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!
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