Serendipity

This morning’s walking tour marked the end of my orientation program here at Oxford. When I arrived, we were promptly sectioned off into groups of 18 (not 20.) Going with my gung-ho approach, I just started introducing myself. First I met a nice American girl and then later, I zeroed in on a shorter girl who I thought might be European. She said her name was Rosa and that she was from Finland. So I said "woomenda" or however you actually spell “good morning” in Finnish. I told her about my family being Estonian and it turns out that her family has lived in Estonia since 1991. Her parents are journalists and wrote for Finnish daily’s in the months and years after independence.

So, here we were walking down the street in Oxford, speaking Estonian. I had hoped to find some Estonian-speakers to practice with!

Otherwise, today was a graduation day, so I was constantly confronted with new grads in their gowns, mortarboards and hoods. It was great fun and got my mind spinning about next summer/fall when I get to do the same thing…hopefully.