Ole Pai (Be Gentle!)

[This is what our very polite director says right before she asks us to repeat anything or practice a certain part.]

Somehow, we have survived two more days of practice. I'm not sure exactly how, but here we are now on the night before our first performance. The last two days have been pretty brutal. Yesterday, we started on the same field and practiced Kalamees and Kalamehe Jutt some more, then went to the stadium to practice it on the real field (it is larger than our practice field). Later, we returned to the field next to Old Town to be placed in the first and last songs and fix up the trouble spots in our two numbers. Like Tuesday, yesterday was physically exhausting. I was SO tired by the end of the night.

Our team had a little scare yesterday. Kaili came down on her foot wrong during Tuljak practice and she had to go in for x-rays. Luckily, nothing was broken and though she sat out practice today, we're all hopeful she can dance tomorrow.

Today was exhausting, too, but it was more from enduring the heat all day. In fact, we only really danced our main pieces once. The rest of the time, we worked on the opening and closing numbers. It takes an enormous amount of work to coordinate 8400 dancers to enter and exit the field at the right time and to be in the right place and work together when they are there. And so, for much of today, we sat and stood up, and crouched (Mine kukki) and sat and stood up and crouched. We do these repetative squats at the beginning and at the end (it is to make the waves of the sea) and this was they day we rehearsed those pieces over and over again. (Tony and I have been practicing our squats for weeks because we knew this rehearsal would be painful.--I missed Ollie...he was my squat buddy.) At the end of the day, we had our first start-to-finish run through. It's going to be a great show!

Because the sun was so strong, we just baked and baked. I kept reapplying sunscreen, but I'm not sure that it did any good. I just continued to get redder and redder. I have raccoon eyes tonight from my sunglasses, but at least I should be going home with a little bit of a healthy glow. I think we both suffered a little from heat stroke today. Luckily, we found a store close by, so we bought ice cream to cool our insides and cheap, cold water and poured it over us to try to cool off.

We have enjoyed talking to some of the other dancers. Our group dances with the Ulikooli Tudrukud ja Poisid (The University Girls and Boys). They are great. They danced together 35-40 years ago while they all attended Tartu Univerisity. They decided to reunite for this year's dance festival, so they got the troupe back together. They have all gone on to do great things in their lives and work hard at their careers. One is a math professor and my partner, Juri, was the head of the air force's medicine program. They are very cute in their matching T-shirts, hate, and red skirts for the women.

I keep getting choked up when I walk out onto the field and feel the spirit of the music and dancing. I still can't believe we're here doing this. Tony even said tonight that despite how hard it has been, he still wants to come back in 2014 to do it again. Oh, and I've started thinking in Estonian again--it is wonderful to be immersed in the language.

Tonight after practice, I decided there was time for a quick shower and a taxi to the airport. My parents arrived back in Tallinn tonight after being in Russia for the last 3 days. They had a good time there. We ran back to the hotel and checked them in again and went upstairs to see their magnificent view of Old Town. Then, we rushed off to the port to see the Tule Tulek (Coming of the Torch). Since the tradition of Laulupidu and Tantspidu started in Tartu, they kindle a fire at Tartu's Tantsupidu and send it around the country and into Tallinn. Tonight it arrived after being in Parnu, Saaremaa, Haapsalu, and many other places. We got there right when the ship pulled into the harbor. They lit up big shield-like fires in the water and had a huge dance party (many of the dancers held little torches) and song party to welcome the torch. I ran into Eike Urke there (from the Tallinn branch) and recognized Maarika Teose dancing during the social dance time, and my mom recognized Jim Tusty, the director of the Singing Revolution. It was nice to meet him finally after realizing how much good that movie has done for my family. Many people were in their rahvariided and my parents seemed totally enamored. I kept trying to explain to them, the best is yet to come.