Another Post

This is officially the first time I have been completely alone in my house. The weather is great today, but I just can’t bring myself to sit outside when I know that I can be in my living room by myself, no one looking over my shoulder or asking me what I’m doing. In a way of celebrating, I put my entire music collection on shuffle, served myself a plate of Halva (sweet sunflower-seed candy), and am currently reveling in the fact that no one is making me eat it at light-speed. I also made a triple-sized Turkish coffee with no sugar (blasphemous in a way, but I’m so sick of tiny cups of coffee loaded with more sugar than the cookies I drink it with)


Things Happening
- My host grandfather’s relatives came to visit us for four days… but they arrived almost two weeks ago and they are still here.
- I'm going on my first Georgian train trip this weekend: To Gori to visit the Stalin Museum.
- I am planning a week-long trip to Turkey during Easter break
- I'll try to blog about something pertinent and interesting sometime soon (besides food, but that one is coming too!)


I love you all,
Sarah

ქუტაისი

I am not posting about food, no worries --- I have a whole post dedicated to that later on. This weekend was our (not-so) secret exclusive teacher's party in Kutaisi! We ate, sang, danced, played games, and I was pretty much clueless the whole time since it was all in Georgian. I did manage, however, to recite a Georgian poem and give a short speech professing my love for this awesome little country. It went something like this: "I know a little bit of Georgian, so I will speak a little bit of Georgian now. I really like Georgia. I like the language, the food, the dancing, I love all of it. Thank you so much, I am very happy here." But, you know, it sounds more impressive when you hear it in Georgian, along with a cool poem. I would write it for you, but my Georgian spelling is awful.




After the concert-party-conference thing, I joined some friends in the city and spent the next day doing the usual... sleeping in at our favorite hostel and wandering around the city thinking about getting coffee. This time we mixed it up by going to the amusement park at the top of the mountain, via cable-car. Since the snow is finally gone, the Ferris wheel was up and running. We also found a bear --- kind of sad, but a handsome guy. We gave him an apple.


Time for a dance lesson, have to run!

Love,
Sarah

In which I climb a mountain and buy some books

Last weekend was a weekend which means, as it usually does, traveling. This weekend I opted for Tbilisi, seeing as last time I was there I was never able to see it in the daylight. I managed to get a friend of mine to travel with me, which I must say, is much more convenient than traveling in a group of 22 (see my brief post of photos from Bakuriani). I missed the train, but luckily found a man who also couldn’t get a ticket and we finagled our way onto a marshutka (minibus) headed to Tbilisi. He gave me a lovely charm of the Madonna to keep any further misfortune from my path, and provided me with some Russian conversation during the 4-hour ride through the mountains. From there I met my friend at the bus station, hopped on the metro, and for two days we explored the city as much as possible. We started with the English book-shop (a God-send, since I have been reading novels adapted for high-school English learners) and picked up Robinson Crusoe and Sense and Sensibility. I finished the first within three days of returning to my village, so it’s a good thing I bought two… After that we decided to take a hike up the many stairs that go up the mountainside to various churches, ruins, and Mother Georgia (much like the Mother of the Motherland in Kiev) The views were great, here are the photos --- Enjoy!

Love,

Sarah

Gaumarjos, Gogoebis!

Georgia celebrates this wonderful holiday, as I realize many other countries besides the USA celebrate, of International Women’s Day. The fact that is is less than a week after Georgian Mother’s day doesn’t put a damper on any of the celebrations, either. School is cancelled for a public holiday, and my host mother and grandmother prepared a HUGE and delicious meal for ourselves and our female neighbors who came to visit. The special dish of the evening was Atchma (Adjaruli Khachipurri) which is a special kind of that wonderful cheese-bread I keep talking about. I took a video of my host gradmother/mother making it, since it was so impressive. It involves rolling and stretching six layers of dough, dropping them in boiling water to temper them, and then laying them out on top of each other with layers of cheese in between. Then you cover it in melted butter (of course!) and bake it. Man, do I love food.

Speaking of food, my host mother made a beautiful cake, supplied us with her homemade fruit liqueur, plenty of freshly baked bread and beautiful salads (…and some boiled pork fat, but I usually ignore that mart of any meal). This is, if I may point out, a drinking culture, especially on special occasions such as this. My host mother had me drink with her in a linked-arm fashion that is symbolic of great friendship, so that was cool. After many toasts to all the female relations and friends we could think of (including multiple toasts made by Georgians to my sister and mother in France and the USA, Hey guys!) my neighbor made a very nice toast to me, saying that “We love you, Sarah. Yes, we had Tatiana before you, and we all loved her too, but you are so different --- you are really like a Georgian.” I told her this was a great compliment, as I love Georgian people so much, and from there we drank our glasses of homemade liqueur to the bottom (as is the custom here when someone makes a toast). I also found that my Georgian neighbor ladies are very much lightweights --- Even compared to yours truly, who falls asleep after a second glass of wine.

So, Cheers to all my ladies out there --- you know who you are. I love you all!

Sarah

February Review

So, I've been keeping a word document of random thoughts that I've had throughout my first month here in Georgia. Here is the list, for your perusal/amusement/confusion.

- I imaging that, relative to the Georgian language, my Mother speaks with a sort of South-Carolina accent.

- I have thus far avoided eating the chunks of boiled pig face, but eventually there will be a day when I cannot refuse. I am sure of this.

- The Georgian word for Mom is "Deda" and the word for Dad is "Mama." This is ridiculously confusing for all parties in a translation setting. I also feel strange writing "Papa Dato" when in actuality I call him "Mama."

- Georgian people love eating, and they eat insanely fast. Dinner is over in a matter of minutes, but everyone inhales more food than I can even imagine consuming in one sitting. I also find myself having 2-3 dinners every evening.

- I recently found out that although I teach in the Nabakevi school, visible from my home window, I do not live in Nabakevi. Nor do I live in Kulashi, which is apparently across the street from the school. I was told the name of my village, but I forgot because it was too hard to say. I also don't have an address. In short: I don't know where I live.

- I just watched my host grandfather eat what must have been at least one whole chicken, carefully picking out the little bones from his mouth and arranging them in a pile. That is, until the last few bites when he decided not to bother and crunched up all the bones with his teeth until they were small enough to swallow. Go Grandpa.

- A number of television shows and commercials rip off music from Western news stations/TV shows/Movies. There is a frequent bank commercial that plays an awkward variation of the theme from “Pirates of the Caribbean” and the main news station has the same entrance as one of the big ones in the US I’m sure, I just can’t remember which one… (DUN. Dun, dun, dunDUN!)

- Why do people always ask me if I have Servants?

- I think it’s much less stressful to learn a language when you aren’t incredibly invested in the outcome of your language learning. It’s cool learning Georgian, but learning it wasn’t the point of my trip, so I’m not ever stressed out about it like I was in Russia. As a result, I'm a lot more comfortable using it and making mistakes. Am I learning this faster than I learned Russian?

- Today I ate fish-jerky. Dried salted anchovies. With beer. Papa Dato is winning the family favorite battle.

One month down, three to go! Another post like this coming at the end of March.

Love,
Sarah

Bakuriani

Yeah, this weekend I went skiing. It was tight. Here are some pics --- Enjoy!