Ba-Ba-BATUMI

Despite having such a bad start to last week, it ended rather nicely. My co-teacher and I planned lessons together, and I got to do more teaching than I usually do. Even some stuff that wasn't in the book, and my co-teacher seems to be very uncomfortable not using the book.

I really want to have a fun day for my last day next week, but the iii form and the ii-iv form classes are both approaching a three unit test so I don't know how well that will go over. Ideally, we could listen to and sing some Christmas music and maybe make some Christmas cards. Play a game or something similar. I will miss teaching, and will miss my students.

Saturday was another quiet day. I spent it at home, because the weather was supposed to be rainy.

Sunday I got up early, earlier than I usually do on schooldays and left the house, bound for a day in Batumi. Batumi is a city on the coast of the black sea, and it is a very popular tourist destination. I was lucky to be able to just hop on a Marshut'ka from the bus station a two minute walk from my house. The drive was two hours, and I spent a chunk of it making sure I would be able to tell when I was in Samtredia on my way home.

The weather was very nice, sunny and bright, without a cloud in the sky. I had a very rough map of downtown that I printed off the Lonely Planet website, but I barely needed to use it. The bus's route ended right by the ocean, so from there it was fairly easy to orient myself, and I just walked towards the pretty buildings. There are quite a few clock towers, and not a lot of high rise buildings so just going was easy. The map in my mind had the sea being north of the center of town, and west. So all I had to do to find my way back was go up.

Batumi is a beautiful town, still in the process of being renovated, but it is easy to understand why it is such a big tourist attraction. It has an old core, and along the sea an entire boardwalk park area stands and is being built up. There wasn't a lot open by the sea since it is December, and not peak tourist season, but by the early afternoon it had warmed up enough that there were plenty of families and couples out wandering the boardwalk, or visiting the dancing fountains. I took a lot of pictures, ate some khatchapuri, did a lot shopping. It was a very nice day, the most nerve wracking part was just getting back. I left Batumi at five, which meant we were in Samtredia about seven, when it was pitch black out...I'd never been out so late on my own before. I still managed to make it home alright though.

It doesn't feel like Christmas at all here. Aside from one snowfall early in the month, it hasn't snowed. A lot of the persimmon trees still have persimmons on them, they just don't have leaves. And in the hills as I was leaving Batumi I saw plenty of mandarin trees. With mandarins on them. And green leaves. Oh, it was probably about 50 or so in Batumi on Sunday. It's just not my typical idea of December, or approaching Christmas. Oh well. 8 more days until I'm home!

Heavy

Saturday night my host sister came home. She’s been in Qutaisi (also spelled Kutaisi) living and helping her relative that recently had a baby. I’m pretty sure that’s where she’s been anyways. It was nice to see her again. Everyone was excited to have her back.

Sunday was another quiet day. The most exciting thing that happened was watching the junior Eurovision contest with my family. It’s a yearly singing competition for, obviously, juniors. The Netherlands, Georgia, Russia, Belgium and Latvia were a few of the participating countries, there were 13 total. It was a lot of fun to watch, especially since they tallied the votes at the end and we got to watch as Georgia won! Their song was called Candy Music, and was certainly more age appropriate than some of the other songs sung by other countries. Most of them were sung in their native tongues, so I didn’t understand, but when the staging is like a love ballad, it’s probably a love ballad. One of the lines I understood from Candy Music was gemrieles Schokoladis. I don’t guarantee the spelling is correct, but it means delicious chocolate. Who can resist a song about candy?

Tuesday I taught the first form class. It more or less didn’t go quite that well. They didn’t understand me, and they still have trouble with their basic letters, even though we’ve moved beyond it. Things are very difficult when they don’t understand what you want them to do, and are still having trouble with their letters. Oh well. It wasn’t terrible, but it certainly wasn’t the best lesson.

Today was exciting however. I got to go visit Natalie’s school since she came last week to visit mine. It is quite different, most of the rooms have electricity, although the building is only a bit nicer. The classes are also much larger, most of them being about 20 students per class. (I forgot to count.) Natalie said their biggest class is 32! I taught part of the first lesson in the morning, and then the two classes after. Natalie works with two co-teachers, and their English is better than my co-teacher’s. I helped teach the fourth class as well. It was really nice to be able to teach. The lessons went fairly well, and both co-teachers encourage, or at least allow, stepping away from the book, and doing additional activities to help learn the material. After those classes, I sat in on an additional class, one of Natalie’s teachers had asked her to come to the seventh form and read a story for them.  It was interesting to experience.

After school, Natalie and one of the teachers at her school took me to meet a private English teacher in Samtredia. Both of the teachers are Jehovah’s Witnesses. We had some cake, and tea, and right after we started eating, it was time to watch a video in English. It was all about how Jehovah’s Witnesses had caused a change in the way the medical field did blood transfusion, and the move to not using blood transfusions. Of course there were plenty of surgical scenes. L Blech! It was informative, but boring.

It’s been a heavy week so far, although not a lot has happened. I fly home in 13 days. I am excited, but at the same time I feel like there are weights settling on me. My co-teacher and I are having some communication issues that finally just kind of fizzled this week, and talking through them is difficult due to her limited knowledge of English and my limited knowledge of Georgian. German isn’t helping that much right now. Then there’s the weight of parting. My host family is quite dear to me, and I will miss them when I’m gone. Add to that weight, money. It’s something I should avoid thinking about, but now that going home is nearing I keep thinking about paying student loans, and other things. It’s just left a heavy feeling.

On the plus side, I fly home in 13 days! Much love!

December

Wow, it's December already. My time in Georgia is almost over. It's been another quiet time for the most part. I spent last weekend sleeping and recovering from my cold. It was also a rather dismal weekend, gray and rainy, not very conducive to doing much. The highlight of last weekend was going to my neighbor's Suphra. It was a party for the neighbor's son, I'm not really sure why beyond that. There was, as usual, plenty of food and wine. Hajapuri and fruit were my food of choice.On the plus side, I'm mostly recovered from my cold. I only cough occasionally and my nose is just a little runny.

On Tuesday it rained. A lot. It was rain complete with thunder and lightning. Luckily the rain lightened up around the time I went to and from school so I didn't get drenched. Then on Wednesday it snowed. A heavy and wet and beautiful first snow. I got home and had to take some pictures, even if my fingers went numb. Thursday was just kind of slushy and ick, and by now most of the snow has melted. It doesn't stick around very long here. :(

Thursday as well, Natalie came to my host family's and we ate a lot of food. Veggies, and cheese and bread and cake things with apple jam in them. My host family made plenty of food since there was a guess. It was interesting though, to compare our two very different experiences again. Hers is a lot louder than mine...Natalie quite enjoyed the quiet of my host family. And we're both fans of Georgian cheese...that is salty. Good and salty with some good bread.

Yesterday, Saturday, Natalie and I went to Kutaisi again. This time we didn't meet up with her friend. Instead we walked around and went to the Georgian equivalent of the mall to go shopping. Stores there are certainly not like ours...no brand name stores and they're all small. We also took a taxi to Bargreti (not 100% on the spelling) Cathedral on the recommendation of one of her Georgian co-teachers. It was under construction so we couldn't go inside, but it was a church that was built in 1003, and you could still see the foundation. There is also more snow in Kutaisi and it was nice. After that we ate at a cafe, bean bread and cake, and then headed back.

Only 16 more days! I already know that I have no desire to return to a developing country in the winter ever again. Once is definitely enough.

Cough Cough

Yeah. Coughing. Totally have a cold. It is not fun. I knew I was coming down with something last weekend but I still persisted to have fun. Since when do I pass on things cause of a simple cold? Not when I'm in another country...I've managed to mostly dodge the runny nose bullet though. Not completely, but mostly. Which is better than not at all.

Although I predicted a quiet week, in truth it's only been semi-quiet. Mostly because of Tuesday. Tuesday during class, I was invited to go on a field trip with the fifth class. The teacher wanted me to go, and it was to see the museum of a poet in Vani. So I said yes.

 It turned out to be a little more than just to the museum of a Georgian poet, but also to an archaeology museum with findings of ancient Greek's from that time. The first museum was the archaeology one, so I was a little confused, but I just went with the flow. The museum itself reminded me a lot of a college museum. It was small, with displays labeled in Georgian and poor English. It was rather interesting, but cold. All buildings here seem to have this strange quality of feeling colder than it actually is outside.

After we looked around inside, well, I looked, the students had a guide who gave them a lecture about everything, we took an old metal bridge over the road to some old sites where there were foundations of old buildings. Nothing really spectacular, just a few stones. But it was a beautiful day out, and it was nice to see some of the area.

The next destination was the poet's museum. I was getting tired of being on my feet, so I didn't enjoy this one quite as much. It was pretty landscape, and the student's read poetry in front of the poet's statue. I'm still not quite sure what his name was. They only told it to me and I don't remember it well enough to write down. We got to see his home though, an old shack with dirt floors. More standing there, while they listened to a lecture. Again, another thing that was interesting to see but certainly my seeing interest didn't last as long as their lecture. Then they listened to more lecture in the actual museum building, which was mostly paintings and some writings. Kind of History of the time-ish from what I could gather. At least that one had benches for sitting on!

After that there was a picnic. (Thank goodness...I was starving!) Lots of chicken, and cutting it with scissors, which I passed on. Instead I had lots of hajapuri, which is a type of cheese bread. It was good, but between that, cake, and wafers, I got overstuffed. The scenery there was really pretty though, it was right by a river, and not too cold in the sun. My camera batteries died about then, and I forgot to bring my other set, so I only got a couple of pictures from there. (I think). :(

Anyways, Wednesday was a school holiday. Saint George's day, the patron saint of Georgia. They spent the morning in church, and while I intended to go with, due to my cold I stayed in bed. Which was probably the better choice for me and my sanity. I would've been bored long before it was over, unable to understand a word, and I'm pretty sure they stand the entire time...but it was a quiet day.

Thursday and Friday have been quiet as well too. I actually got to use the internet at night once, which was nice, I got to talk to people! Anyways, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I keep moving between forgetting and remembering that it was Thanksgiving, it's kind of weird.

:)

What a Weekend

"Oh what's that, you had a quiet week? Well, let's change that this weekend!" - The World to: My Life

Honestly, it felt a little like the world decided to give me a crazy weekend since I'd had such a quiet week.

It all started Friday night. My host family has internet finally and officially....it just requires hooking up manually rather than through wireless. So after school my host sister was playing around some, and then she let me use the internet while she helped her cousin with English. I ate three times that afternoon, the first some soup when I got home. Then later some corn on the cob, with a totally different kind of corn. The kernels are larger, so there's less worry about getting all that silk and stuff caught in your teeth. And then again, when the mother of Natia's cousin came over and brought some warm bread treats, one with a bean paste inside of it. We were eating these sweets when the phone rang and Natia, my host sister, is talking on it, making a few calls and then "Go Kutaisi?" (Kutaisi is the largest city in the Imereti region.) It turns out their relatives in Kutaisi had just had a baby, and so we all crowded into the truck and took off. The mother must've just gotten home from the hospital recently because she was exhausted, and didn't look too well. We didn't stay long, but oohed and aahed over the baby before leaving. It wasn't a very long event but it was exciting.

Friday night while I was out, the other English teacher, Natalie, who is from England, texted and called wanting to know if I wanted to go to Kutaisi on Saturday. I did, and that ended up being an adventure to get started. In the typical Georgian way of I have no clue what is going on, Natalie's neighbor was going to come and get someone to drive us, but she disappeared on Natalie, so it turned into a rush out the door to catch the Marshut'ka to meet Natalie in Samtredia to go to Kutaisi. That went smoothly, we didn't have to wait long to leave at all because we were right on time.

We both thought we were going to get to go sightseeing. Natalie had been in the hospital, and had made friends with one of her nurses who was going to meet us in Kutaisi. The meeting up plan worked pretty easily. However, Natalie's friend, Ana, and her plan involved going back to her house and hanging out. It was quite fun in its own way. Compared to my host family, Ana's was wealthy, they had their own house which was three stories, and they had a flat screen tv and a nice computer and sound system. They fed us some snacks and we danced some. We also went over to the neighbor's and had some warm pumpkin type food. I gained a newfound respect for translators there. My brain has been kind of language haywire since coming to Georgia. When someone tries to talk to me, my first instinct is to reply in what little Georgian I do know, and then to fill in the answer with German, rather than English. So when the neighbor knew German and was talking to me in German, my brain went "oh dear". It ended well and I understood because it was a pretty simple conversation, but switching languages takes a minute, my brain just isn't prepared for the new gear.

Anyways, after we hung out with the neighbors it was time to head home. The marshut'ka to and in Samtredia stop running after 6, so it doesn't leave all that much time. We had been snacking so I was starving when I got home, luckily my host family is always ready to feed me once I get back from being out anywhere. They had guests over, I'm not sure who, family, I've met them before but can't remember all their names. I'm not quite sure why, but there was  big feast later after I'd eaten. Hinkali (Georgian dumplings), bread and cheese were what I ate. They also have this delicious ketchup not ketchup type sauce that I would eat all the time if it were our ketchup. It's tomato based, but with herbs, like onion and ginger and I'm not sure what else. It's very mildly spicy, you need to eat a lot of it to notice, but it is goooood. After that I spent about an hour trying to get Natia's new webcam's mic to work. She's as happy to have internet as I am, she's on all the time in the evening! (Skype is her favorite).

Sunday was an early day for me. Natalie and her neighbor were going on a walk in the hills, and I was invited. I just had to get up early. It was a gorgeous day, blue skies and sun. We ran into a couple other TLG teachers taking the Marshut'ka to Batumi when we got on. We weren't going all the way to Batumi, but it was interesting. It was a long walk we took, Natalie's neighbor estimated it at about 6 kilometers, but it was gorgeous. Not the mountains, but we got to go up into the hills and walk along them. We had a great view of the area and Samtredia and the mountains across from us. Although it was a little misty which made the visibility a little off. It was just nice to get out away from the cities and go on a walk. We ended up at her neighbor's friend's house in the country, completely isolated. The road was all dirt and gravel and quite a bit of mud. Again we were fed and given wine. Luckily we were able to get a ride back to Samtredia. Walking back would just have been not fun. :( After that it was back to a quiet evening and a quiet day today, but for once, a lot to talk about and in only three days!

English

It's been a very quiet week for the most part. For a couple minutes I was having trouble thinking of a tittle for this post. And then I remembered the high point of my week, which was, by far, last Friday.

Last Friday, I finally got to meet with the other English teacher in the area. She contacted me on Friday, letting me know she was free, and we met up. I ended up going over to her host family, after taking the Marshutka into Samtredia. It was very nice to actual be able to converse. To be able to say pretty much anything and be understood, without having to break it down so much that what I wanted to say was lost. Complex ideas? Those just don't work on a language barrier. We had a lovely conversation, along with some tea, wine, Georgian dumplings and a pie cake sort of thing. Her experience is quite different than mine, her host family lives in an apartment with a mother, father and two brothers, both in school. The apartment is very small, especially compared to my host family's house and they have people coming and going all the time, a few neighbors stopped by while I was there. Her teaching experience is much different too, she has more than one co-teacher and her classes are closer to 30. I can't even imagine it.

It was also her birthday on Wednesday, and some of her neighbors demanded she show off her presents. It sounded like she had a great birthday, she went to a restaurant with her family. I was a little jealous, but I know my birthday was just terrible timing. Anyways, it was wonderful to speak in English and connect with someone else. Definitely the high point of my week.

Other than that, it's been a quiet week. Just class and the usual lounging at home after. My host family finally has internet at home though! Maybe I can actually get some pictures uploaded, who knows. It's nice just to be writing this at home rather than at school, where, by the time I'm done teaching and get to use the computer room, I'm chilled, and the computer room is cold. My hands aren't nearly as cold as they could be!

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

The Cold

It's that cold time of year. Although we have not been graced with snow in the town of Samtredia, Tbilisi and other parts of Georgia have. It's cold too. It's been staying above freezing, but there is this huge thing called lack of heating that presents a problem. The kitchen area is the warmest in my host family's home, they don't have a heater but they do have a stove. When people are home, the four burners are going even with nothing on the stove. It ends up feeling chilly still, but if you go upstairs and then come back down...oh the warmth.It makes me glad that I am not staying past December, into the coldest part of winter. The school isn't much better...most of the classrooms don't have any source of heat. The younger kids have wood stoves that help keep the room warm. It sometimes feels like I'm revisting history. But I'm not. I've managed to get away without wearing a coat in the classroom, but sooner or later I will cave and then...I will hit my maximum warmth. It won't be warm enough. :(

I realized after I went home last Friday that I completely forgot to mention Tuesday afternoon. (I blame it on Thursday being more recent.) One of the teachers had a death in the family. After school, almost all of the teachers climbed into a Marshut'ka and off we went, to Vasli. (Or something similar) I didn't have my camera but it was very pretty, a nice, rocky and bumpy ride into the hills. (Never I will never drive on those types of roads myself) Once we got out far enough it was all gravel and dirt and I was sure we would get stuck a couple of  times, but we didn't. It's just very disconcerting. We went to the house of the relative, where his coffin sat in the room, everyone walked around, and then we sat, just being comforting I guess. Reflecting, paying our respects. It was another experience, just a bit more somber than others.

Unfortunately, I have nothing fun to report about last weekend. The weather kept me holed up in the house...raining and cold? No thanks on the adventuring front. I can be that adventurous once in awhile but that once in awhile is not now. Although I did get a call from another English teacher and we exchanged numbers. We were going to meet up, but that got cancelled due to her having pneumonia. :(

Other than that it's been another quiet week. I'll make this one short since the last was so long. No promises about this weekend. (I feel so boring.) I have something in mind that I want to do but I don't want to say I will and then feel guilty if I end up not doing it. ...like wanting to get out of bed earlier but ditching that for the warm staying in bed option. You know what I mean. Have a great weekend!

When the bell tolls...

Another week another blog. Sometimes time feels like it's flying by, and other times, like it's creeping by so slowly that it's painful. This week has certainly been unexpected, with a lot less internet time than I like. As in I've only been able to use it twice so far...once on Tuesday, and the next today, Friday. I'm getting used to it, but still, I like to keep in touch with the outside world a little.

Once again, I didn't manage to go anywhere last weekend. I didn't mind it so much though, because I had some nice bonding time with my host family. That's another thing that makes me less inclined to venture out on my own...I have a wonderful host family that I can spend time with instead of traipsing about by myself.

Anyways, Friday they finished installing a hot water thingy mabobber. Some sort of thing that can heat the water when you want it to...nothing like we have in America just a small little box thing. So of course I wanted to take a shower. Let's just say it didn't go as smoothly as they hoped. Maybe five minutes after I hopped in the hot water went cold...frigid cold. So out I hopped and into a towel, standing there, while my host sister tried to get the hot water to work again. They managed to get a bucket full of steaming hot water, and the water to work for another couple minutes...after waiting for probably ten minutes? Or maybe less. It feels like an awful long time when you start to be well chilled. Anyways the second time I just finished my shower by washing myself with the water from the bucket...steaming hot but not constant enough to help me warm up. Afterwards I was shivering like a leaf, and my host sister, Natia, noticed. She brought me a little glass of tea which was warm and wonderful. And then she insisted on blow drying my hair, which led to her straightening it. It was a good laugh, especially since, once she was done, Natia insisted on taking pictures...and her with a camera. It was like I had a freaking photoshoot. Absolutely hilarious. I even tried a couple of bad mirror pictures of us before I remembered that my camera had a timer on it...it was fun.

Saturday we had an English lesson. Which ended with Natia's concentration ending and me trying to explain why I couldn't come back to Georgia to teach. In addition to trying to explain why I don't have a boyfriend. Simplifying that, and then trying to say it in a way she'll understand? Yuck. "I haven't met the right guy yet." I changed guy to man but that didn't help much...it's a sentence that doesn't translate well at alll. The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful, but it was nice.

I feel like all I have is disappointing news lately. For all my Halloween lesson ideas, I didn't actually get to implement any of them. Trying to plan lessons with my co-teacher is hard. She's nice, but as soon as class is over she's in a rush to catch the Marshut'ka home. I guess I just need to be firm about needing to talk. In one of the upper classes, the book she wants to use, only one of the students has. I don't know why, if they have it at home, or if they don't have them at all. The only thing I managed to get for the trouble I went through of asking was a blank look, and then my co-teacher was ready to leave. Either way that task is a huge one that I have looming over my head...talk to her about lessons for that class. It doesn't work trying to teach from that book at all...it's like teaching only two students in the class and the rest of them are just kind of out of luck. Learning doesn't work like that. Or at least it shouldn't.

On the positive side, Natia has reinforced for me how much of a useful tool songs can be for the langauge. Her sister and brother-in-law came to Samtredia this week and she got a new song off their phone. Unfortunately, it is a Selena Gomez Love Song I think it is. Not a song I care to have drilled into my head, but I ended up going over the entire song for her and writing down the lyrics. (See where the internet would come in handy?) But after that we had to go through and practice the words so that she could sing along to the entire song and not just the chorus. It's great for her to practice her pronunciation and listening, and it's something that she'll stick with because she loves the song. I just need to be more firm and aggressive.

Another positive thing, my co-teacher told me that she actually has the CD and DVD for the lower level kids, but no laptop and the school doesn't have anything remotely close to a portable CD player. So she was super excited for me to bring in my laptop so she could actually use the CD/DVD for class. It is helpful, but there's still not nearly enough of the students speaking.

Aaaand then we get to the title of this blog. So, I ended up not going to school yesterday if school was even in session. My host mother is a teacher at the same school so that made me feel not as bad. Yesterday morning the church in Samtredia which had been under construction was, I guess, blessed and reopened. It was a huge event. I went with my host mother and I'd say at least 3/4 of the town. The Patriarch came which made it a big deal, press and police swarming everywhere. But every time the bell tolled a crowd of people crossed themselves. Waiting for the Patriarch to arrive, the anticipation was palpable. Everyone was looking for him, necks craned. I didn't actually see him, between police and the crowd my view was always blocked. They had speakers so the people outside could hear the ceremony. At first the chanting was really cool to listen to but after a couple of hours I just got bored...and tired of standing. As soon as the Patriarch left there was a rush to get inside the church. I went with my family and let's just say I haven't been so badly sardin-ized since Taiwan. And this was still nothing compared to Taiwan. Still, it made me really want some personal space again. Like a nice big protective bubble. It was pretty cool though, to be a part of a big community event. Watching the news last night, Samtredia and its church were featured as a story!

I'm not gonna pretend that I have grand plans to go traipsing around this weekend. I just hope I can make a day trip to Qutaisi, the nearby city. I want to go to the bazaar and just explore. Maybe another day trip to Zugdidi...I'll have to ask if that's a day-trip sort of thing though. But next weekend! I want to head to Svaneti region before it gets too cold and then after that Batumi. I know I said I'd try and live without plans...but I'm way too addicted to plans to give them up now!

Catch ya on the back end of next week! Much love!

It's a snail!

Yes, it's a snail. My life at the moment that is. School is still going really slowly...mostly due to the fact that this week was test week. This week most of the classes I would have been co-teaching had tests, so I didn't really have anything to do. Again. I got to sit at the computer a couple of days, both of which the internet gave out on me for a period of time before I finished everything I needed to do...just a little complaint. It's better than nothing though!

The weekend was another slow one...I just went into Samtredia, the city I'm in, and looked around and  went to the bazaar. Traveling is going to take a lot of confidence from me. Mostly because the easiest way to travel is by Marshut'ka, mini-bus, and it is not conventional. It doesn't have certain stops, you tell it when to stop, and it involves reading Georgian QUICKLY and knowing what part of the city it's going to. I'm still very slow at reading the Georgian script. I can do it but it takes me five times as long as the normal person. It certainly helps me understand what my English students are going through when they stare at English words and try to read them. At least their words look exactly like they sound.

Bazaars are fun, I wish there were bazaars in America. I only bought a little over a kilo of apples for 1 lari 50 tetri, but it was still fun to look and see all the vendors. Stalls full of shoes and slippers, hair clips and earrings, a few bottles of nail polish. Even some clothing vendors. It's more fun than just walking into a store. At least I think so. The apples I bought were, by the way, delicious. Soft and sweet and yum.

I'm counting on next week being more exciting, I have shared my ideas with my co-teacher, and hopefully I will get a chance to use them and teach some about Halloween. I want to design jack-o-lanterns, but I haven't figured out how I'm going to do that yet. I would like to color them, but not all the students have their own coloring utensils (some have colored pencils and some have oil pastels) and I don't have any to at least make them orange first. I also had a wake up call trying to tell my co-teacher about ghosts and zombies. Not two average words, but try defining them...ugh. My picture of a ghost certainly didn't do the trick, and I've found pictures to be very helpful when you're trying to convey meaning.

I have no real plans for the weekend again. I'm hoping to either just pluck up my courage and go to Batumi or try to follow the directions this other person from the program posted on facebook to go hiking. Or just wimp out and take day trips. I'm trying really hard to be one of those people that just goes with it. So far I've gotten as far as Samtredia and making that decision. We'll see how it goes. Send lots of courage my way, I need it!

By the way, if you ever visit Georgia, don't drive. It's crazy. Insane. Unsafe for Americans who actually follow the rules of the road. Just saying. Much love to you all!

The Blues

I think this blog post has had about three or four different beginnings...in my mind. I didn't prepare any of it like I did last time, and unlike the first two blogs, this one is being written on my school's computer and on its internet. (Cross your fingers that it will last until I finish writing this...)

I'm in the homesick period of my stay here, and I miss my home, my cats, my family, and someone who can actually speak my language a lot. Don't worry though! Everyone here is great and sweet and I really feel cared for, even if most of them can barely formulate their thoughts coherently in English, if at all. Have I mentioned that the English teacher I'm working with, she communicates with me usually half in English and half in German. It's rather amusing that my German would come in handy here, a place where for most people, Russian is the second language.

This past week has not been easy. It started off with a cold...just a sniffle and a runny nose, and then by the end of the week last week I had Traveler's Diarrhea. Haha, TMI (too much info), right? Don't worry, it's not going further than that. Let's just say the weekend was pretty miserable with my appetite dwindling, and lots of "tchame! tchame!" (Eat! Eat!)

Sunday was probably the worst and the weirdest...I woke up with a sore neck that lasted all day, plus a headache, and my stomach which was just upset in general. It was also the day that I sat in the car for about 4 or 5 hours. We (the family and I) drove up past Zugdidi to get Lela's mother and grandmother for a Supra (Georgian party) in Ozurgeti. They lived way out in the country, on a cobblestone road. It was some beautiful country though, near the hills, and there was a stream nearby that was just gorgeous. I also got some good mountain shots...from the window of the truck. The father (Temuri) was nice enough to slow down so I could take pictures at opportune moments. On our way between cities we went past the Black Sea...it made me want to go so badly. Some weekend!

While the drive was gorgeous, the Supra was not quite as fun. If I had been better.... It was a huge family gathering in celebration of...someone's birthday, but there were easily 50 people there. (I think). The main attraction was the meal, with the men downing toasts at the table next to mine, which held mostly the women and a scattering of men. I was the most devastated that I couldn't finish the piece of cake that Lela, my host mother, made. It was absolutely delicious and I wanted to eat it so bad, but I just couldn't. That was the real tragedy of the day.

So much to tell you all, and I haven't even gotten to this week yet! I'm finally in the classroom, although I haven't done any teaching yet. Mostly just getting used to the schedule, and figuring out how my co-teacher, Nino, teaches. I have Mondays off, which will be a blessing when I'm traveling. More time by the black sea? Yes, please! Tuesday I teach 9-1, Wednesdays, 9-11, and the same thing on Thursdays. I'm pretty sure anyways...my sense of time IS screwed, and I have been keeping notes in a notebook that I don't have with me right now. The classes are pretty small, I think the biggest is probably about 10 students, and they're all ranging from about 1st grade to 6th grade. I already have ideas to make the class fun! (They don't do any games at the moment...you need games!)

Anyways, that's about where I am right now. I guess I should stop before your eyeballs fall out. I miss everyone a lot, and hope to hear from you!

Chugging Along

Let's just say that teaching in Georgia is not for the faint of heart...or at least not for those who can't survive without a strict schedule. I pretty much have no idea what's going on in my life right now...I'm not teaching just yet, there's still some training to be done. Co-teaching teacher training I guess. Internet is hard to come by...my host family didn't have any, and now they have some but wireless just isn't very good internet. It can be frustrating but it's nice to have. That basically means that pictures, although I have some, will have to wait to be uploaded. It would take about 2 hours at this rate...trust me.

I wrote a little on my computer the first night, which was very overwhelming. So this sort part is sort of October 7thiss:

All I feel like doing right now is sleeping, but here I am, writing a blog I can’t post anyways. It’s been a long day but I wanted to capture some of my thoughts and feelings from today before they fade away under tomorrow’s impressions.

Today started out with a stroll along the river in Tbilisi. It was a pretty walk, and it would be much easier for me to simply upload pictures if I get the chance. Afterwards it was time to pack up and meet the host family and get started on that long drive to our new homes.

The drive was quite pretty. I can’t really tell you how long it was because I never looked at the time, and my sense of days and time is very off. I have no clue what time it is back home in the central time zone, but I don’t really have a feel for time here. I blame losing a day and being stuck inside morning to night. There were lots of little shacks on the side of the road selling fruit or bread on the drive, which reminded me of China, and one of our bus rides that took us through apple growing land, where there was an apple stand every few feet on the side of the road.

It makes me think that the more we travel, and the more we see of the world, the more we see the similarities and differences between places. Some aspect of a region or country will remind you of some other aspect.

I hope the color helps you follow the jump in time. And we're back to now. The weather has been beautiful so far, and I love the fact that there are mountains in the distance in two directions. It's hard to explain...sort of like North-South is flat and then if you look East you see snow capped mountains in the distance and if you look West you see them there too. I don't know if those directions are accurate or not...I've never been good at them.

My host family is wonderful, despite the very glaring language barrier. But we manage. The funniest part, especially for those of you who know me, is making decisions. Indecision, such as "I don't know", "It doesn't matter" or "whatever" don't translate well at all. I tried. So it's just easier for me to make a decision than not. Hilarious, right?

My host family consists of a host father, mother, and two sisters, although one is married and lives in Tbilisi. The father's birthday was on...Friday, so they were all in town for the weekend. In addition to that, there is also a host grandmother, and great-great-aunt I believe. It was trying to get great-great-aunt from father's father's sister that was the confusing part. They have a house, and plenty of grape vines and a pear tree and another kind of fruit that I'd never seen before. It's good, it's round and yellow-orange and grows on a tree. It reminds me of a tomato at first glance but it's not one at all.

For being in a town, the school I will be teaching in looks pretty small from the outside. I won't be teaching until the end of the week...co-teacher training being necessary before I start. I think that's mostly the essentials that I wanted to share at this moment...I always know it's time to stop writing a blog when I just start zoning out! Until next time! I hear my school has internet, maybe it will be better than here and I can upload pictures too...here's hoping!

A long week

A certain amount of frustration led me to finally posting on my blog. It started with a 7 hour wait in the airport of Istanbul, led to a spark at 5am, which became a dead battery that lasted 4 or 5 days until I finally was able to get a new charger/cord thing. And it ended with right before now, in my attempt to recover the blog I hadn't logged into for two years. Apparently it was being upgraded to google, and apparently, my name I had used to create the blog no longer existed. It's been a long trip to get to this point.

As with many other large changes in my life, they like to creep up and slap me in the face, while I'm busy looking the other way. A lot of the anticipation is lost this way, but it certainly doesn't lessen the experience.

My first impression of Tbilisi was of lights. The bus that took the group of us from the airport to the hotel went through at 4am, when the world was dark. And it wasn't just lights, it was the location of the lights, lights that rose up into the large hills above me. Living in the midwest for so long, I'd almost forgot what true hills are like.

That is still my strongest impression and memories, of Tbilisi at night. The day time has been limited to all day lessons. Four hours of Georgian a day, four hours of intercultural training a day, including about an hour of orientation, so by the time I'm done in the evening it's about 7:30 in the evening and it's already dark out.

I've only seen it a couple of times during the day, and it has been quite beautiful. The hotel is situated right along the river and there are so many old buildings mixed in with the new and fascinating crumbling buildings that are only their basic structures. It is really quite nice...hopefully I will have the chance to visit again during my time in Georgia...and actually see something.

Tomorrow I meet my host family and leave for my teaching job in the town of Samtredia in the region Imereti. I'm a mixture of nervous and excited. I am sure it will be a great experience, even though I am a little sad to be leaving everyone I have met here so far. If we're in luck, the next time I post will be much sooner than this!