Petree-Kirkpatrick

What have we been up to? No, it has not all been travel and having a cocktail in some far off town square...(However, we do hope to soon post our Scandinavian holiday trip photos :) but we are trying to stay active and do as much as we can around our school and work schedules.    We have traveled to the city of Narva-Joesuu a few times. Located just a few kilometers north of Narva, we take a local bus that is free to travel between these two cities. Narva-Joseuu sits on the Gulf of Finland where the Narva River enters the sea.  Historically a resort town on the gulf, it is still filled with a number vacation homes, year-round residences, and three destination spa-hotels. It is known locally for these spas as well as nature.   Gulf of Finland  The forests of Narva-Joesuu On the coast Many Narvans travel to Narva-Joseuu to hike through the woods or spend time on the beach. Early this winter we spent an evening i...

Where has the time gone?   Lillian and Owen complete the first quarter  at Narva Keeltel üt seum First day of school  It seems that both Owen and Lillian have settled into the school routine nicely - and what a routine it is! They start their day with one-on-one Russian language lessons and then go through a typical Narva Keeltelutseum school day consisting of a combination of classes including handicrafts, technical drawing, art, music, PE, math, social studies, science, Russian language, Estonian language, and Russian literature.   In addition to these classes, they both have an English language class - their favorite class because they are the star pupils!!    Rhonda's colleagues directed us to this school because of its strong reputation for delivering high-quality English language instruction. We thought this would be an advantage as our kids rely on English-speakers (both other students and the adults) as they work to decipher c...

Narva College As the days are growing colder and the Christmas candies are appearing in the shops, I am finally making time to reflect in writing upon my first few months as a Fulbright Scholar in Estonia. During the past few months, I have had the pleasure of teaching serious and smart students, working with helpful new colleagues, and traveling throughout Estonia and to Serbia for professional conferences.   Opening Day Celebration at Narva College I am teaching four master’s level classes and two bachelor’s level classes at Narva College of the University of Tartu. The master’s level students are current English language teachers taking methodology, academic writing, media in English language teaching, and skills development courses. The bachelor’s level students have an oral communications class and a thesis seminar class with me. It has been really interesting to learn about the educational system and the local culture from my students. They, like students ...

                                Our vacation came to end after a few days in Pärnu, Estonia.  Pärnu is the summer capital of Estonia and was a perfect way to end almost a month of travel.  Our AirBnb was nestled between the downtown area and the beach on the Gulf of Pärnu. The kids were able to get in the water a couple of times and we took a few journeys through the town and along the breakwater area of the harbor.  One day of rain found us in a hotel waterpark and on the last day the kids worked over a ropes course for a few hours.  Rhonda presented at a conference during the last two days of our stay prior to returning to Narva.                                                  

After leaving beautiful Cesis we took the train back to Riga to spend a few days.  We happened to arrive in time for the 150th year celebration of the founding of the Latvian Society.  There were festivals and events happening city-wide.  It was great to be involved in the celebration and we learned a lot of history of Riga.  We strolled through the old city and among other great sights we found a great cafe called Black Magic!  We also explored the Riga Market - which happens to be the largest market area in Europe.  The market is housed in five old zeppelin hangers and has everything from fresh fish and other meats to vegetables, beer and all types of household goods and souvenirs.  One stop shopping! Military Museum detail The old castle - the current presidential residence Bremen Town Musicians Definitely read about the history of this monument - google: "1905 monument Riga" We also spent a day explor...