SummerCamp 2008 is over for this year!

It was another wonderful event. Thanks to the organisers, thanks to sponsors, thanks to the University and extra great thanks to the participants who designed this event for us like it was!

We hope to see you all soon. Maybe we will make some business together or maybe just have fun somewhere around the world! Just please keep in touch with us!

Hm... 04.08.08... .two friendly faces holding a placard saying”summercamp” ... Was that for us?? Oh yes,of course it was.. Petri and Tonis led us to the hostel where all participants were waiting for the first meeting with the old town!! We left our luggage and joined immediately... the promising summercamp had just started!!! We were 24 participants from 14 totally different countries... though strangers at first, we were coming more close to each other as day was passing by.. Ivo was the tour guide to the old town.. an amazing medieval town with many tales and legends, having to do with heroes, dragons and of course increadibly high buildings!! We were hanging around the cobblestone alleys, taking photos, telling jokes.. everything was looking great! Apart from the chilly weather... ”Hm,it should be called tallinn-wintercamp”..said aptly Radomir.. First “Esa’s questions”followed.. Back to the hostel... we dressed up in a hurry! It was time for dinner and everyone was so hungry!! And then we went at the technical university for the opening ceremony! The principal of the University gave a welcome speech in a sleepy tone.. Thanks God it didn’t last more than a quarter!! Time for presents and for champagne!!! Later in the evening, we went to Kanu pub! A nearby pub, which was so warm and cosy inside.. what a surprise! It was a karaoke night!!! We clinked glasses! Then we clinked glasses again and again.. saying something like ”terviseks”, ”serefe”, ”geiamas”, “hulikun-kulikun”, “cheers”.. and even more!!! Then, it was time to introduce ourselves! Each of us present himself using his name and a characteristic objective, starting with his name’s initial letter!!! Gentle george, smiling Strahije, efficient Efi, cute Christine, arrogant Andrea and so on!! Everybody was laughing and having fun!! Though we were a multinational company, music hits were something we all knew!! We sang all together The”Barbie girl”, “like a virgin”, “I will survive”..and many many more. We walked back to the hostel to take a long sleep. Who told that???? It was time for after-partyyyyyy!!!!!

Nobody remembers anything ...

Firstly, i should say that everyday was unforgetable… and i am missing all people and there.. But,.. wednesday, the third day was really good. “Going to museums” was the best decision for that day because of being the hottest day. :) It was a both nice and cultural sightseeing~excursion to learn Estonian history. When I was in the Prison Museum, I become aware of the value of independence one more time... Briefly, Prison Museum and Maritime Museum are showplaces. I think i should say that to play like children in the playpen was really enjoyable. :) Thank you, Petri,Esa and James. After museums, pub and club.. I liked Hollywood and the other place. I can’t forget how Vitalija and I laughed at that night... Here is Wednesday full of nice memories...

The day exactly in the middle of the camp, people already started to know each other a little bit more. Having in mind that we still have a few days to spend together we woke up at around nine eager to attend the seminars and the excursion we had in our schedule. Breakfast served directly to our rooms by some cute organizers was a very good idea, since we didn’t have to rush to go to the buffet, yet it was quite tasty and refreshing. Filled up with new energy ( It had to be new, because for sure we spent all the reserves the night before at the Hollywood disco) we left the hostel some time past ten and went to the university for the first seminar, by the way we’ve noticed that something has changed outdoor, yes! There was a nice sunny day out there, this must have improved the morale a lot, since there’s nothing better than a good weather on a camp. Then we start with lectures... Despite the fact, that the topic of it was a bit confusing and somewhat made me curious about it, the lecture was pretty nice, with the remarkable question concerning cutting a cake with 4 swings… One thing to remember is that sometimes the simplest requirements for people in almost any kind of industry is just being open–minded, when necessary not following the stereotypes...
As we’re talking about stereotypes we had some participant’s presentations and the one, everybody remembered was the one from Esa, not the first person I meet with that kind of personality, maybe it’s more common to the northern countries, as for me it was a bit of a shock if it comes to my culture… Now we know everything we should about him, yet we had a lot of fun listening to him and furthermore, we like him. Anyway… presentations were over, so we decided to go to the student’s cantine (or rather a PhD student’s lounge) to eat a very pleasant second breakfast, or lunch as you call it. Afterwards we went to Skype headquarters for an excursion, where we met again the ladies from HR, we’ve seen on the first day, and after a short speech from them and some cookies, we listened to two presentations from manager and technical manager, which were pretty interesting, yet a bit general. One nice thing I remember occurred when they mentioned layout design of a communicator: when we put a button 2 mm in wrong directions, a user will spend some time looking for it, and after summing up we waste some entire lives on that, which means that whatever we do, efficiency is the key. Next part was visiting their office so that we could see what is the work environment for the people in Skype, and that was impressive, especially that part where we found a child playing the console – I‘ve never seen a workplace where you could bring your children for a couple of hours. Summing up: where can I find an application form?

Concluding the excursion we finished the official, scientific part of the camp with three days of fun at the horizon. So after a while in the hostel, visit to a bank, and some shopping, we departed to the old town because the next part was city rally. However firstly, we had to get there, so we spent like twenty minutes in the bus just “laughing for fun” and talking with some local people (well, I really like when people are so friendly). Afterwards we’ve seen the oldest hole in the old town (the official version was that it’s just a renovation of something, but we knew, it was some kind of ancient hole, ok, ok, just laughing). And the city rally started, two hours of rushing all around the old town with a good companion and good moods. The old town was beautiful, with plenty of churches of different religions, nice views from the platforms, and some kind of archery range near the walls. We liked it, so we were taking the pictures of almost everything, ok, to be honest, that was the part of the game, but does that matter? Last checkpoint, the pub with no name: I’d like to see its record in the telephone book, is it stated “Pub with no name” or just a blank “”. Ordering a beer without saying a word was quite easy, thanks to our guide Janne, who we asked for writing down the sentence saying “one beer please” in Estonian. Now the time for a party came in, so we started with a billiard in a nice company, however the menacing dominance of Milica and Nejc was too much to handle for my skills, so I decided to see what’s happening in the second pub, where there was one third of our group. The party was divided, but that was also funny, since the two pubs represented two different styles, in one we had a karaoke and a dance floor, in the other there was a horror night, with some kind of embarrassing or hideous competitions, where you could win some nice rewards. As it was getting late, we were dancing and having a good time, but somewhere around two a.m. we went back to the hostel for an after party, which had to be nice, but I can’t recall exactly what happened there, not that I couldn’t remember, but all the after parties at the hostel were really crazy and I can’t figure out what was special about this particular one. We went to sleep around four or five, since we had to wake up early to pack our things up for the departure to Torvagu.

So this is the end: one statement: No animal was hurt during that day. All accordance to the real facts is just accidental. And we had a lot of fun, didn’t we?

Waking up time... yes, that day we didn’t break the rule no. 7 (7. wake up on time!). Can do! Almost everyone has been already packed and with longing waiting for breakfast... which finally came;)

It was probably the first day that everyone was on time (even our bus driver:P), so we could leave Tallinn according to our schedule. After almost two hours of sleeping, chatting, eating, having fun and listening to music we arrived to Torvaaugu – small place in the middle of nowhere, great! The birds were singing, the sun was shining, fresh air (from water pipe;)) and only 30 people on hundreds of square meters... let’s the party begin!! Firstly we had to lodge ourselves in that stylish and cosy cottage and unpacked our staff. After a while everybody was outside trying to find out what that square tables were for – Carrom, that was the name of that game! Short description of rules... and everyone had fun playing it. During that time the first team was preparing our lunch. We had delicious one at ‘The Champions restaurant’. Good service and pleasant atmosphere caused that I will visit them again someday;) That day Olympic games had started. Some of us (‘active’ ones;)) were watching opening ceremony and first competitions (first battle, in badminton, Estonia 0 – 1 Poland, yeah:P), while the others were trying to prove that they should represent their countries in Pekin playing outside football and volleyball on the world level;) After that we moved to the place where the swimming competitions took place - ‘Ice cube’ better known as.. ‘The lake’! Firstly there were some problems with one competitor who was forced to take part in that cold ‘race’ (he’s still shakin’:P). During breaks between swimming contests we had some small beach volleyball games.. but everybody was waiting for... yes... for the most excited 1500m of freestyle! Everyone was shouting to encourage their favourites. There could be only one winner...;) Then came time for dinner and for another team to prepared something tasty. Delicious sausages and excellent salads disappeared from the tables as fast as they appeared there. In the evening approached long awaited moment – International Night. Chocolates, cakes, biscuits, sweets, hot and cold dishes, litres of different kind of vodka were waiting for us on the table in the big wigwam where all the people gathered. According to Chinese alphabet all countries, one by one, had to present their traditional food and drinks. After those presentations the time had come to open all those bottles and to start tasting everything. That was definitely the best part of that evening:) All those sweets and prepared food as well as litres of vodka were passing out of sight from the table quite fast. The party moved from the big wigwam to the lake where the bravest took a refreshing bath. Chatting, drinking and taking pictures we came back to our ‘headquarter’ when we stayed till dawn daylight... Everybody as one had lots of fun and great time during that unforgettable day. ‘The 888 day’ was over.

After Intercultural party it should be obvious that nobody remembers anything for the next two days ...

People say that there was a nice and sexy farewell party at that day but still the memory hasn't recovered yet! Have to look at the photos :)