Tere!
The previous story is available here.
So I rang my colleague and asked him to go to my place in the previous episode.
Aitäh! 🙂
Zooks Gets Hospitalised. (29)
Author: Zooks
読み方は、Zooks（ズークス）。
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Zooks Goes to Keila Waterfall in Estonia.
Tere!
There were hot days with around 30 degrees in Estonia even in July 2021. Usually there are only a couple of days with 30 degrees in Estonia, and it happens in June. I was planning to go to Keila waterfall, but I was unwilling to do it under the strong sun. However, for a few reasons, I changed the plan, and did go to Keila waterfall!
Keila waterfall isn’t that far from Tallinn city centre. You can go to Keila waterfall if you have some free hours because there is nothing but a supermarket around Keila waterfall.
I actually have wanted to go to Keila waterfall for a long time, and I thought of going there last summer when all of my travel plans were cancelled due to COVID-19. However, probably because of the fatigue from work, I was uneager to go although I planned instead.
This time I planned to go to Keila waterfall on one Tuesday in July. That Monday was less hot, but it seemed to rain, so I chose Tuesday. However, it didn’t rain at all, and it was all sunny. Plus, it was reported that it would be more than 30 degrees again on that Tuesday, so I decided to go to Keila waterfall when it was less hot and more comfortable.
To go to Keila waterfall, you can take just one bus basically. Also there are multiple bus options.
I knew that there’s (almost) nothing around Keila waterfall, so my plan was to see the waterfall, and that’d be it. Fortunately there were busses that were suitable for my plan.
First of all, I took a bus from the town. To go to Keila waterfall, I chose bus 108 at around 3 pm. You need to get on from the front of the bus, and tell the bus driver where you want to go. (In this case, tell them “Keila-Joa”.)
It costs 2.30 euro.
I think it cost 3 euro when I went to Rummu. I can’t remember properly though. You can google-translate to read this article about Rummu.
After enjoying approximately one hour on the bus, I got off at the bus stop called Keila-Joa. Then I walked to the waterfall, which took less than 10 minutes.
I was wondering about where the waterfall was, though I could hear the water-falling sound. Then I realised that I was not walking toward the waterfall but walking along the water running direction. (I was walking using a map, so it wasn’t a mistake.)
In other words, there was the waterfall when I looked back.
I spent about one hour, being relaxed with negative ions.
When going back to the city centre, you can take a bus from the bus stop opposite to the one that you got off when arriving there.
The return bus was not 108 but 127. The route was a bit different, but it stopped at the bus stop that is 10 minutes by foot from my place, so I chose it.
Of course, the return ride cost 2.30 euro, too.
By the way, Keila waterfall is said to be the third biggest waterfall in Estonia. (I read it somewhere but I don’t know the source.) However, it didn’t look that big. This is so Estonian though.
Jagala waterfall that I went to with my friend three years ago was bigger!
But at least I could be relaxed, I think.
When you come to Estonia, and have a little time, consider going to Keila waterfall.
Aitäh! 🙂
Zooks Faces Allergic Problems in Estonia.
Tere!
In July 2021, I had awful skin problems. It wasn’t about pimples but itchiness on my face (particularly the forehead and the T zone), the inside of the left elbow joint rather than the right one, and the neck. This itchiness had lasted for a couple of months.
Every year I have a pollen allergy with my nose, and usually it ends in June, but as written in another article, this year I had itchy eyes too, so I needed to buy an eye drop. If I used the eye drop, everything was alright.
However, the itchiness was getting gradually worse, and I sometimes saw rashes, so I thought I would need to see a doctor. I googled the allergology in Tallinn, and found that East Tallinn Central Hospital has one. I rang, and the receptionist said:
You need to talk to your family doctor first.
This is a typically troublesome way while living in the third country.
When I was in Japan, I went to a hospital which has both allergology and dermatology, so I didn’t have to think which department to choose. On the contrary, I had no idea what the cause was this time. That’s why I called the allergologist.
There is no other way but to talk to my family doctor.
I emailed him, and he asked me the details, so I explained to him the conditions and how long I had had it. Then he rang me in the afternoon of that day, and I could book an appointment next Wednesday.
Table of Contents
★2/July/2021
★10 Days Later…
★2/July/2021
On Monday of this week, my face was ridiculously itchy. Suddenly I remembered bringing the dermatological medical cream from Japan, so I put it on my face.
But still itchy!
I repeated scratching my face and putting the cream on it. Eventually I took one strong medical tablet for the pollen allergy, and the itchiness was gone.
Next day,
My iconic double eyelids were gone.
Besides, I felt the heat on my eyes.
I was wondering if I had an allergic conjunctivitis, but the following day it was gone.
Have you experienced that your symptoms were better when going to see a doctor?
I had it on Wednesday. The rashes were mostly gone, but when I explained to the doctor, she prescribed me two medicines: 10 tablets and two tubes of a medical cream. She said if it’s worrying about the face, I could buy some medical cream for the face without any prescription.
Although I had to go to two pharmacies, I could get all of them.
The medical cream for the face doesn’t have any rules, but other prescribed medicines have.
The tablets are called Opexa. It’s required to take one 20 minutes before the meal (in my case dinner). There are 10 tablets.
The other one is a medical cream called Fucicort. It’s big enough and contains 15g, but the doctor prescribed 2 tubes. I don’t know why.
This cream has a few rules; it’s required to put on a very small amount, and to wash it out before putting it on again.
Also the pharmacist told me:
You also need to avoid the sun.
It’s the middle of summer right now.
Very challenging mission.
Anyway I’ll have tried them for 10 days.
I will update this article with the results in 10 days. (If I remembered.)
★10 Days Later…
It had been 10 days since I started taking medicine and putting a medical cream on. There was no itchiness for those 10 days.
Actually, I didn’t have to check the effect of the medication for 10 days, but I had 10 tablets, so I kept checking the skin condition. In fact, on putting on the medical cream, the dryness on my neck and spots on my arms were gone, and I got beautiful skin. My face still (as of 18 of July) has a spot like a mosquito bite, but there was little itchiness, and my eyes were not swollen anymore.
Probably due to the dryness, it was slightly still itchy, but it didn’t look awful. The itchiness on my neck and arm joints were completely gone. However, I’m still concerned about the itchiness, so I put the cream on.
Of course I hadn’t finished even one medical cream tube, but I positively think that I can use it maybe next year when the itchiness will appear again.
I’m not sure if I’m patient, but I don’t go to see a doctor on seeing some physical problems. Thus, I kind of think maybe I should have been earlier, but the skin became great, and there was no problem at any summer events, so it was all right. However, I have a conclusion.
Conclusion:
A family doctor works well enough.
In Japan I went to an allergologist and dermatologist, but in Estonia your family doctor can solve the problem.
Anyway, I got my beautiful skin back, so I’m happy.
Aitäh! 🙂
Zooks Completes Keeletee in 6 Months.
Tere!
Pretty long time ago, I talked about an Estonian language learning platform called Keeleklikk which I completed in two months. In fact there is a next-level platform called Keeletee. This time I spent six months completing it.
★Course Structure
The course structure of Keeletee is almost the same as Keeleklikk. However, the videos were not tacky animation where kid characters have a fully grown man voice but authentic interviews with real people. There are a couple of animations but the quality is better than the ones in Keeleklikk.
One chapter consists of interviews or animation videos, phrase quizzes, grammar tutorials and word quizzes.
★Grammar
In terms of the Estonian language grammar, you complete the basics by the A2 level, so when I started Keeletee I was wondering about what I would learn as a grammar.
In fact, I felt there were more like how to use some particular verbs. This is probably because in Estonian some verbs need objectives in the second form but others require the third form. Other than that, I learnt the form of verbs to say “it is reported” or idioms. (Actually I quite forget what I learnt in the beginning as I spent six months this time…)
While learning on Keeletee, I took notes on Evernote because the data will not possibly disappear by saving online, and each note can be compiled as a notebook. (More strictly speaking, I took notes on paper while watching the grammar tutorials or finding new words, and after learning I summarised them on Evernote. It’s good for me because I can think about the layout of the learning results later.)
★Certificate
On Keeleklikk, after completing all the chapters you can take a final exam, and if you passed, you can get a digital certificate. However, Keeletee doesn’t have such a system. (There are tests after each chapter though. Personally I set the minimum score which was eight out of ten.)
This is my guess, but the reason why Keeletee doesn’t have such a certificate is that even the certificate from Keeleklikk is not official. (Some people might try to use it as an official certificate which is not accepted, so they may have assumed the questions regarding that and wanted to avoid immigrants’ confusion.) If you want to get an official language certificate, you need to take an official exam by the government.
It seems this exam is held every month and the fee is free. Since I graduated from the postgraduate school in Estonia, I’m not required to acquire the language, but the regular people may need it on the B2 level or something within five years.
However, I completely have no idea as it doesn’t matter to me.
★From Now
As the COVID-19 situation has gotten better, the bars and shopping centres are open, and it’s not mandatory to wear masks for the face-to-face meeting, I assume that the Estonian language courses will open in autumn again. If I’m not too busy at work, I want to register for it.
But still I have a few months by then, so I will learn it again at my own pace. (On the contrary, I want to focus on learning CSS now, personally.)
Thus, learn the Estonian language at your own pace and enjoy your Estonian/foreign language learning life!
Aitäh! 🙂
Zooks Gets Hospitalised. (28)
Tere!
The previous story is available here.
I’m a pretty responsible person, so in the previous episode I rang the boss to talk about the tasks I left.
Aitäh! 🙂
Zooks Gets Hospitalised. (27)
Tere!
The previous story is available here.
Since I didn’t trust Datura as a manager, I asked my boss to assign Stevia for that.
Stevia was a sales manager, but simultaneously she was handling all the Asian markets. I assumed that she had too many things to do based on that, eventually the boss took care of the market.
Also I told her that I had something to tell Rhodan, one of the developer colleagues, and not to tell anyone except him because I didn’t want Cordy, Datura and Nemesia to be in my life.
Aitäh! 🙂
Zooks Buys A Bike in Estonia.
Tere!
It’s been nearly four years since I came to Estonia in 2017. I always take public transport or walk when going out. In Tallinn, if you are registered as a Tallinn citizen, the public transport doesn’t cost. So you don’t need to worry about transport fees.
However I have wanted something for a long long time: a bike (bicycle).
In Kyoto, Japan, I bought a bike for 8000 JPY (= approx. 70 euro), and had used it for four to five years, but in Estonia you cannot find a new bike at such a price. If you buy a new bike in Estonia, it costs at least 150 euro with discounts as far as I know. It’s expensive, isn’t it.
Then it’s time to use Facebook marketplace!
There many objects are sold and purchased cheaply. Actually this was not the first time for me to use Facebook marketplace because I bought a microwave oven for 30 euro when I moved to my current place. (It looked a bit old because of the yellowy colour, but the inside was clean, and it works without any problems. In Estonia if you buy a new microwave oven, it costs at least 50 euro.)
Besides there is a point (trick?) of using Facebook marketplace, which is to use Estonian instead of English when searching objects. (Sometimes English works enough as it did when I was looking for a microwave oven.)
In Estonian a bike is “jalgratas”. As you search with this word, you can get results about bikes for kids, women and so on. I’m not small as an Asian girl, but since I had trouble riding an e-bike when I visited my friend in Germany, I was worried about the bike saddle. (The e-bike that my friend’s family had had a too high saddle for me.) For this reason, my condition was that the bike had to be for women.
★A 130 Euro Bike
Then I found a bike for women for 130 euro, which was within my budget. It had a stopper stand (?) and a basket.
When I contacted its seller, he said he would let me know once he fixed it. Then the lockdown started (it was in March), I had been waiting for his message for three months, thinking that maybe he had not been able to repair it because the repair shop had been closed during the lockdown. However, even in June there was no message.
I absolutely wanted to get it before it starts snowing, so I messaged him and he said:
The bike was sold.
What. I have been waiting for it since you said you would let me know when you fixed it.
He bought it broken.
I got it.
I gave it up, and started looking for another bike.
Then I found a Swedish bike.I was also pretty worried about the height of the bike saddle because the Swedish are big.
Anyway I contacted the seller, and met him on the 8th of June. He lowered the bike saddle as low as possible. It was still slightly high, but I could ride. My German friend’s bike was a bit higher than that, so I bought it. It also cost 130 euro, so it was within my budget.
The happiest thing about getting a bike is that I don’t have to walk to a supermarket for 20 minutes in summer.
Finally some of you may wonder about how to pump up the bike wheels. I may write about it when I need to. Maybe.
Aitäh! 🙂
Zooks Got Vaccination for COVID-19 in Estonia.
Tere!
It seems in Japan, citizens can’t predict when they can get a vaccine for COVID-19. On the other hand, as some of you may know, vaccination in Estonia started for medical and education people or people in the high-risk group a long time ago. After that eligible people groups expanded to those who are in their 50s, 40s and on the 15 May people in their 30s were eligible to book vaccination.
Considering the access to the portal site, I thought it might take a long time to finish the process of getting vaccines, so I will finish this article little by little.
Contents
★17/May/2021
★18/May/2021
★28/May/2021
★Appendix
★29/May/2021
★17/May/2021
On the 17th May, finally our (people at age 16 and over) turn came to book vaccination for COVID-19. To book the vaccination, you need to register from digilugu. The booking started at 7 pm on the 17th. I had something to do at 6 pm for one hour, so I knew that I would be too late for that, and when accessing the site at around 8 pm, there were too many people ahead of me as expected.
★18/May/2021
There were around 10000 people ahead of me at 8 am.
I also read in some article that we couldn’t book a vaccination with Smart-ID, so I was already ready for that (disappointment or the reality that I couldn’t do it with Smart-ID), but I could access it with Smart-ID without any trouble. Who wrote such information.
The image above shows that there were 10000 people ahead of me. However, the process seemed to have gone fast, so I had been waiting for only two hours. As written in the yellow box, you have only 20 minutes to finish the booking process. Otherwise you have to start from the beginning again.
Due to the given time I don’t have any screenshots, but I didn’t notice they had an English page, and I was processing the booking in Estonian! (I could do it because I could understand it a bit.)
You can search the type of vaccines, the place to get a vaccine, or county, but I couldn’t choose Pfizer or Moderna in Tallinn, so Janssen was the only option at that time. I preferred Pfizer, but I booked Janssen’s vaccine since it’s better than nothing.
The place is East-Tallinn Central Hospital in Mustamäe. I’ll get it on the 28th of May.
★28/May/2021
I got a vaccine — Janssen. (I had thought I would need to get vaccinated twice even with Janssen, but my friend told me Janssen requires only one shot. I had preferred Pfizer so I was ready for two shots, but then I was lucky in a sense — no need to get two shots.) The vaccination location was a hall in Lasnamäe, which is known as a Russian area in Tallinn. There is an ice skate hall.
There was a queue in front of the entrance so I was one of them, and after a while I became the first person in the queue. Then the receptionist asked me my booking time. If your booking time is not too early or too late, he will let you progress. (My booking was 14.10, and I arrived there around 13.50, waiting for less than 10 minutes, but he let me proceed.)
After getting OK from the receptionist, a nurse gave me a new mask and asked me to sanitise the hands.
There are six registration booths, and I was told to go to the fourth one. After waiting for my turn, two nurses asked me about my current physical condition, history of COVID-19 infection, allergies and medication. I have taken several medicines so I showed them notes that I always use at a pharmacy when buying them. Then one of the nurses went somewhere to ask if those are okay with the vaccine. She told me everything was alright, so I finally went to the vaccination booth.
At the booth there was only one nurse. After putting my stuff on the chair, she vaccinated me.
It was too quick to think about how painful the injection is usually.
After vaccination, I was told to sit on a chair, and had to wait for 15 minutes. If there is nothing, people can go home. I didn’t see anything so I went home too.
★Appendix
I got vaccinated on 28th May, and was told not to drink alcohol for two days. My birthday is on the 30th. I wanted to have cooked ajillo and celebrated with wine…
★29/May/2021
Today I forced myself to go to a supermarket which is 10 minutes away by foot to buy milk.
After that I spent most of my time in bed.
Yes, I had fever.
I don’t know how high the fever was but maybe 38 degrees. Some people are said to have 41 degrees, and sent to the hospital, but in my case in the beginning the fever was slight, and while talking with my friends in Japan on the phone, the fever got more serious.
The good thing was, although I had a fever for the whole day, the next day I was completely fine.
I asked my 35-year-old friends who also got Janssen about how the side effect was, and he said he was tired only. It’s also said that younger people tend to have heavier side effects so it’s convincing enough.
I got three masks from my mum, but it seems I will hardly use them…
Aitäh! 🙂
Pollen Allergy in Estonia 2021.
Tere!
I was 10 years old when I remarkably saw the symptoms of a pollen allergy. I used all the tissues that I had so I was trying to stop the runny nose with a thin hand towel. It happened during a test or something and my teacher was so worried about me. Since then, I had a box of tissues in my desk drawer to spend spring.
Then every spring I got the best friend: a mask. No matter how many times I blew my nose, I had a runny nose, so I put tissues in my nose and wore a mask to hide it. (I did this sometimes because no one could see the inside of the mask and it was better to have a runny nose.)
I think I started taking medication for pollen allergy since I became a university student. I believe if I had started taking medication earlier, I would have comfortably spent spring. However, it doesn’t mean that I have a bad memory. It’s just a past moment.
As a university student, my work colleague recommended a medicine that we could buy without prescription at a pharmacy, but it wasn’t effective for me at all. So I went to see an ENT doctor in my hometown, and he said that type of medicine is not necessarily effective for everyone.
I don’t remember when exactly, but I was running out of the pollen allergy medicines that I got in my hometown, so I went to the ENT hospital near my flat in Kyoto. The doctor said we couldn’t see the effect unless I started taking the medication before the pollen allergy started (like from January as the pollen allergy starts in March or something in Japan). I also got medication for when the symptoms are more awful, which is instantly effective, but in terms of the daily pollen allergy medication, it requires time.
Then, I went to Ireland as an exchange student. Before going there I didn’t think of the pollen allergy at all, but when it was getting warmer in Dublin, I felt I slightly had a runny nose. In the beginning I wondered about regular sickness, but I didn’t see other symptoms like a sore throat, so I realised that I had the pollen allergy in Ireland too.
However, I didn’t take any medication in Ireland because it wasn’t that awful, and a small pack of tissues helped me enough.
But it was different in Northern Europe.
In Estonia (and Finland too), there are lots of birch trees. Since there was not so much information about Estonia before going there, I referred to information about Finland, and found the fact that the Finnish have the pollen allergy owing to birch.
But it was information on Finland, not Estonia, so I contacted someone in Estonia, and he said
I’ve never heard of pollen allergy in Estonia. I don’t think there is.
I thought “That’s probably because you don’t have the pollen allergy”. (I was pretty sure that Estonia had a pollen allergy, but I needed someone’s real voice.)
Then I contacted another person, and he said if I asked for the pollen allergy medication at a pharmacy, they would give me the medicine.
Glad to know!!!
I tried two types of pollen allergy medicines in Estonia, and found Claritin in a blue box seemed effective for me. Since then, I start taking it every January. It costs 10 to 13 euro per package which contains 30 tablets, so if I keep taking it until June, around 60 euro is gone in total, but it’s a good investment for my health and comfortable life.
However, it was different in 2021.
I think I started taking the pollen allergy medication a bit later than usual this year, and Claritin doesn’t work well (occasionally)!
I brought medicines for an awful case from Japan, and I was forced to take it too. Otherwise, even if I take Claritin, I have a huge runny nose.
Every year, it was fine as long as I took the pollen allergy medicines, but this year (in 2021) I had itchy eyes too!
My eyes are awfully itchy!
I couldn’t bear it, so after wondering if I should buy an eye drop at a pharmacy or book an appointment at the ENT hospital, I eventually decided to try the eye drop from the pharmacy. I asked two of my Estonian friends, and they told how to say the eye drop in Estonian:
õietolmuallergia silmatilgad.
One of them told me “Allergodiil” usually works well, so I went to the pharmacy near my place, and found only one left! It cost around 6 euro.
On purchasing the eye drop, I applied it, and it seemed it was instantly effective. After that, I didn’t have itchy eyes.
I still don’t know why this year the pollen allergy is so awful, but anyways for the future reference, I decided to write it down as maybe I will need the eye drops again next year (although I’m not sure if I’ll still be here).
Aitäh! 🙂
P.S.
The other friend sent me this message. You’re not wrong, mate.
Zooks Gets Hospitalised. (26)
Tere!
The previous story is available here.
Since I could choose to see my doctor either this day or next day, so I chose next day.
At that time, she said:
but actually she ignored all the inquiries and emails from the Japanese clients, so they had to wait for me without knowing any reasons.
Aitäh! 🙂
zooks.ee 
