After having breakfast at Ruta's, I headed straight to Tartu. There were a number of people I wanted to see there. -And there was no one in Tallinn that I hadn't seen already. So off I went on the bus. I first went to the house of the Aunt of the Petersoo family, (Who are they? Well... I've been good friends of three or four of the family's children, I've been with them twice for my christmas holidays, My mother visited them when she came to Estonia, I've sung with them at a little Christmas performance, I've visited them in Luxembourg... They're the Family of Estonians I know. -Really. There are some other people from the theater, who have family, but I don't know the family then. I've only met the other members of it a couple of times. -OK, there's One exception: A dancer, an extra person in the theater, and their little son. That's a second whole family that I know well in Estonia.)

Anyhow, None of these people were around, there was only the Aunt of the family, whom I'd never talked with very much, (because of the language barrier.) Anyhow... (have I already explained all of this in the explanation of our fourth day in Estonia?) -I went to her place to get the extra keys for the family flat, where I would be staying. (Because none of the family was there, there were plenty of free beds.) We had a little talk though, and I showed her the pictured I'd gotten developed. She also showed me the pictures that she had taken when the family visited me in Germany. And we had a bit to eat, and some Icecream, and I played with a cat. It was a nice, simple early afternoon.

After, I went to the Theater, and made copies of the videos of Fluxus and Bamby. Fluxus was a modern piece I was in. I'd already gotten a recording of the whole piece, but there was also one time... when we went with a proper Camera Crew to make a recording of a part of it. The piece is one which can work well as a video, and we were going to have a ten minute film to send to a Dance-on-Video competition. What made it especially interesting, was Where it was decided to film it; We went to the new, high-tech, luxurious, very clean, rather impressive, Tartu Prison. Yep. Prison. With multiple chain fences, Razor wire, watch towers, and so on. The part we went to was still empty, (The construction of that part of the building was last, I think.) The filming of it was a bit of an experience in it's self. After a while though, we moved into the Prison's Chapel... a larger room, completely empty, with a black and white floor. In there we filmed the group section. And my clearest memory of it, was when the Camera man wanted really interesting shots, so he was walking... no, weaving through us as we danced. Well, there's one part, where we swing are arms around, and then start walking backwards, and my arms went "Whack!" -as I smacked, with all my force, this camera, which must have been worth quite a few thousand dollars. And the person filming it, that mad nut who wanted to have shots going Through us, said, (in Estonian,) "Keep going! Just keep going!" -So, I guess I didn't break the camera after all. I can see though, when I watch the video, the quarter of a second when I have this Huge smile on my face, -a smile of stress, because I just hit the Camera with all my might, and was told to keep dancing.

So... that's the video I was recording first. Second, was Bamby, a... neo-classic... or perhaps more modern, piece for children. The costumes were fantastic, and the dancing... was alright. I don't know if the dancers really enjoyed that part of it, but I think much of the audience did. -And it certainly did well in it's job of getting the story across to the public. So, that was that.

This got me pretty far towards evening, and I found out that my old friend Liina was back in town. (When Pamela and I were in Tartu the week before, she was away.) The story of Liina is this: For a whole year, she lived on the same floor as me, and passed the kitchen, where I had my breakfast, every morning, taking her son to kindergarten. And we never spoke. She claims, that I gave her dark, tired, gloomy, and uninviting looks, (Which I really really hope wasn't true! I thought I was such a friendly, outgoing person!) And the second year, I lived on a different floor, but still never spoke to her when we saw each other in the theater.

My best excuse... No! Explanation is this: that I was so unconfident, that I thought my talking to her, trying to be friendly, but not having anywhere near enough of the language to have the slightest scraps of a conversation, would only have been able to tire, bore, and irritate her. (It IS irritating trying to talk with someone, when nothing is understood by either one of them.) She seemed the Normal, serious person, who surely had better things to do than talk with young foreign dancers... whom she probably had nothing in common with.

I don't know if I ever really thought any of that. It's just that it's what I can Imagine having thought. Perhaps I was just sleepy, and never thought anything at all in the mornings when we saw each other. Anyway though, after two years working on the same stage, during the week before I moved to Germany, I met her after my huge Huge party I threw. And we got along rather well. And we talked, and talked, and talked. It turned out, that I had missed getting to know a very interesting person, who speaks perfect English, (And has some extra work translating books. That degree of perfect English.) And she has a great collection of books. And she's just a rather nice character to know. I knew her for exactly three or four days, before I left the country. What a bloody fool I was, not to get to know her earlier.

Anyhow, on this evening of my vacation, I went to her place to have some wine, some snacks, and a good deal of chatting. Also visiting her that evening, was a good friend of Liina's who's in the choir. I'd never really talked to him either in my Tartu years, but we had a good time partying then, at Liina's. What disappointed me though... what disappointed me, was that I waited too long, before taking a photo. I had no picture at all of Liina, and, well, I wanted one. But I didn't think of it, until it was dark out, and Liina had no energy at all. She was, in fact, more than half asleep, I think. Both of us, (The choir guy and I,) Were trying to convince her to move, even if it was just enough to take herself to bed, and not sit there with her head on the table. I guess she was just being polite, and not letting the two of us carry on with our discussion. But it was sort of bad, to see her just sitting there... with her head on the table... And nothing we said elicted response.

I thought that I had a possible answer though: I arranged all the wine glasses around her, and every alcoholic bottle I could find, all the while explaining to Liina what I was doing, and then informing her about how I wanted a picture, and telling her I was about to take it. (Well, I think anyone would object to having their picture taken at such a moment. That was the idea: to be just mean and teasing enough to have her stop "playing that game," and take herself to bed.) It didn't work though. I took the picture, and she stayed where she was.

So, now I have One picture of her, but it's a terrible picture indeed.

Ah well, at some point, we either convinced her to move, or carried her into her room, and then I went back to the Petersoo place. As there was nothing to eat though, I went to the Pizza-Pood place; the little shop around the corner, which is open all night, which Pamela and I went to one night when we got back very late. And then, my long quest ended:

Starting a few days before we went to Russia, I told Pamela that we should have some "Pelmeni", which is this... dumpling, or filled pasta, or I don't know how to classify it. It's so traditional. It's so... Estonian, (And Russian, True. And many countries of the East, no doubt. But the point is, it's Traditional.) And the other point was, we couldn't find them Anywhere. They were Never available in the restaurants we went to. It was quite discouraging. But... at this little shop, they had a selection of different ones in with the frozen foods. So, At last, I got my Pelmenid. (Yum Yum Yum: with lots, and Lots, And LOTS of sour cream.) And with that, I went to sleep.