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!

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.....

kargi gogo

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

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! :)

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.

"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.