Off to Estonia

I'm off to Estonia this weekend. In case you don't know, I am Estonian. Both my parents escaped the Russian occupation in the late 1930s and fled first to Sweden and then to Canada. My father was the only one, in his family, that got out. So, I have tons of relatives there and I'm very excited about going. I've been there several times. The first time was in 1977 and the last was in 1992, over 10 years ago, just after the iron curtain fell. This visit will be much different from my previous visits. It will be interesting to see if the people are happier since they've regained their freedom. When they were under Russia, they were so suppressed and no one in public ever smiled. I would make a game of seeing if I could make the clerks in the stores smile. It was never easy. My understanding, with freedom, has come modernization, free enterprise and the stores are full again. Unfortunately, with freedom, drugs and some other evils have also arrived. Freedom comes with responsibility. There is no doubt about that.

I'll be away until the end of the month. Hopefully, I'll be able to tell you what I'm up to if I get near a computer on the net. Until then.