Tagasivaade 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

Eelmisest tagasivaate postitusest on möödas neli aastat. Seega on viimane aeg vaadata tagasi aastatele 2020-2023. 

2020. aasta jaanuaris võtsin kahe töökoha vahel aja puhkamiseks ning reisisin Madeiral ja Portugali mandriosal. Reisid tegid eriti toredaks see, et erinevatel aegadel liitusid minuga Olga, Ines ja Miguel. Jaanuari lõpus pidasin ka äraminekupeo ning kolisin Lissabonist Tallinnasse. Tallinnas üürikorteri leidmine läks üllatavalt lihtsalt - kui olin Facebooki postitanud, et otsin Tallinnas koju, siis üks sõber võttis ühendust, et ta isal on üürikorter, kuhu saaksin kolida.

Veebruaris 2020 alustasin tööd Sotsiaalkindlustusametis Ohvriabi eksperdina perevägivalla teemas. Ohvriabis töötasin veebruarini 2022 ning selle aja jooksul sain panustada Vägivallast loobumise tugiliini loomisse, Vägivalla kogemise uuringu läbiviimisse, LSV konverentsi korraldamisse ja PPA ametnikele mõeldud riskihindamise välja arendamisse ning koolituste läbiviimisse.

Veebruaris 2020 raputas maailva COVID19 viirus, mis tõi kaasa minu elus esimest korda kohustusliku karantiini ja avalikus kohas maski kandmise kohustuse. See tähendas, et pidime kõik tegema tööd kodust ning sõpradega sai suhelda samuti eelkõige arvuti vahendusel. Mais piirangud leevenesid ning sai uuesti hakata ka näost näkku rohkemate inimestega kohtuma. Juulis tutvusin oma tänase elukaaslasega, kellega kolisime kokku oktoobris.

2021 möödus samuti vahelduvate COVID karantiinidega. Juulis 2021 murdsin esimest korda luu kukkude redelilt katki vasaku käe. Septembris 2021 ostsime elukaaslasega ühise kodu. Oktoobris 2021 ütles mu tervis tööstressi tõttu üles ning pidin olema kaks kuud haiglas paranemiseks. Haiguslehele jäin veebruarini 2022 ning märtsis alustasin tööd uuesti erasektoris - sel korral Proeksperdis andmeanalüütikuna.

2022. aastal COVID piiranguid enam polnud ning augustis käisime elukaaslasega esimesel ühisel välisreisil Prantsusmaal. 

2023. aastasse jäi mu õe pulm mais ning reis Horvaatiasse septembris. Lõpetasime ka oma ühise kodu sisustamise - praegu on veel puudu lambikuplid. Detsembris 2023 annetasin esimest korda juukseid Vähiliidule - kolme aastaga oli kasvanud 30cm juukseid, mille sain annetusena saata.

Ilusad alanud 2024. aastat!

Foto: Horvaatias septembris 2023, pildistas Elisabeth

Rewind: 2017, 2018, 2019

I just noticed that my last rewind was about 2016 so to keep some consistency here is a small summary of the last 3 years. It is scary and crazy to think that we are in 2020 already but looking back on the last years I can say that I have made a lot of mistakes but also learned a lot and hopefully grown to become a better person. 

I started 2020 unemployed, living in a foreign country and sober since end of 2019. I am excited about starting a new job in February in a position very different from what I have been doing for past 5 years and I will be moving to Tallinn. Part of me is really sad because I am leaving behind many great people that I met in Lisbon and who I will miss. However, I know I can visit them and they will have a reason to come to Estonia. I am scared of starting again in a new city but calm as I know that I have friends there and at least I understand what people are talking around me.

Coming back to 2017. I did manage quite many of the things that I listed in my 2016 rewind post. For example, with the amazing team we shipped the TartuFic app which is now available on Android and iOS and founded MTÜ Kohalugu for this and future projects: http://www.kohalugu.edu.ee/

While participating in the UT Idealab Starter program and Digix incubation we understood that we prefer to make the idea come alive to get experience and contribute to preserving cultural heritage  instead of trying to make a ton of money. So we opted to founding a NGO. During the first half-year of 2017 I gave more public speeches than ever before in my life. I even started feeling comfortable talking to a microphone and my voice started shaking a bit less when I needed to get up on the stage. The whole experience was tiring but really useful and rewarding. Learning and competing side by side with internally driven people who have ideas how to make a difference was amazing. 

In autumn 2017, I started to work as a BI Analyst in Bigbank. During the 1,5 years I spent working there I developed so much as an analyst. I learned how to communicate with developers, data engineers and employees who don't know anything about data. I improved my technical skills of data querying and visualization by daily writing custom SQL queries, making visualizations in Tableau and explaining the results. I had an amazing manager who supported me with everything and wonderful motivated and skilled team around me. In the beginning, I struggled working in an open office as I had been working from home for 2 years but I got used to it - good headphones help a lot.

At the same time as I was focusing more on work my private life crumbled a bit and in the summer of 2018 I felt that I need to make a change. Luckily a friend of mine made me a great offer to join Pipedrive. As I was going through their website I discovered that they are looking for an analyst to Lisbon office as well and I asked if I could apply there. A month later, they told me that I could choose between Tartu and Lisbon and I chose Lisbon. The next few months I spent packing and saying goodbye to Estonia and my friends. I visited Lisbon for the first time in January 2019 for 3 days to look for apartments and get a feeling of my future home. I loved right away the colors, warmth and openness.

I wrote about my Portugal experience in more length in my previous post and about my work experience in Lisbon here. To wrap it up, 2019 was difficult but an amazing year. I met so many wonderful people who I would have never met in Estonia. I learned about different cultures, how to become friends even if we aren't fluent in any common language and don't share the same experiences. There were funny, sad and crazy moments. All together, it was incredible.

As one of my friends said: "Sometimes we need to go far away to understand what we really love." For me, this was the case with living in Portugal - I loved this experience but Lisbon is not my home. With my flight to Estonia in a week, I feel sad to leave this wonderful place and people behind but I feel happy going back.

Morning in Madeira in Jan-2020. Photo by Olga.

9 months in Portugal

On 5th of February 2019, I moved to Lisbon. A week later, I started my job as a Product Data Analyst in Pipedrive. It has been a crazy 9 months and here is a small summary of my experience. 

1. Do I recommend moving to Lisbon? 

Yes and no - this depends on you and your personal preferences. 

Firstly, moving abroad is always hard but worth it as you grow so much as a person. 

Secondly, Lisbon is a great city. It is one of the safest and sunniest capitals in Europe. It offers a lot of cultural events, opportunities for travelling and meeting new cultures. However, it is a city of half a million inhabitants. So for me personally, it is sometimes too urban and full of people. 

2. Would I move again if I had to make the decision today? 

Yes, it has been a difficult 9 months but the most fulfilling ones of my life. 

3. What would I do differently when moving now? 

Research, research, research. 

When I moved I knew how to speak a bit of Portuguese. Also, I had visited the city in January to look for an apartment and get to know the city. 

I googled some information on Lisbon but I forgot entirely to learn about Portuguese history, culture and people. So at first I struggled a lot with communication. According to Edward T. Hall, Portugal is a higher-context culture and Estonia is a lower-context culture. This means that Portuguese put higher value on interpersonal relations and communication. Also, the things not being said are as important as the things being said. In addition, family is really important for Portuguese. 

In my everyday life, this meant that I struggled with communicating because people asked very personal questions and talked more than I was used to. Portugal was the first place where people said that I talk too little. Also, it was hard to make Portuguese friends as their lives were filled with family dinners, visits etc. 

The best part 

I love 

• how warm, open and helpful Portuguese people are
• how much Portuguese enjoy life
• the climate 
• the ocean 
• amount of cultural events 
• small Portuguese cities 
• how sporty and healthy Portuguese people are 
• fairness and inclusiveness of Portuguese society

The worst part 

For me the hardest part came about 3 months after I had moved to Lisbon. By that time, I felt that I should already understand the culture and society but I was still struggling. I had made a group of international friends outside of work but I still felt very alone most of the time. At the same time, I was struggling at my work and feeling that I was letting my team and company down as I had so much more job tasks than I was able to complete. Also, we moved to a new co-working space which was an open space for 30 people. For me, this was a very hard work environment as it got very noisy in certain hours of day. I felt extremely tired every day I got home. So from June to August, I felt very unhappy with my life. In August, I finally talked with friends and they helped me to put things in perspective. They helped me to realise that living abroad is hard and I am doing as well as I can and I shouldn't put this much pressure to myself. I learned how to say "no" at work and put let pressure on myself when I fail at something. 

Pictures, pictures, pictures 

Snack time at 100 Montaditos

Traditional Portuguese breakfast with Varje

Street art by Vhils in Bareeiro

Ericeira

Rewind: 2016

I wanted to write something, but I am a bit too tired, so I will just post some photos from 2016 and beginning of 2017. It was a really nice year full of travelling, events, new job, friends, moving, organizing and exploring. 

In February I visited Brazil for the first time. I want to make a longer post about it, but as I haven't managed it for a year, here are some photos to show off this beautiful country: 

Acai dessert - at first I wasn't so into it, but now I miss it!

Waterfall in Itatiaia National Park

The beautiful island of Fernando  de Noronha

The whole year I actively participated in the Estonian Sociology Students Association. Helping to organize two big events, several small sauna/boardgame events, some discussion and movie evenings was a lot of fun. Also it gave me some valuable new experiences. And amazing new friends: 

Group photo from Autumn Academy

I also volunteered in the Estonian Opinion Festival. It is amazing how much motivation and great ideas people have. Leading a team of about 30 people was a hard, but very valuable experience.

Giving instructions and materials to the interviewers

Back to travelling.....
We also managed to visit Berlin, Italy (Milan, Rome, Naples, Venice), Hague and Bremen. 

Berlin TV tower

Hague - didn't fit the sightseeing on the picture, only wonderful people :)

Amazing colors in Venice

And then there were a lot of other awesome moments: 

Getting several kilos of chocolate is the best birthday gift!

Finishing the year with friends

Visiting the new Estonian National Museum (my grandfather's first selfie)

House warming with boardgames

Pumpkin (melon) carving in Bremen

University of Tartu Anniversary Ball

And then started 2017 with two accomplishments: 

Finished my Masters studies

Competed in my First Hackathon. Our team won a special prize. 

What next?

I am not entirely sure, but there are some things I plan to do in the next year:

• Continue working on the idea of FictionFeel. Prototype video: https://youtu.be/azIB5zaML7o
• Travel to new countries
• Visit concerts
• Find time for friends and family
• Develop skills of analysis
• .......

And I can only hope that 2017 will be as great as 2016 was. 

A big thank you to all the amazing people in my life!

Hummock ice on Peipsi lake

How to get things done - quick video

Recently I saw this video about procrastination and even though I am usually skeptical about these kind of self-help tutorials, I actually have used several tips from here, so I wanted to share it:

My favorite idea was putting small goals aka "two crappy pages per day", because I usually do exactly the opposite - I sit down and want to get a thing done perfectly right away, but with a lot of things it is not possible and then I start to feel like I failed and start with all the negative thoughts which bring me to do nothing. But putting a small goal and praising myself if I have done this or even more, really makes me feel better and reminds that putting myself down doesn't help anyone. 

Also, the 20-minute focused work episodes and putting calendar meetings for tasks work well for me. 

Monty Hall Problem

One day I was showed this problem and I really couldn't wrap my head around it. In the end, it took me several hours to understand the logic and believe it is true.

Anyways, the video explaining Monty Hall Problem is here:

And here is a real life proof that it works:

And a video of folk dance if this mathematical thing gets too much:

In the video you can also see how the folk dance club works: first, everyone are trying to remember how the dance went. Then one brave couple starts to do some kind of moves and others join in quickly.

Have fun! ;)

Mis on feminism?

Paar nädalat tagasi sattusin koosviibimisele, kus muuhulgas tuli teemaks ka feminism. Arutelu käigus kõlas küsimus: "Kas sa võtaksid tööle feministi?" Arutelu kujunes suhteliselt pikaks, eelkõige feminismi mõiste osas. See pole ka üllatav, sest feminism omab palju erinevaid tähendusi. Siiski on minu arvates levinuim ja põhiline tähendus sooline võrdõiguslikkus. See tähendab, et isik (sh mina), kes identifitseerib end feministina, leiab, et inimestele peaksid osaks saama võrdsed võimalused, õigused ja kohustused, olenemata nende soost. 

Mõned näited võimalustest, kuidas soolist võrdõiguslikkust arendada:

1. Selmet öelda poistele, et nad ei tohi lüüa tüdrukuid, tuleks kõigile õpetada, et vägivald pole lahendus ja on õigustatav vaid enesekaitsena. 
2. Selmet õpetada tüdrukutele, mida kanda, et vältida ebameeldivat tähelepanu, tuleks õpetada kõiki austama teiste isikute privaatsust, isiklikku ruumi ja seksuaalseid valikuid. 
3. Tööle võtmisel ja palga määramisel tuleks arvestada isiku oskustega, mitte soo või võimaliku sünnitamisega (seda enam, et laste kasvatamine ei peaks olema vaid naiste kohustus).