One year ago today...

... I finished watching the fifth Harry Potter movie with my sister and went to bed to wake up five hours later to catch a flight to New York. One year ago! That's crazy

Photo of the week: first

It's not often these days that you're invited to someone's first birthday!

PS, the dress she's wearing under the cardigan (the one that you can't see) used to be mine when I was "smaller but bigger", as my grandma put it. It's unbelievable that I was once able to fit into something so tiny! I've somewhat been living under the impression that I was born 15 years old.

Photo of the (previous) week: bargain bride*

This photo will mark the end of my amazing two-week sort-of vacation in paradise. I've been back for 24 hours and I'm already stressed!
I got this full-length white dress and my great-grandma told me to take it to Austria with me, because then, hopefully some man will marry me, if they see that I already have a dress and don't have to spend any money on that. So if you know a man who's desperately looking for a wife and the only thing stopping him is the fact that he doesn't want to spend money on a wedding dress, tell him to look no more!

*I really hope it's a joke.

Photos of the week: I'm in love...

... with this vacation!

Photo of the (previous) week: midnight in Estonia

Last week's photo could have just as easily been about me washing rabbit piss from my eye or me hanging out with the president of Estonia (both happened within two hours apart... great story). However, I didn't take any pictures of myself when I was covered in rabbit pee and the president's photos have not been uploaded yet, so this will have to do.
I have escaped civilization and hanging out in paradise. This photo was taken 15 minutes before midnight on an empty beach... life's good.

Photo of the week: St. John's eve*

23 June is the night we celebrate the shortest night of the year  (though as I've been informed, it's actually 11 seconds longer than the night of 21 June) by making humongous bonfires, drinking way too much and trying to convince our friends who drank even more not to try and jump over those humongous bonfires.

There's also a St. John's eve tradition according to which unmarried girls have to pick nine different flowers  (or seven if you're lazy) and climb over seven fences during which they aren't allowed to speak  (this can also be skipped), then arrange the flowers into a wreath, put it under their pillow and then they're supposed to see the man they are going to marry in a dream. 

We've done it twice before and in both cases I saw absolutely nothing - and I always have really crazy and vivid dreams! But I refuse to give up, so this year I was really prepared to do the whole wreath thing and dream about Jensen Ackles afterwards, but unfortunately it was raining too hard to do any sorts of flower-picking - we used up three canisters of gasoline just to get the fire going for long enough to take a picture.

Oh well. At least it gave me one more year of not accepting my faith when it comes to marriage and I can still believe I would have seen someone.

But here is a picture from a couple of years ago:

The next day you're supposed to take your wreath to a crosscrossroads and throw it over your left shoulder. If it gets stuck on a tree, you'll get married that year. Mine fell apart mid-air as I was throwing it. I guess some people are just hopeless...

*All photos taken from people whose battery didn't die at the most inconvenient moment. 

Photo of the week: Master of Arts

Yes, it's official. I am now a cum laude graduate of the University of Tartu. I can now end all my letters with my name and the title MA after it. After 18 years of continuous studying I am finally done with school... for now. I guess it must be a really weird feeling once I actually realize that I'm no longer a student, but right now I feel no different from what I did the day before yesterday e.g., except for the fact that I have a pile beautiful flowers and a sore throat, because it was cold yesterday, but one must suffer for pretty pictures!