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!

foreign birthday

Thursday was my 23rd birthday, and the first time I've ever been away from home on my birthday. I went to school in the morning and my co-teacher, Lali gave me a flower pin as a gift. My other co-teacher, Nana, gave me a headband with a bow on it. Three of my classes sang to me in garbled English and it was adorable. After school I went home and vegged out for a bit until Lydia came home and Nick came over. We went to my favorite asian food place with a couple other friends and allowed myself to get fried ice cream afterwards. Then we went to a restaurant and had some wine. I came home and talked to my dad and then to my mom on the phone. It was a more laid-back birthday than I usually have because everyone had to work the next morning. I, however, took the day off because at home Veteran's Day is the day after my birthday and I've never had to work the day after my b-day because of it, so why start now?
So yesterday I slept in and relaxed and had a nice day by myself. I went to tutor Irakli and then got ready for my "party." We went to a hostel where some friends were staying and got ready and drank some homemade wine Lali had given me. We then drank vodka. Then went to a restaurant and ate and drank more. I elected Callie to be tamada so she made some ridiculous toasts as usual and it was amazing. We went to Cafe Gallery where they brought me out a little cake with glow in the dark candles on it. We took some crazy photos. Then we found out it was tango night so we left and everyone ended up in different places. Lydia had a bit too much to drink and had to leave early. I ended up leaving not-so-late and went to eat shawarma with Nick on some steps outside of a random pet store.
It was a nice birthday.

dating, sex, blah blah blah

And now, since it's a hot topic in the blog-world, I'll write about dating, sex, tlg, blah blah blah in Georgia. My entry isn't the most serious of blog entries, but I'm not the most serious person. Just thought I'd give a different perspective on a topic that seems to be debated sometimes. I mean, doesn't EVERYONE considering coming to Georgia worry about getting laid alllll the time? Ha.

Here are some things I have heard about sex/gender/dating/etc.:
*Georgian guys are sleazy

This can be true. But saying every Georgian guy is sleazy is stupid. I mean, we all get annoyed when guys hit on us like crazy, but this happens in the US or Canada or England or where-ever else as well. Georgian guys can be forward. Sometimes they will ask for you number a million times and will not accept "no" for an answer. Sometimes you will give a normal-seeming guy your number and he will call you eight times in a row from multiple phone numbers when you don't answer. But really, have you never been to a bar and gotten a creeper bothering you? If you haven't, you don't go out enough. In a way, I think the persistence of a Georgian man almost deserves some respect. He sees something he likes and he goes for it. Better than some wimpy whiny kid who will write a song about never being able to be with you after seeing you on a subway once (p.s. you'll probably get hit on while riding the metro).

--prime example--

There are a million normal Georgian guys. My friend C gets guys driving her home all the time. I don't particularly recommend getting in a car with a strange man who pulls over next to you and says "I see you walking a lot. I want to meet you," but if you are daring, may as well try it. C has made some pretty nice friends this way! And gotten free rides! And so far they haven't done anything creepier than this. Well, one of them professed his lover for her and bought her roses, but he took it like a man when she explained that she had a boyfriend back home. They are still friends. Not sleazy. And definitely not a date-rapist.

Of course, I say all this, but there are some sleazy guys here. I have had one bad experience so far, but the guy was actually from Azerbaijan. He got me on a balcony and was trying to kiss me and wouldn't let go. It was scary but I escaped. Take note, though, this could happen anywhere. I have friends in my hometown that have been assaulted and/or raped, and we live in a relatively safe place. Be careful girls, no matter where in the world you are.

*Georgian guys suck in bed

This is something I have no personal experience with. Sorry, I haven't slept with a Georgian, or really anyone  here for that matter. I have made out with one Georgian guy. It wasn't the worst thing in the world; it wasn't the best thing in the world. I have friends who have slept with Georgian guys. I know people who have Georgian boyfriends. If the sex was THAT terrible, I doubt they would stay together too long. Maybe that's shallow of me to say, but... if you're only in the country for a short period of time, wouldn't you want a boyfriend who at least was good in bed? Good reasoning, right? As for the one night stands I've heard about, seems like they haven't been the best. But then again, it's drunk random one-time sex, if the guy isn't paying all that much attention to what the girl wants he could just be being selfish--after all, he'll probably never see her again; who cares what she wants? I mean, that's rude of the guy. Guys should always care about what the girl wants! But you know, some times a girl doesn't want to give a guy a blow job either! It's your prerogative  And keep in mind, if you suck too bad--word will get out and you may never get sex again! That's my advice to guys who don't try to make the girl happy while they are hooking up. Guys around the world!!! Not only Georgians. 

*Georgian girls won't have sex with you

Even if they won't have sex with you, I won't either, and I'm an American.
But yeah, because girls are a bit more repressed in society here than they are in more Westernized countries, it's generally frowned upon for girls to be sexually active before marriage. I don't think this means every girl is necessarily against hooking up with someone they are into, but don't expect it to be like going to Sweden or something where sex is pretty acceptable. If you do date a girl, if she isn't into having sex with you, don't push the idea. There's nothing worse than a douche who tries to persuade you to do him when you just don't want to! Deal breaker for sure! But I see so many girls and guys making out in parks that I can tell there's some action to be had at least, maybe not "home run" status, but it's something, if you're really worried about it. And if you are REALLY worried about it, get a prostitute (see following bullet points). It's less effort and might even be cheaper in the long run-- no wining and dining. 

*Georgian girls suck in bed
If two people both suck in bed and don't know it, do they still think the other person sucks in bed? If all Georgian guys suck in bed, and all Georgian girls suck in bed, then wouldn't it not even matter? Until they try to get with a person who claims to not suck in bed. And what if you suck in bed and just don't know it?
Anyway, I've never had sex with a Georgian girl, so who knows. But I'm sure there is not an entire country full of people (of any gender) that just innately sucks at having sex. Maybe they don't get as much practice as some people in more promiscuous countries, but I'm sure 16 year olds who are having sex in the US aren't very good in bed either. If you want to have sex with a Georgian girl, from what I've heard, it's probably going to take a bit of wooing on your part anyway, so if you're willing to put in the effort to get that far into the relationship, you should probably be nice enough to not judge her abilities in bed anyway, unless you're an asshole... which maybe you are if you are dating someone JUST because you want to have sex with them.

*All Georgian men sleep with hookers

During orientation we were told that Georgian men all sleep with prostitutes because the Georgian girls were expected to be virgins until marriage. And after marriage it is still acceptable for the men to sleep with other women besides their wives. I really am not sure if this is true. I haven't asked enough men to know and in this case I think I might be better off not knowing. I did have one friend, though whose host-brother took him to a brothel somewhere in Tbilisi and the whole experience seemed incredibly awkward. This is reasoning enough to know that some Georgians go to hookers, but I can't really believe that everyone of them does. As for hookers, I heard a rumor that a lot of them are Ukrainian or Russian. But then again... (see next bullet)

*Some TLGs sleep with hookers

The same friend who went to the brothel with his host-brother slept with a Georgian girl. Of course, he told me that he "met a Georgian girl" and slept with her. We were a little surprised because from everything we've heard, Georgian girls don't usually sleep with guys they just met. Come to find out (through the grapevine), he indeed picked a prostitute from the brothel and slept with her. I have also heard (through more grapevines) about other guys who like to sleep with prostitutes every so often in Georgia. It doesn't seem totally outlandish. My advice--if you're going to do it, don't tell anyone, because everyone in TLG will find out. Unless of course you are proud of the fact that you have to pay for sex. Then by all means, tell people. As a side-note, this "grapevine" analogy makes perfect sense to me today for the first time. After a trip to Kakheti to pick grapes, I see how easy it could be to whisper interesting tid-bits through the vines to people also picking grapes on the other side!

*Guys and girls can't be friends with each other
Maybe a guy wants more from a girl, but if she friend-zones him, what can you do? And the other way around. One of my Georgian friends told me once (while he was wasted, after threatening to bride-nap me to Batumi) that you can't be friends with the opposite gender unless you want to do them, at least a little bit. I have other (American, girl) friends who have many Georgian male-friends. The guys basically are in love with her, but she's made it clear it's just not gonna happen, and they are still friends. Maybe they will every once in a while send some awkward texts about how she's so amazing, but that's flattering and easy to ignore for the sake of keeping someone as a friend. I'm still friends with the dude who threatened to bride-nap me, and I don't want to kiss him these days (it was a long time ago!), but we're still on good terms. He helped me find my apartment. I ran into him the other day at the store and we had a nice chat. Then he sent me an awkward text about how gorgeous I looked, but it was flattering. Still friends. I'll just ignore the weird parts. I have friends like that at home too. My last boyfriend was always saying he thought most of my male friends wanted to hook up with me secretly; I don't believe it, but you never know I guess. I mean, I have male friends who I secretly think are hot too. But we are just friends, and neither one of us care enough to do anything about it, so we can just be friends. That's how it works.

*In TLG everyone hooks up with each other

TLG is so incestuous it's disgusting. You are in a random country with a lot of people who speak minimal amounts of English. When you get with others who speak English fluently, who understand weird slang and innuendo, it feels like complete freedom! And of course, our get-togethers usually involve alcohol. Things happen. People you may never have spoken to while at home are suddenly your best friends. You rely on these people a lot. When you have a bad day, you call them. When you get lost, you call them. When you are annoyed at a particular student, you call them. When you miss home, you call them. You get close quickly. And in the same way you become friends, it's easy for other things to happen. You're annoyed at a Georgian guy who called you 8 times in one day? You drink some vodka and kiss a TLG boy instead. You are feeling repressed by the village gossip? You go to Tbilisi where no-one knows you and drink some vodka and kiss a TLG boy. Yeah, it happens. Sometimes people make out on the dance floor. Sometimes people go hook-up in parks or unfortunately in the hostel dorm-room you are trying to sleep in.  Sometimes people fall in love. In my group last semester, a guy from England and a girl from Oklahoma met during orientation and we all watched and waited as the two love-birds slowly started a relationship (we could all see from a mile away), and it was adorable. Still it's pretty adorable, if you like that nauseating boyfriend/girlfriend stuff! Of course, that doesn't happen quite as often as the random encounters.

*Everyone hooks up in parks

The young'ns seem to like this tactic. Parents don't like their kids to do things under their roof. I don't think parents particularly like that anywhere. It must be traumatic for a parent to walk in on their teenage kids doing inappropriate things. In Georgia, the young people go make-out in parks. Chances are, if you go to a park, you'll see some very interesting happenings. It's sort of like watching a car-wreck. You just can't look away. Yesterday there were a couple teenagers making out on top of a big rock in a park in central Tbilisi. And by making out on a rock I mean the girl was on top of the guy and his back was arched in a very uncomfortable looking way over the rock. And then the policeman patrolling the park got mad at my friend for having his shoe on the bench, but said nothing about the make-out kids. I guess he must remember what it was like when he was a Georgian 16 year olds trying to get his kicks somewhere.
As for TLGs, I have also heard of people making out in parks. Most TLGs live with host families, which I suppose makes having sex awkward. I can't imagine anything weirder than trying to bring home a guy/girl while living a room away from a family you don't know very well and maybe don't even speak the same language as. So, TLGs get creative. Sometimes it just ends up that they go to a hostel for a night, which sucks, because usually there are other people in the hostel room and it sucks for those people who are sleeping innocently and wake up to see someone's naked butt and awkward sound affects from the next bunk over (I know this sucks because I've been the sleeping person woken up by not-so-quiet couples multiple times). Other times, they go to parks. Or make out on balconies. Or benches. Or bathrooms. Pretty much anywhere except at home. But watch-out. I heard a rumor that one person was doing some inappropriate things where there were biting ants around and she had an allergic reaction to them and had to go to the hospital. Pretty gnarly. 

*You will be bride napped

You will not be bride napped.

Lately

Saw an old man pour an entire bottle of vodka into a beer mug and start sipping it.
Got a cab driver a parking ticket because he had to go look for change for my too-big 20lari bill.
Drank massive amounts of vodka at an Australian man's apartment.
Ate two separate huge dinners within one hour.
Hung out with a 12 year old.
Hung out with a 13 year old.
Went into a bathroom with a random Georgian lesbian and held her beer bottle while she peed.
Saw a man walking a baby bear on a leash.
Got creepily winked at by one of my sixth grade students whenever I made eye contact with him.
Was told I look Georgian multiple times.
Ate delicious ice cream!!!!!!!!

Ukraine

After being away from home for four or more months, traveling seems a bit anti-climactic. Everything was already weird. And now another place is weird. Who would have thought. But then at the same time, all the things that would have seemed really strange if you were coming straight from home seem kind of... normal. Because everything is weird now. There is not really any normal.
This being said, Kiev wasn't that weird.
OK. Parts were weird when compared directly with Georgia.
For example:
The Ukranian mullet There are a shit ton of mullets. Like... more mullets than I've ever seen in my life. Everywhere. And there are varying types of mullets. Some are really crazy like Billy Ray Cyrus before Miley. Some are mild. But damn, there were a TON. I tried to count one day and lost track completely after like 20 minutes.
The hot girls There are a lot of pretty girls in Georgia, and in the US and all around the world. Maybe I'm generous with the hottie title, who knows, but in Ukraine it's really undisputed. Before I left, my 11th grade students were telling me how beautiful the Ukrainian girls were and how they were the most beautiful in the world. I assumed they were just sixteen and stupid and knew that Ukrainians are "easy" and most of the prostitutes in Georgia are apparently Ukrainian... but they actually are really pretty! And blonde! Of course there are all types of hair colors, but the blonde really sticks out after being in a country where almost everyone has dark here.
The shitty weather When we left Georgia the weather was pretty good. Hot and sunny. Except for the freak thunderstorms almost every afternoon. In Ukraine, it rained like every day we were there. Everyone said it was weird for that time of year, so we just got unlucky I guess.
The small clothes The girls dress like hoes.
The terrible transportation system Well, maybe the system wasn't that bad. But it was nearly impossible for us to figure out anything without knowing Ukrainian or Russian. Luckily we met people who were incredibly helpful in our hostel and we stayed with other helpful people while couch surfing (that's another tangent I will go on). If it weren't for them, we would probably still be stuck in Kiev right now. In Georgia, the transportation system is really crazy, but there are always people who will try REALLY hard to help even if they speak no English and you speak no Georgian. The Ukrainians were actually not very helpful overall at all.
Unfriendliness We met some really nice and helpful Ukrainians of course, but some were really rude. I guess that's not surprising because I haven't really heard really positive things about Slavic attitudes, but I like to go into things with an open mind so I try to ignore that. Anyway, it was hard to find people who would do easy things like take a picture of us or give directions. Except for the one really creepy man in a track suit who I'm pretty sure tried to abduct us because he took us in a really wrong direction and kept trying to get us to go on the bus with him and then tried to get into the cab with us when we tried to get away. Either that or he was just OVERLY helpful combined with stupid.

So those are some random things I noticed.
Now for the couchsurfing tangent.
So, for those of you who don't know, there is a website www.couchsurfing.org. This website has a bunch of people on it who like traveling and other people who travel and they are like "oh hey, I have a couch, random people if you need to stay somewhere in my town ____ just hit me up and come on over for free! just be nice and not creepy." And then you sign up and you are like "I'm broke but want to go to Odessa, Ukraine, can my three friends and I sleep on your couch?" And if they think you seem cool and not like a sketchy weirdo, they accept your request and give you their address and phone number.
I've heard nothing but good things about this website, so we figured we might as well give it a shot.
And boy was it interesting!
In Odessa we stayed with a gay Ecuadorian (is that a word?) and his roommate/bedmate from Alabama who claims to be straight (and I guess I should believe it for the most part because we hit it off pretty well and so on). Anyway, they were quite friendly and met us by the opera house. Along with the other three people who were also staying there that night (we weren't told how many people would be there). So there were SEVEN of us staying there that night. We assumed that meant big house. Negative. Small flat. With one bedroom for us (seven of us couch surfers and Ecuadorian and Alabama-an) in to stay in. There was another room, but their stripper roommate (with neon orange hair and appropriately named nastia-- "nasty-uh") lived in there and it was off limits. Ecuador and Alabama were quite the drinkers and had a party the first night we were there. I had an excellent time. Drank vodka, stayed up until dawn, hiked around in an abandoned building, kept my friends awake until 5am with my overly loud talking in the living room (oops). Second night, still no sleep. Ecuador broke his hand by accidentally punching through a glass window pane... it was another night with not much sleep. And the lack of sleep combined with the weather sucking made us decide to leave Odessa a day early.
Then in Chisinau, Moldova we stayed with a pleasant 35 year old computer programmer who loved TV and Sci Fi. Talk about polar opposite from the Odessa experience! He also loved tea and Japan and made us "Japanese omeletes" in the morning and bought us tea at an Uzbeki tea-house. And a massive plate of desserts. And gave us Turkish Delights he brought back from his trip to Turkey a few days before. Oh yeah, and there were two bedrooms JUST for us. Complete with pull out beds. And he had is own room. He helped us get train tickets and we stayed up late while he showed us TV shows he liked such as True Blood (which I'd never seen) and The Game of Thrones. We also watched a Tarantino movie. And we go to sleep in. It was like heaven.
So, that is the variety you can get while couchsurfing. I recommend you try it out some time. Not only is it free, but you can meet some really interesting people! And if you have more time and less people there is a lot of selection with who you stay with and if you send some messages back and forth before staying with people you can probably get a better idea of where you are staying (I didn't really do this because a, there were four of us and beggars can't be choosers and b, it was kind of last minute).

That's that. I don't know what else to say!

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.

Sanatorium

On Thursday I ended up on a surprise trip to Davit Gareji Monastery with my host family. They have never really taken me anywhere so I was pretty surprised on Thursday morning (it was a holiday and we didn't have school) when my host mother asked me if I wanted to go with them somewhere (I wasn't clear on exactly where we were going, to be honest) and I said ok. Two and a half hours later, we were there. It was a really beautiful place. Basically it's a cave monastery, so all the parts of the monastery are built into caves. There were sheep all over the countryside we drove through. More sheep that I've ever seen in my life. After we were finished at the monastery we pulled over into a random field and the men made mtsvadi (bbq pork) and we had a big picnic. It was really nice. Except for the part where I was trying to show Tiko how to do a "bridge" and I bulled a muscle in my back so badly I thought I was never going to be able to get up off of the ground. I felt like a 60 year old man who threw his back out. And Tiko really didn't understand that I had hurt myself and kept trying to sit on me as I laid on the ground in the dirt and grass. It's pretty funny to think about now, but at the time it really sucked!
On Friday, it was my friend Kristen's birthday, so she invited a few of us to her village for a little supra. Basically we ate a ton of mtsvadi (this is like my new staple food apparently) and drank a TON of wine. We all made toasts to Kristen, mine went something like "it was great to meet you here, blah blah blah, I hope you find a Georgian husband and have a bunch of Georgian babies and live in Georgia forever!" And then later I made more toasts (apparently a little wine in me gets me wanting to start toasting to anything), one of which was to my brother and another one was about Phil (our British friend) moving to Nebraska. By the end of the evening, we were all quite ridiculous (because you have to drink every time someone makes a toast). Phil was stuck talking in a terrible Australian accent for long periods of time, the Georgian men kept asking us to dance with them (and we did), Phil got a bit sick (everywhere!), and all of us girls were just up late being giggly and having conversations that seemed really important at the time but I can't really remember any of now.
Yesterday after leaving Kristen's, Shannon Shay and I took a marshrutka to Tbilisi and met up with a few of our other friends and we all caught a marshrutka (after fighting off scary gypsy children and scary relentless taxi drivers) to Borjomi. Borjomi is a little town where there is natural mineral water. This water is really gross in my opinion. It tastes like bubbly salt water and Shannon described it as tasting the way your mouth tastes after barfing. But yeah, some people really like it! So anyway, Helene had met a Georgian guy who lives there and he took us all over the town buying things like pork and bread and vodka. He also took us to a hotel where we could stay, which ended up being a massive old place built in the 18th century and had been a sanatorium in the past. This place was creeeeepppppy. And it only had turkish toilets and the water that came out of the tap was brown. Excellent. But anyway, we got in our swim suits and we went to have a picnic/bbq in the woods where there is a natural hot spring pool. Turns out it was over 3km to get there. Poor Shay didn't even have a jacket and we were both wearing flats and it was quite a muddy trek and on the verge of raining. It was very beautiful though and definitely an interesting experience. Especially the part where we had to cross the river on a bridge that was made of a log with planks across it and a wire to hold onto. Once we were there, there were some other TLG people and the Georgian guy was making mstvadi (like I said, I've been eating a ton of this stuff). Then we broke out the vodka and people went into the pool (I didn't). I did pee outside like three times, which now that I've used so many squat toilets and outhouses I don't even really care about peeing outside anymore. Funny how normal things start to become after a while... So we hung out there for a while and I had some embarrassingly long conversations about Hanson and other things that no one even cares about but me.
Then we walked back to the hotel and it was raining and even more muddy and I had to walk through small creeks with bare feet (rather than getting my shoes wet), and we crossed the scary bridge again and the walk seemed a lot shorter on the way back than it had on the way there. In the hotel while everyone else was drinking more, my new friend Cody (also in TLG) and I decided it was the perfect time to investigate the creepy old building. Basically we went through the entire place and tried to open every door. We found some interesting things like a big empty room with an old stage and old piano behind the curtain, and an old library with strange old books written in Russian and old magazine pictures (some of which had Xs drawn threw the women's faces). We also found a room labeled "Laboratory" and we tried to pick the lock to get inside, but gave up when I got scared and kept thinking I heard footsteps. I ended up going to sleep fairly early because I was tired and everyone else was in the living room area watching TV on a tiny black and white TV.
Today we had to get back to our villages so we took a marshrutka back to Tbilisi and then Shannon and I got on one to Telavi. Of course, for some reason we were the only ones going all the way to Telavi and the driver didn't want to go just for us, so he pulled over in Vachnadiani and flagged down a random car and asked them to take us to Telavi. There were two men with bad teeth in the front seat, and a woman sitting next to me in the back. The men kept asking us questions and talking to us in Georgian and we didn't really know what they were saying, but they ended up buying us ice cream randomly (awesome!) and took us all the way back to our villages (my village is like 30 min from Shannon's village, so it was pretty cool). It was pretty random though.... of course, I'm kind of getting used to things like that.....

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.

Sakartvelo! Sakartvelo!

My computer broke and I'm on the family computer. So I'll make this snappy.
Yesterday I returned to Vardi after a weekend in Tbilisi. We stayed at a new hostel called Boombully which was in a great location and really awesome and fun. The guys who work there/own it are really awesome and with the exception of a couple people, the rest of the place was booked to TLG people for the weekend.
On Friday night we got a bottle of cheap vodka (and wow.... it was cheap--tasting). I drank a lot of it and stayed up late. We didn't even leave the hostel. We played Kings Cup for a while and then did who knows what else. I guess a lot of sitting around and talking. And throwing pretzels out of the third floor window for a stray cat. And I forgot to bring clothes to sleep in so I had to sleep topless. Luckily I was just in a room with Lydia, Cort and Helene so it didn't really matter. Except for that every time I needed to leave the room I had to put on a different shirt. I'm pretty sure I ended up in the kitchen wearing Lydia's sweater and then 4 minutes later wearing Cort's sweater. I don't know where my own sweater was.
I woke up at 8:30 on Saturday morning, which is what happens when I am a bit hungover... and by I bit I mean incredibly. Like I said, the vodka was BAD. So I climbed into Cort's bed and made sure he was awake for reals (misery loves company) and we slowly all got it together and left. We wandered around the city and went to the big ferris wheel on a hill that was at the WEIRDEST theme park place I eve ever witnessed. The ferris wheel was super slow moving and basically just there for the purpose of getting a good view of Tbilisi. We ate sushi for dinner. Then we had to get back because we had tickets to the big Georgia vs Croatia soccer game at the stadium.
The stadium was HUGE. It was more people than I have ever seen in my life. And it was all so confusing and exciting. Everyone was chanting and yelling and we couldn't figure out how to get in because there were so many people and mobs and nothing in Georgia is organized. We ended up getting in through a part that was just a bunch of security guards who I think only let us in because we were foreigners. Then we found our seats and it was great except for when the girl next to me (another TLG girl) asked for my drink (a juice and vodka mix) and I gave it to her and she apparently gave it to a little kid (like 5 yrs old!) because she thought it was just juice and he was thirsty. I felt guilty about that. And then i had to pee SO BADLY i thought i was going to die. And it was close to the end of the game so I was trying to hold it but I nearly panicked and felt like I might cry so I just made Cort go with me and we got back right in time to see Georgia score like 2 min before the end of the game. And Georgia won! So everyone was SO EXCITED. The city was crazy with guys cheering and screaming and hanging out of car windows/sunroofs/on top of their cars waving flags and singing. It was great!!!!
Then at the hostel we all hung out and drank and cheered to Sakartvelo (that's Georgia in Georgian) and the hostel and then we went out and stayed out until 5am.
Yesterday we took the marshrutka back to Telavi and then I came home to find that my computer doesn't want to start at all, and when it does it just keeps saying "not responding" when I try to open anything. It's lame and depressing.
Today was a bad day, which is a mix of being incredibly tired, stressful situations at work and the feeling I get after having a nice weekend and then having to go back to "normal." I'm feeling better though this evening, so I don't want to think about it anymore. Tomorrow will be better! :)

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!

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.

Weekend in Tbilisi

On Friday, approximately 14 of us TLG 12ers met up in Tbilisi! It was awesome and definitely a much needed bit of freedom from village life. Plus, I cannot emphasize enough how great it is to be around people who understand what I'm saying after being around people who can't speak more than a "good morning" in English for the most part.
So we all checked into Tbilisi Hostel, which I thought was a great place. It was fun and I liked how it looked. The showers weren't exactly warm, but it's Georgia, and a hostel. It isn't surprising.
Summing up  my weekend in keywords (I like to do this apparently): vodka, beer, rum, Buddha (but not spelled that way), smokers, food, sunlight, English, confused, street dog, pop music
Friday night we went to a place called buddha bar, but it wasn't buddha like buddha. i don't know how it was really spelled, someone just told me it wasn't spelled "buddha." We were taken to this place by a guy named Anik or something who we met in the hostel. He was in TLG group 2 or 3 or something. He seemed to feel very good about himself for being in TLG for so many more groups longer than us. Anyway, he took us to this place and it was small and full of smoke, but also full of English speakers! I was very excited by this. Half of the group left after like 2 min and went back to the hostel because it wasn't their scene I suppose. I still love you guys! Even if you didn't stick it out at the weird bar! :) The ones of us who stayed... had fun. I drank rum and coke because that's like the only thing they had. We danced a lot... to great music such as "Hit me baby one more time." There were a lot of trips outside to the alley next to the bar. The end of the night is kind of a blur. It took us a while to leave because everyone kept forgetting things inside of the bar. Then it took a while to round us up and get into a cab. Helene and I were distracted by a street dog, which we should not have been petting. But it was so adorable......!!!! I probably ended up asleep by 5am or so. This was after the other tlgers got mad at us for being too loud in the hostel when we came back. And apparently some random guy barfed in one of the hostel rooms, but not in mine, thank goodness.
The morning didn't feel so good...  But a bit of asprin helped. We sent Andrea, Shannon and a few of the guys we met the night before out to buy us breakfast. They came back after a ridiculously long time with some kachapuri... Big surprise. But it was good and filled me up. I took a cold shower, and spent a lot of time basking in the sun in the porch of the hostel. It was the most beautiful day I had seen in a long time and I was very happy to be with my friends and to see the sun. We listened to some bad 90s music on my phone, along with some good 90s music. We went to a little tiny cafe with a really sweet owner. Wandered around a bit. Took the metro to the main part of Tbilisi where a cop got mad at me for taking photos of a building... apparently because the president's motorcade was about to come through, but I didn't know this. Afterward, a police stopped traffic so that four of us girls could safely cross the street. (We must have looked clueless). We wandered around more and ended up getting some delicious street food that was probably the closest thing I'll get to a burrito while I'm here, but was actually nothing like one really. Then we got some amazing ice cream and ran into Tony. The rest of the group was at the KGB restaurant so we went and said hello to them but then headed back to the hostel because Shay was feeling like she might barf. She didn't barf, and instead suppressed the nausea by... drinking vodka?
We met two Germans in the hostel and they hung out with us in our hostel room and we all drank vodka and or wine and listened to Daft Punk among other things until it was time for us to go out. We went to a bar that seemed pretty far away, and it seemed to be someone's birthday party when we got there. There were people wearing face paint and party hats all over. The toilet was up higher than the rest of the bathroom... like you had to climb up 4 stairs to get to it. We got ahold of some of the face paint and drew cat nose and whiskers on ourselves... well, Helene and Shay had someone GOOD do their face paint. Lydia, Anita, one of the German guys and I just had the crappy cat whiskers. Then we went to a restaurant and got way too much food (we kept ordering thinking we had eaten it all, but more was still on it's way). We also ran into some more TLG people, like one of the ones that came and spoke to us during orientation about their experiences. When we got back to the hostel, Helene asked if we wanted to hang out with her in the kitchen so Shay, Anita, cat whisker German and I went down and we all sat on the floor in there talking about gassy water and Helene's water bottle cow that the hostel owner was rocking like a baby talking about how he will be a good father someday. Then we went to our beds.
The next morning we had to wake up kind of early and get all our stuff together. We said goodbye to each other at the metro station and then got on our marshutkas to our various areas of Eastern Georgia. On the ride home I sat next to Cort and we listened to pop music on my ipod to try to drown out the bad music the bus driver was listening to... except for of course when "My heart will go on" came on in the  marshutka and we had a sing along until the bus driver got annoyed and switched it off. The Georgian countryside is starting to look quite beautiful now that it isn't so snowy and foggy and I could actually see it. I felt very happy sitting there with Cort and looking out the window and listening to music. I think I even told him that I was very happy. I am lucky to have made such great friends over here! And to be in such a beautiful place where I am experiencing things I never would have expected to in my entire life. I am very happy to be alive.

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!