Category: Life in Estonia

Zooks Finds Gift Product Shop in Estonia.

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Tere!

Around November in 2021, I was looking for a small cardboard box.

As I could not go to Japan, I wanted to send some gifts to my family. In order to do so, I needed a cardboard box, but the ones available at a post office were not good size and slightly expensive. No supermarkets have, so I googled and it said

Pakendikeskus is good

Searching the location, I found a few in Tallinn. I chose the one in Mustamäe tee, and found they have paper products for outdoor activities, party products and lots of gift bags! Of course, there were lots of sizes of cardboard boxes!!!

I scrutinised all the sizes, and found one that absolutely fitted for a box of coffee grounds.

I like Löfbergs (Swedish) coffee, and my mum loves coffee too, so I wanted her to try it. That is why I was looking for a cardboard box in the best size.

It cost only dozens of cents. So cheap!

Of course they sell tapes, but I recommend you not to buy Pakendikeskus’s original tape.

The adhesive force is really weak.

I failed in that sense, but it wasn’t that useless, so it wasn’t a big issue.

In Estonia, it is really difficult to get gift products other than Flying Tiger, I believe. Maybe party shops have some, but I don’t know. So it could be almost nowhere.

However, this time as I found Pakendikeskus, I would go there when gifting to someone from next time.

I’ve lived in Estonia more than four years, but there are still lots of findings.

Aitäh! 🙂

Zooks Bums for Three Months in Estonia.

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Tere!

Technically speaking, I did not bum or was not completely unemployed as I had some other freelance job every other week. (I have a Japanese colleague who lives in the U.S. and we take turns every other week.)

However, even though I worked every other week, the income was not so much, so there was little difference between when I had work and when I didn’t.

Then what have I been doing?

Of course in the beginning, I tried so hard to get a job. I had some savings with which I could live a life for several months, but such savings would run out some day, and in Estonia the unemployment allowance is not so big (which is around 180 EUR or so), so I wanted to get a job as soon as possible.

Table of Contents
Difficult to get a job in summer in Estonia
What I had done during the unemployment
A sudden email
Skill up
Unregistration on Estonian Unemployment

★Difficult to get a job in summer in Estonia

I was fired in May, and sometime in June, I received an email from one of Estonian job search platforms about a job that I saved just in case, so I made a CV and cover letter shortly.

Luckily, I had the second interview, where they said they stopped hiring people, and they wanted to ask me if I would still be available in autumn.

I told this to my friend, he said this was a common way in Estonia because in summer they are on holidays and usually don’t need new people.

After that, I applied for some other jobs since I got offers from Malta or Manchester, the UK, but the interviews and portfolio were not successful. (I’m usually okay with interviews, but as for the job in Malta, they didn’t proceed due to the fact I was fired. However, it was more like failing a probation because the supply and demand didn’t match. I wasn’t that interested in that new job anyway though.)

Therefore, it is up to you whether to quit a job in summer without the next determined destination, but it might be hard to find.

★What I had done during the unemployment

Praying to be hired in autumn, I still continued job hunting, I did many other things. With the tax return in March, I bought a new iPad Air (the one that you can choose a colour) as well as Procreate (which is a drawing app), and I had drawn something for 30 days.

This is harder than it sounds because my drawing skill is quite good but I didn’t have any skill to use such technology. Therefore, it is still difficult for me to use the app. However, I killed time, and completed a project, so all is good.

Simultaneously, I practised human posing using the posing book that I downloaded a long time ago. I did two pages – four angles a day.

This was an easier task than the Procreate challenge, and although it took 10 to 15 minutes at maximum, one book had many poses, so I started in the middle of June and finished on the first of August.

Also I resumed learning coding. I have used an app called Mimo which I used while I was in the hospital.

It looks like a game, and if you don’t purchase anything, then you consume one heart out of five every mistake. It takes four hours to get the next full heart, so with a free mode, I did in the morning, consuming all the hearts, and after one night, I got five full hearts again.

Personally it took 30 minutes to use all the hearts at maximum, and 10 minutes at minimum.

However, even though I did those three activities, everything was done basically in the morning, so I had a lot of time in the afternoon.

Occasionally I made postcards or took a nap because I couldn’t sleep at night. My mental health was not good, so I was quite depressed even though it was summer.

I also learnt Estonian using a platform, but I finished it all in June. At this time I thought I wanted to take an exam someday, so I guessed maybe it was a good idea to start studying for the exam.

I am a person who basically does not like to be bored and have plans all the time, so this unemployed time was like a torture. I also think I relatively have more hobbies than usual people, but depending on the situation, I couldn’t do them all. However, I believe that unhealthy mental conditions were the biggest cause. I was scared to be unemployed for more than half a year.

★A sudden email

Then it became July, and on the first Monday in July, I suddenly received an email. I opened it and found that it was from a company who told me to ask me again in autumn.

They mentioned that their business had grown faster than expected, so they changed their mind to hire people now. Of course I accepted. I don’t miss any opportunity.

★Skill up

When I received an email suddenly, I had no idea what to do, and my mood was still down, so I had lots of empty time, but from the following week I got way more active.

Perhaps this was because I could finally buy medicine that I couldn’t buy for a while. (Strictly speaking, I used this medicine of 150 mg, but it was not effective, and requested my doctor to increase it to 300 mg.)

Otherwise, I basically drew manga about my mental condition and situations or wrote some other blog articles. After that week, I got better enough to learn Estonian again. Then one thing came up to my mind strongly:






I want to learn Swedish again!




I might summarise what I have learnt from Estonian and Swedish learning, and make them serieses to upload here so I’m not going to talk about them here now. (Maybe.)

To sum up for three months, I did these different things. I had cried for two days when I lost a job, but now I can think in a way that it was a good experience because losing a job hardly happens to a Japanese person in Estonia.

★Unregistration on Estonian Unemployment

Once you get a new job, you need to unregister yourself from the Estonian Unemployment Fund.

They emailed me in July to start working in August, but my life supporter said to me not to unregister yet as anything could happen.

Then in August, I thought I needed to unregister but I wanted to receive an allowance so I had not done it until I received it.

I wanted to unregister on Monday because I was told to talk with an Employment Fund’s worker.

Then I received the allowance on Monday, and I completely forgot to unregister (as I got something to do).

On Tuesday while working, I got a phone call from them, and told them that I already got a job which had already started, and just forgot to unregister, and then the Fund worker said he couldn’t confirm that I had already started. After the call, I asked my boss, and she asked the human resources, and they registered me as a worker. (This happened because the person-in-charge was on holiday, so they couldn’t just proceed.)

After unregistering, you will receive an email from the tax board that you have been registered as a worker, by which, my employment status has also been updated, so the Fund’s worker could confirm as well. I told him that, and he unregistered me.

Therefore, I still don’t know how to unregister on my own.

However, now everything is alright.

Aitäh! 🙂

Zooks Experiences Kalev’s Nurr Products.

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Tere!






When it comes to an Estonian candy producer, you might say Kalev!




You might think Kalev is famous for chocolate, but there are much more products. They sell ginger breads in the Christmas season, and they also sell boxes of filled chocolate for souvenirs.

However, I don’t personally often buy sweets or candies, so there are some products that I didn’t know about. Kalev’s chocolate frequently contains dried fruits or nuts, but this time I’m going to show you “Nurr” series that might be a cute souvenir.

Table of Contents
1) Nurr Raisins Coated with Chocolate
2) Nurr Chocolate with Marshmallows
3) Nurr Chocolate with Air Bubbles
4) Nurr Basic Milk Chocolate
5) Nurr Chocolate Ice Cream
6) Nurr Milk Chocolate with Hazelnuts
7) Nurr Chocolate in Chocolate
8) Small Milk Chocolate Bar

1) Nurr Raisins Coated with Chocolate 

The product is exactly what I mentioned.

It’s a small box of raisins coated with milk chocolate.

Since it might be for children, one box weighs only 70g, and maybe it’s unsatisfactory for adults in a sense. Personally I thought this package seemed like some product sold in Flying Tiger most.

Although every Nurr’s product has this cute (?) cat, considering its size, it might be a good souvenir for children. Usually in European or American stores, the sweets’ or snacks’ bags are huge (for the Japanese), but this one is only 70g so it’s easy to eat and carry.

2) Nurr Chocolate with Marshmallows

This is chocolate with marshmallows. It’s a chocolate bar, so you can share it with your companies. Since it contains marshmallows, it’s not easy to break and divide, but still it’s not impossible.

It looked very sweet, but it wasn’t actually that sweet. However, for me one piece one time is enough… Maybe because I don’t usually pay attention to this series, I don’t see this product that often. When I bought it, it was Valentine’s season. Maybe that’s why I saw it that frequently at that time.

Not sure though.

3) Nurr Chocolate with Air Bubbles

This is also a chocolate bar. Looking at it carefully, you’ll find a heart on each piece of chocolate! Since it has air bubbles inside, the texture is light. Like the marshmallow one, it’s not too sweet. You can believe me because the Japanese are sensitive to the sweetness.

Also, comparing this to #1, I don’t often see it at stores. They don’t have big sizes for this of #2, so I think it’s a good option for a souvenir.

4) Basic Milk Chocolate

Kalev’s chocolate bars usually have Kalev’s logo on it, and this chocolate bar also has it. However, I personally want them to have Nurr’s logo on it. The taste is just like a regular milk chocolate.







There’s nothing to stand out.




Nurr’s chocolate is always milk chocolate, so those who don’t like anything sweet or who have low blood pressure should be careful. (When your blood pressure is low, and you eat something very sweet, the blood pressure skyrockets, making you feel nauseous. Believe me, I experienced it.)

5) Nurr Chocolate Ice Cream

Yes! Nurr has ice cream, too!

The taste was very similar to one kind of ice cream sold in Japan that my mum often bought when I was a kid.

However, I wouldn’t buy it again. (I prefer some other brand’s ice cream with lemon flavour, by the way.)

6) Nurr Milk Chocolate with Hazelnuts

One day I went to see a doctor, whose hospital is near Tallinn University. After seeing him, I saw a new advertisement about Nurr.

That was a milk chocolate bar with hazelnuts.

Reference

There was nothing special either.

Like its name, it has hazelnuts in the chocolate bar.

If you do love hazelnuts, maybe it’s happy news, but I wouldn’t personally repeat. Also if I’m in a mood, I might buy it again, but fundamentally I don’t buy candies that often, so that would be a super rare situation.

7) Nurr Chocolate in Chocolate

I updated now but I actually found this in November 2021.

It’s just a bar of chocolate that has small candy chocolate inside.

In my opinion, those candies were interrupting the texture, which does not mean that I hate it.

However, I would not buy it again.

8) Small Milk Chocolate Bar

I bought this in February 2022.

I felt like eating chocolate one day I was working, so I went to Rimi.

I am not sure if it has been there for a long time or a new product.

Milk chocolate, in general, is really sweet, but this one might not make those who are not fond of sweets disgusted.

However, Bounty is better, so I might buy this again, but way less frequently.

Aitäh! 🙂

Zooks Goes to See a Dentist in Estonia.

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Tere!

Did you know that it is almost impossible to have a corona cluster at a dental clinic? At the dental clinic, they treat patients’ mouths, so the hygiene is good, which is said to make it nearly impossible to have a cluster. 

I read this kind of story in some article, but can’t remember the source…

Anyway, I went to see a dentist in Estonia this time!

Actually this is the second time to see a dentist in Estonia, and I did once in 2018.






Because my front tooth got chipped while eating pancakes.




I know it’s unbelievable, but it’s freaking true.

I urgently looked for an English speaking dentist, and she did some treatment for the tipped tooth. In addition, I asked her how my wisdom teeth were, but she said there was no decay and no need to remove them. (It’s painful when it grows in the mouth, but when it stops growing, there is no pain.)

However, she told me not to use toothpaste for whitening which I used at that time.

This is because the whitening toothpaste scratches teeth.

Since then, I have used regular toothpaste. (But it’s actually not that easy to find since these days whitening toothpastes are more common.)

This time I didn’t have any pain due to decay, was annoyed by wisdom teeth, or got another tooth tipped, but I wanted my mouth cleaner. That’s why I went to see a dentist.

In Estonia there is a Facebook group called Expats in Tallinn. One day I found a post about a good English speaking dentist in Tallinn. Many of the answers mentioned Van Thai Nguyen at Roseni Hambakliniik. Just in case I saved the information.

And then, I booked an appointment. (This is irrelevant but his name sounds Vietnamese, doesn’t it?)

You can book an appointment at Roseni Hambakliniik online.

But!

You need your Estonian ID card, so be careful.

As of July 2021, you can’t book with Smart ID.

Due to this system which is relatively old compared to other systems in Estonia, I had to go to TTU/Taltech’s library in order to book an appointment.

(The reason why I chose TTU was because Tallinn University’s libraries were closed due to the summer vacation, and neither was the central library. Yes, I still don’t have a card reader though I have lived in Estonia for four years. That’s because I can basically do anything, usually with the Smart ID.)

You can select a date and time one month ahead on Roseni Hambakliniik’s website, but I did prefer some time in July. On the contrary the dentist seemed to have a vacation at the end of July, so I eventually chose the date and time in the following week.

Then I went to the dental clinic. It’s located in Rottermani district, but it was a bit difficult to find. If you follow the map, you can see a sign board that says:

Go up

with an arrow. Follow the instruction, turn left to the slope side, and you can see the clinic. (It’s also difficult to explain with words, but since there’s the dental clinic’s sign board, it shouldn’t be that hard to find in real life.)

A nurse gave me a questionnaire about COVID-19, after which, I went to the treatment room.

I was right; the dentist was Asian.

He roughly examined my mouth, and said:

You have stains. We can remove them, but it’s out of the insurance. What will you do?

Really?

I came there just to remove calculus, but I didn’t want stains, so I asked how much it would be. He said with removal of both stains and calculus, it would cost 100 euro.






No no no, I don’t have such a huge amount of money now.




So I asked him to just remove the calculus.

You have white spots too.

What’s that?

White spots are basically seen on my front teeth. However, I have had them since I got them, so I told him that I didn’t care that much.

After the treatment, he recommended me to use rubber dental floss because there are some spaces between a few teeth where a string floss cannot clean enough.

Reference

As for my wisdom teeth, there was no problem. (By the way, I have them all.) Other teeth’s conditions were fine too, so he told me that I could come there again next year.

So I’ll go there next summer or some time.

(But I still don’t like having stains… Maybe I’ll buy whitening toothpaste temporarily.)

Aitäh! 🙂

Zooks Faces Allergic Problems in Estonia.

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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.

Reference

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.

Reference

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 Buys A Bike in Estonia.

ZooksLeave a comment

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.

ZooksLeave a comment

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.

ZooksLeave a comment

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.

The pollen allergy medicine that you can buy without a prescription at a pharmacy in Japan. (Reference)

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.

Reference

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 Buys Traction Cleats in Estonia.

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

You may know that I am Japanese (as the website title says so), but you may not know where exactly I am from. I’m from Wakayama which faces the Pacific Ocean, so it’s a pretty warm place. I spent 18 years there, and we said 17 degrees was cold. But now as you know, I live in a place where the lowest outside degree can be -20 degrees.

Last few years in Estonia, winter has been quite warm. I have lived in Estonia for three years and half now and here’s what I bought after experiencing four winter:

Traction cleats!!

Can you imagine what this is? Imagine the shoes for football then. They have spikes on the shoe bottom. For football, those spikes prevent players from slipping on the grass ground. So the logic is the same for the Estonian winter situation.

The traction cleats also prevent slipping not on the grass ground but on the icy roads!!!

When it comes to the climate in Europe, many people might think it’s pretty dry, but in Estonia it’s relatively humid. The logic is like this: it snows, the snow melts a bit, and it becomes ice. Thus some parts of the grounds are icy and slippery.

And this is very dangerous.

Additionally if the icy part of the road is under the snow, you immediately fall on the ground.

That’s why you need gloves. (In fact, once I didn’t wear them and fell on the icy ground, and I got a hand cut in Estonia.)

This winter it started snowing later than usual, but the real feel went down -20 degrees, and eventually it snowed a lot. However, some time around Valentine’s Day, the snow started melting, and it rained on the previous day of the Independence Day (which is on the 24th February). And this rain was awful.

After it stopped raining, I wanted to go to a supermarket, and was about to step out. Then I fell on the ground.

After all, the lower back had hurt for two days.

Immediately I gave up trying to go to a supermarket.

There is a parking lot in front of the main hallway of my flat building, and the parking lots tend to be really icy and become slippery. So all the ground was frozen. THAT WAS THE HELL.

But I still wanted to make a potato salad, so I decided to get ice spikes. (One of my Estonian mates said they eat potato salad on Independence Day. I wanted to have some tradition like Pancake Tuesday in Ireland/the UK, on which we have pancakes.

Then in the morning of Independence Day, I compared the taxi prices of Yandex (Russian Uber) and Bolt (Estonian Uber), and went to Kristiine keskus by Bolt. One of the members of a Facebook group called Tallinn Expats mentioned Prisma’s shoe corner has the traction cleats. I went to the corner, but I couldn’t find it so I wandered around Prisma, and then found the rack specifically for traction cleats.

What I wanted.

There are two products: 9 EUR one and 6 EUR one. It seemed both were supposed to have four size ranges, but two middle size ranges were all gone. What I wanted was the second smallest one. The cheaper type had only the biggest size range. After wondering if I should buy the smallest size in 9 EUR or give up, I eventually decided to buy one. Luckily I could wear them!

What I bought.

By the way the shoes that I was wearing at that time were size 36, usually I choose size 38 (in Europe). The traction cleats that I bought had size 35 at maximum. I think I could wear them because those are made of rubber.

Those were not cheap, and it was a sudden expense, but it was good shopping. I feel like I could walk 95% confidently. The rest 5% is that I still slip wearing those, but I didn’t fall on the ground anymore.

Therefore, when you come to Estonia in winter, I highly recommend you to bring traction cleats!

Aitäh! 🙂

Zooks Goes to myfitness in Estonia.

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

Do you remember that I changed my job in Estonia? Timbeter where I used to work for was a super startup, and there was almost no company’s benefit. If you include, the commission (7% of the sales) is possibly said to be one. But normally it’s not counted as a benefit. 

In the beginning of working at Timbeter, they gave a laptop but it was really old. Also at that time I didn’t know of a free software which enables switching Japanese and English by alt keys, so eventually I used my own laptop to work.

Before I resigned from Timbeter, the company got invested so everyone got new laptops, but I didn’t get one because I never went to the office. Besides I was working, planning to quit so I didn’t see any point to get a new company laptop, and didn’t waste their money.

Then I successfully got a new job, and the new company gave me Macbook Pro. It sounds like I got a rich laptop, but don’t forget — this time’s theme is not the laptop but the company’s benefits, particularly a gym membership.

In my current company, there is a very small gym, but it can have only a few people, so we have options to use the third parties’ gyms like myfitness or Gym!. The company compensates and we have a determined amount of money per month. What is more, we are required to register the sports ID at Stebby, so we cannot use the compensation for entertaining sports like bowling.

The company recommends us to use myfitness which is an Estonian (or perhaps Baltic) chain gym. In Estonia, as far as I know, the cheapest gym is Gym! which you have to pay only 15 EUR if you contract one year. However myfitness has more gyms all over Tallinn.

Usually it costs 58 EUR for one full package at myfitness, which is pretty expensive, but with this sportID called Stebby, it costs us only 49 EUR. I found one 15 minutes away from home by walk, so I started going there almost every morning to run.

Depending on the gym, if it is a large place, they have a swimming pool too. I guess any gym has saunas because it is connected with the shower space. It is a great opportunity so I started going there every Saturday. (Of course I can’t go either to the sauna or even to the

As an extra information, I also started 30-day challenge (iOS, Android) training, and eating three boiled eggs instead of protein shake.

Reference

I’m not sure what I have been aiming for, but in Estonia where there are more than 1000 corona cases per day, the restrictions have got stricter. I was nearly forced to stay home all day due to the lockdown, I decided to do some even small exercise. 

Besides, in the psychiatric hospital they ask me if I do some exercise like taking a walk because of the happy hormone that we can get while working out. This hormone makes us positive. (However, it doesn’t guarantee anything because we still possibly get depressed even if we work out like I did.) Plus, the protein reduces frustration. There are plenty of positive effects, but I didn’t like any exercise or sports except swimming as a kid. This is becauseI was slow to run, and bad at ball games.

At the gym I don’t have to care about any other “outside” things, so I can run at my own pace. From Monday to Friday I listen to different playlists for running, which is pretty good (not during the lockdown).

Although Estonia started a lockdown again, we don’t have any restriction to go outside, so if I have time, I’ll start taking a walk in the morning instead of running in the gym.

Aitäh! 🙂