An Easter to remember!

So a couple weeks ago we had a 3-day weekend! 6 friends and I went to Akhaltsikhe, a town a few hours away. The name means "new castle" which is actually kind of funny because while we were there they were renovating the castle from the 12th century. Anyway, we were staying there as our base for our trip to the cave city of Vardzia!

photo cred to my friend Tim

We arrived Saturday morning and spent the day just strolling around the town. There's not a whole lot to see there actually. We went into the historical district that was being completely demolished and re-done, which we found amusing since a historical district is suppose to be old, and well you know historical...
We tried to go into the castle area but all the construction workers would not allow it so we continued our walk  . A few moments later as we strolled up the dusty hill gold-toothed man called out to us "Buon giorno!"...umm...we yell it back and it all begins...

5 minutes later he is bringing us all bottles of beer...he asks us if we speak Russian, which none of us did, and we know a little Georgian. He continues to speak to us in Russian and some Georgian along with who knows what...this goes on for quite a while. After us numerous times telling him where we are from and that no we don't speak Russian it just becomes a hilarious situation.
We tell him about us being English teachers and so on and are talking to him for quite a while. A crowd of onlookers develops...

After this long memorable conversation we finally escape crazy drunk gold-toothed man and head on back into the center of town...
That night we enjoyed some Georgian food and some more interesting townfolk...there was just something about that town...anyway they ordered us more wine and some extra khinkali and they were just crazy!


The following morning we headed out to Vardzia! The six of us split into 2 taxis. This drive and the views were just incredible! We made a couple photo stops along the way lucky our drivers were pretty nice!

Then we arrived! Vardzia is an ancient cave monastery. It is said to have been founded by Queen Tamar in 1185. "According to legend, Queen Tamar got lost in the mountains as a child and her uncle went looking for her. He called out her name and she replied "I am here, uncle"-pronounced ac var dzia" the echo made "Vardzia" out of it.

We spent several hours there exploring, climbing in the caves, and got to witness a part of a service happening in the church which has 12th century wall paintings! Also, we got to adventure through tunnels in the caves which was wicked exciting, and made you feel like you were Indiana Jones!

We made 2 more stops on the way back. One at another monastery and then at Khertvisi Fortress.

That evening we all went for dinner at a restaurant with typical Georgian food. Later we were joined by 4 Georgians (someone that one of us or another had talked to sometime during the weekend) who turned this dinner into a grand 'ol supra! In addition to what we had ordered, the traditional food kept coming out. khachapuri (the cheese bread). bread, shashlik (skewers), etc etc and of course wine. I told you...something about this town....anyway it was yummy as usual! I was especially excited to order lobio (beans prepared with walnut, garlic, onion, various seasonings).

some serious toasting action!

All in all, a great 3 day weekend, and an Easter to remember for sure!

"the city of love"

A couple weeks ago 5 friends and I spent a lovely weekend in the town of Signaghi. I had been looking forward to this trip for weeks! One, check out the giant Caucasus mountains back there. It has such a small town Italian feel with its colors and architecture. It was so cute and quaint and  a nice change of pace from the city. 

the view up the street from the deck

We stayed an amazing guesthouse. The rooms were really nice and we had our own bathroom! The greatest  part was that this wasn't even planned. One of our friends who couldn't get into the hostel we were planning at staying at found this place. Once the rest of us had a look it was decided! We couldn't resist!

Of course being in the wine making region of Georgia, Kakheti, they brought us up some home-made wine. We chilled on the deck soaking in the sun and enjoying the peacefulness, views, and company. 

We spent the day strolling around the town through the winding cobbled streets. Stopped at St. Stephan's Church.

Also while walking around met and English teacher and had a nice little chat with her (she's in the middle her mom to the right)

That evening we went to a Mexican restaurant! It's run by a guy who lived in southern California for a while. It's his take on making Mexican food with Georgian ingredients. 

We all split the nachos, then I got a burrito and a sangria! Which were both delicious!!

The following day we went up to the Monastery of St. Nino. "According to Georgian tradition, St. Nino, having witnessed the conversion of Georgians to the Christian faith, withdrew to the Bodbe gorge, in Kakheti, where she died c. 338-340. A small monastery was built at the place where Nino was buried."

We then took a lovely hike down to the holy spring. What's better than an early morning hike! I was just so happy! After going from hiking every single day at home to not at all, my body was missing it like crazy!! I was loving every minute of it! Some moments I felt like I was back in NC hiking through the woods and it was wonderful!

the area around the spring at the end of the hike

The weekend sadly had to end but what a splendid weekend it was! I can see why this place is known by Georgians as "the city of love". I'm surely in love with this place now. 

“Always concentrate on how far you’ve come, rather than how far you have left to go.”

Ok so quick update! Trying to catch up! 

Alright so first (about a month ago, I know I'm behind), it finally snowed in Tbilisi! I did not think that was going to happen! It had been snowing tons in other places around Georgia and was just seriously freezing here, but we finally got some! Needless to say I was just a bit excited! It had been way too long since I’d seen snow since it was such a mild winter at home. The family and I ventured out for a walk around our neighborhood area. Also of course, the kids and I had a snowball fight! Haha it was great! Then played football (soccer) in the pouring down snow!! So much fun! I was one happy girl!

A couple days later friend and I went on a day trip to Gori, known as the birthplace of Joseph Stalin. When we first arrived it was snowing, but after about 10 minutes the sun came out. We walked around the town a bit then took a short ride to nearby Upleshikte, meaning fortress of the Lord. This is one of my favorite places in Georgia so far! It was incredibly cool! Its an ancient cave city that was quite a happening place 3000 years ago. It was founded in the 16th century BC and served as a stop along the Silk Road until the 15th century. It was so interesting! Being the off season we were the only 2 people there! So we had the whole place to ourselves! We explored and climbed around all in the all caves while also taking in the gorgeous surrounding views.

The following week was my littlest bro’s birthday! The night before the party I experienced shopping with the parents at the massive outdoor market in the city. I had explored it myself on a couple occasions but this was a memorable experience. It was neat to watch this process of shopping, and I mean it was quite the ordeal. There’s absolutely everything you could ever want or need. They went around buying mostly various fruits and vegetables. Also they got some chocolates, cookies, and they actually picked out a live fish from an aquarium to eat. Not something you see everyday!


That afternoon we all went to a closed amusement park. Yes everything was closed. I was just slightly confused. In my opinion, this is not a fun way for a 6 year old to spend his birthday.  He really wanted to go to McDonalds, but after the ridiculous amounts of cooking that had been happening that was no way an option.  So we walked around the park… it’s on the top of the mountain overlooking the city so there’s great views! This was basically photoshoot time for the family. It was crazy. After returning home, I finally got to help out in the kitchen for a little while! We finished getting the food ready then it was time to eat!!  It was delicious!! Also, I got to try home-made wine from the father’s family in the wine region of Georgia! Later, we danced for just a little bit, but most of the time was spent at the table. It was a great night!

         Alright, so teaching...I teach my family 3 nights a week. It's nice that I get to have complete control what I do with them versus the situation at school. It's great to be able to look over my CELTA notes and use what I've learnt along with doing new research.  It's such good practice to see ideas that work or not, to keep things in mind for future students, and planning and creating various lessons. Recently, the father is set on using these books they have. He is a challenge to deal with to say the least. He believes that he's going to be speaking some amazing kind of English after these 4 months are up. He doesn't realize at all the process of learning. It's become a struggle teaching at times. Some lessons are excellent and some not so much.

Anyway at school, it’s so fun to see how just the smallest activity can light up the day of the students! They just get so excited! From different games to songs to just me doing silly little things, they absolutely love it! These types of things are such a big change from typical styles of learning in the classrooms here. But once you show them the game EVERY single class they want to play it! Haha! They are so cute! It's definitely helping them though. I've done mostly games dealing with vocabulary. The teachers translate everything so the students barely hear English in the classroom. I talked to them about that so it's improved slightly for sure, but doing these has really helped the students learn English. It also displays for the teacher that saying everything in Georgian doesn't help the word stick in English. Many students could not recognize or remember even simple numbers and letters! These different methods of learning are so beneficial to the kids, it's really great! One of things that breaks my heart is to see how they separate the students by age and not by their English level. It's hard to watch some kids soaring through the book while others can barely read it all. It's a challenge for sure. There's just so much I want to do! I really just want to start all my classes over at the beginning of book 1 and go from there. It's difficult for me to express in words the exact situation in the school here. There is a lot I would like to change. It helps though to focus on all the things that have improved and changed over the past couple months and to see the progress and benefits of my presence here : ) 

"The world always looks brighter from behind a smile."

I know it's been quite a while, but it's not super easy for me to be somewhere with my laptop for a long period of time so first but first like I promised some pictures of my students! I'll have more later!

One of my 4th grade classes!

One of my 5th grade classes!

doing a cute little skit

Going back a few weeks....So International Women's Day, March 8^th, is a pretty big deal here in Georgia. First of all, there was no school! Hooray! Also, I received gifts from both my family and students. How sweet! That evening the whole family piled into the car, and made the trip to the zoo downtown!  We ate fried donuts with powdered sugar, rode 2 fair-like rides, and saw the animals, some I hadn’t seen before.  After,we went home 

crazy signs at the zoo

to have dinner followed by cake! After dinner, it was supra (traditional Georgian party/feast) time! At the neighbors across the way they were having a grand party! The table was overflowing with food, music was playing, and what’s a party without dancing! Even though I had just eaten at home, it was time to eat more! tchame! tchame! Eat Eat! You will know doubt always hear this while eating with Georgians. I had just a little bit, then it was time to dance! I danced to traditional music, sort of learning the moves, and also to modern music. Mostly, I was just soaking in this truly cultural experience!  It’s so incredible to see such strong traditions of the supra! During orientation we had learned about such occasions and it was so fantastic to be partaking in it! 

 The next night there was another party! A 9th grade class I had visited earlier that week had invited me to come to their party. It was also in celebration of women’s day! It was the whole class along with about 20 mothers! It took place at a restaurant near the school. The tables were once again full of traditional Georgian food, which was delicious, as usual. The music was blasting sounding like a club at times. Naturally there was tons of dancing, mostly to hip hop, and house music. There were also traditional Georgian music/dances! I loved watching them! That night, I learned an Armenian folk dance which was fun! We danced for hours! I showed them my “moves” and they were excited and didn’t want me to stop! The whole atmosphere of the evening was just so fun! It was definitely a night I will never forget! I'm so excited they invited me!

When I visited the class they put on a show for me! Filled with break dancing, beat boxing, traditional dancing, singing etc! It was so fun!

This is the one with the oldest writing

The weekend following the supras I went on 2 days trips. On Saturady to Bolnisi, about a 40 minute marshrutka ride from Tbilisi.  5 of us met in the city and made the journey to meet a couple friends who live there/near there. We spent the day marveling at ancient churches, enjoying the (slightly) warmer weather, and taking in the views of the surrounding mountains.  The churches there were incredibly old. We saw the oldest church in Georgia which is famous for having an inscription of the oldest written Georgian that has been found in the country (dated to 478-493). 

 Gotta love Georgian hospitality.  One of our friends needed to go back to his house to get clothes for his overnight stay in Tbilisi. We arrived at his home and were greeted with his Bebia (grandma)’s warm welcome.  After about 2 minutes she was already laying out the nice tablecloth and started bringing food out onto the table. We only had a short time before the last bus left so we shoveled down cake, some kind of bread with potato in it, an interesting jelly dish, some drinks then had to excuse ourselves to hurry back into town. After power walking and crazy taxi rides we made it to our bus and back to Tbilisi.  

Sunday a few of us took a short trip to nearby Mtskheta, Georgia's ancient capital.  The entire city has been made a UNESCO historical site. It's a beautiful historical small town filled with more ancient churches. Seeing a theme here…haha Georgia has loads of churches! The famous church here is from the 12th century. It's the Life-Giving Pillar Cathedral (Sveti Tskhoveli), one of the most sacred places in all of Georgia! 

It was a short and sweet trip that was nice to get out of the city again!

On another note, teaching has been getting better. I really got to step in and show them what I've got the past couple weeks. It's still very difficult but improving. I have seen the co-teachers start to imitate some of the things I do which is a good start. There's still adjusting to do in terms of school, home life, and overall culture. Since I've been here though I have am keeping the most positive attitude possible! It helps a great deal with dealing with everyday life. Each day I focus on the good things that happened during the day, something that really just made my day, and hold on to that.  The little kids' smiles and hugs sure do help a lot!  I don't concentrate on things that I'm upset about and can't change. It is what it is. I hold my head up high and keep a smile on my face! :)  I believe smiling on the outside really can make you feel better inside!


Well that's all for now! Since this post is already long I'll try to update the past couple weeks asap in the next post!