Boring week long update

The last week was pretty easy. On Tuesday Lydia and Mary went and got pizza but I didn't go. Instead Nick and I got khinkali at the restaurant near my flat and then just hung out. Lydia didn't get home until almost 2am which meant after Nick left around 9 or something I was home alone, at night, for I think the first time ever here. I didn't even know what to do with myself. So I did what I always do: sit around watching random crap on Youtube and Googling whatever stupid thing comes to my mind.
Wednesday was "Giorgoba" so we didn't have school. It's a holiday for St. George. I'm pretty sure it's the feast holiday for him, and in the spring there is another St. George holiday. We did not feast, we did not go to church.
On Thursday, it was Thanksgiving in the US. And I, randomly, happened to have the day off because my co-teacher was missing school all day and our classes were cancelled. In the afternoon, Callie and Cody came over and the four of us made a little Thanksgiving dinner, complete with Tofurky that Meave had mailed to Lydia and I. It was amazing. We also made chocolate chip cookies, which always taste a little different because there's no brown sugar here, or chocolate chips. We substitute in honey and cut up chocolate bars. But they were still amazing and I ate about a million.
Friday was an interesting night. Mary, Callie, Lydia and I went to eat pizza at a place near Marjanishvili. First of all, Marjanishvili has been completely renovated. I was just there about a month ago and it was just construction hell. Then, suddenly, this week there was a ribbon cutting and the whole stretch is completely renovated and beautiful. It doesn't even look like Georgia. So, that was a nice little surprise to see. The pizza we got was amazing. Mine had mayonnaise on it, but it wasn't even disgusting like it normally is when they do that. And it had corn in it. Yum. After pizza, Callie and I grabbed a bottle of vodka and we headed to a restaurant near Cafe Gallery. We ordered sodas, and Mary and Lyd got beers. We also got some snacks (it would be rude not get any food at the restaurant!) and played "Never have I ever" for a ridiculously long time. After nearly finishing our drinks we decided it was time to get to Cafe Gallery. We danced for hours, met some random Marines who were really nice, ran into other friends, etc. Other highlights include: a creeper not leaving Callie and I alone, so I told him we weren't interested, okay more like I told him "No! I don't want you" in Georgian, because that's about the extent of my language Georgian knowledge, and when this didn't work, I slapped him in the face. That also didn't work. Shortly after asking the cute bartender what her name was, she started dancing on the bar and asked me to get up there with her, I hesitated for a second and then someone lifted me up on there and I did it. I think I'm still a little traumatized, but whatever, when in Georgia...?  Then on the cab ride home, I was infuriated by the taxi-driver's bad Georgian. I think he was Russian. He wouldn't listen to anything I was saying (trying to tell him how to get to our apartment) and I was so mad. Then I came home, at approximately 4am, to find that one of my friend had blocked me on Facebook, which was really the icing on the cake of a weird night!
Saturday was kind of a lazy day. We were supposed to have gone to Sighnaghi but we didn't get paid so most people had no money, and Nick was sick, so it would have meant just Callie and I trekking it out there on our own.
On Sunday, it was snowing massively. At least massively in my expert snow opinion, being from California. So I had to cancel my trip to Vardi to visit my old host fam/school. I really don't like taking marshutkas in bad weather. They are scary enough on a nice sunny day. Mix with snow and slippery roads... Terrifying. I feel guilty though because I was looking forward to visiting everyone and now I don't know that I am going to have an opportunity to go again before I leave the country. I don't think they are mad, and they must understand because the weather is shitty, but still. I really do love them and want to see them! But Kakheti's weather is worse than Tbilisi's so I can't even imagine what it would be like!
Yesterday I left school a bit early because I wasn't feeling well. Then I went to tutor the man I haven't seen in over 2 weeks because he was on a business trip. I really love tutoring. The guys I tutor are so nice and funny and interesting, I always leave feeling in a better mood that I went in with. This time, we spent the whole time just talking about whatever, including about politics in Georgia (since that's his job) and other random things.
For the last few days I've been having such a terrible time sleeping. I lay in bed for hours just unable to sleep even though I'm so tired. I guess I'm probably stressed or worrying or something but whatever it is is really lame. And then when I do fall asleep I usually wake up again around 4 and just lay there awake for a long time again. This happened last night again and today when my alarm went off I was like "noooo!!!!!!!!!!!' not to mention, I was feeling kind of nauseous still. So I called in sick, which I almost never do. But I was able to sleep for almost four more hours which was amazing. I also think that the reason I've been feeling sick is because I haven't been drinking enough water. Because I also noticed that I've barely had to pee lately either. So I've been forcing myself to drink a lot of water today. But it sucks, who wants to drink water when it's cold outside? All I want is hot chocolate!!!

Weeks, Weekends, the Future

Time goes by so quickly it's unbelievable. The weeks feel like they are going by so slowly because in the mornings our apartment is cold and the bed is so warm; the schools heating leaves something to be desired (though it's a million times warmer than the village school was!); the children are screaming and not responding to discipline. But then suddenly, it's 3pm and you don't really know where the day went and all you can remember is how fucking adorable the 2nd graders were and how genius your 4th graders are and what little turds the 5th graders were being--but how creative their bullying each other is--seriously, one kid ground up a piece of chalk and folded it up in a piece of paper like a note and handed it to a girl, so when she opened it chalk dust got everywhere. So sad, but also... creative.
And then there are the weekends. Friday comes and goes in a wine/vodka/beer haze. Saturday morning is either slept away or sometimes you're so thirsty you wake up at 7am and can't sleep anymore, so you lay in bed and stare at the wall or at someone else or text your friends to ask what else happened after you went home. Normally, we get lunch around 12, for the past two weeks we've gone to Elvis, which is a restaurant (Elvis themed) with all different types of food: Thai, Italian, sushi, American, German, desserts. Then we wander slowly around the city some more stopping here and there for snacks or drinks or anything else we can think to do.
For the past few Sundays, I've been busy visiting with different Georgians. Four weeks ago, I went to the house of a little 12 year old girl named Natali, who is the niece of my former co-teacher (in Vardisubani) Nona. I had met her a couple months ago when in Kakheti visiting Nona, and she has been texting me every so often since, asking when I could see her. Nona and her husband came to Tbilisi (Natali lives here) and Natali's family had me over for dinner with them. Three weeks ago I went to Mtskheta, a nearby town, with my co-teacher Lali and her family. Mtskheta has some of the oldest and most famous churches in Georgian. It was a really beautiful place, and it was the first time I had gone, so it was nice that Lali could tell me the history of each place we went to. Afterwards, they took me to eat khinkali, naturally. Last Sunday I went to Vardisubani to visit my old host family. It was a nicer visit than I ever could have imagined. I had some problems living there last semester, but I couldn't justify being in the same country and not even going to see them-- especially Tiko, the little girl who loved me so much. They were all so happy to see me, and had cooked my favorite Georgian foods and bought cake. They gave me kisses, and the little boy was so much bigger (after only 4 months) I couldn't even believe it. I missed them a lot, despite any issues we had, sometimes people just aren't good to live with. And then yesterday, I met up with my co-teacher Nana and another English teacher at the school (who I don't go to classes with) named Manana. They took me to a restaurant so we could eat khinkali. They ordered me 10, which I told them I was incapable of eating (my normal amount is like 4), but... they kept pressuring me, and I found that it is in fact possible for me to eat 8 khinkalis without dropping dead. Even though afterwards I did want to drop dead.

Today I woke up and out of the window I could see the hill was covered in snow. And it was still snowing. All day. It's not really sticking during the day, but I'm still impressed. It's much nicer to have snow than to have rain, though it's freakin' cold. I'm wearing three pairs of socks and it still doesn't seem to cut it.

In unrelated news, I'm getting a little anxious trying to think of what the heck I should do when I get home. Part of me just doesn't want to think about it at all, and to just enjoy what's left of my time here without any pressure. But I really DO need to think about it. And as time progresses, I consider going to South Korea to teach even more. I have been on the fence about it for a while, but it's a good and reasonable option. I get nervous because it's a longer commitment and I really don't know if I'd like it there! But then again, I came to Georgia having no idea what to expect and it's been amazing.  I also feel like I should do things like this while I'm young and don't have an "real" responsibilities. The money is good. When I was at home for summer my step-dad was really encouraging about the option, saying he thinks I should do it, which helps, but also I don't know if I like the idea of being away from my family for a year, especially since my brother's baby is going to get so big in that amount of time. I don't know. Any advice is welcome!

updates

In Georgia this time around things are already completely different. I can't emphasize enough how different it is (already) living in Tbilisi than it was in a Kakhetian village. Not only is it because we aren't living in a host family, but also because there are just so many more options on what we can do on a day-to-day basis.

We moved into our apartment two days ago, after a few days of complete torture not knowing if we were ever going to find a place to live or if we may have to resort to living with a host family again. We had TLG call SO many places for us and we had one place lined up but the owners backed out and decided not to rent it out last minute. At that point we really thought we were screwed. But then my friend D from the hostel said we should get a newspaper, so we did and he called a few places for us. After less than an hour we were at an apartment talking with a landlord (with D translating) and the next day we were moving in. Our landlord is the coolest landlord ever. We've already had to knock on her door (she lives next door) to ask stupid things like how the hell do we turn on the hot water? and the stove? And she's so happy to see us and even know she knows barely any English she tries to hard to talk to us and we do a lot of weird pantomiming but everything works out. Today when we went over to get help with our stove, she invited us in and gave us coffee and cake and tried to tell us all about Tibetan medicine (I guess that's her job), and it made some sense but not much. She also has two sons, the younger of which is really good looking and seems pretty sweet but he doesn't know any  English.
Today we dyed my hair with Russian box hair dye again. It's not dry yet but it seems better than last time and luckily the water did not turn off before I could rinse it out like it did last time. But the water pressure in the shower is really low so it took forever to rinse it out. I was pretty scared actually after last time, but my roots were looking so terrible I felt like I had to take the risk, for vanity's sake.

We've made a few new friends since we've been back. We met a Canadian guy who is just traveling for a couple weeks, but we went for a night to Borjomi with him. In typical Georgia fashion, we met some nice people are the marshrutka who brought us to their friend's guesthouse. Then the man decided to be our Borjomi tour guide and took us all around and made us drink Borjomi water which I still find to be absolutely disgusting. Back in Tbilisi we've been hanging out with Nick who is from New Zealand who we met once last time we were in Georgia because he lived in Rustavi where Anita lived. We went to a beer garden with him and  a girl named Callie, also in TLG, a few nights ago and again last night.
School officially starts today but we were not allowed to go to the first day because we haven't met with co-teachers and directors yet. Tomorrow we have a meeting with them and then I guess will start going to classes on Monday. I'm looking forward to it and kind of dreading it at the same time. But at least we will have something to do and be less bored/spending money all the time. Especially since we haven't been paid yet and I'm so broke after having to pay first/last months rent at our apartment.

Places

There are so many beautiful places in the world that it completely overwhelms me. It's like my friends who worry when they think about all the books and how they will never be able to read them all in their lifetime. How will I ever see all these places? How will I even decide which one to see next?

I'm really sucking at blogging lately. I guess I've been in a mood where things are a bit more aggravating than amusing for the most part, and I don't want to write all my annoyances down because I'd rather just forget about them when they are over.
On Friday night I went to Signagi with some friends and we stayed at a guest house where we got the entire second floor of a house to ourselves. We drank vodka and ate junk food in an outdoor gazebo near the main road and then we went back to the guest house and basically sat around dissing each other until we were all tired and wanted to go to sleep. It's amazing how much fun we can have just basically making fun of each other. On Saturday we walked around the city and looked at the beautiful sights and ate ice cream and then sat around in the park and on various walls. It was great weather and we were warm. Shannon got pretty sunburned.
Then we went to Shay's village where we ate dinner with her host family and drank wine. The next morning Shannon had to leave early but Cort and I stayed. The weather was crappy and rainy all day but we walked around a bit and got some beer and then went back to the house and watched a bunch of episodes of "Modern Family." We went back to our villages yesterday morning.
I got home just in time to call my mom to say Happy Mothers Day and hear some interesting news.
Last night I found out that a guy I am supposed to meet up with this weekend (who said he was 28) is actually 35. Now I feel weirded out that he told me the wrong age, even though he apologized quite a lot.
Today was another day very similar to most days in the village, except the weather was really nice and it's sunny and warm.
On the down side, I wore my flats to school without tights or nylons (and I was wearing pants) so the whole staffroom was freaking out asking me if I was cold and basically in shock that I would not be wearing nylons. I tried to explain that in the US people really don't wear nylons all the time, and my co-teacher said that's because we have indoor heating in the US, which might be right.... but also, IT WAS FREAKIN' WARM TODAY. Even inside the school that is normally like 2 degrees.
On a brighter note, one of my 7th grade girls made me a little wool heart that has my name sewn on it. She followed me to the staffroom after class to give it to me. The 7th grade girls are so ridiculously sweet; I love them.

Too much

Too much has happened without much of anything happening at all. I'm tired and I feel like I haven't written in a long time, which makes the idea of writing at all kind of stressful.
I went to Armenia for a few days during our Spring Break. It was a nice country and very beautiful, but the weather was bad for most of the time and we didn't get to see many of the things we would have liked to see outside of Yerevan. Yerevan was very different than Tbilisi. The traffic was better behaved and I didn't feel like I was going to get killed every time I crossed a street. The streets were wider and there were less people walked around it seemed like. It was a beautiful city, really, but I prefer Tbilisi even though I think most of my friends didn't feel the same way. In Yerevan, we ate way more food than we should have and a ton of ice cream. The hostel we stayed at was brand new and run by a couple who had two small children. On Easter they had a traditional Armenian Easter dinner for us complete with hard boiled eggs and wine.
This weekend I went to Saniore to stay with my friend Shannon again. We had a nice time even though the weather was awful and we mostly sat around her house. We did attempt making chocolate chip cookies which turned out pretty delicious, though they didn't taste "right" because not only is there no brown sugar in Georgia, no one seems to even know what molasses is.
Yesterday many of us TLGers got the day off of school to go to Kvareli Lake where TLG was hosting an event for us. Only 70 or so people could come and I, along with many of my friends, were able to sign up in time and go. It was a lot of fun and we got to go on paddle boats and some people rode bikes and there were swings. Then we were taken to a vineyard and had a feast with tons of wine and chacha. Most of us drank quite a lot of the wine and chacha.... Including our marshrutka driver.... but we survived.
I guess I will also mention that my life is incredibly random and I suppose the country is small. I don't know if any of you read the post where I mentioned giving my phone number to the random Georgian guy who sat next to me on a marshrutka... but yesterday while my friends and I were standing on the side of the road next to Gurjaani, guess who pulls up? Yeah, marshrutka guy. He got out and kissed me cheek and started asking me where I was going. I gave him a vague answer like 'some lake, I don't know what it's called, I have to go our marshrutka is here." It was incredibly awkward but I thought I had escaped unscathed until he called me a total of NINE TIMES from two different phone numbers. Lesson learned: don't give your number to random guys on marshrutkas.

On Thursday after class, (well, we actually left class early) I went to my co-teacher's house which is in a village about 15 minutes away. It was her daughter's 8th birthday as well as some church holiday where everyone eats fish. At her house we ate a massive "snack" and drank a couple of glasses of wine. Then we all, (Darejani, her husband, her daughter, her niece and her husband's friend) hopped into her husband's friend's mini van and he drove us to Gremi, which is a big old church. We climbed up in the church on some very dangerous narrow stairs. It was a very beautiful place and the view from the top of the church was great. Then we went to some monastery that I don't remember the name of. It was very cool and up really high on a hill so the view from there was REALLY cool. After this we went back to her house and ate more food and cake. Also, news got out that my brother's bday was on Friday so we had to drink numerous toasts to my mother and brother and may they have long lives. And when we have a toast, we have to down the whole glass of wine apparently. I drank quite a lot of wine and so did everyone else (not the kids) and it was a good time and there were only a few awkward questions like "will you get married here if you meet the right boy?" followed by "i have a nephew who is your age you should meet" and so on.  The next day I was supposed to come back to Vardi for my "club," but Darejani really wanted me to stay another night and called the school and canceled my club for me so I stayed another night. I ate SO much food while at her house I thought I might explode.
I was supposed to go to Sighnaghi on Friday to visit Shay with Cort, but the only marshutka was leaving Telavi at around 3 and I couldn't get there in time (because I was supposed to have my club). So last minute I called up Lydia and instead decided that we should go to Tbilisi on Saturday because we really didn't want to have another uneventful village weekend. On Saturday morning I wasn't even sure I was going to make it to Tbilisi because I had a stomach bug that made me feel really nauseous. But I decided that I would fight through it and go anyway.
Lydia and I didn't do a whole lot in Tbilisi, just ran some errands and I bought a couple of books at the bookstore there that sells books in English. I finally put more money on my cell phone--I've been at like 3lari for over a week and I thougth Cort was going to kill me because I hadn't been able to text him all day every day like we normally do. Lydia and I also got some noodles and made pasta at the hostel. Then we drank really cheap vodka that the workers at the hostel kept telling us was so bad and not to drink it. It didn't taste all that bad in my expert opinion. But they were right; it's a terrible hangover.
We went to a couple of bars with the guys from the hostel. We already knew them because I stayed at the same hostel, Boombully, last time we were in Tbilisi. I guess nothing especially memorable happened, except next to Bude Bar there was a dirt pile that Lydia and I found to be extra exciting for some reason and we have a lot of ridiculous pictures of us standing on the dirt pile. After this we went to a club to dance and then we went back to the hostel. At the hostel they asked if we wanted to go to a party so we said OK but the party ended up being us sitting around the living room of a thirty-something year old woman's house while they spoke a lot of Georgian and drank vodka. Then the woman's 15 year old daughter came out of her bedroom and starting drinking with them. During this time, I was mostly sitting there and giggling at the ridiculousness of one of the guys we we were hanging out with. He was an enthusiastic insurance salesman who "could sell insurance products all day every day and all night every night" and was very angry when he found out that Lydia was not Jewish (no idea why he even assumed she was). At one point he was trying to slap me with a piece of ham. I was laughing so much I ended up laying down and falling asleep. I woke up confused when Lydia was telling me that the cab was there to take us back to the hostel. Insurance salesman wanted to come back to the hostel with us but Lydia said no and then he told Lydia she was "black listed" and looked out the window and wouldn't talk to her anymore.
I ended up only getting about 3 hours of sleep, which seems to be what always happens when I go to Tbilisi. I felt terribly sick and had a raging headache this morning thanks to the crap vodka. We took a weird shared taxi cab back to Telavi. There was a kid who was probably 18 sitting next to me trying to converse with me in English but it was kind of awkward. I think he was just nervous about speaking in English and had a bit of a crush on me. Shortly before his stop, he invited me. And yeah, that's what he said. "I want to invite you" (this is a common phenomenon I've experienced here with people who aren't fluent in English. They will "invite me" and not say where they are inviting me). So I asked him where and he said "where you like" which could mean anything. Either way, he asked for my phone number and I gave it to him, which may not have been smart but I thought he seemed nice! Then he told me I had beautiful eyes and got out at his stop. After this, Lydia and Mary (another TLG girl who lives in Telavi) were saying they thought he seemed weird and sketchy, but I really didn't think he did. I guess the saying this made me feel weird about the whole thing even though I thought it was all perfectly fine.
So, if I start getting crazy phone calls I guess I will know I made a mistake.
And now I have another week of school. But in 10 days I will be going to Armenia! I am very excited.

Only Girl in the World

Today I had my first village experience outside of Vardisubani. After a trip to Telavi yesterday (we visited the castle), I went with my fellow TLG friend, Shannon, to her village Saniore.  Her village life seemed a lot more like how I imagined it would. They had chickens, a sheep and lamb, cows, a dog with puppies and cats. And there kept being horse drawn wagons going through the cow-poop covered streets. And the view of the mountains was awesome. Shannon's host sister, Salome, is 16 and seems pretty rebellious as far as Georgian teenage girls go. She likes to drink and smoke in the shadows at night (not kidding). Her English is also really great. Shannon and I bought a bottle of vodka and some orange soda in Telavi and snuck it into her bedroom. There is a lot of sneaking around involved in drinking apparently. It's like being in high school again. Except I'm 22 and Shannon is 25. Which makes it just seem really surreal.
At twilight, we headed out to an old playground with Salome and a couple guys she knew, where Shannon and I drank our water bottles filled with vodka/soda mixture and Salome and her friends had cups of beer. This experience felt so strange, like being in a weird alternate universe version of Chico when I was 16 years old drinking vodka in playgrounds with Tyler and Brian. After this, we ended up at Salome's half brother's house where I had my first experience using a true outhouse with a hole in the ground. Then we had to leave quickly and go back to the house because host mother was wanting to know where we were. We ate dinner and drank some wine and then retreated upstairs to drink the rest of our vodka. It was a good night just hanging out and talking and listening to Britney Spears and Queen.
Today we slept in and took a walk to the next village over, where one of my co-teachers, Darejani, happens to live (which I didn't know). Salome's cousin gets private English lessons from her, and we ran into him so he told us to come with him over there. Darejani was pretty surprised to see us and she gave us chocolate and coffee. She kept asking if I would stay there for the night and go to school with her in the morning, which was really sweet but I declined because I didn't have any clothes to wear or anything. It was strange to see her in her natural habitat and in normal clothes besides her school clothes.
We wandered around a bit and then went back to Saniore. I wanted to catch the 4 o'clock marshrutka back to Telavi, but for some reason it didn't seem to come. So Salome put me into a random car and said he would take me to Vardisubani. It was a very strange experience that is difficult to describe. But apparently it was an unmarked taxi, and this taxi would take multiple people to different destinations. We started going to random places in the nearby village and more and more people were piling in. It ended up being me, a woman and her two little children, and two teenage boys stuffed in the backseat of this car with another woman sitting in front. And the driver just kept putting Rhianna's "Only girl in the world" on over and over again. Everyone else got dropped off in Telavi, and then he took me to my village. The best part is that it only cost 3 lari! It made all the weirdness totally worth it.
Now I have another week at school, and then on Friday we go to Tbilisi. Hurray!

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.

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.