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