Tag: Tallinn

Zooks Gets Driving Licence in Estonia.

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

On the latter half of the trip in Ireland 2022, I felt I wanted to be able to drive a car in Europe. After the trip, I searched for information about driving schools in Tallinn and made a plan. I’ve already had a Japanese driving licence for MT cars so I could drive outside Japan too (as in countries like Ireland or Germany, MT is more major than AT), and yet I was not allowed to get an international driving licence in Estonia anymore due to the Geneva Convention, in which it’s written that those who have lived in Estonia more than one year need to get an Estonian driving licence if they want to drive in Estonia.

In this article, I will explain all the process to get an Estonian driving licence which is called the “B category” licence in Estonia.

Table of Contents

     1. Preparation to Start Taking a B-category Course in Estonia
          a. How to Choose a Driving School in Estonia
          b. Costs for a Driving School in Estonia
          c. The Process to Get a Driving Licence in Estonia
     2. Theory Course in Sky Autokool
     3. Driving Lessons in Sky Autokool
     4. Special Courses in Sky Autokool
          a. Night Driving
          b. Slippery-Road Driving
          c. First Aid
     5. Driving School’s Exams
          a. Driving School’s Theory Exam
          b. Driving School’s Driving Exam
               i. The First Driving Exam in Driving School
               ii. The Second Driving Exam in Driving School
     6. State (ARK’s) Exams
          a. ARK’s Theory Exam
          b. ARK’s Driving Exam
               i. The First Driving Exam in ARK
               ii. The Second Driving Exam in ARK
               iii. The Third Driving Exam in ARK
     7. After the Driving Exam in ARK
          a. Are You Not Yet Allowed To Drive?
          b. The Number of Days till You Get Your Driving Licence
     8. Appendix
          a. Liikluslab – Self-Learning Platform for the Theory Exam
          b. Private Driving Lessons
     ★Summary

1. Preparation to Start Taking a B-category Course in Estonia

Since I decided to get a driving licence in Estonia, I started searching for information about when to start going to driving school in Estonia and how much it would cost. This was my first step as it costs to get a driving licence.

a. How to Choose a Driving School in Estonia

I decided to take a B-category driving course in Sky Autokool which I bookmarked on Facebook a long time ago because many people recommended Sky Autokool in the Expat group on Facebook. There are a few additional reasons for this.

Firstly, they offer the driving course in English. Though I’d already had B1 in Estonian, I wasn’t sure if I could understand the traffic rules in Estonian. Also, whatever the language is, it is hard for me to deal with information by listening, so I was sure that my brain wouldn’t work sufficiently well if I listened to the language I was learning. Therefore, I didn’t have any other options but English. As many expats are not so fluent in Estonian either, if a driving school has courses in English, it easily becomes popular.

Secondly, many expats in the group simply said “Sky Autokool was good!”. I checked some other driving schools in Tallinn and compared them with Sky Autokool. Based on the comparison, Sky Autokool seemed better for me as well.

Lastly, Sky Autokool offers in-class theory classes with live-streaming and on-demand theory classes. The latter option includes the self-learning platform for the theory exam called Liikluslab. As I thought I just needed to be online for the live-streaming theory classes after work and didn’t want to use Liikluslab yet when starting the course, I chose the live-streaming (in-class) one.

b. Costs for a Driving School in Estonia

Sky Autokool has the pricing for the B-category course on their website. However, the payment option and how to calculate it was not really written there. If you have questions, you can always ask them. (I literally asked them a lot before starting!)

In their calculation, it appeared to cost around 1100 EUR in total, and yet considering cases where I fail in exams, and I need additional driving lessons as well as the subscription for Liikluslab, I calculated how much I would need to save every month.

Since I-don’t-know-when, I started “one-cent saving”, and after one year, I use that saving in case I need a relatively big amount of money. So using that savings, I had a budget of 2000 EUR in total.

In Sky Autokool, what you firstly need to pay is the registration fee and the theory classes, which cost 260 EUR. When starting the driving lessons, salaries of 210 EUR for a driving instructor (as they are entrepreneurs) and 420 EUR for the lesson car (15 EUR per lesson), which costs 630 EUR in total, will be paid. This amount is actually divided into the minimum number of lessons, so one class costs 22.50 EUR. However, in Sky Autokool, they conduct two classes per time/lesson, meaning that if you take one driving lesson, you need to pay 45 EUR. Plus, most likely you will be asked to pay in cash. (The calculation is a bit weird and old here so I recommend you skip the detailed calculation part and access the page from the paragraph below.)

In addition to the basic lessons above, you will need to pay for other special courses such as a night driving course, a slippery-road driving course and a first aid course.

In the end, you will also need to pay for the exams in Sky Autokool and for the state exams (ARK’s exams).

Though I wrote a bit of details, Sky Autokool’s pricing page explains much visually easier anyways. 😂 Also the prices above are as of 2022.

By the way, whichever AT or MT you choose, it costs the same. (In Japan, AT costs less.)

I personally recommend you get a driving licence for MT so you are allowed to drive AT cars too. It’s just more convenient.

c. The Process to Get a Driving Licence in Estonia

The process to get a driving licence in Estonia starts with a theory class in a driving school unlike Japan. When I went to a driving school in Kyoto, the first lesson was a driving lesson. However, the reason why in Estonia they let a learner start taking the theory lessons first was to learn the traffic signs and rules before driving on the real roads. In Estonia we practise driving on the real roads basically and the exams are conducted on the real roads as well whilst in Japan we mainly practise in the practice areas. This is why without knowing the Estonian traffic rules, you can’t really drive on the real roads in Estonia.

In Sky Autokool, they recommend students start driving lessons after taking a few theory classes because of the reason above.

In Estonia, the minimum number of driving practices is determined, which is 26 times. This excludes the special courses like a night driving course. Since you can take the driving lessons after a couple of theory classes, in fact from some points you need to attend both the theory classes and the driving lessons.

When starting the first driving lesson, my driving instructor recommended that I should take Sky Autokool’s theory exam and ARK (Autoregistrikeskuse — vehicle registration centre)’s theory exam after finishing all the driving lessons. I think this is because then you are used to the real roads so you know better after completing the driving lessons. Therefore, the flow is to take the driving school’s theory exam after completing the driving lessons, and to take ARK’s theory exam after passing the driving school’s theory exam.

As for ARK’s driving exam, like their theory exam, you cannot take it without passing the driving school’s driving exam. Plus, ARK’s driving exam was much more difficult than the driving exam in Japan, and you might need to queue a lot. (Strictly speaking, this depends on the season and timing.) So my instructor advised me to book one exam anyway, and if the date and time are not ideal, I could change a few days before the exam because sometimes students cancel the booked exams.

2. Theory Course in Sky Autokool

In Sky Autokool, there are seven theory classes in total, and it takes two hours per class. Every class began at 6 pm, so I accessed the live-streaming class right after getting home from work. Although they said one class would take two hours, in reality the classes often finished within two hours. Since it was live-streaming, students could also ask questions online from home.

What is more, we had homework videos and quizzes after homework.

What I felt while taking the theory classes in Sky Autokool was there were so many traffic signs. 😂

3. Driving Lessons in Sky Autokool

In my case, I started my driving lessons during the week when I had the third theory class in Sky Autokool.

When I asked the person-in-charge in Sky Autokool how to register for the driving lessons, he did it immediately on his own. Since I already went to see my GP to check my body condition for the B-category driving licence before starting the theory course in Sky Autokool, the process went very smoothly. This health check is a must-do before driving a car. You can ask your GP for the B-category health check. Mine charged me 40 EUR for the health check for the B-category driving licence.

In addition, on the side of Sky Autokool, they had to register me as a driving learner in Estonia. Since they do for us, students do not have to do anything specific. After the registration, I received an email from Transpordiamet (ARK).

Also, the person-in-charge in Sky Autokool asked me AT or MT, so I told him MT. Then he gave me the phone number of my instructor.

As it was a phone number, I wondered if I should ring or message him, but as I don’t like calling strangers, I messaged him eventually, and he replied to me. I booked one session which was conducted in the practice area. In this area it costs extra unlike the driving schools in Japan, you need to enter there with your phone. If your phone cannot charge you, the instructor should pay alternatively, and you can pay them back later. That is what I did.

4. Special Courses in Sky Autokool

In Estonia, in order to graduate from a driving school, you need to take special courses separately. (However, these courses do not require separate exams.)

As they are special courses, you need to pay for them separately.

a. Night Driving

First of all, let’s talk about night driving. Personally, this course was very appreciative because there was no such a course in Japan. You will also drive on a highway in the dark in this course.

I had the night driving course in winter in Estonia, and suddenly one question popped up in my head while doing it, so I asked my instructor.

“How do you conduct the night driving practice in summer?”

In Estonia it’s bright at night in summer, even at almost 0 am, it’s pretty bright. (Technically, it’s very slightly dark, but you can walk around and see everything.)

In such a season in Estonia, when a student practise for the night driving, he said

“They use a simulator.”

Also he told me that






And every time, the student driver hits an animal there.

😂


However, as long as it’s dark outside, they offer the practice outside, so even if the environmental condition is with snow, ice and/or rain, which is scary for the beginners, the instructors still take us to highways. 😂

However, even though it was scary in the beginning, on the way back, you will already be used to it. 😂

I’m not sure if it is only in Sky Autokool, but it seemed the course usually took place with one instructor and two students. However, in my case, the other student didn’t come so I just had a special course with the usual instructor like always. 😂

By the way, before this night driving lesson, I had to watch the video that Sky Autokool sent me. (It means that this course has a “theory class” too.)

The course cost 60 EUR as of 2022.

b. Slippery-Road Driving

In Estonia in winter, it snows a lot and there is ice on the ground in February, which is too dangerous to walk. During the winter time, a car owner needs to change their tyres for the winter version too. (In Estonia they sell all-year tyres as well.)

This is why in Estonia another special course “slippery-road driving” is a must-take. In Sky Autokool, you also need to watch the lecture video beforehand.

Roughly speaking, you learn the differences among driving on the regular asphalt ground, half asphalt and half frozen/slippery ground and slippery ground.

It was also a pair (two students for one instructor) course. We met in Laagri, Harju county in Estonia, and a person-in-charge from Sky Autokool drove us to Laitse Rally Park in 20 minutes. (She also drove us back to the meeting place on the way back from Laitse Rally Park.)

The other student was learning how to drive cars with an AT. The instructor was a guy for this course. Since I was practising for MT, the other student tried first.

I was too scared of the sudden brake at 30 km/h. 😂 (Though after the first try I was fine because I knew when it would happen.)

However, I realised how easy it was to drive a car with AT because you can reach a faster speed so quickly. Since that AT car didn’t have a switch to turn off ABS, we switched to a car with MT.






It got me scared twice.

Firstly, I drove at 50 km/h on ice and then turned the wheel (without acceleration or brake).

Too scary as the car spinned 150 degrees or so.

Then I drove on the asphalt on the left and on the ice on the right without ABS. The speed was around 50 km/h.

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I literally screamed like this while driving but not like MJ.

It was very scary because I literally felt the car per se was turning diagonally.

After the course, I seriously thought to be careful driving in winter.

The course cost 100 EUR as of 2022.

c. First Aid

On one weekend in February, 2023, I had a course of first aid. I expected it would take a few hours in the morning, and yet in fact the theory class took place in the morning and in the afternoon there was a practical lesson.

In other words, I had to spend a whole day on the first aid course.

Besides, they changed the plan from Saturday to Sunday.

In more detail, the theory for the first aid course took place online at 9.30 am. I thought it would last until around 12.30 pm, but there was a 10-minute break and it ended past 11 am. Since there were some medical terms, I was taking the class by checking those terms’ meanings from time to time.

The afternoon lesson started at 1.30 pm. We checked what we learnt in the morning, and how to place an unconscious person’s body and how to do chest compression. I knew how to do chest compression as I learnt it in Japan. However, I felt it was my first time learning how to place the unconscious person’s body. We had to perform this as a pair. There were some students who had already known each other and they were a pair of a man and a woman. So in the end, I was left because I didn’t want an unknown guy to touch my body, but the lecturer didn’t point it out, so I didn’t have to perform this activity with an unknown guy.

I never wish an unknown guy to touch my body unless it’s urgent/highly necessary and/orI’m unconscious. (In other words, paramedics, doctors, nurses and gym trainers are okay.)

I wished the instructor had considered such a thing better in advance.

The first aid course in Sky Autokool had a test, and we had to submit our answers in three days after the course. The test was really simple with around 15 questions in a word file.

Once you pass it, you will receive a certificate. (I’m not sure what will happen if you fail in it.)

5. Driving School’s Exams

In this chapter, let’s talk about the driving school’s exams.

a. Driving School’s Theory Exam

In the beginning of November, 2022, all the theory classes finished. As Sky Autokool’s rule, the students had to take the driving school’s theory exam on Liikluslab (a self-learning platform for the driving theory) within four weeks after the end of the theory course.

According to the lecturer, he mentioned this in the beginning of the theory class, but of course I didn’t remember it at all, so I thought “Shit!” and registered on Liikluslab immediately though I planned to do it in the middle of November. The reason why I had a plan for the registration on Liikluslab was because Liikluslab’s subscription for one payment was valid for three months and I didn’t want to pay for another three-month subscription by failing in the theory exams.

I read each chapter in Liikluslab five times, passed the quizzes of each chapter once, and did the mock exams 10 times. (In Liikluslab, it is recommended to pass the mock exam three times in a row in order to pass the state theory exam in one time. However, to feel more sure, I took the mock exam 10 times on Liikluslab. I wanted to pass the theory exam with one try. 😂)

One day in November, 2022, I was in Osaka, Japan. While I was staying in Osaka, I had a plan to meet someone only in the evening, and didn’t want to take the driving school’s theory exam just before the due date, so I took the driving school’s theory exam on Liikluslab three or four days before the due date. In Sky Autokool, the borderline to pass the driving school’s theory exam on Liikluslab was allowing up to four mistakes out of 40 questions, within which if an examinee has two mistakes or more on the traffic safety, then they fail. In other words, even though you have four mistakes in total, if you have two mistakes about the traffic safety, then you fail in the driving school’s theory exam.

In my case, I had three mistakes in total and no mistakes on the traffic safety.

Therefore, I passed the driving school’s theory exam in one try!

I was so relieved after the driving school’s theory exam as the first step to get the driving licence was completed.

By the way, in Sky Autokool, if you take the driving school’s theory exam within four weeks after the theory course finishes, and should you fail in the theory exam, according to them, you don’t have to take the second theory exam within the same four weeks.

b. Driving School’s Driving Exam

I took the driving school’s driving exams twice. To put it another way, I failed in the driving exam on the first try, and passed it on the second try.

However, I knew that I would fail on the first try because I had to postpone the exam appointment due to the sprain on my foot which caused the blank time for two weeks with no driving experience, and because I had a confidence that I would not be able to confidently drive well in one of the tricky area in Tallinn called Nõmme. In addition to these reasons, it is fairly normal in Estonia that learners almost always fail in the first driving exam, so the failure was not a big deal for me.

i. The First Driving Exam in the Driving School

Though it was the driving school’s driving exam, the examiner was not my instructor, and the car was different as well. Since I had no idea about both the driving exam and the car, before the driving exam, the examiner in the driving school explained to me what I can do at the ARK’s driving exam before its exam.

First of all, some people had told me that I could use the lesson car at ARK’s driving exam whilst Sky Autokool didn’t have such a comfortable option in ARK’s driving exam and I was told to use ARK’s exam car, which means that a car model and its functionalities are different from the lesson car. Therefore, the examinees are allowed the examinee to check functionalities in the car on their own and to ask some questions to the examiner before the exam starts.

Then, the driving exam begins with a few questions. For example, they ask the examinee how to turn on the wipers and how to turn on the emergency switch. You can also check these questions on Liikluslab.

After the questions, you start driving on the real exam route.There are some exam routes in Tallinn from the easier one to the tricky one. (My instructor let me practise these exam routes in the latter half of the driving lesson course.)

Of course I had no idea which exam route the examiner would choose. However, as briefly mentioned earlier, I failed in Nõmme where there were roads from one-way with two lines to one-way with one line, and from 30 km/h sign to sudden change of 50 km/h, etc.

In addition to them, there was one misreading of the sign, so I didn’t pass the exam.

Otherwise I had no problems (like using a car itself).

For the driving school’s driving exam, it cost the same as one driving lesson in the driving school, which was 45 EUR (as of 2023).

ii. The Second Driving Exam in the Driving School

In Sky Autokool, the examiner shared my mistakes with my instructor, so I could practise once again, focusing on driving in Nõmme, before the second exam. I got a lot of confidence because I practised driving for 90 minutes almost only in Nõmme.😂

I also practised the place where I misread the sign, so I reviewed all the failed parts, and went for the second driving exam in Sky Autokool.

On the second try, though we didn’t go to Nõmme, there was one place where I got confused; there was an intersection and where we had two lines, and there was a sign. The examiner told me to go straight, but I saw all the cars in front of me only turned right, so I wasn’t sure what I saw. I didn’t want to make a mistake, hence as a safer solution, I turned right. Although I didn’t follow the examiner’s order, the action I took was acceptable because the most important thing in the driving exam is “to drive safely”. Should I really have misread the sign and gone straight from the lane where I was and it allowed only turning right, I would have failed in the exam again. However, since I took the safer solution, it was alright. The examiner will take you to the correct direction after such an incident in case it happens during your exam so you don’t need to worry about that.

Also, while it was March and there was still some snow on the ground, since it was not as snowy as January, I had to drive at 90 km/h on a highway. (90 km/h is the legally maximum speed on highways for learners and junior drivers in Estonia.) However, I was chicken and tended to increase the speed little by little, so the examiner asked me what the speed limit was when I had a big difference between the speed limit and the speed I had. Of course I knew what the speed limit was, so I was increasing the speed. However, then I almost caught up to a white van in front of me, which made me reduce the speed to 70 km/h.

Then, my examiner requested me to take a U-turn on a highway. Coincidentally, this van also took the U-turn, due to which I could not decrease the speed in the deceleration lane properly and increase the speed in the acceleration lane either.

What is more, two cars passed our car while I was making the U-turn on the highway, and they and I had to drive at 40 km/h on the highway because of that white van. I instinctively said “That white van…”, and my examiner just said “He’s a motherfucker.” 😂

Since a truck was coming, I couldn’t overtake the white van, and yet they started stopping on the edge of the highway, so then I passed them. After that, I successfully finished the exam.

The driving exam was not ideally conducted because of that white van, but I passed the driving school’s driving exam!

When I finished the exam, my examiner told me “Even if today’s exam was ARK’s driving exam, you can pass it. If you can drive this car so smoothly, you won’t have any problems with the exam car.”

All I remember after his comment is that I was wondering which cake I should buy at Kaubamaja (a department store in Tallinn). 😂

6. State (ARK’s) Exams

To get a driving licence in Estonia, in addition to the driving school’s exams, you need to take both a theory exam and a driving exam in ARK too.

You can book exams on Transpordiamet’s E-service.

a. ARK’s Theory Exam

I took ARK’s theory exam at the end of 2022. Since I’m stingy and I wanted to pass ARK’s theory exam on the first try, I studied on Liikluslab almost every day.

ARK’s theory exam cost 46 EUR including the registration fee. If you need to take it once more, you will need to pay 46 EUR again.

ARK’s theory exam took place in ARK’s building in Tallinn. Once the examiner opens the exam room’s door, you need to bring only your ID card, check your registration with the examiner and take an assigned seat. The examiner explains a bit in Estonian.

Each examinee has one tablet, and you can choose the exam language from Estonian, Russian or English. Then you need to enter your ID number.

Before you start the theory exam, you can take a short mock exam that consists of three questions. Just in case, I took it, and then did the theory exam.

It the real theory exam, you can skip or mark questions, so I went through everything by marking concerning parts to check them later. There were three questions that I was not sure of.

In ARK’s theory exam, you can have up to five mistakes, and if there are six and more mistakes, you fail. Plus, even if the total number of the mistakes is five, there are two or more mistakes about the traffic safety, you will fail.

The result was too quickly shown on the tablet, and I passed ARK’s theory exam with three mistakes (which are the ones I marked.)

Before that, everyone said to me that “Most people fail on the first try”, and yet I thought you wouldn’t feel even the tricky questions are really tricky as long as you prepare for the theory exam well enough on Luukluslab.

Like the driving school’s theory exam, I was more than happy to pass ARK’s theory exam on the first try.

b. ARK’s Driving Exam

I couldn’t take ARK’s driving exam right after completing the driving school’s driving exam because I needed to do something in Sky Autokool. (However, I’m not sure about other driving schools.)

Firstly, I had to bring the learner’s card (a document where my instructor and the driving school’s examiner wrote about lesson details and the driving schools’ driving exam result) to Sky Autokool. However, at that time, the person-in-charge was absent, and I was going to travel for a while, so I couldn’t bring him this document immediately. Also, he asked me if I completed other special courses (such as the slippery-road driving, the night driving, and first aid). This is because without completing these, you cannot graduate from the driving school.

I honestly thought it would be faster if the instructor brought the document to him. 😂

As for ARK’s driving exam, as a principle, it is conducted in Estonian, so I had to bring someone as an interpreter. (I said “interpreter” but technically it was my instructor on the first try and his colleague on the second and third tries.) You could bring your friend or partner, and yet I personally recommend your instructor as in case you fail in ARK’s driving exam, the instructor explains in more detail when practising again, and they can guide you better as they know traffic terminology in English as well. They charged me 45 EUR per time, but it might depend on the instructors or the driving school.

As you might be aware, I tried three times. (I passed ARK’s driving exam on the third try.)

i. The First Driving Exam in ARK

I took the first driving exam in ARK on the 4th of April, 2023. The result was: fail.

The examiner was quite a strict person, however he didn’t finish the exam and let me drive a bit more.

ARK’s driving exam starts from the parking area in the ARK building, so if you fail at the intersection after the parking area, it means some examiners can end the exam within 5 minutes. I also made a mistake at the intersection (though I didn’t notice my mistake), he let me drive on a highway as well. After that, I had to stop.

ii. The Second Driving Exam in ARK

I took the second driving exam in ARK in two weeks, on the 21st of April, 2023. The result was negative again. As I wasn’t confident enough last time, my instructor told me to be more confident, but I felt that was not the point. 😂 That day my instructor’s colleague came with me as an interpreter, who was very good as an! He advised me which examiner has what kind of tricky points they like to challenge examinees!! However, I couldn’t imagine the ticky places he told me well, so I failed in the driving exam again. In more detail I failed because I turned to the left from the right lane on a one-way road. (Although he told me about this place in advance! 😂)

iii. The Third Driving Exam in ARK

In Estonia, a person who is over 16 or something 18 and more is allowed to get a driving licence. Summer in Estonia was coming, and schools were nearly over, probably because of which I had to wait a month until the next driving exam in ARK. I booked an exam before the trip to Sweden, which was the 26th of May, 2023.

Since instructors constantly accept new learners and offer lessons to those who are in the process, my instructor didn’t have many options for many practice dates for me. Hence I booked one lesson one week before the driving exam. If my body is used to driving, it’s the best of all, and yet daily lives are not always ideal and the instructor told me my techniques were good, so instead of having multiple driving lessons, I watched Sky Autokool’s videos about the exam routes five or six times. I wanted to be engaged with driving somehow, and every time I drove the instructor told me to concentrate on driving more. I know the reason; as I have ADHD, when someone told me to turn right, I tended to focus on the action “turning” and missed the signs around there. Therefore, I watched their videos and remembered the tricky points in the routes. (I knew that I was able to remember stuff as images quite well.)

On the exam date, the same person (my instructor’s colleague) came with me as an interpreter, and the result was positive! Though I passed the exam, I thought I met the minimum score. The examiner told me my driving score was three out of five. I also know why; since I’m not good at multitasking in some situations due to ADHD, I couldn’t deal with multiple information quickly enough such as whether I had a priority on a road or someone else. (The comments from the examiner were about such things.)

When I went to driving school, my previous Italian colleague who eventually got laid off despised me, saying “Videos are not useful! lol”, but you know that people who want to look down on you are simply idiots. Besides, this previous colleague has gotten a fine ticket because he drove in Estonia in an Italian way (he didn’t show the indicator). In fact, Sky Autokool’s videos were highly helpful. I drove in the exam, remembering “I saw this place in the video” or thinking “Soon there will be a tricky point”.

However, as written earlier, ARK’s driving exam starts from the parking area and ends when you park the car in the same parking area. Therefore, when you come back somewhere around Nõmme, and feel “Soon the exam should end,” you still need to concentrate on driving. My ADHD trait appeared again when the examiner told me to park a car in ARK’s parking area. I focused on parking, and forgot to check the right side when moving in the parking area.The examiner asked me what the rule there was, and he seemed to think I understood the rule itself, and luckily there was no one on the right so we didn’t have any accident either.

The ARK examiners are all attentive to details but they have different strictness. On the third try, the examiner seemed to judge me that I didn’t ignorantly drive a car. I would say he was sort of considerate but also I think I was fortunate.

In the end, for some reason, my instructor was also in ARK’s parking area, and he took a photo of me. 😂

7. After the Driving Exam in ARK

Now let’s talk about some facts until you physically receive your Estonian driving licence.

a. Are You Not Yet Allowed To Drive?

In Estonia, after passing ARK’s driving exam, it takes some time until you receive your Estonian driving licence. However, it does not mean that you are NOT allowed to drive yet!

Since residents in Estonia have their personal IDs, their ID and their driving information are connected. Therefore, after passing ARKs’ driving exam until you receive your Estonian driving licence, you are allowed to drive a car with your Estonian ID card. (I admire this kind of point in Estonia because it’s so convenient.)

b. The Number of Days till You Get Your Driving Licence

Also, once your Estonian driving licence is shipped, you will receive an email from ARK. It says you will receive your Estonian driving licence within 10 days, and yet in my case I got mine the next day.

8. Appendix

As additional information to get a driving licence in Estonia, I summarise information about further self-learning and private driving practice.

One is a platform for the theory exam called Liikluslab, and the other one is a right to practise privately in Estonia.

a. Liikuslab – Self-Learning Platform for the Theory Exam

In Estonia, a self-learning platform for the theory exam called Liikluslab is available in Estonia, Russian, and English. You can use the demo version for free, but you need to pay if you want to learn more seriously and take some mock exams.

In the beginning I thought I might not need Liikluslab, but in Sky Autokool, unlike the driving school in Japan, the students didn’t get any materials. The theory course only gives the students permission to watch the archived lecture videos, which means if I wanted to review the theory by myself, I had to watch those videos one by one.

I was too lazy to watch all the videos and can understand much faster by reading, I reconsider Liikluslab’s subscription.

Although Liikluslab says they have subscriptions, their popular plan is not one-month subscription but valid for three months. I don’t remember the other optison as I didn’t need them. 😂

Liikluslab’s three-month subscription contains the materials with which I could review what I learnt in the theory course as well as go through mock exams. What is more, there are functions with which you can mark some questions as favourites and relearn the questions that you made mistakes on. Also, Liikluslab’s platform shows the possibility to pass the theory exam in a percentage, which varies depending on the number of correct answers in quizzes or the mock exams in addition to the status of leaning. Last not but least, Liikluslab’s platform visualises whether you passed the mock exams three times in a row so that you can pass the real ARK theory exam too. On Liikluslab, 50 mock exams are available.

It cost only 35 EUR, so I really felt it was worth subscribing. Now it costs 42.95 EUR, and yet they have some special gifts: a voucher that the user can park in a paid parking called Snabb with 20% OFF and a 20-EUR voucher of Casco insurance.

What is more, when I subscribed, I could access the platform only from a browser but now their app is available on Android too as of June 2023.

b. Private Driving Lessons

As for the private driving practice, if you legally register, you can practise driving privately. Of course you always need to bring your private instructor when practising driving. Anyone can basically be your private instructor but they have to have a driving licence for at least five years, and no penalties for one year at minimum.

Though I had an opportunity in my case, and the guy willingly offered it to me on his own, I couldn’t get connected with him, so I kept going to the driving school.

I thought “Hell to you. ⭐” (It means “Don’t let me expect.”)

When you practise driving privately, don’t forget the learner’s signs on the car.

★Summary

Given that you want to get a driving licence in Estonia, based on my own judgement and prejudice, I would recommend starting at the end of summer or the beginning of autumn.

The reasons are that you can practise driving in the real darkness for the special course “night driving”, and it could be much easier to pass ARK’s exam if it’s heavily snowy as you can’t see the signs and the road lines properly enough so the examiners tend to choose the easiest routes (according to my instructor).

However, if you take and pass ARK’s exam without snow, you would be more authentically confident when driving alone.

Ah, I’m so happy that I’m finally eligible to drive in Europe!!

Aitäh! 🙂

Body Composition Analysis at Myfitness in Estonia.

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

Do you have a body fat scale? It’s a type of scale with which you can measure not only weight and fat rate/weight but also skeletal muscle rate/weight, body age, body water, etc. (The measurable items can be different depending on body fat scales.) You can buy a home body fat scale at a reasonable price, and it’s easy to measure. On the other hand it is not super accurate. Therefore, I went to Myfitness which is the biggest chain gym in Estonia (or even in the Baltics?) to analyse my body composition!!

Table of Contents

1. The very original reason: diet
2. Not only weight is important
3. How can you analyse your body composition in Tallinn, Estonia?
4. Body composition analysis at Myfitness
★Summary

1. The very original reason: diet

Around in 2019, I used to go to the cheapest gym in Estonia called “Gym!” (paying 15 EUR per month with a one-year contract at that time), but I terminated the contract after one year due to the depression. Then in October 2021, I rejoined Gym!, and started to try to lose weight, but I lost only a couple of kilos regardless of the diet (eating) and exercise. After losing a few kilos, there had been no change until January 2022.

When I came to Estonia (2017), I was less fat than who I was at this time (2021), but due to the atypical depression, I could eat only a specific food. This is the reason why I gained weight. Furthermore, what I was able to eat at that time was biscuits. Furthermore + more, it was something like Oreo. I bought fresh foods but I couldn’t eat because I had no energy to cook, so obviously I gained weight. (I didn’t want to gain weight, so I had a mind to manage and control the amount, but it was still sweet.)

Then I talked to my psychologist at that time about it, and she gave me a list of foods that boost serotonin. For the present, I started eating fruits when I wanted to eat something sweet. Then I started a new job as well as a new Estonian language course, which made me feel as if I had started a new life. For this reason, I gain energy and motivation to resume going to the gym.

In the past, quite a long time ago, I once tried to lose weight, switching the meal plans in the morning and in the evening, and ran after waking up. Since in this way I lost some weight, I tried the same thing again, but there was no satisfactory result. (I personally don’t consider a couple of losses in kilo as an actual weight loss.)

So, I decided to try a ketogenic diet which I had doubted until then, starting at the end of February, 2022. As a result, I lost a lot. (Literally a lot. Although I don’t mention the exact amount here yet.)

To sum up, the diet to lose weight is the very beginning.

2. Not only weight is important

While being on a diet, since I lost quite a lot of weight, I started to pay attention to details such as weight in detailed digits, body fat, muscle mass, etc. Then I bought acme’s body fat scale, and showed the first measured result partially to my boyfriend, and he said

“These numbers are impossible lol”

😂

I did agree with him though.

I wondered if the body fat scale was broken, so I requested to replace it with a new one, but I found that this body fat scale had a very low quality as a body fat scale.

3. How can you analyse your body composition in Tallinn, Estonia?

Even though I understand that with a home body fat scale we cannot measure very accurately, I still wanted to see numbers as accurately as possible. For this reason, I thought before buying a new body fat scale, I should analyse my body composition in a professional way so that I can have a precise date to compare. Then I googled where in Tallinn, Estonia I could get a body composition analysis, and got results that it is possible not only in a medical centre like Confido but also in a gym or spa (in which there is a gym).

As expected, I didn’t choose Confido’s body composition analysis as it cost 50 EUR, but I found in Viimsi Spa a non-gym member could get a body composition analysis for 18 EUR. So I contacted a trainer, and yet because the facility had been under preparation even after waiting for one month, I decided to contact Kalev Spa in Tallinn.

I still have not received any replies.

So I googled the biggest gym, Myfitness, I found the service! Once I contacted them, the communication was so smooth.

4. Body composition analysis at Myfitness

On the day I booked a body composition analysis, I went to one of the gyms of Myfitness in Tallinn. Before the body composition analysis began, they lended me a key and a paddle lock for a locker..

Then I went to the trainer’s room. The first thing that I did was to measure my height.

I didn’t get shorter. 😂

I was still 162 cm.

Then I measured my body with a professional fat scale with 99% accuracy, and immediately I got a result.

The trainer explained everything in the result paper, and my findings are:

  • My body composition is average in all the items
  • I should gain a bit more muscle.

(By the way, the result paper was in Estonian, and the trainer was Egyptian.)

When I had this body composition analysis, it was 6.30 in the evening, so of course I gained around 2kg compared to the weight I checked in the morning at that time. However, I’m pretty sure and I also made sure with the trainer that a human gains 1 to 2 kg during the day than the weight when waking up, so it’s not fat but water.

I thought 15 minutes is short for the body composition analysis when I booked an appointment, but it wasn’t that short, but rather quite satisfactory in terms of both time and contents. Besides, it cost only 15 EUR. Payment is done when visiting the reception before the analysis.

★ Summary

Although it’s not expensive, I still got the necessary information, and I think I want to check regularly. After this, I bought a new (Renpho’s) fat scale, but it showed me 2% more fat than the accurate result from Myfitness. On the one hand, I’m more satisfied with this new fat scale and it’s good enough for daily use, and on the other hand as long as I want to measure precisely, checking the analysis at Myfitness is quite a good idea I believe.

Aitäh! 🙂

Zooks Got the Work Ability Card Issued in Estonia.

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

Sorry to be sudden, but I’m going to talk about the Work Ability Card this time. (Though I don’t have much to say.) I’m going to write what kind of card it is, how long it is valid, and if there are any benefits. You won’t experience such a thing as long as you are just normal.

In April 2021, my mental condition was not really good (which I will explain in the future). Around March or April in 2021, due to COVID-19, we couldn’t communicate with people, and had to work remotely.

I believe this was a tough time for everyone, but in my case it was too much. I have shut out most of my friends that I made in the postgraduate school, and didn’t have many friends though I usually have. (However, I often hang out with just a few of them, even in Japan.) So I thought I need to make friends somehow.

Then one day when I had a regular visit at the hospital, my nurse gave me a brochure of Tallinna Vaimse Tervise Keskus. There are some group activities, and she said that maybe some of them could be good for me.

After that, I contacted the Health Centre, and the staff said she wanted to meet me first.

When we met, she told me and determined to:

  • Participate in the art therapy
  • Use a supporter

I omit details about the above here, but someday I will write.

Anyway, when I met a supporter, doing some procedures, we registered to get benefits of incapacity of work.

To proceed with this, it is required to have a talk with a doctor, but in my case I already saw her during the last six months, so we corrected some information, and applied for it.

This is not something that everyone can do, and when proceeding, you need to answer a huge amount of questions. This was the first step. I think it took a few hours to answer all the questions. The questions were all in Estonia, so I was glad that I had an Estonian supporter. I’m not sure if there is an English version, but perhaps there is.

After applying for it, we met the person-in-charge of my application. This process is managed by Töötukassa (the Estonian Unemployment Fund), and they have some offices in Tallinn.My supporter and I chose an office where an English speaker works. (I think it was in Endla street.)

Until I got an appointment, my supporter took care of the communication.

Then at the office of the Fund, she asked me very similar questions a lot. I think it took about one hour. This was the second step.

At the third step, the answers of the questions were received, and we checked it. Then we waited again.

This is the fourth step. When getting a result email, the email has two files: PDF and the file to do a digital signature. I checked the PDF file.

It was all in Estonia, so I used Google translate, but anyway the results were:

  • Partially able to work
  • Valid for five years

The reason why “I am partially capable of working” is because although I have autism, disorders and depression, those don’t significantly affect my living life.

In this PDF file, it also mentioned how much I can get as its benefit. If your result is “completely incapable of working”, the calculation is 15 euro per day, and if it’s “partially incapable of working”, it’s 8 euro per day. More details available at their web page.

Several days after I got a result and completely forgot about it, I suddenly got a letter from the Fund which included the Work Ability Card. The information on the card is:

  • My full name
  • My Estonian ID
  • Birthday
  • Work condition (“Partially incapable of working” in my case)
  • Validating date
  • Expiry date

In fact, by having this card, there is a hint of goodness. When I travelled in Viljandi, I could buy discount tickets with the card.






Lucky!

However I had concerns about the valid period and the condition of work.

It’s not easy for foreigners to find part-time jobs in Estonia. It is very difficult. Timbeter where I used to work was really flexible, but it was special and exceptional because it was a very start-up company.

So the reality was “the job is full time although the condition is partially capable”..

I thought that might be unfair with that situation, so I asked my supporter, but she said it was okay.

The reason is “we don’t know what will happen/worsen” (the health condition is different).

So it’s like compensating for health conditions with money.

For example, let’s compare two types of people:

  • An individual who is healthy and 100% capable of working at full time
  • An individual whose depression is not fully healed this year, who has autism and disorders, and who is only 50% capable of working full time.

Apparently the latter one is “weaker” and handicapped.

And the benefits compensate for it, so it’s fair.

Thus my monthly income is a salary at full time + the benefits.

I did not feel good about getting special money compared to other colleagues in the same position, but considering the differences of the health conditions, it’s not unfair.

In fact, I have paid for the medicines and the psychological therapies.

I have this Work Ability Card in my wallet with the Estonian ID card as they ask me to show the Estonian ID card when using the Work Ability Card.

It’s literally a card, so it’s not like a disability certificate which looks like a thin notebook issued in Japan.

In Japan and until I got the Work Ability Card, I had never had a disability certificate. I didn’t make one because the services in Japan for the holders were basically available for the physically disabled people. (I wasn’t depressed when I was in Japan, but autism and mental disorders could be considered.)

However, although I live in Estonia, anyway I won’t use the card that often.

So here was my story about getting the Work Ability Card.

Aitäh! 🙂

Zooks Creates Postcards in Estonia.

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

On 1st July 2021, my Dutch friend in Japan sent me a postcard! We’ve known each other since we were in the university in Kyoto. I think she’s worked in Japan for a few years now. (I think I’m right because I went to her place in the Netherlands in 2018.)

In return for the postcard, I decided to send one to her, but the biggest post office in Tallinn city centre was closed a few years ago, so I was wondering about where to buy a postcard. (Maybe I could have been to some souvenir shops in the old town though.)

She made a postcard on her own, so I decided to make one by myself too.

Then there is a problem: which photo to use for a postcard.

I personally think I have been to many places in Estonia, but I didn’t have a lot of pictures. That’s why I wondered. Then eventually I chose a photo of the prison in Rummu.

I went there in summer, and this return would be done in summer too, so I thought it was a perfect choice.

Since I always take photos in a square shape, I wanted a postcard in a square too, but there was no choice. In addition, in many copy shops, massive printing is their default, so their supply didn’t match my demand.

Table of Contents
Printing out at Minu Foto
Going to Copy Pro

★Printing out at Minu Foto

However, I managed to find photo printing service called Minu Foto of a shop called Copy Pro, which can be shown in the top of the search results. You can easily find the service, but if you want to find it on Minu Foto’s website, follow the steps below.

  1. Access Minu foto
  2. Click “Photo cards” in “PHOTO PRODUCTS” in the head bar.

It’s easy to use; first of all, choose its back print which is a side you may write messages and/or receiving address.You can choose either nothing or with lines. (In my opinion, I don’t recommend the one with lines, because your card will have Minu foto’s log there…)

Then choose a set of two postcards or eight postcards. Sending one postcard to my friend was the only purpose for me, so I just chose a set of two postcards.

If you want envelopes, you can also select, but in my case I didn’t need any, so I left it blank.

Then click “Create” and go next.

This is finally the editing part of the photo side of the postcard. There is an option to have a square picture, but I didn’t choose because I wanted to have a square-sized photo and my website’s logo. (Plus, I didn’t like that the photo part was on the right side.)

I made a file on Photoshop to align the picture and the logo, but Photoshop’s postcard setting was different from MInu foto’s setting.

Also, on Minu foto’s editing page, you can see layouts on the left side, which have two similar postcard design icons. (At least it looked the same as one another on Google Chrome. It might be shown properly on Edge or Firefox.)

The send one from the below has no margins around the pictures, so if you have a single photo, you will have that picture fully on the card. Of course that wasn’t my option at all. 

I chose the last option. It has margins around the picture selected. I had white margins around the pictures and the logo in Photoshop, but I edited it like below to make it fit in the postcard.

By doing so, it fitted!

Perfectly.

After editing the design, click a blue button written “Save and Go to Cart”, and go next.

Next, I chose the delivery method.

They don’t charge you if you go there to pick yours up. I always choose this method as long as the online shopping is within Estonia.

By the way, here’s a side story; currently (as of 14th of July in 2021) the shop’s address mentioned was under construction, so the address on the website was different from the one on the selection page. I emailed them, and they said that it wasn’t just updated, so now it has a correct address.

There are two card payment methods as well as bank transfer (the middle option). I chose the card payment like always, but both options didn’t work. I still don’t know why. I compromised and chose the bank transfer.

Then they sent me an email about the purchase confirmation with an invoice like below.

As the invoice had the shop’s bank account number, I thought maybe I should pay there, but it was still unclear, so I asked them again. Then they said I could pay when I pick up the postcards. It was easier so I chose it.

At the same time, they said:

Your postcards are ready!

It was literally very instant after ordering.

Since it was fast work, I planned when to pick them up.

★Going to Copy Pro

Then on the day to pick up the postcards, I was wondering about the exact location of the shop. The address certainly exists, but even the Google map didn’t show the sign board or anything.

Anyway, I came to Rävala pst 6, but still couldn’t find it. I thought of what would happen if I turned left at the corner. Then  I found the shop. It was really difficult to find out. 

On the Google map the pin was set in the middle of the building (which is not wrong), but the actual shop entry is where the arrow points out in the picture below. Be careful.

Then I asked one of the staff members, and paid after checking the postcards.

Later on, I bought a stamp, and sent it to my friend. If you are thinking about creating postcards in Estonia (or Tallinn), consider this shop. (Last but not least, the stamp to other countries like Japan costs 1.90 euro, and it is a shape of an Estonian flag.)

Aitäh! :)　

Zooks Registers Family Doctor in Estonia.

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

Listen, I finally registered a family doctor (or home doctor or GP, whatever you want to call).

You may wonder how to register a family doctor in Estonia. This article handles topics from how to find a family doctor to how to “use” them, dividing into four sections.

1) Who can register a family doctor?

In order to register a family doctor, you need a residence permit. In other words if you are working for an Estonian company or a degree student in Estonia, you automatically have the right to register a family doctor in Estonia. (See this for more information.)

In my case, since my purpose to come to Estonia was study as a master’s student, two years ago in 2017 I could have registered a family doctor when I got the TRP. With a family doctor, you may get treatment at quite cheap fee or some special services for free so it’s better to register one. When I was in Ireland as an exchange student in 2015-2016, I didn’t catch any cold or get ill at all so I had spent time in Estonia without a doctor. However, I really felt I needed a family doctor as my depression level was still low and tried finding but at that time I was working at full time, suffering from many things and spending time as a depressed individual. It was eventually after leaving the hospital when I got a family doctor.

Also, if you can speak Estonian (or Russian), you may not find any difficulty in getting a family doctor, but in addition to the fact that there are more immigrants in Estonia and that we automatically require English speaking doctors, it’s not easy to find a family doctor in Estonia. In the following sections, I’m writing about how exactly to find a family doctor.

2) How to find a doctor?

First of all, access the website to search family doctors in Estonia. It’s available only in Estonian but it’s not that difficult to use this website. As accessing, the third box is a search box depending on areas so enter your area that you live in. After the entry, click “Otsi”. The example is below.

I entered “Kesklinn” as an example. (2) in the image measn doctors’ availability. If they can accpet new patients it says “jah” and if not it’s “ei”.

If you found someone who seems to accept new patients, click their name under “Perearsti” column and call or email them.








Usually they say they don’t accpet any new patients.





“What the hell! You just told us!”

You may have thought like that. Sorry 😛 but no worries, I’ll explain another “hack” in the following section, which might surprise you.

3) My case?

Listen, I tried the method above like you might have done. I called and asked them if they could speak English and told them that I wanted to register a family doctor – none of them could accept me.

Then I did this:

Search “Perearstikeskus”.

While in the hospital my friend advised me to ask my doctor there how to find a family doctor. He told me perearstikeskus in Laagri, where are lots of young doctors who might speak English more or less compared to elder doctors in Estonia. However, as mentioned above, they couldn’t accept me as a new patient.

“Perearstikeskus” means “family doctor centre”. I thought there would be more perearstikeskus in Estonia so I searched by this word.

I got multiple results online and chose one of them in Lasnamäe. From my experience I thought it was better to use Google translate and read Estonian. Then I found one doctor who seemed to be able to have new patients and called him:

Hi, could you speak English?

Yes I can.

I’m looking for a family doctor but could you accept me as a new patient?

Of course!

Well, I live in XX (the name of my living area) but is it okay?

Sure! Just come here and find my name!








I got panicked.






I called him desiring to get one so I was incredibly happy. It was Friday when I called him so I decided to visit him on Monday. The reason why I asked him the area is because some doctors (are said to be able to) accept only those who live in the area that they are in charge of. (Does this make more sense why I explained to search doctos by area above?)

The medical centre was in a tricky place and quite far from my (previous) place but I was sure I wouldn’t need him that frequently so the distance was not anything big for me.

4) Registration and after that….

Then on Monday after working I went to the medical centre. I asked a nurse and she gave me an application from (paper!) and I just wrote necessary information and the doctor’s name that I wanted. That was it. She said the system would have this information immediately.

Actually, however, it’s from the next month after the registration to have the family doctor available, which means your State Portal wouldn’t have a famly doctor information yet right after the registration. For example, given that you registered a family doctor in January, your doctor is available for you from February.

(However, as February started I checked the portal site but it didn’t have my doctor’s name so I asked Haigekassa and then mymed, which said my doctor would be available for me starting in March. Why the heck…)

It’s hard to find an English-speaking family doctor in Estonia but once you found one everything would be alright. Keep searching and this is the reality to live in a non-English speaking country.

I hope you can get one.

Aitäh! 🙂

Zooks Uses Sick Leave in Estonia.

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

This time the article is about sick leave.

Maybe for some people it’s unfamiliar with it (because in Japan it is for sure.)

No worries even if you are unfamiliar with it, I’ll explain it.

The sick leave is a long-term paid leave due to sickness. In Estonia, though it depends on the work environment or style, it is quite common to work at home when you caught a cold for instance. One of my (Estonian) colleagues who works at part time caught a cold the other day and worked at home. I think this is one of the good points to be an office worker.

In Japan, according to my friends, they need to use their annual leaves when they caught a cold, which never happens in Estonia (as far as I know). Then, what about the hospital stay in Estonia? The sick leave is used for it.

Like the annual leave in Estonia the sick leave also limits the number of days that you can get, which is approximately 6 months for office workers.* You need a proper document for the leave but also can get benefit from Haigekassa (the Estonian health insurance organisation) and your company.

(*Check this website for more details. I definitely ommited the information.)

Here are three items for my case with the sick leave.

1) The unissued sick leave document

On the 31st of December 2019, at the final talk with my doctor he promised to issue the sick leave document. In Japan the first three days of the new year (the first to third of January) are national holidays but in Estonia/Europe they start working from the second. My company started 2020 on the third. However, everything started from the sixth because our boss couldn’t come owing to the cold.

Though it had been a week since January started, netiher my boss or our accountant nor I couldn’t see anything on our State Portal. Then my boss and I called the hospital, who said there was some kind of problem on Haigekassa’s system or something. This is actually a negative point of Estonia.

Any procedures online will be delayed sicne everything is digitalised in Estonia.

Eventually it was already the third week of 2020 when my boss could contact my doctor’s secretary.





Jesus, it took a fortnight to get the sick leave document.




Next day, both my boss and I could check the sick leave document on our State Portal.

Soon after the sick leave document was issued, the system worked so quickly.

I got the benefit on the next day my sick leave document was issued.

In order to get this benefit, you need to register your bank account beforehand on State Portal. Be careful – you can register only one account (= one account per person).

The calculation system is written in the following section.

2) Calculation of the sick leave with two years

In my case although I was officially released from te hospital on the 31st of December 2019, the sick leave document had the date 2nd of Januaru 2020, which means that I had two years in the document (2019 and 2020).

Haigekassa provides you with 70% of the social tax from the previous calendar year according to the number of days that you were in the hospital. The picture below is my actual sick leave document.

The first row of the table shows the benefit for the period that I extended to stay in the hospital (13 days). I was curious because in 2018 I worked at part time and in the half of October and November in 2019 I worked at full time so the social tax that I paid might be different. However, since my sick leave documents had the same number for the social tax, I guess it doesn’t matter whether your sick leave ended in the new year or within the year. Only the starting date seems to be considered. In other words, if your sick leave documents started in 2019 and ended in 2020, because it started in 2019, your benefit is calculated based on the social tax in 2018.

Also as seen in the image above, the third row shows 11 days but you can count 19 days based on the period in the second column. This is because you cannot get the benefit for the first three days (in my case the second to the fourth of December) and your company should provide you with the benefit for five days (the first four to eight days, meaning the fifth to the ninth of December in my case). Thus Haigekassa will give you the benefit based on the period from the ninth to the end of your leave.

In 2018 I worked at part time as mentioned and since I expected that my benefit wouldn’t be that a lot,






Jasus Christ, such a small amount money!!!!





weren’t my words or I had no damage. It was just good to know how much I could get.

3) Expense of the hospital stay

Finally, how much did I pay for the hospital stay for one month?

It cost 0€.

Usually, it costs up to 2.50€ per day and up 25€ per stay but it was an emergency in my case so I didn’t even get any bills and pay at all.

Actually, I still wonder if I do evrything correctly… Even if I have to pay for it, it’s not too much like a hospital stay in Japan. There wouldn’t be any financial issue on my side. (The thing is that since it costs a lot to stay in the hospital in Japan, my mam was worried about my finance.) When I was told to stay in the hospital the psychiatrist said it would cost a bit but there’s nothing (yet). I also asked Haigekassa but they told me to ask the hospital that I was staying and they didn’t deduct the stay fee as giving the benefit. I’m just lucky that I don’t have to pay for it.

In Estonia the medical stuff is way cheaper than in Japan.

I’m pretty sure this is not the major or universal topic but at least you could get some ideas regarding the medical side in Estonia and the sick leave. As for the family doctor, I’ll write another article in the future.

Aitäh! 🙂

Zooks’s Moving in Estonia (3rd Time)

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

Listen, I changed a place.

This is actually the third time to chage the flat since I came here. (I mean, this includes my first flat because I spent one night or two in the hostel when I arrived in Tallinn.)

My friends know my first place. It was a hostel-like flat which had 11 rooms shared by 12 people. I met many types of people/students: self-centred German girls, a Ukranian girl who loves Sailor Moon, some Italians, Czech, French, Iranian and Japanese who played games and drink together. It was a really international flat. (Sometimes there were also some Hungarians, Cyprusian, Spanish, Estonians, Thai, American as well as Georgian.) Usually I had meals with some of them and talked with them instead of frequent nights out since my programme gave me and my coursemates too many readings every time.

However, in Autumn in 2018, I started working at part-time being a student as well so I had to go to both school and the office. It wasn’t easy to change the class timetables and I had a lot of readings as assignments as mentioned so even though my working time was 20 hours per week, it was tough to spend 40 minutes including one connection for one way every time I worked.

For this reason I moved to a flat close to the office.








Oh, this is not what I want to talk about this time but the event after this.






The flat which I moved in was a shared one by two other people, had no living room but a small kitchen, a toilet and a shower room. Although my room’s size was spacious – 15㎡ having a double bed, it was weird for me to have meals by myself.

But that doesn’t mean I wanted to eat with the flatmates.

There was one Ukranian guy and one Indian guy. Both graduated universities in Estonia and were working.

The Ukranian was okay. He wasn’t an interesting or fun guy but he wasn’t a bad guy either and he actually kept everything clean. The problem was this Indian one.

It’s not about dirtiness (as the common topic that is raised when it comes to a flatmate issue). When there was a problem or something, he always put (his own reasons and) the cause aside pretending that he was completely innocent and thought that the causes were all lack of communication. If you don’t want to read the followings and skip this and some paragraph beyond and read the next fourth paragraph. In more detail, he always kept 1.5L plastic bottle in the toilet to wash his butt, his “cleaning the toilet” is only to wipe the floor (that is, he didn’t clean the inside of the toilet), used my stuff even though I marked them told him not to do, said that the chopsticks in the dryer basket next to the sink hurt him (I didn’t understand), etc.

But the ultimate thing was that I couldn’t accpet him as a human right after moving in. Imagine, would you be happy when an unknown guy or stranger suddenly said “oh your hair is beautiful”. Creepy. (If you don’t get it then maybe you have never experienced to be hit on by strangers. This is the same thing.) Also my personal space is as small as what the Estonians have – possibly even smaller than theirs.

For this reason I didn’t want to talk with him and he never leant even though I repeated saying something such as not to use my stuff. Such a waste of time.

In addition, while he was in the flat there was always loud sounds of TV, video games and music (I could hear even when I closed the door and sit the furthest position from his room), and after he used the shower room in the morning I hated his spray smell.

Initially I told our flat managers to kick him out, he was one of the causes that I had to stay in the hospital, I gradually felt that it was troublesome to fight again and that this type of self-centred person eventually would be deserted by the societies and people. Then I started looking for a new place. As of Novemeber 2019, my flat manager didn’t have any vacancy in any flats so I also asked one of the teachers at TLU, who contacted her friends. Of ourse I was searching the new one on my own as well. (I checked the websited every day when I was in the hospital.)

Sorry my premise was too long.

Here are finally the main things: there are 3 websites (?) to look for a place to live and the result of my case.

1) City24.ee

First of all, it is a website called City24.ee. I used this website when I was looking for the flat in Estonia while being in Japan. You can change the language but some places lack the information. In such a case I recommend you to change the language into Estonian and use Google translate by copying and pasting the texts written in the website. Mostly it says “only Estonian speakers” or something like that.

If the description says “only Estonian speakers” it is better than “only the Estonians” because it seems there are. Why I used “it seems” is because I just have heard and not experienced. However, if you contact the manager or broker who have described like that and there are no response, just try to think that they just cannot understand English. Don’t say or think that they are racists or something – English is not their mother tongue. If you really want to live in that place, then it is better to make a phone call. In Estonia, it doen’t matter whether the business is toC or toB, normally they don’t reply. (The sad fact for those who have communication disorder 😦 )

2) KV.ee

The next one is KV.ee. I used this website for the first time this time. They have almost the same information as what City24 has but really occasionally they have what City24 doen’t have so it can be your option to check. There is nothing to compare in my opinion and the advice is the same as the above. (I noticed that this website is number one in terms of searching places to live when I got the link.)

3) Facebook

The third thing is not a website but a social media. These days it sees there are a number of people who look for places to live on SNS. It is true that groups like Expats have brokers and flat managers and they posts something to get new tenants, but I personally don’t recommend.

This is becasue the websites are more secure and have higher possiblities that there are actual physical houses or flats, meaning that they mostly don’t lie. (If not, I think that the website stops that company, broker or manager to implement sales there.)

Besides this is not anything about those who want tenants but those who look for places to live, I often see something like “Hi! I’m looking for a place to live! My budget is XX euro! Thanks!”.

Honestly it just looks miserable.






Why do you have such a mentality that “it is natual that people should help me” though you come in other people’s country with your own will?




If the texts were “I’m looking for a place to live! Please let me know if there are any vacant room!”, it is better though. (But I think this kind of people would contact brokers or managers rather than write a post on facebook.) Also I think there is no problem when the brokers or managers say “we are looking for tenants!”.

For those reasons based on my self-judgement and bias, the use of Facebook to look for a place is just one option but not my recommendation. Just consider what is better for you by yourself.

4) Eventually I’m always blessed with good people.

Lastly concerning my new place, as described in this section header, I am really blessed with people in the end even if I have troubles. My flat managers offered me a place in the same district in Tallinn.







Gods.



Saviours.





The flat is located 15 to 20 minutes by walk or 2 bus stops away from the closest stop to the office and has 9 floors, in the middle of which in terms of the height and width they had a shared house.

The house is shared with three people, although the toilet and the shower are in the one room, the kitchen was more spacious having a couter table with three bar stools, has a storage space with many shelves and has my room with a balcony. At that time a German girl, Hong Kong guy and a Lithuanian girl (who I didn’t see) lived there. Since the German girl was leaving, I’ve got an opportunity to move in there. I also talked with the Hong Kong guy, who didn’t seem annoying but nice. They said they lived peacefully. The kitchen and shower room were both clean as well (possible they cleaned because they might have known that I would visit to see there :P)

The rest half of the room was still messy so only the bedding area.

The building itself is beisde the huge road and my room has a balcony but the house was quite away from the road so it is quiet inside. The rent got 10 euro more expensive and my room is a bit smaller but it was actually hard to find negative points.

My flat manager told me that he was too busy to give me the keys for the new flat on the day that I was moving in so he gave them to me in the previous day, helping me carry the stuff by his car. Nevertheless I repreated going there and coming back to the previous flat FOUR times.







Super exhausting.





Also whenever he said he would come to check or fix the stuff in the previous flat, I tried remembering to ask him to take of “stars” on the celing but I always forgot. (I asked my friend when moving in there but he was for sure working at that time as it was Thursday.) Then I asked one of my colleagues to come and take of the “stars”, but






listen, he changed the history.




Whenever I invited my friends I told them the address (the position of hallway and the floor as well) and the door code. They always successfully opened the door and came to my floor. However, my colleague couldn’t enter the door code and instead rang the bell and called me so I opened the hallway door but still he couldn’t get in so I eventually had to go downstairs – from the third floor to the first floor.

AFTER the FOUR round trips.
(Though it was really appreciating to come and take off my “stars”.)

Then he helped me taking of another decoration as well as the “stars”.







However!





This is not the end of the story.

★How to Change the Address

When you moved out you old place and moved in your new one, of course you need to change your address. As I moved in the second flat, nonetheless I experienced changing the places in Japan, I completely forgot and the got an email from the Estonian population registry.






Then, how to do?





You can access from State Portal but I put the link here so that you can easily access. The website is called e-population register.
There is one thing you should be careful. When it comes to online shopping or asking your family or friends to send something, you may write “StreetName BuildingNumber-(hyphen) FlatNumber, Tallinn, Estonia, Postal Code” (e.g. Jakobsoni 21-4, Tallinn, Estonia, 10120). However, on this registeration, don’t include the flat number (and the postal code). In the case of the example above, type “Jakobsoni 21, Tallinn, Estonia”. (If you start typing, it shows the expectation having the area so no worries about some details. Just start typing the street name.) On the right of the address entry box, you need to type only the flat number. Easy Peasy.

After the entry of all the information, go to the next step, choose the contract type and wait for the approval. (It doesn’t accpet Digi doc files so in case you signed digitally, ask your flat manager their full name and personal ID, enter those, ask them again to approve what you entered and wait for the final approval from the population registry.)

That’s all.

Your Estonian ID card and number are used for the population registry, prescription, family doctor and bank account so once you changed the residential address online and got approved, such information, for instance, the bank account gets the same information so no need to go here and there in the whole town.

I wish Japan would have this system asap.

Surprisingly I haven’t done anything bad so I should be able to get approval. If there’s nothing renewed in this article please consider that I successfully registered my residential address.

Aitäh! 🙂

About

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

Heya, my (nick)name is Zooks. This is my official Irish nickname though I’m not Irish but Japanese. This is my self-introduction page so I’d like to introduce myself and talk about this website.

First of all, let me explain what the first line of this page means. It’s Estonian and means “Hello”. Easy-peasy to remember isn’t it? From today you may use it at the casher, pub or to your Estonian colleagues and friends. Make them happy with this easy start.

Next you may wonder why I’m in Estonia. I have lived in Tallinn for over two years as of January 2020 and I was a postgraduate student at Tallinn University. Almost when turning to be a second-year aka final-year student, I started working at an Estonian start-up company. As finishing my degree programme and graduating from the university, I have beeing working there. This is my brief histroy in Estonia.

You also might wonder about me. I was born and raised in Japan and my hometown is in Wakayama which is located in the south of Kansai area and just below Osaka on the map. I spent 18 years there and moved to Kyoto for univeristy. (It’s impossible to commute there from my hometown so it’s quite normal for people in my home prefecture to live by ourselves.) When I was a third-year student in the university in Kyoto, I went to Dublin, Ireland as an exchange student for one year. Then my Irish friend gave me that nick name based on my given name. Usually the universities in Japan have four-year programmes so after spending three years in Japan and one year in Ireland I graduated. I spent extra about six months in Kyoto working, I came to here Estonia.
The official Instagram of my hometown, Wakayama is pretty great so please follow and go “into the unknown”:

The purporse of this website is to show how my life in Estonia is such as experiences in Estonia, how I handle my culture (not merely Japanese culture!) here, tips to live and important procedures for living as well as trips in the world (but mostly in Europe). This website was created because many non-Japanese people have got interested in when I said “I have my own website” but it was available only in Japanese. (The Google translate was available but it didn’t make any sense since my texts are full of my dialect.) The Japanese website is the main one so this website may not have the same information but you may contact me in case you have questions and comments from the contact page by choosing the one on the top.

Finally, I have some social media accounts so please follow me, get annoucement of the newest blog articles on Facebook and enjoy my lovely photos on Instagram!

Hope you have fun with my website.

Aitäh!/Thank you 🙂