After dinner yesterday night the students rehearsed in the beautiful new Viimsi school with their Estonian counterparts. They had a little time to go out on the town after rehearsal, but many chose to stay in after a long day. Today, we had breakfast at our hotel again before heading off to do some sightseeing. We stopped first at the 18th century Russian provincial palace, which is now used by the Estonian President to host dignitaries. Following that we visited a huge amphitheater that plays host to the annual Estonian singing festival. At times in this venue there are thirty thousand performers, so our group of 98 was pretty well dwarfed by the scale of things. We did manage to get the kids together to sing the Latin fight song, and our Estonian guides dubbed us official participants in the next festival. Singing has a significant political meaning here. During the turbulence of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the breakaway Estonian Republic began flying the Estonian tri-color flag over various buildings in the city. The Russian police came to seize the flag at the music amphitheater, but were stopped by hordes of Estonian civilians who linked arms and sang traditional Estonian songs until the Russians gave up. Our tour guides were both participants in the peaceful protest, and hearing their personal accounts was fascinating. After lunch, the students performed two short concerts for their counterparts at Viimsi school. Here are some .mp3 files of the concert:
Band performance of Under the Sea We are now off to dinner in the old city of Tallin, at a restaurant that, I'm told, attempts to re-create typical medieval recipes. -- Mr. O'Toole |
