Stalin was a Handsome Devil

Hello, all! Georgia is still treating me wonderfully, and I’m trying to take as many pictures and keep in touch with everyone as much as possible (Sorry for the lack of emailing/facebooking/skyping, it’s just that those applications tend to use more internet than I usually have access to.)

I just hit the half-way mark for my stay in Georgia. Whenever I hit this point I have the same paradoxical thoughts of “Haven’t I lived here, like, forever?” and “Didn’t I just get here, like, yesterday?” Not to be discouraged by the fact that I only have two months left in this wonderful place, I packed my bags and went to Gori for the weekend.

I arrived in Gori by train, which was an adventure in itself. Not only did I get to admire the beautiful mountain scenery as we crossed half the country, I also sat next to a nice family with an 8-year-old daughter who practiced her English with me for a good part of the 4 1/2-hour ride. Her parents bought me a khachapurri and we talked about the challenges of language barriers in the classroom (while we struggled with a language barrier ourselves).

Gori is the hometown of Stalin (Did you know he was Georgian?) and the center of the city was actually build around the house he was born in. Behind the house is a huge museum of Stalin’s life, which opened while he was still alive, and almost makes you admire the guy. Joking aside, I learned a lot and it was more interesting than I expected. Also, have you seen any pictures of Stalin when he was young? He was dangerously good looking. Here's his house:

Some other highlights of the trip were climbing to the fortress on the edge of town, eating ice-cream on the city catwalk, meeting a bunch of other TLG teachers, and going to the circus! I haven’t been to a circus since I was five, and since we made friends with one of the acrobats we were given free front-row seats and popcorn. I bought myself a cotton-candy to complete the experience and thoroughly enjoyed the show --- especially the looks on the children’s faces as they stared up at the acrobats.

On my way to Turkey next week --- Take care, I love you all!

Sarah