnu, some of them came to the little bar where we were enjoying our evening. To get some music, some people decided to put on the tv to watch the eurovision song contest. Those American students who came were surprised some of our group were so much into this show !! 

video of Walking the Light by the Wingate University Choir and Finland's Phonik Choir

    (sorry can't post the vids directly for now)

     The next morning, they had their final perfomance at the City Hall with a group from Finland. They managed to get their hands on some estonian choir music while in Tallinn, song they practice while on the bus to Pärnu or to the diffrence places they performed. It was very nice of them to do it even they were not obliged. It was a great gift to the Estonian people who great them. They made another surprise. While they were in Tori Church, they decided with that fininsh group to do a song in common (video above). Their last performance of Sholosa (video below) was just before the reward ceremony where they finished first place !! congrats to them, they deserved it.

video of Shosholoza by the Wingate University Choir

(sorry can't post the vids directly for now)

Why not go sledging on Sunday

As part of the student festival, they organised a sledge ride competition on Sunday morning. Since I wanted to go out at least a little, I decided to go there. When I arrived early, I only saw young children with their parents on the hill. It brings back memories when I could do it behind my flat in France a few years ago. Too much nostalgia...When 12.30pm came, I saw some students coming. They brought some cardboard and plastic bag to make it better to sledge on the snow. Of course for everybody and especially for those not participating the competition, beers and redbulls couldn’t be failing. 

One of the guys we followed the day before was there too. He was even more drunk that the previous day at the same time. When everybody was preparing their sledge, he had this curious idea to transform himself in one human sledge. Yup, you read it right. He turned himself into a human sledge. First, he scotch taped some cardboard around him and some plastic bags with the help of his friends. As expected, he couldn’t move much, he felt on the ground several times before arriving to the top. Then, two of his friends sit on his back, him facing the snow and here they go. Unfortunately, they came last among the participants. They should have been first for the creativity of their sledge ride.

Who the f*** brought water today?

Ok, I must tell you first this is not from me. I heard it while I was watching some student events. Last week-end was the local college’s student winter festival. So I decided to go out and check was they would be doing for the football/soccer and ice hockey. I decided to go for the ice hockey since it would be a great idea to see firsthand a sport I thought was popular here.

On Saturday morning, I meet this local student who brought me there. She decided to go through the beach to let me see how their famous summer site was during winter time. I knew there could be ice and snow on the beach but I wouldn’t think some penguins (see this post) needed to go 2 or 3km on the sea to have a decent depth of ice to be able to fish. At first they were the only people we saw so we were wondering if we were going the right direction. 

 the Baltic Sea in Parnu in Winter

After confirmation, we saw some people driving to the place where the beach or should I say snow football was taking place. Like in all student festivals, it was impossible to see some guys already a bit drunk or not yet sober from the opening party of the night before. That when I heard someone saying “who the f*** brought some water?”. My friend was laughing so much when she heard it. It wasn’t surprising from him as he got one beer in his hand and another one in his coat.

We decided to check some of them and we had it right. One of them was absolutely crazy. After they found out a promotion sign with Britney Spear with few clothes on, he offered “her” his coat, his scarf, pink chapka and invited “her” to the blanket he put on the frozen ground. When it was his turn to play, he tried to shoot the ball but couldn’t manage to do it as he felt on the ground before. We had a good time watching him. 

Football/soccer game on a icy and snowy groung

As for the ice-hockey, it was not what I expected. It’s logical they didn’t use normal ice hockey skates. It would have been too dangerous for them and their opponents. They simply played with hockey sticks and tennis balls on the frozen ground, so frozen it was not anymore snow but very much ice. It was when I saw them playing, I really started to feel the cold. It was time for me to go back home and have something nice and warm to drink, to help me warm up.