School today was the same as any other day. The classes are getting better at listening and learning how I do things. Some fun Georgian things I noticed today, our photocopier often doesn’t work and when it does, there is no paper. I also got to sit in on a grade 12 gym class. It consisted of the kids sitting on one bench, chatting, while the teacher sat on another bench (across the volleyball and basketball courts) with me and Co-teach. The students don’t like to do gym, so they don’t. I feel that this is where the boys begin to develop their Georgian male potbellies.
During our break, the director came into the classroom on the phone. She said some things to Co-teach in Georgian and Co-teach looked at me. There was some back and forth between the phone, the director and Co-teach, but eventually, it was relayed to me that there was a concert in Kobuleti for the English teachers. I asked when and the (typically Georgian) answer was, "tonight".
Everything in this country happens "not yet" or "five minutes ago". I immediately texted the other teachers in the area to find out what was going on. None of us got any information, so we arranged to meet at the Resource Center and find out together what was going on.
I left at about 3 to go down the mountain, knowing that the concert was supposed to start at 5. I never know when the buses will come (because they don’t run on a schedule) so I always like to leave extra time. I had no sooner walked out the gate when our neighbour across the street called me (he literally shouted my name) and asked where I was going. When I told him, he said his dad would give me a ride. A couple of houses down we stopped to pick up three teachers from my school who were also going to the ERC, so it worked out really well.
I met the others at the ERC only to find out that we had to go to the marshrutka stand. Luckily it was close and we got there. When a few teachers didn’t show, we called them, only to find out that some of them hadn’t even been told, or had been told, but too late to arrange transport into Kobuleti. Once we had all gethered, we got on the marshrutka and were on our way. To what, we didn’t know, but whe were going.
The concert was not nearly as bad as the last one we went to. It was outside in a field full of trees, too evenly spaced to be natural, but big and old none-the-less. The event was also more like a pep-rally than a concert. The M.C. kept calling for audience participation. Then a female singer performed a couple of Georgian songs. She was followed by a male, who did "People are Strange" and a really old Nickleback song. Then they called us all up on stage and asked us to speak a couple words of Georgian. Those of us who could, said things like, "hello" and "Georgia is beautiful" and "we love Georgia", before scampering off stage. We waited back stage for a while and a male performer sang "Hey Jude" followed by a lot of Georgian songs, but he was really good, so we didn’t mind listening. We got called near the stage one more time to talk to a man who works, in some capacity in the Kobuleti education. He tried to speak a few sentences of English to us and then fell into Russian with Translator (because she can speak Russian with the Georgians).
Since Pop teaches in the north end of Kobuleti, which is where the concert was, a bunch of his students were there. They were right at the front of the stage, waving and shouting. It was really cute. A couple of Sailors’ students were there as well, but they were grade 12's, which meant they were too cool to speak to a teacher in public. While we were hanging out back stage, a bunch of boys from Pop’s school came over to talk to him, though they weren’t actually his students. When I went over to say ‘hey’ a couple of them recognized me and knew what village I live in. A couple of weeks ago, that may have freaked me out, but now I’m used to it.
When we were ready to go, we flagged down a marshrutka, because we couldn’t find the one that brought us out there. We caused it to make many stops on the way through Kobuleti and when most of us got out at the bus station, I think the driver was relieved. We’d been at the concert long enough that I missed the last bus up the mountain, so Sailor and I split a taxi partway. She walked the rest of the way, and I carried on to my house.
At home, I ate. Dinner was a really good eggplant stew-type thing and french fries. Then I came upstairs and turned on the TV while I read another Stephen King short story. I watched Leno and the making of Spartacus, but I had a doozy of a headache, so I was in bed by 10:30.
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