It's funny, I thought I'd be going through culture shock already.
But things are happening to make me feel right at home. Or, more accurately, right-where-I-am-which-is-lack-of-home.
Not that being home for a month wasn't a Good Thing. Naturally it was great to see my parents and sister and some friends again. Naturally, it was GREAT (!!) to be able to shop at a grocery store and be able to
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SURPRISE!!!! Whoops, did I skeeer ya? Bet you weren't actually expecting to hear from me again, ever. Truth to be told, I'm no longer in the land of the Kartveli, but I am forever a White Crow, whether I like it or not. More on that later.
I never actually covered the trip to Svaneti, other than a meager post on Stalkernet with an urge for you to Wikipedia the place to see how beautiful it
These past few weeks have been an odd dichotomy of surprisingly enjoyable and mind-numbingly dull. School's end was anticlimactic, as expected. Students trickled out day by day, and the last actual day of school was nothing special. There really isn't a bad thing strong enough to kill the inherent joy of the End of School, but there is one to dull it a bit: exams. Students and teachers alike were
In addition to my new post yesterday/this morning, I finally got a backlog of photos from spring and summer up. Check 'em out!
This post, a mere half a month after my previous post, might send some of you into cardiac arrest. I think the risk of that, however, is smaller than the risk of death by head-on collision in Georgia (either by cars or by banging heads against walls-- though marsh drivers now insist on passengers wearing seatbelts on the highway, because the fine is hella high. So the latter option is more
Hey hey, loyal readership.
Much has occurred since your eyes last desperately searched for an update on the breakneck-paced, exciting life of your favorite White Crow.
If you know anything about my life the past two years, I'm sure you can guess which part of that sentence is a lie and which is truth.
Really, though, news headlines! My good friend who's helped carry me through these past 2
This one's for Mom. I didn't know whether I should e-mail or blog, but I want to let the world know how awesome she is. So here goes.
I know I'm far away, and physical presents are hard (because I don't plan ahead and have them shipped from online shopping). But presents don't have to be physical.
Mom, you've been invaluable support while I'm over here. When I'm feeling bad, I crave a talk
Okay, I know that Earth Day's past and Easter just happened and I have cool stories about getting three sheets to the wind and jumping over a fire in the middle of the street (okay, that's Chiakokonoba in a nutshell, and though I did jump over the fire, I didn't actually drink anything that day [sadly]) and grave visiting (much to your excitement, Mom ; D ) and there was also another funeral in
Winter is coming to a close. The month of March, in which Peace Corps turns 50, is coming to a close. The second Akhalsopeli Computer Training for teachers and doctors just came to a close. A fitting time for a conference regarding two years of service coming to a close, no?
So, back up. The training came to a close. Mostly. There's still a doctor who needs to make up the last two weeks of
The Hygeine Poster Contest Award Ceremony is taking longer to accomplish than I thought it would. Reasons?
1) Everyone at school has gone through their cycle of being sick for a week or so. Including both my counterparts and the teacher I was doing the contest with, so last week was especially fun. Cough.
2) It's Georgia.
So, I'll give you a draft I found lurking in my backlog (because much
ese igi,
During the glorious vacation described in the previous post, I realized my depressing tendency to be depressive all the time, and I got-- well, you know. It's a cycle.
So, to combat the Lamenting Linda syndrome, I decided to write in my little notebook (gift from the English teacher I don't work with anymore) 3 things I'm thankful for from that day. I'd like to start either another
or Georgian reality, anyway.
I just got back from vacation! I've experienced some interesting things here. And it's about time I took a vacation. I didn't leave the country my whole first year of service, which means I was home (my second one) for the holidays. All of them. But this time I decided to forego the supra-a-day-til-February and got outta dodge just as the holiday season began.
And though I'm getting to be flaky and irresponsible (hey, it comes with the go-with-the-flow way of life here. I'm just doing my job by integrating?), there's still a kernel of I-should-get-this-done.
Plus, when I talked with the Country Director today about the possibility of extending service, he suggested I write in my blog, as I haven't for a long while.
And it's true. I've been here,
I know the masses are screaming for more fun, witty tales of my sxovreba in Georgia, and I'm not one to make people mad at me. Not even teachers who will never lesson plan with me and so I dropped classes with her. Still trying to be her friend. Call it peacemaker, call it people pleasing, I just like everyone to be happy, especially when they're around me.
But though I'm suffering from a
From over a month ago:
Okay, okay, so I haven't posted for a month now. But I defend my slacking in that my main reader was hanging out with me for part of that time.
Of course, I've been back from the family vacation for a while, and there's really no good excuse to why I haven't posted except that I've been really bummed and also freaking out about this project lately. But I'll get to that
First off, I totally believe in doing things because everyone else is. It's a great authenticator and makes you feel good about yourself afterward, especially if the crowd mentality persuaded you to do something against your guiding principles or even just something you didn't really want to do.
From a Spanish soap: "Paula is not a happy person, she is a depressive person." D : And I thought
Dear employer,
This letter is to explain the lack of position title for my work experience post-graduation.
I've just spent over a year in Georgia. My official title was Peace Corps English Education Volunteer; however, considering the various roles I played, I hesitate to limit my job description to those five words. Before I left the United States, I never imagined the titles I can now put
Aaaand it's like a week later again and I never finished my blog post. But I think that's an accurate representation of what I've been feeling lately: bits and pieces cobbled together, seeing how long I can hold out before going to the bazari again for a 40 tetri screw (since I'm missing a few of those) to make me last for a few more weeks.
So it goes.
Speaking of which, went to a samdzimare (
Backlog from last week:
[Well, these next few days are going to be spent butt planted precariously on some kind of seat speeding through the country at speeds so unspeakable I must not speak them. Also praying no one who's gone more than, say, 5 days squishes in the seat next to me for the next couple hours.
But, hey, exciting things going down!
Friday I headed to Tbilisi to prep for the
I am dead tired, and there are miles to go after I sleep. So I'm just gonna tell you a couple of highlights that I remember from the couple past days I haven't written.
Homemade hamburgers with awesome barbecue sauce. Like, the best barbecue sauce known to man. This may be biased due to lack of comparison bbq here, but I doubt it. This stuff was the nectar of the gods, man.
Dancing at the
Mac and Cheese and Pokemon knew what they were doing. Also syphilis. But don't tell Shakespeare, he's still a little touchy about the subject.
Sakartvelo's Police Hymn!!
In celebration of my director's birthday and my coworker planting blackberries on farmville, I'll give you 5 examples of wonderful ways to start your day. One of these was today.
ნაყინი (nakini) nightmares.The deputy director, a sweet woman, told me I might want to pull my skirt up (fixed with a pin because lack of dryer stretched it out), and that my underwear's showing. I was wearing one of
So, as I was breaking my notrunning team training program this morning, something occurred to me which has been percolating since yesterday or so. I greeted one of my 6th grade boys who usually hangs around the stadium the same time as me.
Turn on my jammin' tunes. I've got some new ones, thanks to a certain charitable donor. And the words seem to reflect my line of thought for the past few
So, it's been a while again. (That seems to be my catch phrase here. Maybe I've found myself a new subtitle.)
I don't know if I've been busy or lazy to update. (Sub-subtitle?)
Either way, it's been coupled with a general feeling of listlessness and worthlessness and worrying. (Again, nothing new under the sun.)
So what has been new? Last week was Easter. I was invited to go to Batumi with
Or, in this case, when it SNOWS. SUPRISE!!!!!11!!11ELEVENTY. Happy St. Joseph's Day.
Yep. This morning I woke up to a fresh coat of snow lining the track to the bathroom. I do the familiar all-purpose-question-hand-gesture to host g-ma. "Vigundaot?" she responds, making a snowball and pretending to toss it at me. (So, a language that can express "let's have a snowball fight" in one word
The Sucky:Rainy weather makes our water yellow. Good thing we have those handy-dandy PC issued filters!
Rainy weather also makes for less-than-ideal trips to the toilet in the middle of the night in a path that falls right underneath the edge of the roof and ends in a mud patch.
Rainy weather also makes me want to feel sorry for myself, (more than usual).
2 Georgians now have said my Georgian
I promise, I'll actually tell you about things going on with my life when I have some time. Maybe tomorrow after school.
For now, enjoy these videos I finally got uploaded.
The Georgian Homestead
Ra lamazia! (How beautiful!)
So.
The world laughs at my pain and comes full circle to deliver bad thing #3: computer issues.
I laugh back and decide to bite the bullet and install a linux-based OS--Kubuntu. Why that over Ubuntu? Gut feeling. And it looked prettier.
Trent's taken well to it thus far. I still have to convert all my files and customize the interface how I want it. Probably with pretty pictures of warm
10. Sleep.
Although this is difficult with a gash on back of your head and lovely bruises on both elbows and your gluteus growingevermoremaximusingeorgicus.
9. Read.
This improves your morale when you think, "Wow, Vanya Denisovich was thankful at the end of HIS day, and I haven't frozen my butt in Siberia slathering mortar on concrete blocks for 6 oz. of bread lately."
Also may build your desire
Just because, post's composition lack of action words for point. Possible.
And lots of down time.
Wednesday, after ice without footing and head WITH bottom stair, anti-azeri-not-knowing-georgian ambulance driver's 30 minute tea at the homestead with my head and blood all over the couch, much time.
Time in ambulance half reading A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, half kartuglish with other
I'll keep this short. I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone that I've neglected to thank lately.
Thank you for everyone who's sent me mail: Mary, Clare, Holly, Kurt, Jen, Kerrie, Kayleigh, Lisa, and the people from Trinity who gave me b-day cards, too.
Thank you especially for the people who sent me things in boxes like marshmallows, new headphones that hopefully won't break in a week,
It's funny that there's a phrase in three languages which represent many, vastly different cultures that describes the same way work gets done.
Then again, maybe not.
So, I'm working with my counterpart to design a tech training in the village. We need a building, computers, a teacher, and students. We need 25% community contribution, whether it be money or in kind.
Notwithstanding the
Dear (program director guy):
If, above all, you are looking for someone to create a rigid classroom atmosphere that keeps to a strict time schedule, that may not be me. At least, not alone. Teaching in Georgia is teaching me both the value of keeping appointments and the difficulty to do so when there is no cultural expectation to do so.
I am characteristically thorough and procrastinate,
So, I know there are more important things that have been on the news, like John Makkaini being here for like a day, but this was on yesterday. Apparently Mevdevev's secretary of something got pretty mad at the Ukraine station that aired this.
So I decided to look it up and found it quite amusing. As did my host mom. Hope you do, too.
Then, I saw this linked and couldn't resist. It made me
You may now finally rest easy. News from the old and glorious land of Sakartvelo, which has been long due, finally comes your way! Now you have something to read while you're on your nice, sit down commode in your centrally-heated houses. Jerks.
So, the holiday season is coming to a close. Next week. Sort of. The first day after break is the eighteenth. Or maybe the twentieth, because the
Because it's your birthday, I'll do something a little different than wishing you a happy birthday on Facebook like everyone else.
Happy birthday, dear sister of mine.
Gilocav dabadebis dges, chemo dvelpaso daiko.
May you grow old only in maturity over Georgian men who act frighteningly similar to their one-year old sons. Ex: I hope you never take your friends' phones away from them when
I'd like to start off this post with some bad news, then move on to the good.
First of all, there is a serious black mold problem in this house, both in the newly renovated grandparents' bedroom and the kitchen. I'm not quite sure what to do. These next two weeks I have off, so I'm going to try a plan of action that may involve:
a) talking to my family (who is probably not aware of the dangers
For those of you who are not fluent in Georgian (definitely felt today that is NOT me), Happy St. Barbara's Day and my aunt's birthday (and sickness day).
The day, for me, involved going to school and encountering classes of 4-8 students, then leaving school after 3rd lesson to go on a hike up the mountain to Barbara's church with most of the students.
Going there was okay. I ate more lobiani
So. This shall be a small update, as I am feeling sicker than a dzaghls. So, I think an appropriate topic should be a step-by-step guide on how to take care of yourself in the wonderful land of Georgia.
1)Burns. Anything from a large burn covering most of your foot because you tried to can something with a used glass jar that has a crack on the bottom--to a small burn on your hand because you
Okay, so I should probably get on that Thanksgiving post that everyone else has already done like two weeks ago. Whatever. So I've been zarmatsi (lazy). I've also been busy.
And, you know, I've actually been enjoying life. In contrast to Spain (and much of the time afterward).
Let's examine the facts:
1) I've got a frigging awesome counterpart teacher.
"I want to be one of the best English
So! Thanks to me realizing that Peace Corps sends necessary information via e-mail, I shelled out the 155 lari and got myself a high speed modem. Then, after the two free trial days, as I was left in a village with no bankomati (aka ATM), I scrounged enough emergency funds together to buy myself 45 lari worth of mono cards to make my monthly payment. Naturally, the cards were in denominations of
2 Sectemberi 2009
otxshabati
So much has happened since I last wrote! Sorry, avid readers! I have been busy like none other. I got that little time when I visited the PC office in Tbilisi last weekend, but I just responded to some FB messages. It's only a little ridiculous that I went from checking that thing multiple times a day to maybe once in about two months. And I was under a time crunch
24 July, 2009
Paraskevi
So, yesterday I met with Joe Biden. Yep. It was pretty sweet.
I got up at 5 AM, got ready with Lauren (who borrowed my host sister's
hair straightener), caught the marshutka, drove to two other villages
to get those trainees (except one who overslept due to supra-ing too
hard last night), then after going through security we waited at the
Mariott in Tbilisi a couple
11 July 2009
Shabati
Well, I really haven’t had much time to journal this week. It’s been
all I can do to wake up, go to language class for 4 hours, go to lunch
at a volunteer’s house, go back to school and teach English from 3 to
5, lesson plan for an hour or two (or three) then come back home for a
little bit. Then, I might go to a tutoring session at Ana’s (M,T), or
go to Lauren’s to study the
28 June 2009
Sunday
It's gvira today, and I think there will be much adventuring today. We're going to visit the castle finally sometime today, and we're going to a 40-day-after-funeral supra at Katelyn's place, and I want to bathe today.
And yesterday was very event-filled, as well. We had shabatis skola (Saturday school), and then lunch at Katelyn's house. Mind you, she lives like 20 minutes
21 June, 2009
Sunday
I have now been at my host family's house for one night. I'll tell you all about them as I get to know them better. But here are a few first impressions.
They seem very well off. Although there's no running water (I'm not sure if it's broken or if they just don't have it hooked up or what; there is a tap and showerhead in the abazana (bathing room)... yeah, although there's
Here's my first update from my next adventure, brought to you by the free wifi in the Istanbul airport. All the US airports charge a fee, which is a bunch of baloney and why I haven't updated until now. I briefly got a slow connection at staging Monday night, but it was only for "one day" which is not 24 hours, but merely until midnight. Thus, I didn't get everything done that I would have liked
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