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Thousands miles away from home, what I brought with me here to Tallinn is more than a huge pack of instant ramen and some Asian facial cream — THE BELIEF that I can survive anywhere on this planet! My confidence in surviving was fatally compromised in the first month. Now, entering the third month of living here, I could look back and laugh about all the stuff that I went through to settle down. But at the start: let’s just say all brilliant comedy materials have pain and suffering behind them. Some trivia just to show you a tiny bit of the life of an Asian kid living in Tallinn. Guess how many kohuke you need to eat! Food, food, food! I don't know about you, I eat a lot. I had no idea what kinds of food I will encounter before I entered this country. Personally, I do not categories myself as picky. What will normally make me drop my jaw and weep is not the uniqueness of food, but the scarcity of choices of food. Choices of food mean the world to me. I went to Co-Market and Rimi the moment I landed in Tallinn, went back to my hostel with bags of grocery. To my greatest surprise, despite of the appearance of the food looking totally different from one another, the taste was very consistent. I can simply put 99% of the Estonian food into three categories: overly sweetened ones, overly salted ones, overly….no-taste ones. And I swear to god, that is it! But, where are the spicy ones? Where are the ones with-a-sour after-taste-but-start-of-hitting-you-with-a-sweetness ones? Where are the ones with UMAMI-that-is-hard-to-describe-but-just-make-you-feel-like-a-king/queen ones? Where, where, where? Young and naive fellows, stop the questions, no matter where you are from, the tastes that lingers on the back side of your tongue, they are gone. Winter is coming, stacking up potatoes, onion, and oats; you might be able to make it to the spring. And if you look carefully, there is always that silver lining — kohuke! My current record is 18 pieces in a day with nothing else but water. How much do you think you can eat? Sauna is next level I am from Asia, back home, we do not have a sauna. The sound of this word reminds me numerous lazy afternoons I had when I was in elementary school. So, I was very amped to try this exotic thing out, to see whether it will bring back more of nostalgic sentiments. Lucky me, the gym I go to has the sauna, so as a totally newbie, I went inside without any expectation, thinking how hot it could be. Such naive…. I promise, I saw heaven just for a glimpse of a moment I stepped into that room. The temperature was around 100 °C at the start, and then a “good-hearted” friend of mine heated the thing up to 120 °C when he realized that it was just the beginning of my sauna journey. I started talking Chinese the whole time when we were inside the sauna… The logic of sauna to me is simple: it makes you realize between freezing chilly and hell-like burning, which is more bearable. Northern people’s logic. It does make you feel as fresh as a new dime though, it just takes time to get used to. That is authentic Asian food, you said? Food again! I am Asian and my fanatic feeling towards good food never stops. I have lived in China and Japan for most of my life, so looking for authentic Chinese and Japanese goodies is like a mission. Even in Estonia, I was effortlessly going around town to hunt for some oriental bites. So far, I have stepped in to 2 Chinese joints and 5 Japanese ones. Anyone who knows me well, will know that I am huge show-off. Especially, when living in a country where in can basically read nothing, the moment I step into a Chinese or Japanese place, I have the urge to show people that I can speak languages other than English. But, I would never have seen this coming. The menu was mostly in English, but the names of the dishes were extremely unfamiliar to me. They were all Estonian-modified names. My buddies looked at me with a great expectation, waiting for me to introduce them to my culture. All I can do is to try my best to look as chill as possible, while screaming: “What is going on?! Somebody help!”, deep inside. The waitress must have heard my coming-from-soul screaming, and came for the order. Never once were they Chinese or Japanese, so the contemplated show-off with mother tongue ordering was not happening I guess. Food finally arrived and my friends said: “That good?! Your face is lightened up. Glad you like Asian food here, man.”  Just to be clear, that was my surprised face, meaning that I did not know sushi could taste like this. It was a surprise for me too. They are not bad all, most of the time I do enjoy eating out in Asian places here in Tallinn, but the paces are more like an Estonian-Asian hybrid. Ending (or to be continued) If Estonia was a girl, she would be the dream girl. She takes a bit time to get used to, but before you realize it, you're always hers! I think I am hers. Text by Pynchon Woo ( MA student).  

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