Farewell Party

The day before I left Estonia, the Philosophy Department threw a farewell party for me in the Centre for Ethics. Left to right in the above picture are Margit Sutrop, Head of Department (and host of my visit to her family's summer house a couple of weeks earlier), Daniel Cohnitz, Extraordinary Professor of Theoretical Philosophy (on a several year appointment, from Germany, and with an impressive-sounding job title), Endla Lohkivi, Docent in Philosophy of Science (and the main person responsible for arranging my Fulbright), and me.


I had been discussing Estonian foods with various members of the department the previous week, and unbeknownst to me the secretaries and administrative assistants in the different subdivisions of the Philosophy Department (some of whom are pictured above) had each prepared a different Estonian speciality for the farewell party. Moreover they were all specialities which they knew I had not yet tried!


In the above picture, proceeding clockwise from the bottom left corner: Baltic herring open sandwiches; rhubarb cake; ham stuffed with garlic, cheese, and mayonnaise; oatmeal cookies with cherries. The packets in the bowl in the top right of the picture contain bars of hardened cottage cheese covered with chocolate. These come in different flavors including plain, vanilla, coconut, and kiwi. To the right of this bowl is a red jug containing a bag of a sour milk / yoghurt hybrid. In front of that is a large package of 'Kama.'


Kama is a flour made from a mixture of various grains and peas. It is mixed with one or other of the sour milk products available in all Estonian supermarkets and then drunk as a refreshing summer drink. Either salt or sugar can be added to it, depending on one's preference. I tried it sweetened and found it quite delicious.

Finally, the picture below shows Bruno (a postdoc), Jaan (a PhD student), and Daniel again. In an unlikely coincidence, it turns out that Bruno had actually attended a series of 4 lectures that I gave in Cambridge in 2000 when I was there as a Junior Research Fellow and Bruno was doing an MPhil in Philosophy.


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