Friday andSaturday 20th May

Friday we visited a tiling section of the construction training school, saw some interesting things and the lads found a door that fitted me!  Tell David F not to worry, the pictures are only simulations and no one actually touched a real tool...

Tony and I were called 'urgently' to one of the lads rooms in the hostel in Kehtna, an alien had landed from outer space onto their window, not sure if my photo does it justice, it was ENORMOUS, but Tony bravely protected us all with the sweeping brush and it obeyed his command to 'be gone'!

On Saturday we left Kehtna to travel back to Tallinn, travelled First Class in the train - cost a whopping 3 Euros each! for a 50 minute journey.  The trains are very interesting to get on and off... they don't appear to have discovered platforms or where they have there is a 6 foot gap between train and platform!  lads had to help me 'jump' off.

Arriving back in Tallinn to a glorious sunny day, we find the the hostel is now slightly overbooked, so Tony has to stay 'in the fireplace' as the housekeeper put it! until the morning when he can have my old room, I am to have his old room and the lads are in the same room as before.  We had to take photo's of Tony's temporary accommodation as it is the biggest 'fireplace' I have ever seen! Oh, and a piano lesson was taking place in there too! Although his bed left a lot to be desired he had every modern amenity you could ask for!

Tomorrow is our last day, we are spending it shopping and chilling, on the Saturday night we are going out to Molly Malones for a final meal and we are also taking the Canadian volunteers, Shane and Morgan, with us, they are working at Continuous Action, unfortunately Dorus has had to go home to Holland for a family emergency, so we won't be able to say thank you and goodbye to him.

Wednesday 18th

Early start and busy day today. Our worked in a number of classrooms teaching English and Programming to day.  Everything went well and Kane 'did us proud' with his presentations, which he was asked to do in 3 different classes!

He impressed everyone so much, they now all want to come back to England with us!

There followed a discussion between the Computing students as their timetables, the Estonians had to speak in English to our students who then assessed them, it was very interesting to watch and good experience for everyone.

Davis, Patryk and Keiran took the programming class this afternoon, but I couldn't get photos as the rest of us were at the construction site learning about the GPS System for Construction - Leica DigSmart 3D.  It was very interesting and then the lads went and worked on the actual diggers using the laser and computerised system which shows you where to dig, how deep to go and what angle the digger needs to be at - Tom is now going to buy one and dig his garden up!

Tuesday 17th

Were taken to see the garage today where the students learn how to fix cars in preparation for fixing HGV trucks.  A lot of computers are involved as most of the trucks now use computers to run.  tomorrow we are going to see the GPS systems being programmed.

 The car above is in better condition than mine!

 Here the lads are waiting to go play football in the World Cup final between Britain and Estonia!

Tomorrow should be exciting! Kane is going to deliver an English class to student cookery students (all female) with the help of Ryan, Tom,Harun and Mohamed, honest! whilst Patryk, Keiran and David will deliver a VB programming class on the afternoon - photographic evidence will follow...

Sunday 16th day of work

First day in school in Kehtna, it is really a college but students finish when they are 20 and then go to university or training for work.  we were introduced to the IT students who were studying Information Systems and stayed in their class for a while, it is really embarrassing as they did the whole thing in English especially for  and we struggle to say hello and thanks in Estonian!

Harun and Mohamed did their practical work for their assignments, see pictures, and were assessed by the technician and the computing teacher, whilst the rest had a game of volley ball, then went AWOL!

Tomorrow we are going to do some construction work, should be some interesting pictures!

Sunday 15th - day of dying...

Spent today in, as Tony put it, under house arrest, free to leave the building but no where to go.... Only 2 buses today, one at 11 and then back at 2.30, so didn't bother... Did lots of cooking and cleaning, Kane and Tony both call me mam now- time to come home me thinks....But we all enjoyed some good home cooking - make the most it's the alst as hopefully canteen opens tomorrow

Did lots of college with the level 2's Tony has found a novel way of teaching and is going to adopt it in SRC on his return - staff development sessions available on request...

Things have livened up here now students (Estonian ones) have returned after their weekend break and our students have lots of pent up energy which we are having difficulty curbing! On course for being grounded if they don't behave...

Day in school tomorrow, students will think SRC a doddle after that as he school day is 10 till 7.15!

Saturday - week 3

Been a few days without Internet in room, hence lack of information. Visited University of Tallinn on Friday, say some interesting games software.  Also, please note, that we visited the staff only area and they had some very interesting items for staff to use - massaging chair, sauna, need I say more?

Some photos of our last few hours in Tallinn until next week.

 Note Kane ready for supporting Jedwood in Eurovision...

Saturday, moved to Kehtna today to spend week on placement at the school here, the hostel is lovely, all en-suite rooms, really nice, but they forgot to get us any cutlery.... or bowls, so have plastic cereal bowls and plastic knives and forks....sure we will manage till Monday when canteen opens!

Interesting train journey, don't have proper platforms, have to 'jump' on and off - don't tell David Friary!

 Also had interesting wait at station in Kehtna, our host thought we were coming 2 hours later!

 We thought the bike might be our transport!

This is outside the hostel waiting to be let in...

Here are some pics of my room, lads and Tony's are the same, except lads are sharing 2 to a room.

Quiet day tomorrow, unless we venture out on the bus, as nothing happening till Monday now