And like a week later...

Change of Address

Hello all. It's been a while, but it's been a crazy week. Due to certain circumstances that I’m not going to go into detail over right now, I have moved host families. Well, that situation was… I really don’t even know what to say about that. All I really can say is that I moved out of the Tedoradze Family’s place on Thursday for certain reasons and it was super awkward. Thanks to Kas (a new TLG friend) for being there as my moral support.

The new family: Ktchashvili.

I honestly cannot pronounce the last name at this point. I’m working on it and hopefully I’ll master that soon. The family members consist of a mother, Bella, an aunt, Rusico, a 16 year-old daughter, Mari, and a 15 year-old son, Giorgi. Sorry to the family if I've spelled names wrong. I need to stop doing that. Mari, my host sister, speaks English really well and I have a feeling that she is going to get sick of translating between me and the other family members. She says she doesn’t mind and I’m really happy that she’s so willing to do that. Helps me a lot! Giorgi is actually a 9^th grade student at the school I teach at, but I don’t work with his grade. Darn! Haha. Mari does not go to my school, but at Batumi N1. As far as I can understand, Bella works at with an organization that cares for "displaced" children of Batumi and the surrounding area. Rusico works at Batumi Public Library. I have been to the Library many times but I don’t remember seeing her there. Maybe I haven’t been paying enough attention. Plus, I walk straight to the American Corner as well.

The living situation: AWESOME! It’s closer to the school than the other host family. The only downside is that it’s on the top floor of the building, but I like walking so I feel like it doesn’t even count. That up-sides are:

-I have my own room! That would have been enough for me, but it gets better.

-I have a Double/Full size bed.

-Electric blanket that I turn on every night J

-Western toilet and western shower! That’s right! I no longer have to “shower” sitting in a bathtub and holding the shower attachment above my head. A proper shower.

-Washing machine

-Oh yeah and free wi-fi in my bedroom! It’s a little touchy sometimes but any wi-fi is better than nothing! Super stoked.

A picture of my room. Sorry about the mess. I was in the middle of moving in :)

There have already been a lot of memories made with my new family.  I have a couple favorites that I will share with you now.

1.    1. The other day I came back to the apartment after school and had lunch with Bella and Giorgi. Bella was getting the food ready and she brings out this big jar of something that I didn’t recognize. She starts scooping some out and placing it in a small cup. She notices that I’m watching her and asks me what’s the English name of this? (Of course she asked me in Georgian) Since I honestly didn’t know what it was, I just stared at her for a second. Then she just starts laughing and I start laughing. It was great. Then she pulls her elbows into her side and “flaps” her hands a little and makes a “buzzzzzz” noise. Light bulb! So I simply say, “honey.” Of course we start laughing again. Throughout the entire hour we’re eating I would occasionally hear her say, “honey… honey” and then she would giggle to herself. Priceless.

2.     2.This past weekend, Mari (my host sister) took part in some sort of competition. To the best of my interpretation, I would compare it to an Academic Decathlon.  Saturday evening she brought home her group to hang out and for coffee. They probably also wanted to meet the very strange foreigner living in their home. I was okay with that because they are all super nice, funny, and interested in learning about my life and America. They speak English very well. Good for Mari so she didn’t have to translate everything. Anyway, this meeting turned into a little mini-supra complete with wine and toasts! It was a little more modern than the other supras I’ve been to because normally you have a Tamada  (a head of the table, typically male unless it’s all women) and the Tamada makes all the toasts during the supra. However, we did not have a designated Tamada and we took turns making toasts. I loved being included in the toasts! That was awesome. I felt involved and included. :happyface

To sum up, I moved host families and they are awesome. End of story.

Until next time. Adventure is out there.

“Who is your hero?”

Well I’m sure you’ve all been sitting at the edge of your seats to see how the hero lessons on Tuesday went. Don’t lie, you know you have. J It was a gong show (this delightful little phrase I picked up from Stacey, a fellow TLG-er) or in other words, it was chaotic. Let me tell you about it and I hope that you’re all ready to read this novel. I hope you enjoy it

Background:

I told you a little bit about it in a previous post, but I can give you a little more detail now. Both my co-teachers Nino (grades 1-4) and Nato (grades 5-8 but I only help with 5 and 6) are participating in training sessions for English teachers in Eastern Europe. Their latest training session was this past weekend were the Trainer, “Chug”, informed them that he was going to give them a topic and they would form a lesson around this topic for one of their classes and he would come to observe. As you know, I received a nervous call from Nino Sunday and I offered to my limited classroom knowledge and artistic ability. The lesson planning morphed into a great sleepover! We created what a great lesson that I will all tell you about, but you have to wait just a little longer.

Funny story about “Chug”: Since I was not apart of this training session so I only know what his name is from listening to my co-teachers tell me that his name was “Chug.” I’m guessing it’s a nickname. At one point one of my co-teachers comes to me and says, “What is his name?” I of course said, “Didn’t you say it was ‘Chug’?” She replied, “Is that how you would say it or am I saying it wrong?” It took a lot of energy not to say, “Just because he speaks English and I speak English and we both come from America doesn’t mean that I have any idea what his name is when I have never met him.” Later, I was shown his business card. Name: Charles Kinney. Charles aka Chug.

Monday:

When I got to school on Monday, the lessons for Tuesday were not even on my radar at this point. I was trying to get organized for the day’s events. I was sitting in the teacher’s lounge when Nato asked me “when are we going to plan our hero lesson?” My first reaction was “Hold up. What?!” Of course, being the wonderful, constantly composed creature that I am, I simply replied, “What class is this for again?” (I was told that I didn’t have to help Nato because it was for her 8^th grade class. Psych!) Next thing I know, I’m pulled out of both 3^rd and 4^th grade classes in the afternoon and up in the computer lab doing searching for biographies on Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel, Mother Teresa, Emmeline Pankhurst, and Martin Luther King Jr. and then creating a power point.

Now we move onto the day of all days, Tuesday:

I went into school and headed straight for the 4^th grade (which we moved to the 2^nd grade classroom because we needed more room). My morning consisted with rearranging the classroom, practicing “musical chairs” to see if we would have enough time to incorporate into our lesson, and practicing vocabulary connected with heroes. While practicing with the 4^th grades, Nato comes into the room in a frenzy. “I need you! We need to print pictures!” So I grab my laptop and run up to the computer lab with her to print pictures that we did not need because I made a power point. I convinced her that we just needed to use the projector. Well guess what, I have a Mac. Oh right, the projector can’t hook up to a Mac for some reason. Awesome. Luckily, we figured that out before these lessons were to be presented before Chug. That would have been embarrassing. Thanks to the awesome Computer Teacher, everything was transferred and set-up completely in both classes where we needed it. And I would just like to send a special thank you to the school building itself for the power staying on all day. It great to have power when we need to use something that needs electricity to work. Thanks for not being sketchy like every other day! Anyway, originally I thought that Nino’s lesson would be first and then Nato’s. Oh wait, it’s the other way around. That would have been nice to know on Monday. Well, it’s a good thing I’m flexible. Ha. So I run from the 4^th floor to the 2^nd floor, grab my things, up to the 3^rd floor to present the Hero lesson with Nato to the 8^th graders.

Shortly after reaching the class, the bell rings for the 2^nd period to begin. We had a lot of visitors from some of the other teachers in the school. I guess it happens a lot when you prepare a special lesson, word gets out, and next thing you know there are 6 other teachers watching you teach a lesson. Way to make us even more nervous than we already were. Thanks guys! Where was I… Oh yeah, the bell rang and I’m waiting for Nato to get things started. I look around the room and the students are just talking in their groups and all the teachers are in a clump in the middle of the room looking a little on the worried side of things. Another five minutes pass and we still haven’t started. This is a little strange because my co-teachers were really worried that they wouldn’t have enough time for all that we planned. After looking around the room, I realize that we were missing Chug. How did I know that Chug was not there when I don’t know what he looks like, one might ask? Well I didn’t see a strange, English-speaking, man with a clipboard. I’m also picturing a handlebar mustache for some reason. Probably doesn’t have one though. Anyway, I realized that’s why all the teachers were so serious (except for the fact that it’s called “the Georgian face” for a reason). I turn to look out the window to see if I can see him, and I turn back and Nato is shoving a phone in my face. Guess who was on the other line… That’s right Chug! Let me just add, an upset Chug. He was lost. Great. They hand the phone to the one person in this room who knows the area the least. All I could get out of him was that he walked up and down the street several times and at the end of Pirosmani Street was a “hole.” Before I could ask him what kind of “hole” he was looking at, we were disconnected. My several attempts to get him back on the line, with more than one cell phone, were unsuccessful.  After 20 minutes of waiting, trying to locate Chug, and going outside to the street to snag if he passes by the school, Nino and I went back down to the 4^th grade class. By the time that he gets to the school, if he ever gets there, there will be no time for Nato’s lesson. As we enter the 4^th grade classroom, news reaches us that Chug is in the building! However, since he wasted all his time getting lost, he could not stay for the lessons. We decided that we would video-tape Nino’s hero lesson incase he couldn’t reschedule.

Nino’s Hero Lesson with 4b (this is the fun part that includes pictures and a video):

The lesson began with assigning groups. We split the class into four groups; Colours, Animals, Professions, and Transport aka Transportation. We created “tent” cards that were placed on the groups of desks and each kid was given a piece of paper that had a picture on it that told the kids what group they were in. Apparently this was easier than counting off. Nino said that the children would not understand “1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3. 4… All the 1’s over here…” That’s difficult to understand? Oh you silly Georgians! Just kidding! Well, I guess they understood the picture concept well because they were in their groups in about 30 seconds. Once in their groups, we passed out a word-find-puzzle that had some adjectives that could be associated with heroes.

We gave them five minutes to find as many adjectives as they could (without a key). The group that found the most in the five minutes was the winner. Each puzzle had 12 adjectives; tall, short, brave, weak, fast, slow, calm, active, kind, mean, big, and small. The winning group found 8 of the 12. Go Transport! After the puzzle, we talked about whom their heroes might be and what words from the list can they use to describe their heroes. For example, “my hero is Justin Bieber because he is kind, smart, and handsome.” Keep in mind that I did not say that at all… I was thinking, “Oh dear, I can’t even escape him when I move halfway around the world.” Next we moved onto my lovely power point that was about comparative language of adjectives (I feel like I’m phrasing that completely wrong. My apologies.).  For example, one slide had a picture of Selena Gomez and Spiderman and the title was “Who is prettier?” Then someone would raise their hand and answer “Selena Gomez is prettier than Spiderman.” Next we played musical chairs! I got to control the music, oh yeah! I decided the best course of action for was to pick DisneyChannel Music, I didn’t think that they would have any idea who The Backstreet Boys are. Ha! During musical chairs once a student was out of the game they had to write their name on a poster that we created. They would put their name next to either “I am weaker than others” or “I am slower than others”. Our winner of musical chairs, Nini, put her name next to “I am faster than others.” Because Nini won musical chairs, she won the “Hero” card!

To end the lesson, I played “Holding out for a Hero” while all the children danced in the middle of the room. They did not want to dance at first, but Nino is very persuasive. It was hilarious to watch all the kids cling to their desks until Nino coaxed them all onto the “dance floor.” The perfect way to end the lesson and positive assessments from the observing teachers.

End of the Day:

After Nino’s lesson, I still had 6^th grade. After that class, I thought I was finished… Not. Nino came and asked me if I would go with her and Nato to Batumi University to locate Chug to ask him if he could reschedule his visit to their lessons. One Marshutka ride, a stroll through the park, and we were at Batumi University. We searched all around the American Studies groups, International Relations, and other rooms that I have no idea what they said because we passed so quickly and I’m a little slow when it comes to Georgian. After about 20 minutes of searching, Nato called his secretary or someone he works with to locate him. Guess what she said, “He will contact you through Facebook.” Funny thing is, neither of my co-teachers have Facebook! Nino decided to email her lesson plan to him and hopefully he’ll contact her to see if he can reschedule. There is a chance that they could be taken out of the training if he doesn’t have time. That would be very sad.  Well I guess, I’ll find out if what happens next.

That’s the end of my story. To all of you who stopped reading halfway through, we are not friends anymore. ;) And to all of you who kept on trucking through this novel, I applaud you! This turned out to be way longer than I anticipated. I hope it made for a good read.

Until next time. Adventure is out there!

Busy busy weekend :)

Busy. I finally feel like my life in Georgia picked up a little bit. Really my social life picked up a bit :) I loved it! I guess I can start with Friday.

Friday:
Of course I went to school. Taught some English. I ended the school day with the 3rd grade, that was not so fun. They were crazy. There are these two kids that sit right by the teachers desk and they were pretty much fighting the entire time. Then there were other kids that were not paying attention and distracting others from the reading we were going over. Generally this class is pretty loud and we can complete tasks despite that. But on Friday they were just plain rowdy. We had to go so far and call the Mandatory. The Mandatory of the school is responsible for the discipline. They monitor the halls, make sure there is no major fights in between classes, discipline disruptive kids (when I say "discipline" I mean talk to them, call the parents, i think make notes in school files, etc.).... After the Mandatory was called into class, then everyone behaved very well because they did not want to get in trouble. That was the first time a Mandatory came into one of the classes I was in. Like I said, for the most part the kids are pretty great. But Friday. oofda.
Then after school I got a wonderful phone call from Yahya (a volunteer from my TLG group) and he told me that a bunch of people were in Batumi for the weekend! My first thought was: Yay! People who speak English! haha. So I proceed to meet up with them at the hostel to take part in the nights festivities. When I got there a few of us went to 24/24 (a restaurant by the water) for dinner. While we were at dinner, the power went out once for 30 minutes or so. Came back on for 30 seconds. Then it was out for the rest of our meal. Thanks to the magical lights on our phones, we could still see our food as we ate. :)  Then after dinner we went back to make a plan for the night.
I honestly don't even know the name of the first place we went to. I was told that we were going to a disco. Now when I think of disco, I picture a club atmosphere, loud music, lots of dancing, the ripe smell of sweat in the air... I hope I'm painting a great picture for everyone. Even though that is what I was picturing, that is not what it turned to be. It was still in a basement, but it was more of a relaxed, full of sofas, and the only music was coming from the DJ wearing an awesome blue and green knit sweater. Anyway, we got some drinks and got to chatting. Then Kyle (a fellow Wisconsinite from Kenosha - small world!) turns to me and says, "I just heard someone say Wisconsin from over there." Then he pushed me in that direction. We go over to a group of people who are in the Peace Corps and placed in Georgia. And guess what! One of the Peace Corps girls was from Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. So weird, but so funny! The entire night was full of meeting new friends, swapping stories of experiences that we've had in Georgia, and making new memories.

Saturday: I spent the day with my host family. We went to the village of my host father. They say "my village" but they mean "hometown". His parents live there and he is actually building a host on the same property. The house that they are building is about 10 feet from his parents house. Super close! From what I could understand, they have been working on building the fireplace. Oh yeah. This house that they're building in 3-stories! It's going to be awesome when it's finished. Except it's going to take 2 years I think and I won't get to see the finished product. While he was building the fireplace the rest of us spent the day in the sitting/family room, thanks to the really crappy weather. Thank goodness for my Kindle. I can only watch Spanish Soap Operas with Georgian dubbed over it for so long. Then at about 10pm we left the village, my host dad dropped me so I could visit with the TLG people for a couple of hours before returning to the apartment.

Sunday: I bid a farewell to the TLGers leaving Batumi and then went to meet some new friends at The Press Cafe. New friends: Tina, Kas, and Breff. They started in Georgia with TLG back in September. Tina and Kas are also placed in Batumi (yay!). When I reached the cafe, everyone was already eating. Therefore I tried to flag down the waitress for what felt like forever! After ordering my fries and Sprite, someone came over to tell us that the cafe was closing in 30 minutes. Awesome. By the time my fries actually came, I had to scarf them down just before gettting kicked out.
After that, I was not ready to head back to my host family's place. The day was still young! Therefore Tina and I went to a different cafe inside this clocktower in the Old City. (Picture to come)  It was called "La Brio" ... or something like that. It was a little more expensive, but that's okay. I got a vanilla milkshake and a chocolate muffin. Not as sugary as the US but still decent. After 2 hours of chatting about TLG, what were did before, and what we're going to do next... I got a call from one of my co-teachers, Nino. She was telling about how she did a special training seminar and the man that lead the seminar had given them a topic to do for a lesson that they would need to present for him on Tuesday. I told her I would help her with anything she needed. Therefore I spent the night at her apartment with her and her family; 2 daughters (one is in my 6th grade class) and her mother-in-law. Her husband is a sailor and I last I heard he was working on a ship that was going to Romania. I hope to meet him soon :) When I arrived, we went over our topic, Heroes, and came up with a lesson plan. Then we had dinner, where they made me my own Khacapuri Atcharolo... I feel like I spelled that wrong. Oops! Anyway, they made me a different kind of Khacapuri than what they were eating because I once had said that I liked the other one better. My heart melted a little bit. Georgians are so hospitable. So nice! :) The rest of the night we were preparing materials for the lesson. My favorite part of the night was when I went on youtube and looked up the video for "Bailamos" by Enrique Iglesias and we all started singing! It was excellent. We listened to a little Enrique, some Juanes, Lady Gaga, and of course Miley Cyrus for the daughters. We worked really hard on the plan and I think that it's going to go smoothly. I'll let you all know how that goes after tomorrow!

Until next time. Adventure is out there!

So I haven't posted anything in awhile... Here we go.

I can start with school. It going pretty well. Teaching is actually a lot more interesting than I originally thought. Personally, I really like watching the kids during all the lessons. I think my new favorite game is "Who would that be back home?" After Day 3, you can tell who the nerds are, the popular ones, the class clown is a little trickier to spot because of the language barrier, etc. It's probably bad that I'm stereotyping in a sense, but that's what my eyes see. This is probably one of my favorite moments of teaching so far:

The First Grade Class: The other day we were working on a writing exercise. Writing this like "What is it?" "It's a blue lorry." "What is it?" "It's a green pencil." Super repetitive, but they really need it. I keep forgetting how little these kids are. Anyway, there is this one girl, Lizi, who comes off as a true space cadet. (I hope you all get my reference) Most of the time she seems like she's following along but she's in another world entirely. I didn't notice it at first but after my co-teacher pointed her out, I've been tending to concentrate on her a little more to make sure that she's still with us. For the most part. Well on this day, I had written on the board:
What is it? It's a yellow train.
What is it? It's a green car.
Basically, these kids just had to copy this down in there books. Surprise, Surprise. These kids were so confused! So many questions. It took the entire class period (35 minutes) for these kids to get it. After walking around and individually helping some of them, I hear my co-teacher congratulating Lizi! The one kid who is usually not paying any attention, is the one kid that actually writes everything down the way that they were supposed to! It was awesome. Then I got to give out my first "diploma"! We call them stickers. She was so happy! And all the other kids were jealous and began frantically scribbling things down. It was so funny. I now know, never underestimate the power of a sticker when it comes to movtivating 5-year-olds.

Mostly, my role at school has not changed too much. I still do a lot of the reading exercises. Yay for being a human tape player! It's surprisingly hard to do anything else with the younger kids. They need a lot of translation. But their cuteness makes up for their cluelessness. I have been compling a list of ideas for lesson plans to present to my co-teachers to liven up the classroom. So far I have:
-Telephone (to work on their speaking and listening)
-Paragraphs with errors that they need to correct (for the older kids)
-word jumble (forming sentences)
-Pictionary/Charades
-Jeopardy
Things of this nature. Now I realize that it's going to be interesting because not only do I need to explain these things to the kids, but I have to explain it to my co-teachers as well. I'll let you know how that all goes.

Big update on my host family! Tuesday at dinner, I was asking Maya (my host mom), who I have an up-and-down relationship with, what this jam was made from. I mean, what type of fruit it was. She had no idea what the english word was, so she got out a "lexicon"... I say dictionary. She attempted to go through and find it. Then before I know it, we're going through the entire book and she's attemping to teach me Georgian! It was great! I feel like we bonded a little bit more. This was the moment I was waiting for, waiting like 3 weeks. I don't know how much I retained. She went through A LOT of vocab. Let me stress that one more time. A LOT. I just hope that she doesn't think that I'm fluent or anything. She did start to just ramble off a bunch stuff at one point... That was funny, all I could do was laugh because I had no idea what she was saying. I kept asking her to slow down, but she would then get even more excited and speed up again. Well that's all I really wanted from my host family, an attempt to teach me. Maybe I will come back to the States with some knowledge of Georgian. :)

Originally my plans for the weekend involved some TLG visitors. After reviewing the weather forecast for Batumi, that visit has been post-poned. My weekend is wide open. Maybe I'll take another crack at running. I went running yesterday and my calves did not approve. It was super frustating! Maybe I'm not meant to exercise here. Ha! Well get ready calves, you're in for another workout this weekend!

Until next time. Adventure is out there!

It's a typical day in Batumi

It's a typical day in Batumi. Well I should say, it's a typical day on the weekend. I woke up between 9:30 and 10:00am, I love waking up late. I had some breakfast of Georgian bread and some delicious jam/jelly stuff that my host mom made from the Door County Cherries I brought as a gift. It was delicious! Go Wisconsin :)
Anyway... After breakfast, I went and got ready for my relaxing day. I was out of the apartment around 11:30 and then I was off walking in the direction of the Batumi Public Library, where I've been sitting for the past few hours. Catching up on facebooking, putting pictures up, emailing, etc. The usual when I get on the internet. I'm super grateful for the Library here, it's my link to the English speaking world! Haha :) Technically, I have the internet at my host families, but I would rather get out and get some exercise before sitting on my butt for hours.
What I have planned for the rest of the day: I'm going to attempt to find this little cafe where my host dad took me to have Adjarian Khacapuri a couple weeks ago. It was great! I'm totally craving it. It's not like I can't get Khacapuri anywhere else in the city... but this is the best I've had so far. This only bummer is, I totally forgot my money back at the apartment. Boo! Oh well. Next time. I just want to attempt to locate it. Then I'll probably walk back to my host family's place, along the Boulevard of course. Then, there will hopefully be enough water where I can take a decent shower. I just want to thank my mom for getting me the giant pack of wet-wipes to bring over here! They are definitely going to good use. Most of the time, there is only enough water to do a quick rinse... sometimes wash my hair. Not gonna lie, I'm missing my shower back home. Oh well, it's part of the experience, right? I can make do. I've managed pretty well so far!
There is something that I didn't expect before I came over here to Georgia... Surprisingly, I have a lot of downtime. During the week, I teach at Batumi N6 from 9am to noon or 1pm... Then the rest of the time I do my own thing. Most of the time, I just hang out with my host mom and watch Spanish Soaps that are dubbed in Georgian (those are huge over here!). I'm getting pretty stir crazy! I can only bum around for so long. I'm happy that the weather is getting better, the snow and rain has stopped enough that I can do some exploring, in my fabulous new rainboots! I definitely stand out in them, but I just can't walk through any more puddles without them.
Lately, I've been trying to figure out how to fill my downtime... I've come up with a few ideas.
-I'll be talking to the upper level English teacher tomorrow to see if the older kids, mainly the 12th graders, want any extra help with their English after school. I say, "mainly the 12th graders," because I know they have exams coming up at the end of the year that will affect their futures. I'm completely open to helping anyone who wants extra help though! I'll just put some feelers out there.
- Well, my mom will be happy to hear that I have downtime to plan out the next steps of my future when I come home. I've been thinking about that a lot.... What am I going to do after this? Where do I go when I get home? Most of the time my mind goes blank... If anyone has any ideas of what I should look into, let me know! :)
- Surprisingly there are a lot of Government buildings in the area where my family lives, I haven't found the American Embassy yet, I know there is one here! But I just haven't seen it. Maybe they need volunteers?
- The other day, I stumbled upon a giant white building that had one word on it "ARCHIVE". Maybe someone there speaks English and I could possibly put my history degree to use ;)
- I have plenty of time, I can finally start running again. I think my first attempt for that will be this week. I'm gonna do it! (Just have to get myself pumped up)

Other than those ideas, I'm not sure what I'll do. If any of you out there wanna give me some tips... I'll take them!

Well, until next time. Adventure is out there! (Definitely hiding from me at this point)

The Affect of the Black Sea on Me!

I feel like I need to post something that is entirely dedicated to the Black Sea. :happyface

I am so happy that I got placed in Batumi and I'm literally about a 5 minute walk from the Batumi Boulevard (pictured below).

The other day, I was in a pretty crappy mood, for some reason or another. I can't exactly remember what the problem was. It was probably something really stupid, but then I decided that I've been sitting in the flat for too long. I need to take control and not be afraid that I will offend my host family when I say "I need to go for a walk." Anyone who knows me, knows that I walk a lot. I did it a lot in River Falls and I have a feeling that I'm going to be doing it a lot here!

Anyway! So, I was in this super crappy mood and I decided that I just needed to walk it off. I haven't done that much exploring on my own (except for the Boulevard), so I use that as my base point. I can never get lost as long as I can make it back to the sea. I walked out of the flat, down the somewhat creepy stairs to the sketchy back alley where the "parking lot" is for the building and those surrounding it, and onto Pirosmani Street (which is where I live). Walk down Pirosmani, take a right at the light and walk straight until you hit the water. I think if I make it a point to walk here everyday, I'll feel so much better. I can't wait until it gets warmer out and I can sit on the rocks and watch the waves and not freeze. Actually, it's been pretty warm the last couple of days, I've gotten pretty hot while walking around the city. It's much better than the weather I'd be battling back in the Midwest (sorry guys!).

 

I mean who could be in a bad mood after seeing this? Enough said.

The Reader's Digest Version of My Georgian Family

The journey from T’bilisi to Batumi was my first adventure on a Marshutka! For those of you who have no idea what a Marshutka is; it is basically a Minibus that many Georgians use to get around.  It seats are 20 people at a time, 20 people who are sitting.  I have heard that many Marshutka passengers often stand and they really pack them in.  Thankfully, this Marshutka did not have standing passengers.  I think that if they are city-Marshutkas, then standing would not be as bad.  It took us about 8 and ½ hours to reach out destination of Batumi.  Normally it takes about 6 hours, but we had to make several stops on the way to drop people off and there was a major accident when we reached the outskirts of the city.  Traffic was completely stopped for about an hour or so.   When we did begin moving again, we proceeded at a glacial pace.  Luckily, this Marshutka was only for those of the TLG program and our luggage.  Overall my first Marshutka ride was not as bad as I expected, but then again, I had help from my host father the entire time.  Plus, I was surrounded by friends.  It should be an entirely different story when I need to Marshutka by myself; something to look forward to.  Ha!

When we reached Batumi, I began my stay as a member of the Tedoradze Family.  The family is comprised of the father, Vajha, mother, Maya, 7-year-old son, Toka, and 5-year-old daughter, Sesili.  I apologize to the family for misspelling the names because I am very confident that I have.  I would say that the biggest difficulty that I am battling, besides the OBVIOUS language barrier, is the fact that I feel less independent that I wish I were.  It’s different that living with my parents at home because I don’t even have my car or a set of keys to the house.  I’m not saying that I wish I had keys or a car (there is no way I could drive in Georgia, it’s crazy here).  The first week, I didn’t really go exploring very much.  I spent a lot of time in the apartment and I became pretty stir crazy.  The main reason I didn’t go exploring was because the host mom didn’t really understand “I want to go for a walk.”  Also, there have already been a couple times when I’ve been coming home from school or back from exploring and there’s been no one home… And I don’t have a key… So then I have to call my host father and see where everyone is.  Luckily, they’ve just been visiting the neighbors.  So I didn’t have to wait that long for them to return.  This is where knowing Georgian would be really useful to know when they’ll be home.  Ha!  I guess I have a lot of studying to do! J

During orientation, they warned us about the differences that we will come across in the Georgian homes.  Let me tell you, it’s a bit more shocking than I imagined.  They told us that Georgians speak very loudly and they were not kidding!  It feels as if they are yelling at each other all the time, but they’re not… I think.  I’m just going to tell myself that they are not yelling.  I’m surprised I haven’t gotten a headache yet.  Okay, that’s an exaggeration.  They don’t yell enough to get a headache.  Also, the Georgians that I have met so far hardly ever smile.  For the first night and the next day, I felt as if the mother hated me. That was pretty awkward! It is so much better now.  She and I have had several, limited conversations and she smiles at me a lot more.  I feel less awkward around her now.  My conversations with Maya (my host mother) are mainly comprised of things like, “Kristina, coffee?” or “Sugar. I do not like.” “I pick up Toka school. You come.”  When I type the phrases that I hear, it sounds as if they speak like cavemen, but they actually know way more than they give themselves credit for!  I give them a lot of credit because they are trying so hard to speak to me, but when I attempt Georgian, everything that I’ve learned goes flying out of my head.  I want to try, if only I could relax and not worry so much.  I just need to dive in!

I really only have one major complaint about my homestay and that I don’t have my own room.  I am currently sharing a room with Toka, the little boy.  The one thing that we were guaranteed is that we would be given our own room.  I don’t think it’s that uncommon for TLG-ers to be placed in situations where they end up sharing a room.  Those people that I’ve talked to have always ended up moving homestays.  Technically, Toka only really sleeps in here and the rest of the time he’s not in here.  I believe that I’m sleeping in Sesili’s bed, and she is currently sleeping in the parent’s room with them.  So the mother is usually coming in and getting clothes and putting stuff away because I am technically in their room.  It’s a little awkward.  I’ve told people about my situation… I can’t really see myself with having a big enough problem with the situation where I would want to move host families.  The future is unknown!

My homestay is overall a pretty good experience so far. Things that I am grateful for in my host house: indoor plumbing, a western toilet (VERY important for me), a few TV channels in English (mostly CNN and BBC), lots of bread, heaters (not central heating though), etc! J  I’m still adjusting.  I’m pretty sure that I’ve already gone through a little bit of culture shock after only 3 weeks.  Yikes! That was sooner than I expected it to hit me.  Oh well! It was bound to happen at some point.  I know it’s getting easier to be away from what is familiar, and I am slowly getting more comfortable in my surroundings.  It definitely helps to be really close to the Black Sea!

Until next time.  Adventure is out there!