The Sound of Music- Georgian Style

Recently 10 of us volunteers went to a town in the west for the 10th anniversary of a language competition.  120 students from the region competed in English, Russian, German, and French, with the majority being in English.  We volunteers were responsible for proctoring, grading the essays, and conducting the interviews.  I recalled my language tests here in Georgian, and other foreign language classes throughout my education, while giving the interviews and the stress I used to feel during them.  It was nice to be on the other end of the interviews for once.  Although it was still somewhat stressful!  Our country director of Peace Corps Georgia came to the event and was my co-grader for the interviews! :)  On top of all that we had random Georgian business people in the room observing us and the news was there the entire time with his red light on almost constantly!

One of the most exciting parts about the event was seeing the creativity in the students' essays.  One of the essay topics was: "If you were an animal, what would it be and why?"

One of the most epic lines I've ever read in an essay- "I have thought so much about being an animal, I am afraid I don't want to be human anymore." Adorable.

At the awards assembly students from the host school put on a slightly abridged version of "The Sound of Music".  But not without the younger students first doing a dance to a techno Christmas classic.  There is not a song in Georgia that they do not find a way to make a techno version out of.

The Sisters

The Von Trap Children

The Goodbye Scene

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carston, Amy, Ariana, Anastasia, Claire, Jana, Goodloe, Conner

Some sites from Tbilisi

These are just a few interesting and nice pictures from the capital city, Tbilisi.

 The large building with the glass dome in the center diamond is the president’s residence.  This is a view from one of the hostels we stayed at on one of our trips to Tbilisi.

 

This is at a place they call the dry bridge in the capital city where they sell many old Soviet relics.  I have not been there yet without being asked by at least one person if I am German, and every person speaks to me in Russian initially.  I usually have to say at least 4 times in Georgian please speak Georgian and not Russian for them to actually believe me.  The sign in the window of this car says it is for sale for $700 dollars.                    

This is one of the most beautiful buildings in the city, the parliament building all decorated for Christmas!

This is Rustavi Street, one of the most prominent streets in the city.  Dare I say it actually almost looks like the Champs-Élysées?

McDonald's worldwide tend to have special dishes depending on the local cuisine.  They also have certain decorations very specific to the regions.  Here in Georgia, it is 2 orthodox churches at the base of the arch.

 As an ardent fan of HGTV in the states I was more than thrilled to see a vertical garden outside of the Avlabari (what the Georgian letters say) Metro station!

Clairichka :)....and other tidbits from my life lately

 This is a post dedicated to my one and only Claire.  The girl without whom I would not have felt these past 8 months go by quite so quickly!

 I love her!

(Note the amount of clothing we each have on just to sleep in, and that was the very beginning of December!)

We recently went to the beach town of Kobuleti for our project design management conference.  We each went with our counterparts and courtesy of the Peace Corps got to stay in one of the nicest hotels in Georgia! For a week we were in plush queen sized beds, in centrally heated rooms, with unlimited access to hot showers, in remarkably large rooms for regular hotel rooms, and even with balconies that overlooked the Black Sea!  This is the back side of the hotel that overlooks the pool and sea, and where my room was located.  Every morning for breakfast we had the option of omelets, crepes, real cereal including coco puffs, an abundance of fruit, and various other goodies to which we are accustomed for breakfast in America!  It was amazing!

Claire and I had a dance party on the beds, just because we could.

 Because ridiculously

 like-minded

 friends

make life

                                more fun!

This is my counterpart, Goodloe, and I with the sea behind us.  There were some of the most amazing sunsets I have ever seen in my life there that week!

School, school, school, and more school.

I have had a brand new classroom all semester. I painted it with Claire and Goodloe over the summer making it our second painting job in Georgia. Unfortunately, we have yet to actually use the room due to a lack of chairs available. My director has now promised we will have them by the start of the new semester next year. This is my counterpart Lina, with whom I teach everyday, she is in our room trying to figure out how we can finally make use of this valuable space dedicated purely to English once we get said chairs! :)

This is the room without all of the English decorations we have planned for it in its most bare condition. We plan on decorating further once we hold lessons in the room and see how the space is used. More pictures will be posted in the future. :) Cross your fingers that I get to use it at least once before the two years are over.

My students are all very enthusiastic about taking part in lessons focused on American holidays. For Halloween my 6th graders made masks and they really went wild with the creativity! It was exciting to see them really take advantage of the opportunity to do different tasks than normal.

In my 6th and 7th grade classes I also carved pumpkins for Halloween. However, pumpkins in Georgia are not like the pumpkins in America. They are of a different breed. They have skins as thick as that guy from "Fantastic 4" Whose skin is like stone! I bent my stainless steel knife carving one and bent the tip off of one of my host family's knives on the other. oops. But the kids really loved the experience. Some of the other teachers just saw us in the courtyard in front of school and had an expression of "oh it's just the American doing another strange American thing." :)

It all turned out well.

I originally had no intention of letting the students carve the pumpkins. But after already bending a stainless steel knife, needles to say my hands were hurting. Also, I am not exactly known for my knife wielding ability, so it was a safe bet it was actually safer for them to take over the project than me.

ჩემი ახალი მასპინძელი ოჯახი!! (Chemi Ahali Maspindzeli Ojakhi- My New Host Family)

So I have been in my new host family's house for about a month now and I could not be happier!! My host mother and father treat me like I am their own daughter and I could not be more thankful to be living with them!
Winter is here in full force. This is my new house after the snowfall on Thanksgiving. The last picture is the view of our garden from our porch. I made the mistake of washing clothes and hanging them on the line a few nights later. I awoke to find my clothes completely frozen solid...SOLID! I literally knocked on my sweatshirt! I am convinced if I dropped it on the ground it would have shattered into a million little pieces. As if I did not dislike laundry enough already, winter has made it even more of an adventure. I also used the machine to wash the clothes and did not use the setting my host mom normally uses as I was not sure which was correct. Something went wrong and the spin cycle part of the process never happened so when my host mom opened the door to the machine the bathroom flooded. This was my second time to do this. :) I think at this point she might thing I am domestically inept, except for my uncanny ability to make a grilled cheese!

Return to Dviri

In honor or Claire, Colin, Goodloe, and myself all returning to our training cluster for the harvest of the grapes, here is a picture of all of us with our host families (minues the host dads) from the fourth of July celebration.

2 and a half hours to the Most Beautiful Waterfall!

One of the biggest perks of living in my town is the Lagodekhi National Forest and all the surrounding nature in the mountains. Recently, I took a hike with my friends up through the mountains. Sometimes we were on a ledge no more than 8 inches wide all along a river and finally made it to our destination.