Juliet Lehtonen: Why did I want to come to Tartu to study Estonian?

"I remember when I was a child, we traveled to Estonia with our family. Like typical Finns, we spent our holidays in Saaremaa and Pärnu. Even as a child, I found Estonian language very fascinating. When we traveled in Estonia, it was my big dream to learn Estonian more and to be able to talk with Estonians. 

When I was a young girl, I traveled to Estonia again with my first boyfriend. Again, I thought that Estonian language and culture are particularly interesting. I was in love with Estonia. I thought that I might want to live in Estonia sometime in the future. Although later we broke up, my love for Estonia persisted. 

My bachelor's degree was in Finnish language and literature. I have always been interested in languages and wanted to learn new ones. A couple of years ago, I attended an Estonian language course in Finland and I really liked it. When I started looking for opportunities to do my master's, I found this program (EFUL) in Tartu and thought it would suit me well. Finno-Ugric languages interest me, and I wanted to learn more about them. 

I moved to Tartu last summer. Tartu is a calm, green, and quirky city. I really like it here. At the moment, it seems to me that after my master's degree, I could live and work in Estonia too."