little bits

Living in Tbilisi is basically the best thing ever. It's like I'm living a normal life for the most part. I can do whatever I want. I can go wherever I want, whenever I want. I cook my own food. I shower when I feel like it. It's great.
School could be better. I could be doing more. I could have books. I could be more respected by the crazy 6th graders. But it's not terrible, and compared to what it was like before in the village I can't complain at all.
I feel generally happy. I get a little sad when I think about December and leaving and knowing that this time I won't be coming back. I try not to think about it. I don't know how I'm going to be able to stay content in Chico after living somewhere I think is so great and lovely for the most part, but I'll figure it out.

In other news; Lydia and I have spent so much time watching bad music videos from 10 years ago that it's ridiculous. And about half of our conversations are dominated by "what should we be for Halloween?" I am pretty sure I'm going to be a unicorn, but not quite sure I'll be able to pull it off. Especially with not knowing how to get anything I want to get for it while in Georgia. Like, do they have tinsel here? They must, but where? Who knows? Or like, the strongest hair spray ever. And body glitter.
Today we bought a hair straightener after complaining about how we wished we had one for the past almost-a-month. It cost more than I probably should be spending on a hair straightener, but I'm just that vain.
We eat pasta every day. And friend potatoes a lot. And khatchapuri way more than I should ever admit to anyone.

Today I learned how to say the word "60" in Georgian. (samotsi)
I found my school, which is "Tbilisi Public School No. 126" and was way harder to find than it should be. It's also massive. My first day is going to be awkward--wandering in and trying to ask random students where the director's office is. I'm sure the first month will be a lot of getting lost in the huge building and being in general awkward, as usual. I hope the rooms are numbered, because in Vardi they definitely were not. It took forever for me to start knowing which room was which based on distance from the main hallway and stains on the walls/brokenness of the doors.
Lydia and I went to the store today for groceries and I gave the girl a 50lari bill. There was confusion with the coins and blah blah blah. An hour or so after getting home I realized I didn't get approximately 30lari of my change back! I almost panicked because I'm so broke right now and have at least another week until I get paid. We went back to the store and I had someone from TLG explain to the cashier what happened. After they looked through the surveillance videos for about 15 minutes, they realized that I wasn't lying and gave me my change. The girl was so nice and I think felt really bad about it. Now we will always go to this grocery store, because even though they made a mistake, they cleared it up and were very apologetic.
In other news-- I've eaten khatchapuri EVERY DAY since getting here. Yesterday I had at twice (that's what a couple beers will do to you). Today I told myself "NO KHATCHAPURI TODAY!" but... we had quite a trek looking for my school (the streets here are beyond confusing), and then we couldn't figure out where on earth the bus stop was and when we finally found it, it was too late. All we had eaten all day was one egg each (pretty low on food in the apartment) and it was about 3 o'clock, sooooooo we had to get khatchapuri. Luckily we've been walking SO much lately I probably won't gain a ton of weight this time around. Although, I have kind of established that 60% of my diet is khatchapuri and 40% is beer. Somethin's gotta change!
Tomorrow we are going to Batumi to see some "Georgian version of Romeo and Juliet but with a happier ending" called "Keto and Kote." A ton of other TLGers are going and we get free transportation, food, and a night at a hotel! And the president is going to be there and supposedly make an announcement afterwards about how great, lovely, and awesome all of us volunteers are. So... that's something!

--

I'm tired of how I am expected to fawn over every baby I see on the street and say 'what a lovely baby!' even if it isn't all that cute, and how they seem to think it's rude if I make no comment at all. I really don't care about a random baby in a pharmacy or mini-market! I live with a four year old and ten year old and I'm pretty sure just being in their presence has made my uterus shrivel up and die because it is terrified of the prospect of ever procreating.

In other news:
Last night I didn't drink and everyone else did, yet I still found myself in the midst of a supra table sing-along of the US national anthem and America the Beautiful.
Turkish marshmallows are nasty.
In four days I will be in Kiev, Ukraine.
I still haven't gotten my flight home yet. I just want to know so badly so I can start counting the days, hours, minutes until I get a damn burrito. Burritos are haunting my thoughts. It's almost like my brain can't function for more than 1 minute without a little flash of Mexican food like a subliminal message image in a movie.
Yesterday I signed my contract to come back in the fall. So now it's official. Tbilisi, here I come. After two months in Chico with no money. I hope I can find people to hang out with there; all my friends are gone.

DoctorTrainBeachIceCreamVodkaBeachDoctorIceCream

Doctors:
On Wednesday I had a doctor's appointment in Tbilisi. I have not had my period since the first week I arrived in Georgia. That was three months ago. No, I'm not pregnant. It wouldn't even be possible for me to be pregnant. But still, it's really disconcerting. I know that a lot of things can affect this, like diet and stress and all that, but I don't know. Three months is a really long time. So, I sucked it up and got an appointment. Basically, the doctor's here love ultrasounds. When I was sick a couple of weeks ago with a stomach problem, the doctor in Telavi first thing did an ultrasound on my stomach. In Tbilisi, the doctor's office I went to is supposedly really good, or at least that is what my program told me. The doctor, Nino asked me some questions and then straight away took me to get an ultrasound. There is a whole area of the building that is all ultrasound rooms. So I got yet another ultrasound and they told me I wasn't pregnant (big shock) and declared that I must have a hormone problem. I was then taken to the gynecologist room, where I tried not to panic, and thank god they did not make me have an exam. They just asked me random questions like "do you like sweets? do you eat sweets often? do you eat sweets between meals? do you have any rashes?" Then they decided they needed to do a blood test on me, but I had to come back another day because it needed to be a blood test where I did not eat beforehand. So, I was scheduled to come back on Monday morning. So, yesterday I took yet another day off of school and went to the doctor again. They took a vile of blood from me. Then made me drink a DISGUSTING drink that was warm and sugary and thick and made me want to gag immensely. Then an hour later they took another vile of blood. And an hour after that, a third vile of blood. It was a glucose tolerance test (I googled the letters of the test, because no one thought to tell me what I was being tested for). I also think they are using the blood for some sort of thyroid test. I will hear my results on Friday I guess. I wish I could have taken pictures of the doctor's office, because everyone in the US would probably be shocked by it. There was weird wall paper that was all peeling and it looked like the floor hadn't been mopped in years. Also, the doctor's and nurses all wear crazy heels.

Batumi:
Batumi is the summer destination for Georgians. It's a town on the Black Sea and the government has been putting ridiculous amounts of money into renovating parts of it to make it more of an attraction for tourists. There are all sorts of fountains and statues and the buildings are quite nice. At least that's how it is in one part of town. The rest of the city, including the guest house we stayed in, were basically like the rest of Georgia. Except, I think the streets were actually worse there than in a lot of areas. They were all broken and dusty and dirty. The guest house we stayed in was really pleasant though, and the people who lived upstairs were really  nice and gave us a full breakfast one morning when we went up just to ask for a spoon. The beds were incredibly comfortable and we nicknamed ours (mine and Anita's) "the cloud" because it was so soft and the blankets were amazing. Needless to say, we spent quite a lot of time in the cloud. The rest of our time was basically spent at the beach. We got so much sun it was amazing. The beach itself was pretty much all rocks, and that is uncomfortable, but we found a bar/lounge place that had wooden platforms you could lay on all day, as long as you bought a drink or two. So we did that every day and had a great time. One day, someone even delivered me a free coffee drink. Awesome! Elyse and Shannon got burned on the first day, but luckily I reserved the burn for the last day, which means the train ride home was horrible, but at least I got to enjoy the sun fully the entire trip.

Hippies:
On the third day at the beach, some of our friends somehow came across a group of hippies. 1 American, 1 Australian, 1 Danish and 1 English (I think) all with massive dreads backpacking across the world for god knows how long making money by playing their music in random plazas and streets everywhere they go. They walked up while we were laying on our wood platforms and Elyse writes to me (yeah, we were on our iphones) "where did the pirates come from?" That's basically how out of place they looked. We left Cody with them all day and that evening we met back up and we all (except for the dane and englishman who went to sleep in a park somewhere) went to a restaurant. We drank vodka and beer and the two guys took out their guitar and violin and started playing music. We ended up having some good singalongs including backstreet boys, hanson, fleet foxes and the beatles. Then we made our way back to the beach and went swimming. We then found wood and had a bonfire on the beach, and the cops came and didn't quite not what to make of this event because a) some people were not quite clothed b) there was a fire on the beach c) they had probably never seen dreads before. But we weren't doing anything illegal I guess, so they left us alone. After we ran out of wood (this didn't take long because the only wood we could find was like random bits of palm tree), the sun was already starting to come up so we figured we should go home. The hippies didn't have anywhere to stay (a lot of the time they just sleep outside), so we invited them to our guest house and after getting a lot of junk food, we returned to the cloud and we sat in it eating until the rest of our group arrived (I took a cab with the boys, and the other girls walked because they had to stop and look for a sweater that had gone missing). Then, five of us crammed into our "cloud" which was two single beds pushed together, and we slept for about 2 hours until it was time to wake up and get the train back to Tbilisi.

Stupid:
I missed work yet again today, this for no good reason except for that I'm really stupid. I am actually feeling pretty guilty about it! It happened because yesterday after my doctor's appointment I was running some errands and such (you know, the important things like getting money out of the bank and eating ice cream), and then my friend D said he wanted to hang out but couldn't until 4:30, so I was like ok no big deal. So then he picked me up at the hostel and we went to get ice cream (yes, I got ice cream twice in one day, I'm obsessed with ice cream! I didn't tell the doctor this when she asked me if I eat sweets), and then we ate it in a park. Then he got a call from some workers who were going to his house to fix his bathtub and he had to go right then, so I went with him. So, time passed and then I realize I had been there quite a long time and there wasn't going to be a marshutka back to Telavi anymore! I was like "oh crap, I'm incredibly stupid!" so I texted my co-teacher and said I would try to get on the first one in the morning and just miss the first one or two classes. She said not to worry or be in a hurry, but I still felt like I needed to. My friend let me stay at his house since I didn't want to have to pay for yet another night at a hostel. We had a pretty good time and just hung out and drank some vodka-cranberry (which was so exciting to me, since that is my staple drink in the US but I haven't come across cranberry juice since I've been in Georgia), and we got some food from the store to eat for dinner. The woman at the store wouldn't sell us a certain dish though for some reason. She kept saying I wouldn't like it, and actually refused to give it to us. She told him that if it had just been him she would have given it to him, but since I was a foreigner she wouldn't. Weird. Anyway, this morning I woke up early and tried to get an early marshutka back, but it ended up not leaving as early as it was supposed to because it wasn't filling up quickly (yeah, that's how things work here, nothing is really scheduled, or if it is, the schedule is like a vague plan instead of a set thing). So I ended up missing three of my classes by the time I got back to Telavi and I had a raging headache because my allergies are acting up. I just went to sleep when I came home.  I feel so bad about missing work though!!!!! I've missed so much lately with being sick and the doctor's appointments and meetings all throughout May. Oh well..............

Side note:
People in Georgia stare, A LOT. They don't really make an effort to hide it either. It's especially bad if you are a foreigner. They are just so interested. I'm getting kind of used to it now. But yesterday when I was in the store with D, out of nowhere he was like "You don't especially look like a foreigner. But people stare at you all the time!" And then we had a conversation about it, and I was saying I probably dress like one, and he said no I don't look that different, he can tell when someone looks like they don't belong and I don't look that way, and some foreigners even walk differently (haha) and I don't have anything glaringly foreign about me. So now I just feel weird because he even noticed that people stare at me more than usual (I assumed that they just stared at me because I looked weird here), but it is also cool to know that a real Georgian doesn't think I look like a freak out of place tourist. Ha.

kargi gogo

Yesterday I was invited to "the wood" (I don't know if this is British English or what; I would say "the woods," not wood. But they always just say wood) with my 9th graders because apparently lessons were canceled (no one thought to tell me, ugh). So the 9th grade class was going to the woods nearby to have a picnic. They convinced me to go and were SO excited. There was a lot of shrieking when I finally accepted the invitation. they had a mound of groceries ready to go. Most of the class was walking, but I wanted to change my shoes (I was wearing some flimsy flats), so one 9th grader and I walked to my house where I changed and then a man in a car with 3 of the 9th grade boys and all the food pulled up and picked us up. It was strange being sandwiched in the backseat between a bunch of 9th graders.
At the picnic there was sausage, chicken, soda, beer, bread, cookies, tomatoes, cucumbers... all sorts of things and it was all very delicious. They made quite a fuss about making sure I had a bit of everything and kept putting more and more on my dish and filling my beer cup quite often. It was strange drinking with a bunch of students, but no one drank too much.
After we ate the girls convinced me to go into the forest with them and they all picked me flowers until I had quite a bouquet. Then we ran in the field and I rode one of the boys' bikes that was much to big for me. It was a really nice time and I had a lot of fun. I think they were all very happy I came. They kept asking to take pictures with me and were holding my hands and telling me they love me.
One thing I did notice about this event, however, was how separated the boys and girls were. At the table all of the girls sat at one end and all the boys on the other. They didn't really even talk much. And after we ate all the girls and I went out to the field while the boys loitered around the fire they had built. It was really strange by American standards. Because 14/15 year olds in the US are always flirting and joking around with each other.
Also, a bit away from us was a group of three people also picnicking. It was one female and two males. My student, Mari, who was sitting next to to me kept exclaiming and pointing at them and saying "bad girl! two boys! one girl! bad girl!!" and she thought it was incredibly hilarious. Also, at one point one of the boys and the girl, who I could tell were a couple, kissed and this was CRAZY to them. Mari- "Kiss! On lip! Bad girl!" and then we all looked over and everyone started giggling and remarking about the bad girl.
I was told that things would be different here in that regard, but it was really strange anyway. Especially because I've always been the type of girl who hangs out with a lot of boys. It made me wonder if they would really tell me I was a good girl all the time if they knew how I usually am at home. Because a lot of times I'll just be hanging out with just guys, and it's not at all weird. Also, when I have a boyfriend there is definitely a bit of PDA. Not even a lot (at least not a lot by American standards), but I have been known to get a kiss here and there from a boyfriend while in a public place...
I guess it's things like that that make you really realize you are in a distant place..... that and how much the young people drink.

Emotional chronology of the unbathed

In my house, we have the unfortunate problem that somehow the water in the bathroom is connected to electricity. This is unfortunate because we don't seem to have regular electricity. And by "not having regular electricity" I mean that since I have been here, the power seems to have been going out every other day until approximately 6pm. Except for the last three days, when I woke up without power and it did not come on until 7pm. And on a weekend! Yuck! So... not only am I incredibly bored and likely sitting in the living room being badgered by a four year old and a ten year old who also have nothing to do, I can't even flush the toilet or brush my teeth! Although I have been brushing my teeth, in my bedroom with a pitcher of water and spitting into a cup. Awesome. I also pee without flushing. But at least I don't have an outhouse, right? The real problem here, is that I haven't been able to take a shower. You are thinking "but the power comes on in the evening, right!?" Right, but that doesn't mean fate wants me to be clean. Everyone else wants showers too, and the hot water lasts about 10 minutes before starting to get cold. Also, everyone has laundry that needs to be done. See the problem?
So, this is a bit reminiscent of a post my friend Bruna (also living in Georgia) put on her blog the other day (http://brunafications.blogspot.com), but it's relevant to many of us living here...
Daily thoughts on showering.
Monday Shower-- Excellent, but I did not shave my legs, oh well! I will next time.
Tuesday-- No shower. That's okay though, my  hair is still clean and I look great!
Wednesday-- No shower. My hair is looking a little weird, oh well, I'll just put it up. Good to go! I'm looking pretty good today!
Thursday-- I want to take a shower, oh well I guess I will wait until the morning, no biggie my hair is still lookin' alright in this pony-tail.
Friday-- Power is out! Damn it!!! My hair is looking like a freakin' grease ball! And I may or may not smell really odd. Thank God for baby wipes!
Saturday-- OH MY GOD IT'S BEEN FIVE DAYS I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M GOING OUT IN PUBLIC, MY HAIR ISN'T EVEN THE RIGHT COLOR ANYMORE. At least it's really amusing when I tell people how long it's been. We can have a good laugh.
Sunday- Day 6. This isn't even funny anymore. This is almost a week. If I don't take a shower tonight I'm going to kill someone or myself. I can't even function. All I think about is how gross my hair feels on my head. I want to shave it off. Please power, turn back on, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease.
AND THEN I HAD THE LONG AWAITED SHOWER! Just now. About 20 minutes ago. And it was amazing. I washed my hair THREE times. Needless to say, I didn't shave my legs. Oh well, I couldn't care less about the status of my leg hair at the moment. It's too cold to wear pants anyway. But I feel great!!!!! I can now take over the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So that's my brain.
Other thoughts lately include: I haven't really been completely naked except for when I shower, because my curtains are pretty see-through and I'm paranoid that my students will walk by and somehow see me naked (notice a recurring theme about being afraid of my students?). Also, it's cold. And, I never really know if Tiko is going to walk in without knocking. So anyway, I know I've been gaining weight but luckily never have to see myself naked. Except yesterday I was changing my shirt and I was trying to decide if I just had a food-baby from eating too much for dinner, or if that is just how my stomach looks now. Today, after my shower, I think I have established that this is just how my stomach looks now. I'm kind of traumatized about it because I have never ever had to worry about getting fat, until now. I mean, it makes sense that I'm gaining weight when I think about the giant meals I eat here and the fact that they consist mostly of bread and cheese, and everything else drenched in grease or chunks of butter. And then there is the candy..... and the fact that I have a stash of Nutella in my bedroom to eat late at night and between meals. The funny thing is though, I know I'm not going to stop eating! I have terrible self control! At dinner tonight I ate until I was dying of stuffed-ness, and then I ate a pastry! And now... I'm in my bed eating a nut/grape juice on a string thing. I need to do something.... I think I'm going to start doing sit ups. But I've been saying that for a few days now and haven't even attempted to do any. I can't wait until I get back to the US and get back to my normal eating habits (not to mention being a vegetarian again!), and hopefully stop having to think about it.

Down by the banks...

Today I took a marshrutka for the first time by myself  (well... sort of) to Telavi. I can tell my host fam is phasing out the whole "we will give you rides whenever you want" thing, which is fine, but I have no idea how to catch a marshrutka. Today, my host mother caught one for me and started yelling for me to hurry up and come downstairs because it was waiting for me. So, I still have no idea how to do it myself, but at least I know it's possible! In Telavi, I met up with Cort, Phil and Andrea, as well as four girls from the 11th TLG group (I am in group 12). It was a good time, basically consisting of going from the first cafe (we call Pizza Cafe, because the only two words on the sign that are in English are "cafe" and "pizza") to a second cafe (we call Disco Cafe because of the really.... unique decor). I was pretty much intending on avoiding Disco Cafe for a while because I know that's where my student hangs out, but Phil wanted to know what this weird cafe was and Cort wanted pizza. So I braved the storm and we had a great time. I think the three decent sized beers I had aided my venture. Especially when my student put Hanson on the stereo. And then when his two friends were begging us to dance. I said "no" but probably wouldn't have denied it if my student hadn't been around. I like to dance like a dummy, but you know, not with my student. After stuffing ourselves with pizza and khachapuri, we went to the market and looked around. I bought cottage cheese and it really seems more like sour cream. Then, Cort and I bought cake for some stupid reason. Like I really need to eat so much crap. I'm already gaining weight like no other.
Then I came home, and this is when I realized I must have been moderately drunk, because Tiko was asking me to draw the Eiffel Tower and a turtle and they are quite possibly the worst drawings I have ever done... and I was TRYING to make them look good. Then my host family insisted on feeding me more. And served CAKE! So I ate two pieces of cake today. I don't know why I'm incapable of saying no. But... it's cake! Who denies cake!?!?!? Not Gina. No matter how tight her pants are getting!
So then my host fam disappeared like they seem to do being a lot in the evenings. This left me alone with Tiko again. And boy, that girl is crazy. I guess I don't have a lot of experience with 10 year olds. Are they all insane? I love her a lot and she's my best friend in Vardisubani (I'm obviously very social here), but she is a handful. Last night (we were alone together for about 4 hours), she was making me look at like 30 pictures of my 16 year old student who she calls her "boyfriend" and was saying he was beautiful and was wanting me to agree with her. Then she kept telling me not to tell her mom about him. By the way, this is the same 16 year old that told me he didn't like America except for American weapons. So, I'm a little confused and although I'm quite sure he wouldn't be dating a 10 year old, I can't seem to figure out if he actually is her boyfriend or if she just has a giant crush on him. I think she just has a crazy little kid crush. Tonight with Tiko, I taught her the "Down by the banks of the hankey pankey..." hand-clap game. I also tried to teach her "Miss Mary Mack" but that was sort of a failure because I couldn't remember how to do it and I'm incredibly uncoordinated. I guess the best part about teaching her the hand-clap games though, was now that I'm in my bedroom, I can hear her downstairs with her grandmother trying to teach her grandmother how to do it. They are both laughing hysterically and seeming to have a great time, so I feel like I've done a good deed.
In other news: my laundry is in the washing machine right now. THANK GOODNESS. I haven't done it in weeks.

To calm myself down after a weird day.
I suppose I feel a bit homesick for the first time in a while. I've already been here longer than I have ever been away from home. The first couple days at my new "home" were rough and I felt pretty homesick, like all I wanted was my mom and my dog but I got over it pretty quickly (not that I don't really miss them, because I do!). I just feel okay in general. But today was weird and I felt so frustrated and confused for a while at school I felt like I could cry. It all turned out fine, like I knew it would, but I just felt so angry and incompetent and like all I wanted in the world was just to be able to ask a question and get a straight answer.
Basically, what happened was it was a normal day at the school, and I was in the teacher's room after 4th period, waiting for Shorena to come in so we could go to 5th period.  My other co-teacher, Nona, asked me if I had a lesson and I told her "yes, with Shorena" and she said "you were just there." And I was like "no..." because I have two lessons with Shorena on Wednesdays, 5th and 6th grades. I pulled out my schedule which is written on a piece of paper and handed it to Nona and she pointed at it and said I was just there. Then I realized that I had just come from 5th grade class during 4th period, and 5th grade class is usually during 5th period. So I was just like.... Ok..... maybe I was confusing about what period it is right now and maybe I'm supposed to go to 10th grade with Darejani (which was supposed to be 6th period). And Nona said, Oh yes, you go with Darejani. But then Darejani never showed up, and neither did Shorena, so I was just sitting there in the teacher's room very confused for like an hour! And then 5th period hour was over and all the teachers came back in and Nona said to me "you don't have a lesson." And I showed her my schedule again and she said "I don't think you have a lesson." Then a few minutes later she indicated that lessons were over because the teachers were having a party, but no one had told me about this ahead of time and I didn't even know if I was supposed to be involved in the party somehow. So I was trying to ask her if I was supposed to go home or be at the party, but she just kept telling me to ask Shorena (and I had no idea where Shorena was and hadn't seen her for over an hour). So I went into the Director's office, where everyone just made me sit on a chair and couldn't tell me what was going on because no one speaks English. But then I just kept getting people saying the word "concert" and "party" and "home" so I still had no idea if I was supposed to go home, or if they were saying I was going to a concert or if they were saying I go home and Shorena was at a concert. It was just very stressful. Then, to make matters worse, an old man who works at the school came in the room and said my name and started gesturing wildly towards the left (which was a direction that was both down a hallway and if outside, toward my house!).
Then Nona came in and said "come with me" and took me into a room down the hall that was FULL of students and teachers! And there was a stage and piano! And there wasn't nearly enough chairs for everyone so everyone was sharing the uncomfortable chairs, which wasn't all that bad, just strange. So the singing was pretty good. All I could get out of it was "deda" and "sakartvelo" which means they were singing about mothers and Georgia. Also, there were a bunch of students reading/reciting long things in Georgian, and then a couple of teachers had long things written to the teacher who was retiring (Did I mention that this event was for Women's Day and also for a lady's retirement?), and one of the teachers started crying as she read what she had written for her retiring friend. I wonder what it said. So this went on for approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes.
After that, I thought we were going home, but Shorena told me to stay with her and she took me into the 9th grade classroom--completely decked out with food! There was khinkali, khachapuri, sodas, and cake! A ton of it. So this was great. Except no one could speak English except Shorena, who was not sitting near me. I sat between the Director, Shorena's sister and the three oldest women including the retiring woman (who had worked at the school for 50 years! So when I say old... she was old). And then the retiring woman was going on and on about me in Georgian (I'd never even met her before) but Shorena said she was telling me I was nice and a fine girl and cute and she likes me. How people decide this when I'm sitting silently and stuffing my face, I don't know. So I just stuffed my face and ate cake and drank mineral water. It occurred to me that even though I did hate mineral water 3 weeks ago, I don't anymore. It tastes normal.  This also happened with cottage cheese. I used to hate it before I came here, and now I enjoy it WAY too much. Like I think about throughout the day.
Ok, well, that was my weird day. I don't know why the first part was just so stressful and all I wanted for a few minutes was to be home where things made sense. But part of me, although I love it, never wants to go back to Chico. It's funny because I know that Chico will be exactly the same as always when I come back and that is very comforting but also very stressful at the same time. So I'm trying not to think about it.
Lately, Cort and I have been spending a lot of time trying to figure out where we should go when we get done teaching and before we head back to the US. It's difficult because I'm poor but this is a really good time to go places since I'm already over here.

Different planet

Every once in a while, I feel really weird. Not really depressed or anything. It just kind of hits me like "you are really far away from home and nothing makes sense." Mostly, it happens when I'm sitting in the living room looking at the unknown food in front of me and thinking "well, might as well try it!" and then it ends up being something like a massive hot dog that isn't shaped like a hot dog. And I really hate hot dogs. Actually, I think this was the most nauseating thing I've eaten since I've been here! Even grosser than the raw fish with it's head on the plate in front of me! But, now I've learned my lesson and will not eat it in the future.
And then other times I wish I was at home:
the middle of the night (or like midnight) when I'm really craving something I could easily get at Safeway but don't even know if they would sell in this country,
when I don't know where I would buy a certain thing (most things),
when I can't go anywhere without getting a ride (am I 15 again??),
when there is snow everywhere and I'm freezing,
when I want Taco Bell (frequently),
when I can't understand a word anyone is saying and cannot even express to anyone how I feel or even communicate a simple sentence like "Temuri is really funny, what is he trying to say to me?"
So, sometimes it basically feels like I'm on a different planet. I guess I've never been away from everyone I know for so long or really at all. But, I can call all my other TLG friends for free and it helps a lot because man, sometimes you just need to speak in English and be able to use slang or even regular terms that are beyond seventh grade vocab.

So now that I've complained a bit about everything being weird and different. I will list some good things.
Today:
I got off work ridiculously early, at like 12:45 and came home and had the house to myself. But I basically just hung out in my bedroom... the power was off all day too, so I couldn't even take a shower or go on my computer. But it was still nice to relax.
I was in my room at dinner time and Shorena sent me a text from the living room saying "please come to the supper" which made me laugh.
Talked on the phone with Cort and got a lot of hilarious texts from him.
Was entertained by Temuri (the 4 yr old) after "supper," he likes to mimic English words like "OK" every time I say them, in fact he is just very interested in me in general. He talks to me for long periods of time in Georgian even though I have no idea what he's saying. He also likes to sing and dance around the living room and acts shy when I look at him doing it. He's really adorable.

Ok. Well I'm done for  now. Tomorrow we have the day off for Mother's Day, so I am planning to go into Telavi and meet up with Cort and Ryan. Then on Friday night, we are going to Tbilisi for the weekend! Hurray!

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!

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.