a hidden GEM!!

Ive been living here for quite sometime... Ive said it once and Ill say it again, Europe looks the same. So you can understand why I wasnt too excited about visiting Tallinn, Estonia. Well folks, I was pleasantly surprised by this beautiful city. It had a different feel to it and I loved it! There were these huge towers surrounding the city from back when the city was surrounded by a mote. So cool! It wasnt fun getting to Tallinn, but ya gotta have some rain to enjoy the rainbow right? lol in other words, we started off the trip with a glorious night bus. Ive been on worse night busses, but still wasnt the best - but I mean how would anyone enjoy sleeping on a bus, or in some cases just sitting on a bus while struggling to fall asleep for 9 hours. ya, traveling isn't all butterflies and rainbows but really I love it. 

Our first stop in Tallinn was our safe haven - McDonalds. Such americans I know, but we got into town at 6:30 and the only thing open that early is McDonalds so we ate some food and got ready for the day. I actually love awkwardly getting ready in public bathrooms while everyone else is just kinda starring at you like your homeless or something. It's kind of fun. 

I have forgotten what life is like not seeing buildings and cathedrals like this everywhere!!

Europe doesn't wake up till at least 9am so this square was empty at 7:30. All the stores were closed so we decided to play tag in the square. It was so much fun. Later that afternoon this square was packed with people. I love when we randomly do crazy things and make so many memories just by simply playing a game of tag in Estonia. 

Random weiner dog in the streets. Kelsi practically broke her ankle by trying to mount this thing. You can't see it, but the dog has a tail that sarah is blocking and kelsi kicked her ankle right into it and it was pretty funny. Sorry bout it Kels:)

Random cow outside of a steak restaurant - too bad we're too broke to eat dinner at this place :(

Love these people. Ive learned so much from each of these girls over the past few months and I seriously couldn't ask for better roommates - probably my one and only roommate experience and its been awesome. 

Random pictures in Russia.

I figured I should start posting some city pictures so I can remember what the views were like. Unreal right?! We found this bench on top of a lookout hill where we chilled in the warm sun and just reminisced about our semester. We talked about funny memories with our kids and all our other adventures. It was so much fun just relaxing and belly laughing all afternoon. 

Be a riot

Meet Pablo the seagull. I really actually hate seagulls and they low-key frighten me, but overcoming fears is important. I was eating some food and this seagull was pretty close to me, uncomfortably close actually, so we decided to send it and hand feed the thing some candy and chips. He stuck around us for awhile and it was really fun. He may or may not have eaten half my bag of chips, but its fine. 

Oh the times we've had... 

If only the annoying tree shadow wasn't there :/

We ended up taking an accidental three hour nap at the hostel, but who can blame us after a night bus. It was a great and much needed nap, so Im not mad. We then headed back out on the town where we found some yummy gelato and a super talented street musician. We sat on the stairs across from this street performer and just enjoyed life. I loved this day because of how chill, yet fun it was. Good friends are seriously SO important. Kelsi was having an extreme craving for some coke so we all sent it and bought some coke to end the night. Lime coke - magical. We slept real good that night and woke up bright and early to catch not a flight, not a bus, not even a train, but A FERRY! hmmm where could we be taking a ferry too... guess you'll have to wait and see! But seriously a beautiful sunrise to start off the day out to sea. 

If I had to put Europe into one picture this^ would be it. Gelato 24/7 aka the reason I am now an oompaloompa

These past couple weeks have been pretty weird. Its to the point in the semester when everyone is getting super used to each other which means we are easily annoyed and frustrated with the littlest of things that everyone does. The past few weeks I have found myself in somewhat of a bad mood. I feel like everything anyone did made me so upset and I felt like I was sick of everyone. I hated it! I hated feeling like I didn't like the people I was around, because I know I love them and I know I'm so lucky to have them as roommates. So it was a frustrating few weeks. I tried my best to forget about things and just find some alone time, but nothing was really working. I was still frustrated with the constant bad mood I was in (bad mood as in I was just more short circuited, not necessarily hating life.) I realized I needed to change my attitude. Its a lot harder than it sounds though, so I decided I needed some major help. Luckily for me, last Sunday we were in town and it happened to be fast Sunday, so I fasted for patience. Ive never had a super crazy fasting experience, but a few things happened literally the next day that helped me change my attitude. Ever since that day I have felt my patience for my roommates grow. Of course I still have my moments of weakness, but I'm glad I was able to learn a few important lessons over these past few weeks. Grateful for fasting and for the little trials that God gives us to help us learn, grow and become better individuals. I know if we look for the hand of the lord in our lives we will be able to see him and all that he has done for us. In doing this there is never a reason to not feel blessed, happy and loved. Much love from Tallinn, Estonia!