YFU Announcement:

High School Year

Youth For Understanding International Exchange
High School Year Program Exchange

Ever wanted to eat blood sausages washed down with a syrupy liquor of unknown origin, go bog walking and sleep with 80 untouchable nuns and novices? You can do it all in Estonia, the small territory which packs in some charming quirks without ruining your budget.

The early years of independence brought hardship, but Estonia is recovering itself. Despite the rapid changes since it recovered its independence in 1991, there's still a lot of tradition,including a language packed with deep 'oo's and 'uu's and thriving folk shindigs.

Estonia's native folklore survived centuries of foreign domination thanks largely to a rich oral tradition of songs, verses and chants on subjects like the seasonal cycle, farming the land, family life, love and myths. The oldest Estonian song type, going back to the first millennium BC, is the runic chant, based on lines of 8 syllables with a theme gradually developing from line to line.

 Modern Estonian literature began in the early 19th century with the poems of Kristjan Jaak Peterson. The national epic poem, Kalevipoeg (Son of Kalev), was written in the mid-19th century by Freidrich Reinhold Kreutzwald. The giant of 20th century Estonian literature is novelist Anton Hansen Tammsaare. Novelist Jan Kross and poet Jaan Kaplinski have recently received international acclaim.

 Like Finnish, Estonian is a Finno-Ugric language, which sets it apart from Latvian, Lithuanian and Russian (all members of the Indo-European language family). It's a very Nordic-sounding language with lots of deep 'oos' and 'uus'. Lutheranism and Orthodoxy are the main religions, but only a minority of Estonians profess any religious beliefs.

Smoked fish, especially trout (suitsukala) is an Estonian speciality and, when it comes to sausages, you can be excused for thinking that the country caters more to vampires than vegetarians. At Christmas time, sausages are prepared from fresh blood and wrapped in pig's intestine. Blood sausages (verevorst) and blood pancakes (vere pannkoogid) are served in most traditional Estonian restaurants.

The first exchange students were sent out in 1992 and we had our first exchange student from Hungary in 1995. Since then we have had 43 students from Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, New Zealand, Switzerland, Hungary and USA and they all have had great years. YFU Estonia has been a sending partner for 262 Estonian students going to 21 different countries so far.

Starting January 1997, YFU-Estonia has an office of its own in the centre of Tallinn. And since September 2004, YFU-Estonia has an office also in Tartu. The number of volunteers is growing, and most volunteers are young (returnees or other young people). YFU-Estonia is registered as a non-profit membership organisation.