"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! 

"it's the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary"

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

This always happens when I am living/traveling abroad and it's one of the things I really love. You really appreciate so much! Especially the smallest things. In everyday life at home, I know how much I take things for granted! All the time. It reminds me how fortunate I truly am. Occasionally I stop to think about things,or remember previous times and places of living in different situations, and appreciate the moment...but i know for sure I'm not as grateful as I should be! I mean there's the material things of course like hot water, heat....but there's also so many other small things...such as the ability and ease to communicate here within the country with the language barrier. As well as to people far away. At home, you can easily call/text basically anyone you want to talk to, but here it feels so great to hear from a friends/family far away. As well as, just speaking English in general, talking normally with someone. Most people don't think about this, but in this situation it is a HUGE deal when communication can be quite challenging. It's such a great moment when me and the person I'm talking to have that moment of understanding what we are trying to say! There's a multitude of small, special, fun, amazing, perfect moments that just make me smile or just think. What I'm trying to say is that it is really the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary! It's somewhat difficult to describe! But it's great to step back and just appreciate life and notice what's going on around you.
 
Anyway, so my placement ended up being to stay here in Tbilisi. I live about 45ish minutes bus ride from the city center area. The city is gorgeous. After have been inside orientation for a week, and only going out at night it was so refreshing to look at everything during the day in a new light! I love seeing all the beautiful architecture on the buildings, the snow-covered mountains, countless churches,the fortress over-looking the city, the river flowing, cobble stone streets, just everything!  I'm just fascinated with the oldness feeling of it all! I think the broken down and cracked doors/gates/buildings are just beautiful and really love going off the beaten path areas into the neighborhoods and tiny alleys to explore.

I just love first getting to know a new place, wandering aimlessly for hours,discovering hidden places,stumbling upon interesting places, and experiencing different food! Such as Khinkali. This place has so much history, you can just see it and feel it wherever you go.

khinkali..aka AMAZING

So, meeting our families..the moment was intense. Our coordinators had the families on one side of the hotel lobby and us on the other, then proceeded to call our names and we met in the middle. Then we were quickly swept away from our friends and dispersed to our new locations.

Amazing group on our last day right before meeting our families

flowers from my host parents!! aww :)

FAMILY: I am living with two parents who have three young children...Hassai who's 6, Ofelia 9, and Yusef who's 11. There is also an aunt who is staying with them with a baby girl Sima. I've been having lots of fun with the kids, playing football, just hanging out, and of course fun silly times with the baby. I have also met the grandmother, and there is another aunt who comes almost daily, who by the way absolutely loves me.  The first time we met she gave three mega hugs! Talk about a warm welcome! She is always happy to see me and tells me she loves me and I am her sister haha aww!...anyway my family's village/family is in Telavi in eastern Georgia. When people live in the city they typically have a village elsewhere. They are also Azerbaijani. I'm still trying to figure everything out.  They speak both Azerbaijani, and Georgian and also know Turkish and Russian.  So sometimes I learn one word in multiple languages. Haha it's hard to keep up with! By the way this is Georgian letters what looks like, as you can see it's challenging! I am teaching them tons of English words and phrases. They are quickly filling their notebooks and its exciting that they are so curious to learn. Countless times a day all I hear is Chreeeeees/Christeee (the way they say my name is just so good) followed by "what is this Englesh?". "what is this, what is it?...." Also, they always say "bread eat??" every single time they want me to come eat. It's great...We have had many good times together! It's amazing the amount you can communicate with very few words or no words at all!

one day I helped them make the Azerbaijani version of khinkali

SCHOOL: It's about a 5 minute walk from where I live which is is quite nice! School in a nutshell is crazy, whoa, ridiculous, what is going on?

whoo!! me and my public school #76!!

I get about 874 "hello"s a day in the hallways and classrooms! Followed by 345 "mas mas!" (their shortened word for teacher) along with several "how are you"s! What a feeling it is here! To have so many people truly excited about your presence. It's heart-warming. Walking through the doors of school and home, people are just so happy/excited to see me! For this program, I work with grades 1-6 and with 3 3 co-teachers who are local English teachers at the school.  I have also been to classes of several of the older grades. Once the word gets around that I'm there all the classes want me to come haha! The younger kids are absolutely adorable! I, for one, already love kids so this is great for me, they are just way too cute, and their smiles just melt me! When I would go around to check their homework I would draw smiley faces on their papers! This was a mega hit! A few days later, I started using my stamp as well! Oh man were they ecstatic or what! Only wanting ME to come check their homework! It's just so wonderful to see their excitement over the smallest things! As for the older kids, they are something else! Pretty wild, but once they can calm down it's interesting because we can try to ask each other questions about America/Georgia, each other etc. Several classes have shown me traditional Georgian dances and songs, the Armenian folk dance, hip hop dances, beat boxing, break dancing. singing "Love you like a love song" (clearly like the number 1 hit here) and even drew my portrait on the board! Talk about some fun classes!
The students have been so sweet!! Gifts and cute notes that absolutely make my day!! :) :) :)

Just about everything about school here is so so different than school in the U.S. It is a big adjustment and will take time for sure introducing new techniques of teaching, fresh ideas, and new ways of doing things to my English co-teachers.

view from my window the other day, ahh like I said, the littlest things are so wonderful

Wow I can't believe it's been 3 weeks that I've been here! Time is just so wacky here! This past weekend I stayed in Tbilisi because several of my friends came from nearby towns/villages to hang out/sight-see which was oh so good! Great to see familiar faces again, speak English, and have some fun times! In the upcoming weekends I'm planning to go to various places around Georgia and visit people/awesome places! I'm stoked!

Ok that's all for now!
nakvamdis! (good-bye)

p.s. kids pics/videos coming soon! :)