Installment two:1.12.12 Mari1.13.12 Old New Year Supra1.14.12 Cheers!1.15.12 Gossip girls1.16.12 Tamiltsikhe1.17.12 Anastasia1.18.121.19.121.20.12 First day of school(coincidentally, first snow day) 1.21.121.22.121.23.121.24.121.25.121.26.121.27.121.28.12

One picture. Everyday. All year. Nuff said. (I started late, January 5, that's how I am)

The Upper Caucasus mountains over the Black Sea(5.1.12)The sunset out my window (6.1.12)My new hat from my package!(thanks fam! 7.1.12)my chichilaki, a traditional Georgian Christmas tree(8.1.12)Nazi's(my counterpart/friend) nephew, crashed out on the couch(9.1.12)brass elephants(10.1.12)my advent ornaments hanging in my room window(11.1.12)

So I don't really know if Jack Frost carries a stick, in my mind he does. How else does he draw all those excellent curly Qs on the windows (I don't know why he draws them with a stick, he just does. Believe it or not, this is probably one of the less ridiculous pictures cluttering up my brain, be glad you aren't here with me)?

Anyway, I woke up this morning to a decent amount of snow on the ground. They had been saying at school that there was snow in the forecast, but, being from Michigan, I have absolutely zero faith that the meteorologists ever know what is going on. We used to joke that we would watch the weather report so that we would know to expect exactly the opposite of what was announced on the news. And frequently we were right(at least in my memories we were, see above note about my head). There is also the fact that often the things said by my teachers, while I love them, just don't make sense to me.

I usually chalk them up to cultural difference. Like the fact that they are all convinced and say with complete confidence that if you eat only fried potatoes, you will lose a lot of weight. While I wish that were true because man do I like me a good fried potato, my pesky common sense prevents me from jumping on the bandwagon. I will keep you posted as to whether or not I wind up working with a bunch of svelte Ukrainian models, though, then maybe I will start eating only fried potatoes as well. What they all say as fact doesn't hold a lot of weight with me, at least sometimes.

Okay, anyway, where was I? Oh right, the snow. I think I am one of the only people on the face of the planet who looks forward to the snow every year. I like snow. Forgive me my dork moment here, but I am Lorelai Gilmore when it comes to snow. When I woke up this morning, I went for a walk in the snow, because it was the first one. I made my counterpart Chicken Noodle Soup because she is sick, and I took it up to her and wound up staying and playing with her three kids for a couple of hours(she a five year old boy and four year old twins, a boy and a girl). It was already dark when I walked home, but my house is down the road from the church, which is always lit up like a department store every night, without fail, unless we have no power, and the snow falling in the soft light was beautiful and soul-brightening(sometimes I just make these phrases up. You will have to forgive me that).

So, the pictures for this post are all of this pretty snow. Err, well, actually, I didn't take any pictures of this snow. I was too busy enjoying it, and a didn't have my camera with me. And I will confess something. While I think that snow is gorgeous, I think the world is prettier with a snow white glittery shawl, when Jack Frost dances on windows, I for the life of me cannot photograph it well. I probably have over a hundred photographs of snow on my computer, and not one is as breathtaking as I want it to be. You just can't capture the enthralling beauty of sparkling flakes with a lens. I have taken the liberty of deeming snow unphotogenic. Because I have that power. Stop attempting to photograph snow folks, it isn't worth your time, it just doesn't photograph well. Because I am a professional and I know all these things(not(does anyone else feel like they are back in middle school when they counter a statement with not? I just roll with it, middle school, here I come).

So these are pictures of a fantastic sunset that I happened to catch a few days before this wonderful snow. We didn't have power for some odd reason, so instead of being on the computer like usual, I happened to be reading by a window when the sun started to set, and I happened to have my camera by my side, and I happened to have charged batteries in it already(a rarity of you know me very well) so I happened to take about 40 pictures of the majesty of the Lord, thrown in color across the sky.Stay tuned for some pretty great pictures of my host dad being chased around by our chickens. I find chickens equal parts beautiful, smelly, and dinosaur-like. There are also two special chickens I have nicknamed loud-mouth and devil chicken. I'll tell you next post why. On the edge of your seat, aren't ya?

Since it is fall, there is a lot of canning going on in my house right now. Mostly tomatoes(a story for another post, just know that if I seem a bit redder than usual in any future pictures, it is because of the tomatoes) but also a few other things. One of those things is fig jam. Before last fall in Georgia, the closest I had come to an actual fig was a fig newton, they just aren't that common in Michigan. But figs are big here in Georgia. I happened to be on the phone with Danielle while my host mom was making fig jam and Danielle asked if I would bring her some. Actually she just about begged me to bring her some, she in fact offered to buy it from me. Since the batch my host mom made made only four small jars, all for my host niece, who loves fig jam, she offered to make another batch. I realized that since I have never had or heard of fig jam, and wouldn't have known a real fig from a hole in the ground when I first came here, I thought you all might find it interesting as well, so here goes. We'll start at the beginning. This is a fig tree. This is a partially ripe fig still hanging from the tree.This is a fig that is ripe. Unfortunately, the birds beat us to this one.I sort of forgot to photograph this whole process while it was happening because, well, quite frankly, I was too busy carrying around the bucket helping my host mom pick the figs and sort the figs and get the figs ready and actually doing things to worry too much about photographing them, so today I went around and photographed, which means that these figs didn't go into Danielle's jam, they had another fate in store for them. There are two kinds of figs in this picture. The three to the left are "white" figs and the one on the right is a half-ripe "black" fig. I think they look more "green" and "purple" but hey, what do I know, I am new at this whole fig thing!These are the figs picked today for the purpose of photographing, that one on top is actually a little too ripe for jam but perfect for eating!a close-up of this beautiful "black" fig. Doesn't it look delicious? Just for some general information about the difference between black and green figs, to me, the green figs when they are ripe taste much sweeter, where as the black have more of a nutty flavor and aren't so sweet. I prefer the black, but the best "muraba" or jam, has both. below you can see the same plate of figs after I was satisfied with the photographs I got. When you eat figs plain, you peel off the outer skin and only eat the inside, that's why there is a pile of skins next to the three leftover figs. Mmmmm!As I said before I don't have any pictures of the figs starting the cooking process, we were too busy actually cooking them for me to worry about it. This is actually after the figs have already finished the cooking process. The recipe for fig jam is easy: 2 kilo figs2 kilo sugarplace the equal parts fig and sugar in a wide, shallow pan and begin the cooking process. Once the sugar has melted into a syrup, take the fig/syrup mixture off the burner and let it rest overnight. The next morning, put the mixture into a smaller regular pan and cook down to desired consistency. Our syrup ended up thick, like honey, which is the preferred consistency around here. After the jam is how you want it, you have to skim off all of the foam, seen in the below picture, post-skim. It doesn't taste good, it is full mostly of the milky sour liquid from the skin of the fig. properly skimmed jam should look like this: "see mom, no foam!"This is my host mom putting the finished product in jars,and here are the three jars of fig jam, ready to have lids put on and then be taken to Danielle in Kakheti, who anxiously awaits their arrival!While Peace Corps service in general tends to hold a lot of firsts for people, Georgia has held a whole lot more first "fruits" than I expected. I knew I would try new foods and such, but I never really thought about how many different fruits there are in the world that we just don't get so much in Michigan. Last fall I talked about hazelnuts and how I had never seen them before they were "husked". This post is about a fruit I had never seen in it's natural form. The below photograph is of a half-ripe fruit that I had heard of but never tasted before I got to Georgia. Can anyone guess what it is? I'll let you know sometime soon, I want to see if anyone can guess first!

There is a metal bed that resides in our yard between an ancient pear tree and the fence that protects the tomatoes and grapes from the chickens. My host dad spends a great deal of the summer months asleep there, trying, usually in vain, to find a breeze and escape the stifling heat and humidity of the summer in Chokhatauri. Every once in a while, though, I will find the bed unoccupied by its usual residents and I will claim it for my own, if only for a little while. Today was just such an afternoon. Lying on the bed as I listened to the children at the neighbors hollering, the ducks outside our gate, quacking to their hearts' content, and the rumble of the Spanish soap opera playing in the house(if it weren't for the Spanish soap operas dubbed in Georgian, I probably wouldn't ever get to claim the bed in the yard as my own) I was again reminded how much I love fall. The smell of the leaves, falling from the trees, all the fruit and vegetables in various states of ripeness all around, and that nip in the air, a little chilly, but with the sun on my bare shoulders perfectly comfortable.

So. Those of you who know me well know that I love to cook and bake. Enter Georgia. I have attempted baking and cooking a bit here, and with success, but after the last time I tried to make cookies and got the oven lit but then couldn't turn it back off, I have avoided cookies. Until yesterday. I had a stroke of genius and decided to buy the stuff for no-bake cookies. No oven necessary for these bad boys! So here is the process in pictures:

Step one. Walk to town and buy all the ingredients. Get ticked off at the one shop lady because she keeps asking the people around me what they need and then I finally get her attention and she listens long enough to tell me they have no sugar and not long enough for me to tell her that I also want oatmeal. I wait for a little bit and she continues to ignore me, so I walk out and go to the next shop over. (sorry, no picture of this step) After two shops and about 10 lari I have all the ingredients necessary for no-bake cookies.

All the Ingredients for no-bake cookiessugar here is purchased by the kilo. This is one kilo of sugar, or a little over 2.25 pounds.Butter here is not purchased by the pound and in sticks like in the states, but by grams. This is a standard package of butter, 200 grams. With my handy dandy converter on my phone I figured out what that was in ounces, and from there using my extensive knowledge of fractions, figured I needed about 5/8ths of the package to make .5 cups. Cocoa powder. I usually buy a Russian brand, but this kind is actually made in Turkey. Note that the brand is Bonjour. Apparently everything is better in French. Oatmeal. For the life of me I cannot make myself remember the name for oatmeal in Russian or Georgian, so whenever I attempt to buy it in a store I always have to point and say the word for cereal over and over until they realize what I want. I really should try and remember that word! This brand is Russian. Milk. This is a Georgian brand of milk, there are other options in the store but I like to try and buy things from here when I can. This is half percent and they have all the way up to 3.5 percent, but half percent is the only milk that doesn't have added vegetable fat, at least of this brand, so that is why I buy it.Vanilla. While I realize this doesn't look like vanilla, it is the only form of vanilla you can get here. It is vanilla flavored powdered sugar. I use it in recipes teaspoon for teaspoon and it seems to work fine. For this recipe it calls for 1.5 teaspoons of vanilla so I just dumped the whole package in. Peanut butter. The jar on top was purchased in Tbilisi, the jar on bottom was flown from America. When I bake I try and use the stuff I can get here because it works fine and then I can savor the stuff from America that much longer. I didn't have enough this time to use only the stuff from Tbilisi this time, so I had to add a little Jiff. Grocery bag. This is a bag from a store in Tbilisi. For the most part here you only get really cheap plastic bags from stores but every once in a while you get a bag that is legitimately thick plastic. Yes, I keep them. Enter today, when I was trying to decide what I could use to substitute for wax paper. You might be able to buy wax or parchment paper in Tbilisi, I have never tried, but after today using this bag, it worked fantastically and I don't think I will be looking for wax paper at all, unless of course, a recipe calls for something actually baked on wax or parchment paper, in which case this grocery bag would cause a few problems.

Step two. Wash my hands at the outside tap. It is not allowed in Georgia to wash your hands in the kitchen, it is considered rude. Step three. Get out the pan and wash it, since my kitchen here has open shelving and not cupboards, everything has to be pre-washed before I begin cooking. While I was washing the pan I also washed the cup I would be using for the measuring. Step four. Clean off one of the working burners on the stove. Our stove only has three burners that work, and only two of them are regularly used, and they both almost always have something sitting on them. This time it was the remnants of homemade cheese. After my host mom makes cheese she boils the left over liquid to bring all the remaining milk solids(awkward face) to the surface and cook them, strains off all the other liquid(all that yellow stuff in the picture), and it is something akin to cottage cheese with no actual curds. I'm not a huge fan of it, mostly because I cannot stand the smell, but when my host mom makes it with a certain herb called "pitna" which I'm sure we have but I'm not sure what it is, I can eat it. It doesn't taste bad, it just smells bad while it is hanging over the sink letting the remaining liquid drain out. And now, back to our cookies.

Step five. Since measuring cups do not exist here, I just use a drinking glass and use that as the basis for all of my measurements. I believe that it is about a cup, and for recipes that don't require a great deal of precision(my favorite kind) I haven't had any trouble. I learned to cook and bake from my mom and my grandma(my dad's mom) and they would both greatly approve, I believe, of my ability to eye ball a recipe with a good deal of success. Step six. Melt .5 c. Butter in the pan. while the butter is melting cut the clean grocery bag flat and line a clean cookie sheet with it. Measure out the sugar and cocoa powder into a dish for easy access once the butter is melted. This is what is inside that box of cocoa powder. Step seven. Add 2 c. Sugar, .5 c. Cocoa powder, and .5 c. Milk. stir together thoroughly and bring to a rolling boil. Boil for 1 minute and then remove from heat. Step eight. Add .5 c. peanut butter and 1.5 t. vanilla. combine. Step nine. Add 3 c. oatmeal.( I ended up adding closer to 4 c. since I prefer my no-bakes on the dryer side.)(unfortunately I do not have a picture of the mixture in the pan, once it is stirred together you need to get it dropped out onto the cookie sheet rather quickly and I didn't get a chance to take a picture.)Step ten. Drop into cookie sized lumps on covered cookie sheet. allow to cool.Step eleven. take pan back outside to aforementioned tap and wash(the kitchen sink is too small to wash pans of this size with ease). Step twelve. add some of the left over milk to a steaming cup of coffee and enjoy with your just cooled cookies.Yes, that is sylvester on my coffee cup!Ignore my poorly polished fingernails, please!MMMMMMM!!!!!!No-bake cookies2 cups Sugar.5 cups cocoa powder.5 cups milk.5 cups butter(1 stick)1.5 teaspoons vanilla.5 cups peanut butter3 cups oatmealmelt butter over medium heat, add sugar, cocoa powder, and milk and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute and then remove from heat and add vanilla and peanut butter. Mix in oatmeal and drop onto lined cookie sheet in medium-sized dollops, allow to cool and enjoy!

I haven't updated in a while and I have lots to tell you about, but for now these pictures, all taken by yours truly in the last week or so here in Georgia, will have to tide you over.Evidence that summer is upon us in full swing around here. (PS my host mom has what I am almost positive is a beautiful Dahlia that I haven't gotten a picture of yet that needs to be added to this collection)

I am in the Vienna airport, with another two hours before my connecting flight to Amsterdam that will ultimately lead to Detroit and HOME. Home for the first time in almost a year. This time last year I was franticly try to get everything taken care of so that I could leave for this country that I had barely even heard of and knew nothing about before I found out I was going to be spending two years of my life there. I can't believe time has gone so quickly. After a disappointing mistake on expedia's part, I am a day later in my travels than was originally planned. But, I am on my way and that is what matters. I can't wait to get home and see everyone. (And get out of the clothes I have been wearing for a day longer than planned. ;( )

Spring is in the air here. Finally. At the end of March. I'm looking forward to spring immensely, and not just because I get to go home and see everyone and be in my sister's wedding. But that does play a big part in it. I'm so excited! I can't wait. We were talking about Easter today and I am a little sad that I won't be here to experience Easter, since it is the most important holiday to Georgians. But I will be here next year, so that will have to make up for my absence this year. I'm pretty excited to get to spend Easter with my family since I wasn't able to be home for Christmas or Thanksgiving this year. I can't wait!! Just to prove that spring is coming, I will leave you with this picture I took on the walk that Reid and I took yesterday:

Can't you just see the spring in that picture? :)

It has snowed a lot in Chokhatauri the last week. Which I love. However. I did laundry the other day. I decided to rig up an inside line for some of my stuff. My host mom saw my rigged line and told me that I should be hanging my stuff out in the wind, where it would dry( it wasn't raining or snowing at the time). I pointed at the clouds off to the west over the mountains and said,"there is rain in those clouds. Or snow. I would prefer some dry things before a week from now. I'll take my chances." Or you know, something like that. It was Georgian, so I'm limited to what I can actually say. I can say with confidence that this is what I thought. This is what resulted. I think I win.

So I experienced my first earthquake today. We don't really have that many in Michigan so I have never actually felt one before. I was upstairs in my room and at first I had no idea what was going on.... I have no context for what an earthquake feels like. My first instinct was to think that there was something wrong downstairs, but that didn't really make any sense. The epicenter of the earthquake was several kilometers from here in the neighboring region of Imereti(I live in Guria). It was a 5.8 on the Richter scale, thankfully no one lives right where the epicenter of the earthquake was, and only a few houses had minor damages. Don't worry, my house survived just fine. It did leave me feeling kind of seasick for about a half an hour, which is weird because I don't get seasick, but I've never experienced the whole earth shaking before either...... :)a map for your reference(the earthquake was in southwest Imereti)

Georgian for Merry Christmas!

So its Christmas Eve here right now and I am at Nazi's(my counterpart/Georgian tutor/best friend in Cho) for the night. Her mom made gvedzeli which is a traditional food that everyone makes for Christmas. It is half-moon shaped and filled with egg and cheese and a lot like Khatchapuri, the cheese pie, but a different shape and the egg is added. Everyone makes them for Christmas and each member of the family has one for their own. They are large, they probably weigh about a pound and a half a piece or so, which means they have lot of cheese in them. My host mom has been saving cheese for the past month just so that she would have enough to make all that we need just for my family. I think Nazi and I are going to try to watch a christmas movie tonight since it is Christmas eve here and that is something that my sister and I always do in America on Christmas eve if I can rope her into it!

The Christmas Table at Nazi's houseRed wine for the glasses and that is the gvedzeli in the back with the small candle in itI am also going to a supra at my host sister's husband's house tomorrow, Christmas day. I am still a little unclear as to the reason for the supra, I thought it was for Christmas but I got to Nazi's and her mom said something about a church service finally for their marriage and that is the reason for the supra. I never know these things. I think maybe it is because my family knows that I understand Georgian but only if I am paying close attention so they don't necessarily point things out to me specifically and I'm not always paying that close of attention and I think that is how sometimes things like this fly past me with my knowing it.

later.

I just got to try some gvedzeli(even though you aren't suppose to eat it until Christmas and even then everyone is supposed to have their own, it isn't a thing you share with anyone else) and it is very good. I didn't know what exactly to expect and I didn't know if I would like the egg but I did.

Tonight many of the young people in town will be in the church all night. They stay there for the whole night. I was invited but I had already said I was coming to Nazi's so I had to pass. I would have liked to have been there, but I guess I will just have to make a point to go next year for Christmas or maybe for Easter.

Kathryn was here in Chokhatauri visiting for the night. She brought me clothes that don't fit her anymore and also a pair of boots. I made out really well. New black suede boots, two new pair of black pants, one pair of khaki colored dress pants, two pair of jeans that don't actually fit yet, but we will see if maybe they will fit soon, and a black blazer.

I also finally got my package from home. It was wonderful. Jeans and a skirt from home that I had, two new black longsleeve (long being a relative term)t-shirts, a new brown sweater, an adorable owl wallet, an adorable stuffed owl, an adorable handmade hootie hoots owl(are you sensing a pattern here because I certainly am) candy, thinmints, rechargable batteries, new speakers for my ipod, and new homemade flannel pants.

I also got a package from Aunt Michelle. An awesome new purse, two new books, a couple of things for my host brother in Akhaldaba, stuff to make wild rice stuffing, cookie mix, and an adorable new apron.

Pretty much I made out like a bandit. :)

So for those of you who don't know, Georgia celebrates the holidays a little different than most of us in America. First of all, Christmas is not December 25 but January 7. Second of all, Christmas is predominately a religious holiday here, everyone goes to church and then there is a parade through town by the church leaders and children. New Year's is celebrated much more the way we tend to celebrate Christmas. There is special food, special music, the Georgian equivalent of Santa Claus comes on New Year's not Christmas, they have New Year's trees instead of Christmas trees, and the whole family gathers together for a giant supra on New Year's not on Christmas.

Now after that explanation, I have to say that I kind of like the fact that my holidays aren't over yet. I always used to think that the day after Christmas was kind of depressing because all of the celebrating was over and everything we had been gearing up for for the past month was done with. There was always New Year's Eve to look forward to, but we never celebrated New Year's that much, so the end of Christmas meant the end of all the fabulous music, decorations, lights, family and fun that December was always filled with. Now, I got to celebrate American Christmas with Americans in Tbilisi this weekend,(I'll post pictures later after I get them from Danielle, my camera's batteries died on me...) and I still get to celebrate since Georgia's holiday season hasn't even really started yet!! I think I love this. My host sister and her husband will be back in town for New Year's, unfortunately my host brother has to work on the first so he said he wouldn't be able to come for New Year's but he will probably be back for a quick visit the second. He works every three days so he doesn't get to stick around for long, but it is the holidays so I have a feeling he'll be back at some point. My friend Ani will be back in Chokhatauri and I'll hopefully get to see her, I haven't seen her since this summer and I miss her. At some point I'll be headed back to Akhaldaba(my training village) and get to see all of my family there as well.

So in short, I think I will begin adopting Holiday traditions from all around the world and maybe I'll be able to extend the holiday season until the middle of February.... Oh and I forgot to mention that Georgia also celebrates two New Year's Days, new New Year's and old New Year's due to the fact that until quite recently they still used two calendars..... heck yes. Now don't all of you wish you were in Georgia to celebrate yourselves silly with me?! hmm?

As the holiday season officially started a couple of weeks ago with thanksgiving, I can't deny that I was(and still am) a little nervous. I have only one other time been away from my family for a part of the holiday season when I was in Ghana, and I distinctly remember having a less than stellar thanksgiving that year.

Now, I usually love the holidays. I always have. The weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's are always my favorite time of year. But this year I was nervous. I didn't know if it would be the same being so far away from my family and friends and my traditional Michigan Christmas.

I can say with confidence at this point, though, that I think it will be okay. Of course I miss my family and my friends, and of course Georgia is much different than Michigan in a lot of ways (no peppermint mochas from Starbucks for me this Christmas!), I have made a home away from home here. Thanksgiving, while not exactly the same as home, was spent with excellent friends who have become like family, my birthday this past week was one of the best I have had in a long time full of warm and caring people calling me and texting me and spending time with me and well-wishes all around.

Now I know that Christmas isn't upon us yet and at least in my family Christmas is the biggest of the holidays during the holiday season, but I can say with a good deal of confidence that while it will be different this year and I will certainly spend a good deal of time missing my family in Michigan and all of my friends around the world that I won't be spending time with on December 25th, that I will be in good hands.

Both of my families in Georgia are good caring families who have taken me in and treat me as their own, my students are friendly and eager to learn, my teachers and counterparts are more like friends and family than coworkers. I am in a wonderful place. Chokhatauri has become my home. The Gurians remind me on a daily basis of my own loud crazy family, I think that is why I love them so much, and while their traditions and food and history is so very different from my own, we aren't that much different, really. In our hearts we all love our friends, we all hold our families in the highest regard, and we all believe in the importance of being among family at the holidays.

I have to say thank you to Guria and specifically Chokhatauri for making me feel as though I am always among family, no matter where I go, my heart is here, just as much as it is in Michigan and for that I am so very very thankful.

So it has been a while. Things are going well at school, I am currently doing battle with a class of 9th graders who want to chew me up and spit me out, but I'm not going to let that happen. I think I might have the upper hand right now since I tore up all of their tests a couple of class periods ago because they were all cheating. They were outraged but couldn't do anything about it. That's right, I hold the power in this situation, so you better sit down and you better be quiet and you better not cheat when I tell you not to cheat or you will get a zero in the gradebook.

We had our all volunteer conference last week. I think every single one of us came back to site four times as exhausted as when we left. 75+ americans all together in one building can get a little tiring. It was good to see everyone but I was very glad to be back home. It was a very good opportunity to get to know some of the volunteers that I don't see very often and I had a good time, but I am certainly glad it only happens once a year.

I have my site visit coming up in a couple of days. My program manager is coming to watch my partner teacher and I teach one of our classes and then have a meeting with the director and then with me and then with both of us together just to see how things are going. Unfortunately my director will be out of town so it is going to be a meeting with one of the assistant directors, but at this point I'm not too surprised. She is a busy woman, what with the director gig and being part of the government.

We went to Bakhmaro yesterday! It was gorgeous. There is snow there now and this is probably one of the last opportunities to go up this season. We all had to go in trucks and jeeps and there was one part of the road that was so icy that they made us all get out of the car and walk so they could coast the cars down the road just in case anything bad started to happen. After we got back from Bakhmaro there was a small presentation at the government building because there was a Lithuanian delegation in town and then we went to a supra. Everything around here always ends with a supra.

Today I am headed to Ozurgeti to help Lacey move some furniture in her new apartment and hang out, which should be fun.

I am officially the joint fundraising chair(along with Laura) for the GLOW camp, and as such will have to be in Tbilisi once a month for the meetings. That is probably good because now I have an excuse to be in Tbilisi once a month and can actually go and take care of things and pick up mail(hint, hint) and see my friends who live out east. I can't lie, I am a little scared about this position because it is out of my experience level, but since Laura and I are both working on it and will have help from everyone else whenever we need it, I think it shouldn't be too bad.

I think that is pretty much it, things are going well, time is flying by, it will be Christmas before I know it.

So it has been a while since I have updated you all on my life here in Georgia. Most of that has to do with the fact that last month I used up all of my Internet for the month within the first four days I had it because I uploaded some videos a friend had taken with my camera for him(I didn't really think about the fact that it would use so much of my precious Internet, but whatever, its done and over with now, and no one is the worse for it, and that is what matters.) and I also downloaded some music, and that pretty much zapped my Internet. I was able to check my email and facebook but only if I would wait impossibly long amounts of time to do so. Blogger would not even load.

So now that I have made excuses for my absence, I will fill you all in on what I have been doing.

1-8 September: Summer camp! It went fantastically, I had between five and eight 10th, 11th, and 12th grade helpers there everyday and they were my saving grace. I between 15 and 30 kids each day, and we had a blast together. My friend and fellow volunteer from Chaisubani also came out and helped me for a couple of days and she also took some excellent pictures so as soon as I get those from her I will post some of them.

15 September: First day of school. All of the students come in their new school best, many of the youngest have their parents in-tow, we are all full of lots of nervous anticipation. I spent the first 15 minutes of the day greeting the teachers that I knew and the students that I knew(thank you summer camp!) and then I met up with my English teachers and started to try and sort out their schedule so I could have a working chart of what my two weeks of observation were going to look like. I had a meeting with my director, which didn't go as planned but things have pretty much worked out OK anyway.

First two weeks of school: I spend all day long going to all of the different English teachers' lessons. I can say that I officially attended every English lesson in the school at least once.

Third week of school: I announced my decision to my director, and then to my teachers. I am going to be working with three counterparts, at least for the first semester. I am teaching 2 3rd grades, two 5th grades, a 7th grade, a 9th grade, a 10th grade, 2 11th grades, and a 12th grade. I am not in every single one of these lessons everyday, most of the grades have English between 2 and 4 times a week. There are a few grades that I am at every lesson for, but the rest of them I am at least one of their lessons a week. I'm happy with my schedule even though it is a little busy and some of my classes are going to be a challenge. My 9th graders are very good students but they are very very loud. I am going to have to think creatively to come up with a solution to our problem in that class.

So now you are all updated on school stuff, on to the host family business.

First of all, I went from having two host siblings in the house to being an only child. Before you worry that something terrible happened to my host siblings, don't worry, it is actually good news for them at least, even if it means the house is a lot quieter with only me and my host parents around.

Lets start with my host sister. First of all I officially just realized that I haven't given you a full rundown of who lives in my house. At this point its more a run down of who used to live in my house, but still. Eka, host sister, 36, widow, 17 year old daughter-Niniko*. That is what it used to be. Now it is: Eka, host sister, 36, newly married, widow, lives in Tbilisi, we talk by text message, which becomes a task because she texts with the Russian alphabet and I don't know the Russian alphabet. I usually resort to having someone else read me what it says.

*side note: Niniko doesn't live here and hasn't lived here since I've been here because she is already married (to my director's son, their wedding anniversary is soon, I believe, even though Georgians don't celebrate their wedding anniversaries I don't believe) and lives with her husband's family.

Next we have my host brother. Ika, 24, unemployed, general jokster and trouble maker, sort of a drunkard. That is what it used to be. Now: Ika(full name Irakli), 24, in the army, general jokster and trouble maker, doesn't drink due to an unfortunate incident involving a dog bite and some shots, lives in Tbilisi as of yesterday.

Lastly we have my host sister who doesn't live here and never has. Maiko, 35, three children: Iuri(Urika) 14 - one of my crazy 9th graders; Luka 7- second grade; Anastasia 1 as of the 1st of October - the cutest thing on this planet! and her husband Tengo.

That's all for my siblings, I also have host parents, Giuli my host mom who is 62 and Jemali my host dad who is 74.

My host sister has been gone since the 9th of September. She has been back once to visit and we talk to each other every once in a while. After my host sister left, I hung with my host brother a lot and we have become pretty good friends, but now he is gone as of yesterday he is in Tbilisi in the army for a year.

Needless to say, things have been a little busy around here. Its going to slow down some at the house now I have a feeling, though, because I am an only child so that allows for school things to pick up, which they have.

Lastly I should inform you that I am having some issues with my private student loans and therefore have been busy trying to figure that all out and it is not yet resolved so I may not post again for a while since I will be busy trying to get that all under control.

Me and my host sister, drinking wine from Georgian drinking horns

I finally got to go back to Akhaldaba for the first time since leaving at the beginning of July and it was fantastic! (contrary to what some people have thought, Akhaldaba is a village, not a food made with chicken. see my facebook if you are confused)

It was my younger host sister's birthday this weekend so me, Kaitlin, and Patrick all made the trek back to Akhaldaba to visit our families. I got there mid afternoon on Friday and basically just hung out, all weekend. Monday was Mari's birthday so we had a supra that included great Georgian wine and lots of dancing. Eng ended up coming in from Borjomi and hanging out with us as well, which was fun. All in all it was an excellent weekend that went way too fast and I can't wait to go back.

I also got the chance to go the Bakhmaro on Thursday for the annual horse race. It was fantastic. Unlike anything I have ever seen before. There were 10,000 people there according to the news reports, in a village that isn't occupied during the winter because the road becomes inaccessible. They were on every surface, anything that would get them a better view of the race, including a tractor, a marshutka, and all the surrounding buildings. It was awesome! Let's just say that if my mother had seen where I was standing she would have had a conniption. Yep, conniption. I did get some excellent pictures, though!

If you look closely you can see all of the men on top of that building watching the race

And they're off! The very start of the very first race! (no I wasn't using my zoom, if that helps you realize how close I was)

The very last race, this guy came in second

My host niece, who is so adorable you could eat her with a spoon, and will finally let me hold her after long months of patiently playing and letting her get used to meThe summer is beginning to wind down and I have the next few weeks pretty well planned and I'm not going to lie, I'm not at all sad to see the summer go. I'm ready to have a full schedule again, I am not good at not being busy. The time has gone faster than I thought it was going to, and I can say that I am glad for the things this free time during the summer has allowed me to do(see above trip to Bakhmaro) I'm ready for newer and busier things now, though. And the change in weather that brings fall is going to welcomed with open arms from this Michigander who basically becomes immobile when the temperature raises above 85 and we have seen a summer of 90-100 every day. I did a lot of not moving this summer if I didn't have anywhere specific to go. You might even call me a hermit, to a certain extent. All that changes when the temperature drops back below 80 and I can stand to move again! Just you wait and see!

Anastasia and Urika(Maico, my second host sister's daughter and oldest son), "driving" Ika's(my host brother) car

Yesterday I got to go to the mountains. Finally. It was great! We got up early(sort of) and loaded the car up with food to take up with us and drove the hour and fifteen minutes up to the "resort" town. Along the way I think I was told at least 15 times that Bakhmaro is 2050 meters above sea level. I was also told at least 5 times that if we were lucky their might be snow on the mountain tops. I was also reminded as we drove up the mountain that I needed to breathe through my mouth and not my nose, otherwise I would get an earache.

The snow in Bakhmaro

Once we actually made it there, it was a fabulous day. I hung out with my host sister, the one who doesn't live at my house, and my host brother, who has been up in Bakhmaro since I got back from the east. We ate a wonderful meal, before which I impressed my host sister and host mom by actually helping to set the table and put the food out.(usually they won't let me do that, but if I put my foot down, sometimes I can get away with helping) After eating lots of great food all of the little kids and my host brother and a neighbor and I went up into the forest above Bakhmaro. We didn't go very far because the air is thin and we didn't want to go too far, but I got a wonderful view of the mountains and took some funny pictures of the kids which I will now share with you:

The view from the forest

Ika being a "pretty girl". You can't tell in the picture but he is batting his eyelashes. It was funny. I laughed a lot.

Urika, the neighbor kid, and Ika in the forest

Ika took this picture. He is obsessed with my camera's zoom

Me and the kiddosNanu, Luka, Me, Niniko, the neighbor kid who's name I don't remember, and Urika in the front

Cows on the road and the fog rolling in as we were leaving

All in all a very successful trip, I can't wait to go back!

This past week has been full. Saturday I went to Kobuleti(again). It was great, I got to see people I haven't seen since training, and we discovered a new form of wavelength therapy(don't ask). let me back up, however. Friday night at about 10:30 I received a text from Danielle. Her director decided that her summer camp was going to be the following week and could I still come out to help. I immediately responded that I would be there whenever she needed me. So the next day I called and got everything arranged to leave on Sunday for the east. It takes about five hours to get to Tbilisi from here and then another solid two hours to get to Vardisubani, where Danielle lives, from Tbilisi. Seven hours. That doesn't count transit time in Tbilisi because you have to go from one station to another by metro, another 20-30 minutes. All worth it though, because I wasn't doing anything around here anyway and I missed Danielle.

So bright and early Sunday morning I got up and jumped on a marshutka to Tbilisi. The earliest one from Chokhatauri doesn't leave until 9:30(10:00 really) which was kind of a late start for such a long trip but there wasn't much I could do about that. After a half hour stop so the driver could eat lunch, I finally arrived in Tbilisi about 3. I switched stations and was able to catch the 4 o'clock marshutka to Vardisubani. I arrived at 6, right on schedule and ate some dinner with Danielle and her family which consisted of cucumber and tomato salad(which we eat everywhere we go and I am surprisingly not sick of yet), bulgarian stuffed peppers which were excellent, some cheese and a piece of khatchapuri(cheese bread). Then we headed to a meeting at the school that sort of morphed into the first day of camp unexpectedly. When we got home we ate watermelon and then headed for bed because we were both pretty exhausted.

Now you may be wondering why I have given you a detailed account of everything I ate. And now I will tell you, omitting the more graphic details. Around 2 am I woke up with a horrible stomachache and I had to use the bathroom. I went downstairs and headed to the outhouse. I will spare you the gruesome details but lets just say that I didn't arrive back upstairs in bed until 4:30 am. I was up again at 5:30 am and then again at 7:30 am. I woke up again at 8:30 am and called the doctors and described my symptoms. Our Peace Corps doctors are fabulous and take wonderful care of us and this was no exception. The doctor deduced that I had food poisoning(which I of course already knew) and that I needed to drink re hydration salts and take medicine that Danielle was kind enough to pick up for me in Lagodekhi. For anyone who has never had to drink re hydration salts, I envy you. They are disgusting. They might not be so bad if they had a flavor. Seriously a little lemon and they would be infinitely more tolerable. As is it tastes like you are drinking someone's warm saliva. Blegh. So gross. I hope I never have to drink them ever again. They are gross. Now that you all have run to the bathroom to lose whatever the last meal you ate was after that gross description, moving on. I ended up sleeping for two days straight, basically, and by Wednesday I was feeling much better. I got to help with camp on Wednesday and on Thursday and then Thursday night the director and all of Danielle's helpers and her counterpart took us to Signagi. The church in SignagiSignagi is beautiful. I have been told it looks like the south of France. I have never been so I can't say for sure, but who am I to argue with someone who has been and made that comparison. We hung out for a couple of hours and walked around and then we ate great food and drank beer and danced and didn't get back to Vardisubani and in bed until after 1 am. We then turned around and got back up at 6 am so we could catch a 7 am taxi back to Tbilisi and begin the long journey back home. After a quick pitstop at McDonald's for some much needed chicken nuggets and french fries, I was back on a marshutka for another 5 hours back to Chokhatauri. Needless to say I am sort of sick of marshutkas for a while having spent a lot of hours on them in the past couple of weeks. Hopefully I will be going to Bakhmaro on Tuesday but this is already the second time it has been postponed so I will let you know if that actually happens. I guess that is enough excitement for now, I am off to lose myself in some Gilmore Girls. Love you all. Miss you lots. PS: For the record I have no idea what made me sick. a street in SignagiIn a park in Signagi

Danielle and Emily being kids at midnight in Signagi

Kobuleti

So Sunday a group of us went to Kobuleti. We swam in the big waves, I may or may not have a pile of rocks on my desk that I scavenged from there( yes, you may call me a dork if you feel the need, it won't change me, I'll never be less of a dork), and had pizza and beer (some of us) at a beachside restaurant. All in all a very good day.

Batumi

Then on Monday one of the girls from my town that I have hung out with a few times invited me to come and spend the day with her in Batumi yesterday and what better way to spend a hot summer day than at the beach?(besides doing laundry in 107 degree weather, which is what I did on Monday. Laundry waits for no one, not even cooler weather sometimes). So I got up early yesterday and jumped on a marshrutka fully intending to come back yesterday evening. Had a slight change of plans yesterday afternoon, though. My friend wanted me to stay so I could see the cool lights in Batumi at night and BONUS I found out that my host sister from Akhaldaba was going to be in Batumi in the evening but I would only get to see her if I stayed the night. So I called my program manager and got permission to stay and then we asked the waitress of the cafe we were in if she knew of any cheap homestays close. In fact, the owner of the restaurant runs a homestay and her space was vacant. Score! So I didn't have to look very hard for a room to stay in.

Batumi

I had a wonderful time in Batumi, I got to see my host sister and then I came back to Chokhatauri after some breakfast in Batumi. It was a great day!

My friend Mari, me and my host sister Mari. (PS they both have the same last name, too. Confusing? I think so.)

*Update: I really should have someone editing these things for me... My host brother recently told me that his sister never uses periods when she is talking, that is why she talks so fast. Apparently I have the same condition when I am writing. I apologize and I will try to be better from now on. full stop.

So I have been at my new site for a week now and I am starting to get into the swing of things. Communication is a constant challenge here because I am in a region of Georgia where they talk very fast and use much different slang than I am used to. Some people are easier for me to communicate with than others but I am sure with time we will all make it work. The above picture is of the view outside my window from last night and I posted it for Kelli. There you go, Kel, now you can see what you were missing last night.

Other than reading a lot I am hoping that the coming days will hold some trips to the beach and maybe a trip to Batumi at night, since I have heard it is spectacular. I need to begin to study my Georgian again. I feel like a week without Georgian class is long enough and I should start studying again on my own. I do better learning vocabulary if I write it down so it sticks and I haven't been doing that with any of the new words I have been learning here, which means I'm not really learning many of those new words.

I did get to spend a lot of time this week with a former volunteer who was back visiting with her husband and son. That was really great. She showed me around and now I have her email address so I will be able to email her with any questions I have and she will be able to point me in the right direction for a lot of different things. We also went to a place called "Guria's Lake" which is actually a river, not a lake, but it was very nice and clean, a great place to swim. Here is a picture:

I have also been hanging out with one of the flex students who just returned from the US less than a month ago. She is a sweetheart and her English is very good so we have been hanging out a lot. That is really nice because she doesn't often misunderstand what I am saying and that is a relief when I spend a lot of my time at home trying to make myself understood or trying to understand.

I suppose that is all for now, I'll keep you all posted if anything exciting happens.

So this is just a quick note to say that I have officially moved and since I will now have immense amounts of time on my hands until school starts, I will try to post more regularly about the goings on here in Georgia. Of course, since there is nothing to do in the summer, the goings on will be few but I can at least update you all on what you missed when I didn't have time to post during PST.....

Miss you all and love you lots!!

So we are approaching the end of Pre-service training already! Next Friday I will be saying goodbye to Akhaldaba and hello to Chokhatauri permanently for the next two years. I can't believe the time has gone to quickly! Things are going really well and since I will have NOTHING to do for the next two months before school starts, it will be a wonderful opportunity to update you on everything that I did and saw during PST(pre-service training). I'll give you a little teaser: I didn't really have more than one weekend in a row without something going on. This past weekend, yesterday, I climbed a mountain. It was awesome. I got some great pictures of Akhaldaba from the top and am proud that I was able to do that. I will post the pictures later. Four days this week we have summer camp in the afternoon for all the kids in Akhaldaba. I hope it goes well. Those of you who know me well know that I am very well versed in the runnings of summer camps and I think if everything goes as planned it should be very good. Summer camps are like my unprofession profession. I don't really look to do them all the time but I find myself planning and being involved in summer camps everywhere I turn. I suppose I am ok with that. This is also our last big week of language training. After this we have our final Language Proficiency Interview to see whether we have successfully learned the language to the degree that we are required to have learned it. If we aren't at the correct level it isn't the end of the world we will just have to get a tutor at our permanent site. That isn't a really big deal and I am planning on getting a tutor either way.

Things are going very well and very quickly and I will update again as soon as I can!!

I leave you all with a picture from when I was in Dmanisi last month. It was beautiful there and I will tell you the whole story later.

I finally have loaded all of my pictures from my camera onto my computer and can therefore post a bunch of them here for you all to see. Enjoy!

This is the post that I wrote on May 5 that I didn't have a chance to post until now. It is very weird to read my initial reactions to things even for me, but as it gives everyone a basic introduction into my life here I am still going to post it.

Wow. There are really no words to describe how I am feeling right now. On one hand I can't believe I have already been in Georgia for a little over a week. On the other hand, I feel like I have been in this place for months, been with these people for months, known my host family my whole life.

First things first, my host family. They are fantastic. I have a host mom, a host dad, two host sisters, a host brother and host grandparents. One of my host sisters is in University in a neighboring city but all of the rest of them live here. My host sisters are 17 and 19 and they are great. They both speak a little English so between their English and my Georgian we can communicate at least on a basic level. Don't get me wrong, there are still some misunderstandings(more on that later) but we do pretty well. My host brother is 5 and he is adorable. When I first got here he wouldn't even be in the same room as me but now if his mom tells him to he will say hello to me and we were all (myself, my host sister and my host brother) throwing a ball around the kitchen and he would throw the ball to me. I realize that may sound small to some of you but I consider it a pretty big breakthrough. Yesterday I was bribing him with American chips that I had. He liked them so he kept coming back over and getting more from me. Kids are kids anywhere you go.

I have met more neighbors and friends in the last five days than I thought any one family could have. Since there aren't a lot of things to do for entertainment, going visiting to other people's houses is one of the big activities here, especially for the women. Mostly they just gossip about what is going on in town and talk about those Americans living in town a lot. My Georgian is not yet very good but I can recognize the word for American and I hear it a lot.

As I know some of you are interested, yes, I have a flushing toilet. The shower is a seperate out-building and there is running hot water but only after you build a fire under the water tank. Needless to say I have only taken one shower since I have been here(not counting the showers at the hotel where we were until Saturday afternoon) because everyone always showers on the same day and they only fire up the shower a couple of times a week.

School is going well. We are going so very fast when it comes to learning Georgian because they are essentially trying to teach us an entire language in 10 weeks. I am trying hard and we have homework every night. My host sister and I sit down after I have done my homwork and she checks my homework and makes usre my sentences are correct and then we go through my vocab flashcards and she practices her English and I practice my Georgian. When I get really down about the fact that I am really terrible at some of the sounds in this language I just remember my host sister trying to say the word "the" and it makes me feel better. Georgian has no "th" sound so it is almost impossible for Georgians to pronounce unless they have practiced a lot. It comes out sounding a lot more like an "s".

The school children are funny as well. Many of the older ones say hello to us and the ones that we have met at our houses always say hello and sometimes even kids we haven't met will call out our names and say hello because we are one of the most exciting things that has happened to them. Many of the really young kids only say hello if they can convince one of their friends to walk up to us with them. They are all really adorable but sort of annoying when they are outside at recess and hang outside our window and pound on it trying to get our attention while we are still in class.

To end this very long post about my first week in Georgia, I have some funny little anecdotes for you all, most of which have to do with cultural misunderstandings and language barriers.

While giving me a tour of their home, my host sisters pointed out all of the fruit trees in their yard. I tried to ask if they were apple trees, which is what they look like, but they didn't understand so I let it slide. We then went into the kitchen where there was a bowl of apples sitting on the table. I pointed to one and said, "apple." This caused my host sister to grab a knife and peel and slice several apples for me to eat. Ok, that's cool, I like apples. now, however, every time I am in the kitchen, my host sister cuts up apples because she thinks Iam obsessed and that is why I pointed to the apple in the kitchen on the first day. Breakdown in communication part one.

After the apple escapade I tried to be more careful. Enter the hazelnuts. My host sister and I were hanging out in the kitchen because that is what we do here, hang out in the kitchen, and she got out some hazelnuts. I like hazelnuts and, this is a big plus, they don't have to be washed before they are eaten because you have to crack the shell open to eat them. Sweet. So we sat there and ate quite a few hazelnuts. Enter the following morning. As my host sister and I were leaving for school, she gives me a whole handful of hazelnuts that she shelled for me. Awesome, now I have a pocket full of nuts I can snack on during class. The next day I left the house with a pocket full of walnuts. The following day we were back to hazelnuts. All of my clothes have nuts in the pockets of them now because apparently the American girl loves nuts and needs them on her at all times.

My host grandmother was all in a tizzy the other day because she thought I was going to get a cold from standing outside with wet hair. Then I was going to get a cold because I walk around in flipflops without socks. Then I was going to get a cold because I wore my chacos to school today without socks. Then I was going to get a cold because I was wearing a shortsleeved sweater the other day. Apparently I am bound and determined to get a cold as far as my host grandmother is concerned.

The food is also quite interesting. As this post is already very long I will save the full food post for another time but I will give you this little teaser. Twice this week I have eaten pasta with yogurt for breakfast. Yes you read that right, pasta with yogurt.

Never in all my life have I lived somewhere so beautiful. I live in a valley surrounded by mountains. My house is actually up the side of a mountain so I get the joy of walking down the mountain every day for school and back up it at night after training. It is actually quite a pleasant walk and I enjoy it a lot. This place is very full of raw beauty and to show you how pretty it is, there are pictures at the beginning. All of these are of my town, the first was on the walk to school, the second and third are both the view from my balcony on different days. I love you all and I miss you a lot and I promise to post more recent stuff soon!

I have a quick update for you all. I had a nice long post all ready to go but then I couldn't get the wireless to work so I will have to post it later. I am posting this from an internet cafe in a neighboring city. I am doing well, I love my host family, they are great. I am getting to know all the other trainees sort of well, we are going to have to be a great amount of support for each other through the next two years so that is important. The food is good, different, but good. We are in the mountains and I live on the side of a mountain so there is lots of walking up and down, which I am surprisingly getting very used to. I am doing really well and enjoying myself. I am slowly but surely learning the language and I am getting acclimated pretty well. I love you all and miss you all. I would love to hear from any of you, it is free for me to recieve phone calls but very expensive to make them. hint hint....

Ok so here is the down low with my phone number:

First of all, I am not going to post it on here because anyone can get to it here. If you want it and we aren't friends on facebook I can email you or you can add me on facebook.

Second of all, I can receive calls for free. I don't have to pay if you call me, however, to call the states is about 50 cents a minute. You can use international calling cards for about 5 cents a minutes, much cheaper than I can call the states.

Third of all, Georgia is 8 hours ahead of the Eastern time zone so calling early to mid morning is best so that you will catch me.

Fourth and last of all, I do not have voicemail so if you don't catch me you cannot leave a message, you'll just have to try me again later.

That's all for now, I am having a good time, learning Georgian, I will get to meet my first host family, the one I will be with for the next 10 weeks tomorrow. Our training officially begins Monday!!

I was clearly able to reduce my luggage down to 50 lbs for each bag. I am in Georgia at orientation for Pre-Service Training(PST). We have had our first language class that mostly succeeded in teaching us all just how much we have to learn. Tonight is going to consist of getting to know each other better and practicing our newly learned Georgian. All in all, despite the tired feeling from a touch of jet lag, I am so very very excited to be here!!

P.S. we are going to have a short Peace Corps acronym lesson:

PST- pre-service training

*COS - Close of Service(I had this one wrong so I edited it)

AC - administrative coordinator

That's probably enough of a lesson for today, off to practice my Georgian!

Nakhvamdis!

(goodbye)

All of my stuff is officially in bags(except my computer.....) YAY!!

Now the problem is that I am 17 pounds over in my checked luggage and 8 inches over on my carry-on........

Time to get rid of more stuff...

I worked my last day at Target today. Guess that means I need to start getting serious about packing and getting everything in order so that I can leave.... I only have 9 days left.....

I was reading more of the information they overload you with before you leave and it seems as though I won't have a whole lot of time for the Internet while I am in training. That means the first 10 weeks I am in Georgia I may not be able to blog very frequently but I still plan on keeping up with it as much as possible.

Four more days of work.....

Then, a lot of packing. Packing to go to Georgia, packing the things I am leaving behind, packing the things I am getting rid of so I can take them to the mission. lots of packing. And shots. lots of shots. Including an H1N1 shot that I need to go get...

The madness has begun.

14 days until I fly to Philadelphia for staging....

We are at 34 days and counting and things are starting to speed up. I won't be posting here except for right now until I actually leave but I figured I needed to post at least once beforehand.