I know, i suck at keeping my blog updated. But this time it's partly the fault of my computer for breaking, Georgian winter for being cold and bleak and boring, and my own admitted laziness. BUT, apparently the one thing that can get me to make the effort to write a blog entry is getting engaged! To be married to Ryan B. Nickum, a man most of you only know through his entertaining blog which is much funnier than mine.

The happy couple.

Our talks about the future have become more and more frequent over the past several months, and after finally meeting each other's parents and MOST of our siblings (minus Derek and Jen, but they'll get to meet him soon!), we just couldn't put it off any longer! All of our well-rehearsed talk of waiting until we've spent time together in the states, waiting to be absolutely sure, blah blah blah, suddenly seemed absurd because we've never been more certain about anything.

Ryan and I with my Georgian host parents, Gia and Ia.

So, we decided we'd get engaged Monday night, then on a cross-country bus ride Tuesday decided we'd get engaged REALLY soon, then decided Tuesday afternoon while ordering and picking up take-out Italian food in the capitol that we'd get engaged REALLY, REALLY soon, then told our parents Tuesday night and made it official on Wednesday. Pretty exciting!!!

Ryan is a really cool, fun, considerate, funny guy who I love very much and I know all of you back home will too. We'll be in Texas in August and you'll all get to meet him then. We have no clue about the when's and where's and how's of the wedding, but we'll keep you posted.

I’m kind of at a loss for words when trying to describe my trip to Paris for Christmas and New Year’s. Basically all I can say is that it was probably the best trip of my life, and Paris is an amazing place. And having a real apartment to stay in instead of at a hotel (thank you Kelly! Thank you Yves!) made the whole vacation even more special. It’ll likely be many months before Ryan and I can have a conversation without one of us saying, “If we were in Paris right now…” So here are some pictures and, of course, there are a lot more on my facebook page. Happy New Year!

After Christmas Eve mass at Notre Dame

The Christmas chair, a fine alternative to the Christmas tree.

Look at this bag. Isn't it nice? I MADE IT! Made it myself. Bare hands. Well, i did all of the stitching and then my host aunt made it into the bag you see here. I just wanted all of you back home to see how crafty I'm getting over here in Georgia. Especially my mom and MaSue, I just want to make you proud. But it took me 3 months to do so I probably won't make any more. I'll probably just stick to making bracelets. I'll just carry this bag around forever.

My school again hosted the Lanchkhuti Language Competition last weekend. Eighty-five students from all of the Lanchkhuti and surrounding village schools competed in English, French, German, and Russian. Ten PCVs came to help out and judge the English competition (except Heidi who judged German, which was apparently disastrously disorganized. Sorry Heidi.). Three age groups of kids competed first by writing on a topic and then in interviews. The competition went really smoothly and was a lot of fun. I didn’t judge so there would be no controversy over the winners, so I spent most of the morning shooing kids away from the interview room doors, or threatening them not to tell what was in the interview to their friends.

6th and 7th formers writing "themes" at the competition.

Announcing the winners of the competitions, one on which was my host sister Ana standing beside me.

The actual competition is great and all but, let’s be honest, that’s not really what it’s all about. It’s all about the concert afterwards!! We all sat waiting for over an hour for the concert to begin because (of course) we had no electricity and the generator wasn’t working. So we had to wait for someone to bring another generator—then it was showtime. There were a few Georgian songs and dances, but the concert was mostly in English. There was “Let It Be”, “Everything I Do I Do It For You” by Bryan Adams (don’t pretend not to know the words), “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston, and some obscure and recent Diana Ross song called “Everytime You Touch Me I Become A Hero” (whatever that means), sung by an 11 year old. But sung quite well.

5th form girls singing "Jingle Bells," Georgia's one Christmas song.

The grand finale though, before the power went out again and everyone just gave up, was a dance solo by an 8 year old. Not a Georgian dance though. The best name I can think of for it is a dirty cheerleader dance. In my shocked counterpart’s words, “it was not very proper.” There was lots of booty shaking and thrusting and rolling and even a short stint on the floor. It was kind of horrifying. I had to assure my director who came (and brought awesome prizes for the kids) that I have not been spending my time here teaching dirty dancing to 8 year old girls. Other than that, everything went great!

A riveting short performance of "The Prince And the Pauper."

As most of you know I’m leaving for Paris in a few days! I’m so excited and feel so blessed that I get to be there for Christmas and New Year’s. And though I know that no one will believe this, I still wish I were going home for the holidays. But since I can’t be home, Paris is a PRETTY GOOD alternative! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’s to everyone back home, can’t wait to tell you all about Paris!

One and a half years into my service, living in Georgia has simply become the norm. Things that would’ve shocked or bewildered me eighteen months ago have ceased to shock or bewilder me. The same goes for homesickness. While I still certainly miss my family members, friends, and home, I just think about my homesickness less than I did when I first arrived.

But around the holidays that changes a little bit. This holiday season, just like last year, there was a sharp spike in my homesickness line graph. And of course this year we had the added stress and frustration of being on a standfast (not being able to leave our sites because of the political situation) for several weeks before Thanksgiving. So when Thanksgiving actually came, I was with my host family at a wedding in my host mother’s hometown of Akhaltsikhe, not at dinner in Tbilisi with my friends. So that was a little depressing, though my thoughtful friends did call toast to me (we’ve become so Georgian) and say happy thanksgiving. And I got to have long conversations with my parents who called, so that helped a lot too. It also helped that my host aunt is a really good cook and has a heated house.

But the next weekend we had our Peace Corps Thanksgiving on the last day of our safety and security conference. We were the only guests at this newly renovated lakeside tourist compound in Bazaleti, north of Tbilisi. The hotel staff was kind and patient enough to let us invade their kitchen to prepare Thanksgiving dinner. It was quite a meal too. Our director secured turkeys and hams for us, and got ahold of some canned pumpkin so I could make pumpkin pie.

Lyssa and I just getting started on the pie, with Amy looking on.

(Just to warn you, the rest of this entry will be exclusively about the pumpkin pie…)

I really outdid myself at Thanksgiving last year, I must say. I made a delicious pumpkin cheesecake that was quite a hit, although some people took really big pieces and there wasn’t enough to go around. I barely got a piece of it myself, but the very thoughtful G5 Wendy Woods snatched one for me. Some people were expecting pumpkin cheesecake again this year but, since I wasn’t cooking at an expat’s house with a drop bottom pan and I couldn’t find cream cheese, it wasn’t possible. So I volunteered to make pumpkin pie instead. That’s when things started to go wrong. A certain other volunteer (RYAN BRINKLEY NICKUM) already mentioned this mishap on his blog, but I’ll tell my own account here.

First, I didn’t think to buy pie pans before we left Tbilisi. So I had to make four pies in one on a big sheet pan, which was fine, we just had to rename them Pumpkin Pie Bars. I should mention here that Lyssa Haldeman volunteered to be my sous chef, and did a splendid job.

So I’m starting on the crust, Lyssa’s uncanning the pumpkin, and I’m not sure exactly what happened next. Somebody ground the cloves for us and had them in a bowl. Somebody else thought that the bowl of cloves was ALL OF THE SPICES (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves) mixed together, and tossed it into the pumpkin pie filling. That’s THE WHOLE bottle of cloves. When the error was realized, we quickly added more cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and pumpkin spice to try and cover the clove taste. It helped…a little. Cloves are quite strongly flavored, you know. But they weren’t bad just…spicy. Thus the second renaming of our dessert, “Lyssa and Paige’s Pumpkin Spice Bars.” Then Catherine told us she had some leftover pecans and said we could use them to further distract from the cloves. So Lyssa and I sprinkled pecans over the top of the dessert. Hence the third name, “Lyssa and Paige’s Pumpkin Pecan Spice Bars.”

Nicholas trying not to look horrified by what we've done to the pie thus far.

Then just as we were about to put it in the oven, I realized that I’d forgotten to grease the pan. Oops. At this point, it only seemed rational. Lyssa and I left the crowded kitchen a bit flustered, and other volunteers said they’d bake it for us. But, in the natural order of things, about a third of the pie got burned. When the volunteer apologized I told her not to worry because that was about the least offensive thing that happened to that poor pie that day. So in its final incarnation, it was “Lyssa and Paige’s Crispy Pumpkin Pecan Spice Bars.” And you know what? They weren’t bad.

Lake Bazaleti at sunset.

(All pictures courtesy of Julien Katchinoff)

If you know even the first thing about Georgia, you know that Georgians like wine. A lot. And that most Georgian families in the grape-producing regions have their own little vineyards and make homemade wine each fall. Sometimes that homemade wine is very good; sometimes it tastes like…well, less than good. Regardless, it sure is fun to make! Which I found out last weekend when Ryan’s host family showed me how Georgians make wine. Or at least how they do it in Dimi.

Ryan Nickum returning from a long day in the fields. Sporting capri pants. It's okay though, he's a vintner.

Ryan and I with Omari with the wine press.

The obvious first step is to harvest the grapes. I missed out on most of this unfortunately, but I got to cut a few vines. So, we cut the grapes, threw the nice, plump ones in a bucket but chucked the rotten, raisin-like ones. Right? Wrong. Even the dry and shriveled ones are not to be wasted. Once the vines are bare, divide the grapes into red and white and get ready for the next step: crushing.

Crushing grapes by hand!

I admit that I had a naïve notion that I’d get to stomp grapes with my feet. But no, I guess that takes way too long and would probably result in even funkier-tasting wine. So instead, we crushed them with this homemade contraption shown below, made by Ryan’s host father Omari, a real wine-enthusiast (well, a Georgian wine enthusiast. When he tried Greek wine we’d received as a gift in Greece, he took a sip and then left the room in disgust).

Ryan host parents Omari and Lela and the grape-crushing machine.

You probably think that before we crushed the grapes, we washed them and removed things such as stems and leaves and spiders from the bunch. Wrong again! All that stuff is fine, really. Because when the fermentation process begins, all of those germs and stuff just die. Like how boiling water kills parasites. Right?

After taking a spin through the crushing machine, it’s time for the press. This is the longest part of the process. Once the juice starts pouring out, it’s time to transport it to a big blue plastic barrel, as I am doing here.

Sometimes, before we start the press, we get to use this big caveman club to squish the grapes. I didn’t really see the point, but it was really fun to use.

Ryan and the beloved wine press.

Next we poured wine into these thick glass barrels, where it will sit until siphened out for a supra.

The fruits of our labor. So proud.

The processes for making different varieties of whites and reds were slightly different, but I’m a little fuzzy on the details. Some of the red varieties were only crushed, not pressed, or then combined with a different grape and then pressed, etc. All I know is that making wine is fun and that I want to do it again.

It’s mid-October, which means that school’s been back in session for a month now. My school joined this year with two nearby schools, and the results so far have been slightly chaotic. By chaotic, I mean that my classroom has been broken into twice, one kid has been beaten up, and a kid spit spitballs at and harassed the Peace Corps Inspector General visiting my site, to my extreme mortification (don’t worry, he got his comeuppance). THAT SAID, I’m glad to be back working and teaching regularly (I am! Really!). My teachers have shown a lot more creativity in lesson planning so far this year, we’ve had some pretty interesting class discussions already about the future of Georgia, and my 11th formers even wrote some pretty good haikus.

You may (or may not) be wondering how, after my adventures with the nuns, I spent the rest of my summer. So here was my summer, in pictures…

GLOW Camp

I was lucky enough to be invited to GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) camp for one night. As you may have guessed, it’s a leadership camp for teenage girls, and it’s been a big success in Georgia. I got to paint thank-you notes to donors, witness a talent show, read year-old Vogues, and dance awkwardly at the discotechi! It was fun!

The GLOW girls and the "Thank You Donors!" banner.

Batumi

I spent a really fun weekend in Batumi with Ryan, Lyssa, Seth, Nicholas, and two of Nicholas’ friends visiting from the states. We narrowly escaped sure-doom at the scariest hotel (hopefully) to ever be suggested in Lonely Planet, but other than that it was a great weekend.

The beach at Sarpi, right on the Turkish border. It's the cleanest, most beautiful beach in Georgia.

Sarpi, again.

Sure, we got some strange looks from the little kids on the choo-choo, but who says a group of 20-somethings can't ride the kiddie train?

On the Batumi ferris wheel, in one last futile attempt at taking a nice picture together. As you can see, it didn't work out.

SELF Camp (formerly known as Girl’s Sports Camp)

I was a counselor at another girls’ summer camp, SELF (Self Esteem and Leadership through Sports) camp, for 4 days in the Black Sea coast town of Kobuleti. We taught all kinds of fun exercises and sports, as well as healthy eating/lifestyle type stuff. There were AWESOME guest speakers, some female doctors and a woman who plays soccer for the Georgian national team and has played all over Europe (first question the girls asked? “Are you married?” GRRR!). It was a really successful, smooth camp and more exercise in those 4 days than I’ve had in the past year in Georgia.

Morning exercises on the beach. Don't they look thrilled?

Some forced post-soccer game sportsmanship.

Kazbegi

Kazbegi is a village in the mountain regions north of Tbilisi, and one of the biggest tourist draws in Georgia. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

The church and Mt. Kazbek

Mt. Kazbek and the village below.

The church and me. The cars in the background kinda ruin the "ancient church and village nestled in the mountains" scene though.

Lanchkhuti, my small town, isn’t too bad during the school year. I have lots of work, students, and things to occupy my time. In the summertime, however, I have considerably less to do in my site. To make matters worse, my two host sisters have been out of town staying with family since early July. They are very entertaining girls and so their absence only adds to my boredom. The DVD drive on my computer decided to stop working recently so I can’t watch movies either. The long, hot, humid (being from Texas, I know humid, but it’s just ridiculous here, 20 miles from the Black Sea), mosquito-rich summer days in the Lanch are passed largely by reading lots of books, writing a textbook, text messaging friends, and my poor attempts at cross-stitch. However, I was granted a reprieve when my bosses here allowed me to spend a few weeks with my host sisters and extended host family in and near the town of Akhaltsikhe.

Akhaltsikhe (“New Castle” in Georgian) is a where my host mother is from and where her two sisters and mother live still. It’s in southern Georgia, about 20 kilometers from Turkey, and it’s thankfully a little cooler there. The area looks very different than most of Georgia, so it was fun to see a new part of the country. My host aunt Natalia picked me up from the station and we zipped around town in her little car. She’s a nun and she speaks a lot of English. I’ve never spent time with a nun in the states, I don’t think I’ve ever even met one actually. But I spent lots of time with the nuns of Akhaltsikhe. More on that later.

I was a little apprehensive about staying with people I don’t know very well, I’d only briefly met my host mother’s sisters and never met her mother. But they are all very warm, welcoming people and I felt right at home. Within an hour of my arrival, they’d already dressed me in a traditional Georgian dance costume…

They also gave me that grand tour of the region. Natalia took the kids and I to a nearby monastery called Sapara, built in the 10th century (I think, 13th at the latest). It’s a beautiful monastery in the mountains that’s almost hidden in the surrounding forest. The monastery consists of lots of little churches, castle ruins, and, like most monasteries here, has healing water running on tap. I drank just a little and I feel great!

Next I went to stay at my family’s “house” in the nearby resort village Abastumani. It’s much cooler in this heavily wooded, shady village up in the mountains. It used to be a big resort town in Soviet days with lots of Russian visitors because there’s “good air” there and it’s cool and pretty. I was looking forward to hanging out with my host siblings and cousins, reading, and working in a much cooler environment at my family’s “house.” However, the “house” was actually one room smaller than my bedroom with three beds, a cot, and a broken refrigerator. I panicked a bit when I saw this, knowing it was where I’d be spending my time and sleeping with my two host sisters, two host cousins, and grandmother.

The grandmother, a very nice woman, never stopped speaking to me in Russian no matter how many times people told her I don’t speak Russian. We also shared an outhouse with the rest of the 100 year-old apartment building and a small tap in the center of the yard was our only running water. This meant that I had to brush my teeth and wash my face while my neighbors watched me and talked about me, the American girl. The neighbor women were all very, very nice. But they did squeeze my cheeks and touch me excessively, as well as tell me about all their handsome, smart, English-speaking sons, grandsons, and nephews (my host grandmother quickly let them know that I have a shekvarebuli, a “sweetheart,” and I love her for that). In the end it was fine, of course, I just had to pretend to be Georgian, not American, and therefore have no need for privacy. We passed the time slowly but pleasantly; we ate, walked in the woods, ate, read, ate, listened to music, ate, went to the park, then ate some more. Everyone sleeps there in the afternoons then goes to the park in the evening. There’s a brand-new fountain, as there are in many parts of Georgia, and everyone congregates there at night to look at each other, talk about each other, and pretend not to notice each other. I’m mostly talking about the teenage community of course. Each night around 9:00, the girls would spend half an hour changing outfits and hairstyles then go sit in the park for an hour and not talk to anyone, especially the boys who tried to talk to them. It was interesting for me though to witness this Georgian version of co-ed summer camp or something.

So, back to the nuns. Natalia wanted me to stay with her one night, so I did; I stayed at the nuns’ house, the residentsia, one night. There are nine women there, four nuns and five nuns-in-training. They were all very kind to me and seemed to enjoy having me as their guest. I’ve always imagined nuns as very solemn, stern women; but these nuns were just the opposite. They laughed and teased each other constantly, even played little pranks on each other. After their busy chores during the day (gardening, embroidery, cooking, etc.), we ate ice cream, played with the dogs (they have a huge German shepard), and listened to the music on their cell phones. It was a really pleasant place and I really enjoyed being there, for one night of course. At midnight, we were all still hanging out and I was the first to go to sleep. I could still hear them laughing and talking as I went to sleep in my tiny little room.

The next morning I went on an “excursion” to another monastery with Natalia, two other nuns, and their bishop Teodor meope (“Lord Theadore”), who always laughs at me when I speak Georgian and pasts me on the head like I’m six years old. Teodor meope drove us in his Land Cruiser to Tchulevi, a quite isolated monastery near Turkey. We drove through a few Muslim villages on our way there. The monastery was beautiful, as they all are, and we spent the entire afternoon there.

There’s a waterfall nearby where the nuns and bishop took their shoes off and played around and splashed each other. Afterwards we ate tons of delicious fruit, fresh bread, and the best honey I’ve ever had straight from the comb. At the end of the day, alas, my time with the nuns was over and I returned to Abastumani and my host sisters.

The grand finale of my family vacation was Vardzia, the 11th century cave city near Akhaltsikhe. I’ve wanted to go there since before I came to Georgia, so I was thrilled when my host uncle said he’d take the kids and me. It was pretty awesome. Vardzia is just tons of little caves and tunnels going back into the mountain, where the Georgian’s there lived for protection from various invaders. We walked through dark tunnels and narrow staircases, hoping to avoid bats. I’m a sucker for secret passageways and such, so I thought it was really cool.

So that was my little family vacation.

So, after a few magical weeks in America the Beautiful, I’m back in Georgia (which is also beautiful). My time at home was all good family, good friends, good food, good times. My brother’s wedding and all of the festivities that went along with it were so fun, and seeing my family members transform into party animals for the weekend was highly entertaining. But of course my visit was all too brief, and passed by too quickly, and I find myself back in the Georgian life already. It was incredible to see everyone while I was home, literally my WHOLE family, and thanks to everyone for their well wishes and words of support. And, I apologize again for never updating this blog, didn’t realize so many of you folks were reading it! I’ll try to update more regularly, when especially important/bizarre/exciting things happen to me over here, although I get the feeling all of you back home think that my life is much for intriguing than it actually is…

One part of my trip that was decidedly NOT pleasant was my air travel. Before this experience, I was a very naïve traveler. I’d never had a flight canceled or delayed and never had any lost luggage. However, all of these unfortunate incidents happened to me at least once during my travel to and back from America. My faith and trust in air travel has been severely bruised. Have you ever seen that poor girl sleeping on the cold, concrete floor, using her backpack as a pillow and a t-shirt as a blanket? That was me. Or the crazy, cell phone-less traveler tearfully cursing a pay phone because the phone card she bought isn’t working? Right here. What about that immodest girl washing her arms and legs with dispensable hand soap in the airport bathroom because she’s been trapped in airports for almost 3 days? Sadly, yes. I was a pitiful sight. However, after four separate flights (not one of which took off on time), two lost bags, and three sleepless nights, I eventually made it back to Georgia in one piece. A cranky, delirious, on-the-brink-of-insanity piece, but one piece nonetheless. Phew.

Now, some lovely photos.

My dad sporting a traditional Georgian wool hat from Svaneti, the 60-year-old drinking horns my Georgian host father sent as a gift, and some old Soviet medals that I bought him a the Dry Bridge bazaar in Tbilisi. Looks quite fetching.

Who are these lovely girls? Why, they are Kelli Denise Blair and Erin Lee Burrows. And they are quite lovely, even though they constantly lie about wanting to come visit me in Georgia.

The triumphant Mr. and Mrs. Derek and Jennifer Weldon! A very handsome couple. The wedding was not only beautiful but lots of fun, and I'm so happy I was a part of it. You can't tell in this picture, but they were very happy and thrilled to be married.

The newly expanded Weldon family: Jennifer, Derek, Dad, Mom, me, and Brady. Despite the heat and humidity, I think we clean up pretty nice.

My cousin Jodie's daughter Hannah's 8th birthday party at the skating rink. Everyone skated except me, including my parents and Aunt Karen and Uncle Joe. Pictured are some of my little cousins, Taylor and Hunter, and my cousins' kids, Hannah, Hudson, and Nolan. They're digging into a Baskin Robbins' Mint Chocolate Chip Ice-Cream cake...Yum.

MaSue and Pop, on the porch swing in front of their house on Father's Day. But as far as I'm concerned it was Paige's Day because MaSue made one of my favorite things on Earth, her blackberry cobbler with BlueBell vanilla ice-cream.

My brother and his wife now live in New Orleans, so we hung out with them down there for a few days. We're taking a break from meandering around the French Quarter, cooling off with some frozen daquiries. Each daquiri came with a free shot. Needless to say, taking a shot at 2 in the afternoon with my parents was a first. 16-year-old Brady, of course, is sipping a virgin strawberry daquiri. Someday Brady, someday.

My host family, sporting some gifts I brought back from the U.S. They were so excited and it was so fun to give them stuff, it was like Christmas. They were especially fond of the cake mixes and amazed at how easy to make and delicious they are. My host mother was exasperated to learn that there is an easier way to make cake than spending 3 hours slaving away in the kitchen.

Most recently, I visited the very beautiful and very old country of Armenia, more specifically its capital Yerevan. It was a pretty ideal trip overall because we did a lot of touristy things like see old monasteries and such but we also took time to relax, and we avoided disaster for the most part. About the worst thing that happened was that we couldn’t find a restaurant we wanted to eat at one night, though that was kind of tragic at the time… Yerevan is a mere 5 hour marshutka ride from Tbilisi, so the travel was pretty smooth. I was expecting Yerevan to be very similar to Tbilisi, but I was pretty surprised by how different it was. Tbilisi is overall a much more beautiful city, with more interesting architecture and natural beauty throughout the city, but Yerevan is a little cleaner and has a stronger European feel. We stayed at the hostel where Armenia’s PCVs stay when they’re in town and it is a LOT nicer than the hostel we stay at Tbilisi. But it’s probably more expensive, I’ll just keep telling myself that… We took a few day trips out of Yerevan to see the historical sites that any visitor to Armenia is obligated to see. We hired a cab to take us to Garni, a Hellenistic-age temple, and Gehard, a 14th century monastery. Both sites took us deep into the still snow-covered mountains and through villages that were nearly destroyed in the mid-1990s earthquake but still surviving today; it was a very beautiful drive. The Garni temple sits on a rock ledge overlooking a deep gorge with frozen waterfalls, and it’s pretty amazing. The Gehard monastery is equally impressive. The main church within the monastery has a series of cave chambers off it’s main alter room. There are holes to let sunlight through the ceiling of the caves, carvings on the stone, and water dripping from various places. The water in one chamber is said to keep the skin youthful and glowing (I dabbed a bit around my eyes and forehead, just in case). One of the caves is said to be a tomb, though of what or whom I don’t know; all I know is that it felt a little “Raiders of the Lost Ark”-ish and I liked it.

Another interesting place we went was to Etchminadze, the Armenian Vatican located about a half hour outside Yerevan. The main church is so beautiful inside, too bad we couldn’t take pictures. The most interesting thing about it is the treasury, home to 1,700 years worth of religious relics (Armenia was the first nation to formally adopt Christianity in the 3rd century). The church possesses some pretty impressive artifacts, for instance: the supposed spear the pierced Jesus’ side at the Crucifixion, an artistic depiction of the Crucifixion supposedly done by John the Baptist, and fragments of the Holy Cross and Noah’s Ark. Unfortunately, you have to be a VIP to see these things, and we were wearing muddy sneakers and backpacks. ANOTHER cool thing is that when the church was first built, Christianity was a very new religion, replacing centuries of paganism. So the founders retained a pagan fire temple within the church, just in case this whole Christianity business didn’t work out after all. Once again, you have to be a big-shot to see this, or at least make a reservation. We actually saw a group going into the pagan temple but they closed a heavy iron door in our faces. Or in Ryan’s face actually, but props to him for trying. Even though we didn’t get to actually see these fascinating things, it was still fun just to be in the same building. For me at least.

The last thing I’ll write about Yerevan, before I get to the food that is, is the Armenian Genocide Museum. It’s situated on top of a hill with the most amazing view of Mt. Ararat in the city. Outside of the museum there’s a memorial with a never-ending flame encircled by fresh red and white carnations, then by twelve very tall, thick stone pillars. The pillars stand for the twelve communities of Armenians that were devastated during the genocide. Near all of this is a triangular monument stretching high up to the sky. It was a very powerful yet humble memorial. The museum itself was, of course, extremely saddening and depressing. Seeing all the pictures of genocide victims and reading all of the very damning documents, or evidence, that the Armenians were indeed victims of genocide was almost too much for me. I was definitely in a melancholy state for the rest of the afternoon, but I’m really glad that we went and if anyone reading this ever goes to Yerevan, you should absolutely go there.

The most “Georgian” moment I’d say we experience in Yerevan was at the National Art Gallery of Armenia. We paid to see the gallery at around 4:30, the gallery closes at 6:00. At 5:10, as we’re leisurely taking in the eclectic collection, this woman starts motioning to her watch and sort of shooing us along. Suddenly all of the old ladies start crawling out of the wood-work to urge us to leave. Some even roped off their floors so we couldn’t take up any more of their precious time even though they were STILL OPEN. I was actually really pissed at first, but then it was kinda funny. Still, we took our time, walking around exaggeratingly slow and absent-mindedly. By the time we left we were all laughing at the absurdity. That’s just the kind of thing that happens in Georgia all the time. So this picture that will ideally appear near this part of my blog entry is Lyssa, Seth, and I showing our disdain and disgust for the National Art Gallery, or its staff rather. BOO NATIONAL ART GALLERY STAFF, BOOOOO!!!

To change subjects completely, I’ll talk about the food I ate in Yerevan. Mexican. Food. Guac-a-mol-e. Fresh a-va-ca-dos. Chips and salsa. Enchiladas. Tortillas. Margaritas. IT WAS AWESOME. The Cactus, as restaurant is called, was worth the trip for me. Five hours and a border crossing for good Mexican food? I’d do it, trust me. I’m from Texas, after all--Tex-mex is in my blood. As if that weren’t enough, Yerevan also has a Dunkin’ Donuts-style donut shop. Glazed, cinnamon rolls, bear claws, Bavarian cream, you name it. We went there twice, just like with the Tex-mex. Yerevan also granted us the opportunity and pleasure to eat many varieties of hummus at any of the several middle-Eastern restaurants. I kept trying hummus in Turkey and was always disappointed; but not in Yerevan. I was very happy. I’ll stop talking about food now, I can’t imagine how boring this is to you people who can eat these delectable things whenever you want.

I hope this blog entry finds all of you (my family and maybe two of my friends who actually read my blog) happy and healthy. I’ll see all of you stateside in two and a half months!!!! Can’t wait…

It’s official: I have survived my first Georgian winter. I can’t describe the deep sigh of relief this fact allows me. But the temperatures are slowly rising, snow is melting, and the cherry blossoms seem to pop up faster with each day out here in the west. The horror stories I’d heard from G5s had me terrified of the winter. I was told there’d be five months of no electricity, relentless rain and slush, short days, and I’d spend every moment huddled around the wood stove with my host family. I’d heard stories of G5s peeing in water bottles in their rooms because it was too cold to go to the bathroom, and drinking vodka in their bedrooms to keep warm and fend off the boredom: I don’t know which one of these scared me most (probably the vodka) but I wasn’t looking forward to either. But, thank God, we were spared of such an awful winter this year. It got cold, that’s for sure, and it rained and snowed; but, luckily, I live in the west so it wasn’t too bad. I’ve definitely spent an amazing amount of time in the petchi room with my host family, and the only time I’m in my ice-box of a bedroom is when I’m sleeping in my sleeping bag with a quilt and blanket on top. My usual bedtime attire entails: longjohns, flannel pants, wool socks, and sweatshirt (usually a hooded one so I can pull the hood over my head, or I slept with a beenie on). In December my family gave me a small electric heater that doesn’t exactly warm my room, but it does cut the chill just a bit. I also slept with a hot-water bottle on really cold nights. I also started going to bed much later just to spend less time in the cold room (well and to watch Lost, I’ll be honest), not until after 11:00. Lately though, it’s been much colder inside than outside. My house is huge with high ceilings and made of concrete, so it really seals in the coldness… But the point of all this is that I’m very much looking forward to spring. I’m told that Georgia, particularly the west, is quite lovely in the spring. Cherry blossoms, violets, daffodils, and green hillsides are starting to reappear finally!

School has been a mix of highs and lows the past few months. My school is super-disorganized and chaotic because we’ll be joined with two other schools next fall and teachers are worried about losing their jobs. I also don’t have a director, a principal, anymore because she stepped down and we don’t know who our new director will be yet. This all means that the teachers aren’t held accountable by anyone and we get lots of no-shows and tardiness. This screws up my schedule because when a teacher is absent the entire class schedule gets shifted around, so some of my classes end being held at the same time or not at all. All of this makes it difficult for me to begin my secondary projects since I don’t have the support of a director or know which of my English counterparts will be returning next fall. So that’s been a little frustrating… But a good thing is that I started my English clubs in January. I have one for 5-6th forms and another for 8-11th. It’s been a lot of fun and given me more to look forward to during the week. I’ve given the students the chance to tell me what they want to do in the clubs. So far, I’ve taught them lots of American slang (they love that) and we’ve watched “The Little Mermaid,” in English of course. English club is fantastic because only the best students show up! They’re all enthusiastic and attentive and genuinely interested in improving their English, it’s WONDERFUL! The group of kids who show up for English club are awesome and brilliant and really make up for the rest of the students who couldn’t care less…well, for the most part. Things besides teaching that are keeping me busy now and in the near future: clubs, possible writing/newspaper club, teacher training (a Peace Corps committee that organizes English teacher trainings in the regions), GLOW (girls leading our world, I don’t really do much for GLOW except be the secretary at meetings), Writing Olympics, reading endless books, making bracelets with my host sisters, text messaging, engaging in daily cross-cultural exchange to break down stereotypes and build mutual understanding, and countless other important and not-so-important things…

I’m back in good old Georgia now after my trip to Turkey and Greece. To be honest, I was a little reluctant to come back after being in such wonderful countries for a while. The thought of returning to chaotic, messy, cold Georgia was not very appealing to me as I sipped lattes, margaritas, and watched CNN in Greece. But thankfully, now that I’m back, I’m reminded that while Georgia is chaotic, messy, and cold, it’s really not that bad. I’ve just got to remember that if Georgia were a country with Pizza Hut and Starbucks (as Greece and Turkey both are), I wouldn’t have a job to do here… However, my homesickness would decline considerably if I could get a chai latte occasionally. I need to write those guys a letter.

Project Get Out of Georgia got off to a bumpy, yet beautiful start when awoke to a snow-covered Lanchkhuti, the first snow this year in western Georgia. We boarded the slowest bus ever to Batumi, but thankfully it also stopped every 5 minutes to pick up additional passengers. The snow continued and thickened as we approached the steep, windy roads near Batumi, so a trip that usually takes an hour and a half took four. Georgian traffic is always a nightmare, but Georgian traffic in bad weather is downright terrifying. Despite the odds, we arrived to Batumi unharmed and found a taxi to take us to the Georgia/Turkey border.

We were all giddy and anxious in the cab, visions of doners and Turkish delight dancing in our heads, enjoying the beauty of snow-covered Batumi and the Black Sea coast, when our taxi suddenly fishtailed, spun around, almost collided with a marshutka, and landed in a snow bank. If this had happened to me 7 months ago, before Georgia, I’d have been shaken, scared, adrenaline would have pumped through my veins. But no, not this time. We all just kinda looked around, shrugged our shoulders; we got out of the cab, unphased, and got behind the cab to start pushing. No big deal; close calls in traffic are a daily occurrence in Georgia and we’ve all been desensitized. I also documented this event on camera.

The rest of the trip went a bit smoother. We eventually arrived in even snowier Trabzon and spent the night in a Turkish dormitory. Long story. Our flight to Izmir the next morning was only slightly delayed because of the snow, and when we touched down again there was no more snow, only sunny skies and surprisingly green mountains. I LOVE TURKEY! I really do recommend that everyone visits Turkey, especially Istanbul. There’s not a cooler city to be found; well, maybe there is, but I haven’t done too much traveling. But in my limited international travel experience, Istanbul rates extremely high.

And Greece… I’ve always wanted to go there and it did not disappoint. Athens is such a lively, modern city so nicely surrounding one of the world’s most ancient sites. I think that’s cool. And Santorini is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. I love it and I don’t understand why Ryan said we couldn’t live there and serve coffee in cafés. I thought it was a really good plan.

I won’t write in detail about the trip here, I’ll just give a brief skeleton list of our adventures: Hassled by would-be tour guides, “rare” Roman coin salesmen, and bus company men in Selcuk; took over 100 pictures at Ephesus; left Asia and entered Europe by crossing the bridge over the Bosphorus; ate lots of doners; tried lamb again and finally decided with conviction that I don’t really care for it; went inside the Blue Mosque; saw lots of beautiful Turkish things I can’t afford but would like to come back for someday if I can afford them; saw three fireworks shows at once from a rooftop overlooking the Bosphorus; drank Starbucks for the first time in 7 months and ate at Pizza Hut; bought a new book for the first time in 7 months and a British Cosmo; slept on a train for the first time; saw the most beautiful sunset in the world on Santorini, every night for a week; adopted a pack of stray dogs; ate my weight in baklava; picnic on the beach; DIDN’T wear long-johns for the first time since November; walked around the Acropolis; drank margaritas at TGI Fridays…

Those are some of the highlights. Of course, I have a million pictures and I have (or will have, depending on if I do my blog post or facebook post first) posted lots of them on my facebook account. If you’d don’t have a facebook account, email me and I’ll give you my facebook password so you can take a gander. If you want, no pressure.

I've decided to just start posting random pictures that have nothing to do with one another. Here they go:

Snow in Dimi a few days before Christmas. It had been so long since I'd seen snow, I got pretty excited and a little snap-happy, naturally. Those are persimmons rotting on that tree, the last few still hanging on from fall. There are persimmon trees everywhere here in the fall. But in this picture you can't tell that they're rotting fruit and they look quite pretty in the white snow. It also snowed on Christmas morning, something I'd never experienced in my life. White Christmas' are freak accidents in Texas, so again I got kinda giddy when I woke up to snow falling on Christmas morning.

This is my 5th form class, my favorite class, the only class I do not occasionally want to strangle. They're just awesome, really smart, motivated, active... At least for the next 2 years or so until they become to cool for school like all the older kids. But, for now, they're the best thing about my school.

Front: Gvadi, Delmari, Aliko, Ana, Barbara, Salime, Mary.

Back:Nino, Giorgi, Vasiko, Ana

This was the day I taught them Santa Clause Is Coming To Town... And discovered that, like you Katie Ree, I have the kindergarten teacher gene. It was really cute and fun.

My host sisters-Ana, 11 and Nata, 13. They are also both my students and speak English pretty well, which makes things easy at home. They're standing in our petchi room, the only warm room in the house, where we spend all of our time. ALL OF OUR TIME. I find myself going to bed later and later just to stay in the warm room... These girls are really cool, smart, fun... They are always asking me to write down the words to American pop songs for them and against my better judgement, I oblige...

My host mom, Ia, teaching me how to make lobiani for Barbaroba, St. Barbara's Day. Georgians eat beans on Barbaroba, and lobiani is basically a bean pie. I didn't know this was a religious holiday, I was just under the impression that it was Georgian Bean Appreciation Day or something. All my host mom said was, "Paige, on Sunday, we will eat many beans! Everyone eats beans!"

Just a very pretty picture of a village, Dimi. I have an infinite collection of such scenery pictures of the various landscapes of Georgia. I also seem to find it neccessary to take about 5 of the same picture whenever I take such a shot. But I especially liked this one for some reason.

This was taken way back in September at Jeff's birthday supra in his village. That's Ryan, Ian, Jeff, Lyssa, Jen, and myself standing in Jeff's family's vineyard. We stood around talking and picking and eating grapes from the vines that day...that seems like a long time ago. It was a cool time though, as I recall...

Here I am looking slightly goofy and awkward "interviewing" the US Ambassador to Georgia at the breast cancer walk in Kutaisi. Considering my extensive journalism experience, I was asked to play reporter for the day. That's our country director, Kathleen, behind me. I tried to interview him as we were actually in the midst of the walk...very professional.

At the Lanchkhuti Language Competition, hosted by my school. Lots of volunteers came in to act as judges and it was really cool. After the competition there was a concert, and these girls are some of my 8th formers dressed in traditional dance costumes (Nino, Nino, Mary, Mary, and Nata, my host sister.) Nata placed 3rd in her age division I am proud to say. It was a really fun weekend, everyone stayed at my house for the night and I finally got to show off my awesome host family. The general concensus was that I may indeed have the best host family in Peace Corps, and who am I to argue...

This is my first host family on swear-in day. Tamuna, Marika, me, Soso, Baby Seth. Tamuna cried all day which was sweet at first but then kinda ridiculous. I look kinda sweaty...it was really hot in there. Baby Seth hung out at my house all the time so they kinda felt like his host family too.Soso is still my hero because he destroyed a birzha defending my honor... it's a long story.My summer camp crew in Lanchkhuti. We had the "English Olympics," and the competition was fierce. Team "Black Roses" and team "Sunrise" competed tirelessly and ruthlessly for 5 days in events such as hangman, draw your alien, football, dodgeball, and pictionary...It was intense, but the Black Roses came out on top. My host sisters are in the picture: Nata is the one in the pink shirt behind me, and Ana is the girl in the red shirt kneeling front row center. The other grown up is my main counterpart and one of few actual Georgian friends, Lela. She's awesome.

So it looks like my last blog entry was on August 2… That’s unacceptable. I will try to be better in the future but, in my defense, my internet access is not exactly reliable or convenient; so when I have access I usually just have time to send out emails and try to get some vague idea of what’s going on in the world outside of my lovely Georgia, and within Georgia for that matter. But I apologize to you guys who’ve been checking my blog only to receive no news. I do have lots of pictures on my facebook account because the pics load a lot faster there than on this site, so if anyone wants to look there, be my guest!

I have been in my permanent site for 3 months now and I honestly still don’t have much to complain about. I mean, my school kinda sucks sometimes and we lose electricity with every gust of wind or raindrop, but if that’s the extent of my Peace Corps woes, I’d doing okay.. My family is WONDERFUL, I lucked out again just like I did with my training family. My parents are great, they are very enthusiastic about this whole situation but they constantly remind me that their house is my house now too, and I can do whatever I what. They’re always saying, “Rogorts ginda paigi, rogorts ginda!” Whatever you want paige! My mother works and my father stays at home. But amazingly, he is not your typical Georgian male. He cooks, very well actually, cleans, takes care of his daughters and me, reads, helps his daughters with their homework, knows lots about history and America; so basically, I’m not convinced that he’s actually Georgian!! I have 2 sisters-Nata, 13 and Ana, 11. They both speak some English, kind of a lot actually, especially Nata. They are incredible girls, they’ve been teaching me some Georgian dances, which are way harder than they look and, apparently, I am hilarious when I dance because they both laugh at me. A lot. My parents don’t want me to speak any Georgian to the girls; they only want me to speak English because they want their English to improve. My house is really nice; I have hot water, an indoor toilet and a shower, so I’m REALLY lucky!

Lanchkhuti is only 30 minutes from the Black Sea, so it was unbelievably hot and humid when I first got to site. I think it was around 100 degrees for the first almost 3 weeks I was here, which feels a lot hotter when there’s no AC or shuki (electricity) for fans. Basically I just sat around and sweated for a few weeks. But then the weather actually really, really nice for most of September and October despite a few week-long rain storms. The weather just turned cold a few weeks ago, but it is freaking cold in my house! There’s really no such thing as insulation (that’s one more on my list of things I could introduce to Georgia and make millions) so the only warm room is the one with a petchi, the Russian word for the wooden stoves everyone uses. It’s basically a small fireplace except the smoke blows out a small hole in the wall. This room stays really warm, but it’s freezing in my bedroom. Last night I slept in: longjohns, sweatpants, sweatshirt, beenie, wool socks, my sleeping bag with a comforter and wool blanket on top. I am told this is normal. Hopefully I’ll soon be getting a little gas heater for my room. But pretty much, for the next 3-4 months, I’ll be spending all of my time in the petchi room with my host family. It’s not such a bad thing since my family is cool, but as a girl who likes my privacy, it’s sure to get old sooner or later.

I had a summer camp for English students at my school a fe and it went really well. I called it the English Olympics, divided the kids into 2 teams, played games using English and sports and I kept track of the points all week. They really got into it…Georgians love competition!!!! I had them create a team name and flag. One team called themselves “The Black Roses” and wrote “the rock star team” on their flag! It was really funny! I was really impressed with several students’ English and I’m looking forward to working with them. I’m getting excited about the school year and coming up with lots of ideas for clubs and secondary projects at my school. One thing I really want to do is start an English newspaper at school, but unfortunately I have to wait 6 months to start any secondary projects. My school really needs an English library, so my biggest project by far will be putting one together for them. So if any of you know anyone looking to donate books…give them my email please!!!

My school started at the end of September and it’s going pretty well. The first day of school here is a HUGE deal, lots of parents come and there’s a brief ceremony to get the year started. I was introduced and had to give a brief speech. For the first 2 days of school, the kids gave me standing ovations whenever I entered their classrooms!!! I felt like a rock star. Kind of a lame rock star, but still... The classes asked me lots of questions about myself and America, and a lot of them speak English very well. I have 4 English teachers to work with, and they have all been very eager and friendly and seem pretty motivated to work with me. I was surprised to learn that I only teach 3 days a week because all of my counterparts teach at other schools as well, but that gives me more time to work on secondary projects so I think it’ll be a good thing once I really get started on the work.

I have decided to teach 2nd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, and 10th forms. School can be really, really frustrating sometimes…it’s just sooo different. There’s no attendance policy (not really), the schedule of classes changes constantly, and cheating is a MAJOR problem in Georgian schools. But I have lots of wonderful students, my counterparts are very cool and competent for the most part. It’s basically impossible to make much headway in the first semester because it’s just sort of this tornado of confusing (and nonsensical) scenerios that in no way resemble American schools. Such as, “We won’t have 5th hour today because Tiniko mastavlebeli (teacher) has brought food and wine to celebrate her 3rd grandchild being born.” And then when you walk into the teacher’s lounge, a huge supra has suddenly appeared! Amazing! Then a few weeks ago I attended a birthday supra for one of my 2nd form students after school. These kids are 7. One of my favorite students, Irakli, pours himself a glass of wine (his mother’s sitting right next to him smiling, “He loves wine” she said) , stands up and recites a toast to his classmate just like a grown man, then bolomdes (means “till the end”, which is what people say when they want you to drink your whole glass in one chug) his glass.

Ok, so that was a quick little update and hopefully the pictures will fill in some more of the gaps.

Another pic of the Gudauri mountains, along with some PC gals...Amy, Amy, Ariana, Me, Sarah, and Kate.

These are the most amazing mountains I've ever seen!! This is Gudauri, where we had our supervisors conference. Our hotel was at 2,003 km...it was a pretty nice view to say the least.

This is one of the cool things we saw in Telavi. It's called a wish tree, and it's where some Georgians go to make "wishes" I suppose to their ancestors. They tear a strip of their clothing, tie it around a branch, and make a wish. It's inside this huge branch, which is inside a huge maze, which is on this property where foreign diplomats stay in Georgia. It's where we saw Shevrenadze's wine collection and the 200 year bottles of wine that I wrote about a few emails back. Pictured above? That's Brandon, Lyssa, Nicholas, and Ryan. Brandon has to go home because of a back injury and it really sucks because the nicest person here, or maybe anywhere for that matter. Big loss to us, big loss to Georgia, he'll be dearly missed.

SVENETI DANCE PARTY!!! My host sibs are dancing fools, as you can see above. What you can't see is that they are dancing to a Georgian rap video. They are a lot like American rap videos (bling, scantilly-clad females, alcohol and speed-boats) but are lacking a bit in quality. This of course means that they are hilarious! That's my living room and the the dancers are, in order: brother Viktor, 9; sister Teona, on her 11th birthday actually; and cousin Keti, 6. Keti lives in T'bilisi but has stayed with us all summer. She looks and acts exactly like Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird.

So, here's a photo that I'm actually in, by popular request...me and some of the summer camp kids at the village church. The kids love to draw, so we bought colored pencils at the bazaar and had "art" day. They drew pictures of the church at first, then just drew pictures of me and my clustermates! The girls gave me a very beautiful and varied wardrobe in their artistic interpretations...including ball gowns and one very Cher-ish 60's outfit.

Sveneti's Kids: last day of summer camp, halleluja...very fun, kids were (mostly) great, but I can only sing the Hokey Pokey for so long.

This is a pretty good one the Gori castle, which is actually an ancient fortress but I keep calling it a castle.

A candid shot of Tim, Jane, Amy, Lyssa, and Seth hanging at the castle in Gori.

So, this is me sitting atop the castle wall in Gori, pondering the meaning of life. Actually, I was thinking about food because I had skipped breakfast and was starving at the time.

In case you were wondering, this baby is NOT drunk, and is in fact sober. Sometimes Georgians were American t-shirts even though they don't know what the shirt actually says, which I'm hoping is the case here. For example, my 8 yr. old host sister always wears a shirt that says "American Sexy." It's pretty funny sometimes.

This is the church in my village, Sveneti. I took about a million pics of it, but this is my favorite. This is about a five minute walk from my house.

I am considering this my first official post from Georgia since I had about two seconds to post last week!! I tried again on Sunday but the computers in this Internet café near our hub site in Georgia are sooo slooowww that my time ran out before I could post! So…I’m in Georgia! I feel like I’ve been here for a month at least, and it’s hard for me to grasp the fact that I’ve only been here for almost two weeks. So much has happened and is happening that I don’t know where to start, but first you should know that I am perfectly fine, happy, and genuinely glad to be here! After we arrived in T’bilisi we spent 4 days in Tabakhmela, a village basically on top of a mountain above T’bilisi, for pre-training orientation. It was just a bunch of workshops, classes, and such, but it gave us all a good chance to get to know each other and hang out. My fellow trainees, all 50 or so of them, are very cool, nice, fun, (mostly) normal, and I am extremely grateful for this! Between playing whiffle ball, getting shots, and slaughtering the Georgian language together, we’re getting pretty tight! Georgia is just as beautiful (lamazi) as it looks in pictures, and I’ve already seen a few things in real life that I’ve been looking at for months on the Internet.

We are divided into clusters of 4 or 5 trainees for training, but the villages are all very close to each other and the “city” of Gori. Gori being the birthplace of Joseph Stalin…yup. My village is called Sveneti, and my cluster consists of Jane from Illinois, Seth from CONNECTICUT (not Wisconsin, sorry Seth), Tim from Chicago, and me, Paige from Texas. And it should be known that my cluster is definitely the best, and probably the only one with the high aspiration of translating our favorite songs into Georgian. “Shabati, shabati, shabati…” Anyone? Anyone? It would probably help to know that shabati means Saturday. Anyway, Sveneti is only a 10 minute marshutka (mini-bus) ride from Gori and it is very small. Maka, my LCF (language and culture facilitator), says there are 500 families here, but I just don’t see how that’s possible. By the way, Peace Corps LOVES acronyms, so I’m sure I’ll be using them like crazy before long!!!

My village is truly beautiful, wrapped in rich green mountains, and I honestly couldn’t be happier about the situation at this point. My host family is beautiful too!!! My host parents, Soso and Marika, own, I am proud to say, the best store in town! Or village, rather. They have three awesome kids: Tamuna, 12, Vickor, 9, and Taona, 8. They are always giving me little presents and helping me with my homework, and learning a little English from me along the way, and they’re just really incredible. Oh yeah, none of them speak any English. Did I forget to mention that? Taona and Vickor speak just a little bit, but no one else. It’s been pretty hilarious. They spend a lot of time trying to explain things to me, and I just laugh and say “Bodishi, ver gavige” “Sorry, I don’t understand,” and they laugh back. It’s pretty amazing how much you can communicate to people who can’t understand a word you’re saying and vice versa. I’m learning a lot of Georgian, though, in addition to my 4 hours of language a day. We seem to be making progress today, though, and the kids love explain things to me and get really excited when I understand something, it’s pretty funny.

Training is pretty intense, and learning the language is absolutely the hardest things I’ve tried to do with my brain in a very long time. The sad part is that we’ve barely scratched the surface of this language and it’s hard to imagine that I’ll ever be able to speak it fluently. I am getting better, and I’m doing about the same as everyone else, so I’m trying not to worry about it too much. The great thing about being really busy is that you don’t have time to sit around and worry about stuff. Sadly, as my Georgian improves, my English deteriorates at a rapid pace. In a few months, I’ll be speaking two languages very poorly! Can’t wait!

I’ve got to cut this off because it’s turning into a novel, but I have one more story. When we arrived in Gori, all 50 or so of the host families were waiting for us and it was a complete madhouse. We were just kind of getting off the bus and then standing around waiting to get adopted or something. Anyway, Jane, Tim, and I rode in Soso’s marshutka, along with out respective families, to Sveneti. None of the families speak any English, we spoke (and speak) no Georgian, but everyone was just laughing uncontrollably. Tim and I were looking through our dictionaries for things to say, but it was too bumpy, so everyone was just laughing at us. Each person in the van, no matter what language they spoke, was simultaneously thinking, “What have I gotten myself into??!!!” and finding the situation completely hilarious, thank God. I guess my point is that all through staging and pre-training, everyone kept saying that the single most important thing to have in Georgia is a sense of humor…and I definitely get that now.

I have ZERO time right now, so I'm sorry this post is not going to be a lengthy post, full of useful and interesting information. But most of you just received a Very LONG email from me, with probably more info than you really wanted, so I'm not too worried about it. The short version of that email is that I am alive and fine, Georgia is actually that beautiful, my host family is also beautiful and very warm and welcoming, and except for the fact that they speak no English at all, we get along great!! We just laugh at each other and our situation, which is really the only thing you can do. I'm having a blast, staying very busy, trying to learn Georgian although it is extremely difficult, eating great and interesting food, and loving life for the most part, despite the fact that I have a hole in the ground instead of a toilet!! My fellow trainees are awesome, the staff is as well, and I have no more time in this little internet cafe because I have a session in 8 minutes!!! I love you and I love Georgia!

Of all the amazing photos I've found of Georgia, this is arguably my favorite. Does that not look like something out of a storybook? Can't wait to take my own pic of this place! 12 days till takeoff-yeesh!!

Oh yes, this is my first post and I'm still figuring out this blog stuff. It appears to rather simple, but I am pretty awesome at screwing up most types of technology, so...I have nothing to add after "so." I am going to type in the "Georgia" font, as I feel it is only appropriate. I likely won't be posting again until I am actually in Georgia because no one I know will be interested in looking at this until they've had a few days to miss me. And that's all it takes, a few days...hehe. So, a few days after June 13, my day of reckoning, I'll probably post something like, "What have I gotten my self into?!" Naw, that post will probably come a few weeks later:) BTW, that is a picture of the most delicious cheesecake I know of (creme brulee), and it was taken the night before I left College Station to come home to Longview and await my Peace Corps assignment. So the "Good Luck Paige" refers to "in the Peace Corps," not "in Longview subbing until you leave for Peace Corps."