These are pictures from the school excursion I went on to Kutaisi. This is my 10th form class.

My counterpart and her daughter.

Service Ending Soon

I know everyone stopped reading this thing because I take to long to post. Where do I even begin to update people since I last posted….

 
School ended recently, which is wonderful and great and I would be totally lying if I said that I was sad at all about it. I went on an excursion with my 10^th form at the end to see some place that turned out to be closed so we saw a bunch of churches instead and had a big supra in "the nature." It was super fun and then I got home and spent the next 24 hours throwing up from food poisoning. Good times. I knew there was a reason that volunteers always tell me never to go on an excursion. I have been trying to get this library room built at the children's library, but like everything in Georgia, it is moving very slowly. However, it should be done before I finish my service (August 17^th --WoooooHoooo). A whole new group of volunteers have arrived in Georgia, so now I really feel like I have been here for a long time. They seem like good people though and I hope they have two years as good as I had.

 

Most people know, but in case you aren't aware I have decided to stay in Georgia for a bit longer. I will most likely be here through the end of the year and possibly a little more. I will be moving to Tbilisi and working as the Associate Dean of Student Affairs at a university. It should be fun, challenging, exciting, and different. I am currently looking for apartments which is a nightmare process. The job doesn't pay a whole lot, so I am looking at low end stuff… which means… awful. Truly, truly awful. I have honestly seen places that you probably couldn't pay me to live in.  Giga and I are searching together, but strangely enough I am the one doing all the searching in the Georgian newspaper. It is great practice for my reading and I have FINALLY figured out what all the sneaky Georgian ways to describe things are. For example, while "Italian Garden" sounds really nice, it is not. Do not be fooled. I went to see many Italian Garden places before I realized that Italian Garden means a bunch of houses sharing a common space and often a bathroom and a kitchen. Imagine walking off the city streets into a place that still looks like the peasants quarters in a medieval castle. That is kind of like an Italian Garden. I saw one place where all the old women were sitting outside with their recently sheared sheep wool soaking. You walked into a door and all it is, is one room with no windows and falling down walls. I dared to ask… where is the toilet….? The crazy lady who is totally shocked that I am not just loving this place takes me back out through the buckets of soaking sheep wool to an outhouse with just a bowl (no seat) for a toilet. I didn't even dare ask where to bathe.. but I am pretty sure that the hose soaking down the wool…. That was probably the answer.

 
I know I should have a lot more to say since I haven't posted for so long, but I am just too tired of walking all over Tbilisi looking at places to live to write more. So goodnight and maybe I will post some more tomorrow.