Nothing

Nothing has happened for approximately three days. I had a weekend, and nothing happened. I had today, a Monday, and nothing really happened. It stopped snowing and I could see a little bit of blue sky for the first time. I felt incredibly hopeful for a few minutes because I could actually see some hills in the distance and it looked quite beautiful and I was feeling optimistic as I was considering how many stars I'll probably be able to see at night once the clouds go away for good. And spring. And summer. And I'll be able to walk and be alone and it will be quiet.... But then I will run the risk of running into one of my students.
Should a teacher be so weirded out by the prospect of running into her students?
Maybe I wouldn't be if one of them wasn't chatting with me on Facebook right now and offering to show me Telavi's "beautifulest places." 
Ugh. Next weekend my other friends from orientation and I are going to Tbilisi to escape our small towns and villages and I can't wait. I wanted to get out of Chico because I knew everyone... and I ended up in village, with a nearby "town" that is 1/4 of Chico's size. Hilarious!

Tonight my host mother invited me to her nephew's birthday, and I had nothing to do so I said OK. But, as it turns out, her nephew was actually a niece and she was only turning 3. So I had envisioned a supra (finally), but really ended up hanging out with three months, two husbands, a 10 year old and 3 preschoolers. We did have delicious homemade khinkalis though (they are like meat dumplings) and khachapuri of course. I ate SO much. And my host father was giving me shots of brandy, which was awesome since I haven't had any alcohol since I moved in with them and I was told to expect a never ending amount. But I didn't drink a lot, just enough to be happy that I finally saw some, hah. And now, I am starving, even though I ate a massive amount of food at dinner only like three hours ago. All this eating has just turned me into a food fiend, and I sit here fantasizing about Taco Bell like some crazy person. I can't believe I am going to go without Taco Bell for four more months. It's things like that that make me home sick.

Oh, side note. Thursday is Mother's Day here. And on Mother's Day, THERE IS NO SCHOOL! Awesome! And Woman's Day is next week, and once again, NO SCHOOL! Another awesome. P.S. There is no Father's Day here, ha!

"English Teacher"

Today was the day..... my first solo lesson. As far as lessons go, it sucked. It wasn't even a lesson. It was 20-something Georgian children ranging from grade 7-11  (and my 5th grade host sister) asking me questions verging on too personal.
I was told there would be 12 students, six from 7th grade and six from 8th grade. So I walked in expecting to give a lesson (not a boring grammar lesson, but an interactive conversation lesson at least), after letting them ask me questions (because we are told they will be very interested in us and our countries). But of course, because nothing ever makes sense here, I come in and sit down in front of the class, and more and more students start coming in! Soon there weren't even enough chairs for them all so girls were pushing chairs together to make some sort of bench/couch/chair combo. I forgot to mention, the class was at least 2/3 boys.
So... I started off as planned, making all the students tell me their name and age and something they liked to do. This went fine at first, but then every boy just said "I like football" and it became a joke so we all just laughed when someone said they liked football. The girls got more creative, and then one of my 11th grade boys started going on and on about how he likes hunting (he did the same thing yesterday in class).
After that I let them ask questions. This ended up taking the entire lesson and they asked some ridiculous questions and every now and then someone (usually one of the 11th graders) would blurt something out in Georgian and the whole class would start laughing hysterically. I didn't mind so much the interruption, it was more that I was just worrying what the hell they were saying. Some students were definitely embarrassed at points. I guess one instance was one of the boys (in Georgian) said he wanted to take a picture with me, and then another student translated for me.
There was also a few minutes when one student started going on and on about how much he hates Russia and Putin.
It was definitely an interesting hour.... And then after class I walked home and then went to Telavi to meet up with some of the other English teachers.
Andrea and I went to a restaurant for dinner and got pizza that was actually really good. And who did I run into there? None other but one of my 11th grade male students. He acted as translator as another guy hit on me for a ridiculously long time (even after I refused to give him my phone number multiple times). Then my student was telling me that it was an interesting lesson but I think he really  just thought it was weird. And he told me to "be careful" with some of those students because they are not good. And when I asked him why they all laughed so much, apparently they were taking pictures of me on their phones. Which is creepy but not the worst thing that could happen I suppose.
So..... off to a good start. Hah.

I'm typing this post into a word document, while wearing gloves. I figured I should write something now while I have some free time and the last few days are still fresh in my mind, but I don't have internet on my laptop so I am saving it for later (hopefully tomorrow) when I do get wireless internet. The reason behind the glove wearing is probably obvious. It's freakin' freezing in my room. I'm adapting to the cold, and somehow I feel like I am less cold than everyone else on a daily basis. Either that or I just don't complain as much about it.
I arrived at my host family's house two days ago, on Monday at around 4pm after much nervousness and anticipation. My school's director and two people from my ERC (Educational Resource Center) picked us up at the hotel in Tbilisi and we took two cars to Telavi where the ERC is located. On the ride, I was in the backseat with Ryan and his giant suitcase between us because the trunk was full of my luggage. My school's director sat in front with the driver. She didn't speak any English and has a gold tooth. In the other car was an ERC person, Shannon and Andrea. Shannon, Ryan , Andrea and I are all in the same region of Telavi. After their host families picked them up, I got back into the car with my school director and she took me to my new home. As it turns out, my school's director is also my host mother's mother. My host mother (Georgian “deda”) is one of my co-teachers at school. Her name is Shorena and she is very nice and cheerful. She speaks some English, although not as much as you would expect from an English teacher. My host father's name is Zura and he doesn't talk much (by the way, the word for father in Georgian is “mama,” way to be confusing). I think we have just said “hello” a few times and smiled. My 10 year old host sister, Tiko, is adorable. She always tries to teach me words in Georgian and then I always forget them 30 seconds later. We walk to the school together in the morning. She is in the 5^th grade English class that her mother and I are co-teaching. I also have a 4 year old host brother named Tamuri. Today I think he decided that he liked me and spent a lot of time staring at me and then trying to say who knows what to me in Georgian.

My first day at the school yesterday was pretty overwhelming in a boring sort of way. I met a ton of people, most of which couldn't speak any English. I have three co-teachers including Shorena. The other two are Nona and Darejani. I followed Nona and Darejani around to their (our) classes and they introduced me to the students and then I sat on a chair for the rest of the time observing. Everything is so drastically different than the schools in America. My mind is seriously blown. I don't even think words can describe what it is like, because I heard a lot about the schools here before coming and though I understood, but I was wrong. I didn't understand until I walked in. And it's funny because everyone loves the school so much and are generally appreciative that they have it. They don't even complain, in fact, this morning when Tiko and I were walking, she looked at me and said “I love my school!” and had a huge smile. This being said, I suppose I should talk about the actual status of the school. There is no electricity. From what I have heard, the only rooms to have power are the staff room and the director's office. Everything else is just lit by the windows, and the rooms are so cold. There is a woodstove in each room. If you are near the stove you are fine, but on the other end of the room you will basically be an icicle by the time the lesson is over. The kids keep the fire going. Randomly a kid will just come up to the front of the room and put a new log in the stove. I like this because I don't really even know when it's time for a new log (obviously I've been sheltered from wood stove life, and snow life). The walls are old and scuffed up, but are decorated pretty nicely with paintings by the students, posters with Georgian writing (I don't know what it means), and pictures of Jesus. The chalkboards are a mess. There are classrooms where the chalkboards are literally warped and bent in weird ways from being so old and most likely getting cold and damp. The pieces of chalk are all like 1cm long.

So, the school is pretty run down. But everyone is very friendly and happy. The women all wear big fur coats and I wish I had one even though I'm morally opposed to fur. I would fit in better if I had a fur coat and a gold tooth. There are a lot of gold teeth in these parts. So far I would describe my experience as: snow, gold tooth, fur coat, cold, khachapuri

In other news: my host family seems to really enjoy Russian Farmville. I actually feel guilty when I am online too long on their computer because I know Tiko is wishing she was online catchin' up on her crops. I thought it was just her and Shorena who played, but then this evening I saw Zura on there tending to his digital donkey or something. This trip is making me really wish I had a kindle or something because my three books I brought are going to go by FAST. I'm already halfway done with one of them and I've been here for 2 days. I guess it was bound to happen with no internet and TV in another language. Oh yeah, and the power going off. The power was out all day today I think. It was out this morning when I woke up and still when I got home. It came back before it got dark though, but now it keeps flickering every now and then which makes me nervous.

Well, I suppose that is all I will write for now. There is so much going on but at the same time not really anything. I go to work and sit there, which hopefully I will start DOING something soon. But the way the teachers teach is straight from the books and not very exciting, I'd like to change it up but haven't had a chance to sit down with them yet so they keep doing what they are doing. I am scheduled to be in about 5 classes every day, except Friday when I have no classes but have to come in to do a “group” which I'm pretty sure they mean a club for students who want to learn English. I hope this is so because then I can do whatever I want. Anyway, I go to work and then come back and sit around. I sit around in the living room because I want to spend time with my host family, and also because that is where the woodstove is. I'm not sure if they LIKE me out there though since I suck at conversation. I think Tiko likes it though. She loves when she tells me a Georgian word and I try to say it myself and I'm sure I totally butcher it but she always giggles and says “good!” and seems very happy. Zura's mother, Tina, who lives downstairs also seems excited when I say a word and she likes to try to say English words too. She also likes to look over my shoulder as I check my Facebook. Today I had to show her and Tiko my mom, dad, and brother on Facebook. Tina told me I look like my mom. Big surprise.

Oh, and they always feed me. It's weird because I won't even have seen anyone else eating and they will bring me something and want me to eat it! Like I was at the computer earlier and Shorena brought me a plate and put it in front of me and said “meat pie, and coka cola, eat.” But no one else had anything to eat........ And then at supper, she made macaroni and eggs and it was very salty and then we had very salty cheese. It was like salt overload, but not bad. Shorena put ketchup on her macaroni. I did not. She told me “you are very small and I am very big” and then tried to hand me more food. I wonder if that is why I got a meat pie and no one else did.

Even Georgian 4 year olds have tantrums. I just can't understand the reason.

After a night at the London Bari (real name, unknown)

I have been in Tbilisi for about 3 days. The first day seems like multiple days because we arrived to the hotel at approximately 6am, before daylight, got a few hours of sleep and then woke up again in time to shower, eat lunch and go on a three hour walking tour of the city. We climbed up a massive hill to a fortress/castle with a great view which made the hike worth it. There were four awesome dogs that walked with us most of the way, which if you know me is great since I love dogs infinitely. We were told not to touch the street dogs because they carry diseases (this is after I had already pet one of them, whoops) and might randomly want to bite you (which I don't know if I quite believe since I think I have a decent understanding of dog behavior and queues). Anyway, I guess I will avoid petting them in the future even though I really do have the urge to collect them all and take them to get shots and loving homes. This has nothing to do with Georgia and only to do with my dog rescue mindset....
The past two days have been about 12 hours of orientation. Including 3 hours every day of Georgian language lessons and yesterday 4 hours of methodology and tomorrow and following days of Intercultural lessons. It's exhausting. I can't tell if it's lack of sleep, jet lag, overeating, or sitting down for hours at a time that is making it so difficult. Of course, the language is really hard and we go through so much in such a short amount of time I feel like I might not ever pick it up... but I guess I know a couple of words.
The food at the hotel is good and never ending. At home I never eat breakfast, usually eat a decent sized lunch, and a dinner of some sort and that's about all. At the hotel we get free breakfast, lunch, dinner and two coffee breaks complete with little pastries or brownie things. Since I love free food, this is all becoming a problem. I don't think I've been truly hungry this entire time because I just keep eating every time food is available. I'm not complaining because I love food, but I'm wondering what all this food and sitting in class is going to do to my body. I guess it's good that in a few days we will be leaving the hotel and entering the real world.

Tonight was the only night we have where we finished "early" with orientation. Early means before 9pm. Pretty much all of us TGLers went out to a bar in the main part of Tbilisi. It was a bar themed with the Beatles, which is amusing since I don't even really like the Beatles. The cab ride was pretty frightening which was to be expected since the drivers here are crazy. Then we had some fun and drank a couple Georgian beers and danced a bit to American music and "Hey Jude" which isn't even a typical dancing song. We were in the last group of 6 people to return to the hotel (we have to back at midnight), so we all had to cram into a cab which was difficult and I ended up laying on top of four people seated in the back. We survived this trip as well, and even though I am starving and craving chips, no where is open at this hour so I am instead writing in my blog.

I suppose I will now go to sleep because I have an early day full of Georgian lessons and intercultural learning tomorrow. At leas I know breakfast will be waiting for me at 8am.