A bit of school, botanical gardens, and icky weather!

This past week flew by! I was somewhat busy at school. My class schedule changed a little because Charles Kinney, Chuck, did come to our school and observe our classes! He came on Tuesday and I’m pretty sure we were a big hit. The children were well behaved. Everyone seemed a little on the nervous side, but that’s to be expected. It made everything easier that he’s super nice and had a lot of great feedback for my co-teachers and I. After the classes were finished, we walked down to the “canteen” for coffee, potato pies, and our critique. On the way, Chuck asked me if I had a teaching degree. Nope! Just teaching experience from camp :) He told me that I should think about going back to school to become a teacher… Something to think about. I’ll call that Plan B. Anyway, the feedback was great. He said that Nino’s class with the 4^th grades was one of the best classes that he’s seen in Georgia so far! No pressure for the next session ;) Seriously, that was great to hear. Thanks Chuck! We worked really hard to prepare that lesson! I’m glad it went so well.

Mari and I at the Botanical Gardens

Later in the week, I got the chance to go to Green Cape, a.k.a. the Botanical Gardens, and it was beautiful! Even though it was February. It was chilly but not freezing. There was so much to see.  It’s going to be gorgeous when it gets warmer out. It will be beautiful and crowded! I went to Green Cape with Mari(host sister) and Bella(host mother) to visit Bella’s parents. I’m pretty jealous that they live inside the Botanical Gardens! After briefly stopping in and meeting the parents, Mari and I left to wander about the gardens a little bit. Finally my camera is getting a bit more use out of it! I wish I took more pictures of what’s going on here. I’ll just add that to the list of things I need to do here. Haha!

Funny story about when we were waiting for the Marshutka to take us to Green Cape: Mari and I were talking about something or another and Bella noticed that when we speak, we say “sometimes” a lot.  So she asked Mari what this word meant.  I do believe that is not Bella’s favorite word because whenever either of us says “sometimes” Bella repeats it and laughs. Sometimes. Sometimes. Even on the Marshutka, Mari and I sat towards the front and Bella sat in the back (with a friend who we met on the Marshutka – we didn’t make her sit alone!) and we could hear her repeating “sometimes” over and over again. Too funny. J

Under the category of random thoughts (as my mom says) it's been pretty chilly lately in Batumi, but I feel like my body has been preparing for the "Midwest winter"so I haven't been too cold yet. My host family has been getting on my case because I don't dress in 500 layers when I go outside and I don't blow dry my hair after my showers. Actually, one day I went to school with wet hair because I was late. When I got to class the other teachers sat me in front of the heater and wouldn't let me get up until my hair was dry. I thought I would be fine, but they seemed so worried. It's really sweet that they worry about me. Thanks guys! Anyway, Bella has been so worried about the fact that I don't wear a hat when I go places (usually because I'm running late or I just plain forget)... But she knitted a hat for me! SO CUTE! And it matches Mari's hat. Twin-ies! 

Twin Hats!

This weekend there were more fellow TLG visitors to Batumi. I’m sensing a pattern. Batumi is the place to go! Except this weekend it was crappy weather again! It really puts a damper on weekend fun.  On Friday, a few of us went to the Italian restaurant, Venezia. I’m not a big pizza fan, but this one I liked because there was very little sauce. Bonus: there was no mayonnaise or ketchup on it! Georgians seem to replace pizza sauce with ketchup. My palette has not adjusted to that quite yet. I don’t think it will any time soon.  Then we set out on a mission to locate some ice cream. In the US, all you would need to do would be to hop in the car and drive to Cold Stone or Culvers or even a grocery to pick up some Ben & Jerry’s. (Really craving ice cream at this point) This simple mission was not that simple. Picture this: you’re walking through the beautiful “Old City” section of Batumi where all the palm trees on the sidewalks have different color spotlights on them. However, it’s not a calm, warm night. Oh no, that would be way too fantastic. The weather needs to keep you on your toes! Instead of a pleasant evening, it’s colder than usual, there’s a pretty decent downpour, and we’ll add in some giant gusts of wind. How does that sound? Very picture-esc! Some of you have umbrellas. Some of you don’t. Those of you who have your 15 Lari umbrellas are battling to keep them from flipping inside out ever 10 feet.  That has never happened to me until I came here. From my description, I bet it sounds like I’m complaining, but it was actually more comical than anything. By the time we found a market, I was not really in the mood for ice cream any more. Plus, they didn’t have any. Then we went to my friend’s hotel and hung out in the café/bar because the weather didn’t really give us a choice to do otherwise. We battled the weather the following night.

My original plan for today was also ruined by the weather. I had planned to go to Turkey (just across the border) to go see the shopping center, Istanbul Bazar, with Kas. I woke up this morning told my host family that I was going to be leaving around 10, looked out the window, saw the rainy/snowy/windiness… I stood at the window, said to myself, “just kidding!” and crawled back into bed.  Some things you just can’t control. No matter how hard you try. I would say that I’m going to go next weekend, but there is a potential plan for Armenia. Cross your fingers and hope that I get to go! :):):):)

Until next time. Adventure is out there!