Poetry, pink sky and elevators

It's Friday! And we only have one workshop today. After lunch we're gonna have the weekly debriefing session and then we'll be free for the rest of the afternoon. It's the Homecoming Weekend here and there's a football match tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it. Maybe there will be contra dancing too... I truly hope there will.

The weather is colder now. Yesterday was especially cold and windy so we went to Boone Mall in the evening and bought something warm to wear. Today it's not too bad but it's not 20 degrees, I think it's about 12-15 degrees now.

 The view from our hotel room yesterday morning at about 7.20 am. Beautiful!

Yesterday we had a poetry night. We gathered in the hotel lobby and read poems in our native language. I chose Ellen Niit's Ma arvasin.

 Here's a picture of some of the people who were reading poems. You can see Rinna from Cambodia, Tea from Estonia, Soythip from Thailand, Margaret from Poland, Jahan from Turkmenistan, Kristel from Estonia and Aida from Argentina.

OK, our session just ended. I'll try to Skype home now. And I also need to watch the video of my class competing at the 3 Minute Dance competition. I heard that they won. I'm so proud of them all.

Here's a photo I took a couple of days ago. And I'll also add my translation of the poem by Ellen Niit I mentioned earlier.

I thought that the sea

would always be blue

and that there is a piece of gold

hidden in every single person.

I thought that when on the sea

one should bravely stand up against the winds

and that one should keep looking for miracles

and defeat tiredness.

I was rowing, my heart full of excitement,

roaring waves all around me,

the shores of the sky and the bottom of the sea

glowing into my eyes.

And I found out that the sea

is very seldom blue,

that there are actually many

hollow and dull people.

I saw places without rivers and lakes,

just dust and ashes, nothing more;

children taken from the earth

without any pieces of gold.

And I still think that one should

live, make mistakes, desire,

love and hate,

and be curious about the pieces of gold.

And find out that the greyest of seas

can sometimes be blue

and feel that the sweetest of all people

is the one with a piece of gold.