1/04 April Fools Day

Recently I have been thinking...

1/04/2012

Hi everyone,

I know I have not written a blog in a really long time (I mean it’s been like a month)! My Bad (as Carrie DeMarco would always put it). But I just have been doing the same old thing every day the last couple weeks that I felt it was not interesting enough to write about. Okay, enough of my pity party. There are so many things that I want to write about, the night sky, the weather, my birthday, my plans for the summer... seriously where do I start?

So recently I have been looking at the night sky as I go outside to the bathroom, I know that sounds weird but yes I have to go outside and then back into the bathroom, it’s sucks when its cold. But recently the weather has been pleasant enough that I have just gazed up at the stars, and just wanted to wish under them. The stars are beautiful and bright, I do not know how to describe them, other than saying that the sky just lights up with these magnificent stars and I feel as if they are closer to me then they are when I look up to them in the other Georgia. The stars are so clear probably because of the lack of light pollution that we have in Atlanta.

The stars take my breath away and I just feel so peaceful looking up, I wish I had someone special to share this with. I can now see the difference in what people say by light pollution, there’s a sad huge difference. Lately there has been a scatter of clouds around and it just makes it more magical. I feel like I’m in the movie Aladdin when he takes Jasmine on the magic carpet ride and they swerve through the starry night. If only I had one of those really expensive cameras, where I could actually take pictures of the last of the sunset over the Black Sea, to really show all of you what I’m talking about.

So the weather has been off and on warm lately. I get frustrated at this weather, because I think it’s going to be nice then it turns out to be cold or windy with a cold breeze. I heard that next weekend is supposed to be much nicer, so that will be great! And as I just checked the weather, we are suppose to have a blast of warm come through by Wednesday and hopefully come to permanently stay for awhile!

There are so many other things to talk about but I would rather speak then have to write them down. I just lately have not felt like writing. I do not know why either, I have the time, I guess I just do not have to energy to sit and describe on what’s going on. Can you forgive me?

I love all of you, and lately I wish one of you would be with me to experience this magical place with me. 

5/03

How beautiful the sky is.

When I look at the sky, no matter where it is in the world, it always makes me feel at awe. If I am in the state of Georgia, looking up at the colorful sunset of different shades of pink, I just feel so peaceful and now I have the same feeling as I am in the country of Georgia. The sky in my town was just this horrible gray color all day, and at the end of the day the clouds started to part ways and show the bluest sky I have ever seen. The sky just looked so clean behind the dark clouds of snow in front of it. Yes, it might be fifteen degrees outside but I still want to go outside and breathe in the fresh air, sometimes I feel like I cannot breathe in enough of it.

As I’m peering out of the kitchen window right now, the clouds just look so perfect with the sun making shadows behind the clouds so it looks like the movie Hercules when he finally becomes a god, and the clouds part and there is Zeus waiting for open arms, I just feel like Zeus is going to come down through the clouds one of these days.

The other day I finally got to walk to the Black Sea. Was I at peace when I stood on the beach and the waves just rolled and crushed into the dock I was standing on, the answer is truly. Mom, I have to say, you have made me appreciate the water and love it, I will always want the water near me. But not just a silly old lake, oh no but some type of huge body of water that has those magnificent sounding waves I can wake up to. The air around it was pretty icy feeling but so clean and refreshing feeling that I did not mind the piercing cold that was going through my clothes. I wish I lived closer to the beach but it’s almost a half hour drive away by car, so you do the math when it comes to walking it. Maybe in the months coming, when it’s not bitterly cold I can start trying to walk it even though it’s going to take a few hours to get there. I never tire of the view that is in front of me, welcoming me to come closer and closer to the ultimate prize of the sea. 

27-02

27-02

What I did today was pretty exciting! Seriously for me it was actually a good day, especially as I am writing this I’m listening to Kings of Leon, gosh have I missed my Music!!!

So today I finally got out of bed around 10:30ish and got my make-up on because I have learned on how to keep my hands warm is to put on the “face” on first. Then I picked out a cute walking outfit, which consisted of a red tank top, my GSU t-shirt and a fleece pullover, then my black leggings and my black jogging pants, in this Georgia you really have to layer. Then I got my Brita water bottle and went down stairs and told my Bebia that I was going for a walk, and in hand gestures she said I had to eat something first. So I sat down and ate the sugar coated bread which doesn’t sound good but it’s like a square glazed donut, but stale. Lol. So she was pleased with that and let me go but before asking when I’ll be home. Well my mistake is that I wrote down a random time and didn’t realize till after I left that it was a half an hour later, so I walked as far as I could to the next town which I probably got half way there before I turned back for home. Let me just say that this town is gorgeous; the walk is not boring because it is so breathtaking. Yes some of the houses are ugly but the scenery makes up for it.

So when I got back to my house it was time for me to sit down but not before I had to hang all of my laundry up on the close line, which I had not done laundry since I got here, so that’s almost a month worth of laundry, and if you know me that’s a lot of laundry (dad you know what I’m talking about, except I didn’t have you there to carry it in or out (thanks a lot!!)).

And so by that time I came in and got to sit down for about 5 minutes till one of the woman of Shroma came over which I have to say she is beautiful, but because she doesn’t dye her hair like all the other women she had a few grays in it which I’m seriously estimating her age when I say she’s in her 30s. So she came over and gossiped with my Bebia for a good hour, while I listened and drank some of the Turkish coffee, then after my Bebia told me to put my shoes on and that we were going for a walk. That was a lot of fun because I never really do anything with her. So we went to a friend’s house that always comes over to our house, and let me just say that when my host mother said this lady was poor she meant it. The house consisted of one room that had a bed, kitchen, and a few wardrobes to hold all of their stuff. It was so sad to think of my host family’s house which has 8 bedrooms, with all of them furnished with beds. So yea it’s pretty sad.

So then Bebia took me behind the house and showed me all of their land, which they have a good solid acre of land with a lot of orange, and lemon trees on it.

So I came in after that and now typing this and I have to tell you something really funny, one of the many chickens that my host family has just eaten a feather that was lying by it!!! I think that is the funniest thing ever!!!!!

Well that was my awesome day, which doesn’t sound like a lot but it took most of my day which was nice for once of me not just sitting on my butt all day and staring into “space.” 

26-02 Finally have internet

2-26

Hello Everyone,

I haven’t blogged in a while, I think it’s because I have done nothing to blog about. But seriously it’s been a week so think I can think of something I have done that would be considered good enough for the blog. Right?

Wrong, just kidding.

Okay, so since we last heard from me I went to Kutaisi Georgia too see a bunch of other volunteers. The weekend had some fun times and some really awful times. The one major thing as a few have seen in my pictures is that I went to the McDonalds, that the thing that involved the really awful times. I pretty much was sick the whole weekend from eating the McDonalds, I guess my stomach was already use to the food I was eating in Georgia, and it took the whole weekend to get rid of the bad stuff in my stomach. The fun part was just hanging out with other people that spoke English. It was awesome! The weather was horrible the whole time so we literally would just walk somewhere like a cafe or a restaurant and just sit there all day and eat and just hangout. It was great. It was exactly what I needed, except it took all my money. So from now on I can only take those trips once a month. I really wanted to take pictures of sightseeing and etc but we really just walked as fast as we could to get to the next place because it was sooo cold and OH ALSO, because the camera died, DUH!

This week at school I feel like was really a full week at school, especially because of the “snow days” we had a couple weeks ago we had to make up for it on Saturday, so I was exhausted by the end of the week. I still feel like I haven’t gotten anywhere with my students, but I guess that will soon change once I get internet and start researching on how to teach the alphabet and other fun ways on how to teach English. (Any ideas?)

After school has been super boring because I have read all 20 books on my kindle and not having internet just makes it near impossible to put more books on there. Every day I get home and I sit and I read the books over again, but it gets boring, plus they don’t have the luxury of super comfy American couches to sit on, so my butt falls asleep a lot and it hurts!

Today was a fun mini adventure; I had had enough of just sitting around and put on all my layers because I thought it was cold out because it had just rained. And went for a walk, well this walk was great, I went to one of the tiny “stores” in Shroma, and the 10 items that they had  I bought a dark chocolate bar for 2 lari, which is pretty expensive but they can do that because it costs a lot for them to go to the city and get it. So I took my chocolate bar and was gonna go home but turned around and started walking in a different direction and found another store, this one had much more but don’t be fooled it didn’t have a TON MORE, but one item it did have was a liter of Coke, which I bought for 2.50 lari. I was pretty excited!! So far I have already had 3 little glasses of it, because it is one thing that tastes like home. Mind you that this coke has probably been sitting on the shelf for awhile so it tastes more like caffeine-free, but thanks to good old Grandma Mary and Grandpa Frank, I’m pretty use to that taste. So while on my way phone I called two of my friends (volunteers of course) and just talked about how bored I am here and just talked about other things. They do help a lot with me feeling so alone. I can really count on them! So by the time I walked home I was sweating my butt off. Yea, I guess it wasn’t as cold as I thought! So when I got home I took off some of the layers and am now sitting here typing. My host mom is making some type of soup that includes-an assortment of cabbage, carrots, parsley, some spices, and other veggies, it looks yummy!

I also need to give a shout out to KATE GILLUM, for always texting or calling me; you really do make my days. Every day I wait for when I can text you and tell you to call me for our 5-10 min talk about how the whole family is. You’re amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay so the rest of my day was very uneventful. In that I never left the house. I did though talk on the phone to a lot more people as I thought I would. I talked to mom and dad for a solid 15 minutes, which was pretty exciting because well because it was just nice to hear them both talk, I miss them like crazy. I talked to other volunteers about being super secluded from everyone else and the world; which I want to thank you Monica, and Caitlin!! I talked to my friend Sid who pretty much pressured me into the trip for next weekend with almost all of our group that came on the 30^th Which if I can talk to my co-teacher/host family about it lets hope I can. I feel bad that I’m going just because it’s my host brother’s birthday so I’ll miss that, so we shall see what they say about that. 

26-02 The food I eat

26-02 Food I eat

Can we talk about what I eat every day because I know your all wondering if I’m gonna be fat when I return, well that’s mostly my fault because I thought I would be with what other volunteers said before I left, but I have come to a different conclusion. So main food items I eat every day, are bread (thats home made by my bebia and its from corn not wheat) and cheese which is one of the few products they actually buy because we do not have cows (but we do have chickens, a dog, and a cat) and Turkish coffee (which is good if your family has good coffee to begin the process; which mine does not). The variety of food that I have eaten so far at my house are some type of fating food that I can only describe because I cannot remember the name MOM YOUR GOING TO LOVE IT.... NOT!!!! Its six layers of very thin dough (almost a thinner version of lasagna noodles) with butter between each layer and crumbled cheese between two of the top layers, then bake it. It’s pretty disgusting because it tastes like buttered noodles (which might sound kind of of good but trust me it isn’t. Then something that looks like bologna which I only eat when they fry it, lol yes I’m picky. Good things I have eaten are the Lubio which is beans in some type of sauce which is pretty good, and my favorite so far is this mixture they keep in a giant jar which means its homemade from their own vegetables which is made of different colored bell peppers that they have already pre-cooked and diced each way and other things in it I have no idea that they put spices too (they love their spices) and it tastes good with anything... bread, pasta, mash potatoes, anything. Today they made a new soup which I would never have eaten in the US but when these people make food you have to eat it or you’ll starve and usually it’s really good. So today they made this soup, it consisted of lots of cut up cabbage, carrots, parley, different spices, different finely chopped onions and water of course to make it a soup. Let’s just say it was amazing and spicy of course!!!! I ate all of mine which is a new thing I have learned to do, you only take what you’ll eat, there is no wasting of food here, and you just feel rude when you do. Oh and if you don’t eat something all that way off your plate you just open the back door where the chickens rule the space and just scrape it off onto the ground for them to eat, it’s like a better version of a garbage disposal because you’re really not wasting the food. I think every American should get a little coup of chickens and just scrape their plates for the chickens to eat and I swear it makes a difference when washing dishes.

Another thing to remember about here is there is no snacking, you read correctly, never snacking, I eat only two meals a day which are the same meals, the one thing they might eat between meals is sunflower seeds but only a handful.

So that’s what I eat, so you’ll be the judge on if I’ll get fat or not these next few months. Oh, and let me include that walk a half a mile to school each day. That might clue you in on how much I walk just to do anything around this huge village of nothing.

Well that’s my ranting of food. Hope you liked it!!!

12-02 The last couple of days

12-2

Okay, so I know I haven’t written anything in over 5 days, but I’m here to do that now. I’m not going to say exactly every single detail that has happened well because most of my days have been actually doing nothing at all. So the most important will be listed just because I don’t feel like sitting here for an hour trying to remember exactly what has happened. It’s not fun for me or for you to hear every little detail. So here it goes.

My ten favorite things that have happened in no order, just what I can actually remember:

1.       Watching Brazilian soap operas dubbed in Georgian

2.       Watching the multiple Disney/Pixar movies with my host brother Toma, aka 101 Dalmatians, The Incredible, Ghostbusters

3.       Every single second of the day, told to sit down or to eat or both!

4.       Waking up at 10:30 every day

5.       Getting to read about a book a day

6.       Eating 5 pieces of my host mothers(Nino) cake a day, I swear I’ll be fat when I get back

7.       Finally getting a dictionary

8.       Trying to teach Nino –th sound

9.       Being kissed by my host grandmother

10.   Just having struggles but it being all worth it at the end...priceless

8-02 First day at School

8-02 First day at school

Kept telling my mother that I wasn’t supposed to go to school because TLG said I had to go to the meeting first. Well she didn’t care or understand me, so when we were saying all this it was five minutes before nine, and school started at nine (I thought, actually it started at 9:30). Many of the teachers are women; the only men are the technical computer guys. Everyone was so inviting and nice as I walked into the teacher’s lounge, everyone said hello in Georgian or in English. SIDENOTE: every time someone says something in English, everyone laughs including the person speaking.

My assessment so far:

The younger students know more because they can retain more at a faster pace. All students’ grades 1-6 just started English lessons this year, so all of them are on pretty much the same level. So by the time the students that I’m teaching will graduate they’ll know at least three languages and be able to speak the three languages, which are amazing compared to the United States, where some students don’t even know the first primary language, let alone become fluent in another. My co-English teach barely knows English, I have to talk to her in simple English, or well one worded sentences, lol. I love her though, she’s only 29 yrs old and wants to learn from me, and I am happy to teach her. She was taught three new words: snow boots, rain boots, and something else I cannot remember. She was so excited and pleased with herself! Wish my co-teacher knew more just so I could talk to someone everyday and have someone to relate too.

My assessment is that next Wednesday we need to start with the alphabet again, so they know how I pronounce each letter, and etc. Also, they memorize the book but have no idea what their actually saying, so that is one thing I want to change in the course of 4 months. Also, finally that afternoon we went to the meeting and knew everything she was saying and just thought it was pointless.

Tried to buy internet too today, but better internet will be available for ten lari more in a few days. Guess I should have bought it when I was in Tbilisi where there was an English speaker at the counter, but I just wanted to make sure which one to buy before I spent so much. Also, we went to the only bookstore in Orzugeti and they had no dictionary. Damn! *Sorry mom* Now freezing my butt off waiting for the 3 women I drove with to get back to the car, they all abandoned me to go do some shopping of their own, I sit in the car, as my feet are literally frozen. SO far all is well except for the freezing cold and no school for the next 6 days!