Tere Tallinn!

It's 7 am in the windy western port of Helsinki, and I am 5 minutes late (as usual) from my meeting with Veera from Vantaa's Varia.

Our destination: Tallinn and Tartu in two days, visiting three vocational schools as well as meeting two of our students doing their on-the-job learning in Radisson Olümpia hotel in Tallinn.

Why? Because of Finnish-Estonian cooperation, student and teacher mobility project in vocational studies, SUVI (Suomi-Viro) project realized through Leonardo da Vinci funding from the EU. It is important to meet the partners, see their schools, student dormitories and work places as well as discuss practicalities related to the student and teacher exchanges. Face-to-face meetings increase understanding and facilitate the organization of mobility periods.

Kersti from Luksia receiving customers at Radisson Olümpia.

Although I have been in Tallinn probably a dozen times before, this was my first work-related trip to Estonia. This time we avoided the old town quite efficiently, spending most of the time in two educational institutions, Tallinn Ehituskool (Tallinn Construction School) in Ülemiste area, and Tallinn Teeninduskool near Lasnamäe area. This time I also pledged myself to try to use only Estonian language in various encounters with the locals, excluding the actual work discussions on the project. I have, after all, been learning the language already a whopping 6 weeks at the open Aalto university...

Together with Veera we hopped on a taxi at the port of  Tallinn. I told the somewhat spiky taxi driver that "me tahaksime minna Bussijaama", we wanted to go to the bus station to buy the bus tickets for Tartu for the afternoon. From the bus station we continued to the Tallinn Construction School where we were welcomed by development director Tõnu - with coffee and cookies for the tired travellers! Tõnu gave us an excellent introduction to the functioning of Ehituskool first in words, then in practice when we walked around and popped in to various workshop areas and classes of the school.

Woodwork workshop in Ehituskool.

Some facts on Ehituskool:

• founded in 1947
• teaching both in Estonian and in Russian
• vocational education and training both for youth and adults
• fields of study: construction (mason, carpenter, electrician, construction finisher, restorer of wooden and stone buildings), woodwork (joiner and furniture restorer), adult training
• number of students: 651, including also trainees in Tallinn prison
• number of employees: 84

Although the building dates from the Soviet era, it had colour on its walls, mostly designed and finished by students themselves. 

Next spring Ehituskool will be going under major renovation and will move temporarily to Lasnamäe which is a huge area, more than 100,000 residents of Tallinn living in big blocks of Soviet buildings. Ehituskool has been waiting for the renovation to start already for three years, and now they finally received the permit to build a completely new building, replacing the old ones used for workshops. Unfortunately the prices have gone up, which means that they will have to somewhat adjust the old plans.

Restoring an old sofa at Ehituskool.

We rushed from Ehituskool to our next meeting in Teeninduskool, the Service School. International coordinator Marika welcomed us there and told that 4 out of 5 students coming to Luksia in a few weeks were also sitting in her office, waiting for us! It was great to meet the students of business and catering and to discuss practicalities on their work placements and housing. Hopefully life in Lohja won't be too boring for Tallinn dwellers...

Marika from Teeninduskool showing us the library of the school.

Teeninduskool has brand new buildings which had just opened this September, as well as an excellent à la carte restaurant where we had the pleasure to taste its three-course menu. Väga maitseva!

The new part of Teeninduskool.

Most of our exchange students going to Tallinn will probably stay at the TEKO hostel which is both the student dormitory of Teeninduskool, and a hostel for travellers very near the bus station. Although the hostel looks less welcoming from the outside (grey, old building), it is clean and safe from the inside. One note to Finnish students though: it is very useful to learn some essential phrases in Estonian, as the elderly receptionists only speak Estonian. There is also a curfew at 11pm, and you have to tell where you're going each time you leave the hostel.

Some helpful survival phrases (Estonians can correct the grammar if necessary):

• Can I pay my rent now? - Kas ma võin maksta minu rendi nüüd? 
• I'm going to the shop - Ma lähen kauplusesse 
• I'm going to work - Ma lähen tööle 
• I'm going to town - Ma lähen linna
• I'm going to travel and will be back on Monday - Ma lähen reisima ja tulen tagasi esmapäeval

Check for more Finnish-Estonian vocabulary for exemple in Wikitravel: http://wikitravel.org/fi/Viron_matkasanakirja

Veera will continue with our trip to Tartu, but before that a theme song from Juice Leskinen, recorded in 1983: Eesti (On My Mind). I'd like to wish the best of luck for our three catering students and two car mechanic students leaving for Tallinn next Monday. As Estonians say, nael kummi (nail to the wheel, if I translated it properly) :)

Riikka Suhonen
Coordinator of International Affairs
Luksia, Intermunicipal Federation of Vocational Education in Western Uusimaa