About Me

I'm the thing that's not like the others.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Sept. 23 - gossiping in georgian

Nothing feels quite as good as reaching the satisfying conclusion of an entertaining and well-written novel/ series. At least for me. I just finished the third book in Maria Snyder’s "Glass" trilogy. The bad guys were defeated and the good guys got married and everything worked out alright in the end. Good thing, too, or I’d be really upset that I stayed up until 2am reading last night.

Thanks to my late night, school was...tiring. Today was a 4 class day and there was only one class in which more than half of the students had completed their homework. Since the beginning of lessons are often related to taking up the homework and ensuring understanding, this put a serious crimp in my plans.

By break time, I needed the caffeine jolt from a turkish coffee. After I finished my coffee, I practiced swirling it around, so that it coats the cup in the right way for fortune telling. I need practice, because every time I’ve had my fortune told, Co-teach has done it for me (though I always turn the cup myself, because that’s the critical part).

I didn’t actually want a reading, today, but one of the teachers was joking around and did one for me anyways. It didn’t bother her at all that she doesn’t actually know how to do it. Of course, she told me that I would marry a nice Georgian boy and stay here forever. I’m told this at least 3 times a week.

At least with Co-teach and this other teacher, I know that they are joking. Another woman came in and told me that she has a 29 year old son that I should marry. I don’t think she was joking. Next thing, a teacher came in and told both me and Co-teach that eating many peanuts will make young girls "want a man", so we should be careful. (Usually, we have peanuts with our coffee). But then, since the goal is to get me married, they decided that they would feed me peanuts all the time.

When I got home, I had lunch with HB1. I wasn’t very hungry (after all those peanuts) but I can never resist t’olma (stuffed peppers). I had one pepper and a piece of bread with fig jam. I was just washing up my dishes when Bebia drew my attention to apple sauce on the stove. I told her I would have some later, but she wouldn’t hear of it and gave me a bowl right then. It was delicious. The apples here may not be much for eating plain, but boiled in sauce with a Georgian amount of sugar, they are heavenly.

Pop was supposed to come play, today but the forces of Georgia conspired to keep him home. First, it’s been raining on and off all day. But he’s also not feeling well, so I told him to rest up for my birthday party on Saturday. I’m a little bummed that he didn’t come out, but at the same time, I had a chance to finish my book. And I’m not exactly feeling in top form, myself.

My allergies have come on like gangbusters in the last couple of weeks. I’ve been going through Benadryl like they’re candy. I figure it’s from living out in a village, in a house with an orchard in the backyard. Everywhere I look, there’s nature. And while I love the aesthetics of nature, my sinuses don’t appreciate the realities of nature.

I’ve been trying to be more social in the evenings, before the English tv comes on. So I was downstairs, reading my Stephen King book, when HB1 walked up to me and presented his notebook with a flourish. He was so proud of himself and when I looked, I saw that it was his English book from school. We sat together for about 15 minutes, with me trying to say the Georgian words (while he corrected my pronounciation) and him trying to say the English ones (while I corrected him). It was really cute.

The impromptu lesson ended when HM called me into the kitchen to have roasted chestnuts with her, Nanny (she literally is the nanny) and our neighbour Cute (she's adorable). They chatted and eventually, HM asked me about my birthday on Saturday. She doesn’t actually know the word birthday on its own, but only as part of "Happy birthday to you" the song. I was glad she brought it up, because it was the perfect opening to tell her about the party and that I’m staying in Batumi Saturday. Then she asked me if I’d be home on Sunday, which leads me to believe she’s planning something.

I took my leave of the ladies and had only been upstairs for a couple of minutes, when the two younger women came up to the other room for the internet. They’ve been on there a lot the last couple of weeks. I wonder what they’re doing, but I don’t have the Georgian to ask, and they don’t have the English to answer. I could probably figure out how to say it, but that would require a lot of effort, and I’m not that curious.

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