I found out a few days ago where I will be sent for my next stint in the Peace Corps....

NICARAGUA!!!!

I leave in May and I'll be teaching Business classes to High School students. I get to teach them how to think critically and creatively, then walk them through how to start, run, and liquidate a business. And, as we all know, I have SOOOO much experience in doing all of those things! Anyway, it should be fun and a definite learning experience.

Ok, I've moved on to my next adventure and so the blogging begins again.

Some of you may know this and some of you may not...I now live in Telluride, Colorado.

After the whole evacuation thing, Gretchen and I decided that since we won't be able to go back to Peace Corps until Spring that we needed some seasonal work. We went online and applied to Telluride Ski & Golf and a week later were hired on as ski instructors. Now, this whole 'hired on' thing is a bit tricky, see first we have to go to Snow College. If we can successfully complete snow college we get to teach children how to ski, if we do not we get demoted to some other job on the moutain...i.e. ticket scanner. Most of you would probably not be suprised ot hear that ticket scanner was in fact my first choice of jobs on the moutnain, but I allowed myself to be persuaded into ski instructing seeing as they make much more money. And, yes, Keli is very proud of my endeavours in continuing my education. Graduating from Snow College may or may not be one of her secret dreams for my life!!

So, Gretchen and I got out here two days ago. Grandma Jane drove us all the way out from Colorado Springs with all of our stuff. That woman is a saint. Gretch and I each have our own studio apartments with lots of floor space for visitors!!! I have a pretty amazing view of the dumpster, so I'm pumped about that. I'm thought about maybe putting in some sort of pulley system so I don't have to carry my garbage down, but I decided I would not be that lazy.

We've done some walking around the town and checking out the local establishments...the Mexican Food restaurant, the saloon, the coffee shop, you know...all the important places. I have to say though, that at this point the coffee shop is my favorite, there is WiFi there so yesterday we just sat there for about 5 hours. At about 4 hours in, the barista gave me a free cup of coffee!!! I think I'll do well here. Also, I found out the the local Irish Pub has Big Buck Hunter and Big Buck Hunter Safari! That is on my list of places to scope out today. OH, big news...I got a library card today! I believe it is the first library card that I have ever had, so that's a big deal in my life.

Last night Gretch and I made some friends in our apartment building...there is a snowboard bum from Chicago, a nomad from Waxahachie, a snow maker from Minnesota, a guy that I believe is MacGuyver reincarnated from Michigan, and some other random hippy types from here and there. We all gathered for a large game of Cranium...I am proud to say that my team came from WAY last place to clinch second.

All in all, it's a pretty awesome place. It is absolutely gorgeous, the people are super friendly, and there seems to be a lot to do. In fact, Sunday Gretchen and I are signed up for a cornhole tournament put on by the local pizza place. I'm told cornhole is a game where you try to toss bean bags into a hole on a board...I'm not really sure, but it should be fun. That is unless the owner bans us. See, I found out that he played football for Michigan and I might have left him a note that said 'Go Northwestern! BEAT MICHIGAN!!' oops....

So, as I'm sure many people know, I am no longer in Georgia. Due to the conflict between Russia and Georgia, we were evacuated to Armenia where I have been for the last 3 weeks. I am fine though and as far as I know my family is also fine. It was a wild and crazy turn of events. Its not really the kind of thing that I would like to write about though, my apologies...

I am writing this to let everyone know that I will be coming home soon. I fly into New Jersey in mid-September where I will stay with Gretchen for a bit, then I will return to Houston. I look forward to seeing all of you and I thank you for your love and support through all of this.

(This is the last of 3 new entries….if you are interested in a chronological order of events scroll down to ‘Good Days & Bad Days in the 3rd World’ and work your way back to the top.)

I know that many of you know this, but some of you may not…my 22nd birthday was about a week ago. The big day happened to fall on the day we were traveling back from our site visit. Luckily, the way home from Batumi was much less exciting than the way there! Kako and I got to bond for 5 hours crammed in the back corner of a marshutka where I decided that my legs are far too long for any form of Georgian public transportation. Thankfully though, it was a luxury marshutka, no more leg room, but it was equipped with air conditioning and a flip down TV screen on which they played Georgian, Russian, and American music videos. Fancy, Fancy! We got back to Ruisi around 3 and the Birthday festivities started around 4. A lot of my American friends came by on their ways back to their villages from their own site visits and my family invited some of their good friends over as well. It turned out to be a pretty big crowd and we had some pretty interesting cultural exchanges! Gretchen, Katie, and our friend Jen brought beer pong supplies and we got quite the tournament going, even the kids got involved! I’m sure that’s not the kind of cultural exchange that is encouraged, but we didn’t let them drink so it wasn’t all that bad….right? On the flip side, I learned that birthday parties aren’t just for your family and close friends, anyone who lives in the area will stop by and toast to you regardless of whether or not you have ever met or even seen them before. My host mom went all out and made enough food to feed the whole village, and that’s saying a lot since I live in the 2nd largest village in Georgia! I think my host dad tried to match her by bringing out enough wine to get the whole village drunk, and I think he succeeded. Thankfully, we have that great 8pm curfew to use as an excuse, and we all have seen that breaking it is extremely ‘ar sheidzleba!’ (Not allowed!) By the way, that is my new favorite term, I use it for everything! For example, when some random person says “Amanda, come have a drink.” I respond ’Ar sheidzleba!’, or “Amanda, why aren’t you dancing?”….’Ar sheidzleba!’, or “Amanda, give me a hug”…’definitely, Ar sheidzleba!’. It is more than appropriate for all situations.

Later on in the week, I got to celebrate another kind of Birthday….the birth of my Georgian name! Mia (the woman who was in our cluster that got Medically Separated) had us over to her house for dinner and her host dad and a friend of the family decided that Phil, Tyler, Mike, and I needed to have Georgian names. The breakdown, from what I gathered, goes something like this: Phil’s name is Ivan ‘Vano’ Dragho (Georgian for Ivan the Terrible…I didn’t bother asking why.), Tyler’s is Kasha (this is either Georgian or Russian for Christ…again, I didn’t bother), Mike’s new name is Gogia (George the Dragon Slayer…this needs no explanation as Mike is our resident ex-Marine from Texas!), and I was given the name Nana (the angel/mother of Georgia…at least someone understands and appreciates my importance in life!!!! Kidding.) So yeah, from here on out I guess, those will be our Georgian names. And don’t worry, we returned the favor. If you saw these guys you would think they stepped right of the screen of a 1950’s mob movie, so inevitably they got the names Frank and Joey…they seemed rather satisfied, and completely understood and embraced the term ‘Gangsteri’. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing…

It was apparently a week for birthdays…this past Sunday we got to celebrate my little sister Mari’s birthday, she turned 4. My host mother told me that there was going to be a party, so I invited Gretchen over for the weekend knowing that she loves little kids. Much to my surprise, a child’s birthday is not celebrated with the children’s other little friends, but rather all of the father’s friends. We loaded up the car with food that my host mom prepared for two whole days and went out to this picnic area in the woods where, I kid you not, I think these 6 men finished off about 7 gallons of wine! It was an interesting experience to say the least. Nothing too crazy happened, but after that much wine it isn’t to be expected since none of them could even walk.

So, I think I have adequately summed up the events of the last few weeks, I hope that you all find them as entertaining as I did. I am still doing well and looking forward to moving to my permanent site. I really like the people I will be with and I am excited about the work I will be doing. I’m sad that some of my friends will be on the other side of the country, but I suppose that it just gives me more reason to travel and see the country, darn! I hope that all of you are doing well and can’t wait to hear what has been going on in all of your lives.

When I get to Batumi I should have regular access to internet and I promise I will try to post more often! Nakhvamdis.

After we found out where we would be going, we got a chance to meet with our counterparts, learn about our NGOs, and go on a site visit. My NGO is called International Business Development and Investment, my job is mainly in Tourism Development and Marketing. My counterpart’s name is Zviad and he is freakin’ awesome, he showed up to our meeting wearing Chuck’s! (that is short for Chuck Taylors…a type of shoe for those reading this who aren’t so hip…J). He studied and worked in Germany for 8 years so he knows a lot about Western business methods and ideas which will make my job a lot easier. We will be working together expanding a Tourism Competency Center and the Adjara Tourism Association. I’m not really sure what all that means, but I know part of it includes going to a big Film Festival in September!

Casey, or Kako, as he has been dubbed by his Georgian family, lives right across the street from me and is my ‘deidashvili’ or cousin….no joke, our host moms are sisters! My family is great! I have a sister who is 24 and speaks perfect English, a brother who is 22 and drives a Benz, and an 11 year old sister who doesn’t talk, I’m going to try to work on that one though. We live more towards the outskirts of Batumi, but it’s only about a 15 minute walk into town. My office is right in the center of town and about 3 blocks from the sea. Now, I say three blocks but because of where it is actually situated you have to walk through a park, a park containing a ‘zoo’. It is probably the funniest zoo ever…there is just a random line of cages housing monkeys, kangaroos, and whatever the crazy little animals are in the movie Madagascar. It’s great! There are also some botanical gardens in Batumi that are really pretty and much more substantial than the zoo. Kako also read somewhere that there is a Puppet Theatre, we didn’t make it there during our site visit, but I’m pretty stoked to check it out….I’m betting that it’ll be my new hangout!

Ok, so, random funny story time. To get from the place that we met our supervisors to our sites, our supervisors were in charge of arranging transportation. Because there were many of us that were going in the same direction, one of the supervisors had a great idea to rent a marshutka for about 10 of us. Now, do you remember what a marshutka is? It’s like a mini-van or mini-bus that hold about 12 people. So here we are, 6 Americans and our 5 Georgian counterparts, all snug and ready for our 5 hour journey. Along the way, for some reason, the marshutka driver decides he needs to keep stopping to fill the one extra seat so that he can make one or two (literally one or two) extra dollars. About 3 hours into the trip, we have stopped to pick up and drop off a random person twice and are now picking up our third. This young guy gets on with his duffle bag and sits in the seat directly behind me. I swear not 2 minutes later, the marshutka is screeching to a halt because it seems a Toyota Forerunner has not only cut us off, but stopped diagonally in front of us. Mind you this is in the middle of the main highway through the whole country. So, out of this Forerunner comes 2 huge guys, they walk over to the sliding door on the passenger side of the marshutka. As they yank open the door I see two more guys coming from lord knows where around the back of the marshutka to join them at the open door. Bitcho #1, who was driving the SUV, halfway steps into the vehicle and snatches the guy, who had just gotten on, out of the marshutka. Bitcho #2 who came from the back of the marshuka reaches in, says ‘bodishit’ (excuse me) and yanks the guys bag out. As he slams the door shut, we see the driver getting back into his car as two of the others throw the kid into the back seat and get in on either side of him. Now, none of these guys ever said a word to the driver, the kid, or anyone else explaining who they were and/or what they were doing. There were no badges, no uniforms, no nothing. Katie and I decided that we may very well have been the last people to see this poor fellow alive. I have no idea what the whole ordeal was about and I can assure you at the time it was not pleasant to witness, but looking back it’s pretty hilarious. I mean, come on, really… where am I?

I’m sorry it has been so long since my last update…I promise it will get better. It has been a crazy few weeks!! I guess I will start where I left of last time.

We got told not too long ago that we were going to have an opportunity to do a job shadowing with a current volunteer at their site for two days during training. We got told who we were being paired with and where a couple of days before we actually went to visit. They handed us this list on a sheet of paper with everyone’s names, the name of the current volunteer, and the site. The list starts with Batumi, probably the coolest city and the one everyone wanted to go to, and my name was not next to it. Then Zugdidi, another cool town, again my name is not there. Next, Kutaisi, then Telavi, Rustavi…all of these cool towns, ‘Amanda’ is not next to any of them. Wondering if there is a mistake and maybe my name didn’t make the list, I check the name column, find my name and look to the left, I see ‘Gori’. Now, I’m sure none of you know where Gori is so let me fill you in, it’s the town next to me. That’s right, it’s not by the sea or in the mountains, but 15 minutes away from the village I live in now and I have been there like 10 times already. Luckily the girl I got to shadow with, Kelly, is really cool and we had gotten a chance to hang out a few times before…you know seeing as how we are basically neighbors and all. So, I go to do my job shadowing and Kelly showed me the University where she is working to create a strategic plan and the Stalin Museum (I forgot to mention that…Stalin was born in Gori, it’s their claim to fame!) where she helped to establish a gift shop, apparently that is a foreign concept. Anyway, we had a good time and I got to learn a lot about her NGO and the types of outside projects she works on. After we got that business out of the way, she and another volunteer took me out to see this super old gypsy cave city just outside of town, it was pretty interesting to see and apparently when the Russians would invade Gori during the revolution the townspeople used them as hideouts. Good to know that they are resourceful!

After job shadowing I got myself into a bit of trouble… I’m sure that you all are very surprised to hear that! Apparently losing track of time and having transportation plans fall through is absolutely no excuse to break the 8pm curfew by 15 minutes and it turns into a super huge deal where you get to sit down with the Training Director and Country Director to talk about your future as a volunteer and what actions can be taken to ensure that such a situation will never happen again. OOPS, my bad. But it’s all good now, don’t fret. And apparently I am quite the trend setter, since my incident 5 or 6 more volunteers have been written up for the same offense. And I’m sure you will all be equally as surprised to know that they were all close friends of mine…I think I might be hanging out with the ‘bad kids’. But, karma has a way a coming around I guess, because the day after my rule-breaking issue was settled I came down with food poisoning. Now this is a bad situation to be in anywhere, but let me tell you, in a third world country, its about a million times worse. There is no chicken noodle soup, no saltine crackers, no comfy couch to lay on all day, no TV to watch. There is the rooster crowing all day long so you cant sleep, there is a hole in the ground downstairs and through the yard that you have to race to every half hour, there are potatoes and bread, and there is vodka….which apparently has the ability to cure all ailments. Needless to say, I was miserable for 2 days, oh yeah that’s right, 2 whole days. I guess whatever it is in the food that poisons humans is much stronger here!

Needless to say, the next week I laid pretty low. That Tuesday, we got to go into T’bilisi for a day and it may have been the best day of my Georgian life! I ate breakfast at McDonalds, talk to a couple of really interesting NGOs, went to an English bookstore where I got an actual iced latte for the first time and even more exciting, a salad (I never though that lettuce was something to be taken for granted)! Later, I got to hang out with a ‘Medically Separated’ volunteer at the 5 star Guest House she was staying at and have a real cheeseburger and a hot shower with actual running water. It was like heaven! I realize I haven’t really described my bathing situation yet, so picture this: dark, dingy room with dirt floors, lit by candle light. I bath tub off to the left within which you either use a stool (the same that everyone else in the family uses) to sit on or you can crouch/squat (my chosen method). There is a bucket of water that was heated using a wood burning stove sitting on a chair next to the tub and a cup that you then use to pour the water over yourself. It’s an interesting experience to say the least. It may be a little too much information, but I’ll be honest with you all, I don’t bathe much here….3 times a week and I’m the cleanest kid on the block!

To continue on with the ‘good days’ theme, the Friday after the T’bilisi trip we found out where our permanent sites are going to be. It was pretty cool how they set it up, they chalked out a map of Georgia in the yard outside of the school that we all met at, then had everyone stand outside of the borders. Everyone picked an envelope at random with someone else’s information inside. One person started and called out whomever’s name they had and where they were going, then that person went and stood at the spot on the map where their city is. Then, that person opened their envelope, called the next name, and so on. I was pretty nervous because I didn’t want to get stuck out in the boonies on the opposite side of the country from all of my friends, a reality here in the Peace Corps. Luckily, about half way through I heard my name and that I would be going to Batumi! Batumi is a city of about 300,000 right on the Black Sea and is the major tourist destination in Georgia. Casey, another volunteer from my group, and one of my best friends, also got placed in Batumi so I was pumped. There are also 2 volunteers, Alison and Brian, from last year that are in Batumi. Alison is a lot of fun and works on the floor above me in our office. I guess I am either extremely lucky or, despite my run in with the authorities, someone really likes me!!! Either way, I’m not complaining.

That means "Dude", the absolute most important word in any language.

So, I'm sure that you are all wondering what has been going on for the last week...I'm so glad that you all find this blog so amusing!

Language classes are driving me crazy, I think whoever created this language was like...let's make the most difficult language ever so that no one will ever be able to learn it and we can live happily ever after speaking at them a mile a minute knowing that they will never have any idea what we are saying. Then we can laugh, laugh, laugh raise our glasses say GAUMARJOS!!! (cheers) and tell them how much we love America. That's my life every night!

Thursday was really great, a group of us got to go into T'bilisi and see Condaleeza Rice speak briefly. It was prett cool, there were only about 40 people there and most of them were Peace Corps. I didn't get to meet her one on one, but its all good. After seeing Condi we all got to go to McDonalds...that was the real highlight of the trip!!!!! It was so amazing to have a hamburger and I hate McD's back in the states. Unfortunately, I have been craving Starbucks, and literally dreaming about it! Aunt Holly informed me that sice my departure many have closed....to the Starbuck executives-I am sorry.

Okay, so the big thing here is Supra, or feast. There are birthday supras, wedding supras, funeral supras, the cows came home today supras, good day in the field supras, new bathroom surpas, amanda is funny supras....basically you name it and they have a supra for it. Now no matter what the occasion they are very formal and there is an order for the toasts (atleast until no one can even remember what has been toasted to anymore). From what I gather the order (at my family's house anyway) goes: God, Peace, Reason for Supra, Parents, My parents (Jim and Keli they love to say...thats right they know your names), Children and siblings, Georgia, America and Georgia being friends, Amanda, Texas, friends, Amanda, the animals, the land, Amanda., etc. I like this place!!!! The other day we got invited to a matchmaking supra, the family introduced this boy as "this is 'whatever his name was', he wants an American wife", in true fashion I turned on as much Texas charm as I could and I'm pretty sure I scared him far far away. I hope that you are very proud Dad!

Funny fact of the day....that whole "till the cows come home" saying takes a whole other form here...the cows actually know how to get home! They all walk down the main road in a group and one by one break off down their own roads, into their repective gates, and straight into their little "rooms" it's unreal.

To end this, I am doing very well and having a lot of fun. Next week I get to do a job shadow with a current volunteer at a Young Economists NGO. My friends and I are faring well and haven't gotten too bored with village life yet...tomorrow for lunch we are inviting some people over for American day and we are going to make hamburgers and onion rings. I'm not lacking any necessities just yet, but any packages will be excitedly received!!! I miss you all and love you very much. I am hoping that when I get to my permanent sight and have more regular access to internet I will be able to post more pictures and send more individualized emails. Until then, I look forward to your comments!!! Nakhvamdis.

Here are some picture for those who asked! More are on the way...

Its so good to hear from all of you, I'm glad you are reading my blog...I'll try to update as often as possible.

So, I was told by a certain individual who will remain unnamed for now, that I would hate Georgian food and not eat for the next two years. WRONG! The food here is amazing! (btw, I am starting out with this because I know my family and friends and I know this is what you are really worried about!) Every meal starts with a tomato/cucumber salad that usually includes onions and jalepenos depending on the family. Then there is this eggplant dish with garlic and walnut sauce stuff that is equally amazing, lobiani which is like a refried bean quesadilla, roasted chicken, roasted potatoes, fresh bread everyday...I'm going to get so fat! The milk and cheese are a bit of a different story...let's just say VERY fresh aka straight from the cow. Some people can't get enough, but I have stayed away so far. Ok, so enough about food.

My family is very cute. I have a grandpa and grandma, mom and dad, two sisters (13 and 3), and a little brother (11). They are so fun! The little girl and I are about on the same page as far as learning the Georgian language, so that works well for me. The little boy loves soccer, but was playing with a flat soccer ball for the first three days I was here so I bought him a new ball and I think we might be best friends now! The 13 year old girl goes to English school in a nearby town and loves practicing with me, also her family loves to make her translate things that I think she would sometimes rather not...like that her cousin loves me, I'll get into that some other time. My house is an older house, but they have done a lot of remodeling; new floors, doors, ceilings, etc. They haven't yet remodeled the kitchen which is pretty cool because it feels like I'm walking back into 1930. I wish though that they had gotten to the bathroom first, its still a hole in a very dark room between the chicken coupe and the cow stable....oh yeah you read that correctly...i get to say hey to Bessy on my way to the bano!

My friends here are awesome, as I think I have mentioned before. Gretchen's birthday was the 2nd and Tyler and I hired his host brother to drive us an hour away to surprise her in her village. It was great, she loved it! Tyler and Phil and awesome they keep me entertained throughout the long weeks that I have to go without seeing Gretch. They like to think of me as one of the guys (big surprise!), but don't realize that I'm actually not, and would prefer not to check out Georgian girls...we're working on that! My village is "big" by Georgian standards, we have 1 store, all dirt roads, and 3 churches...sounds about right huh? OH, and btw the cows come in from pasture everyday at 6...I avoid the roads then, unfortunately their poop isn't as easy to avoid.

Training is going okay, it's very stressful and moves at a really quick pace. I'm doing pretty well with the language, so thats a plus. I got to practice it a little today when I accidentally hitchhiked into town, how do you accidentally hitchhike you ask??? Well, you flag down the wrong "marshutka" aka minivan, the most popular means of public transportation around here, on the highway. I survived though, so no worries...though I do think I went against every safety and security procedure that they drilled into us at orientation...sorry Mom!

Well, I better get going. I'll leave you with some pictures. Until I can get to a computer again, take care all and I love you.

Ok all...I'm off. I'm starting this so that you all can stay in touch and know whats going on.

We leave tomorrow from Philadelphia and take a bus to NYC. From JFK airport we fly directly to Istanbul, have a short layover, then go into T'bilisi. We should get there about 4:30pm Monday, then we have a traditional dinner with the Peace Corps Georgia staff. When we get to T'bilisi we have a 6 day orientation and we will be staying in a hotel. By the end of next week I should know my cell phone number, but won't be able to talk to anyone until then...no cell phones or internet! So, there you go, thats the deal.

Staging has been a lot of fun. There are 57 people in my group which is apparently pretty big. I have met so many people that are so fun! I didn't think I'd find as many people as I did that I get along with so well. There is a girl from New Jersey that is awesome, we hang out quite a bit, so thats good. Not really too much else to tell...I'm excited now, not really so nervous anymore. It'll be weird to meet the family I will be living with, but I'm sure it'll all go well. I'll keep you posted.

Mom, Dad, and Jane...pass this on, I don't know everyone's email addresses.

Love you all.