Dec. 16 - The first of the lasts

Last day of school and what a day! Since it was my last day, Co-teach and I decided to just play English games with the kids and have a fun good-bye. And that’s what we did, but the director chose today to sit in and observe all of my classes. Not a big deal for me, but it confused the kids. As I finished my last class, Co-teach told me that the director wanted me to write my biography as well as my "thoughts about education and ideas for the school". It’s going to go on a poster with photos of me in the school lobby. So, no pressure.

Plans for the suphra were still up in the air, so while Co-teach and I hung around waiting to find out if we were having a party in the school or going out, I wrote something. Since we were waiting in our classroom, all of the kids came to find me as their classes ended. It was weird. They all wanted my picture and autograph. I honestly don’t know how many photos I was in. Several of the girls were crying and that was enough to make me want to cry too. I honestly thought that the kids didn’t really like me (for the first 3 weeks they all told the other teachers that I was very strict), but I guess I was wrong. I told them that I would get an e-mail address where they could contact me and give Co-teach the info for them.

Finally, the suphra happened, at school, which was fine by me. There was atchma, a dish with layers of cheese and pastry, kinda like lasagna, but with no sauce (and Georgian cheese). The teachers also brought the most amazing cake I have ever seen. It was so spectacular that I took a bunch of pictures. And it tasted as good as it looked. The decorations were chocolate and marzipan and the filling had chunks of marzipan, too. We all chatted and toasted with a really nice, sweet champagne. I commented on how much I liked it and Co-teach laughed because they’d bought a bottle for me as a gift. There was also a book all about Georgia, in Georgian. Co-teach had asked them to keep things small, so that I could pack them. The whole thing was really sweet and I’m going to miss everyone.

When the suphra ended, an hour and a half later, I went to get my things out of our classroom to find that one of my students had graffitied the wall outside the room with a message of love for me. Then I left the school to find six of my gr 9's waiting outside. They took a bunch of pictures for us and left when I did. Then they walked home with me. Kinda. They sort of surrounded me while we all walked in the same direction, but didn’t talk to me.

I was later getting home than normal, which made the evening fly by. Between the internet and reading and then helping HB1 with his homework, it was bedtime before I knew it.

Dec. 15 - Counting the days

Gave two tests today and caught about 12 kids cheating. Out of 35. That’s over 1/3 of the students in those two classes. Caught with cheat sheets, or the answers written on their hands, or talking to everyone around them. And this is a normal occurrance in Georgian schools. Luckily, Co-teach showed the director the cheat sheets that we’d confiscated and finally got the ok to write 0's in the official register. I don’t know what kind of an impact it’ll make, but it’s a step in the right direction.

At home, I did a little reading, marked some workbooks and helped HB1 with his English homework. While I was eating, HB3 came in to eat with me. HM reminded him that I was leaving soon, and he said "Don’t go," in Georgian. It was cute. I love that kid.

It’s hard to believe that I only have 2 more days in this house, and then I’ll be on my way to T’bilisi and then home. It’s crazy and I’m getting anxious, because travel in Georgia never goes as expected. But the teachers at my school have decided that we’re going out for dinner tomorrow, since it’s my last day teaching. They were trying to make it a surprise, but Co-teach didn’t want me to make other plans, so she told me. She really didn’t have to worry. All the people I would have plans with are home by now.

Dec. 13 - Family moments

Mom’s birthday today. I was a little sad, because I’d missed it, and my closest friends all got on planes this morning. School was fine, but the weather was terrible, so only about 2/3 of the student’s showed. It made test review a lot easier, the groups were nice and small. Gr 12 didn’t show up, again, but it’s not quite as annoying now, since I have to teach gr 10 the period before, anyway.

I spent the afternoon in isolation with the internet. I charged my kobo and my mp3, since I never know when I’m going to be without power. Mostly I killed time on my computer until Mum called. I’d had Daddy leave her birthday present for her, so we chatted about it. We covered a bunch of other topics too. When the call dropped, I went back to my Spider solitare game. HM stopped in to ask if I was hungry (I wasn’t) and I gave her my Skype info.

A little bit later, HM came in with HB1 and HB2, carrying the internet and their laptop. She wanted me to check my Skype to make sure it was me. After some confusion, I remembered, that the texting feature only works when both people are online. With HB1’s help I explained that, and then confirmed that it was really me she’d added. While we were looking, HB3 started calling for her. It was the Georgian version of "Mom, c’mere!" "No, you come here." "No, You come here." It was hilarious.

HB3 made his way upstairs and joined us in my room. Then, HM asked me to upload my music onto her computer. When she told me that she wanted all of the songs, I had to do some quick thinking, because not all of my music is child- (or mom-) friendly. Luckily, because I was using my mp3 player, there were a lot of files that weren’t music, so I removed those and sneakily got rid of some other tracks, like Closer by Nine Inch Nails.

After the music, she asked me to share any photos I had of the family. This I agreed to with no trepidation. And used the opportunity to give her and the boys the framed photos I’d put together. They examined them while I copied my photos onto a flash drive for her. HM actually got quite emotional after looking at the pictures. It was really sweet. While I was copying the photos, HB1 started playing some of my music. When it was done, I gave HM her flash drive, and she and the boys left, HB1 carrying the laptop that was still playing music. The whole situation was adorable. These are the family kind of moments that I’m going to miss when I leave.

Dec 11 - Packing and cake

Hung out with Sailor for the last time today. Tomorrow, she catches the train into T’bilisi and then Monday she flies out. I slept in later than intended and only had a half hour to get ready before I needed to go out to try and catch the bus. One went by while I was getting ready, so when I was ready to go, I started walking. Partway down the mountain, another bus came by and I caught it.

I met Sailor in Batumi. She’s still not feeling well, but she’d arranged to meet someone else to say goodbye, so she was there. She also brought her computer, so that I could chack my e-mail. We all had drinks and I had cake and we had a good visit. Eventually, we all left to run errands. I actually didn’t have any, so I tagged along with Sailor while she did hers and then we caught a marshrutka home together. While in Batumi, Kiwi called about my plans for getting to T’bilisi. Since TLG fell through on that, too (big surprise) I arranged to go on the train and stay in a hostel with her and Mom

Since it was only 1pm when I got back to Kobuleti, and there was lots of light, I decided to walk back home. Knowing that there was probably no power at the house, and that I had no plans for the rest of the day, was an influence. I only got a little way up the road, before the host family drove by on their way home. Obviously, they stopped and picked me up.

The power was out, as expected, so I spent a couple of hours hanging out on the balcony with my sudoku book. The cat came up to join me, and he blissed out in my lap for a while. When it got too windy to sit outside, I came in. The light wasn’t good enough to read or puzzle, so I was at loose ends. I started tidying and putting things away, but I realized that it was pointless to put clothes in drawers when I’m leaving so soon. So I started packing!!! I pulled out the clothes that I’d need for the next week and everything else went into the suitcases. My room doesn’t look any emptier, but now only 1 dresser drawer, and 1 night-table drawer have anything in them.

I made one brief foray downstairs, but the children had instruments and were trying to sing/ play Jingle Bells. It was cute, but no good for my headache. I spent the rest of the afternoon talking on the phone, and reading. I lost track of time until HM called me down for tea at 8:30. I had a bite to eat and then came back upstairs to watch tv and finish my book.

Dre-e-e-eam, dream, dream, dre-eam

This week I’ve been having some crazy dreams and want to share them.

1. This dream was Tuesday night after the fiasco with ITA Georgia, the company responsible for booking my plane ticket.
I dreamt that I had gone to the Flight Reservation place in person. It started out just as frustrating as in real life, except that the guy working was American. So he let me see my ticket for myself and then stood up for me when his boss tried to get him in trouble for it. The boss went away and the guy went back to answering my questions, except that I woke up just as I was asking the one question that I really wanted answered. For a split second I felt really good, until I realized that I’m still in Georgia, nothing had actually been resolved and the people at the reservation place are still Georgian. Then it was back to feeling like crap.

2. There’s no set-up for this one from Wednesday night, except I really want out of this country:
I was trying to come back to Georgia and couldn’t find my passport. I knew I’d used it to close my Liberty Bank account (in Canada) but didn’t know where it had gone. I was retracing my steps and asking my friends (other tlg volunteers) to wait for me to find it before checking in themselves. I was very stressed out in my dream, but when I woke up I was like, why would I be going back? Silly brain. And felt relieved that once I get home I don’t have to come back here.

3. Thursday’s dream made me think "WTF? I’m not even on drugs. But this dream made me wonder if I should be."
In this dream I got a baby (one minute I was not pregnant and the next I had a baby and she was mine). When I showed her to the daddy, he was like, "Wanna get married?" and I said, "Sure". Then I left the baby with him and he put her on a shelf and left her there. When I came back she was a boston cream donut, which I was in the process of eating when he came back. He asked where the baby was, I looked at the half of donut that was left and said, "I couldn’t help myself, she was Boston cream." Then we snuggled on the couch to watch a reality show called, "You, Me and the Baby Makes Three" about pregnant woman and her husband and daughter (I know the math doesn’t add up).

Dec.10 - That's so Georgia

I officially have less than a week of school left. Nothing interesting or amazing happened in any of my classes, today or yesterday. They’re pretty much the same as always. Today’s gr. 12 class had 2 boys, so we ended really early. Co-teach’s getting under my skin a lot, though I don’t know if I’m just moodier than usual, or if she is. Our water at the house was out today, which didn’t help. I found out from HM that it’s because the streams that run down from the mountain (which are our main supply) are clogged with leaves and that blocks the flow. It may be days before I can shower again. Thanks, Georgia.

Yesterday after school I went into Batumi for the final beanboat dinner. Boston, Joker, Lush and Gent took the train to T’bilisi today and they fly out on Monday. Sailor also goes on Monday, but she’s just going to go right to the airport Sunday night.

I missed my bus down the mountain, so I started out walking. Partway down, I got picked up by a friend of HD’s. He works in Batumi, so he drove me all the way in. Batumi is a construction-zone-wasteland. I mean, it has been for a while, but now the construction has moved to the streets I actually frequent. And they don’t block anything off, either, so it’s entirely possible to walk straight into a giant hole in the ground. Pre-dinner I went to the library to internet and meet Sailor. There were a couple of incidences of Georgian-ness that I happened to overhear, but was in no way a part of. They’re really funny, when they’re not happening to me.

First, a friend of mine wanted to print something, so he asked the girl to set it up. She asked how many copies (1) and how many pages of the document he wanted (all of them). Then she pointed out where she’d written the instructions (half English/ half Russian), then she tried to print without turning on the printer. Next, Lush wanted to return some books, but she didn’t actually have a library card. She told the girl this and gave her her id to copy. The girl says, "Fine, but I need your number, to find the cards for the books." Lush tells her again, that she doesn’t have a number and the girl tells her to look at her card (which she doesn’t have, because she NEVER got one). This goes on for a good 2 or 3 minutes before Sailor yells across the library in Georgian, "She doesn’t have a number because she doesn’t have a card!" Hilarious.

Dinner was good. There were 7 of us total, so the anecdotes were flying fast, and no one actually completed one. We got side-tracked frequently. We all headed over to Goodwill after to stock up on various items. Just as we finished up, the power went out. We stood around outside to say good-bye to each other. I’m sad that we’re not all going together, but I know that if anyone needed to get out early it was Boston and Joker. Sailor and I marshrutka’d home together and made plans for tonight.

HB1 had more English homework, so we worked on that. We didn’t get finished until 11:45, though, because he was busy doing all of his other homework and didn’t even get to English until after 10. The kid is 9 or 10 years old. There’s no way he should have 5 hours of homework a night. I did get to see the Simpsons on Turkish tv (subtitled) so that was awsome.

Sailor was supposed to come play this afternoon, but she wasn’t feeling well. I spent many hours alone in my room with my sudoku book. Thank goodness I have it because (I can’t believe I’m going to write this) I’m getting sick of reading. It feels like I’ve re-read the books that I like millions of times and I’m glad I have something new to do.

I ate with the family and watched the kids run around like crazy people. It was entertaining. Then I had tea with HM. We saw on the news that while digging the foundation of a new hotel in Kobuleti, they found a ring and earrings that are 400 years old. I think HM also said that they found some things dating back 1800 years (but between her English and my Georgian, I could be wrong). Something was definitely 1800 years, though, because I wrote down the number to be sure.

Dec. 8 - Still Counting down

School went better than expected, considering I had both gr 10 and 12. I don’t actually teach gr 10, since they don’t understand me, but I did go over pronounciation with them. Today I made them all stick out their tongues, to say "th". And my gr 12's are starting to get the idea of outlining. It’s a slow process, but if they learn nothing else from me, at least they’ll know how to organize their ideas.

Hammer called me at the end of school and confirmed that we are on the same flight. I’m so relieved. I was afraid that it would get messed up, like everything else here, and we wouldn’t be together. Bebia’s still in Batumi, so I was home alone again. I started tidying and going throw papers and things in prep for going home and I found my Sudoku book. Best thing to happen to me in weeks. I spent all afternoon doing puzzles and not thinking about anything.

When the family came home, I helped HB1 finish his English. We did it early, cuz tonight’s Veronica Mars night and I wanted to be sure to be free. I was sitting upstairs, watching Leno, when the cutest thing happened. HB3 opened the door and said my name. I asked him what he wanted and he replied with a string of Georgian/ baby talk that I couldn’t understand, but I made out the word for ‘mom’ and ‘you want’ and he kept pointing downstairs. So I got up to go with him and he kept checking to make sure I was still there. He led me into the kitchen where HM had made lobiani (bread stuffed with beans). So I sat down with the family and ate, before coming back upstairs.

Dec. 7 - WTF, Georgia?

Since my time at school is coming to an end, I decided to do some class pictures today. I don’t think the kids have ever done anything like it, because it was like herding cats to get them to line up. And they’re all the exact same height, so having 2 rows was problematic. It was fun, though, and all of the kids were enthusiastic. Gr 7 was chill, as always. My gr. 9's wanted individual pictures, so we had a solid 5 minutes of posing (after the bell, so not during class time). And gr 8 was very concerned that I’m not coming back. When I told them that I was going home to my family, they told me to bring my family here. Not likely!

On my way home I passed some men working on the power lines. Explains why every day the power is out during work hours. If someone had told me this weeks ago.... Not having power wasn’t a surprise and I was alone, again. Used the last of my computer battery to check my e-mail and since the message I was expecting from the airline wasn’t there, I decided to call them.
First, I tried to explain my situation to the guy on the phone. I told him I’d spoken to someone on Friday, and he transferred me to her, even though she actually had nothing to do with what I wanted this time. She told me I had to talk to the other office and gave me a number. But the number was the same as hers and the automated voice is Georgian, so I was asking her HOW to get through to the other office and she just kept telling me to call them. Finally she understood me and told me what I needed.

When I called the other office, I got the same guy again. He started to transfer me and I told him, "No, I want to check my ticket and I need your office." So he asks for my name and takes ages to look it up. While I’m waiting I tell him that the problem was with my name, so I want to make sure it’s corrected. He says, "It’s fine. Don’t worry." I said, "Can you please spell the ‘corrected’ version to me, so I can make sure." He huffs, but does it. Eventually. And it was correct, so I apologized. Then I asked him to check on whether my departure date had been changed like I’d asked. He tells me that I can’t change the date. When I asked why, he huffed again (gee, I’m sorry for making you do your JOB) and said, "It’s already booked, you can’t change the date." Since "it" is a nice vague pronoun, I asked what he meant. He says, "What I say is what I mean." So I tried to clarify, "is the plane full on that date or is there another reason?" He said, "Your ticket has already been bought, so you can’t change the date." But I know for a fact that the date’s already been changed once, so I said again, "Why?" To which he scoffed and then hung up on me.

I was livid. I had to call Sailor to vent and get myself calmed down, before calling back for an actual answer. I tried to call 7 times and every single time, they hung up on me. Inentionally. The first time I got a woman who spoke English and asked her, but she told me just a minute, set down the phone (so I could hear them speaking in the background) and then about 5 minutes later hung up, without saying a word. The next couple of times, I got women who don’t speak English and I could hear them talking to the guy in Georgian, but he wouldn’t take the call. The next bunch of times they just said, "No English, Sorry" and hung up without even trying. I finally had to stop calling when I ran out of money on my phone (that’s what happens when you’re on hold for 30 cumulative minutes). Only in Georgia would a business be allowed to operate this way. In Canada I would’ve had that guy’s @ss in a sling and he would’ve been out of a job, so freakin’ fast.

I stayed angry for a good portion of the evening, in spite of trying to distract myself. HB1 had a boatload of English homework (like, 5 pages) so we spent a lot of time working on that. I finally had to call a break for food, with a page and a half left, and then he told me that he doesn’t have English again until Thursday. So we agreed to finish it tomorrow. I ate with the family and then watched Leno and Gossip Girl.

Dec. 6 - Stop the world I wanna get off

The closer I get to going home, the less patience I have for the ridiculous things happening at school. Today, it was trying to hash out the next step of lessons for the gr. 10s. I want to work on letter sounds and pronounciation while I’m still here so they can learn what things are supposed to sound like. Co-teach thinks that they’ll learn that as they go. When I pointed out that many of our gr 9 and 12 students still can’t say things correctly, she caved. Then it was a battle to decide which sounds we should teach first. She wanted to start with combinations like ‘sh’ and ‘th’, while I thought it was more important to work on individual letter sounds.

Gr. 12 was a treat of its own. We’re working on composition and they don’t even know how to do an outline. In Georgian. So I go through the whole thing; topic sentence, main ideas, examples, while Co-teach translates. Then I gave them the topic and asked them to write an outline (in Georgian) and then their composition (in English). Many of them stared blankly and a couple started just writing in English. Co-teach asked me what I wanted, I said "Outline in Georgian, composition in English". I went through the instructions again, for the students, with Co-teach translating. Then they started writing their compositions in Georgian. So I went back to the board and showed them the outline. I told them this is what it should look like, it’s just NOTES! It’s not sentences. Then Co-teach says, "What are they writing in Georgian?" She didn’t understand what I wanted, but instead of asking, she just translated what she thought and we wasted the whole class with the kids doing the wrong thing. And you just know they’re not going to do the homework.

The power was still out when I got home. And the family was still out, too. Bebia’s been in Batumi since Saturday, so I had the house to myself. It would’ve been much more awsome if I’d had power. I used the last of my computer battery to check my e-mail, finished a book and had some food. The power came on just as the family got home.

I hung out downstairs with them, and helped HB1 with his English. HM wanted to try doing some veggies in the slow cooker, so I told her which ones and how to prep them. They came out really well, except that being Georgian, she had to cover them with coriander as soon as they were done. I’ve gotten really good at brushing excess leaves off of my food, so I enjoyed the veggies to their fullest.

Hammer called to chat. Since we were on the same flight here, we figure we’ll be on the same flight home. The name on her ticket is wrong too, so I gave her the name and number of the woman that I spoke to, to get it fixed. She also told me about something horrible that happened at her school, which is a frustratingly good example of typical Georgian apathy and lack of forethought. A gr 3 girl collapsed in the middle of class. Someone called the ambulance, which took 30 minutes to arrive. Upon arrival, the paramedics walked into the school and they had no equipment with them (even though they’d been told what happened) and on the way to the hospital, the girl died. Hammer’s really shaken up, with good reason. The girl had pre-existing heart problems, but still. If they’d just hurried, or been better prepared, she might not have died.

Dec. 5 - Ultimate lazy day

Today was epic in its laziness, made even better by the fact that Bebia wasn’t here. In spite of my intention to sleep in, I found myself awake at 8:30 and unable to go back to sleep. So I did what I always do, laid in bed with my book until the hunger pangs got too much to ignore. I had a lovely breaky of cereal and yogurt, before retreating upstairs with the internet.

Online, I checked my e-mail and did some non-essential surfing that I haven’t been able to do without power all week. I got a new e-book and spent the afternoon reading it. HM roasted a chicken in the new slow cooker. I had roast chicken and bread for lunch and it was amazing. Once I finished my book, I took some time to work on my resume, since I’ll have to start the job hunt as soon as I get home.

This evening, I got 2 calls from home. They think they’re as excited as I am, that I’ll be there soon, but they’re not. They’re excited enough, though. Blue Eyes is even counting down, but he thinks that when I get home, I’ll be going home to London. He doesn’t remember that my home is in Stratford, now. It’s really cute.

Dec. 4 - Day drinking and a walk in the sea

Boston slept in really late today, but it was fine, because she’s been through a lot and I was happy just to let her have some peace. I was halfway through a dubbed episode of Glee when she finally surfaced. Of course, the power went out with about 10 minutes left, so we went down to breakfast. Our plan was to head into Batumi for the day, since so many people are leaving really soon and most of them were going to be in town. When we ate breakfast, HM came in to tell me that the family was going to Batumi. When I told her we were also going, she said that we could all go together in the new car.

Boston and I rushed to finish eating and get dressed and were completely ready to go within a half hour. We had to wait for HD to get back, but then we all piled into the car and got ready to go. HD and Bebia sat in the front, while Boston, HM, HB3 and I crowded into the back seat. HB1 and HB2 sat in the hatchback compartment. It was really safe, especially with the way HD drives. But we got to town alive, barely, and proceded about our day.

We met Lush for lunch, where Joker joined us. Then us girls took a bottle of wine to the beach, while Joker ran some errands. Since the sea was so calm and the day so nice, I took off my socks and shoes and went walking in the sea. In December!!! It felt like any of the Great Lakes in May; cold, but bearable. Joker and Hammer joined us just as we were finishing the bottle, but we all hung out on the beach for a while. We spent a lot of time throwing stones into the sea, an hilarious enterprise when several people involved have been drinking.

When we were done at the sea, we went to Vinyl cafй, a place I’d never been. I had to go on a chocolate run, for something to go with my Bailey’s, since the cafй doesn’t really have food. We all chatted and laughed, while we had our drinks. Boston needed to go by her house, Lush wanted to spend some time at hers, and I wanted to meet up with Sailor, so we split up and all headed our separate ways.Sailor wasn’t answering her phone, so I went to the Lit cafй, assuming she was there. And she was there, hanging out with some other teachers. We hung out there until Pop made it, since tomorrow he’s leaving Batumi for T’bilisi and then home. Since we all live in the Kobuleti direction, we left the cafй together. After a brief stop at Goodwill,so we could all stock up on groceries, we got on a marshrutka and headed home. Back at the casa, I watched some tv (Harrison Ford was on Conan and he is HILARIOUS. If he weren’t so old, I’d totally marry him.) and went to bed, fully intending to sleep in tomorrow and spend the whole day doing nothing and going nowhere.

Dec. 3 - dinner and a show

This morning in the middle of first period, Co-teach’s phone rang. She hit ignore and went back to teaching the grammar lesson. It immediately rang again, and this time she answered it, leaving the room and taking the book (from which she was teHB1ng) with her. I gave the kids something to do until she came back in (she’d been teaching in Georgian, so I had no idea what she’d said, or covered). When she returned, she told me that it was another teacher and they were going to Turkey, so she had to leave. We finished that class and then she left. I taught gr. 6 by myself (with no vocab list, because the photocopier still wasn’t working) and had to fight to avoid teHB1ng gr 10 (who at this point have had 1 class in English). I made my point and got to leave right after gr. 6.

I had lunch at home with Bebia, HM and HB3, where HM showed me the newest purchase. It’s a toaster oven/ slow cooker, thing. But the problem is, the instructions and recipes are in English, so they don’t understand them. Since there was no power, we couldn’t test it out, but we agreed to try it out together later. Then I headed into Batumi for our regular Friday night beanboats, but I had some things to accomplish before dinner. I went to the library to use the internet and met up with Sailor there. Then we went shopping. We were both looking for the last of our souvenirs and I found mine. Along our travels, we ran into many of our colleagues. Everyone’s really excited to be going home, but they’re all upset about the lack of information from TLG.

We met up with Boston and Joker and Hammer at the restaurant. While we waited for Joker to show, the girls chatted while I called the Airline about some issues with my ticket; mostly that my name was wrong. After some typical Georgian-ness, where we talked in circles for 5 minutes about what my problem actually was, she was quite helpful. She told me that they’d e-mail my new ticket to me, and I’ve got my fingers crossed that everything will work out.

After dinner, Boston came back to the village with me. We hung out with my host family for a couple of hours. We had a bite to eat and some wine. They’re all very upset that Boston’s leaving so soon. When everyone finished eating, we started trying to translate some of the ingredients for the new kitchen toy. This was especially funny considering we were each about 2 glasses of wine deep. I gobbled like a turkey, to get that across, then Boston tried to act out a raisin. She also successfully used pidgeon English and Georgian to explain that ingredients get stuffed inside the quail. Quail-shi is my new favourite non-phrase. The children got bored with recipe talk, so they pulled out the toys. And once Boston was in possession of the toy sword, things took a crazy turn. She and HB1 had a sword fight (Boston had the sword and HB1 had a bracer) at the end when he “got her really good” she performed the most epic death scene I’ve ever seen.

Exhausted from being the entertainment, we came upstairs and watched mtv until Conan came on. After Conan, we went to bed.

Dec. 2 - Aftermath

School was the same as always today. I had made up a vocab list for gr. 6 and Co-teach wrote out the Georgian words. We couldn’t photocopy, of course, because there was no ink, but we’ll get it done in the morning. All other classes were pretty much as expected, except that gr 8 (which is usually the last class of the day) came for their lesson during our break, so we finished early.

As we were planning Friday lessons, Boston called me. She’s still shaken from her experience last night, so Pop was going into Batumi to get her out of her apartment. Since I was done early and my house had no power, I headed into town as well. We met up at the cafe, where I’d run into Hammer, and then we all went to the Italian place, where we met Joker for dinner. Some others also stopped by and we had a good visit.

After dinner, we went to a baklava place that Joker and Pop knew about and I had a chocolate pudding with marshmallow fluff. It was delicious. We finished dessert and headed back to the cafe before we all headed in our different homeward bound directions.

Dec 1 - My Life of the "G" List

It’s December!!! The countdown has officially begun. I received a one word text from Sailor this morning, letting me know that she’s as excited as I am. It just said "December!" At school, gr 8 was amazing (as always) and gr. 12 was 15 minutes late and no one had books. So I gave them an in-class writing assignment, similar to what they have to do for the national exam. Two of them stayed for the entire class and didn’t even write their names on paper. And I’m not allowed to give a mark below 5/10, so there’s no way to penalize them.

After the farce that is gr. 12, Co-teach and I were enjoying our 2 class break. We went outside, sat in the sun, and watched a couple of classes have P.E. Just after the bell rang to start the second period of our 2 period break, one of the students leans out a window and yells something to Co-teach in Georgian. She looks at me and says, "We have to teach gr. 10." When I asked her when, she said, "now." We had no lesson plan, no books, and no idea what these kids know. I complained for a minute, going so far as to tell her that I wasn’t going to teach them. But of course, after venting the worst of my frustration, I sucked it up and went into class. We focused on the alphabet; writing the letters and pronouncing the letter names. One thing I will say for these kids, because they want to be there, they pay attention and actually listen. If I weren’t so furious about the situation, I’d probably actually enjoy teHB1ng them.

Got home from school to find no power. Again. It’s the 4th day in a row and it’s really annoying. I folded some laundry, tidied my room, prepped a vocab list for gr. 6, played some solitare, talked on the phone and read a little. Mom called and I talked to her until we got cut off. While I was talking to mom, the power came back, which made it possible for computer use. Thank God.

I had just finished an English lesson with Atchi and settled in with Veronica Mars, when Boston called. She had a weird experience on her walk home and wanted someone to talk to for the rest of the way. So we chatted and suddenly we got cut off. I blamed Geocell and tried to call her back, but it took a couple of tries to get through. When I finally did, she was breathless and incoherant.

From a text message and a call later, I learned that she’d been attacked in the stairwell of her apartment building. The guy grabbed her from behind and tried to take her purse. Our call got cut off when she dropped the phone. A 4:30am text message, assured me that everything was fine and that she’d been at the police station answering questions.

Nov. 30 - Nothing Good Can Stay

With school starting later, I have a lot more free time in the mornings. I’m trying to make use of it by writing my journal, then. This morning, as I was finishing up, the power went off. Thinking that this didn’t bode too well for interneting in the afternoon, I made plans to go to the library in Batumi.

School was fine. My classes were all good and there was no mention of gr 10. I’m hoping that this works out like everything else here; a lot of talk, but no action. My gr 8's had a class cancelled during my break, so we got their lesson over and finished early (they’re normally the last class of the day).

After school, I dropped my things at home and caught the bus right away. In Batumi I had some errands to run, and they went smoothly as well. Picked up my things at Goodwill, with no trouble and didn’t have to wait very long to add minutes to my phone. I had a snack in the park and then met Sailor at the library.

I was disappointed in the lack of response to some of my e-mail queries, but otherwise, got done what I needed to. From the library, Sailor and I hit up one of the souvenir stores by the Italian restaurant and we both founds gifts for those hard-to-buy-for people. We started heading back toward the marshrutka and ran into a bunch of different people along the way. Even after stopping to chat for a while, we made it to Goodwill quite early. So we decided to buy drinks and hang out for a bit before going home. I found chocolate milk in the dairy section. I haven’t had chocolate milk since home. It was delicious.

On the marshrutka, we managed to get the front seats by being the first ones there. No one made us move and it was still light outside. We had a quiet ride home and Sailor got the guy to stop at her stop on the first try (it usually takes 2 or 3). I rode the rest of the way on my own, appreciating how pretty everything is at dusk. By the time we stopped in Kobuleti, it was dark. I couldn’t find the handle, so I set my things on the seat while I looked. I finally found it and grabbed my purse before climbing down.

The bus wasn’t where it should’ve been, so I resigned myself to taking a cab. One of the cab drivers who knows me was there and he drove me home. About 30 seconds from my house, I realized that I didn’t have the bag with my souvenir. I’d left it on the marshrutka. I’m hoping for one of those random Georgian coincidences, where on Friday I get the same guy and he hands me my things, but I’m not holding my breath.

Power was still out when I got home, and the generator was running. So I sat with my Kobo in the family room, to conserve power, until the town electricity came back. Once power was restored, I came upstairs and busied myself with my computer and tv.

Nov. 29 - You want me to WHAT?

School was annoying. The first class went really well and everything was fine. Then on break, Co-teach was busy talking to the assistant director and the French teacher about what is happening with gr. 10, since we’re supposed to start teaching them this week. They figured out that the French teacher (who was also the English teacher until Co-teach started) could teach them the basics and Co-teach will take over next year.

So just before our next class started, Co-teach went into the director’s office to tell her. Apparently, the parents want the English specialist (in spite of the fact that these kids probably don’t even know the alphabet, yet) so this solution is not ok. On our next break, the director dragged us into the gr 10 classroom (while they were supposed to be in a lesson) to talk to their teacher and them. Of course, the entire discussion was in Georgian and I understood nothing. After 15 minutes, Co-teach and I were allowed to leave, and she just told me that we have to teach them.

Supremely angry, we went back to our classroom and started planning lessons for tomorrow. We’d finished one class when the director came back. She wanted us to go watch a video on teHB1ng methodology from the States, dubbed into Georgian. It was all about classroom management and engaging the kids and everything that I spent the last year at school learning. A lot of it was also the things that I wanted to implement in our classroom, while everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Co-teach kept trying to translate, but I was like, "I know exactly what they’re doing. This is what I’ve been trying to do." The video ended and we finally got to go back to class.

When it was time for gr 12, they had all left, except for 3 boys, who all take private lessons. Since our planned lesson was directed toward the poorer students, we sent them home. I arrived home to find the power out again. NB stopped by for a tutoring session, which killed some time. Then I read by sunlight until it got too dark and then wandered around the compound on the phone with Pop.

The power came back on around 7:30 and I returned to my room. I got on the internet and sent the e-mails that needed sending. I watched my English tv and then went to bed.

Nov. 27 and 28 - We don't need no stinkin' GALA

Saturday I lounged. I woke up late. I ate breakfast late. And I spent most of the day reading a book. Sailor had school, because last week they cancelled Friday so the kids could help with the mandarin harvest. But she came over when she was finished, to spend the night. The Batumi crowd were all going to a promo party that didn’t even start until 10. I was just as happy to be staying home.

The entire time Sailor was here, we spent talking with English TV on in the background. We ate with the family, but she’s still new enough that HB3 is nervous around her. This worked in my favour when HM brought him up at bedtime, because he wanted me. She went to lay him on the couch, but Sailor was there, and he wouldn’t stay. It was awsome.

We ended up going to bed around 2 (which is late for both of us) but Sailor is an early bird as well, so we were both up by 8:30. We ate, and relaxed upstairs. She did some work and I read a book. We talked authors and e-books for a bit; since she’s coming back, she’s thinking about getting an e-reader.

The power went out, as usual, so when Sailor left to go home, I went with her, for a bit of a walk. I walked her most of the way down the mountain, until her turn off, and then headed back. Still no power, but the entire family was here, so I hung out with them.

The extended family had gone and the power came back around 8. And I came right back upstairs for my nightly dose of English TV. I was talking to Boston on the phone when Bebia brought HB3 in. He played on the couch and she alternately watched him and me, while I tried to have a conversation. When I hung up with Boston, she left the room, only to return with some clothes. Apparently it was show and tell time, and the clothes had been brought back from Italy for her, by her son. I made the appropriate noises, and then HB3 wanted to show me what he’d gotten, so we went and found it. Again, I made the appropriate noises, before leaving the two of them in Bebia’s room and going back to my TV. I watched my shows and went to bed.

Nov. 26 - Friday Randomness

Today was marginally better. Once I’d calmed down a little, I realized that not everything is terrible. My classes today were surprisingly good. Even gr 9 did their work and weren’t too noisy.

I went to Batumi after school, for a follow up doctor’s appointment and dinner. The clinic in Batumi is much less creepy than the one in Mestia, though with more people around, the service wasn’t as quick, or as personal. My symptoms had been better with the anti-biotics, in Mestia, but got worse again when I got back to Adjara. The doctor listened to my chest, and looked at my throat. She perscribed cough syrup and some pills (not sure what for). She also recommended warm fluids, like tea with lemon.

I got my scrip filled and stocked up on supplies. I was just finishing up in the store, when Sailor called me. She’d gotten kicked out of the library (for typing too loud?) and wanted to meet up. We had about a half hour before dinner, so we arranged a place and met up. She is also getting fed up with the program and was not pleased to have school scheduled for Saturday. We chatted and wandered until we got to the restaurant and waited for the others. A bunch of people came for dinner and it was nice to see everyone. I feel like I’m a little out of the Batumi loop, though. They were all making plans for Saturday night party, which neither Sailor or I could attend, since we live in villages and hadn’t arranged for a place to stay. It was cool, though, because once plans had been made, we all shared our personal tlg issues and everyone listened and sympathized.

I got home to find the (outside) cat curled up on my bed and my socks and underwear missing from the drying rack. It was weird. The cat started meowing as soon as he saw me. He wanted attention. So I picked him up and carried him outside, where I spent a couple of minutes giving him the love.

Then I went to move my clothes from the line to the drying rack. Someone had already taken my clothes from the line (for which I was thankful, because it was raining), but my socks and underwear that had been on the drying rack were missing. I imagine that whoever gathered the families’ things, grabbed mine by mistake, but I don’t know where they are.

I socialized with the family for a bit, before going to my room. I read for a while, but being sick and angry takes a lot out of me, so I went to sleep early.

Nov. 25 - Some days you just shouldn't get out of bed

I should’ve stayed in Mestia. Georgia is conspiring to make me crazy today. First, they’ve changed the school start time to 9:30 for winter. But no one thought I needed to know that, so I showed up before 9 as usual, only to find no other teachers there. Then, my students told me that Co-teach wasn’t coming today, because she would be in Kutaisi. It was my first day back in almost a week. I had no idea what has been covered, or what was for homework. Luckily, about 10 minutes into the first class, Co-teach walked in; she’d changed her mind about going. We got through our first two classes, with little difficulty.

On break, Co-teach tells me that starting next week, we have to teach English to gr. 10. Currently the gr 10 class is taking French, but they and their parents have decided that they want English so they wrote a letter to the ERC. Instead of waiting the month to finish the semester, they want it now, regardless of anyone else’s thoughts. They have no textbooks, nor have they ever taken English before. So Co-teach and I are expected to add 3 classes a week to our schedule and design an entirely new curriculum for them.

I got home from school and had some lunch. Then I got online. I was having a really low "I hate Georgia" day, so I spent a lot of time on the phone with my friends and then went to bed.

Nov. 22-24 - Mestia Adventure Part 2

Monday
Linguist had school today, so Boston and I were left to our own devices. We slept very late; for the first time, she was up before me. We took our time getting ready, but then decided to hit the town. Sore muscles stretched and felt better as we moved, but my knees were in agony. My sinuses were also much worse. They hadn’t bothered me too much on the hike, but by this afternoon, I couldn’t breathe.

Since the day was cloudy and drizzly, Boston suggested that I just see a doctor in Mestia. I called the Insurance company and they contacted a clinic for me. I called the woman at the clinic to set up a time and get the address, and things started to get weird. The woman didn’t know the address. She just kept telling me to ask someone in the street and they will tell me where –clinic is. I couldn’t make out the name of the clinic, so I asked again for her just to give me the address (Boston and I had found a city map in the main square, so we were pretty sure we could find it). She kept telling me it was no problem, just ask someone. I explained that I don’t speak Georgian and most of the townspeople don’t speak English, but she repeated, "It’s no problem, just ask someone". I finally got forceful and demanded the address and she said she’d have to call me back. When she called me back, she rattled off the address in a rapid-fire Georgian accent and repeated that "It’s no problem, just ask someone where –clinic is." I still didn’t catch either name, and she decided to tell me the doctor’s name too. After a couple of minutes of this, I asked her to text the information to me. She didn’t answer and hung up (because Georgian’s don’t say good-bye on the phone). She did send a text, and good thing too, because she told me the clinic was number 12, but in the text she wrote 13 and 12 was NOT the right place. We finally figured out where to go and got to the clinic with no more mishaps.

At reception, I told the woman the name of the doctor and she led me down a dark, narrow and creepy hallway. It reminded me of the unused halls in Stephen King’s "Kingdom Hospital". The room she took me to was brightly lit and warm, thanks to a space heater and the doctor asked me what was wrong, in decent (but not excellent) English. (Boston stayed with me the whole time, which I wanted, but no one ever asked if I wanted privacy). I explained about my sinuses and what meds I had already tried. She put on the headband and flipped the mirror down to examine my throat. She made a weird noise and I can only assume that it’s because my throat looked as bad as it felt. Then she looked in my nose. When I started coughing, she decided that we had to go somewhere else, and gestured to her chest. I thought maybe for x-rays (though it seemed excessive) but no. We just had to go down the hall to the woman who had the stethoscope.

Doctor 2 listened to my chest and asked Doctor 1 questions in Georgian, which were then relayed to me. After answering all the questions, the second doctor pulled out a scrap of paper and started writing my perscription. She handed the finished product to the first doctor and we went back to the first room, where she explained what each item was for. There were anti-biotics, as well as cough syrup, throat lozenges and nose drops. Perscription in hand, I thanked the doctor and we left.

Having seen a sign for a pharmacy in the main square, we went back there. But the pharmacy wasn’t open. So I stopped a lady walking past and she pointed around the corner. We thanked her and went in that direction, but there were no signs on any of the doors. As we crossed the square, Boston said, "those people look like they came from a doctor, and they’re walking with purpose. Let’s follow them." So we did and they led us to the pharmacy, where I got all four perscriptions filled for approximately $7.

We went back to the house, through the drizzle, and decided to read by the fire. We settled in and got cozy, but Linguist’s 6 year-old host sister was home from school and she wanted attention. I had my phone on my lap while I read and she noticed the sticker I had on the back. So she went and got her own stickers to decorate my phone. When the sticker she wanted to give me was too big for the phone, she stuck it to the back of my Kobo. It was all very cute.

We spent the whole evening with Linguist and his host family. In preparation for the feastival, host mom and dad used the beeswax from their own bees, to make candles. They warmed the wax on the woodstove and then rolled it over the wick. They cut them apart and rubbed the end on the stove to flatten it. It was really cool to see.

Host dad invited Boston and I to come to the church with him in the morning to watch them bless the sheep for the festival. Since we wanted to go and the blessing needed to be done before sunrise, we went to bed early and got a good night sleep.

Tuesday
The festival today is called Giorgoba, or St George’s name day. In Mestia, to honour St. George, people take an animal to be blessed at church, before sunrise, and then sacrifice it and eat the meat. According to one Svan man, St. George likes sheep best. So before dawn, we were roused from our beds to walk with host dad and a ram through the dark, muddy streets to the church. There were a bunch of men standing around outside the church, some with animals to be blessed (there were many calves, but we had the only sheep), some with khajapuri and some with vodka. And no, the spirits were not for the blessing of the animals, those were for the people, standing in the cold, pre-dawn air.

While the officiant (don’t know if it’s a priest, minister, reverend, pastor or other) used a candle to make the sign of the cross around the sheep, we had a shot of vodka and khajapuri. The next step was turning the sheep 3 times in a circle, then we had to walk it once around the church, before making it turn 3 circles again. Blessing finished, we hung out and socialized for a while longer. The others had more vodka shots, while I watched the sun rise over the mountains behind the church. We walked the sheep back to the house, where host Dad told us to take a nap before the actual sacrifice.

We didn’t nap, but we did relax by the fire until we were called into Linguist’s room, where we could see the backyard through the window. It wasn’t time for the sheep, yet, but host dad’s brother and some friends had a bull, which they were skinning and carving before the sheep could happen. While we watched in horrified fascination, Linguist’s host sisters came in to watch as well. They’re hardy, rugged girls and handled the whole thing much better than me. We played around with the girls during the intermission between bull and sheep, and then finally it was time.

Linguist wanted to be right in the action, so he helped hold down the sheep, while Boston stood in the doorway and took pictures. I sat on the bed at the window, with both sisters on my lap. They killed the sheep by cutting it’s throat. Since sheep have small necks, they were able to cut right through and remove the head. Even with the head gone, the body was still trying to escape, which was actually less disturbing than the bull’s legs moving while they skinned it, because it still had it’s head and for a minute I thought it was still alive. The head and feet get set aside (to be made into a special dish), the horns are cleaned and used for drinking horns and the rest is partioned out and cooked for dinner.

While the men finished skinning the sheep, Boston and I played with the girls. Linguist came back in and we hungout in his room for a while. Once the meat was brought in, we went into the living room, to watch what happened. The testicles of the sheep were fried up and eaten as a delicacy. I had a lot of firsts this weekend, but eating sheep’s balls was not one of them, though Boston and Linguist both tried it. And apparently the right hind leg is particularily lucky, so it got roasted and then we had to pray to St George before they could eat it.

Since it’s a festival day and no one had school, Native (he’s British, but has lived in Georgia for 11 years) and Practically Georgian came over for feasting. Some police also stopped by, so we had a couple of drinks with them. When one of them (already drunk) toasted to "peace in the universe", I looked at Boston and promptly toasted "to the Federation" (a la Star Trek). That remained our fallback toast throughout the day. The food was put out around 1:30pm and we sat at the able eating and drinking for about 6 hours. Linguist’s host dad had been drinking all day, and took a liking to Boston and host mom had to put him to bed around 5, but he came back around 7. Boston, Practically Georgian and I also went for a walk down the main street, because Boston was looking for Mestia souvenirs. The day was beautiful and sunny, though brisk. I was really glad for my hat and scarf.

During the suphra, Boston and I both fielded calls from people expecting us to be home and wondering how our trip was. Tipsy as we were, there was not a whole lot of info shared. Eventually, the suphra wound down and host mom wanted to put host dad to bed for the night. Boston and I also got ready for bed, because the marshrutka to leave Mestia goes at 6am, so we have to be there at 5 to get seats. We said our goodbyes to the family, knowing that they wouldn’t be up in the morning and went to bed.

Wednesday
Another day of travelling. Yipee! We dragged our buts out of bed at 4:15 and got ready to go. Linguist’s host mom got up to put out some breakfast for us. Boston ate, but I only had some bread, not wanting to have a full stomach for the marshrutka ride. We got to the stop and managed to score the 2 front seats. There was a moment of concern when the marshrutka started going in the opposite direction and then turned down a creepy back alley that was barely wider than the vehicle. Three guys got out and disappeared into a building and came out carrying something that may or may not have been a dead body (human, cow, or possibly just a bag of flour). After that, though, we got going in the right direction and the rest of the trip to Zugdidi was uneventful. It was also far less terrifying, thanks to the darkness and the haze I was in from the antibiotics and gravol.

In Zugdidi, I decided to grab a snack (again, nothing big for fear of motion sickness) and went into a store. I wanted a pack of cookies that cost 1 lari, but only had a 5 lari bill on me. The woman couldn’t make change. Not didn’t know how, but didn’t have change for a 5. I was so angry. I found a little market stall and bought a banana and a different pack of cookies, which I shared with Boston while we waited for the marshrutka to leave.

The trip back to Batumi was really quick. There was little traffic, and aside from some near incidents with cows on the road, I didn’t fear for my life. I got out at the station in Kobuleti, though the driver didn’t want to let me. He kept telling me that it wasn’t Batumi. I finally convinced him that I knew what I was doing and he let me out. I caught a cab home. I ate and then had a nap when I finally arrived. I had some texts from various people asking me to confirm safe arrival, which I did. The rest of the day was spent the same as all others; internet, reading, eating, tv, and bed.

Mestia Adventure Part 1 - Nov 20 & 21

Saturday

Up at 5:30, so that we can get ready, get to the marshrutka stand, and get good seats for the 7am marshrutka. At 7:15, after sitting on the marshrutka for an hour, we finally get underway. The marshrutka wasn’t full, so there was lots of stopping, to let people on and off. The trip to Zugdidi was an uneventful 3 hours.

In Zugdidi, we got dropped off right at the stop for marshrutkas to Mestia. When we got on, we discovered three other tlg volunteers. They were from a later group and are placed in and around Rustavi. They shared their travel adventures, but we are so over the novelty of travel in Georgia, that we couldn’t get excited for them.

On the marshrutka, there were two seats open on the first bench behind the driver and 3 in the back. Of course, Boston and I wanted to sit closer to the front (hello motion sickness) so we sat on the middle bench. Well, the guy told us we had to move to the back. We were like, "no" and then he started tapping his watch, like "we’re not going until you move and you’re holding everyone up." Not having sufficient Georgian to argue, we decided it wasn’t worth it and moved, so that a woman (who had just walked up) could take our seats.

We finally got underway and the drive through the mountains is breathtaking, for more than one reason. First, going through a tunnel, the driver stopped under a crack where water was running, to wash the car. The roads were not in great shape, so we spent a lot of time swerving around potholes and driving on the wrong side. This is also the reason that it took us 5 hours to go 112 km.

Also, lack of health and safety standards are evident in the fact that for 95% of the road, there are no guardrails. There were times when Boston (sitting beside a window) could not see the road and could only see the drop off of the cliff. It was terrifying. And that’s without the driver being drunk, as often happens.
There is one stop on the way, where food and wine was readily available. The other TLGers were very into joining the men for soup and toasts. Boston and I watched them and rolled our eyes. We remembered when we had that much enthusiasm for new experiences while travelling. We just huddled in the room far from the door with a space heater and ate some of our own roadtrip food. We also didn’t drink, because drinking = peeing and peeing = squat toilets, with no toilet paper or hand washing facilities.

We all piled back into the marshrutka and got under way. Upon arrival in Mestia, we stopped on a corner and our driver went to get a woman (we found out later that she runs a hostel). I told them we were staying with Linguist (called because he speaks, like, 10 languages) and she directed me to his house. So, bags in hand, we started off down the street, while I called Linguist and told him we had arrived. After a wrong turn, we met up and he took us into his house.

Linguist’s host family were lovely. His host mom was still making up our beds when we got there, and his two little host sisters were running around "helping". Linguist showed us around the house, while his hm finished up. Then we all had tea. After tea we went for an evening walk through the city and went to a tower.

The Svan people (as in people who live in Svaneti) have traditionally built these defensive towers (called Svan towers). Each family had their own, and they date back centuries. For once the lack of health and safety standards worked in my favour, because we were allowed to enter and fully explore a tower, just the three of us. The tower, called Margiani Tower, is attached to an old Svan house, which has been preserved as a museum and Linguist knows the woman who runs it. So he got the key from her and we had a personal tour of both.

Margiani tower is about 6 stories tall. There are windows on the lower stories where you could actually walk right out into open air. There is also access to the roof. We climbed the rickety ladders all the way up and then I climbed out onto the roof to take in the nighttime view of Mestia. Boston doesn’t do too well with heights, so she decided to skip the roof, but Linguist came out. I had been fine up there alone, but as soon as someone was between me and safety, I started to get nervous. So we only stayed up for a few more minutes before navigating our way back to the ground. We worked out a system where I went first and Boston passed her bag down, before following me and Linguist brought up the rear.

When we reached the ground, we headed over to the museum. There is no electricity in the house, since it’s authentic. So we used flashlights to wander around and Boston took a billion pictures (my batteries had died). I climbed up to the "sleeping area" and then Boston and I both climbed into where the animals would have slept. After that photo op, we went around the outside to the basement, pausing on the way to take a look over the edge of the cliff.

The basement was used for storage, so there were all sorts of neat cubby holes along the walls. It was probably completely unremarkable by daylight, but at night, by flashlight, it was creepy and awesome. There is also a door (added only for museum goers) that leads into the dungeon. Traditionally, the only entrance is a hole from above and the Svan people would lower their enemies down and leave them to die. So, of course, we had another photo op in what was probably the sleeping area. It was fabulous.

After the museum, we headed over to Practically Georgian’s (she has adapted really well) house to visit. Her host mom presented us with meat pie, which no one ate because we were all still full from the "tea" at Linguist’s house. The warmth was making me and Boston sleepy (since we’d been up since 5:30), so after planning for a hike in the morning, we headed back to Linguist’s house and had an early night.

Sunday

In spite of the fact that Linguist wanted to get an early start on the hike, Boston and I both slept in and when we did finally get up, we took our time getting ready. After a leisurely breakfast, and part of an episode of Glee, we got underway. We stopped at the store for supplies, and then met Practically Georgian on our way out of town. While we walked, Linguist explained that we would be coming very close to the Russian border (it’s on the other side of the mountain passes). Boston and I were both interested in going, but apparently, they shoot first and ask questions never, so for safety’s sake we stayed far away.

Saturday night, when we’d been planning this hike, Boston and I made sure that Linguist was well aware of our skill and endurance levels (which are both 0) and he told us we’d be going on the "easy" hike to the glacier. Well, the hike itself wasn’t that difficult, but it was long. About 9 hours after leaving home in the morning, we finally got back. Granted, Boston and I probably extended the hike by about an hour, just by stopping for pictures every 5 minutes.

The first leg of the hike was about 5 km of road. You had to walk that just to get to the base of the mountain. There were a bunch of large puddles and little creeks criss-crossing the road. These were not an obstacle on our way out, but coming back in the dark was significantly more difficult. Especially since Boston and I were both in a lot of pain.

Once we reached the mountain, the path was not too steep. It meandered it’s way up through the trees. Being late autumn, though, the path was covered with leaves and damp rocks, making the going a little treacherous. Eventually we came out in a valley, where we could see the glacier, but there was a field of giant rocks and boulders between it and us. So we went bouldering. I think that was my favourite part of the hike; scrambling over and around huge rocks is fun.

In the middle of the boulder field, we paused to take some Christmas-y pictures. Practically Georgian found a tiny evergreen that looked a lot like the Christmas tree from "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown". We spent a long time taking pictures of the tree, and us with the tree and it was hilarious. Moving on from the tree, we came to the glacier itself.

We had followed a river right to the glacier, and where the water was coming from, there was a hollow inside the glacier itself. It was amazing. Everyone else jumped across the small channel to go right inside, but fearing my lack of coordination would land me in the water, I didn’t. I got lots of pictures from outside, though and it was really cool.

By this point, it was getting late and Boston and I were already tired. Including a stop for lunch, we’d been hiking for about 5 and a half hours, and the sun was starting to go down. We all wanted to get back quickly. As we were making our way back over the boulders, my knees were getting more and more painful. I slowed down significantly, and found myself bringing up the rear. It was all I could do to keep moving. When we got back into the trees, I often lost sight of the others in the twists and turns of the path. We’d all been talking and laughing on the way out, but on the way back, I could barely string two words together.

Just before we got to the base of the mountain, Linguist and Practically Georgian wanted to stop and visit with the Georgian border guards. Linguist knew a couple and Practically Georgian’s neighbour was working and we were hopeful of a ride home. Of course, neither of them knew the exact way to get to the border guards hut, so we scrambled around through the trees (Boston and I were lass than enthusiastic by this point, but the prospect of a ride pushed us on) until we found it. Then we found out that the guy working wasn’t one of the ones that Linguist knows and Practically Georgian’s neighbour was working at another hut. So we went back to the main path and carried on down the mountain.

By the time we reached the road, it was almost dark. And full dark comes quickly in the mountains. Luckily, our cell phones have flashlights, and I used mine to watch for loose stones and potholes in the road. Unfortunately, all of those puddles and creeks that were no trouble in the daylight were incredibly troublesome in the dark, especially when my legs were shaking from fatigue. I made it through most of them and then slipped off of a rock on the second last one and soaked my right foot. So now I was sore, cold, tired and wet.

Finally, on the main road, some guys stopped and offered us a ride to town, which we gratefully accepted. Back at the house, Linguist’s host mom had food ready for us and we ate like we were starving. We visited for a while, and Linguist’s host sisters mauled Boston and I (but mostly Boston). They’re 3 and 6 and the youngest decided to play a fun game of "let’s pile things on top of Boston’s head". When being a living doll got old, we called it an early night, due to extreme pain and exhaustion.

Nov. 19 - Beanboats and Shadow Puppets

Last day of school before Mestia. We have 4 classes on Friday, but since gr 12 is very unpredictable and I had to prepare for Mestia, Co-teach let me leave right after gr 7. I came home and finished packing then ate some lunch and headed into Batumi.

I got there really early (due to leaving school early) and so I ran some errands, ending up at the library. After returning my books and using the internet for a while, I met Boston and we headed to Goodwill. While there, we stocked up on breakfast and roadtrip food for the morning. Since it was still early, we wandered up the coast and sat of a bench overlooking the port. When Joker finished at the Sheraton, he joined us and we all had beanboats for dinner.

After dinner, Boston and I headed back to her place. After a sketchy walk through some not great streets, we arrived at her building, only to realize that the power was out. I met her family and did not join them for dinner (in spite of pressure from them to do so) since we had just finished eating.

We escaped the awkwardness and hid out in Boston’s room, where she packed by flashlight. When Boston was done packing, we used the flashlight to make shadow puppets on the wall. We’re not bery good, but it was incredibly entertaining. Knowing that we had to be up at 5:30 to catch our marshrutka, we called it a night and were in bed by 10.

Nov. 18 - All by Myself

I feel like ass. My sinuses kept me awake most of the night. But it’s ok, I just have to get to the end of the week and then Boston and I are going to Mestia, which is in Northern Georgia. We’re both super excited.
At 8:45 today, I received a text from Co-teach, telling me that she wouldn’t be at school. So I had to teach by myself. Still feeling like crap, I went in. I taught gr. 6 and 7, but there was no way I was up to teaching gr 8 or 9, especially, since I don’t have my own copy of their textbooks. So I talked to the director and she let me cancel those classes and come home early. I spent the rest of the day napping and lounging.

Nov. 17 - safety, schmafety

The official story on HB3’s leg is that he fractured a bone in the top of his foot. There is an actual cast on it, and he generally seems to be ok. He keeps wanting to go to sleep on the couch where I am, which would be fine by me, except that Bebia doesn’t help at all. HB3 will be laying there almost asleep and she’ll come barreling into the room. The door makes a loud noise every time it’s opened, so no matter how close to sleep HB3 is, the sound wakes him up. Then he realizes how close he was and starts crying and calling out, at which point I return him to his mother, because I did not sign up to be a nanny.

Several interesting things happened today. I say that everyday, and yet it continues. In gr 12, one of the students used the handout I gave him to make a paper airplane. He was smart enough not to fly it in my class. I guess he got tired of having a grounded plane, because then he refolded it into a hat, which the boy next to him put on. It looked lovely.

On my break I saw the gr 6's playing in the yard. They had a wooden plank placed across a bench. The plank wasn’t attached to anything, but they were using it as a see-saw. And this was ok. I mean, smart of them to devise their own entertainment, but safety standards? Hello?

At home, HD had the chainsaw out again. This time the victim was the other tree that overhangs the pool deck. I missed all of the branches coming off, but I did get a killer series of pics of the tree coming down. This was after I’d had to move from where I was sitting, due to the possibility of the tree falling on me. It didn’t even fall that way, but I was grateful for the precaution.

Nov. 15 - Bizarre or just Georgian?

At breakfast today, HM came in carrying HB3. She told me that he broke his leg yesterday. I think. He had a huge bandage on, but I couldn’t tell if there was a cast underneath or not. Medicine here is a little strange. Either way, he didn’t seem to be too fussy and enjoyed his caviar and butter on bread for breakfast (he had the same thing for dinner).

School was the same as always. On Monday I don’t have gr. 9 or 6, so it usually goes the smoothest. In my gr. 12 class, only 4 boys showed up and they hadn’t done the homework (surprise, surprise). I think I might actually die of shock if someone in that class did the homework, but I keep assigning it anyway, just in case.

After school, I came home to find my host dad with a chain saw. At first he was just attacking the tree stump across the street. He didn’t do anything major to it, just shaved off a few pieces from where there used to be branches. Next thing I know, HM wants my camera because HD has the chainsaw in the top of a tree (he was there with it). I spent the majority of the afternoon reading on the pooldeck and watching him dismember this huge tree, piece by piece.

I also tried to do some interneting, but the connection was slower than molasses and the power was out. So when my battery died, after 50 minutes, I headed outside to where there was light. I’m reading some Edgar Allan Poe and I can’t say I’m loving it. There is a lot of superfluous crap in his stories and we all know I like to stick to the plot. I’m alternating the Poe with some Irish legends. I’m enjoying those much more.

After dinner, I was watching English tv when HM came up with HB3. Apparently he wanted to hang out with me and wouldn’t settle to sleep. I was surprised that he’d done that with her; until now it had only been with Bebia. Usually he wants nothing to do with me if his mom’s around. But anyway, she laid him on the couch and then left. Unnatural History seems to be the best way to get the kid to drift off. Once he’d been asleep for a bit, I got HM and she transported him to bed. I finished my show and headed to bed myself.

Nov 13 - The Harvest

Today was so weird. I did some organizing. Helped dress Bebia. Made friends with some goats. Almost fell out of a tree. Had a song-association sing-along. Watched music videos with my friend’s host dad. Waited while the men flagged down a bus. And saw a whole bunch of men (including police) hanging around at a fork in the road to my house.

It started out normal enough. I slept in later than usual and then had breakfast. There were a bunch of people here to help with the mandarins, but by the time I got downstairs, they were all outside already. After breakfast, I spent a couple of hours on my computer, writing and organizing photos.

Sailor had invited me to come help her family pick the mandarins at her house. I had initially turned her down, but as the afternoon stretched before me, I called and asked if I could still come. She said sure,so I got ready to go. Just as I was walking out the door, Bebia stopped me. I told her where I was going and she said something in a string of rapid-fire Georgian. I had no idea what she wanted, but she started leading me upstairs, so I followed. I finally figured out that she wanted me to help her put her stockings on. It was even weirder than helping with the boots last week.

It seems she only needed help getting the stockings over her feet, so once that was done, I was out of there. I’ve only been to Sailor’s house once before and we came from a different direction, so I called her for directions. As she was trying to describe where to go, her host dad decided that they would come get me. Since I was unsure which road to take, I sat down on a rock and waited for them.

While I was waiting, two guys in a house across the road let their two hairy goats out of the yard to graze. The goats must have thought I looked friendly, because they made a beeline for where I was sitting. Sailor and the others (Boston and Gem [called because he’s quiet, but every time he opens his mouth it’s a gem]) drove up, just as the goats were approaching me. Luckily, they got pics of me with the goats, cuz I only got a pic of the goats.
I said goodbye to my new animal friends and joined my human ones. We got to the house and greeted the family. Then we headed out into the mandarin orchard. I’ve picked a mandarin here and there from our trees, but this was large scale harvest for the purpose of taking them to the market.

We weren’t allowed on the ladders, because they’re not safe, but we could climb any tree we wanted. The others had been picking mandarins all day, and they’d been up trees enough. So I got to climb. Of course, the one branch I was standing on broke off from under my foot. Luckily I had a good grip and a secure perch, so the worst I got was a scrape on my knee.

We stopped harvesting when the sun was going down. We were told to sit at the outside table and were presented with a bowl of fruit (persimmons and pears) and a plate of feijoas. At one point in the conversation, Boston burst into song (someone had said something to make her think of it). I, of course, joined in. Then one line of the song made me think of another song, which I started singing. We all laughed and continued talking, but it wasn’t very long before we were singing again. The song-association went on for about 10 minutes, with one song leading right into the next. Songs sung included; Rainbow Connection, Phenomenon, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Carry on my Wayward Son, Jesse’s Girl, and so many more.

When it got too dark to see each other across the table, we went inside. Dinner wasn’t ready yet, so we watched some music videos on Russian TV. Dinner was good, but typically Georgian. After dinner Sailor’s host dad said he’d drive Boston and Gem to where they could catch a marshrutka and me home.

We got to the main road and parked and the host dad got out. When Sailor and I tried to get out, he told us no. Then we thought he said something about how marshrutkas only stop for girls, so we tried to get out again, but he wouldn’t let us. Instead, he called for Gem to come stand outside with him. A bus came fairly quickly and then we were allowed to get out of the car (we had to, because Boston was in the middle).

On the way up to my place, there was a huge crowd gathered at one of the forks in the road. All men of course, because women don’t out after dark. There were police cars and search lights and about 50 men. I couldn’t see what they were looking at, but it was bizarre. At home, I said hey to the family, put the lemons that I had gotten from the village in the kitchen and came upstairs for English tv.

Nov. 12 - Kids are my life (and I hate it)

School is becoming routine. Even the excuses for homework not being done have stagnated. Nothing new and inventive anymore, bacause the kids don’t care. Though I do keep getting indications that they like me, which is gratifying, since I spend a large portion of class time being stern with them. One of my gr 8s even told another teacher that if he were my age he’d marry me. And this is a high compliment from a Georgian male, never mind that I have no interest in marriage. I thought it was sweet.

At home on Thursday night, HD and HM were out somewhere, so Bebia was at home with the kids. HB1 was with his parents and Host Cousin (a host cousin) was here, playing with the younger boys. While I was eating my dinner, HB3 started to fuss and I heard the Georgian equivalent of "Take him to Valerie in the kitchen. He likes her, he’ll stop fussing".

Needless to say, I wasn’t thrilled. I’m not here to be a free babysitter because Bebia wants to watch her serials. Luckily, Host Cousin ’s a responsible 11 year old and continued playing with HB3, even after she’d brought him to see me in the kitchen, so I didn’t actually have to do anything. I did stay and play with them for a bit after I’d finished eating.

When I left to come upstairs for a shower, HB3 followed me, calling my name. When I answered, he said, "Shen modi, Valerie. Shen modi," which is Georgian for "come here". He’s also the only person in this house who can pronounce my name correctly. I figure it’s because he doesn’t know that Valerie is supposed to be a man’s name, so it doesn’t confuse him.

Tonight I went into Batumi as soon as school was over. My host family was busy putting the mandarins from the orchard into crates to be shipped off, so none of them could flag down a car for me. I missed the bus, so I started walking down the mountain. Partway down, a busload of teachers from my school stopped and picked me up. They were also going to Batumi, so after a quick (for Gerogians) stop in Kobuleti we were on our way.

They dropped me right by Goodwill and I walked to the library. I was hoping that the library internet connection would be stable enough for me to post some pics on fb, but the computers there were slower than mine. I hung out in the library ‘til Boston met me there. We stayed a little longer, chatting and looking up stuff online. She’d posted something new on her blog that she wanted me to see.

We left the library and went to meet Joker at the Georgian restaurant. None of us orded khingali this time, we all got bean boats (lobiani khajapuri). Delicious. It was just the three of us, which was nice. We all broke down the funny and frustrating stories from our week and shared amusing anecdotes about our host families. It’s the exact same thing we do every Friday, but we need that sense of normalcy.

After a quick stop at Goodwill, for dessert, we parted ways and I came home. The air quality is really bad in Batumi, and it triggered my allergies. By the time I got home, I had a horrible sinus headache, so I read for a little bit and then went to bed.

Nov. 10 - Weirdness abounds

School today was full of bizarre, random Georgian weirdness. In my first class, one of the girls was late and when she came in, she had two bunches of flowers; one for Co-teach and one for me. They were really pretty and looked like they’d been cut fresh from the garden. This was weirdness number 1. Then Co-teach gets two calls during class, while I was teaching. When class ended, she told me that her father had guests from Poland at their house and she had to go. So I would have to teach gr 12 by myself. Weirdness number 2. The entire grade 12 class was a joke. I wanted to try mad libs with them, but they didn’t get it and without Co-teach there to explain, it was a free-for-all of nonsense. Toss in the fact that there were 3 kids there that I’ve never seen before and that they avoided doing work by telling me about one of my students’ recent marraige and you have Weirdness number 3. I let grade 12 go early and had started grading some assignments when my phone rang. It was Co-teach, calling from her house to find out why I wasn’t there yet. I didn’t know I’d been invited. But I went and met her dad and the guests (who don’t speak English). Then Co-teach apologized to me for not calling sooner, but she was busy serving. She had had to leave her job to go home and serve snacks and drinks to her father and his guests, because heaven forbid a Georgian man serve his own damn self. Weirdness number 4.

I spent the whole day talking to and texting back and forth with Boston. We’ve finally gotten some answers to questions that we’ve been asking the TLG staff for a month. Right now it’s a matter of "We don’t know, but we’ll let you know when we do." And I’m fine with that. It’s the Georgian tendency not to send confirmation e-mails, as we do in North America, that was causing some serious anxiety.

I also had loads of time online today and accomplished many personal missions. Otherwise, not much is happening in my home world. Had an English lesson with HB1. He’s getting much better at working by himself and only asking me for answers when he needs help, leaving me free to do my own thing, as long as I’m nearby. I rounded out my day with Veronica Mars and then bed.

Nov. 9 - Productivity and resignation

School is frustrating. I just don’t know how I am supposed to make a difference and help these kids, when the entire system is flawed. There’s nothing I can do to motivate the kids and consequences are non-existent. The kids all know that I have no actual power and though they like me, they have no incentive to work. It doesn’t help when I’m instructing the kids and ask Co-teach to translate and she looks at them and says, "Understand?" In Georgian, but still. I want the instructions in Georgian as well, so that there are no misunderstandings.

\Yesterday after school, I came home with some specific goals. One was laundry - mission accomplished. Another was to download my pictures off of my camera - mission accomplished. Several other goals involved the internet. I sent an e-mail to the TLG staff with some questions for them. Checked my million of messages on facebook and started trying to figure out what to order people for Christmas - eventually all accomplished.

Of course thanks to interruptions, these few things took me about 4 hours to complete. First N.B. came over for help with his English. Fine. He’s working on the exam with his tutor, so at least I don’t have to deal with that waste of paper anymore. Then HB1 needed help with his homework. So we did that. He mostly just needs someone to stand over him and make sure he’s working. He understands most of the exercises by now.

After English lessons and completing my goals, I was called down for dinner. Just as I was finishing up I got a call from home. Chatted with Cousin for a bit; we had a really nice talk. Of course my phone dropped the call, big surprise. So I went back downstairs and finished my tea.

Then I came back upstairs to watch my Monday night sitcoms. I was almost at the end of Big Bang Theory when Bebia came up with HB3. It was cute once, but the second night, it’s a delay tactic. She didn’t just leave, either, cuz that would’ve been fine. She made me change the tv to Georgian Idol and then ignored it to watch HB3 perform his "I’m really tired, but don’t want to go to bed" act. So he wouldn’t settle, because he had an audience, and by the time she let me change the channel back, my show was over. Since it was 11pm by this point, I said goodnight and left her to her own devices with the small one.

Today, Pop was supposed to come visit, but he’d had a crap day and decided to go into Batumi. Co-teach got called into the ERC in Kobuletti and cancelled our last class, so I decided to head into Batumi too. I called the regulars to let them know what was up and headed in. Met up with Pop at the café and Boston and Joker joined us there. Then we went to the Coffee House. It’s the place we went to after our polar bear swim. I ordered the Greek salad and a cheesecake, neither of which were made with Georgian cheese. I was thrilled.

Everyone else was still chilling and Lush had joined us, when I had to leave. I wanted to catch the bus up the mountain, so that I wouldn’t have to pay for a cab. By 5:50, after a quick stop at Goodwill, I was on a marshrutka. The blasted thing didn’t actually leave Batumi until 6:20. Then we stopped at a gas station, though no gas was purchased. Once we got moving, the pace was good, so I was still hopeful. I had forgotten that this is Georgia, where "leaving at 7" could mean leaving at 7:20 or leaving at 6:45. Tonight was a 6:45 night. But I cought a cab without trouble and made it home safely.

I spent the rest of the evening in my room, organizing my photos. As a gift for my host family, I’ve decided to print out pics of the boys and one of me and the boys and have them framed. So that’s what I was arranging.

Nov. 7 - Real life is weirder than movies

Lounging is one of the best things in the world. Sailor had to make a phone call home around 5:30am and rather than wiggle back into bed, she slept on the couch outside. When I woke up, I sent her back into the bedroom and she and Boston slept for a couple more hours.

Once the girls were mobile, we had breakfast and then returned to lounging. We watched Finding Nemo and Men in Tights. Both awsome!! While we were watching the movies, Bebia kept coming through the room for various reasons. The first time, she was in her underwear, because her robe was on the balcony. Another time, she needed the couch to sit on to put on her tights. And the last time, she needed help putting her boots on, so guess who got to do that. That’s right. It was me.

Just as the second movie finished, HB1 came up to tell us to go play tennis. I thought he was inviting us to play tennis with HD, but no. HD thought we needed some fresh air after being holed up in the room all day, so he just wanted us to go play.
Instead, Sailor and I went for a walk through the orchard while Boston showered and dressed. The mandarins are finally ripe, so we ate a few right off of the trees. It was fantastic. HD was ready for a game of tennis by the time we returned, and we had just started playing when Boston appeared. While I played tennis with HD, Sailor took Boston through the orchard. I quit fairly quickly and joined the girls for lunch.

After lunch it was time for the girls to go. We packed up their things and headed out to the side of the road. Both HM and Bebia were at a funeral, and HD was watching tv, so we tried to flag down a car by ourselves. The first problem was that it was 4:15 on a Sunday afternoon. No one was going to town. Then a car did pass us, but it was full. Another car passed, just as HM got back, but it wouldn’t stop for me. The bus also wouldn’t stop, though it wasn’t full (I still don’t know why). Finally, after 45 minutes a car finally stopped and the girls were on their way.

I retreated to my room and did a little reading, a little writing and took a shower. When I was watching my English tv (at 10pm) Bebia came up with HB3. I guess she was trying to get him to sleep, and he was fussing because he wanted to be with me. So I took him from Bebia and he snuggled right into my lap. Then he laid down on the couch and watched Unnatural History with me, while Bebia went into her room to watch really loud Georgian tv. He fell asleep quickly and when Bebia was ready to go to bed, I carried him into her room. It was so cute. After some more tv I went to bed myself.

Nov. 6 - All day slumber party!

Boston and I started the day watching music videos in our pj’s. We had some breaky, of course, but then we did some serious loafing until Sailor showed up. When she did Bebia hollered my name from the front yard until I answered and then Sailor came up.

The three of us went for a "hike", by which I mean that we walked on the paved road up the mountain and then back down then mountain. We tooks loads of pictures. On our way down the mountain, we scrambled over the verge across from my house and we took a little side thing, that may or may not have been a road. Eventually we ended up at a river with a giant pipe across it. Sailor decided that walking across the pipe was a good plan, so she did while Boston and I photographed. From that point we could also see some snowy mountains in the distance, so we spent quite a long time taking pictures. On the way back, we passed the house of a woman who works at the school. She invited us in for tea, but we declined (graciously, of course) and continued home.

Back at the casa, we cleaned up a bit (our shoes were super muddy from taking the road(?)s less travelled. Then we had lunch. While we were eating lunch Bebia came into the kitchen in a tizzy because her son had come to visit and brought guests from Italy.

After we tidied our lunch mess, we went out and visited for a bit. It was cool, but weird. Only one of the Italians spoke any English, and I think only 1 or 2 spoke Georgian. After the initial small talk, we were pretty much ignored, so we escaped to inside.

We turned the tv to music videos again and each spent time doing our own thing; I was reading (surprise!), Sailor was creating a test for her gr 3 class, and Boston was working on the cover letter for an application. We then spent a solid couple of hours helping her revise and edit said letter. In the end it was amazing.

Food came next, since it had been a solid 5 hours since we’d last eaten. The girls have gotten really good at finding their way around the kitchen here, and between the three of us we had dinner and cleaned up in no time. Then we decided to watch Pirate Radio, one of the movies Boston brought. It was pretty darn funny. By the time it was over, Sailor and I were both exhausted, so we called it a night and all went to bed.

Nov. 5 - TGIF

Today, I had an assignment due in gr. 9. The entire project was done outside of class time and I didn’t have much hope of getting them handed in, but I was pleasantly surprised. Four out of the five groups handed them in and they looked pretty good.

In the afternoon, some of the teachers decided to go into Batumi today for dinner. I already had plans with my friends, so I declined. However, the teachers who were going all finished class earlier than Co-teach and I, so they pressured her into cancelling our gr. 12 class (last of the day) so that they could get a move on. So she cancelled it, and we all left early.

I went into Batumi right away, which meant that I had time for the haircut that I didn’t get on Wed before everyone else was ready to meet. I went into the salon and asked for a cut the same way I did last time. This time,though, they thought I was Russian and took me through the well lit, public salon area and up a stairway in the back, to what looked like a woman’s apartment. I was a little freaked out, but she gave me an amazing cut and a great blow dry, so I was happy.
After my haircut, I hung out at the café, which is a pretty central meeting place. Hammer, Boston and Sailor eventually all showed up. Joker was meeting us at the restaurant, because it was closer to his house.

Over dinner, we did a fun rehash of our weeks. Turns out we had lots of time to talk because our food took forever. They also brought us a gigantic order of the wrong thing. Since servers here never write anything down, this is not uncommon, but it’s never happened on such a big scale. Normally, I wouldn’t have worried, except that 4/5 of us are vegetarian and they brought us meat khingali, in spite of the fact that Joker clearly said potato.

Once they got our order right, the food was really good. When our bill came, though, they’d charged us for the wrong order as well. We ended up being pretty rude (not that rude is even a thing in Georgia) just because we don’t possess the language skills to be polite in Georgian. It was a whole big thing and it took forever to fix it and then it took ages to get our change. It was almost 9 by the time Boston and I got back to my house.

Once we got here, we decided to visit with the family. The kids were around and had some plastic ball-pit balls out. HB3 gave one to Boston and she tried to play catch with him. HB2 wanted to play too, except that he can’t really catch. When he tried, it looked like he was having a seizure and more often than not he wound up on his ass. It was so funny to watch. HB1 also wanted to be included and we ended up with an hilarious free-for-all of me, Boston and all 3 of my host brothers whipping 4 different balls around the room at each other. It ended when HM started yelling and Sarha and I discreetly collected the balls.

After "catch" HD wanted to play "Joker". This time we played with partners. It’s not actually any different than regular play, except that you add your score to your partners at the end. HM was my partner and we won by a large margin. This was not cool with HD, who tried to blame the whole thing on Boston, though she had played much better than he had. When she started to argue back (all in good fun) I decided we’d had enough family time and dragged her upstairs.
It was pretty late by that point, so we came straight to bed.

Nov. 4 - Livin' the life

Did some laundry this morning. I have to pick and choose my days carefully now that the weather’s turned. The balcony on which I used to drape my clothes (which is sheltered from the rain) no longer gets any sun. So if I want my clothes to dry in less than 4 days, I have to hang them on the line, which is not sheltered from the rain. Anyway, I put a load in this morning before school and then hung them to dry when I got home.

I have less and less patience with what is deemed acceptable classroom behaviour here. Especially since these kids have been dealing with me for a month and a half. I have never once picked someone who is calling "Mast! Mast! Mast!" (It’s a short form for the Georgian word for teacher) and waving their hands at me. Why do they still look suprised when I choose to ignore this behaviour?

Other than my general bitchiness, school was the same as always. At break, I showed Co-teach my pics from the weekend, including the party and the sea. I skipped a lot of the party pictures, because I didn’t really want to explain things like ‘beer pong’. She also told me that Boston and I are lucky that we didn’t get seriously ill from our 5 minutes in the sea. I didn’t feel like arguing, so I agreed and changed the subject.

I had lunch with Bebia, including another fruit that I’ve never seen before. This one looks like a persimmon with a pointy bottom. The inside is soft textured like a plum and orange. It tastes familiar, but I can’t place the flavour. Anyway, it’s delicious and I’m really glad they’re in season right now.

After lunch I was chilling in my room with my lappy and mp3 player when 2 of my students stopped by for help. I assigned a project for my gr. 9 class. They have to research a Georgian city and create a brochure. It’s due tomorrow. So Monkey came over with one of his group members so that I could proofread their rough copy. Of course he didn’t come empty handed (because he never does). Today’s fruit was mandarins. They’re finally ripe and he brought me 3 of them. I’m excited.

Nov. 3 - Gobble, gobble

Today I ducked out of school early to go to Turkey with Boston and Joker (even though they both went yesterday). I would’ve felt guilty, except that I only missed one class, it was gr. 9 (whom I hate) and they were writing a test. And, I’ve learned, here in Georgia, actual test results don’t matter, because teachers don’t write any mark lower than 5/10 in the official register. After making my feelings on that topic perfectly clear (words like ‘ridiculous’, ‘pointless’ and ‘seriously?’ were used) Co-teach asked someone if we could record the actual marks and she was told ‘no’. Gee, and I wondered why none of my students put in any effort. Grr.

But anyway, we went to Turkey and it was magical. Since I finished school way earlier than the others, I planned to get a haircut in Batumi. When I left school, I stopped by the house to drop off a few things and pick up a few different things. I found Bebia sick in bed, which meant that she couldn’t flag down a car for me. It was a gorgeous, sunny fall day, so I decided to walk until I could hail the bus.

Well, the one bus that passed me didn’t stop when I hailed it. So instead of getting down the mountain and being in Batumi by 11:30ish, I walked all the way down. I got to the bottom at about 11:45. But once at the bottom I caught a marshrutka quickly and was on my way. It turned out to be the slowest marshrutka ever, so by the time I got to Batumi, I no longer had time for a haircut.

I exchanged some money (some of the US$ that I had taken out the last time I went to Turkey) and went to the café for lunch. There is a stray cat that lives near the café and he and I became friends. He joined me at my table and I shared my lunch. Joker showed up after a bit and we went to meet Boston at the marshrutka stop.

Transportation into Turkey and walking across the border were uneventful. No issues or fantastic stories. Except that from Batumi, you can see snow on some of the distant, high mountain peaks. It was beautiful.

Once in Turkey, it was up to me to get us where we were going, because neither of the others had been to the little shops Co-teach’s friends took us to and they wanted to go. I got out at a place that looked familiar, but then the street didn’t actually have all that many shops on it. A little way down the road, I happened to glance down an alley and saw a familiar shop on a parrallel street. We ducked down the alley and found the area we’d been aiming for all along. Now I know exactly how to get there, without any false starts.

Once we found the shops that we’d wanted, the shopping began in earnest. I found a jade ring for me (ridiculously cheap) and some more souvenirs for people. I had been commissioned by Sailor to pick up some things for her people, so I took care of that as well. Also for me, I picked up some really cheap (but cute) little camis and a funky watch (the battery died on my good watch).

When all missions were accomplished we went to the Istanbul Bazar for delicious food. Also, Boston and Joker were buying space heaters, because indoor heat doesn’t get turned on until the end of the month (even though the temp has dropped to about 5 degrees already). I didn’t need to buy a heater, since HD had brought one upstairs for me yesterday. After successful shopping and eating ventures at the I.B. we caught a marshrutka back to the border.

There was practically no line, so we got through really quickly. The ride back to Batumi was fine. Everything was so quick that I thought I was going to catch my last bus up the mountain. I neglected to consider that I was on the second slowest marshrutka in the world on the way back to Kobuleti. Also, we had to stop for gas. While we were there, A guy pulled up to a different pump and handed a plastic bottle to the attendant to fill with gas. Safety standards? What?

I missed my bus, but my cab driver was there, so I got home with no difficulty. At home, the kids were just finishing dinner and then HB1 came up for help with English. He’s getting much better at doing the excercises by himself. When we finished I curled up with my Kobo in front of the heater and watched tv. Sadly, Turkey has daylight savings time, so when Veronica is on there at 8pm, it’s actually 10pm here (last week it was nine). So after Veronica, I went right to bed.