About Me

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

Monday, September 6, 2010

Sept. 5 - It's the (not long) Weekend!

Wasn’t really sure what would happen Friday at school, since our mission on Thursday was such a bust. It turned out alright, though. We actually started talking about lesson plans, and the format that Keti uses. We actually planned the first couple of classes for each grade. My only complaint is that Keti is a little disorganized and her thoughts are all over the place. One minute we were working on one grade and the next we were talking about lesson plans for 2 other grades. Add that to the communication barrier, and I was pretty confused.

After school, I spent the afternoon socializing with the family. I learned another new card game from Bebia. Of course, it took a while for me to understand how points were scored and I don’t know what it’s called, but I had fun anyway. I spent the evening on the phone with S and W, trying to plan a weekend excursion to Borjomi, a town famous for it’s mineral water. By the time we ironed out the details, it was too late to book anything, so we’re gonna put off the trip until next weekend.

I spent most of Saturday sitting in Literaturuli Cafe with W and S. I got into Batumi around 11, and W and I hung out in the café until S showed up around one. We stayed there for another couple of hours and then walked up to the boulevard by the sea. The waves were huge and no one was swimming but I couldn’t resist. They almost killed me trying to get out (not literally). At one point, the water was at my ankes when the waves were out and over my head as they came in. It was awesome.

Before we could leave the beach, I needed to dry off and rest for a bit. So we sat and chatted and threw rocks into the water. W threw one that bounced back and almost hit S in the face, but she dodged it and we didn’t stop throwing rocks. Eventually, we were bored, so we headed back to the café for cake.

S came back to Kvirike with me for a sleepover. We ate with the family and then watched crazy European music videos on rebel tv, before turning in to bed.

Today we went back to Batumi, but only after a breakfast of (broken) eggs over-easy. I love that my family will now let me cook. We lazed around here for a few hours, so it was late when we were finally under way. Luckily, when HM found out we were going, she went out to the road and flagged down a car to take us down the mountain, so we didn’t have to wait for the bus.

We met W and Si (our 3rd roommate in Kutaisi) in the city and headed to the café. There was already a huge group of English teachers gathered there. It was almost too much. It was really hard to carry on a conversation with everyone and the tables weren’t arranged well for smaller groups. A bunch of people left, leaving me, S, W, Si and K (the girl who speaks Russian).

With it being a Sunday, I didn’t know how late the buses would run back to Kvirike, so I left around 5. I got back around 5:30 and was recognized by the bank of taxi drivers at the station. As soon as I got off the marshrutka, they were all like, "Kvirike, kho?" (Kvirike, yes?). Then one took me over to the Kvirike bus, where I found out that it didn’t leave til 7. So I wandered around for a bit before deciding just to wait on the bus and study some Georgian. About 2 minutes in, my phone rang and it was Mom. We talked for a while and she put Daddy on and we talked until the bus was leaving.

I made it home in time to eat (and drink) with my HD. Everyone was very impressed because for the first time, I drank down to the bottom of my glass of wine. One of the things o the table was chicken stomachs. I had already taken one when my HM told me what they were and I didn’t want to put it back in the pot, so I cut it up and fed it piece by piece to the cat. I am definitely his favourite person.

A weird thing just happened. As I was typing this, Bebia came into my room (the door was open), sat on my bed, and looked at me. So I tried to explain what I’m doing, but my phrasebook doesn’t include the word diary or journal. I ended up saying that I write my day, but I think she got it. Then I told her that right now I write for me, but later it will go on the internet for my family to read. Then she wanted to know about my family and when we got through that, she stared at me again. I felt rude, but I went back to my writing, because I didn’t have anything else to say. Eventually, she said good night and left.

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