...I think I'll write a blog. SO I've been absent from blogging because I've been busy figuring out Georgian life. Now that I've been here long enough to be able to communicate with strangers semi-effectively and long enough to want to complain about things, I feel like I can accurately portray things.
So first, school. It was SUPER overwhelming at first, but I've gotten into the groove of things and know I'm definitely a teacher because little kids shout "HELLO! HOW OLD ARE YOU!?" at me while I walk down the street. Hahaha. Most of them call me Linds too, which is kind of nice. Feels like home. There's a funny reason for that though. In Georgian, if you refer to a person, you add "i" to the end of their name. Justini Bieberi, for example. So I think when the teacher said, "this is Lindsay" they assumed it was "Lindsi" and if you're speaking to someone directly, you drop the i. Haha so for example, "Justin Bieber, how are you today?". So when they speak TO me, they just drop the "i" at the end of my name. Hahaha. I kind of like it. I was a little wary of one of the teachers at first, but she has since told me she would really like me to help her improve on her teaching and she looks forward to being more effective co-teachers. THAT was a huge surprise and I like her exponentially more now. She's actually helping me teach some of the other TEACHERS English. We've started a kind of teacher's English club, where some interested teachers (6 or 7 of them) meet and we practice their English. I'm REALLY excited about it. We met for the first time today and they were SUPER psyched to start speaking better English. Hahaha best students I've had so far! AND THEN (today was a good day for teaching haha) I've even managed to get the other English teachers to agree to put on a Christmas program for the parents and other students!! They were so excited about the idea they were getting giddy by the end of our conversation. They want sing alongs, poetry, skits, the whole 9 yards. If it works out like they want it to, it's going to be a LOT of fun. I haven't told them yet, but I'd like to make some cookies and stuff to bring to provide for the students and parents : )
Second, friends. I've been hanging out with my house sister Khatia and our neighbor Maia and I really enjoy hanging out with both of them. Khatia is a little (well, lot... by American standards haha) immature I would say for being a 20 year old. But it works out just find because we end up just goofing around. For example, last night we went to Maia's and her guy friend drove his marshutka up her to apartment and called her on her cell phone... what followed was ridiculous laughter and Khatia and Maia flirting with her friend. Hahaha. It was pretty hilarious if you ask me. It was dark outside so you couldn't see inside the marshutka and it felt like a disney movie where the marshutka actually came to visit, not some real person inside it. Which brings me to my third topic, transportation.
I haven't written too much about cars and transportation in Georgia, but I have had some seriously ridiculous adventures already, one of which involved me actually thinking I was going to accidentally end up in Azerbaijan because I started seeing signs for the border. HA! Since my Georgian is so bad, if I don't know where I'm going, I usually just walk around and hand the phone to some able-bodied looking Georgian guy, he talks to my host sister, and then he directs me to where I need to go using hand motions and Russian. Hahaha. It's worked out pretty well thus far! If you're willing to take marshutkas everywhere, you can travel REALLY cheaply. They just don't have any ACTUAL stops, so you have to know when to tell your marshutka driver when to stop or he just won't. It's a pretty fun adventure every time you step in one of those things. That and gross. Usually pretty gross too. Marshutkas are old and the driver is usually smoking haha.
Wow, so this post makes Georgia seem super rosy and easy, so let me just disclaim that it's got it's fair share of, um, quirks as well. Starting with the fact that it seems like I'm always THE only person that is cold. I asked a student today (weather of 30 degrees, maybe even lower) if it was cold outside, to which he replied no. Thinking he didn't understand the English, I repeated myself, and he proceeded to tell me in Russian that he was, in fact, NOT cold, wearing his jean jacket and t-shirt. HAHA. I was practically shivering in my WINTER COAT in that classroom! The schools don't really have heat. And if they do, they're waiting an awful long time to turn it on. It's already started snowing in the mountains.
Also I will gain 897489324 pounds while I'm here. The words I use the most in Georgian are probably "ar minda", in English, "I don't want it"... but I have to say it forcefully or no one listens at ALL. Haha they take a LOT of pride in the fact that they WILL make me fat before I leave Georgia. Greaaatttt.
Finally, I think I'm going to wrap this up before the internet goes away and I've gone another day with no blogging : )
I'll hopefully be blogging more and giving better detail of my day-to-day life. Some details I'm sure you won't believe. Living in Georgia so far is sort of like living in a constant hyperbole. It is downright ridiculous a lot of the time. Hahaha.
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