Trouble in Tallinn...And all blog about other thing so as to not be too depressing.

"Estonia removes monument, riots ensue..."
"Fresh clashes over Estonia statue..."
"Riots in Estonia after memorial removed..."

That doesn't sound good. I'm glad i went and got pictures before the trouble started. If i had been one day later...bad. Anyway, this is quite upsetting. There has been rioting here in Tallinn, thankfully not near the corps or my house, but still. This isn't exatly a good situation for a city to be in. Everyone's stressed. Everyone's taking sides. I'm taking the third side of peace and love (i'm like a hippy!) but very few are on my side (like a hippy...). And very few people i know are being very smart about, they either want to join in the rioting or they want to go watch it. Idiots. This is the biggest unrest in Estonia since they gained independence from Russia and people call that exciting?! Sick. I'm not too happy about the amount of stupidity floating around. What are people hoping to gain? The soldier has already been removed (which is part of the problem, the Estonian government had promised it would stay until some Russian holdiay...) and so now it's just pure destruction for the sake of destruction. Destruction for destruction's sake is stupid. And Russia is considering cutting off diplomatic relations to Estonia...All this over a bunch of rock, bronze and a few 60 year old unkown corpses! I understand the feelings of those on both sides but really, is this really worth the response it's getting? I don't think so. I doubt the family of the person who got killed think so. I doubt the owners of all the stores that got looted think so. I hope those 30 some idiots sitting in jail right now think so. I mean i kind of understand the feelings of the rioters too, all the drunk young guys with dreams of guts and glory. I mean when i walked out of the house yesterday i had dreams of glory too, like if a riot broke out i could save the life of some gourgous young lady who would then fall madly in love with her hero...Either that or not. But of course i don't pass by the trouble area on my way to the corps so i had no chance to save any girls. So sad...But seriously. There would be some so called "glory" in saving some damsel in distress. But in throwing rocks and bottles? In attacking police? In looting stores? NO! What's with that? Do these people have no brain? No conscience? It sickens and saddens me. Anyway, Tallinn has done a very smart thing and put a ban on alchohol sales. Which will keep a few people sober. But the places (and i'm sure there will be many) willing to sell illegally and the people who stocked up before the ban went into effect...Well, let's hope for the best. The only bad thing is that now homeless guys and other people desperate enough to get drunk will drink firestarter stuff. And that will kill a big hunk of them. Not good...Not good at all...

Anyway, despite all the junk that's been happening in the city some very good things have been happening to me personally. One of them being that i am now officially signed up for the S.A.T. which actually may be a good or a bad thing. It may mean that i've sealed my fate as an idiot by agreeing to take a test that will prove it, or it mayb mean that once and for i can prove to myself that i'm not an idiot. Because i'm always the hardest critic to please. And i always think i'm an idiot. So 50/50 chance let's hope i don't wind up and idiot. And in signing up the S.A.T. i decided on which 4 colleges i am mainly interested in applying too. Unless something comes up in the next year i will apply to Asbury College in Kentucky, Houghton College in New York, Thomas More College in New Hampshire, and St. John's College in Maryland. Scary to think that finally after around 2 or 3 years of getting mountains of college material in the mail which i've had to sift through to finally narrow it down to these 4. Scary top to think eventually i'm going to have to leave what feels to me as comparatively safe (I'd rather be in Tallinn with rioters then going off to college. College is scary) to go off to something new. So anyway, i feel quite happy about the choices i've made, and feel very happy that i've finally made them and stopped putting it off.

And another good thing that happened is that i sat down for about 15 minutes this morning and did something i've been dying to do. I have about 4 months worth of reminders in my phone. Half of which i haven't done. So i went through them this morning and moved them all to today. So now i will blog about the things that have been written in my phone for far too long. Have you ever heard the anti-gay slogan "God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve"? Well there is something i would like point out about this that is totally wrong. God did create Steve! Not at the same time as Adam, but God did create Steve! And definitely not to be in any relationship other than friendship/brotherhood, but still, God did create Steve. I just wanted to clarify that, because no one else could create Steve. So God did create Steve just later. And something that i have wanted to say for a LOOOONG time is this: PINK IS NOT MANLY!!! I've heard so many sayings about the color pink. "Pink is manly. Pink is the new black. Pink is an annoying singer." I've heard it all! And i say NO!! Pink is not manly color. I hate it when i'm walking around and i see these two guys (you notice there's always two, i'm getting a bit of a "Adam and Steve" vibe...) dressed all in pink. Pink hats. Pink pants. Pink shirts. DISGUSTING! It's just not right. Pink is a girly color. It looks cute on girls. But on guys...no. And to the saying the "Pink is the new Black" i just have to say no, never, not in a million years. Black is cool. Cool guys wear black. I wear black all the time. Pink will never replace black. But i have noticed that pink and black is an exquisite combination on many girls...

And one final thing i want to do is tell a story about how much i love the Estonian police and how much they love me. I tell this because the Estonian police are dealing with a lot right now. And i respect them for using rubber bullets. If it were me i'd be very tempted to say "They were foolish enough to challenge my superior might, and for that they must die" So i respect their self-control. Anyway, this story may get either my friend Sarah or my friend Tinesha in trouble. But it was so long ago so...I'll tell it anyway. Once upon a time, when the world was young and innocent, my parents were in America and i was staying with the Wittenbergs for a little while (You know when i see them this summer i should thank them, because i don't believe i ever really did...) and so Sarah, Tinesha and I decided to go for a walk at Pirita beach. Now this was when it was cold. The water was frozen, and before we had left Major Wittenberg had actually said that as the oldest i had to watch them and make sure that the girls stayed off the ice. Now normally i would have been more than happy to comply but the girls ran out onto the ice, and so if i wanted to keep them safe i had to go with them. And because i was such a smooth 14 year old (or was i 15? Don't remember.) i I made a deal with them, we'd go on the ice as long as they held my hands so i could pull them out if the ice broke. In hindsight that was stupid. I should have dragged them to land. But back then it wasn't very often that i got to hold a girls hand. Let alone two at once! And now that i think about it, that doesn't happen very often now either. But anyway, i was around 14ish, Sarah i think was around 13ish, and Tinesha was around 12ish and so we came up with a brilliantly stupid idea. Let's walk to that island way in the distance that will take us hours to get to. So we did. We were so smart. Anyway, after walking for a very long time we got cold. And after walking for an even longer time (as in an hour from when we started) we stopped and decided to go back. Because walking on ice for another hour, heading towards an island that only seemed to be getting farther away, seemed stupid. So we turned back. And as we got closer something very exciting happened. Tinesha broke the ive. Literally, she fell through. But because i had been smart enough have us all be holding hands i was able to drag her out with her lower half dripping wet. So i saved the damsel in distress. Aren't i great? The police didn't think so. That's right. When we got to the beach the police were waiting for us. Apparently someone had called the police because they saw 3 kids walking on the ice. Luckily this was before i used a wallet so i didn't have my I.D. card on me so there is no record of this. But the police asked us all these quetions, and sadly they didn't speak English, and this was before i even pretended to speak Estonian. But they got accross the point that we were bad kids and needed to run on home to our parents. What was especially funny though was when the two police went over to their car to decide what to do. Because finding two Americans and an Indian (as in from India) walking on the ice in Pirita beach is not a very common thing. So as the policeman who was acting as spokesman (because he apparently spoke the best English) walked up to us to tell us to go home Tinesha, being the cute liitle girl she is threw her arms around me and said "Chris, i'm scared!" To which i replied "Don't worry, these are nice police." I don't know if she really was scared or if she quick thinkingly decided to put on a show for the police man's benefit. Either way i played along to the great amusement of the police man in the car who cracked up laughing at us looking so cute and forlorn. The other police told us (with a big grin on his face) told us we could leave and we ran to the nearest bus stop and jumped on a bus, not caring where it went and also not caring that we didn't have tickets. So that is my story of my relations with the Estonia police. I've met up with them other times when my stuff has been stolen. But that was the only time when i was the one in trouble. And it's just a funny story so i thought i should share it with you. I love the Estonian police. Anyway, i'm really tired, this has been a longer post than expected, and i must go. Cya!