Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Things I'll Miss


გამარჯობა მეგობარები!

Hello friends!

In my last post I described some of the things I’m happily leaving here in Georgia when I start to make the trek home in a few days (!).  But, it turns out that I’m going to miss a lot more than I had ever imagined from the past four months:

How cheap everything is: literally a bottle of water is like 80 cents USD; can’t beat that price.  The value of an American dollar can go far here so it’s been nice being able to afford almost whatever I want.

Grape Lemonade: Georgians have their version of pop/soda called Lemonade (pronounced like "leemonaday," not like the English pronounciation).  They come in a variety of cool flavors such as grape, pear, lemon, tarragon, peach, orange, and cream.  The grape flavor is my favorite followed closely by the minty tarragon flavor.  I’ll have to find a Russian store or something that might carry these in the States.



Mountains outside my window: I’ve never lived near mountains before Georgia, and I think it’s actually disappointing.  They are so beautiful!!!  It’s been amazing to see them every day from my window, on the walk to/from school and on marshrutka rides (Georgia’s pretty mountainous).  They are even more awesome when they are snow-capped!

There was snow on the mountains at least!

Donkeys: One of the main animals in the village and highly underrated in terms of overall animal cuteness.  I’m going to miss seeing them pull carts along the road.  I mean please, look at this Google image of a baby donkey and its mother:



Daily Turkish coffee with Tamila: It’s become this ritual between the two of us to have coffee together once a day.  It might be in the morning, or later in the afternoon after lunch (usually our neighbors Maia and Nino join for the afternoon).  Usually I take the task of grinding the beans and Tamila watches over it on the stove.  It’s a nice break for the two of us that I’ll miss.

Also, the Turkish coffee: never had it before coming here, but it’s been a good way to satisfy my caffeine addiction in lieu of my normal American coffee and I can make it back in the States if anyone is curious about it!

Khinkali: my favorite Georgian food.  Little dumplings filled with meat or potatoes or mushrooms (!).  I mean, what’s not to like!?  I’ll have to find a recipe online so that everyone back home can get a little taste, but I think I’ll have to work on my dough gathering technique first.

Adjarian Khachapuri: I’ve only had it twice during my whole time here, but I think it’s the best khachapuri.  The addition of the egg just adds a special taste to it.  Again, I’ll have to find a recipe online!

Let’s face it; I’m probably going to miss all Georgian food in general: While Georgian food and my digestive system have had a love-hate relationship this whole time, I think I’m seriously going to miss the food, especially cooked by hand by a Georgian woman.  Basically I’ve been eating home-grown, and hand-made organic food for four months, which is awesome.

Hanging out with 12 year old Luka: Chemi kartveli dzma (My Georgian brother) can literally make a game out of anything.  Have a paper ball?  We’ll play soccer and rugby in the living room with our house slippers as goal posts.  Have some Backgammon pieces?  We’ll shoot those across the living room and then see how many we can hold in one hand.  A pair of dice?  We’ll take turns spinning them to see how long each one lasts.  Might be considered boring in other places, but with a lack of toys in general you have to figure out something.  His imagination is awesome and fun to be around and reminds me that you can (and should) have fun without watching TV or playing video games all the time.

The friendliness and kindness of Georgians: Before I came here I read blogs about people’s experiences with these hospitable people, but I think it’s hard to believe until you are actually here.  Georgian society is largely based on helping out your neighbor if they need anything, and I’ve seen examples of that every day both big and small.  It’s not every day in the States that people will give you a seat in a marshrutka rented out by the National Movement party to take you to Tbilisi for free, while giving you cookies and candy the whole way there.  But things like that happen here.  People are kind enough to bring you extra food they made, are happy to try and talk to you in English, to help you find the right marshrutka at the overwhelming bus stops and are willing to walk you all the way back to the hostel when you are lost.  Definitely a big cultural difference I’ve noticed while being here.

My students:  They may not study enough or hardly ever do their homework, but the students have taught me so much over the past four months about Georgian culture and teaching in general.  They’re always so eager to interact with me and always want to say “Hello!”  The young first graders are learning so much so fast, and I am able to have full on conversations with some of the older students I teach.  It’s been really great to teach them English and I hope they will want to continue learning English after I’m gone.

And I think it really goes without saying that I’m going to miss my host family:  I seriously lucked out with this bunch.  Seriously.  They have treated me like family since I first stepped out of the car and go above and beyond anything I had ever imagined from living with a host family.  They’ve been super accommodating and understanding especially during those moments when the language barrier has been frustrating.  We’ve learned so much from each other just by trying to piece things together with the help from a Georgian-English dictionary.  We’ve already exchanged Skype names and they’ve made me promise that I’ll visit them again, so I think the past four months have been great for all of us.

Again, there is probably so much more I’ll miss about the life I’ve created here but a lot of that may become more recognizable in the coming weeks and months when I’m back home in America.  Only 4 more days!

kargard!

Kelsey

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Things Better Left Behind


გამარჯობა მეგობარები!

Hello friends!

I hope you are all getting into the holiday spirit wherever you are!  We’re in the single-digits in the “Countdown until Kelsey comes home!”  As the days are winding down I’ve been thinking a lot about my time here and what I’m going to miss the most and what I’m happily leaving behind here in Georgia.  I know a lot of you will have questions for when I get back about these same things, but here’s just a brief smattering of the things associated with Georgia that I’ll happily leave here:

The lack of recycling and the plethora of trash everywhere: Georgians are super proud of how beautiful they think their country is and one guy on the marshrutka ride to Kazbegi even said, “Georgia is a gift from God himself” but why do they think throwing trash and litter wherever they want is adding to the beauty?  I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve looked out the window of a marshurtka and seen piles of trash everywhere.  And the thought of recycling something? That doesn’t even exist here yet.  In the coming future I hope that they’ll become more conscious of how they dispose of their trash.

Lack of exercise: again something that just doesn’t really exist in Georgia is exercise.  I know a few other volunteers who have attempted to go running in their villages only to have neighbors yell at them to come inside and sit down, to have cars stop to try and pick them up and to have the stray dogs running along right behind them.  I’ll be glad to get back into some sort of running routine when I get back; I’ve missed it very dearly.

Bathrooms that smell bad:  Plumbing is still being figured out over here so a lot of the time the bathrooms smell horrendous (Most of the time toilet paper has to be placed in a small trashcan nearby instead of being flushed, which is a huge contributor to the smell).  Not to mention the occasional Turkish toilet one might have to use in a desperate situation.  I’ve been (very) lucky to have a lovely fully-functioning Western bathroom here with the family, but elsewhere in Georgia is a different story. 

Being guilted to eat food placed in front of me:  Nothing seems to make Tamila happier than seeing me eating all the food she has so graciously prepared for me, however since I don’t have an endless pit for a stomach I eventually become full.  But a full stomach isn't a good excuse for a Georgian woman (neither is, “I literally ate 10 minutes ago” or “I’ve already had five cookies” or “I’m literally not hungry.”)

Here’s an example of a conversation Tamila and I have had all too often:

Tamila sets a plate in front of me and lays out a huge plate of khachapuri or other various Georgian delicacies. 
Tamila: “Eat please khachapuri Kelsey eat!”
Kelsey: “Ohhhh, I’m not hungry.”
Tamila: “Ratom?! You love khachapuri!” (Why? In Georgian)
Kelsey: “Yeah, but I don’t want it now.”
Tamila (resorting to Georgian): “chame, Kelsey, chame!” (Eat, Kelsey, eat! in Georgian)
Kelsey (resorting to Georgian as well): “ar minda akhla” (I don’t want now)
Tamila:  “It is veryyyyy tasty!” while moving the plate more towards me.
Kelsey: muttering unintelligible words/noises since I have no idea what else to say in Georgian or English that she’ll just understand that I don’t want it now.  I've also tried to gesture and charade with my hands, but to no avail (other than probably looking hysterical).
Tamila (in a last ditch effort and not taking to the charades): “But I make just for you!

Damn it.  She pulls at the dreaded “I make just for you” which gets me every. single. time.  How can I say no when she's put love and valuable time into making the dish? We spend several seconds staring each other down before I finally give in and grab a piece of khachapuri.  Needless to say, I'll be happy to get back into my own schedule of eating what and when I want to.

Being questioned by every female if I want a Georgian husband:  Like any other celebrity who decides to spend four months in a small rural village, my love life is a huge topic of discussion here.  Every Georgian woman I’ve met is very interested to know if I am married or not.  I’m not kidding, it’s like one of the first questions I get asked by new people.  “Are you married?”  “No?! Do you have a boyfriend?”  Basically an unmarried 22 year old woman is a little atypical in the villages where some people get married when they are 16 (or younger I’ve heard…).  While I tell them that I have a boyfriend (Hi Nick!), they are quick (too quick really) to suggest whether I want a Georgian boyfriend.  “Oh, nice Georgian boy, shen ginda? (you want?)”  Um, didn’t I just tell you have a boyfriend, even his name and even what he does for a living? Sometimes they are pretty persistent and only back off when Tamila/Nino/Margo interject and reinforce that I really don’t want/need another boyfriend.  I know a few married English teachers (where their spouses are back in the U.S.) and they’ve been asked before if they want a Georgian husband/wife in addition to the one they have at home!  Crazy right?!  It’s just been more of an annoying thing to address after about the 3rd time it happened.

Being terrified of dogs: During orientation they kinda freaked us all out when they told us to avoid the stray dogs that roam around this country since there is a huge chance they could have rabies and if they bite you….well, there goes 6 months of not drinking alcohol after a rabies shot.  This has prevented me from attempted to run around the village (scared of dogs following me) and makes the walk to and from school more stressful if there are the usual 5-6 stray dogs on the road.  I haven’t had any troubles with dogs (like having to throw rocks at them to get them to scat), but I’ll be glad to return to the idea that not every dog I see could have rabies.  (And I just want to cuddle with my dog Toby let’s be honest.)

The non-morning person side of Luka:  There are many sides to my 12 year old host brother and the one that I’m happy to get away from is the non-morning person Luka who has the same argument with Tamila each morning about not wanting to eat breakfast, about not wanting to put on pants just yet (he’d rather stand by the fire for just a little bit longer!), still makes Tamila pick out his clothes each day and somehow persuades her to tie his shoes.  Every day I’ve seen this nonsense.  Now maybe it comes down to different cultures ideas of how to raise children or maybe Luka is just a spoiled brat.  Regardless it's been interesting to compare how Luka is being raised and how my sister and I were raised but honestly this stuff I see every day at breakfast drives me crazy.  So while I’m sure it will continue to happen long after I leave, but I’m gladly leaving it behind.

There are probably a slew of other things I’m happy to be leaving, but right now I’m trying to focus on and cherish all that I am going to miss when I leave the village next Friday to begin the long journey home.  I’m hoping to start a little post for you all in the next few days about some of the things I’m going to miss dearly when I leave.  In the meantime, I’m going to go sit by the fire and enjoy the fact that it’s finally snowing here!

kargad,
Kelsey

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Warsaw, Georgia, and Armenia in Black and White


გამარჯობა მეგობარები!

Hello friends!

It's been a pretty boring Saturday here in Apeni.  I was feeling a bit artistic and went through all my photos I've taken and made some of them in black and white.  I love photography even though I'm definitely nowhere near professional.  For having a simple digital camera I think these look great, and the black and white just make everything look cool.  After talking with another TLG friend, I'm thinking of investing in a picture book of photos from this four month adventure like the ones you can see on Shutterfly or elsewhere.  Click on the pictures to make them bigger!

Warsaw

Warsaw

Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Batumi

Batumi

Batumi

Batumi/Black Sea

Gori 

David Gareja

David Gareja

Apeni

Vardzia

Kazbegi

Kazbegi

Mtskheta

Mtskheta

Mtskheta

Mtskheta

I think Mtskheta

Mtskheta

Rabati

Rabati

Rabati

Armenia-Garni

Armenia-Geghard

Armenia-Yerevan

Armenia- Yerevan

Armenia-Yerevan

Armenia-Yerevan


I've been to some beautiful places haven't I?  More soon...

kargad,
Kelsey

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Bits and Pieces of Georgian Life


გამარჯობა მეგობარები!

Hello friends!

There are officially 17 days remaining on my Georgian adventure! SO CRAZY RIGHT?  Sometimes when I think about it, it feels like I just got here really.  But since things are settling down I’ve decided to spend more time with my host family in the midst of my immediate departure so no real awesome adventures of climbing mountains and exploring caves to retell for you all now.  But I thought I would share some little random tidbits of life that’s been happening here in Apeni:

I was walking home from the marshrutka stop last Saturday and as I turned the corner to my street a small second grade student of mine, Goga was walking with two other kids (who probably go to the other school in my village).  As soon as he recognized me he lifted up his arms (mind you he’s about 3 feet tall) and yelled “KELSEY!!”  It put a huge smile on my face.  As I got closer we exchanged “Hello’s” and as I walked away I heard him saying to his friends, “chemi mastsavlebeli” or “my teacher” in Georgian.  It always warms my heart a little to hear my students speaking English to me outside of the classroom (and being super excited to see me on the street!).

Ever since Luka found out I played soccer for one year back in 5th grade he’s introduced me to the computer soccer game he likes to play with his friends.  He always lets me be either Madrid or Barcelona and corrects my mistakes in placing the players on the field (“Kelsey, Kelsey, no, no, no” before grabbing the controller).  

After beating me soundly on the computer version of soccer Luka and I have advanced to playing a very simplified version in the living room.  We use our house slippers as goal posts and make a ball out of paper.  When you live in a developing country you gotta make do with what you’ve got!  He’s a pretty good player for a twelve year old, and once again beats me every time.

Not to mention the fact that Luka also beats me in chess and checkers almost every time.  I have him beat in Backgammon though (called “nardi” in Georgian).  I've learned how to play the game while being here and it's really fun!  Not at all an "old person's game."

The weather is getting colder over here so the wood stove (a pechki) has been placed in the kitchen area.  It’s nice and toasty in there and apparently I’m pretty good at keeping it going (a new life skill if you will).  Tamila complimented me with an “ocha, Kelsey, ocha” the other day when she noticed how great my fire-tending skills are.  Nobody gettin’ cold on my watch! (I’m not sure what “ocha” translates to in English, but the teachers always say it to the students who do a great job at something).

Speaking of heat, the host parents have given me a space heater for my bedroom.  I heat that baby up for a few hours before I go to bed and now I'm not shivering when I go to sleep!

I’ve already talked about this with some of you back home but my host family is also currently raising about 20 pigs in the backyard.  Their main hangout place is right below my bedroom window.  They mainly spend their time wandering around the grape vines and burrowing into the dirt with their noses.  Sometimes I swear there are about 30 pigs out there (where do they come from?), but they aren’t really that noisy or smelly (granted I never open my window on account of the cold now).  Apparently we’re feeding the whole village for New Year’s Eve dinner.

More awesome Georgian food: Tamila has started bringing out some canned fruit juice lately and it’s really good.  So far only peach and raspberry juices have made an appearance at the dinner table; the little pieces of fruit after drinking the juice are a nice treat.  Going to try and find some sort of recipe for this so I can make it in the States!

Another new food Tamila has introduced is muraba.  This is like candied fruit and nuts in a sugary water/syrup.  Sounds great right?  It’s actually pretty good.  I’ve tried a cherry one with a pecan-type nut in the middle, a big black nut muraba whose name I can’t remember and I’ve had a watermelon muraba which was…interesting (the watermelon is a weird greenish-yellow color and doesn’t really taste like much other than sugar).  There’s also a variation of this that can be put into tea which is really good!  The raspberry and cherry ones are the best so far!

Finally got around to telling my co-teachers Nino and Margo when I’m leaving Georgia.  They both were pretty sad to hear the finalized date of the 23rd (they’ve known the whole time I would be leaving in December) and Margo even exclaimed, “Oh don’t go, I love you!”

When I told my host family when I would be leaving I think Tamila took it as 20 days left for her to feed me.  After she found out she proceeded to give me mtchadi and cheese and tell me how skinny I am.

Random Thing of the Week: My school has decided to change the school day start time to 9:30am and has shorten each class period from 45 to 40 minutes.  No real rhyme or reason was given (other than it becoming dark earlier), but at least I get to sleep in a little more now.

My 5th grade class is on the Level 3 English book and we’ve finally arrived to the unit in the book that begins with a story about American pioneers.  It’s a bit random and it’s missing a bit of the proper history concerning the time period, but I guess they don’t need to know in-depth American History when they have like 1000s of years of Georgian history to understand first.

In an effort to start the first graders off right when it comes to learning English I made them all a set of homemade alphabet flashcards to use at home!  I cut index cards in half, wrote the English letter on one side and then drew the picture from their textbooks that correspond with each letter.  I may not be the greatest artist but if it helps them learn their letters more quickly, then AWESOME.  They seem to love them!  They bring them to class every day and we do exercises with them (like, “Hold up letter H!”).

My flashcards!


When I have some spare time I've been frantically searching for jobs online for when I return to the States and to Ann Arbor.  I can’t really do much while I’m still all the way over here and 9 hours ahead but at least I’m getting a heads start!

Can’t believe the end is so near!  Hopefully I will have a few more posts for you soon!

kargad! (“Bye!” in Georgian)

Kelsey








Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Awesome Armenia!


გამარჯობა მეგობარები!

Hello friends!

I hope everyone in the States had a lovely and relaxing Thanksgiving holiday! I seriously missed the time spent with family and eating some good old-fashioned turkey and stuffing!  BUT I made up for it by travelling to Armenia this past weekend!  Armenia is the country located south of Georgia with a population of about 3.2 million people.  It’s also the first country to adopt Christianity as the state religion in 301.  It’s a simple marshrutka ride or night train from Tbilisi and the value of the US dollar goes far there, so why not visit?  (Fun fact about the Armenian people: They are world-wide chess champions and take it as a class in school!)

Early Friday morning my fellow TLG friends from orientation Daylene, Nombulelo and I caught the first marshrutka out of Tbilisi for Armenia.  After a quick hour and a half we found ourselves at the border and smoothly made the transition to Armenia for the small price of an Armenian visa (3,000 Dram or the equivalent of $8).  What ensued next was a 4-5 hour drive through Armenia to reach the capital of Yerevan.  Armenia is a really rocky country with a ton of mountains everywhere (most of them with snow-covered tops!!) so the drive was really pretty and would have been lovelier to take in the middle of fall with all the changing colors!  We eventually made it to the bustling city of Yerevan.  Over one million people live here and it’s apparently one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, dating back to the 8th century BC?!  Who knew?

We started off by finding our hostel and purchasing our train tickets for the Saturday night train back to Tbilisi.  Much of Friday was spent just exploring the city.  We made our way to Republic Square in the heart of Yerevan.  There’s a big history and art museum and a huge fountain during the warmer summer months. 

This is the National Gallery and History Museum

Republic Square Roundabout
As we walked the three of us definitely took note of the differences between this capital city and Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital that we’ve spent quite a bit of time in.  Although we only saw a portion of Yerevan it was interesting to note that there were paved sidewalks everywhere (we didn’t have to continually look at the ground to make sure we didn’t trip on broken concrete), pedestrians had the right of way when crossing the street and the sound of blaring car horns were sporadic.  Additionally, expensive shops like Burberry and Armani were also newly built for the richer population to peruse.  It’s the little things we notice when we change environments now; I wonder what I will notice most when I return to the States. 

We eventually made our way to the Yerevan Cascade area of town where a large park area is home to many statues and surrounding restaurants (I counted a total of three KFCs and a Pizza Hut while there).  The Cascade is a huge monument of steps that has been in construction since the 1970s yet still remains unfinished at the top.  Each phase of the monument contains different works of art.  We enjoyed looking around at the variety of sculptures and statues before climbing up the steps of the Cascade to get a great view of the city and the distance Mount Ararat (which is technically more in Turkish territory).  Mount Ararat is believed to be the Biblical resting place of Noah’s Ark. 


Cool sculpture made of metal letters.

The Cascade steps


Each level of the Cascade has different sculptures and things 

Here's another level

Yerevan at sunset.  Mount Ararat is the little hump above the clouds in the distance
On Saturdays our hostel hosts an “Essential Armenia” tour for the equivalent of about $40 which took us to five places around Armenia.  Along with about 15 other people we headed out bright and early to Lake Sevan, the largest lake in Armenia and one of the highest fresh-water lakes in terms of elevation in the world.  We first visited the monastery of Sevanavank which was completed in the 9th century.  The surrounding view of Lake Sevan and the snow-capped mountains were really amazing!  The weather was pretty cold (maybe 40 degrees) but the sky was so clear and the sun was shining—can’t complain about that!  

Examples of Armenia Cross-Stones that decorate the graves here

Sevanavank


Lake Sevan and the President's summer house
Our next stop was another 9th century monastery Hayravank also located on Lake Sevan.  We finished the first half of the tour by going to the Noratus cemetery.  The first graves stones here date back to the 10th century and it contains the largest amount of khachkars (or tomb stones decorated with crosses) in Armenia.  All twenty or so of us then piled into the Armenian home in the village of Lchashen where a lovely family cooked us all lunch.  There was soup, bread, cheese and chicken, so needless to say, it reminded me a lot of meals I eat in Georgia.

Hayravank Monastery


the cemetary 

Some more cross-stones 

This stone depicts the murder of a couple at their wedding party when a man on a horse crashed the place and killed everyone.
 Our final two stops of the day were really impressive.  We drove to the other side of Yerevan where we saw Garni temple.  The area surrounding Garni has been inhabited since 3000BC and the temple that remains today was probably built in the first century AD and was the summer residence of past rulers.  Next to it are ruins of a church built in the fourth century and a bathhouse that contains a Greek-inspired mosaic.  It definitely looked as though it was inspired by buildings and monuments one would see in Greece like the Parthenon!  While Garni was awesome to look at, the surrounding mountains and trees were even more beautiful and the remaining fall colors were still there!


Garni

Garni with some of the church ruins around it.

The awesome view!




More awesome views!
 Our final stop of the day was Geghard monastery.  While the monastery was founded in the 4th century by Saint Gregory the Illuminator, the impressive construction of the church (literally carved into the mountain) began in the 12th century.  We toured the church area and it was amazing to think that this was all carved by hand and without the modern tools of something like dynamite or machines! 



All of this was carved from the mountian


After Geghard, we had enough time to return to Yerevan and shop a little for souvenirs before catching the night train back to Tbilisi.  I was really happy I got to make this trip, Armenia proved to be a great little escape and such a beautiful country!  It was short and sweet and spent with good company!  I’m officially under a month until I return to the States so I’m hoping to spend more time with my host family until we have to say goodbye!

nakvamdis!

Kelsey

P.S. If you’re a future Teach and Learn with Georgia (TLG) participant I highly recommend Envoy Hostel in Yerevan if you get the chance to travel here!  Super clean, super friendly and great tours for a great price!