The View From Over Here

Seollal Activities at Namsangol Hanok Village

2012-01-27T17:33:00.000+09:00

Namsangol Hanok Village at the base of Namsan in Seoul offers many cultural events and usually has fun events on Korean holidays. This Seollal, (Lunar New Year) was no different, and they held events every day during the four day holiday weekend. I went over to check out the festivities on Tuesday, the last day of the Seollal holiday.

There were plenty of hands on activities for kids and grown-ups alike. First thing I tried was telling my fortune for the new year with the sticks used to play Yut-Nori.

Unfortunately, my fortune for the new year is not looking so good. It told me that I would not be able to accomplish my goals this year because I am lacking the tools to complete my goal. Not too good, though I don't know how much I should trust these giant plastic sticks.

Another activity was making a new year's wish by writing a message on a piece of colored paper and tying to to the strings. Perhaps I should have wished for a better new year's fortune....

Namsangol Hanok Village always has fun, traditional games to play. Here you can see people trying their luck spinning the traditional Korean top called 팽이치기 (Paengi Chigi). This top is spun by hitting it with a whip to keep it spinning as long as possible. It's harder than it looks!

And, of course, it wouldn't be Seollal without a good game of 윳노리 (Yut-Nori). This game is quite simple to play once you learn the rules. Sticks are thrown instead of dice and whether the sticks fall flat side up or round side up decides how many places you can move. The first team to get all four playing pieces back to start is the winner!

But, the most interesting part of the day for me was the performances of traditional Korean dances and instrumental performances.

Even a little less traditional group made it in the mix, these Korean B-Boys had their own take on traditional dancing by using fans and dancing to a modern song that used some traditional Korean instruments as well.

Below is a video of some of the performances, including the B-boys. Enjoy!

To see past events from Namsangol Hanok Village, see my previous posts:

Korean Traditional Food Festival
Daeboreum
Traditional Korean Wedding

More Amazing Sights in Istanbul

2012-01-26T16:35:00.000+09:00

I have to say, I've been to a lot of cities in the world, but I don't know if I ever had such love at first sight as I did in Istanbul. Even on the days where I didn't have much to do because of bad weather, I was just content to be in the city. There was just something magical about it. Delicious food, ancient history, fun night life, cheap prices, kind, friendly people... I couldn't find anything wrong with the place actually, except for the fact that it rained 3 out of the 4 days I was there. Here are just a few of the amazing sights of the city besides the most famous Aya Sofia and Blue Mosque.

Basilica Cistern

The Basilica Cistern. This was where water was stored during Roman times. Now when you enter, they just keep a little water in the bottom so you get the idea, but originally, this would have been filled with water. It's beautiful down there, though, and there are two Medusa heads which draw the most attention from the crowds besides the cheesy tourist stuff that has been put in to bring in a few more bucks.

One of two Medusa heads in the Basilica Cistern

The Bosphorus Ferry. Istanbul is divided into two sides, the Asian/Anatolian side and the European side. The two sides are split by the Bosphorus Strait which is considered the boundary between Europe and Asia. There are several bridges that cross, but to get to most places, it's generally easier to take a ferry. It's cheap and ferries run often and take between 10-20 minutes to cross. It's fun to take the ferry because you can see Istanbul from a different view, plus enjoy a hot cay (pronounced chai, it's tea) while you enjoy the scenery.

Turkish flag off the side of the boat with a view of the European side in the background

Sunset over the European side of the Bosphorus from the ferry

Ferry at night with bridge in background

Hand weaving a carpet in a shop window

Carpet Shops. Though I didn't dare enter any carpet shops because I knew they were way out of my price range, there are carpet vendors aplenty in Istanbul. I'm no expert, but if you know your stuff, this would probably be the place to buy carpets. Unfortunately, I personally would never be able to tell the difference between the handwoven carpets or the factory made carpets so I didn't really bother.

The Spice Bazaar. This market, turned tourist destination is quite famous, but I personally couldn't stay in here for more than a few minutes. Every stall has hawkers outside trying to talk to you and bring you into their shop. But, if you want to buy some spices or Turkish delight, this isn't a bad place to check out.

Taksim. Not so far from all the ancient wonders like the Grand Bazaar and the Aya Sofia lies Taksim, Istanbul's hip shopping, restaurant and nightlife district. From tourist shops to name brands and everything in between, you can find it here in Taksim. Lots of upscale restaurants and local cheap spots can be found if you take some side turns off into the allyways off the main street. There are several streets just lined with clubs and bars, both places I went to had live music which was really cool.

Traditional Sweets. I didn't really know what Turkish delight was before I got here but the best way to find out for me was to go in to some of the shops in Taksim and try some free samples. I personally decided that it wasn't really my favorite and the high prices in the shops in Taksim made me choke a little. If you are a fan of the stuff, I recommend buying it outside of the touristic areas, the prices get a little more reasonable there. Oh, and be sure to buy it fresh, not pre-packaged! What I did fall in love with was baklava. Again, I couldn't afford it in the tourist areas, but as I got out of Istanbul the prices got lower and lower until I reached Trabzon where I found a little bakery that sold it for 6 Lira/ Kilo (Less than 4.00 USD) which was ridiculously cheap especially compared to the 25 Lira/ Kilo they were charging in Istanbul in the tourist areas.

Gelata Tower. This tower, built in 1348 was once the tallest structure in the city. Though it of course can no longer claim that title it is still a beautiful landmark not far from Taksim. Apparently if you go up there is a restaurant and cafe that holds performances, though I didn't check it out.

Istanbul was one of my all time favorite travel destinations of all time and I could easily see myself living there. There are English jobs a plenty there, though they don't pay nearly as well as Korea, Japan or Taiwan. Living expenses, though, seem quite reasonable and it seems like a pretty nice place to live. Guess I have to add another thing to my bucket list.

Aya Sofia and The Blue Mosque, Istanbul

2012-01-25T11:00:00.004+09:00

Before going to Istanbul I really didn't know much about the city, but I knew I had to see the Aya Sofia (Hagia Sofia). I think I remember it from my history class from high school as being known as the most beautiful building in the world or something like that. After visiting, I would say that it probably isn't the most beatuiful building in the world, but it is certainly worth checking out.

For those who don't know much about the Aya Sofia, it was the largest Cathedral in the world for about 1,000 years. The current structure was completed in 537 and served as the Greek Patriarchal Cathedral of Constantinople until the Ottomans took over the city in 1453 and converted it to a mosque. It is considered to be the epitome of Byzantine architecture and served as a model for many later churches and mosques.

The main dome is massive and stands at an impressive 55.6 meters (182 ft). It's interesting to read the history of the church, various parts have been destroyed over the years, but they just kept rebuilding and improving the structure every time to make the building stronger and stronger.

Today the Aya Sofia is now a museum so that Muslims and Christians alike can appreciate the history and beauty of the building. They have tried to keep a healthy balance of uncovering the Christian mosaics and frescos while preserving the Islamic art which covered much of the Christian images.

If you look out the front door of the Aya Sofia, you can't miss the Blue Mosque which was built directly in front of the Aya Sofia. The Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet) was built in 1609 by the Sultan Ahmet I. You can see that the architecture style was, in part, modeled after the Aya Sofia.

Unlike the Aya Sofia which has been convereted into a museum, the Blue Mosque is still a functioning mosque and therefore visitors must show a little respect when entering. Women should wear a head scarf, cover their legs and arms. Everyone must take of their shoes before entering.

As I first learned while in Spain this summer, Islamic art is just stunning. While you will never see icons as you would in Catholic or Orthodox churches, the repeated patterns and the Arabic writing used to make designs is quite stunning.

Many people argue that the Blue Mosque is even more beautiful than the Aya Sofia. For me, you can't compare them, they are like apples and oranges. But, they are both worth seeing while in Istanbul.

Admission into the Aya Sofia is 20 Lira, which was about $12.00 USD when I was there. Audio guides are available and there are many licensed guides milling about the entrance who also offer tours in many languages. It would have been nice to have a guide, but I just did it on my own and was happy enough. As the Blue Mosque is a functioning mosque, you should be wary not to enter during prayer times. Those times change every day, but are around sun rise, mid morning, noon, mid afternoon and evening. There is no charge to enter, but you must stay within one area for viewing if you are entering as a tourist, not a worshiper.

설날 (Lunar New Year) 2012

2012-01-23T22:34:00.000+09:00

Setting up the table for the 차례 ceremony

We woke up this morning early to have the 차례 or ceremony for the ancestors as we do every 설날. This is now the third Lunar New Year that I have celebrated with the boyfriend's family and there's no point in rehashing too many details, since it's been done before. This year we were much better about the 세배 or bowing to elders. In past years we quite nearly forgot to do it, but this year directly after the ancestor ceremony we bowed to Halmoni and the boyfriend's father. I'm not quite sure why, but he gave me money, along with the kids. I tried really hard to give it back, adults don't get money, just kids, but he wouldn't take it. It's a bit awkward since I'm only a year or two older than his oldest grandchildren... Then we cleared this table and brought all the food out to eat breakfast. Note the lack of 떡국 (rice cake soup) here, the grandfather which we honor in the 차레 never liked ddeok-guk and therefore we don't prepare it in the morning on Seollal like most families.

Burning the names of the ancestors remembered at the ceremony

After breakfast, we headed up the mountain to visit the grandfather's grave. In Korean this tradition is called 성묘- Seongmyo . We brought some food and rice wine up, did our bowing, had a snack and a drink before heading back down as it was way too cold to spend much time there. Today's temperature was about -8˚C.

We decided to visit the temple quickly, too before heading back home since it is just a minute drive up the hill from where the grandfather is buried. Though I've been to this temple several times before, I like it a lot since it is not a touristy kind of place, it kind of just feels like home. We were the only ones around so I took the opportunity to take a few photos.

After our visit to the temple, we just went back to the house and relaxed. We played lots of Go-Stop, watched some movies and ate lots of ddeok and fruit. Lunch was 떡국 and we gained another year as we ate the soup, making me now 28 years old, Korean age.

I hope all my readers had a good 설날. Tomorrow I hope to get to Namsan Hanok Village to catch some of the activities happening over there. What did you do for 설날?

On the lookout for new and exciting blogs

2012-01-13T03:08:00.001+09:00

I just went through my blog roll on the side, and deleted about 10 blogs that either had stopped updating or that were no longer relevant to living in Korea/ Internationally. Does anyone have a recommendation for an interesting blog that the world should be reading? There are too many blogs out there that deal with the ordinary, I'm looking for something that goes a little beyond. Or even something ordinary that is written really well, like Lee's Korea Blog. Any recommendations out there? It doesn't have to be about Korea necessarily, but at least pertains to travel/ living abroad etc.

My school in Georgia

2012-01-12T14:19:00.000+09:00

This was my school. It was a small village school in Akhelsopeli just a 10 minute marshutka ride outside of Zugdidi where I was living. It is a very small village. I don't know the population but you can judge the size considering that we only had about 100 students in the whole school from grades 1-12, and some of those students even come from the city to study out here for various reasons. This made teaching nice, with class sizes between 5-12 students.

The school is in the process of being remodeled, but it's clear it's still a while away from being considered one of the "renovated" schools where some other volunteers work. here are two hallways in the school. One recently painted, the other one desperately in need of a paint job. Windows have been replaced in the whole building and there is a computer lab (where internet is intermittent at best and painfully slow) which works when the school has power... though, sometimes there is no power. One renovation I would like to see is getting new blackboards. We could only use one kind of chalk on our boards, most chalk would just scrape across the board without making a mark, and blackboards in other classrooms are in much worse condition.

I thought the fact that our school had a bell, an actual, manually rung bell was kinda cool. But, obviously hand ringing the bell can cause a lot of problems as one might imagine. Sometimes the bell might get rung by naughty students at the wrong time, or sometimes someone would ring it early and I wasn't able to finish the lesson... or someone would ring it late and I had too much time to kill waiting for the bell to ring. At some point while I was there, an electric bell was installed. Unfortunately, you still had to manually ring it, so I didn't really get the point. But worse than that was the fact that it was so quiet you often couldn't hear it ring... and of course when the power was out they'd still have to go and ring the manual bell anyway. I think the whole electric bell system was a bit of a waste of money... that could have gone to a new blackboard instead for one classroom.

Here is my classroom with my 6th grade students. I was lucky that we had our own "English Classroom" because most TLG teachers in other schools had to move from class to class and couldn't decorate their classrooms.

In the photo below you can (kind of) see some of the decorations I made for the classroom. The first thing I did was make question words with Georgian translations because they struggle a lot with question words since they never hear them from the Georgian teachers and never use them since answering questions never involve using them. My last week at the school I made the ones above. I don't know if you can read them, but they are common classroom phrases like "May I go to the bathroom?", "I don't have my homework." and "How do you say ________ in English?". These phrases were a terrible enigma to my students who especially struggled with the "How do you spell ______?" phrase. As I tested them on this, they would respond with sounds rather than letters, "How do you spell 'hat'" they would respond "Huh-ah-tuh" instead of "H-A-T". I tried very hard to enforce the use of letter names rather than sounds for these sort of activities, but many still never learned them.

Below is our wood stove. This, ironically, was not set up until a week or two before I left Georgia and since it warmed up in December after a bitterly cold and rainy November, we only ever lit it twice. If it's not freezing, it's better left unlit since the wood often fills the classroom with smoke and it is a huge distraction for the students who are always trying to maintain the fire with more wood and paper.

This is English World 3, a British English McMillan textbook. The quality of this series is quite good, unfortunately the older, supposedly more advanced students get cheated because they don't have the experience to get into the higher levels. This book is the third in the series, and is used by our 6th grade students. It assumes they know things like past tense and a whole lot of vocabulary. We spent 3 months on the review chapter and we were only able to get to chapter 1 by my last week of teaching there. I seriously hope that they don't try to finish this book off in the spring, some students in the class don't even know the alphabet or are just learning to read basic words, and this is what they're going to be expected to do in a few weeks.

These are all the girls from the 9th and 10th grade. One of them studied English really hard and could actually have a conversation. The rest... well, they were well intentioned and very sweet girls, but I think they just liked hanging around my classroom because I was a new and exciting alternative to anything else they could have been doing not because they were actually interested in the language.

Sometimes they would have soccer tournaments. On these days it was hard to get the kids to come to class and study, they were much more interested in watching the game or playing than coming up to class. The gym teacher never seemed to care if students were really supposed to be somewhere else when they were playing.

This was a fall concert put on by the 1-3rd grades. Aren't they cute?

I hope this gives prospective TLG teachers some idea on what the conditions are like in schools in Georgia. Of course most schools are much bigger than mine. Some are renovated, many still are not. Everyone's experience is different, but this was my experience.

My house in Georgia

2012-01-11T11:54:00.002+09:00

For those of you thinking of going to Georgia, I thought I'd post some photos from my home in Zugdidi, the capital of Samgrelo-Sventi region. My house is quite typical of many of the homes I've seen in this area. It's a two story house with an outdoor stairwell to the second floor. It has a small garden out front with a lemon tree and of course lots of grapes which I think pretty much every house in the country has standard growing in their front yard. There is a gate out front, of course, to keep out the animals, too. My family just moved into the house two years ago and they are still in the process of remodeling/ fixing up the house.

The above photo is our kitchen/dining/living room area. I don't have a close-up of the kitchen, but you can see it's fairly normal, with a refrigerator, sink, and washing machine. The one thing that it is conspicuously lacking, though is a stove. We cooked on either a gas canister on the floor or on the wood stove which they moved in once the weather started getting nippy. You can see them both in the photo below, gas canister on the left on the floor and of course, the wood stove on the right. This is quite typical in Georgian homes, though few people have some other modern conveniences like washing machines or refrigerators.

This is our dining room/entertaining room where we held most of our supras (feasts). The piano was a bit beat up and the keys were in a terrible state of repair and when the kids would mess around trying to play simple tunes I was sure that it was completely out of tune. It was not until we had a going away dinner when our school music teacher came over and started playing did I find out that it still works pretty darn well despite it's beat up appearance. The only bad thing about this room, and having supras in this room, is the fact that it's cut off from the main room where the heat is so it's always too chilly in this room. I guess that's why you're supposed to drink as much as you can at the feast, to keep warm!

I was so relived to come to my house last October and find that, yes, I had an indoor bathroom... with a real toilet.. and a shower with hot water. As you can see, the bathroom is kind of under a constant state of construction, not unlike the rest of the house. My host family told me that my host father was a "craftsman" which later I came to find out that he remodles bathrooms for a living. Which is probably why my bathroom looks really nice... or what's been done so far. When they get some more money, they'll continue with the upgrades.

My room was definitely the best room in the house. All new wallpaper, wardrobes, a desk which you can't see and a nice bed too. You can see my electric heater on next to the bed as well, that's how I had to heat my room, though I wasn't allowed to leave it on at night. Also not pictured are the huge windows to the left of the bed with beautiful floor length curtains. I was so surprised to walk into my room the first night, I felt like I had won the lottery. I haven't heard of anyone having as nice of a room as me.

This is our backyard. Inside the shed, there is a fireplace which they would use to cook extra large things that wouldn't fit on one small gas canister and needed more heat than the wood stove which cooks things too slowly sometimes. There is also a room just for preserves. My host mother wasn't big on baking and cooking per se, but she was a champion at canning and preserving. She made her own pickles, preserved fruit, jams, and a variety of sauces which would consist of most of our meals. She'd make up a huge batch of food on the fireplace, then put it in jars and put it out in the shed. Whenever we ran out of food, all you had to do was go out here and pick out whatever you wanted from the huge selection of stuff.

This was my street in Georgia. Nothing really worth mentioning except that if you notice the yellow pipes that run about 3 meters or so above the ground on either side of the street are gas lines. Never seen above ground gas lines before. My host mother dreams of getting her house connected to gas, but I think the hook-up fee runs around $1,000 USD if I understood correctly. That's more than the monthly income for the whole family. Not to mention the cost of buying new appliances that run on gas as well...

In this last photo, you can see a delivery of firewood that arrived from my host mother's parents who live in the village. There was a whole party of men who came by two weeks later with a chain saw to cut it all up and move it off the street and into the back yard. No one seems to mind that people store firewood in the middle of the street, or at least not on our small side street with little traffic.

I hope this gives you some idea of what my life was like this fall. Some families have very nice, modern houses, some families still live the village life with outhouses water heaters that require chopping wood and building a fire to use. My house I think was somewhere in between these two, but part of the experience of living in Georgia is living in a Georgian home and getting a good look into how another culture lives their daily life. I hope this is useful for those who are planning on going to Georgia!

Good Article!

2012-01-10T13:43:00.000+09:00

Hey all, I'm coming back to Korea later this week (and on Korean Air for the first time in my life... soooo psyched). In the meantime, I found this article, it seems to be making it's way around facebook. It's great just for the photography, but I feel inspired to travel more around Korea once spring comes after reading this article!

http://www.cnngo.com/seoul/visit/50-beautiful-places-visit-korea-873093

Hopefully I have more time this week to update about my travels in Turkey and one or two more posts about Korea before I get inundated with Korean stuff again.

Problems with Blogger: Feedback, please

2012-01-10T01:13:00.000+09:00

Hi all, sorry for the lack of posts, I've got lots to write, but I haven't had my computer to make proper updates (left it in O'Hare airport...oops...). But, as I'm using other peoples computers in the past week I'm realizing that the blog isn't loading properly on a lot of different browsers, and on my mom's old computer it even causes the computer to freeze as it loads. I'm not sure what's causing this problem, but if you have any feedback please let me know. Is the sidebar loading properly? Right now using Internet Explorer it is appearing under the blog instead of on the side. Is it freezing your computer? (you might not be able to comment if it is though! Send me an email- smileyjkl (at) hotmail (dot) com.)

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this problem? I've changed the background and moved the sidebar to the opposite side to see if things get any better, but so far, I can't see any difference. Is the blog loading properly on your computer? What browser are you using? Please give me your feedback!

Life updates

2011-12-25T17:35:00.002+09:00

Just wanted to say a few things. I'm updating from my iPod so sorry for that. Firstly I'm traveling in Turkey at the moment so don't expect any posts for a while. Secondly I'm spending new years with my host family and then heading back to America on Jan 3rd. I'll be in Boston for 10 days and then I should be hopping on a plane to come back to Korea! Just signed a contract and got my visa issuance number from YBM sisa. I'm not looking forward to the split schedule but I can't wait to teach adults! I'm compleatly burnt out from childen at the moment. And I can't wait to be back in my apartment. I can't wait for ondol heating.... I may sleep on my yo (floor mat) for a week just because I can. And obviously I can't wait to see the boyfriend... He's been so paitently waiting for me to return. My first plan when I get back? Using my amazing yongpyong + Alpensia ski pass that the boyfriend fought so hard for meto get when they announced the special edition pass when he olympics were anounced last summer. See you all soon in 대한민국

Whirlwind tour of Tbilisi

2011-12-21T22:09:00.000+09:00

Samtavro Church in Mtskheta

After my first bus ride to from Tbilisi to my city I swore Iwouldn’t go back again until it was time to go back to America. Six torturoushours in an uncomfortable bus with poor ventilation made me think that therewas nothing to see in Tbilisi that was worth doing that again. But since thenof course, I have found better modes of transport and I’ve found myself intransit in Tbilisi 3 or 4 times since the beginning of November. While I’vecome to know the bus stations quite well because I’m always going from here tothere passing through Tbilisi, I hadn’t gotten a chance to explore the citysince my first week in Georgia during our orientation (and even then, I onlygot out into the city a few times for just a few hours). Finally this weekend a chance to reallysee the city came up, my best travel mate was leaving for America. I spent theday with her and another friend exploring the city, got to say my goodbyes onSaturday night, then had one more day on Sunday to see even more. Taking nighttrains there and back maximized our time so we had two full days to explore.

First stop was actually to head out of Tbilisi, to theneighboring town of Mtskheta, the old capital of Georiga. Now it’s just a smallpleasant city with lots of important churches. We didn’t have time to get intothe mountains to find the most famous churches and monasteries, but we got tosee two major sights in town, Samtavro church and Svetitskhoveli Cathedral.

Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta

Svetitskhoveli Cathedral was the most important cathedral inGeorgia during medieval times and several kings and church patriarchs have beenburied here. Beautiful, original murals in here date back to the 17^thcentury.

Murals in Svetitskhoveli Cathedral

After roaming around Mtskheta for about 2 hours hitting upthese two churches and all the souvenir stands picking up Christmas presents tobring home, we headed back to Tbilisi without any problems.

Soviet medallions at the Dry Bridge Market

From there we went back to the Dry Bridge Market, the firstplace I discovered by accident in Tbilisi back after I first arrived. We alldid a little shopping here, there are so many great things to buy here.

Old photos at the Dry Bridge Market

Next it was time for lunch. Unfortunately, in Georgia, itcan be hard to find a big variety of cheap eats. Generally we wind up eatingsome form of Khachapuri (bread with cheese) or Lobiani (bread with beans)because these are the cheapest. The selection of Khachapuris and Lobianisdepend on the city and the restaurant, but here we found something we’d nevertried before, Khachapuri with boiled egg inside. We were happy with the resultsand three of these plus three teas came to a grand total of 10 Lari ($7 USD).

Khachapuri filled with cheese and boiled eggs

From there it was on to Sameba, the biggest and newestcathedral in Georgia. Construction finished in just 2004, it is absolutely massive and canbe spotted from afar from most places in the city. While this church is quiteimpressive to look at from the outside, inside it lacks the charm of the olderchurches and their beautiful old murals. Walls inside are mostly bare exceptfor the various icons hanging on the walls.

Me at Sameba Cathedral

After that, we spent some time with some friends of friendsand then headed off for dinner. I hoped to find a place that had Georgiandancing for my buddy’s last night in Georgia, but we were unsuccessful. But, wedid wind up with a nice (expensive) meal of Khinkali (Georgian dumplings) withsalad and cheese in a fancy restaurant on the outskirts of town.

The next morning we leisurely got up and out of our hosteland headed to Narikala fortress. It was fun to climb the ruins of the fortressup to the top for the spectacular, bird’s eye view of the city.

Church in Narikala Fortress

View from Narikala Fortress

Side street near Didube Station

From there we headed to the market near Didube station tobuy some Chorchkhela (grape and nut thing that is hard to understand until yousee and taste it) for gifts. The market is fun to walk through, there’s lots tosee, it’s not a touristy place at all. It really shocked some friends of minewho aren’t used to seeing markets where they come from. I’m used to it fromliving in Hwanghak-dong in Seoul.

In the market at Didube Station

Small, Medium, Large and Titanic!

Dinner was something I’ve been wanting to eat for a month.Adjaruli Khachapuri, which I personally like to call "boat Khajapuri". Traditionally it isserved with cheese, egg and butter, but we tried another variation too, filledwith cheese and vegetables. Really, this is the ‘small’ size for 6.80 Lari, butI think this could easily fill two hungry people. I don’t want to think how bigthe ‘medium’, ‘large’ and‘Titanic’ sizes would be…

The expensive sulfur baths, from outside

Last stop for the night was the sulfur baths.I love going to the jjimjilbangs in Korea and I was hoping for a similarexperience. There were two options. Paying (relatively) lots of money for aprivate bath, or going to the public bath for 2 lari. Just like in Korea you must take off all your clothes to go in, but unlike Korea, there's no baths in this bathhouse, just showers and a sauna (as far as I could find at least...)

The cheap sulfur baths

After this, we were finished and we headed back to the train station to go back to our city. But, Tbilisi is a great place to wonder around and I look forward to my next chance to wander the city streets.

Pros and Cons of being a TLG (Teach and Learn Georgia) Teacher

2011-12-19T21:59:00.000+09:00

I hope I’ve made some of my readers think about coming toGeorgia to participate in the Teach and Learn with Georgia volunteer program. I want tohighlight some of the good and bad points of the program and of living here forthose who are considering coming.

Pros:

Program open to all nationalities: Most English teaching positions only considernative speakers, but Georgia wants as many teachers as possible and will acceptany fluent speaker of English. This is a great opportunity for people toexperience another culture and perhaps improve or practice their English at thesame time. Most participants are from English speaking countries, but in ourorientation group there was also someone from the Chech Republic and fromPoland.

Airfare included:Unlike many volunteer positions, this one includes lots of benefits, one ofwhich is round trip airfare. Not only do they offer round trip airfare, but ifyou sign on for two semesters, you’ll even get a round trip airfare to yourhome, or to anywhere of equal or lesser value for the winter or summervacation. The only unfortunate point is that you can’t choose your flightschedule or route (though you can make requests, but they don’t have to honorthem). You must fly from Tbiilsi and they make the bookings, you can’t bookyour own and get reimbursed which is what I usually do when I go to Korea andback so that I can choose the airline and schedule that I like.

Health insurance included: Health insurance is included in the program at no cost. Seeing thedoctor is covered 100% and prescriptions are covered 50%. Although, I hear mostdoctors are pretty bad, but I had good luck personally here.

“Stipend” provided:Volunteers get a “living stipend” of 500 Lari (about $300 USD) per month after taxes. I use quotationmarks though because this is 200 Lari per month higher than thelocal teachers. It is quite easy to live off this small amount. If you don’ttravel much or make long distance phone calls on your cell phone, you couldeven save a little money. Because I travel every weekend, I’ve found myselfwith close to a 0 balance in my bank account at the end of the month, though.

Low cost of living:This goes along with the above point, but living and traveling in Georgia isvery inexpensive. A six hour marshutka (minibus) ride from my city to thecapital city is 15 lari ($10 USD), or I can pay the same amount for the 8 hournight train and get a bed with sheets, blanket and pillow in a 2 person room.If you’re on a budget, you can take the 4^th class in the night trainfor just 5.50 Lari ($3 USD) you can get a bed with no blankets or pillow inanother section of the train. A loaf of bread is 0.60 tetri (0.20 USD), a kiloof clementines is 1 lari ($0.65 USD), a cup of tea in a local café is 1 Lari($0.65 USD), a ride on the metroin Tbilisi is a fixed rate of 0.50 tetri ($0.30 USD), and a night at a hostelis usually between 15-25 lari ($10-$18 USD). This makes Georgia a veryaffordable place to visit or live, even on a very low salary.

24-hour support: If you ever have a problem, whether it be a translation issue, school issue, health issue or personal issue, you can call the TLG hotline, regional representatives or the health insurance company who all speak fluent English and can help you with your problem.

Neutral:

Living with a host family: Although technically you have the option of getting your ownapartment, on a salary of only 500 Lari per month, it would be nearlyimpossible to pay for your own apartment and survive on this. I’ve heard ofsome teachers that renew their contracts and find a roommate, but the vastmajority of teachers live with a local Georgian family. I hate to say that thisis a pro or a con, because it’s complicated and depends a lot on the family andthe teacher.

Good points of living with a host family include a) Low rentof 100 Lari per month ($65 USD) which includes meals, utilities, etc, b) Theopportunity to learn Georgian traditions, language, culture, etc, and c) Achance to integrate into Georgian society.

Bad points include a) conflicts due to cultural differencesb) the need to adapt to local customs and expectations, the good and the bad c)the inability to control your surroundings d) difficulties controlling yourdiet e) Never understanding what’s going on around you f) Accepting your hostfamily’s situation… no family is perfect, everyone has their problems.

Cons:

Roughing it: Whileevery home is different of course, many people here are roughing it, so tospeak. No, no one is living in a shack on the side of the road like what manypeople may think about when you say the word “third world”, but your house maynot have the modern convienences that we are used to in our home countries.Central heating is quite rare, most homes are heated by wood stoves or electricspace heaters. Many homes may not have a stove or oven, just a gas burner tocook on. Many homes don’t have washing machenes, they may hand wash everythingor they may have a manual “washing machine” that dates back to soviet times intowhich you must heat water and manually pour it in and manually drain it out.Hot water may come from a hot water heater, or hot water may come from a firebuilt under a tank in the bathroom. If it’s the latter, you may feel bad aboutasking your host father to chop you wood every time you want a shower. Mostteachers here find they don’t get to shower too often. Several times a week ifthey are lucky, once every 2 weeks if they are unlucky. Maybe you might nothave any refrigerator and all your food is stored on the table overnight. Myclassroom had no heater until after our first snowstorm and teaching in thecold is unpleasant for teacher and student. Maybe your electricity goes out fora few hours once or twice a month. Maybe your electricity goes out for 2 days.Transportation is not always reliable, sometimes the bus you expected to comejust never shows up. Or it’s too full and won’t let you on. Or it’s too full,but it lets you on anyway. Living here is certainly an adventure. But, that’swhy I came, so maybe you won’t consider it a con.

No control over placement: One of my biggest concerns coming here was the fact that I didn’tknow where I would be placed. We were told 12 hours before we were shipped outto our families where we would be placed. It would be nice if you could chooseto live in a village or city, choose whether you wanted to be closer to themountains or to the sea. I guess in the end it doesn’t matter, but it wouldhave made packing a lot easier if I had known where I would be placed. If I hadknown that I was going to be in a wet, rainy part of the country I would havebrought some kind of rain boots and an extra umbrella. My biggest regret hereis the fact that I brought no boots with me.

If anyone is interested in this program, feel free to e-mailme with your questions and concerns.smileyjkl (at) hotmail (dot) com.

To apply for this program, please go here: http://www.tlg.gov.ge/

To read other blogs, please see here:

http://teachandlearnwithgeorgia.wordpress.com/

http://peripateticpedagogue.wordpress.com/

http://www.the-other-georgia.com/

http://mes-tlg.blogspot.com/

A Day in the Life of a TLG Teacher

2011-12-18T21:47:00.000+09:00

I am a “volunteer” teacher in the country of Georgia locatedin the Caucuses between Russia, Turkey and Armenia. I use quotation marksaround the word volunteer because we are actually paid higher than the local English teachers, our salary (livingstipend, whatever you wish to call it) a whopping $300 USD per month. Localteachers make about $150 USD monthly. I am part of a government sponsoredprogram called Teach and Learn Georgia (TLG) which places fluent English speakersof many nationalities into public school classrooms around the country toassist the Georgian teachers and provide both students and teachers theopportunity to practice their English.

I am writing this post because many of the teachers I metduring our week long orientation had no idea what kind of country Georgia wasnor had any idea what living in Georgia would be like. Some teachers expectedto be living in a tropical country, many teachers expected to be living underwestern European standards, many teachers didn’t know that it was quitepossible, no likely, that they may end up living in a village where they mightnot have things like running water, hot water, heating, air conditioning etcetc.

Everyone here has different experiences. Some people live inmodern houses in cities, others live in rural areas where they don’t even havean indoor toilet, just a squat toilet in an outhouse in the backyard. If you’renot willing to live like this for a while, than you shouldn’t consider thisprogram. But for those who are open minded and willing to experience somethingcompletely different, than TLG is a great program to join. This is just thestory of one day in my life.

I wake up to the alarm clock on my TLG supplied Nokia cellphone at 7 am. It’s still pitch black like night outside, there’s no daylightsavings time here. I crawl out of bed and search around in the dark for theplug for my space heater and plug it in the only outlet in my room. I’m notallowed to leave the heater on at night, maybe for electricity costs, maybe forsafety, probably for both. I crawl back into bed and hit the snooze button forthe next 30-45 minutes until I can drag myself out of bed. I pull out myclothes for the day; jeans, sweater, long underwear to wear under everythingplus two pairs of socks. I put it all in front of the space heater to warm up,everything feels like ice to the touch. After about a minute in front of theheater everything is warm and toasty and I can get dressed.

I go downstairs to the kitchen to start getting ready forschool. I strike a match and light the gas burner on our gas canister that serves as astove and put some tomato and bean sauce on to warm up. I plug in the hot watermaker to boil water and while everything is heating I go get ready. The kitchenis cold because no one has lit the wood stove yet this morning. The bathroom iseven colder with its tiled floor and cement walls. A shower is unthinkable inthis cold, sitting on the toilet is like sitting on ice. Our sink is outsideand I go out to brush my teeth and put my contacts. I never realized thattoothpaste would get so tough to push out from the tube in the cold. At leastthe water is hot this morning so I can wash my hands and face in warm water.

I go back in and cut up some bread to go with my bean andtomato sauce for breakfast. I pour my hot water in my cup and make tea. I holdthe cup in my hands to make me feel a little warmer.

I leave the house and go to wait at the bus stop for 9:30when my co-teacher’s husband will come to pick me up to go to school. Themarshutka (the van used for public transportation) only runs to the villageonce every two hours and since we don’t teach until second period today we geta ride rather than getting to school for first period and sitting around doingnothing (lesson planning is not really something teachers in my school spendmuch time doing). As usual, they are late and I stand around in the cold for 20minutes waiting for them to come. We show up to school 5 minutes after secondperiod has begun and my co-teacher scolds our students for playing in thehallway rather than sitting in the classroom waiting for us.

We start class, my co-teacher asks the students what pagewe’re on, and since she doesn’t have her own copy of the text book, she takesone of the student’s copies. Two out of the seven children in this class haveno text book, well, make that three now that the teacher has taken another bookfrom them. We put them in pairs so that they share books.

These children are in the 6^th grade and, thoughonly one of the seven students can actually read, our principal decided thatthey should study from the English World 3 textbook, a book that focuses hardon reading, assuming that students know past tense and a heap of vocabulary.These kids can’t answer simple questions like “how is the weather?” or “how oldare you?”, heck, some of them can’t answer “how are you?” properly. Now threemonths into school we’re still in the “review” chapter in the beginning of thebook trying desperately to enforce the basics. Trying to teach them past tensewhen they don’t understand present tense. I’m getting frustrated and feelinghopeless with these students. We’ve been having such good progress with theyounger grades, but these kids are too far behind.

When I first came, I thought that working in a village wouldbe better, easier to teach since there are small classes. Only 100 students arein the whole school, grades 1-12. But, I’m realizing more and more each day howbig of a disadvantage these students are at. Many of them do no homework. Maybetheir parents don’t care, or maybe their parents are unable to help, especiallywith English. As an ex-soviet country, the majority of people over thirty haveonly studied Russian as a second language, not English, and may not even knowthe English alphabet to help their children. Children who don’t get a goodgrasp their first year of the basics fall behind quickly as the material getsincreasingly difficult every year. There’s no such thing as leveled classes orrepeating grades in this school. Often children in the cities have bettereducated parents or can afford private tutors or English academies for theirchildren, but not the children in the villages whose parents may not havestable incomes to pay for such luxuries. Many students go to school withoutbooks, even, because families may not have money to buy them.

The class ends when someone rings the bell. Yes, we have anactual bell and someone must actually ring it. We have a ten minute break wherewe warm up around the wood stove. 45 minutes of teaching in a classroom with noheat and my hands have started to go a bit numb. We got a tiny space heater forour classroom last week, finally, but today there is no electricity, so wedon’t even have that. Even when we have it, it doesn’t really do much unlessyou happen to be standing right next to it. Our only plug is near the door andmost of the hot air goes out our broken door anyway.

The bell rings and we go down to the first grade classroom.They have a wood stove here and I’m actually able to take off my jacket while Iteach. These kids are the sweetest, most well behaved students. They are slowlycatching on to everything. A lot of them have learned the alphabet and nowwe’re starting phonics with them. I think this class will able to go far withEnglish if they keep doing what they’re doing now.

I leave this class feeling a little better about life andnow it’s time for a break. We head to the “cafeteria”. It’s not really acafeteria, it’s a room with a table and a few chairs where the teachers taketheir breaks. There are no meals offered at school. Students theoretically eatlunch when they go home from school at the end of the day (which variesdepending on the grade, but is somewhere between 1:30-3:30). There is a small“café”, though where students can buy snacks. Nothing nutritious, mostly cakes,cookies, and a Georgian favorite, sunflower seeds. Teachers usually drink teaor coffee, water is stored in plastic jugs which are filled and brought toschool every day. There is no running water in the school.

Now we go to teach the 11^th graders. We look allaround, but they are no where to be found. Finally we spot one of them. “Cometo class!” “No, teacher, we have chemistry now!”. Apparently someone hadchanged the schedule without informing us. We sit around the teacher’s roomwood stove and wait until the next period. My co-teacher disappears for awhile. When the bell rings, I find the 11^th grade students, well,three of them at least, but my co-teacher is nowhere in sight. I call her andshe tells me to start class without her, she’ll be back in 5 minutes. When Iask the three students who have showed up where the rest of the students are,they inform me that the rest have already gone home.

We start class. Again, we have no teacher’s book, but withonly three students (miraculously all of which have books) I am able to lookover their shoulder as they read their lesson. These are good students who tryhard, but their English book is way too difficult for them. They read the wholelesson without understanding much and are unable to answer any of the questionsin the book. I go over all the “new” vocabulary from the lesson, but there aretoo many other words from the text that they don’t understand that they arestill unable to answer the questions in the book. I assign the work we couldn’tdo in class for homework, but I know they won’t do it. My co-teacher, by theway, never showed up for class. And she’s the good co-teacher.

After school I run an English club for the older students.This week we are playing the board game Life, which I borrowed for the weekfrom the American Corner in town. The kids love it, but they don’t use muchEnglish to play the game. One student who speaks English well translateseverything for the rest of them.

After class I go to catch the marshutka back into the city.Usually I rush out to catch it at 3:30, but it never shows up until 4:00. TodayI get out of our English club at 3:40 but when I get to the marshutka stop, thestudents inform me that it has already left. Fortunately, I am informed that ifI stop a passing taxi from here heading back to town it is only 50 tetri (0.30USD) so some other teachers and I hop in a cab and head back to town.

Back in town I head over to my favorite internet café. Whileit’s possible to get a USB modem for a laptop here, the device is expensive andI didn’t feel like spending three day’s pay on a device I can only use for 2months. The internet café charges just 1 lari per hour (0.75 USD) so it’scheaper for me to go there several times a week rather than getting internetfor my laptop.

After making my skype calls to the Boyfriend and checkinge-mail and facebook I head back home, trying to be home before dark. While it’snot really dangerous to walk around after dark, people tend not to do it unlessthey have to, and so I try to do the same. It’s kind of lonely walking homeafter dark, even at just 7:00.

I get home and my host mother points to the pot of tomatoand bean sauce and asks me “sachmeli?”Food? This is how we communicate since my Georgian isn’t so great still. Iscoop up some sauce on my plate and eat it with bread. For dessert we havehomemade fruit preserves. This is a treat, my host mother doesn’t pull theseout often.

After that I pull out my book and sit in front of thewood stove trying to keep warm. It’s hard to read with the cacophony of noisearound me. Phones constantly ringing, the two children arguing with theirmother about their homework, lots of really loud conversations because myfamily loves to talk and talk and talk. I’m used to all this now and I canusually read my book over the din. This past week, though, my host mother’sbrother and his wife and their 3 week old baby have moved into our house (forreasons that have never been explained to me, they just appeared one day andnever left) and this has added to the din. The baby is generally very, verygood and hardly makes a fuss, but when she does start to cry, the mother has themost obnoxious song to calm the baby down that goes something like “Nyaaaaa,nya nya nyaaaaa, nyanyanyanyanyaaaaaaa, nyaaaaaaaa”. After my ears can’t takethe abuse any longer I retreat to my room where I huddle in front of the heaterwith my book until it’s time to sleep.

I go back downstairs and my host parents have figured outthat I ran away from the cacophony and laugh that I have returned again nowthat things have calmed down. I go out again to the sink outside to brush myteeth and take out my contacts, thinking to myself that I should have put on ajacket before stepping outside. Finally I’m ready for bed to recharge for a newday. I slip into my ice cold sheets and wait to warm up and fall asleep.

* update* the weather has been much better lately, around 10˚C every day. November was an unusually cold month. December is more seasonable. I expect that January and February should bring back November's cold weather again.

Gori Stalin Cult

2011-12-17T21:27:00.000+09:00

Small statue of Stalin in front of the museum. The large statue in town was removed in 2010

Gori is Stalin’s hometown and is considered something of alocal hero. We thought we’d check it out for a few hours on Saturday for thenext chapter in our weekend travel adventures.

Stalin Wine, 35 Lari (about $20 USD)

The museum dedicated to Stalin is hard to miss, it’s prettymuch the biggest building and certainly the most attractive building in thecity as far as we could see. It’s found at the end of Stalin Avenue and it’sgot Stalin’s old house and train out front. We got there before opening, butthey let us wait in the lobby until it opened at 10am. Though the building ishuge, there’s really not a lot to see. Old photos with little explanation inany language (And certainly no English, fortunately I had a Russian speakerwith me to translate the signage in Russian), some books published by Stalin,some paintings and portraits of the Communist leader, some things that had oncebeen in his possession.

Stalin's death mask

Outside you can view his house and part of his personaltrain in which he used to travel around the country with his confidants.

Stalin's house. This is the only room open to the public.

All in all, the museum is quite overrated and overpriced at10 Lari ($7 USD) for entrance to the museum and 5 Lari ($3 USD) for entranceinto the house (of which you can only view one room from the outside) and the train.To put that in comparison, you can travel 6 hours by bus from my city to thecapital for the same price, or first class by train with a private room with abed for that same price. (That generally is how I decide how good a price is inthis country… but judging how far I could travel on that same amount ofmoney….). But, perhaps this might be the only chance in your life you can see amuseum dedicated to preserving the legacy of one of the world’s most terribleleaders.

Stalin's personal train (well, part of it anyway)

While in Gori, we also had hoped to visit Upliske, a cavecity located in the mountains nearby the city, but we weren’t able to find amarshutka, and with the weather being bitterly cold we decided to head back toTbilisi after just 4 hours in Gori.

School Excursion

2011-12-16T23:21:00.000+09:00

Written 11/28/2011

I was invited on my host family’s school field trip to see acave near Kutaisi. I had nothing better to do on this rainy weekend so I wentalong for the ride. While it was raining in my city, by the time we had gottento Kutaisi, it had turned to snow. This wasn’t a big problem, or so we thought,until we were headed up the mountains outside of Kutaisi and then I started toget a little more worried. No one else seemed concerned though, and all themoms and teachers were throwing down shots of tcha-tcha (Georgian vodka) as wewent along.

The bus handled the switchbacks up the mountain well for awhile until things started to get steeper. Finally there was one turn where thebus couldn’t turn and get the momentum to go up the hill at the same time. Thebus stopped, and then started sliding, not rolling, backwards down the hill. Itwasn’t long, maybe only for one or two seconds, but those two seconds as weslid backwards, frighteningly close to the ditch on the side of the road (butfortunately not towards the drop off the mountain on the other side of theroad) seriously frightened me and I wanted off the bus. But the driver decidedto give it another go. And the same thing happened. We went up, up, up, andslid back down.

After this, the driver got everyone off the bus and he triedagain unsuccessfully to get up the hill. There was no other choice but to backthe bus down the hill until there was a place for the bus to turn around. We onthe other hand were about 30 students and another 30 adults who had beendropped off of a bus in the middle of a snowstorm. And kids from a city thatsees very little snow. So, of course the inevitable happened. A giant snowballfight where both kids and teachers and students were all joining in. I was probablythe only one trying to stay out of the melee, my sneakers already soakedthrough after 2 minutes of walking through the wet snow.

Bus backing down the hill while students and teacher engage in a snowball fight

We had to walk about 10 minutes (probably would have been 5minutes if it hadn’t been for the snowball fight) down the hill until the buswas able to turn around and get us out. So we changed our plans and headed to adifferent cave. One that didn’t involve climbing any mountains.

Perhaps it was fate that this happened because as we startedour tour, someone mentioned that I was from America, and it just so happenedthat another worker who was off duty but just going into the cave to take somephotos was the official English translator at the caves and he gave me my ownpersonal tour while the rest of the students had their tour in Georgian.

The cave, as you can see, was beautiful. The colors aroundthe cave come from different minerals. White from limestone, orange from clayand black from magnesium. My guide was quick to point out all the formationsthat looked like other things. “This one looks like a monk!” “This one lookslike Simba from the Lion King!” “Here’s an elephant!”. It was quiteentertaining.

After this we went to a house in the area where every parenton the trip brought out a huge amount of food. There actually wasn’t a wholelot of variety. Everyone brought 2-3 loaves of khajapuri, then there wereseveral boxes of cold cooked vegetables, several boxes of cold chicken, andabout 3 chocolate cakes. Bottles of soda, mineral water (Georgia’s #1 export),“lemonade” (which is strangely pear flavored), and of course wine and vodka forthe adult folks were also scattered about the table. After stuffing ourselvessilly we warmed up and dried our wet clothes in front of the wood stove insidethe house, then headed back to the bus and back home. Though the day startedout a bit scarily with the snow, all in all it was a pretty good trip.

Typical Georgian feast

Bonus: A chance to experience a bus ride with a bus full of Georgian children

Day 3 in Armenia: Everything I didn’t see on day 1 and day 2

2011-12-15T22:24:00.000+09:00

Well, Yerevan isn’t such a big city that you could spend along time here as a tourist. I decided to hit all the rest of the sights on thetourist scope on day 3 here, my last day, and I was pretty much able to do thatand more.

Entrance to the Echmiadzin Cathedral Compound

First thing in the morning I decided to take a trip out ofYerevan to the closest neighboring city, Echimadzin which also happens to bethe location the Armenian Church’s Catholicos, The Vatican of Armenia, so tospeak.

The journey there was the first challenge. The couchsurferstold me where to find the marshutka to Echimadzin but when I arrived there,there was no marshutka to be found. Some men asked me if I was headed toEchmiadzin and then pointed to an unmarked car and told me that the price wasjust 300 drams ($1.00). This seemed a little sketchy, but then an old womanhopped in. I asked her if she was going to Echimiadzin and she said yes. So, Ihopped in and hoped for the best. The car zoomed along the highway and I wasdropped in front of a very large cylindrical shaped building with a cross ontop. It looked promising, so I headed through the gates and into the complex.

I had high hopes for this place, but I am sorry to say thatthere isn’t a whole lot to see here for a typical tourist like me. The mainchurch (and main tourist attraction) is Echimadzin, the first Cathedral of theArmenian Church. I found it right away, but due to a lack of signage, I didn’trealize that I had found it. I was expecting a really large, impressive church,but found just an average sized church here with not a lot to see inside.

Priest walking towards Echmiadzin

Echmiadzin

Because I didn’t know I had found the church, I continued tosearch for another hour looking for the cathedral that I had already,unknowingly, found. In the process I found another church, the St. GayaneMonastary, dedicated to a woman martyred in the 3^rd century.

St. Gayane Monastary

I eventually realized that I had found the church ofEzchimadzin and then headed back to Yerevan. It was more challenging to getback because there were so many people trying to get to Yerevan at that time,so early in the morning. People waited in an unorganized group and whenever acar showed up (usually one about every 5 minutes) everyone would jostle to getinto the car first. I wound up waiting about 30 minutes trying to get into thecars until finally a minivan showed up and I was actually able to get myself inposition to get in before the other people waiting.

Blue Mosque

The minivan serendipitously dropped me off in front of theBlue Mosque, which was the next place I wanted to see. The actual mosqueappeared to be closed but I walked around the grounds wich were nice, andprobably much nicer in summer.

Inside the market with lots of dried fruit products

Across the street from the mosque is the market. When thecouchsurfers described this market, I imagined a very large complex, but it wasrather small and about half the stalls seemed geared towards tourists. But, Iwas able to pick up some preserved fruit for my host family and co-teachersback in Georgia. Was probably over charged for them, but I guess that’s to beexpected at a place like this.

From there I took the long way to get to the ArmenianGenocide Museum/Memorial. I walked through some interesting neighborhoods inthe process.

Old neighborhood

To get to the Genocide Museum, I looked at the map anddecided to follow the roads illustrated on the map. I climbed up the stairs tothe sports complex, and then followed the road down a big hill. Then I found atthe bottom I needed to climb back up the hill on a different road to get to theGenocide Museum. I was quite exhausted by the time I arrived at the GenocideMuseum, I had been walking since 8 am that morning and by now it was about 2pm. I walked all around and found myself at the eternal flame, but could notfind the entrance into the museum. Finally, as I walked to see some pine treesplanted in remembrance of the genocide, I found a staircase leading downstairsand into the museum. As I walked in, a woman told me that the museum was closedbecause there was no electricity. I was feeling quite depressed now afterwalking so far to get there only to find it closed, and it didn't help that asI walked to the other side of the pine trees I discovered that I could have cutacross a path that connected the sports center and the museum that would have cut30 minutes and a lot of pain out of my arrival here.

Sports Complex

Eternal flame at Genocide Memorial

I headed back, cutting through the short cut through thesports complex and headed back toward a restaurant I had passed on my waythere. They had the barbeque meat which I had been spying around town and Iordered myself barbeque chicken, which I didn’t know was actually to be put ona sandwich of lavash bread (thin traditional Armenian bread), so I ordered oneKhajapuri (cheese bread) to go with it and a small bottle of Fanta. When Iasked for the check, I thought there had been some mistake. The cheese bread,barbeque chicken wrap and the soda had come to just 900 drams ($3.00 USD). Itold them there was some mistake, but apparently the chicken was only 600 drams($2.00) and the others had been just 150 drams each. I left there in higherspirits and rested feet and jumped on the metro and headed to my next spot tocheck out.

Barbeque Chicken lunch :-)

I headed to __________ a new church built in ______ . It’squite big and impressive from the outside. Inside it reminds me a lot of amodern Catholic church. It’s unusual to see so many pews in Georgian andArmenian churches. People visit to pray, but there aren’t services held in thesame way we might think of a service in a Catholic or Protestant church. Ihappened to stumble across a wedding going on here, on a Tuesday afternoon, butjust as in Georgia, the wedding proceeds amongst the rest of the church trafficwithout the pomp and ceremony one might expect in the Catholic Church.

Candy in the market near the church

Nuts for sale in the market near the church

The last stop on my itinerary was the Cascades, a largestaircase that gives the best view of the city from the top. I headed up atsunset and was startled to see Mt. Ararat in the distance, looking much biggerthat I could have possibly imagined. I stayed until after the sun set, takingphotos, then moved on to a café with wifi where I spent the next few hoursuntil I could meet my couchsurfer.

Unmistakable Botero statue at the bottom of the Cascades

Night view from the Cascades. Opera house and Mt. Ararat in the baground.

Appreciating the view of Mt. Ararat from atop the Cascades

Sunset from the Cascades

We went out for my last meal in Armenia to a new chocolatecafé that had recently opened. We had some delicious salads with hot chocolatewhich was really just molten chocolate. Then for desert, I had a lovely applepie swimming in chocolate sauce. A perfect ending to my trip.

Apple pie with chocolate sauce

Day 2 in Armenia: Temples, Churches and Fortresses

2011-12-13T20:41:00.000+09:00

For my second full day in Armenia, I decided to take a daytrip out of the city to visit the must sees of Armenia (according toTripAdvisor), Garni and Geghrard. I was planning on going alone, but one of mycouchsurfing hosts happened to have the day off and I was lucky enough to havemy own personal local guide for the day.

And boy was that a good thing, because just getting to themarshutka station to find the marshutka out of the city would have taken me allday I think. But, with my host, we got on the local marshutka, got off andwalked to the intercity marshutka station, then walked into a side lot andfound the marshutka heading in the right direction. We were lucky too that weonly had to wait 5 minutes before the marshutka took off, as the marshutkaswait until they are full until they take off.

First stop was Garni Temple, a Zorostrian temple built in a Greco-Roman style. There's a lot of history at this sight but the temple is the most visible. This was the site of a fortress, summer palace and there are baths that are still visible with their original mosaics still visible on the floors. The view around Garni was spectacular, snowy mountains inthe distance, railroad running through the gorge below and quaint villagehouses spotting the landscape. Garni is certainly worth stopping to visit, though it probably only requires about 30 minutes to see everything, even less if you don't stop to read the information placards.

From Garni, it’s 7 km to Geghrard. We hopped on the nextmarshutka and took it as far as it would take us, which was only another 2 kmor so. From there we hitched a ride with a passing car another 3 km or so,which left us with another 2 km of walking the rest of the way to Gehrard. But,the walk was pleasant and while there was snow all around and the sky lookedthreatening, the precipitation held off and we were able to walk the rest ofthe way to Geghrard peacefully.

Geghrard is a monastery built into the side of a mountain. The monastery dates back to the 4th century, although the main chapel was built in 1215. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The church is absolutely fantastic, by far my favorite sightin Armenia. The whole church was carved out of the rock. The lightinginside comes mainly from natural light and candle light. This makes for some dark spotswhere it is nearly impossible to see, but this adds to the mystery of theplace.

If you climb up the steps, you can find yourself in a secondroom from which you can look down into the first church from a hole in thewall. This room has amazing acoustics and apparently many singers come here toperform. The monastery used to behome to a music school as well, many years ago. When I found this little facton the information plaque, my host offered to perform a chant for me, and itreally sounded amazing in there. I wish I could have captured it on video.

Worn down stairs

Armenian sweet bread called Gata with "Armenia" written in the Armenian alphabet

From here, we joined up with two other travelers heading inthe same direction and split a taxi for 500 drams ($1.75 USD) each back toGarni, from where we caught the marshutka back to Yerevan. From here it wasanother 45 minute marshutka through the city and back to our neighborhood ofErebuni.

There was still a little daylight left to be had and so Idecided to make one more stop, this time alone, to see Erebuni Fortress, a 20minute walk from my couchsurfer’s house.

I thought I had arrived too late, the gate was locked and Icouldn't see any visitors around. I was turning around to leave when a securityguard asked me “Can I help you?” Apparently the fortress was still open and he opened the gate and tookthe entrance fee (1000 drams, $3.25 USD).

Erebuni Fortress

View of the neighborhoods around Erebuni Fortress, from above

I was the only visitor in the whole place and my onlycompany was a dog that took a liking to me and followed me all around. This wasthe location of an ancient citadel. The location, high on a hill, wasstrategically very good. You can see for miles in every direction from the top.The day I went it was not clear enough to see Mt. Ararat in the distance, but Icould see closer mountains and I had a wonderful view of the city.

After this I headed back to the couchsurfer’s home fordinner and a relaxing evening at the house.

Day 1 in Armenia: Flea Markets and Food

2011-12-13T19:52:00.000+09:00

My first day in Yerevan, Armenia was a bit of a lazy day.Slept late and didn’t make my way out of the house until around 2 o’clock. Wedecided to take the subway downtown so I could get a feel for the metro. Yerevan’sMetro has no English signage, but it’s not hard to figure out since there areonly 10 stations and one line. The fare is 100 drams for one trip ($0.30),which is the same price as the metro in Tbilisi, Georgia (0.50 Lari). Thearchitecture within the stations is what I’m learning to recognize as typicalSoviet style. Photos aren’t allowed down here, but that’s only if they catchyou!

Soviet style metro

We headed first to the weekend flea market, calledVernissage. Perhaps my readers have noticed that I love markets. I had no moneyto buy anything here, but it was fun to walk around and watch my couch surfinghosts do some shopping.

We spent a good 3 hours or so here wandering around andshopping. After that we had worked up an appetite for dinner and my hosts tookme over to the Caucus Tavern. It’s a place popular with tourists and locals fortraditional food from the Caucasus, from both Georgia and Armenia. My hostslove Georgian food and they filled their bellies with Khinkali and Khajapuri,two things I eat more than enough of at home, while I tried my hardest tosample as wide a selection of Armenian food as possible in one meal.

Thin Armenian bread called lavash

First we split a plate of dolma, minced meat wrapped ingrape leaves. Here we had a yogurt and garlic sauce to drizzle on top.

Dolma

I of course had to sample the local beer. Nothing specialhere, but still better than Cass.

Kilikia, Armenian beer

This drink is called Tan. It is a fermented milk drink. Itbasically tastes like yogurt, salty yogurt, but without the thickness ofyogurt. The first few sips were a bit of a turn off because of the seriouslysalty taste. But I think this is a drink I could grow to love if I were livingin Armenia.

Tan

My main course was this wheat and chicken dish called Harisa. This wasnothing special, but good to try.

For dessert we each tried a different dish. I got this sweetbread called Gata, which was good, but I was so full I had to bring most of it home (Whichmade for breakfast for the next two days). My couchsurfers got this plate ofhoney and something I don't remember the name of....

Dessert

After dinner we walked around looking for a store that theynever found. But this was fine for me as I got to know the city a little betterand tried to take some night photos.

The center of Yerevan is developed a lot and feels like anymodern city that you might see in any developed country. This is in starkcontrast to the rest of the city and the rest of the country (from what I couldsee from my few day stay) which is still a developing country on the best ofdays.

Anaklia Disaster

2011-12-06T23:10:00.001+09:00

We usually try to go somewhere every weekend, but thisweekend, another weekend of rain and nastiness, we were stumped as for what todo. My friend came up to my city and spent Friday night at my house. We sleptin late on Saturday morning, something we can never do since we’re usuallytraveling on the weekends, and leisurely ate our breakfast around noontime. Wediscussed various ideas of what to do but there were no good options. The bestthing I could come up with was going to Anaklia, a beach town near by. Sure theweather was bad, but we’d just go for an hour, see the black sea one more timeand then come back.

We asked around to a few people we knew and the consensuswas that marshutkas run on the hour, every hour, from the train station. Wewalked all the way down there and asked a few drivers standing around. Yes, themarshutka would leave at 1:00. Where is the marshutka? Oh, over there, andthey’d point in some general direction. We’d head over there and ask someoneelse. Where is the marshutka? Oh over there, pointing in another direction. Weheaded over there and asked someone else. No, there’s no marshutka from here.You have to go to another station! Come quickly! And this man led us away fromthe station and down the street 10 minutes away to another station. Uponarrival he asked where the marshutka was and it wasn’t a marshutka, but a bus.And it wasn’t leaving until 2:30.

We were quite angry now. If there was a 1:00 marshutka likeso many people had told us, we were now never going to catch it. We walked backto the train station and waited until 2:00 in hopes of catching a marshutka.When 2:00 came around and we asked again, we were informed there was nomarshutka here, go back to the other station. We walked dejectedly back to theother station and waited around until 2:30 to catch the bus.

View out the window of the bus in the rain

There’s a reason why people take marshutkas, and I thinkthat reason is because they are fast. Buses in this country are old. And theyfit a lot of people, which means they need to stop and go a lot. Crazymarshutka drivers can drive as fast as they like, and fewer passengers meansfewer stops. It took an hour to arrive at the beach by bus. We walked along thebeach, took some photos picked up some nice sea shells but after an hour we wereready to go home. We hoped to get a 5:00 marshutka, but upon arriving at thebus stop, we were told that no marshutka would come until 6:00.

Last view of the Georgian coast

Amazing shells on the beach

The time was only 4:30 and that gave us an hour and a halfto kill. We went into the only restaurant that was open in the whole town. Itwas quite deserted except for one group of men sitting around eating anddrinking Russian vodka. They didn’t really look like restaurant patrons as muchas friends of the owners or something.

We were of course invited into the restaurant but it was abit eerie. There were refrigerators that were probably full of ice cream andsoda in the summer, but now in the winter there was nothing. There was no menu.We ordered tea, the only thing we could think to order and sat around waitinguntil 6:00. We double checked with the waitress, there will be a marshutka at6:00? Yes, yes, it will come. We were invited to drink and eat with the menthere. I refused to touch the alcohol, and I wish I hadn’t touched the foodbecause it tasted like marinated chalk. I couldn’t get the coating of whateverit was out of my mouth until I brushed my teeth that night.

Finally at 5:55 we went out to wait for the marshutka.Around 6:10 an unlabeled marshutka drove by and we flagged it down. We asked ifthey were going to my city, but they shook their heads, no, no.

We went back to the bus stop and asked where the marshutkawas. There’s no marshutka. Just a bus at 7:00. What??? We went back to therestaurant and asked the waitress. Yes, the marshutka is coming, just wait 5minutes. 10 minutes later we asked again. Where is the marshutka. Well, waituntil 7:00, there will be a bus.

Now we’re freaking out a bit. They said there’d be amarshutka at 6, but there wasn’t. What are the chances of being a bus at 7:00?And we’ve learned that in this country intercity transport tends to end aroundsunset. Maybe we caused too much of a stink in the restaurant because theybrought us over to the police station across the street, telling us that maybethey could give us a ride home. That seemed a bit of a strech considering howfar we were from home, but I’ve heard of stranger stories in this country. Wewere brought over and we got to sit with the chief of police. He made somephone calls and concurred that there would be a bus at 7:00. Do you want a taxiinstead? Uh, no thanks, that would probably be about two days pay just to getus back home.

We waited patiently in the police office until 6:55 and wewent to go wait outside. Where are you going? We’ll tell you when the bus iscoming. Just wait. Finally at 7:20 they told us to go wait outside. Another 5minutes later the same bus that we had taken there pulled up and we hopped on.

All this wouldn’t have been so terrible if I hadn’t told myhost mother that I’d be home by 6 because we had plans to go to thegrandmother’s house to learn to make yogurt and milk the cows and get freshmilk. I was really excited by this prospect, but getting home at 8:30 meant noyogurt making and no cow milking. All I got to do was take a photo of the cows.

Grandmother's Cows

It’s beginning to feel a lot like winter…

2011-12-02T21:54:00.001+09:00

The first week I spent in my city it felt like summer, butjust a week later the weather changed and it started to feel chillier andchillier and since the beginning of November it’s been downright cold all thetime.

No, wait, I take that back. I lived in Vermont for 5 years.I know what the cold is. 0˚F for weeks on end, snow storms where you loose yourcar in a parking lot and never a snow day because Vermonters are well preparedfor dealing with ridiculous amounts of snow and are completely fearless in theface snow and ice. Here we just had our first frost this week, and this citystill hasn’t seen snow yet this year (one of the only places in Georgia).

But, the one key difference between here and there is alittle something called heating. In America, even a cold house is stillprobably tolerably warm if you put on a sweater and warm slippers. Here, well,it’s normal for the temperature inside the house to be the same as outside thehouse. I was a little worried back in October when I realized that our houseonly had one tiny electric space heater. Then once November came around, myfamily dragged in a wood stove that hooks up to a pipe in the wall. Of course,wood stoves can only be lit when someone is home/awake to feed the fire. Andwhile I know many Americans use wood stoves to heat their houses (and I’m notsure how the system works), wood stoves here are only capable of heating theroom in which they are located. And even then, while they certainly take thechill out of a room, you’ll never really feel warm unless you are sittingwithin a one meter radius of the stove.

Another problem with keeping houses warm is the fact thathouses here are basically cinder blocks or cement covered with dry wall (ifyou’re lucky). A little thing called insulation is conspicuously lacking,causing any heat that is generated to be immediately sucked from the house.

I guess I’m lucky that that little electric space heater hasbeen now moved into my bedroom since the wood stove was set up, since my roomis the furthest from any source of heat, but because of either the cost ofelectricity or the danger of leaving it running for hours on end (or morelikely, both) I can’t leave it on while I sleep, and obviously leaving it onwhen I’m not home is out of the question. Which means that my room isperpetually cold. If I don’t wear a sweatshirt to bed I will wake up in thenight from the cold. Sometimes on cold nights, I get into bed and wait for theblankets to warm up… but they never do. And let’s not talk about getting out ofbed in the morning. I’ve now started a ritual that when my first alarm rings, Iget up, hit snooze and turn on the heater. Then hopefully after 30 minutes ofhitting the snooze button my room will be sufficiently warm that I can get outof bed without completely freezing to death. Then I take my clothes, which allfeel like blocks of ice, and warm them in front of the heater for a few minutesbefore putting them on.

Oh, and let’s not forget about school. It’s clear thatwhenever the school was built, however many years ago, undoubtedly duringsoviet times, there was some sort of central heating in the school. Cast ironradiators can be seen here and there around the school, quite like my own homein America. But, the days of central heating are long gone. As in most homes,the school relies on wood stoves to heat the classrooms. But, of course, withprobably over 20 classrooms in the school, there are not enough wood stoves togo around. Some classrooms are lucky to get a wood stove, most still gowithout. We teachers are lucky because in our lunch room and in our teacher’sroom there are wood stoves, and so after every class we go and warm our numbhands during the 10 minute breaks between classes. I have no idea how thechildren are able to study in these conditions. When I am sitting and notmoving my whole body turns to ice and all I can think about is the cold. I amalways happy when I can get up and teach the class because it means I can movearound and get the blood flowing.

But, all this I can handle. Sure it means that I spend a lotof time huddled around heaters and drinking tea in the morning just to hold ahot mug in my hand for a few minutes since the wood stove has been out for thepast 8 hours and the house is the same temperature as outside. All this I knewcoming to Georgia. All this I have experienced before when I lived in Chileduring university. This is nothing. The part about this that irks me the mostis what is produced by all the wood stoves.

I used to love the smell of a wood stove when I lived inAmerica. That lovely smell of burning wood on a winter night. It was alwayssomething pleasant for me. But here, when every house in the city is burningtheir wood stoves to warm their houses, the air becomes thick with smoke.Perhaps if they were only burning firewood it could be tolerable, but Georgiansuse their wood stoves as another form of rubbish disposal. Every form of wastein my house with the exception of glass bottles and food scraps are thrown intothe fire. Plastic bags, potato chip bags, candy wrappers, today I even saw aplastic egg carton thrown in. For the first few weeks, the smell of burningtrash in the air was absolutely sickening to me. Just walking home through thesmoke filled streets was enough to make me slightly nauseous. But, as I writethis I realize that I haven’t felt that feeling in the past week or so. I guessI’m getting used to the smell of burning plastic… which is probably not a goodthing because breathing in those toxic fumes can not be good for one’s health.

All I can say is, for those of you who are planning to cometo Georgia, be prepared for the cold of winter. Long underwear, thick sweaters,fuzzy socks and slippers will all be put to good use in your daily life. Not tomention a good winter jacket, scarves, hats, gloves, and (the one thing Iforgot) good boots.

Georgian Language Cognates

2011-11-29T22:17:00.000+09:00

I’ve found that while for the most part, the Georgianlanguage is something completely different from anything I’ve ever studiedbefore, there are a lot of random cognates with English, and even more so, withSpanish. Here is a list of the words I’ve learned so far (Romanized) that arecognates with other languages that I know.

Georgian Spanish English

Biblioteka Biblioteca Library

Moda Moda Fashion

Istoria Historia History

Matematikas Matematicas Mathematics

Kimika Quimica Chemistry

Fabrika Fabrica Factory

Inglisuri Ingles English

Ghvino Vino Wine

Computori Computadora Computer

Chai Té Tea (ok, this is not a cognate, but we callIndian tea “chai”

InEnglish.)

Torti Torta Cake

Televisori Televisor Television

Biologia Biología Biology

Aut’obusi Autobús Bus

Klasi Clase Class

Skola Escuela School

Kaphe café café

Bari Bar Bar

Politsia Policia Police

T’ualet’i Inodoro Toilet

Parki Parque Park

Muzeumi Museo Museum

Rest’orani Restaurante Restaurant

Ophisi Oficina Office

Banki Banco Bank

Es ésta This

Kat’a Gato Cat

Mobiluri movil mobile/cellphone

Kontsert’I concerto Concert

Konphrentsia Conferencia Conference

Eqskursia Exurción Excursion

Pikniki picnic picnic

T’aqsi Taxi Taxi

Ena Lengua Language/Tongue

And of course, every language has its false cognates; hereare some that I especially like

Deda- Mother

Mama- Father

Bitchi- boy

Chika- cup

Kino- cinema (this comes from Russian I think)

I wish I could say that all these cognates help me speakGeorgian, but unfortunately Georgian verbs are like some kind of alien languageto me, long strings of consonants that don’t belong together and which areconjugated in a manner that still mystifies me despite having been explainedseveral times now. To give you some idea of what I’m up against, I’ll conjugatethe verb “to like” in the present tense for you.

Momts’ons Mogvts’ons

Mogts’ons Mogts’ont

Mots’ons Mots’ont

Anyway, I’ll continue to study, though now Ihave only a little more than 1 months left of my stay, so I don’t know how much I can improve in one month.

It’s beginning to feel a lot like winter…

2011-11-28T22:16:00.000+09:00

Another problem with keeping houses warm is the fact thathouses here are basically cinderblocks or cement covered with dry wall (ifyou’re lucky). A little thing called insulation is conspicuously lacking,causing any heat that is generated to be immediately sucked from the house.

Mestia, foiled again…

2011-11-27T22:08:00.000+09:00

Every week we plan on going to Mestia, a little town in theheart of the Svaneti region deep in the Caucus Mountains. It is supposedly themost beautiful place in all of Georgia (and by Georgian logic, that means themost beautiful place in the world). I am fortunate enough to live in Samgrelo,the region just next to Svaneti, but nevertheless, every time we plan a tripup there, something happens and we are unable to go.

The first weekend we very nearly made it up there, but we stupidlyaccepted an invitation to a wedding instead at the last minute. Then the nextweekend we were going to go but my friend was invited to meet up with some ofher friends in Kutaisi. Which, when we got there, it turns out they couldn’tmeet anyway, which is how we ended up in Batumi that weekend. We were going totry again this past weekend, but it was raining here, snowing there and withthe perilous mountain roads that I have heard about, I was not willing to riskit in bad weather (not to mention we would have been wet and miserable up thereanyway). This weekend I have planned to go to Armenia. Will we make it nextweekend? Who knows.

I’m realizing I don’t have many weekends left before I’mdone with Georgia. I’ll be finishing teaching after the 2^nd or 3^rdweek of December, planning a trip to Turkey for about 2 weeks, and then headingback to America for a belated Christmas, then, if all goes to plan, back toKorea two weeks later to start a new job, for which I am signing my contractfor this week.

I wish I had more time to do all the things I want to dohere. I still want to go to Mestia, Vardzia, Gori and to a ski resort. A friend of mine invited me to go with herto Abkhazia, one of the Russian occupied regions of Georgia, because she hassome friends working up there with an NGO. Not to mention there are still a fewplaces in Tbilisi that I still need to see, like the sulfer baths, the hugecathedral, the fortress, etc etc etc. And every day I’m hearing about morebeautiful places I must see before I leave. So much to do and so little time.And of course, though it’s a small country, there are no highways, no highspeed trains and you must rely on marshutkas for transportation which areunpredictable about time tables, prices, and just finding them. Just gettinganywhere in this country is half the battle and half the adventure, which meanslots of time wasted when you’re trying to get from point A to point B, and whenyou only have 2 days a week to explore, it’s just not enough time to see everythingyou want.

If you come to teach in Georgia, be sure to come with enoughtime to see everything you want to see, so you don’t leave here disappointed.The week long orientation in Tbilisi affords little time for actual explorationof the city as you’re locked in the hotel from 9am-8pm most days. Then, onceyou’re placed, if you’re lucky you’ll be somewhere central where you canexplore easily on the weekends. If you’re unlucky, you could be in a villagewhere marshutkas only come every few hours to take you to another small citywhere marshutkas to where you want to go also come infrequently, and you couldspend a whole day just getting to your destination. My trip to Armenia thisweekend will be about 13 hours of travel. 6 hours to Tbilisi, then another 6hours to Armenia. For me to get to Khaheti, it’s 6 hours to Tbilisi and 1.5hours to Khaheti. And I’m in a major city! Just be sure to plan your tripscarefully!

Showering

2011-11-26T22:02:00.000+09:00

My Shower

I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I was luckybecause I have been placed in a house with a real shower with hot water.Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that I am showering every day here in Georgia.My goal is always to get a shower in once every two days, but usually I’m luckyif I can get 3 showers a week, usually it’s closer to two.

To get into the shower I need to face a few battles. First,the hot water must be turned on. Unfortunately, we don’t have on demand hotwater, but a hot water tank that must be heated up. Just turning it on doesn’tmean I have hot water. I’m not sure how long you need to wait to get hot water,but it’s usually more time than I have. I’ve waited up to an hour for the waterto warm up, but that is still not long enough.

Then, if there is hot water, the next problem I must face iswhether or not the shower head is working. For the past two weeks, every time Ihave wanted to take a shower, there has been some problem with the shower sothat only a dribble of water actually makes it out of the shower head, the restdrips down the cord. If my host father is at home, he can always fix it for me,but if he is not home, which is often the case, then I must go without theshower.

So, lastly, if I do have hot water, and I do have waterpressure to take a shower, I must consider the temperature. If the wood stoveis burning and the house is warm (and by warm I mean not cold) than taking ashower might be reasonably comfortable. If the wood stove is not burning, thatmeans that the house is the same temperature as outside, and just to give youan idea of what temperature that is, we had our first frost this week. Gettingundressed and into a shower when the air temperature is in the single digits(Celsius) is not a fun time, even if the water is hot. There’s never enoughwater pressure to cover my body, so one part of me is hot from the water, butthe rest of me is freezing. Therefore, morning showers have now becomeimpossible.

Now, me and my friends look forward to the weekends when wecan stay at a hostal with a good, hot shower and hopefully one that even hascentral heating so we’re warm when we get out of the shower and warm when wesleep. That doesn’t always happen, hostals and guesthouses are often the same asour own homes, if not colder, but that is at least the goal. And I'm one of the lucky ones. Many folks I know live in villages and don't even have hot water (or an indoor bathroom) to speak of.

School Supra

2011-11-25T21:52:00.000+09:00

Supra at school

If you know anything about Georgia, you have probably heardof the famous “supra”. A supra is basically a feast in honor of something orsomeone. Sometimes a birthday, sometimes a wedding, sometimes to welcome aguest or for a funeral, Georgians can’t pass up any opportunity to eat anddrink. Today in the teacher’s lunch room at school food started appearing onthe table. This is strange because no one actually eats meals at school,usually all you can find to eat in the lunch room is cakes and cookies, teasand coffees. As more and more food started appearing I got the feelingsomething was up.

Khajapuri- cheese bread

Stuffed tomatos and eggplants

After 10 minutes, the table was completely covered withfood, and another table had been dragged in to pile more food and drink on it.I was informed that all of it, down to the pastries had been homemade. Then,right there in our free period we stopped for a supra, today, in honor of ateacher’s father who passed away two years ago. What looks deceivingly like abottle of beer (because it is a beer bottle) on the table is actually full ofhomemade Georgian wine, and of course everyone was given a glass to make a toastto the teacher in honor of her father.

Tsatsivi- Turkey in walnut sauce

Vinagreti- cooked, cold veggies in mayonnaise

I find it amusing how common it is to drink at school here.Yesterday after school one teacher pulled out a bottle of cognac and most ofthe teachers did a shot or two of that. The gym teacher (the only male teacherin the school) is always pulling wine out of some cabinet and passing aroundglasses during break times and a few days ago he even had a bottle of Tbilisuri(which I’m not sure exactly what it is, but I believe it is something like rum)that he was trying to convince me to drink on my break period. Georgians never cease to amaze me.

Adjarian Khajapuri

Boiled beef

Mgrelian Sunday Dinner

2011-11-24T21:30:00.001+09:00

I came home on Sunday evening to find my family cooking up areal Mgrelian dinner. Within Georgia, there are many groups of people withtheir own traditions. I live in the region called Samgrelo and the localdialect is called Mgrelian. While it’s a relative of the Georgian language, thetwo are not mutually intelligible. Locals here speak Georgian in school andwork and about town, but speak Mgrelian at home and when spending time withfriends. The Samgrelo region also has certain foods that are particular to theregion and Sunday’s dinner featured one of the most famous of them, ghome, which is basically “grits” which are eaten in thesouthern part of the US. It’s made with cornmeal, which has been boiled for along time until it becomes a gooey substance. Then it is usually eaten withcheese or dipped in various sauces, whatever happens to be available on thetable.

I’ve had ghome before, at weddings and supras, but I’d neverseen how it was made. I came home just in time to see the process. It’s prettysimple.

First you put some cornmeal in a pot with lots and lots ofwater, then let it cook for a long time, stiring occasionally. Generally whitecorn flour is used rather than yellow corn flour, but as you can see here,yellow cornmeal is also good.

You can add more cornmeal if it’s not thick enough. It should be very gooey, not liquid at all. Kindof like thick oatmeal.

Then serve on a smallplate. Preferably, with a piece of cheese or two thrown in while it’s stillpiping hot so that the cheese melts into the ghome.

After it was served, they left the remaining ghome on the stove and it hardened and basically became tortilla chips!

In addition to this,we had baked chicken, preserved “Mexican cucumber” (whatever that is… it’s notan identifiable vegetable for me, but it certainly doesn’t look like acucumber), beans and, of course, bread.

Batumi

2011-11-13T22:43:00.000+09:00

Batumi is Georgia's one really touristy, developed city. Walking around in the downtown area and coastal area of Batumi feels like walking around Europe... not like the rest of Georgia, that's for sure. There's not much to write, but I'll let the photos do the talking. We only spent less than 24 hours here, which was plenty to see everything when it's not beach weather. But, there are still some beautiful sights to check out, it's worth the trip down here.

Medical Attention

2011-11-11T22:10:00.000+09:00

It all started with a sinus infection. I’ve had it for weeksif not months but I finally couldn’t ignore it any more and decided to suck itup and go to the doctor. I’d heard some horror stories about the doctors here in Georgia.Doctors that don’t speak a word of English, bribing people to pass theircertification exams, and prescribing dangerous medicines for the wrongillnesses. But, I figured this was just a sinus infection and couldn’t be thathard to screw up.

For us TLG teachers to go to the doctor, we must first callthe health insurance hotline (whose operators speak amazing English by the way)and get recommended to a clinic. They text messaged me the address of a clinicin my city and told me that the doctor would wait for me to show up since Iwould be a little late.

I arrived at 4 o’clock and was shuffled into a room where awoman who didn’t speak a word of English took my blood pressure and pulse andtook all my information. I was getting worried that this woman was the doctor,but then I was shuffled into the next room where I was met by the doctor and tomy relief, he spoke perfect English. I lucked out by getting a doctor that hasworked for various international organizations before. He was veryprofessional, more professional that I’ve seen in Korea, that’s for certain. Helistened to what I said were my symptoms and he agreed that it was probably asinus infection , but he’d have to do a blood test to check my white blood cellcount. After the nurse took my blood he told me, “I’m going out for a while,wait here for the blood test results and I’ll be back.” I didn’t think it waspossible to run a blood test that quickly, but 30 minutes later he was back andhad the typed up results in his had. Slightly elevated levels of white bloodcells. He wrote me out a prescription and sent me on my merry way to thepharmacy to get my antibiotics and nasal spray.

The nasal spray started to work immediately and I startedfeeling much better by the next morning. I took my antibiotics with my breakfastagain and then again with my “lunch” (which is just cake since that’s all myschool serves in the food department) at 11. After school, I went to theinternet café to check some email and make some skype calls. I go to oneparticular internet café because it tends to have the most working microphones.But, the downside to this place is that the air inside is terrible. I can’t putmy finger on what makes the air so bad, sometimes it’s from people smoking, buteven when no one is smoking I tend to leave there after my time is up feeling alittle nauseous. But, usually with some fresh air I feel better. Even after my15 minute walk home I still wasn’t feeling better. Perhaps it’s the fact thatstepping outside doesn’t mean getting fresh air anymore. Once evening timecomes around everyone starts lighting up their wood stoves and burning, notonly firewood, but anything and everything combustible from broken lacqueredfurniture to plastic bags and everywhere in between. I used to love the smellof a wood stove in America, but here the air reeks of burning trash. Nothelpful to my nausea.

I lied down for a while but still didn’t feel better. Then Ithrew up. There wasn’t much in my stomach to throw up, considering all I’d hadin the past 8 hours was one cake, a persimmon and a cup of tea. Then I threw upagain. Then I threw up again, but there wasn’t anything left to throw up thistime and I just had the dry heaves. I felt for sure that some dinner wouldhelp, maybe it was just my empty stomach making me sick. But no, 20 minutesafter my small dinner of one piece of bread and sauce, that came up too. Andagain.

Then my family started to worry about me. They send the sonout to the store to buy me some Borjomi mineral water, which is the Georgianversion of ginger ale for an upset stomach. They thought for sure that wouldwork. I wasn’t so sure. Then all that Borjomi came back up too. And again. Ilied down on the couch under a blanket shivering and went to sleep. A whilelater I got a phone call from the health insurance folks I had spoken to theday before. My host mother had called the TLG representative and she had calledthe health insurance. “Ms. Lynch, you have two options. First, we can call youan ambulance and you can go to the hospital to be treated,” woah, woah, I’veonly been throwing up for 4 hours, there’s no need to call an ambulance.“Otherwise, you can wait until tomorrow and you can go to the doctor.”. I toldthem that I would be fine, I would wait until tomorrow to go back to the doctor.

Then another phone call came. This time it was the TLGrepresentative again. I told her that I was fine… well, relatively speaking,and I wasn’t going to die. Then I asked her to translate for my host motherthat I would go to the doctor in the morning and not to worry about me. Dispiteeven getting a translation for “don’t worry” for my host mother, she clearlywas still worried. I fell asleep again and then I was woken up to my host aunttelling me that my host mother’s brother, who happened to be a doctor was onhis way over with some “medicament”. She said, “He will come in 10 minutes.”This was at 9 or 10 o’clock. At 1 AM I was woken up when he finally arrived,with an IV pack in his hand ready to rehydrate me. I kind of had a feeling thiswas going to happen. At this point, it’s too late to say no. Plus, I probablydid need it. How long would it take? 25 minutes. Ok. Now the only question was,how safe is it to administer an IV in one’s home?

This was too priceless of a moment to let it go by without a photo...

They set up a table with a chair on top to hang the IV fromnext to the sofa where I had been sleeping. He swabbed my arm down with vodkato disinfect. The doctor found the vein without too much trouble, but then theyrealized that whenever he leaned over to put the needle in, his shadow blockedthe light and he couldn’t see the vein. Eventually he got the needle in andstarted the IV but after 5 minutes, he decided that this was a “tsudi vena” bad vein. Oh, did I mention he didn’t speak a wordof English?

He decided that he’d have to set up the IV in my hand ratherthan my arm, but he needed a smaller needle. Half the folks in the house jumpedinto the car and went with him to some hospital somewhere to get anotherneedle. They were back just 10 minutes later and before I knew it I had an IVdrip into my hand. This, however, did not stop the vomiting. My poor hostmother had to hold a bag for me while I threw up more since I couldn’t hold itmyself with my arm in the IV.

The other problem now was that it was getting close to 2 amand now the IV was on a slow drip since hand veins are smaller than arm veins.My poor host mother stayed up until after 3 am when the IV finished and tookout the needle (the doctor had long taken off by then). I stayed on the couchto sleep because I couldn’t have possibly gotten to the toilet from my room inthe middle of the night in my condition (it’s not easy when I’m healthy nowthat I think of it). They brought me another blanket and I slept fitfully therest of the night, but without throwing up again.

In the morning, I was able to eat a piece of “dry bread” anda cup of tea. I finally got to the doctor around 2 pm. Everyone in my familyhad been making theories about why I was sick. I attributed it to themedication. My host mother and aunt believed I had eaten unripe fruit becausethey saw that I had eaten an orange that was still green with my breakfast.But, the orange tasted fine and I refuse to believe that an unripe orange at 8am could give me dry heaves 15 hours later. When I explained to the doctor whatI had done the day before he immediately asked me why I had taken my antibioticso early at 11 am. That was my only break when I could eat I explained, but hetold me that I really should wait at least 6 hours, preferably 8 hours betweentaking pills.

Anyway, I guess we’ll never know the real reason why I gotso sick, but he decided that I needed another IV, which somehow turned into twomore IVs. I sat laying in that cold office getting my IVs playing games on mycell phone for the two hours to pass the time. But, when I was finallyfinished, I felt rejuvenated. I had had to take a taxi over to the clinicbecause I just hadn’t had any strength to move, but now I felt like I couldwalk home, heck, I felt like I could even go teach a class or go do something, anything. I left there with orders to start takingmy medicines (properly spaced this time) as soon as I was feeling better again.And the next afternoon I was on a bus to Tbilisi to spend my weekend inKakheti. I just hope that if I follow the instructions this time I won’t haveany more problems!

Signaghi

2011-11-10T21:55:00.000+09:00

1.5 hours east of Tbilisi lies the little town of Signaghi.Located in the heart of Georgia’s wine country, the region of Kakheti, steppinginto this village is like stepping out of Georgia and into some town straightout of a fairy tale. The main streets of town are cobble-stoned and all thebuildings have been meticulously repaired, at least on the outside, and onereally gets the feeling that you’re somewhere in Europe. No, Signaghi is notthe “real Georgia”, but I get the real Georgia every day here, my weekend herewas an escape to another world.

We took the 9 am marshutka from Samgori station in Tbilisi,the capital of Georgia for 6 lari (about $4 USD). We had found the name of awell recommended guesthouse before arriving, but when we got off the marshutkaat 11:30, we were met by an old woman shouting “guesthouse!” “guesthouse! 15Lari!” (about $10 USD) so we decided to follow her to her house on the mainstreet a few minutes away. With no heat in the room and the bathroom outside,it was clear why it was only 15 Lari a night. But, we were there and we didn’twant to waste more time looking for another guesthouse so we paid our 15 larito stay the night. Before we went out, she took us into her wine cellar and letus taste her homemade wine and homegrown grapes. She also told us (in Georgian,of course because “guesthouse, 15 Lari” was the only English she knew) “Eatingin the restaurant is very expensive. Let me make you a good lunch.” We didn’t enquire the price, but we agreed. Turns outshe tried to charge us 10 lari each for a bowl of soup and a few khinkali(Georgian dumplings). When I told her that that was too much, she said, “ok,ok, you are teachers,” and she cut the price in half.

View from afar of St. George's Church

Then it was time to explore the town. We walked way down aroad and found a gate in the fortress wall and some fantastic views.

View of the Caucus Mountains in the distance

We walked back and checked out St. George’s Church. Ifinally remembered to bring a scarf with me to cover my head as I enter thechurch.

In front of St. George's Church

Then we walked the 2 km out of town to go to Bodbemonastery. Unfortunately they wouldn’t allow photos inside because it had somefantastic, old paintings on the walls and ceilings.

We hiked down to find the Holy Spring. They had a bath whereyou could jump in the Holy Water as well, but that looked awfully cold.

Then we met a German guy who works for the UN here inGeorgia and he gave us a ride back to town in his massive UN vehicle. I foundit rather funny because he told us that he’s not allowed to ride the marshutkabecause it is too dangerous, but we teachers are not allowed to drive becauseit’s too dangerous. Personally I’d take the crazy marshutka drivers who areused to driving ok Georgia’s crazy roads over driving myself through Georgia’scrazy roads.

Dinner was a salad at a restaurant that had wi-fi so I couldfinally call home for the first time in 2 weeks. The time difference betweenhere and home does not make calling home easy and it seems whenever I actuallyfind a good time to call home, my mother is working overtime and isn’t home toanswer the phone.

After this we were kind of at a loss for what to do. Mytravel buddy doesn’t drink and the whole town basically closes up except forthe 2 or 3 bars around. We seem to have come a little late for the touristseason as well, there was hardly a soul to be seen, especially tourists. Wewound up going back to our room and going to bed at 8 pm mostly out of boredom.

We woke up early and headed over to check out the lasttourist attractions left in the town, a part of the wall with an elevated pathfor tourists to walk along, and St. Steven’s church. We killed the rest of ourtime waiting for the 11 am marshutka at a new café near our guesthouse that isoperated by handicapped people. Finally we went and bought our tickets and goton the marshutka back to Tbilisi. While it was a long ride from my city, 7.5hours of driving time, it was well worth it. It is the most beautiful town I’veseen so far in Georgia.

The Georgian Hagwon

2011-11-09T21:25:00.000+09:00

Written on 10/28/11

I was very upset after being brought to a Georgian hagwontoday. I was asked to come and chat with the students, which I had no problemwith. But I think what happened was that I was nearly recruited to volunteer atthis apparently for-profit school.

I was brought in to talk to the teachers of the school,there was a Russian teacher who also spoke good English, two English teachersand a Spanish teacher who I could only communicate with in Spanish. They wereall very nice, but kept asking me, what days can you come to our school andhelp? Please come on Sundays when we have our kindergarten class! Sorry, I amonly here for a month and a half more and I would like to keep my weekends tosee your beautiful country. Well, what about another day? What day? What day? Idon’t know, I could come by on Tuesdays sometimes, maybe. Oh good, oh good, weneed you so much here! Please come watch this class now, they are veryadvanced, today we are studying a passage from On Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham. Please let us know what you thinkof our wonderful students.

I’d never heardof this book before but the title sounded intimidating, and my interest piquedto see what kind of students would be reading such material. It turned out itwas a test prep class with five seniors practicing for their college entranceexam and one 9^th grader who’s English is too advanced to study inany other class at the school.

The students had indeed read part of one chapter of thisbook, On Human Bondage, which turns outis a novel that was written in 1915, a book which is probably a similar readinglevel with Jane Eyre. Certainly,it would be considered high school level reading in America. Now, the teacherasked the students to recite from memory this half a chapter of the book. Thefirst to go was the 9^th grader. I was very impressed with this boybecause, while he didn’t memorize this whole passage word for world, hereplaced words he didn’t know with synonyms and words that made sense incontext, keeping the story coherent. The teacher seemed a little upset with himthat he didn’t have it memorized word for word, but didn’t get upset until sheasked him to remember obscure words from the text from the Georgian definitionand he missed a few words. She asked him “How can you understand the story ifyou don’t study the vocabulary?” to which he responded in excellent English“Teacher, I understand the context and I can figure out the meanings of thewords that way. I don’t need to take this exam for 3 more years.” The teachernodded and moved on to the remaining 5 students. Each of them recited the textfrom memory and told the definitions of the words. But, it was clear that they didnot understand the text by the mistakes they made from their recitations. After45 minutes of listening to kids regurgitate text they didn’t understand, theteacher turned to me (and I was getting angrier and angrier by the minutesitting there, doing nothing, watching these kids regurgitate meaningless wordswhile their parents were paying for them to learn something) and asked me “Whatdo you think? Do you have any suggestions?” To which I replied, “These studentsmemorize the text very well, but I wonder if they actually understand themeaning. May I ask them some comprehension questions?” The teacher looked a bittaken aback, but of course couldn’t say no. When I started to ask themquestions from the story, they looked a bit stunned, deer in headlight effect(a look I’m getting used to in my own school). The only student who couldanswer my questions was the 9^th grade boy. After class, I tried toexplain the difference between reading and memorizing to the teacher. Thatthese students were working so hard to memorize the text that they weren’tthinking about the actual meaning of the text. This 9^th grade boy(who admittedly is at a very high level because he had been in an exchangeprogram in England) actually read and understood the story, had formed opinionson the text and actually understood the character’s actions where the otherstudents had just memorized the text without thinking about the actual meaningof the text.

The class after that got no better. After I asked mycomprehension questions, the teacher moved on to another reading from anEnglish reading book where she read a text aloud, translated it for them, thenwrote no less than 35 new vocabulary words on the blackboard for them to copyand study. Then, without having the students read the text for themselves, ordiscussing the topic of environmental problems, she closed the book and thenmoved on to a text, written in Georgian which they needed to translate intoEnglish. This on it’s own, I don’t feel is a terrible exercise, translation isa good brain exercise, but this is the way most public schools are run. Here isEnglish text, translate it to Georgian. Here is Georgian text, translate it toEnglish. The students are never actually asked to form a sentence on their own,not in writing or spoken word. Kids here can’t even speak OR write a coherentsentence and even the hagwon propagates this nonsence.

I tried to be understanding. It is a test prep course afterall. I asked the teacher, what do they need to do for the test? She pulled outa sample test. There was no text memorization section. There was no Georgian toEnglish translation section. There was reading comprehension and an essaysection. Neither topic had been addressed in class. There was no readingcomprehension, only text memorization and there was absolutely no writing,unless you consider copying vocabulary words from the blackboard writing.

I left there in a very bad mood. First, after seeing such apoorly run class and then, add insult to injury, I was asked to volunteer mytime teaching at a place like this while they make money off of me. I don’treally know what I’m supposed to do in a situation like this. Do I ask formoney? The amount I could be paid for one or two days a week would really benegligible, at least outside of Georgia, considering I make $250 a month at myfull time job. How much could I make? $10 a day? Not really worth fighting overand frankly I feel bad charging for my services since I’m supposed to be hereas a “volunteer” even if that isn’t completely true since I make the samesalary as a typical teacher here. I don’t know what it was really that made meso angry, if it was the waste of money on the part of these kid’s parents whoprobably don’t have a lot of money to spare anyway, or if it was the fact thatthey expect me to volunteer my time while they make money, or if it was justthe fact that I wasted an entire afternoon of my life in such an infuriatingsituation. Now I have to figure out how to stay away from this place in thefuture since my co-teacher, I think, will beg me to come every day.

Bad Dubs

2011-11-08T21:14:00.000+09:00

Written on 10/19/11

I remember when I used to be obsessed with Anime in highschool and I’d have these discussions about bad dubs with my other Otakufriends. We’d complain about how bad this voice actor or that voice actor wasand how it would be so much better if we could just watch shows with subtitles.

Now living in Georgia, I realize that no bad dub I saw backthen could ever compare with the terrible dubbing of Georgian TV. Nearly everydrama, cartoon and movie on TV comes from abroad. Most are American, butSpanish and French language dramas also seem to be popular as well. Georgian TVdubs all of these, but perhaps for budgetary reasons or other reasons, insteadof removing the original voices and getting voice actors to recreate thedialogues, they merely lower the original voice soundtrack and speak over it.The Georgian voices sound as if they are being read from a script withoutseeing the actual program, as there is no emotion portrayed in any character’svoice. Under the Georgian you can hear people speaking with interesting voices and with emotion, while over the original voices, Georgian is spoken in emotionless voices.

I Love Georgian Dance

2011-11-07T21:13:00.001+09:00

I wish I came from a culture that treasures dance like Georgia. Boys and girls alike here take dance lessons and it is something that everyone enjoys. How could you not, just look at this stuff!

Kids dancing at a wedding

Dancing at a restaurant

The Post Office

2011-11-06T21:17:00.000+09:00

Written on 10/28/2011

I had a feeling the conversation would go something likethis, but I figured I had to give it a shot.

Me: “Is there a post office here in our city?”

Co-teacher: “Why yes! Of course we have a post office!”

Me: “Oh, really? That’s great. You know I wanted to send apackage to a friend in Korea. Do you think the postal system can handle that?”

Co-Teacher: “Oh, you mean you want to send something?”

Me: “Well… yea… “

Co-Teacher: “Oh… I don’t know if the post office is actuallyopen.” She turned confirmed with another teacher in Georgian, then turned to meagain and said, “yes, I think it was working 5 years ago, but I don’t think itis working now.”

Me: “So… how do you get mail if there is no postal service?”

Co-Teacher: “Well, we can send things at banks. And we usee-mail.”

Me: “So, if I want to send a package I can go to the bank?”

Co-Teacher: “Hm, I’m not sure, but you can send moneythere.”

Me: “So, if your relative in America wanted to send yousomething, could you receive it?”

Co-Teacher: “Yes, Georgia has some problems, I think.”

Sorry folks, don’t expect any post cards from Georgia….

The real reason for fences

2011-11-05T21:15:00.000+09:00

Written on 10/20/2011

I was walking home through the village back to my cityyesterday with one of my co-teachers and I was asking her some questions aboutthe farm animals that roam about freely.

Me: “There are so many cows roaming around everywhere. Howdo their owners find them?”

Co-Teacher: “Oh, they go home at night.”

Me: “How do they know how to go home at night?”

Co-Teacher: “Oh, well, Georgian cows are very smart.” (Thiswas a joke of course)

“You know, several years back, you could even see cows inthe city.”

Me: “You know, I live in the city and I see cows around myhouse every day. They just walk around and eat anything they can find, grass,bushes, they even eat the bushes that stick out through people’s fences.”

Co-Teacher: “Yes, that is why we have fences. To keep thecows and pigs out.”

Me: “Not to keep people out?”

Co-Teacher: “No no, no one ever locks their gates here. Butif there were no fences, the cows would enter our yards and eat everything.

Ah… Georgia.

Smoking

2011-11-03T21:11:00.000+09:00

Written on 10/19/2011

Smoking is everywhere in Georgia. We were informed at theorientation that it would be impossible to expect to find a smoke-free hostfamily. Even if the family members themselves don’t smoke, they said, guestswould be sure to smoke in the house. And Georgian houses always have guestscoming in and out all day long. Not to mention that people smoke everywhere,hotels, restaurants, bars, internet cafes, in the car, taxi etc etc. I’ve yetto see someone smoking on a bus or marshutka, but I feel that it may just be amatter of time.

I discovered no less in my own home in my first few daysafter I arrived. Neighbors were always coming in and out of our house, oftenwith a their cigarette butt hanging from their mouth.

But then, after a week of being at my house, my host fatherannounced to me that he had been smoke free for 4 days. My host mother was veryproud of him and it seemed to have given her the confidence to make her wholehouse smoke free.

The next day our neighbor walked into the house again withhis cigarette in his mouth and she gave him a lecture about how she didn’t wantpeople smoking in her house. At first he looked at her like she was crazy,perhaps it was the first time someone had ever asked him to step out to havehis cigarette. But she persisted, dropping my name in there, perhaps sayingthat I didn’t want to be sucking in his second hand smoke. She turned to me andsaid something in Georgian that I understood to mean “Isn’t that right?” and ofcourse I responded “Kho!” (yes in Georgian). He just looked at us, shook hishead and stepped out until he had finished his cigarette. But from then on,whenever he came over with his cigarette, all my host mother had to say was nosmoking and he now steps out of the house without complaint. It’s good to seethat people are becoming aware of the smoking culture and that they have thepower to make changes for the better.

School Problems

2011-11-02T21:09:00.000+09:00

Written on 10/19/11

The lesson in our book today was to talk about the problemsin our school, how we would fix them, and (using ‘I think’ and ‘I believe’)tell what we expect in the future. I have only been at the school for a totalof four days so I clearly have a lot to learn. The major problems listed by thestudents were as follows, and more or less in the following order:

Lack of a gym

The library is too small

There is no laboratory to study science

Students don’t have access to the internet in the computerlab

… and finally….

There are no lights

For some reason they didn’t seem to think that the fact thatthe school has no running water or the fact that a class of 8 students oftenshares 2-3 books were problems though.

School Drama

2011-11-01T21:08:00.000+09:00

Written on 10/19/2011

The school was abuzz today with news that one of ourstudents got married yesterday. The girl is only 14 and in the 10^thgrade and has married a man in the village. I couldn’t figure out how old thehusband is, but as he is not a student in our school I’m guessing he must beolder than 18. Apparently there used to be a law that once women were married,they could no longer attend public school, but even now that the law has beenchanged, many girls still don’t go to school once they get married. I’m notsure what this girl will do, but the teachers were quite upset all day that shecould have run off and done something so stupid.

Party Vans and Presidential Sightings in Kutaisi

2011-10-31T23:30:00.000+09:00

Written on 10/17/2011

This past weekend was a long weekend and we decided aftermuch deliberation to spend the weekend in Kutaisi, the second biggest city inthe country, capital of Imereti province. It took a while for my family tofigure out how I could get there, but after much deliberation amongstthemselves, they decided that there must be a marshutka (public transportationvan) that leaves at 9 am from the train station in my city that would take methere. They also decided that this would be the only one that left for the day,so I’d better not miss it. They were at least right about the first part, thetime, for it did leave at 9 am. As for being the only marshutka, that seemshighly doubtful but I have yet to have figured out the schedule.

I made it in time and made my first marshutka ride alone allthe way to Kutaisi. The Kutaisi marshutka pick up/drop off point just happensto be in front of McDonalds, the only McDonalds in the whole city. I find itfunny that Americans and Canadians seem to get overly excited when they see aMcDonalds when they are abroad. While they would never go there in their owncountry, suddenly a familiar sight makes them suddenly crave the crap food thatthey sell. I, on the other hand, was happy to see the free wi-fi and got tomake my first phone call to my mother in over a week.

Our first adventure was finding a guest house. My friend hadgotten the address (but no phone number) of a guesthouse. We walked over to thecrowd of taxi drivers and asked them to take us to the street. It took 5 taxidrivers and about 10 minutes, but they finally figured out where we wanted togo and we were escorted to a taxi and overcharged for the ride. Upon arrivingat the address given, we found nothing but a house. No signs, no contactinformation, nothing. The taxi driver was kind enough to shout out and get theowners attention. I was sure we were at the wrong place, but then the gate wasopened and we were ushered in.

Here we were given two twin beds in this family’s house. Thewoman spoke enough English to tell us the necessities and her daughter spokeenough English to translate her mother’s curiosities about us, everything fromwhere we are from to how much money we make. The price was 20 Lari per night,10 more Lari could have gotten us a hotel room, but there’s no guarantee that a50 Lari/night hotel would be any better than this.

We decided to check out Motsameta, a church in the mountainsabout 7 km outside Kutaisi on recommendation from the woman running the guesthouse. It took us a while to get ourselves out there, and from there we hadbeen told that we could walk from there to another church called Gelati just 3km away. We were trying to ask some high school girls how to walk there, andthey didn’t know the way, but their family was headed the same way and theyasked if we would like a ride with them. We agreed but we had no idea what wewere agreeing to.

They pointed in a general direction saying “this is ourcar”, but I was instead guided into a van, completely chuck full with a family,young, old, grandmothers and small children, at least twenty stuffed into amarshutka. We were shuffled in and family members moved over onto other’s lapsin order for us to sit comfortably on a makeshift seat made of wood between twoseats where and aisle should have been. Off we zoomed down the mountain road.Though Gelati was only a 5 minute ride away, they were a bit lost too. Theydrove up, down and all around before they found the entrance to the church. Inthe meantime the high school and college kids in the van decided to turn theirride into a dance party. “Musica! Musica!” they shouted and the driver blastedthe music blaring traditional Georgian music. Despite the lack of room, theysomehow found a way to get up and dance in the van as we sped all aroundlooking for the church. “You like khachapuri?” they asked, and the next thing Iknew, cheese bread was being pulled out for us to try. I think we were alsoinvited to their home… or at least to go somewhere with them that evening, butwe had to decline. I guess this is what they mean by Georgian hospitality.

The party van

Finally we got to Gelati and we said our good-byes. Theywent into the church to worship and we walked around the grounds, slightlyclueless about the church and rather still in shock from our ride up to thechurch.

Then it was time to leave. We were hoping we could get aride down with our new family, but they didn’t seem to be leaving any timesoon. Now we were stuck, 10 Km from town, high up on a mountain. Should wehitchhike? There were no taxis to be found. But, nor were there people leavingthe church either. Then, like someone above had been listening, a taxi droveup. Yes, we paid double what we paid to get up there, but we couldn’t exactlybargain when he was the only taxi around in miles. 10 lari later (which,admittedly, is only 7 dollars) we were back in the city and it was time to meetsome other friends.

The rest of the evening was rather uneventful, but involved“pizza” which was more mushrooms than cheese and sauce put together, and beerfrom a brewery that tasted no different than the stuff from the convieneicestore. We called it a night early at 11 not wanting to wake up the folks at theguesthouse when we came in. Of course, they were already asleep and we seemedto walk up a very grumpy fellow when we knocked on the door to be let in.

The next morning we checked out of there and I realized thatI only had 25 Lari left so I decided I should probably head home before night.We dropped off our bags at our friend’s guesthouse and we got lunch. Somehow wegot separated from our friends again and as we were deciding what we should do,we were approached by some Georgian friends of our friends. We told them wewatnted to go to Bagrati, a cathedral in the city and they talked with eachother in Georgian and nodded and told us to go with them in their car.

I knew immediately we were going in the wrong direction andafter a few minutes I realized that we were going back to Motsameta, the sameplace we had gone to yesterday. Then, it was casually mentioned that thepresident of Georgia, Mikhail Sakartshvili would be making an appearance laterin the day at the church. It was immediately apparent that something was goingon today when we got closer to the church. Police were located everywhere andthe street to Motsameta had been blocked off to traffic.

Seeing the mess around Motsameta, they decided to head overto Gelati first. It was nice going with Georgians that we knew because theycould explain to us what was going on. Or at least they tried, and sometimesthey relied on random strangers with better English to explain things.

They found us head scarves to cover our heads with, this wasthe biggest reason why we hadn’t ventured far into the church the previous day.Whenever you enter an orthodox church, women cover their heads. With our headscovered, we felt much more at ease walking around the church. The walls insideof Gelati are covered in old frescos from ceiling to floor. The style isnothing like anything I’ve ever seen in a Roman Catholic Church. Anotherinteresting feature is that there is no seating area to hold a service.Worshipers wander in and out, priests wonder about blessing this person andthat and worshipers go from relic to relic blessing themselves with the sign ofthe cross (they bless them in the opposite direction as Roman Catholics,starting with forehead, then chest, right shoulder then left shoulder) andkissing this and that.

One thing we could not get anyone to explain to us was thelambs that we saw many worshipers bring with them to both Motsameta and Gelati.If someone could explain to me why they bring sheep to church with them, I’d bemost obliged.

From there it was time to head back to Motsameta and makeour way in through the police and the crowds. Our friends brought us into themain worship hall at Motsameta as well (without head scarves, but no one seemedto make a fuss about it) and he gave us some candles to light and put around invarious places. The place was packed full of people and there was a long linewaiting to crawl under the tomb of the martyrs. Apparently if you crawl underit, your wish will come true. I kind of wanted to do it, but then our friendsshuffled us out again and off to see the president. We waited around and therewere secret service and security everywhere. When vehicles started racing in, Itried to snap a photo but a security agent saw me before I could even get mycamera on. “No photo.”. Then the president came out of his car, crossed throughthe crowd to look over the cliff behind us, then walked “very fast”, as ourfriend had warned us, into the church and disappeared for 20 minutes as no onewas allowed in. Finally, as we could tell he was making is way out, our friendshuffled us to the front of the line waiting to see him as he came out so wecould say hello. We really wanted to get our photo with him, but that didn’tseem likely at this point. Finally he came out of the church and as he (speed)walked along, he did indeed spot us foreigners and flashed us a smile and saidsomething in English which we think was “hello!”. We were satisfied with whatwe got, neither of us had ever been in the presence of a president of anycountry, much less been addressed by one.

By now, of course, it was far too late for me to go back tomy city. The annoying thing about traveling in Georgia is that intercitytransportation often cuts off around dusk, making late returns difficult if notimpossible. My friend paid for us to stay at the guest house where our otherfriends had spent the night before.

The place was called Giorgi’s Guesthouse, and again, theplace had no sign, no website, no phone number, just an address that we foundon various other travel websites. This place had a very chill hostel feel to itand though my friend went to bed early, I sat up with other guests and chatted.The owner, Giorgi occasionally passed out small shots of cha-cha, Georgianvodka, and we listened to the tales of a retired German professor from HangukUniversity of Foreign Studies (외대). It was strange to hearsomeone talking about the Korea from a different time, as he started teachingthere in the 1970’s and taught for 23 years.

Giorgi's Guesthouse

Finally it was timefor bed. The next day was uneventful and I headed home before noon. But, ifevery weekend is so eventful, I will leave Georgia a happy woman.

Rainy Day

2011-10-31T21:06:00.002+09:00

Rainy Day

Written on 10/19/2011

While my first week and a half in Georgia was sunny weatherevery day, suddenly the weather started taking a turn for the worse. Now, I’mused to rainy weather from living through three monsoon seasons in Korea. Afterlosing several good pairs of shoes to water damage after my first summer inKorea I discovered that water resistant shoes like Crocs and plastic flip-flopswere the way to survive torrential rain storms. Better that your skin gets wetthan soaking your shoes and socks for the day.

Here in Georgia I have several pairs of shoes, but nonebesides my flip flops would survive the torrential downpours outside my window.The temperature was in the 60s˚F and I didn’t think anything of wearing my flipflops out. It was certainly better than soaking my sneakers in the giantpuddles I’d have to hurdle to get downtown.

My host aunt found me downtown but was shocked by the factthat I was wearing flip-flops. “Aren’t you cold?! How can you wear that?!” Itried to explain that bare feet dry faster than wet socks and sneakers, butsomehow that was lost in translation. She got home before me and apparentlyinformed my whole family that I went out in the rain wearing flip-flops.

Upon my arrival at my house, my host mother and little hostsister greeted me at the door shouting in Georgian and pointing to my feet. Myhost aunt translated the shouting saying that they were sure I’d catch a coldand how cold I must be. They pulled out the space heater trying to convince meI needed to warm up, but I convinced them I was fine.

Now, whenever they see me, they say that “Jo-Anna is nevercold” whenever they see me.

Wedding in Georgia

2011-10-20T22:36:00.000+09:00

Written on 10/10/2011

Not long after I arrived in my house on the first night inmy new city, my host father picked up a wedding invitation and showed me saying“tomorrow!” followed by “you go!”. I felt excited to be invited to my firstwedding minutes after arriving. So, the next day after exploring the town I gotdressed up for the wedding. I was worried because my host mother put on a nicedress, but I threw on my dress pants and a nice shirt and asked if it would bealright and they said yes.

This was my first time alone with just my host mother andhost father. I was a bit nervous about leaving my host aunt since she is theone who speaks English and translates everything for me. We hopped into someother relatives car and sped off. My host mother made a phone call and askedhow to say village. Then she informed me, mostly through sign language, that wewere going first to the village, then coming back to the city to go to therestaurant for the supra (dinner party).It was quite clear once we were out of the city. The road became a pot holefilled gravel road where we weren’t trying to drive on one side of the road orother, just the part of the road that would damage our old car the least. Afterzig zagging down the road avoiding not only pot holes but cows, people, a bicycleand other cars much faster than us, we finally found our destination.

We parked down the street and walked up to the house.Everyone was lined up around the driveway and we mingled and I was introducedto some of the other guests. Minutes later a caravan of cars arrived beepingall along the way. The wedding party had arrived. They zoomed into thedriveway, stopping just before hitting the guests waiting for them. Everyonecrowded around to see the bride and groom as they stepped out of the decorated cars.Before they ascended the outside stairway to the second floor, some kind ofplate was broken. Then she went up and all the guests (there were hundreds)flooded up the stairs to say congratulations.

One room was set up with a table full of food and drinks andpeople made their way in line to greet the bride, then filed out. That was allfor the village portion of the event. We all hopped back into the car afteronly being at the house for about 20 minutes, and we made our way back alongthe potholed road back to the city and to a wedding hall. There we again waitedfor the bride and groom to appear and this time they were greeted with somevery nice fireworks.

I was quite overwhelmed with the spread on the table. Therewas hardly room for our plates with all the food piled on the table when we satdown. We started to eat right away. I tried a little of this and a little ofthat and found myself full not long later. Much to my surprise, that was notthe end of the food. After the first hour or so, the waitstaff would bringaround a new dish every ½ hour orso and I ate until I felt sick.

Then the alcholol started flowing. Georgians love to drink,especially at a supra, and wine is served in pitchers rather than bottles andare refilled whenever they reach half empty. Tcha-Tcha (Georgian vodka) isreadily available plus a wide selection of mineral water, soda and whatGeorgians call “Limonati” or lemonade, but it never seems to be made fromlemons. The only alcohol missing at this event was beer, perhaps it’s notclassy enough for a wedding.

Georgians make toasts while drinking from a horn. The hornat this wedding happened to be made of chrystal and appeared to hold about aliter of wine. Which, after saluting the bride and groom, the men would thendrink all at once. Women don’t often make toasts like this, but the one woman Isaw make a toast had to take 2 or 3 sips to down her liter of wine.

Then, of course, like any good wedding, there was plenty ofdancing. Everyone got up on the dance floor, young and old. The music selectionwas completely random, with Georgian songs, Russian songs, American songs and(randomly) a lot of Itailan songs. Then, about once an hour, they kickedeveryone off the dance floor and we were treated with performances oftraditional Georgian dances from professional dancers. At one point my hostfather motioned for me to follow him out of the wedding hall telling me tobring my camera. He brought me to a side house where the performers weregetting ready for the next performance and he asked them to take some photoswith me. It was slightly embarrassing, but I do have a terrible soft spot forgetting my photo taken in traditional garb or with others dressed intraditional clothes, even in my own country.

Finally at 1 am, my host mother called it quits and wewalked home from the party. I was grateful since all that food was not feelingso good in my stomach. The party, however, was still going strong. If you’reever in Georgia, make sure you get yourself invited to a Georgian wedding. Youwon’t regret it!

Every wedding needs a goat, right?

First weekend with my host family

2011-10-19T22:22:00.000+09:00

Written on 10/10/2011

So far, things with my host family have been really great.I’m really fortunate for several reasons. Firstly, I’m in a city. A small city,but a city none the less. I was kind of hoping for a village placement, I hadbeen mentally preparing for no hot water, no running water, outhouses etc sinceI signed up and here I am in a house 15 minutes walking distance from thedowntown area, indoor bathroom where you can even flush your toilet paper, hotwater and a washing machine. The only modern convenience we don’t have is astove. They have a small gas burner, something like an oversized camping stove,which they seem to use to cook everything. Not to say it’s really nice andmodern here, but it’s much more than I was expecting.

I’m also lucky because the aunt that lives here speaksfairly good English. She has a very difficult time understanding me, but shecan communicate with me quite well and explain all the things going on aroundme. The father can also speak some English. While it’s not very advanced, it’senough to communicate. My host mother doesn’t really speak a word of English,but since I’ve arrived, she’s picked up 4 or 5 words and she seems to be eagerto learn more. She’s always a bit apprehensive around me because we can’treally communicate well, but hopefully we’ll get to know each other bettersoon. I’m also living with two children, an 8 year old girl and a 12 year oldboy. They are both great and we communicate with a mix of Georgian and English.The girl has kind of adopted me as her new best friend… or new favorite toy,I’m not sure which, but she points to random things and tells me what they arein Georgian. I’m afraid I’m a poor student for her, I’m kind of in wordoverload and my mind is not soaking up anything. I’ve picked up the followingphrases which I use to communicate everything:

It is good: kargia

It is bad: Tsudia

Beautiful: Lamazia

Car: manqana

I am…: Me var

Where is …: sad aris

My: chemi

Hello: garmajova

Nice to meet you: sasiamovnoa

I do know more than this of course, I did have 5 days oflanguage classes, but these seem to be the only words that will come to mequickly enough to use them. Hopefully I learn quickly but I’m just in overloadat the moment.

My house seems to be layed out in a similar scheme to mostother Georgian houses I’ve seen in the neighborhood. Two floors with thestairway to the second floor outside. There is an indoor stairway, but it’svery steep and ladder-ish and feels quite awkward to use, especially if youhave anything in your hands. My room is by far the nicest in the house. Theyclearly recently renovated the room for guests. Newly wallpapered walls matchthe new curtains I have a big double bed and two wardrobes. I plan on buyingsome hangars because at the moment all my clothes are on shelves. The other twobedrooms are a bit sad looking. The kids room has two twin beds shoved togetherand you need to cut through the parents room to get to it. It doesn’t seem asthough there is any electricity in those rooms. They gave me a flashlight tocut through those rooms to use the bathroom at night because if I were to usethe outdoor stairway to go down, the front door would be locked. There are twoother rooms in the upstairs, but they seem to be rather a work in progress. Oneis completely empty and full of dust, the other is full of scrap wood. Theytold me that they will put electricity in those rooms soon. The downstairs isnice with a kitchen cabinet area and a sitting room area with the TV. Off ofthat room is the large living room with a piano (I’ve been told that pianos arerather like a piece of furniture here with most people owning one) and sofasand a table. No internet or computer, but they said that we will get internetfor the house (or for my computer?) soon. Here you can buy the usb drives thatuse internet through the phone network. The device is quite expencive though(two different companies, about $100 USD and $50 USD respectively) plus youneed to pay for the monthly service, and the price varies depending on theuseage of course.

The house also has a yard with an overgrown garden and alarge metal structure that seems to be for growing grapes. Most houses havesomething like this in their front yard. The back yard has a sink (no sink inthe bathroom, they’ve told me that this will be moved into the bathroom soontoo) and a small house for storage plus several lines hung for drying laundry.There are gates which lead into the neighbors yards and it seems that neighborsare always coming and going from our house. It’s a nice community atmospherehere and it’s the sort of town where everyone knows everyone. As we took a walkaround town we bumped into all sorts of people whom the family knew. This was astudent, this was a teacher, this was the son’s mother, etc etc.

So far the weather has been beautiful. Duringthe day it feels close to 80˚F but with no humidity so it is very agreeable.But, because it is now October most people seem to be wearing fall clothes,long sleeves, pants etc. I was quite warm dressed like that and have opted towear clothes from my summer wardrobe. I’m not sure what I’ll do for schoolsince I haven’t brought many nicer summer clothes. All my “teacher” clothes arefor the winter. Hopefully it cools down soon! Tbilisi, the capital was a bitcooler than here, so I was thinking that I’d packed just right. The problemwith this program is that they don’t tell you your placement before leaving, soit’s hard to know how to pack.

The rest of the TLG orientation

2011-10-18T22:18:00.003+09:00

Due to the lack of internet at my home, I will be writing posts and posting them later. This post was written on 10/8/2011.

For the last two full days of orientation wemixed up the rhythm a bit, but it was still quite a full schedule. Georgianclasses in the morning and information sessions and methodology in theafternoons. My Georgian language is progressing a little, but unfortunately, mylistening comprehension, even in class is pretty bad. I think I've got 3/4 ofthe alphabet down, at least so that I can recognize them, but it will be awhile before I'm able to write them on my own. Not to mention distinguishbetween similar letters.

One thing I really wish we had done on thisorientation is have a group excursion and actually see Georgia. I've only beenmore than 100 meters away from the hotel 3 times in the past 7 days and eachtime only about 4 hours each. Fortunately, last night, one of the othervolunteers asked our teacher where a good place to go to see some Georgianculture was and got the name of a restaurant. All we knew was that there wasGeorgian food and wine there, but about 30 of us jumped into a bunch of taxislined up in front of the hotel and zoomed over there.

The restaurant was small and nice but we knewwe had picked the right place once the music started. From the little I'veseen, it seems that Georgians love to sing and love four part harmonies. Therewas a variety of acapella music and other singing.

Then the dancers came out. There wasn't awhole lot of dancing, but we got to see a few numbers. It was not what I wasexpecting at all, but it was fabulous. The music and dancing here is so livelyand interesting. I can't really compare it to anything I've witnessedbefore.

Thursday evening, the last evening oftraining, we were finally given our assignments. I was told that I was placedin a city in the Samgrelo province. I’m not sure if I’m going to disclose thecity name on the blog or not for privacy reasons. If I had been placed in avillage, I wasn’t going to since I would probably be the only foreign teacherin the area and it would be impossible to keep my identity and my host family’sidentity private. But, as I will be in a city, it may not be as big of a deal.There are two other teachers from TLG placed in my city and there are othersthat are already there as well. I will see how things go. I may give moreinformation on my location as the time passes.

Friday morning we went out for our last jauntaround Tbilisi. Many main streets downtown near Freedom square were closed offto traffic and there were police everywhere. It’s because the president ofFrance is in town this week. Street cleaners were working hard to make the citycenter look beautiful.

We came back to check out of our hotel andthe host families and school representatives had all arrived to pick us up tobring us to our respective cities, towns and villages. They had a quick meetingand then it was time for us to meet our family and go out into the realGeorgia. We were placed on either side of the room and they announced the namesone by one and we clapped for each person when they found their family/ schoolrepresentative.

I was picked up by another teacher at myschool who happens to be the sister in law of my host family and lives with us.I am really lucky because she speaks some English. In fact, her English isquite good, she’s just never spoken with native speakers much before and herlistening skills are not yet up to par. Don’t read this as a complaint, though,I’m quite happy to have someone to translate for me because the rest of myfamily doesn’t speak much English at all. The host mother only can say yes and no,the host father seems to know about as much English as I do Georgian, but hecommunicates quite well with these 10 words. More on that later.

From the hotel, she took me by taxi toTibilisi Central a bus and train station in Tibilisi. We found the bus to myregion and loaded it up with all my things. There were about 5 or 6 other TLGfolks on my bus as well with their respective families/ school reps. Afterloading everything on, my host went and bought our tickets and came back toannounce that the bus was scheduled to leave at 4. It wasn’t even 2 o’clock atthis point. Fortunately, we were both hungry, so we went off in search of arestaurant. It took us a while, but we found a good one and she ordered lots ofyummy stuff.

We made it back to the bus just in time tohop on. Six hours or so later we were in my city and meeting my host family atthe bus drop off point. In my next post, I’ll write more about my first fewdays with my host family.

TLG Orientation Days 2-4

2011-10-05T02:10:00.000+09:00

Well, our orientation has gotten much less exciting since my last post. We have very little free time during the day due to the... orientation. Our first three days have gone like this:

8-9: Breakfast
9-10: Orientation
10-12: Intercultural Training
12-12:15: Coffee Break
12:15-2: Intercultural Training
2-3:30: Lunch/ Break
3:30-5:30- Georgian Class
5:30-5:45- Coffee Break
5:45-7:15- Georgian Class
7:15- Dinner and free time
12:00 - curfew

If you're wondering how my Georgian is coming along, I suppose I speak as well as anyone who's been here for four days can. We've learned quite a few phrases and I'm trying to keep track of them in a small notebook that I can carry around with me. It is helping me to speak, but not really helping me remember the phrases. I've probably got about half the alphabet down, but learning the Georgian alphabet is much more challenging than learning Hangul was. There are way more letters and it's more like Roman letters in that there is no real rhyme or reason for their shape. They all just look like squiggly lines to me. Fortunately there are no capital letters or then I'd really be in trouble.

We're all jet lagged and in information overload. By the time our free time comes we're not all that excited about exploring. Finally, last night, we made our way out of the hotel and into town for the first time since Saturday. We wondered around without much purpose, we had no idea where we were or what we wanted to do. But we happened to get out of the Marshutka (minibuses/vans that serve the city, no large buses like other cities) in a rather hip looking (but deserted) area which seemed to be a rather international district. We wandered into a restaurant without knowing what it was and found out it was Uzbeki food. But, it was delicious and not very expensive (though quite a bit more expensive than Georgian food) and then we moved on to a Moroccan hookah bar down the street. It seemed a bit overpriced at 30 lari ($18 USD) for the hookah, but we split it between 4 people so it wasn't too bad. We could never have afforded to eat there though, most of the dishes on the menu were the same price as the hookah! In a country where a giant meat filled dumpling costs $0.35 USD at a nice restaurant, it seems a bit exorbitant.

Statue at the end of the hip, international street

We still don't know where we're going to be placed in Georgia, though we've been told that the greatest need is in rural parts of the western side of the country, so many of us may wind up there. I'm not to concerned about it now. I'll be concerned once I figure out where I'm actually staying. With my luck I'd freak out and wind up in a perfectly normal place.

Uzbek dumplings and Georgian Beer

Tbilisi Flea Market and Art Market

2011-10-03T03:47:00.002+09:00

As I mentioned in my last post, we found a weekend flea market and art market along the river in Tbilisi, only about a 10 minute walk from Freedom Square. The selection had a few interesting things that you don't see everyday in Seoul, even in Hwanghak-dong.

According to blogs I've read, some schools still use abacuses in the classroom. Hard to believe in this day and age. I wouldn't even know how to use one if I wanted to.

I couldn't believe this car, with all the wares for sale on the hood and roof, with the whole family inside. I took a photo and the old man in the driver's seat insisted on checking out the photo. He and the family got a good kick out of the photo.

Relics of soviet times are everywhere in the market. It would be a collector's dream come true.

We found an art market set up in the park next to the street with the flea market. I wonder how much these paintings go for?

TLG Orientation Day 1

2011-10-02T13:21:00.001+09:00

Our hotel and home during orientation

This is my first week in Georgia, and we have a one weekorientation before we are sent to a school to teach. We got to our hotel in Tbilisi lastnight around 5 pm and I was able to call home and tell everyone I had arrivedsafely. Just 2 hours later we had our first orientation meeting. We were late,too, because we had no idea what time it was and we thought we were an hourbehind the actual time.

At our first orientation meeting we learned all abouttransportation and safety here. We’ve been told to beware of driving in taxisalone, crossing streets, stray dogs and gypsies. Overall, though, they tell usthat the crime rate is not very high here and it’s fairly safe to go aroundtown. Today we went out for a few hours, my roommate at the hotel and I, and wecertainly noticed police and security everywhere around the city. We also foundthat there are many underground passes to cross the streets since it seems alittle suicidal to cross the streets in some places.

TLG (Teach and Learn Georgia, the program I’m with) takes involunteers every two weeks but this group starting with me is the biggestthey’ve had yet, 102 of us. It’s a little hard to get to know 102 people. We’reall here alone and want to meet friends, but it’s hard to get to know peoplewhen there’s so many of us. Fortunately, on our flight there were only 6 of usand we’ve more or less been sticking together.

First thing was our medical check. This was super easy.Despite the austere appearance of the clinic on the first floor of an oldapartment building, it still had little touches of modernity/ cleanliness thatI did not have for my medical checks in Korea. Like covers for the urine sampleand a real toilet instead of a squat toilet… Though the vials of blood takendidn’t have covers on them. I guess they’re not exactly going to getcontaminated with HIV or Hep from the air… Just would hate to be the one whodrops that test tube rack by accident…

Freedom Square

Then, after we got back from the clinic, two of us went outto explore the town for a few hours. First we decided to walk, but after awhile we realized that the sidewalk sort of disappeared and the street lookedmore and more highway like. So, all we could do was to get into a taxi. But,though we had decided we were going to Freedom Square (the only landmark we hadheard of) we had no idea what this was in Georgian. Serendipitously, on astreet sign just in front of us, there was a sign, written in both English andGeorgian that pointed the way to the square. I tried my best to copy it as itlooked on to paper before getting into a cab. We got into the cab and showedhim the paper… the taxi driver scratched his head a bit and asked… “airport?”.Oh boy, looking at it again, I realized that I had miscopied the first lettersince the sign had been far away. I fixed the letter and he said.. “ahh!Hfjojveoxozdjo” or something else we couldn’t understand, but we figured thatwas probably better than the airport, so we said yes, and all of a sudden hedrove off. We almost took off before asking the price, but we remembered and Ibusted out the only Georgian I learned before leaving “sami?” (three). And hekind of laughed and took off. I assumed that meant OK.

We got there in one piece, driving in Georgia is a bitinteresting, since things like lanes and rules and respect for other drivers don’t seem too important. Wewere also looking for a speed limit sign, but couldn’t find one of thoseeither. They must have a speed limit.. right?

Singers at the festival

Once in the square, we didn’t really know what we were goingto do. But after walking around for a few minutes, we found a crowd of peopleand went over to check out what was going on. Apparently it was some kind ofmusic performance. We stuck around for a few songs and we were impressed withthe singers and it was interesting to get a taste of Georgian music… or atleast what we assume is Georgian music.

Beautiful, crumbling house

From there we walked around and saw a bakery where weproceeded to pick up a few snacks. One baklava and one cream puff later, wecontinued on our aimless journey and found a church, a park and eventually anoutdoor flea market.

Cream Puff and Baklava from local bakery

Statue in the park

The flea market was tons of fun. For those of you who readthe blog, you must know I’m a sucker for markets and old things. Everythingfrom dishes, cameras, war metals, Persian rugs, and swords were there on sale,and the market just continued from one road down the next on both sides of thestreet. Then when we thought we had found the end of the market, we discoveredthat the park on the other side had been converted into a giant art market andwe went out and checked out all the beautiful art for sale as well. I'll make a separate post with photos for this, since I took quite a few.

Flea Market

After that it was time to head back to the hotel for lunch.The meal times are rather interesting. Breakfast is served at our hotel from8-11, then lunch from 3-5 then dinner from 8-10. I’m not sure yet if this isjust a hotel thing or a Georgian thing but I guess we’ll find out. Every mealso far has included bread and cheese along with another dish. We’ve had pasta three times now in four meals, including for breakfast. They also offered breakfastcereals with dinner, but not with lunch. It’s hard to say if these are normalyet, or if they are trying to be accommodating for us westerners or what, butthey are certainly interesting.

Finally it was time for our evening meeting. We learned a bit more about the program and we got our cell phones, which are provided by TLG and are free to use if you're calling someone else from TLG. We're now all sporting Nokia 1280s which are basically a newer model of the super basic Nokias everyone used to walk around with in 2000. I even had to manually set the time and date.

Nokia 1280, our phone

Tomorrow, the real orientation begins, first with an info session for an hour in the morning, followed by 2 hours of a Georgian language class followed by lunch then intercultural training and finally dinner at 8:00 in the evening. Not much time for play and we've been banned from drinking for the entire orientation week (seemingly because of people who have caused problems in the past). Not that they can really enforce this rule, but we aren't quite ready to test them yet.

Arrived!

2011-09-30T23:41:00.003+09:00

I'm in Georgia! Not much to say yet, except death to American Airlines and I love Turkish Airlines. I'm starving and can't wait for dinner at 8:00. Getting my program provided cell phone tonight too... not that I'll be calling anyone quite yet!

I'll just leave you with a photo from JFK airport....

Kimchi Ramen from a Korean food stand in the food court. It was so surreal, everyone around me was speaking Korean including 95% percent of the customers. I wasn't sure what language to use, but the woman taking orders was totally fluent in English... I hate those awkward situations where you want to show off but you feel like a fool... And the woman thought it was very funny that I ordered this dish... I have a feeling not too many westerners order this one...

New Endeavors

2011-09-29T00:44:00.001+09:00

Well, today is my last full day in America. As usual I'm way behind on posts... I even have a few more left from Korea. I'm hoping that with my 24 hour flight to Georgia (2 four hour layovers... who scheduled that???) I might get some blogging/ writing done. If I don't have internet, I could at least write something and post it later. I'm half done with two Korea posts and I have photos posted for a third... and another one planned in my head. I'm still blogging for the Korea blog, so I'd like to get something... never mind all my readers that may not care about reading about my other strange adventures.

My plane leaves tomorrow at 10:40 am... that means at least I get some sleep this time. Flying American Eagle (American Airlines) to NYC then Turkish Airlines the rest of the way to Georgia, transferring in Istanbul. I'm really not looking forward to flying. Hopefully this time I won't have some guy making fun of my fears sitting next to me on the flight like when I was flying home from Spain. Then again, maybe that's better than the time I freaked out the woman next to me by gripping the arm rests for half the flight and screaming when the plane lost a little altitude... You'd think I'd be used to flying by now....

Strangely, I'm not nervous at all (yet) about this new adventure. All I can think about right now is getting everything ready and flying. It's hard to worry about the situation in Georgia since I have no idea where I'll be placed. All I know is that when I arrive, I'll be in an orientation for 1 week studying Georgian, and learning about teaching methodology and who knows what else. Then I'll find out where I'm placed. Could be in the city, could be on a farm. It's hard to pack when you have no idea what the condtions are going to be. I could be using a squat toilet in an outhouse for 3 months... or I could be living in a modern apartment. I could be on top of a mountian in the snow, or I could be by the beach on the Black Sea.

Actually, I'm amazingly calm about this. People keep asking me where I'm going to be, and I keep telling them I have no idea. Apparently that would be a deal breaker for most people. But, I'm looking at this as an adventure, not a permanent move like with Korea, and therefore I am willing to accept whatever comes my way (I say this now...). It will probably do me good to use an outhouse. Millions of people around the world don't have access to things like indoor plumbing. It's time I join the crowd... at least for a little while. :-)

Anyhoo, next time you hear from me, it will probably be from Georgia, or at least en route. Look forward to more Korea posts and lots and lots about Georgia!

Update: I got a new look to go along with a new country... it's going to take some getting used to..

Packing for Georgia

2011-09-27T22:18:00.001+09:00

Packing to go to a new place is always so difficult.. hard to guess how the weather will be, hard to guess what will stick out like a sore thumb amongst the locals... I have been in e-mail contact with someone who lived there for a while and asked what I needed to bring. Of course, she said it all depended on where you are living, mountain vs. valley, city vs. country..... too bad you don't know where you'll be placed until you get there. Kind of like SMOE but on on a countrywide scale. it doesn't bother me too much not knowing. I'll only be there for less than 3 months... whatever it is, I think I can deal with it for 3 months... I hope. But, I would like to know what I should pack!

So, this is what I've packed so far:

Clothes:
3 sweatshirts
1 winter coat (not too thick, but with a hood and waterproof)
1 wool coat for fall
3 pairs of jeans (I'll wear one more on the plane, so I'll have 4 total)
2 pairs of dress pants (for work)
6 t-shirts/three quarter sleeved shirts (for fall)
8-9 shirts/sweaters (for winter)
1 set of long underwear (for unheated houses/classrooms in winter... lessons learned from Chile)
14 pairs of underwear
12 pairs of socks
1 pair of fuzzy socks (for cold houses)

Shoes:
One pair of dress shoes
One pair of flip flops

Toiletries:
toothpaste
toothbrush
1 stick of deodorant
nail clippers
tweezers
small bottle of lotion
1 bar of shampoo
1 small bar of soap

1 towel
4 facecloths (many people told me to bring baby wipes or wet naps to wash when I can't take a shower, but that seems very wasteful to me. I'm sure facecloths will be sufficient, and they are reusable)

And... a whole box of school supplies, mostly from my house which were left over from high school/college, plus some that the neighbors gave me that they picked up for dirt cheap when school supplies go on sale. From the sounds of it, the kids there will probably need them, if not the other teachers in my school.

Am I forgetting anything? I've still got 2 more days, I leave on Thursday!! :-)

All About Hair

2011-09-21T14:46:00.000+09:00

Ever since I decided I was going to Georgia last month I've been very concerned about one thing in particular. That is my hair. Why? Well, depending on where I end up living I could wind up only being able to take a shower once or twice a week. I may not even have warm water in my house. And this worries me, not because I'm concerned that I'm going to smell bad (besides, if no one else is taking a shower, who is really going to notice) but I'm very concerned about my hair. I'm not one of those girls who takes an hour every day to do my hair. I wash it, dry it and throw it up. But, my hair tends to be very greasy. Usually if I go longer than 24 hours with out washing... you can tell...
Now, I know it's not supposed to be healthy to wash your hair every day. Hairdressers and magazines always recommend only every 3 days or less if you can. It's not healthy to be pouring, basically, detergent on your hair every day. But, clearly my head is a shampoo addict and if I'm only going to be showering once a week, I decided this addiction my hair has needs to be stopped.

So, I just did a little google search, back after I got home from Spain and I found blog after blog spouting this "No-'Poo" fad. I hate the name because it sounds like something else, but 'poo stands for shampoo. There are a lot of people trying to go greener/ natural and cut out the use of commercial shampoos and conditioners. So, what to use? Baking soda and Apple Cider Vinegar. Yup, no joke. Apparently before dish detergent, people used to use baking soda to even wash dishes... so I guess it's not so far off. Cuts grease on pans and hair.

So, my theory: if I can get my hair off it's addiction to shampoo, I will be able to go longer without showering or washing my hair while in Georgia (and perhaps I can continue the hair washing trend once I leave as well if things are going well). So, Somewhere in mid-August I stopped shampooing my hair and I switched to, first, just baking soda. I mixed one table spoon of baking soda to one cup of water in an old shampoo bottle and just poured the mixture over my hair. The first thing I noticed was that there was no lather. It's like pouring water on your hair.. while in the shower. It was hard to believe it would do anything.

Making an herbal mixture: rosemary, nasturtium, marigold, chamomile etc.

The first week I only used that baking soda mixture and nothing else. It didn't really seem to do a whole lot, my hair was always greasy, but that's what the blogs also said would happen. Your hair would revolt in protest to the lack of the shampoo and get super greasy. So, I kept trying and waiting. A week later I worked in an herbal rinse made of my own concoction of various herbs and flowers found in my garden. It didn't seem to help or hurt, but I'm still using that. Then about a week after that I started adding the apple cider vinegar to my hair (about 2 tablespoons to about a cup of water). I found that without the apple cider vinegar, after 2 weeks of just using the baking soda and the herbal stuff, my hair was much more stable and less greasy, but my hair was also very flat, stiff and always had just the slightest oily feel to it. The first day I added the apple cider vinegar to it it felt much more alive and soft to the touch, but since then, the apple cider has actually made it feel greasier and I've cut down a lot on using that.

Now, after a month, my hair is still not quite showing the results that the "no-poo" bloggers brag about. My hair nearly always needs to be kept in a bun because its flat and ugly and slightly greasy (to the touch, but is much less noticeable by others now).

My hair on a non-washed day a few weeks ago. Looks ok... but got to keep it in that bun..

Yesterday I got a hair cut. I planned on getting it really short so that there would be less hair that needed to be washed. I have very thick hair and I think part of the problem is that it's just hard for the baking soda mixture to reach every strand. But, the hair dresser was convinced that if she cut my hair any shorter than just above the shoulder that I would look ugly or something and so I have this cute but not nearly short enough cut now that's not really long enough to put up, but just long enough to be annoying. She shampooed it too, and today it feels so nice after being shampooed... so.. not greasy! I miss my old hair! Now, the experiment will be to see how long this hair can go without being washed again after getting a thorough cleaning yesterday. And to see how it looks since I can no longer put it up in a bun like before. This will be the real test.

The new do- with an without a new hair band I bought that I hope will hide the grease later when needed...

Tibetan/ Himalayan Food: Himalaya Restaurant, Plattsburgh, NY

2011-09-21T09:48:00.000+09:00

You know, I eat a lot of ethnic foods so it's hard to find something new for me to try nowadays. When I visited my friend in upstate New York, she told me she was bringing me to a Himalayan restaurant, so I expected something like Everest in Seoul; Nepalese food which is essentially the same as Indian cuisine. When I found out that they specialized in Tibetan and Bhutanese food (with just a few Nepalese options) I was immediately more curious about the place. I expected it to be much like the Nepalese food I'd had, but boy was I mistaken. We ordered four plates and shared everything so that we could get a good variety of dishes. We ordered three from their Tibetan selection and one from their Bhutanese selection.

Forgive me if I screw up some of the names of these dishes. I took a photo of the menu and I think I remember which one is which, but I could be off. Please correct me if so. Above, you can see the Phingsha. This is described as "Beef and potatoes sauteed with onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and slowly stewed in light rice vermicelli". The bread that comes along with it is called Drobuk which is a steamed flour dough bread.

The second dish here is Nhapta which is described as "Sliced pieces of meat sauteed with green peppers onions, tomato, ginger and garlic." Again, this is served with the steamed bread called Drobuk.

The last Tibetan dish we had was called Momo. "Coarsely chopped beef, onions, cilantro encased in flour dough and steamed." They claim that theirs is made the traditional way with coarse beef as opposed to other Tibetan restaurants in the US who serve it with ground beef. This is eaten by putting some of the cabbage on the side on the Momo and eating the two together.

This last dish came from the Bhutanese selection. It looks like curry, but in fact, it tastes nothing like the sort. It is called Emma Dasi and is described as "mildly sauteed peppers garnished with tomatoes, onions and fresh cheese." The disappointing part of this dish is that it does not contain the hot peppers which are usually added to Bhutanese food. The menu clearly explains that they do not include the hot peppers because they do not feel that we are able to eat spicy food, but if you call ahead, they can prepare it with spicy peppers if you desire. But, despite the lack of spice it was delicious. I expected a curry flavor to it, but there was none, just a very creamy, rich taste.

As this was my first time to try Tibetan food, I can't really make any judgements as to it's authenticity, but I can say that I loved what I had. I'm trying to find a Tibetan restaurant in the Boston area, and there are a few, but they all seem very overpriced and have mixed reviews. Himalaya Restaurant had everything a person can ask for. Great food, great prices, friendly staff and a great ambiance. The whole meal came to less than $50.00 for the four dishes, including tax. Portion sizes are very reasonable here. You go home feeling satisfied, but not stuffed and no need to take home leftovers. An oddity in a restaurant in America.

78 Margaret St
Plattsburgh, NY 12901

(518) 772-7034

Hours:
Mon – Sat: 11:30 am - 2:30 pm
5:30 pm - 9:00 pm

Stowe, Vermont

2011-09-20T14:05:00.000+09:00

After much deliberation on where to take the boyfriend for a getaway while he was in the states, I finally decided upon Stowe, Vermont. It's a rather overpriced, touristy town, but that's probably because it is really beautiful up there.

Stowehof Inn

After much searching for an affordable place to stay, I found Stowehof Inn just outside of town. They have a "Thriftsaver" special that is $89.00 including tax and fees. That is about $30.00 cheaper than any other place I could find online in the area and so I went with them. And I was very happy with the choice. There were some complaints on Yelp and tripadvisor about the place having small rooms or the place looking too old and dated, but neither of these bothered me in the least. I loved the charm of the place and frankly, two people can only occupy so much space. Maybe living in Korea made me less attune to the size of rooms, it was plenty big enough for the two of us. Probably the same size as our bedroom in Seoul, but with a much prettier view out the window and a bathtub in the bathroom. I was also excited to see the pool and jacuzzi. Perhaps I made the mistake of going into the jacuzzi first, though, because after that I could not even get into the pool, it felt numbingly cold. Next time I'll remember to do pool first, then jacuzzi. But, who can complain about only getting to sit in the jacuzzi. And since we were there mid-week, there was no one around to bother us, we had the whole place to ourselves.

I didn't know that pancake eating etiquette was something that needed to be taught...

We planned to take the toll road up to the top and climb up to a peak of Mt. Mansfield, Vermont's highest mountain, but when we got there, the road was closed (it was open later when we passed by though, maybe we were there too early?) and so we went over to Stowe Ski Resort and climbed a trail to the top of the ski hill. It was a good little hour and a half hike to the top on the switchback trail. The folks who took the gondola up to the top were very impressed that we walked it... I guess that says something about American ajummas and ajosshis. We didn't see anyone else hiking the whole time we were there. It wasn't a very hard hike up, though down we wanted to see what their black diamond trails were like and so we hiked down one. Probably not the wisest idea, especially less than two weeks after all the flooding in Vermont from hurricanes and then other storms. We slid down a few places because boy was it steep, but we survived and weren't even in tooo much pain the next day.

After that, the boyfriend wanted to make sure he didn't bring his golf clubs to America for nothing, so we found him a golf course to check out. He wanted to play on the nice course in Stowe at the resort, but they weren't open for some reason and so we found the only other course open to the public that we could find. It's called Blush Hill Country Club in Waterbury. It was a bit rinky-dink, but the people were very friendly and he played 18 holes for $20 or something. He was very excited on his last hole, he made his very first Eagle. He was jumping up and down and everyone around congratulated him.

After that, we ate dinner and played mini-golf (his first time ever). Turns out, while his swing may be millions of times better than mine on the golf course, my putting is pretty even with his. We were more or less tied throughout the game until he lost his ball in the dark on the last hole making me the winner of the game! Small victories...

The next morning, before heading to Burlington, we stopped in Waterbury again to check out some of the stores. First we went to Cabot's outlet store of sorts, and we tried samples of all their cheeses. That's a lot of cheese... there are a lot of flavors that don't make it on to normal supermarket shelves. Like Habanero Cheese and Tomato and Basil Cheese and Chipotle.

After we were full on cheese, we checked out Lake Champlain Chocolate's store next door, but they (fortunately) had only one sample to offer. From there, what goes better with cheese and chocolate, but wine? We did a wine tasting down the road next door to the Cider Mill for $1 each and tried 5 or 6 different wines.

Overall, we had a lovely time in Stowe, our only complaint was the prices of meals in the area. Eating in Burlington... or anywhere else in Vermont is much cheaper!

Adventures in Boston

2011-09-20T00:40:00.000+09:00

The Boyfriend arrived last Friday and so for our first full day together, Saturday, we took the day to explore the city.

First was lunch in Chinatown which perhaps seems odd, as I should be introducing American food to him, but both of our favorite cuisines are anything Asian, so we checked out one of my favorite Vietnamese restaurants and got ourselves some pho and crispy noodles.

From there we walked through the Boston Commons and the Public Gardens and made our way through Beacon Hill, where Boston’s famed red brick district which everyone had told him he needed to check out. It was a little underwhelming for him, though, seeing as how most houses in Korea are also made of brick. He didn’t see what the big deal was…

From there we walked down to the Charles River and checked out the boat dock. We decided that Sunday we would rent a kayak and go out on the river, but when we returned the next day, ready to get out on the water, it turned out that the boathouse was closed for a 9/11 event nearby. We were quite disappointed.

Anyway, after checking out the boat dock we walked back to Fanuil Hall and walked through Haymarket, Boston’s outdoor vegetable and fruit market. He was so astounded by the cheap prices of some fruit that we bough seven oranges for $1.00 just because we could.

From there we walked through the North End, Boston’s Italian district, and found ourselves at Old North Church, the church made famous in the poem The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. That whole part about one if by land and two if by sea refers to the signal lit from the church tower as a signal warning of the British troops advances, one light if they advanced by land and two if they took boats across the Charles River.

What's Next?

2011-09-18T09:58:00.001+09:00

So, perhaps some of my readers are wondering what on earth I'm doing, if I'm returning to Korea or if I'm just going to spend the rest of my life just kicking around 미국 bored and gaining weight from sitting in front of a computer and eating out way too often. Well, I finally have an official plan. I may have alluded to it long ago, but I have had so many disappointments in the past year I've been waiting until I got the official acceptance letter before I made the news public.

I have been accepted to the program called "Teach and Learn Georgia", a volunteer teaching program in the Republic of Georgia. I will be teaching there from approximately September 30th until December 23rd, basically one semester. It's a program that places English teachers (from any nationality as long as they are fluent in English) in local schools in Georgia. Not only are you expected to teach, but you are also expected to integrate into the community. Teachers are placed in Georgian homes with host families to encourage them to learn the language and the culture. I'm sure it helps the English of the hosts as well.

The program is pretty excellent, for a volunteer program. "Volunteers" receive round trip airfare, health insurance and a stipend of 500 GEL ($300 by today's exchange rate). 100 GEL of that is paid to the host family, leaving you with 400 GEL ($240) for living expenses. The stipend sounds very low, perhaps, but it is much higher than a typical local person's salary, and therefore should be plenty to get by on even with some local travel in the region. And the thing that attracted me was the fact that you didn't have to sign a year contract. I'm already itching to go back to Korea, but I think I need a little change of pace for a while. Three months is perfect I think, though who knows how I'll feel once I get there...

I think most people couldn't find Georgia on a map if they tried, so I'll give you a little help. It's south of Russia and north of Turkey and Armenia. Perhaps you heard about them because there was a war there in 2008 with Russia. One region has essentially broken away from the country and Russia supported their succession waging a 5 day battle with Georgia. Things seem to have settled down for the most part in the country and they are now trying to quickly improve the economy to encourage more tourists to visit. From the sounds of it, a lot of corruption that once existed has been stamped out and the country is developing. Oh, and apparently some people claim that it is the birthplace of wine, which is certainly another incentive to check this place out.

(It's the dark brown one on the left hand side)

I'm really excited for something new and COMPLETELY different from anywhere else I've ever been, but I'm really sad too that I'm delaying my return to Korea. The boyfriend was here all week and we had a great time in Boston and Vermont. It makes me sad that I will not see him now for over 3 months. I'm hoping to return to Korea early January (if anyone knows of any awesome non-kindy jobs in central Seoul starting around then, please hook me up!) so fear not, my loyal followers, I'm not done with my Korean adventures. I hope that you continue to read as I explore a new part of the world. Maybe I'll even inspire one or two of you to make a trip to Georgia yourselves.

Crane's Beach and the Town of Essex

2011-09-09T04:39:00.004+09:00

My first week back from Spain, we took a trip to Crane's Beach in Ipswich, MA. We spent a few hours on the beach, then headed into Essex to explore a little.

We stopped by this farm on the way out and checked out their lovely shop. They made their own wines, and they didn't just have the typical, but any flavor wine you can imagine: Red Currant, Rhubarb, Strawberry, Peach, Blueberry. We bought a blueberry wine and a dandelion wine.

You never know what you're going to see at these farm stands... just as we were leaving, these turkeys came running out of no where!

We got lunch at Farnham's Famous Clams. We had to get a platter of fried clam bellies! Don't they look delicious? And then we ate them outside in front of these salt marshes (photo above)

Essex, well, the entire North Shore I'd say, is famous for their antique shops. As we had some time to kill, we couldn't help but stop at a few. My mom likes stopping because she can see all the things we have in our house and how much they are being sold for, and I like them because they make nice photo ops.

Printing Press Blocks

Old stuff

Buoys

Raggedy Ann and Andy

Punjab Cafe: Quincy, MA

2011-09-07T18:56:00.000+09:00

Papadum and Samosa

I went to Punjab Cafe last Friday after reading good reviews on Yelp about the place. I immediately spotted their "Special Dinner for Two" option and jumped on it. A four course meal for only $16 a peice is nothing to sneeze at!


Heer Ranjha (Dinner for Two)	.....................	..................	$31.95
Choice of soup or vegetable samosa, papadum, choice of two vegetable curries, rice, two nans, raita and gulab jamun or kheer.

Malai Kofta

Samosas were delicious, papadum was to be expected. Raita also very nice, though I never know the correct way of eating the stuff.... As for the curries, the malai kofta was delicious as always, but the chana masala was a bit lacking in the flavor department. We got the galub jamun for desert. I'd never had this before and so I'm not really sure what to say about this one. Neither of us were a big fan of this, a little sweet, but not quite sweet enough I think.

Chana Masala

Naan

Raita

gulab jamun

Punjab Cafe

653 Southern Artery,
Quincy, MA 02169, Tel/Fax: (617) 472-4860 or 4889

http://www.punjabcafe.com/

China Pearl: Dim Sum in Boston

2011-09-06T23:22:00.000+09:00

Usually when I go to eat dim sum in Boston, I go to Hei La Moon, but when I told my friend they served chicken feet she got some cold feet of her own about going to try dim sum there. I had gotten recommendations to go to China Pearl from some of my non-Asian friends for dim sum. I wasn't sure if that meant it was going to be less authentic, but I thought I'd give it a try. I was very pleased to find out that, while I didn't see any chicken feet, this place was still very authentic. (Just to explain my criteria for authenticity, since I am no dim sum expert, there was a waiting line at the door and we were among the very few non-Asians here. Seems to be a huge hit with the folks in Chinatown for weekend brunch.)

I felt that the options here were much more varied then Hei La Moon (despite the lack of chicken feet on the particular day that I went). They had a huge variety of dumplings!

I loved this pork dish, but my friend did not. Actually, it is very reminiscent of something I'd eat at an American style Chinese restaurant, but I loved the fact that it was served cold, which seemed to be the main deterrent against this dish for my friend. It reminded me of when I was in Nanjing and got some Chinese style roast beef served cold... also a big deterrent for the boyfriend as well. I guess people don't like cold meat. I, on the other hand, love it!

This one was a bit luke warm and I don't think it was supposed to be. But, despite this, it was still fine (again, not being hot doesn't bother me) but it would have been better if we had gotten it hot off the frier.

But the best part of the meal was the steamed buns. I have searched everywhere for steamed buns since I was in Hong Kong (yea yea, I know the convenience stores serve them in Korea, but for some reason I'm kinda weirded out by anything cooked by a convenience store). These things were no where in sight at Hei La Moon, and unfortunately these babies came by just as we were finishing our meal and were feeling stuffed, but I had missed them so much I had to grab them. And oh were they good!

Overall I think I actually liked China Pearl better than Hei La Moon, although I think everyone should go there once for the experience. I found that nearly every dumpling at Hei La Moon had shrimp in it, where as here, though they had a lot of shrimp filled dumplings, they also had a lot of other options as well. I also saw some amazing tofu that I wanted to try, but there was just too much, it was impossible to get everything. Prices here were decent I'd say. We got these four dishes plus several others and the bill came to $27.00 for the two of us. Not bad I think! Anyone out there have an idea how to tip in these places? I feel like whatever I left on the table probably didn't go to the ladies walking around with the food carts.

Bunker Hill Monument

2011-09-06T06:51:00.000+09:00

This monument is a tribute to the Battle of Bunker Hill, where the famous phrase "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes" was popularized due to the colonist's lack of ammunition. Unfortunately, this battle's name is a bit of a misnomer as Bunker Hill is actually the next hill over. The battle mostly played out where the monument is located, on Breed's Hill. This is one of Boston's most famous landmarks located on the Freedom Trail in Charlestown across the Charles River from downtown Boston.

I was very excited to learn that the monument and adjacent museum is free to the public (though donations are accepted). The monument is 294 steps to the top observation area, so make sure you're in good shape. There's no room for stopping as the stairwell is exactly big enough for two people across, one going up, and one going down. And near the top, as the building tapers, two people passing do need to squish a little bit to the side. Claustrophobics beware!

Finally we reached the top and were rewarded with a beautiful view of Boston.

When we came down, we were lucky enough to catch a musket firing demonstration. I'm always a sucker for anyone dressed up in traditional dress, even in my own country! (It's a little known fact that I used to be one of those people who dressed up like colonial people or frontier people in those recreation villages. Yes, that was my dream job until probably high school)

After that, we took a walk through some backstreets of Charlestown and found ourselves at the U.S.S Constitution or as we Bostonians lovingly refer to as "Old Iron Sides" alluding to battles during the war of 1812 when cannon balls were said to bounce off her hulls. The admission prices nowadays to get onto the ship are a bit steep, but you can still see her from the outside in the Navy Yard.