After one month at TalTech: Kirsten Woods from the US
How do our freshmen find their experience in a new country and university? What surprised them, what are their daily routines and plans for future in the series of materials ‘After one month at TalTech’.
The second story is from Kirsten Woods from the US studying International Business Administration programme at TalTech.
“There is so much change”
I’ve always done very touristy things with my family, but now when I’m here I have gone to explore for myself the things that are interesting so I think my first impression was excitement — it’s new, it’s different. I live in a countryside in America and here there’s noise, there are people always, it’s just exciting because there is so much change and I think in this time in life young people are excited for a change and it is not intimidating.
Accommodation
I envy the people on the dorms because they are all here at school, but right now I live in Telliskivi and I like it because it’s in the city center. But it was very easy for me, because it’s a building owned by my grandma. I do have my own apartment but it is in the same building, so on one hand I regret being out there because it is far away from school, but at the same time I feel like now when I have a lot international connections, if somebody wants to come to the city they don’t have to worry about public transport at 23:30, I can invite them over. So it’s the best of both.
Campus and university
This was the most shocking part for me. Where in America you spend a year in advance preparing — you go to the school, you look at it, you know what classes you want to pick months in advance and you know all the time schedules. While here it basically all happened in the first week before school and that was really surprising for me. In my heart I have been feeling like I had to be doing something right now. So my cousin has taken me to school and it was before anybody was here, it was very quiet and I was very shocked how simple it is, but at the same time it is very efficient. It wasn’t even disappointment it was like „oh, that’s it“ .
In America the schools are so big that every single class has maybe like 200 people in it and all of your classes are very different, so next year you won’t have a single class with the same people. But here I really like it because here I have the same classmates in all of my classes which is really nice and I like that I’m seeing the same people and when I work together with them it feels more like an opportunity of friendship.
Efficient and to the point
I think my biggest frustration with American education is that it is a very busy work and you are always doing something even if it is not important. Here I feel like my studies are more intense but I also feel like I’m much more laid-back in my work level. So I’m studying often but I have group assignments and projects but it’s not overwhelming and it’s all very necessary and it makes me feel like it ties to the material very well.
Something else I really enjoy here… In you first year in America it is all different kinds of classes because they want to make sure you know how to do math, you know a little bit of science and English and all of this. While here I’m so interested in all of my classes, because I have marketing, which is of course is such a big factor in business and I have like microeconomics which you have to know if you are going to be in this world of business, it’s not even the topics that excite me but it’s the fact that they are relevant.
Something that I have come to know about Estonia is that they are very efficient. There is no small talk, it is very to the point and I see it a lot at school too and I enjoy that.
Favourite places on the campus
I love the café in Business and Governance building, the food is really nice and it’s close to all my classes, so of course I’m always right there after class. I haven’t been to Mektory yet and to many other places beyond the main buildings so I wouldn’t know. But I take the Basics of Physical Movement course so I go to the university gym a lot and it looks very small from the outside but then there is the second level in the underground, so I like it.
I study at the library a lot, I find it a lot easier to do my school work there rather than at home because of distraction. And I think the library is so beautiful, I like the way it’s done. In Amerika the libraries are supposed to be quiet but nobody is and here it is actually quiet, I like that and there are a lot resources in the library too. And study rooms and group rooms, I think it’s a great system too.
The ESN office is always so nice to go to, they always have a bowl of candy right there (laughing).
And the main hall is very nice too, it was very interesting to see it in a professional manner in the orientation days but then also at the school party.
“It is not intimidating and you will meet a lot of people”
I have one class that is Management and Leadership and they were just talking about how in the recent years they have made this group effort between the International and Estonian course to make the students work together and I really appreciate that because I feel that now I also have some Estonians that I know as well.
ESN does a great job, they do so many events in the orientation week, in the first and second week of school. All of these events have been such a blast and you meet so many different people and because you are almost every day going to these events you meet the same people, so it is easy to build friendships that way. In the US you won’t have any friends outside of your programme pretty much and here I have both, I find it very easy to be in touch with the people outside of my programme. As a message to others — it is not intimidating and you will meet a lot of people.
Daily routine
Almost my whole life every single day has been the same in terms of routine and structure but it is nice that now every day is different, you can do anything you’d wanted today. There’s always something going on, there’s always something different to be done.
Bucket list in Estonia
I’m surely convinced I will die if I try but I want to do winter swimming. I didn’t know winter swimming was a thing and when they told “winter swimming” I thought they meant the autumn kind of weather and then they told „ no, it’s in the end of January when we go“. I don’t know if I will swim swim but I will at least dive into the water once in a wintertime.
But mostly my bucket list ties to the things I wanted to do on TikTok — benefits of coming and studying abroad, but also cool stuff here in Tallinn, it’s a place that most of people have never heard of. It’s not a distinct list but it’s like I want to go and try different stuff in Estonia.
What are your plans for future?
I have become really opposed to this question. I graduated in 2020 and since I was 16 years old I was planning to go to that one school in Virginia, and over 2-months time it has changed and now all over sudden I’m going to Estonia.
I like to change the script to „What skills can I learn that will prepare me for anything that will come“. I try to focus my goals on the things that I can accomplish so that way once the school is over I will have job opportunities for which I take time to learn various skills. I am naturally not lazy so I know that I will always find something to do.
I am working on my TikTok and Instagram and I know people may think it’s very trivial or superficial but I like to think that it’s teaching me discipline, patience and these basic marketing skills.
I’ve never been physically active, but I am realizing how much more effective of a person I am when I take care of my body, so going and taking time to train in the gym or swim or whatever else I find myself much more motivated.
I’m trying to read a lot of non-fiction books lately, especially business books because I know that the subject and topics are relevant to what I’m looking at in my life.
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