Oh boy, a lot has happened. USA presidential elections, corona is wild in Estonia, countries are going on a lockdown and so on. Can't really keep an eye on the stuff, so many happenings. Kind of scary not knowing what next days bring. But live and see I guess. At the moment it doesn't feel too unreal, like in spring, when I kept thinking I live in some kind of dystopian book.

How have you been keeping up? I know some people sat awake all night to see the election... I wouldn't do it myself, but I guess it would have been interesting with a group of friends. I kept my eye on Twitter, though Trump's sayings were really frustrating haha. :D

But anyway, what has happened to me? I am still waiting for my flat access, 19 days to go! I have seen some sofas, but I would like to see some more, as I haven't found "the one" yet. I just want to have all the things by when my parents are coming to help me move, because how am I supposed to get the sofa to fifth floor by myself (though some stores offer to help with that?). But yeah, a lot to do and get etc... and I need to change my address for my National Geographic order... which brings me to today's challenge:

I have never been big in reading magazines. My mum has one subscription and I have brushed through those when I have been at home, but I am not the one to read gossip magazines in general. I am not interested at all. The one my mum has though, has a lot of recipes and good stories, so this is different. Not about famous people.

But now for the last three months I have been subscribed to Estonian National Geographic. And I need to admit that I haven't really read them. So I thought it is about time to start doing this and maybe learn something new.

Monday

I was waiting for my bread to bake and I thought that okay, it is time to start reading. This month's articles were about coronavirus, and there are a lot of essays about environment, social life etc. Really interesting. I read mostly about what different countries have done to stop the spread.

I really like how NG is written. You can get a lot of knowledge without having to be a specialist. Articles are simple and interesting. Honestly, this hald an hour I had to wait for the bread went by really fast. It was a good change from reading a book too, you don't need to focus as much. You can just read one article at the time and that's that. So good.

In October's magazine there was a really interesting read about trafficking of children. It was really scary, but really opened my eyes. I think that if I finish with the November one, I will turn back to the previous ones and read them as well.

I remember that for the first time I read National Geographic in my high school English class. We had to pick an article and talk about it to other students. And already then I thought it was really interesting. So now when the publisher called me and asked if I wanted to get a subscription, I said yes. I also got a really interesting book for free, that is otherwise really expensive. :)

Every year I have come across the ad where they offer free magazines for two months if your birthday is in May. I have had one about science and another one of history, but National Geographic takes the cake, it is the most interesting.

Tuesday

Today I had so much to do that I didn't read anything at all. I finally went to the cinema to see Tenet and I really recommend it. :D Very confusing film, but it has a lot of scenes filmed in Tallinn and it is so unreal to see. And hearing Estonian! Anyway, all of Estonian people should go and see it at least once. :D I went to see it without knowing much, I just had heard that it was surreal and I had seen the trailer. Anyway yes, it was interesting.

I got home around 10 pm and I just wanted to go to bed right away (I ended up waiting for sleep until like 3 am, ugh), so I didn't have time to read. But I promised myself that I will read double on Wedensday. I am trying to think that this is not a failure, it is just a stumble. I don't want to quit this challenge simply because I fucked up one day. It is like this with everything. Even with an eating disorder - if you fuck up one day you just have to start again. It doesn't mean the challenge is pointless, not at all. You just start again or refocus and keep going.

Wednesday

Instead of pushing all the reading until later in the evening, I continued during my lunch break. At the moment I am reading an essay that talks about young people, around 18-25. About how their hopes and dreams an everything have kind of broken due to corona. A lot of people have just finished schools and it is difficult for them to find a job and start living their own life. Many countries are in a lockdown. Workfield is in crisis, there are a lot of debts and stuff going on.

I got really emotional reading this article and even almsot started to cry. :D But it was nice to read during my break, instead of trying to do work stuff which I usually do while eating.

Thursday

I again kept reading during my lunch break. This article was about economy and it's connection to coronavirus. How this has been really tough to environment and how there are some bad things coming money-wise. Crazy. It is so difficult for so many people, I felt really helpless reading it. But at the same time the article itself was really interesting. I wonder if these kind of essays help to deal with the situation that is about to come? I hope something can be done to ease the situation.

Friday

I again read during my lunch break. Article that I picked this time was really cool. There were mainly photographs by a Belgian artist. It showed the corona story, starting from old people's home to how they use even children's hospital rooms to treat this illness. The pictures were really raw and emotional.

I remember there was an exhibition in Tallinn about world's best press photos a few years ago where me and some of my friends went. It was powerful and interesting. I imagine in a few years these photos end up there as well.

I still ove reading NG, it goes so fast. Like, if I tried to read a book during my lunch break, it would take a lot more time to get into the mood. So yeah, a good challenge. It is kind of sad and tough, but interesting. You can understand better how situation is in different countries.

Today Estonia had a loooot of corona cases (241) and it kind of really threw me off. It is scary. I am not scared about getting sick, but rather making others sick if I happen to have it without symptoms. I really hope it won't happen.

At the moment we don't have to work from home, but they have said several times that it is not prohibited and if we want to, we can work gtom home. My sister has tough time too, there have been some cases at her school.

Saturday and Sunday

I kept reading. Last article that I completed was about how scientists are trying to find the cure and vaccination and how diffiult this whole thing is. Besides usually finding the cures or vaccines it has taken ages. Now they are trying to do it extremely fast.

And the instances where they have said there are possible positive outcomes have not reached far, because there is too little know about the virus. A lot of research has done on small group of people and it is not giving the scientists enough information.

I don't know if this post is about getting back into reading, or about corona. :D A bit of both. But yes, I got into the habit of reading again. I repeat - it is really nice to read something you don't have to focus on too much. And I am sure I am going to read the next numbers properly as well. Currently I haven't seen any boring articles at all. There are some that are "meh", but once I have gotten into them, they are interesting and well written.

For this week I have a food challenge, but I don't know how it will go. It may be a bit too difficult. :D We shall see.

I want  to do some other weekyl challenge, but I don't knowwww. At the moment I don't have any ideas. Or well, I have ideas, but I need to live alone for them. For example I really want to try completely vegan challenge at least for a week, but I can't do it with my sister. Because she doesn't agree with 100% vegan good and I really like cooking for us both. :D It is also easier, as there are usually no leftovers.

I should look up and start writing down some recipes I could do when I live alone. Like... one serving meals. At the same time my new place has a proper fridge and freezer, meaning I can freeze some of the leftovers, if I don't want to have the same thing the next day. Our current fridge is only big enough for one ice cream. :D

Anyway, let's see how it goes.

This week will be a challenge anyway, because it is my dad's birthday on Saturday and we are going to visit our parents with my sister. My dad said that he doesn't let us in if we bring a gift, but we are planning to make him a cookie cake. :D This is his favourite thing in the whole world. At one point it felt like he preferred Napoleon cake, but when we gave him a chance to pick what he likes the most, he voted for cookie cake.

What is the secret of our cookie cake? Cookies, curd cream, jam and it HAS to be topped with mandarines and chocolate. Mmmm, I want some already.

What I have already discovered is that I think I have become a biiiittt more flexible. Like on one evening I had more snacks than my sister. And then I don't follow the meal times so strictly any more. This is baby steps, but I see my progress.

So I guess this post had it all. A challenge and some food talk. I wonder what I am surprising you (and myself) on Friday.