Last Thursday--exactly a week ago--we arrived in Gori. Brenden told you a lot of the pertinent details--all I will say about our living situation is that the water is REALLY cold. I haven't had hot (or even moderately warm) water for an entire shower yet. The water pressure also is a bit different than home.
Since last Thursday, we've been very busy. Our schedule normally looks like this:
9am-1pm: language lessons
1-2:15pm: walking to and from lunch at one of the host families in our cluster (there are six of us in our cluster, so 5 families, plus our Language & Cross-Cultural Facilitator, or LCF, aka Teacher; she is Georgian and she lives in Gori, so we eat once a week with her family, too)
That is our schedule Monday-Thursday & Saturday.
Monday-Thursday, we also meet in the afternoon:
2:15/2:30-5:30/6pm: BSE (Business & Social Entrepreneurship) classes for Brenden, TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) classes for me
On Fridays, we also have class from 9am-1pm, and 2-5 or 5:30pm, but these are hub days; all 45 PCTs (Peace Corp Trainees) meet together and we all cover safety & security issues, items of general interest, etc. I am looking forward to tomorrow for that, and our break from language!The language is intense!
Last weekend, on Saturday after class and lunch, we met up with other PCTs in Gori, and hung out at a local ex-pat restaurant. They have this garden outside with shade, and we just sat and talked (in English!) for a few hours until dinner time. On Sunday, we hiked up to Gori Fortress (we took tons of pictures, and hopefully will soon post them!) which was hot, then ate some street food, visited the Internet cafe, hung out with the PCTs at the same restaurant, and went home to do homework. We have lots of homework--they're not kidding when they say it's intense. We are exhausted by the end of the day--4 hours of a very difficult language is hard. Brenden & I feel as though our German and French, respectively, however, are improving; every time we can't think of the word in Georgian, the word in German or French pops right into our heads!
By the way, all the posts with my name after them are mine; the ones that aren't signed are Brenden's.
Thanks so much for all the comments and emails--I do miss home and all of you, but it's nice to get those reminders. :)
- Carissa
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5 comments:
Thanks Carissa! It's great to hear what you guys are up to on a day to day basis. That's funny how your mind will pop out with words you'd totally forgotten when you're learning a new language. It's like our brains have a subsection of "words not english" and under severe pressure it all gets forced out! :-) Love you guys, and praying for you daily. - corrie
Lol, thanks for the note about the 'signage' -- Brenden does tend to forget. He is developing a very distinctive bill-bryson-like humorous tone. In your spare time, maybe you guys can write a travel book.
Language school sounds rough, that's a really heavy load. Good thing you guys are brilliant, eh? You're in our prayers.
-Nathan
Hi you 2! I so love to read your posts and find out how you are doing. I think of you so often... On my google home page, I installed a world clock with your time zone, Rachel and Isaac's, and home. That way, no matter where I am, I can kind of keep track of all of us as we are scattered near and far.
I'd love to hear more about your living conditions in a very, very small and crowded apartment.
I know what you mean about other languages popping up when faced with a different one. In Guatemala last week, I answered in German on more than one occasion while "talking" in Spanish. You are both so smart, I'm really not worried about you.
I love you both,
Mom
It's good to hear how you're doing! I'm so glad I got to see you both you left. I'll be praying for you.
I'm coming over to your side of the Atlantic later today.
Hello there! How exciting - all of the new people and host families that you are meeting. Not so exciting - the cold showers! =P I'm so glad you two have this blog so that we can keep in touch. I'll be sending you emails too (I gather from this posting that you do check them so now I know!)
Hugs and tons of love! Joanna
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