The Run-Down on July

Here are the picture of the Gori Fortress that go with a post from many weeks ago, but Blogger wouldn't let me upload this then:

Since I last really posted, here is what has happened:
Saturday, July 7th: after language class, we went to a Georgian funeral
Sunday, July 8th: we went to the Cave City of Uplistikhe with our host family
Thursday, July 12th: I went to GLOW, a girls' leadership camp in Bakuriani
Sat/Sun, July 14th-15th: we traveled to Kutaisi for our cultural trip
Monday, July 16th: I started teaching summer school & we switched to a new language cluster
Wednesday, July 18th: written test on modules 5 & 6
Thursday, July 19th: we had our mid-Language Proficiency Interviews (mid-LPIs)
Friday, July 20th: we found out our permanent site, then traveled to Gudauri to meet our supervisors; I coincidentally happened to be really sick that morning, and if it had been any other day, wouldn't have gone to class
Saturday, July 21st: one-day conference with our supervisors in Gudauri; Brenden left that night to go to our new site in his director's car
Sunday, July 22nd: I left Gudauri for Akhaltsikhe, our new site
Mon/Tues, July 23rd & 24th: we wandered around Akhaltsikhe, I met two of my new counterparts, Brenden worked a full day at his office, and we hung out with our new sitemate, Jason
Wednesday, July 25th: we travel back to Gori

So as you can see, we've been incredibly busy the past 3 weeks, going everywhere and doing everything. So, I'll start with our cultural trip to Kutaisi: this was a two-day trip designed to expose us to Georgia, and also to get us used to traveling alone. It succeeded on both counts, although less as cultural exposure to Kutaisi since it rained all day Saturday and Sunday. So, on Saturday we left Gori with our group: myself, Brenden, Jarrod, Lisa, Tony, & Heather. We arrived in Kutaisi and were met by Ian, a G6 who lives near Kutaisi (G6 stands for how long the program has been in a country; so for example, G6s came last year, in 2006, and we, the G7s, came this year). We were staying at Giorgi's guesthouse, which all the G6s had recommended, but all had failed to mention (as had the Lonely Planet guide) that Giorgi's is, a) difficult to find and b) on top of a VERY steep hill. After climbing that hill, we were exhausted, wet, and hungry, so we checked in, deposited our stuff, and climbed back down, in search of what had been described to us as “the best American-style pizza in Georgia.” Many restaurants in Georgia serve pizza, but for some reason I don't understand, mayonnaise is an integral ingredient in Georgian pizza. You can order it without mayonnaise, but it's still not quite the same without tomato sauce, and pizza usually comes with set ingredients, basically equivalent to a supreme pizza. If you ordered a plain cheese pizza like I like to, I'm not sure what would come on it, probably just the bread and the salty cheese the Georgians love. So...the chance to order plain cheese pizza was unbelievable. I must've eaten five slices, at least, by myself (in my defense, I must explain that it was thin, New York-style pizza, not thick, Chicago-style pizza). Between the seven of us, we consumed seven pizzas, so you can imagine that we were not disappointed. After pizza, it was still raining, so we headed back to Giorgi's and the Hill of Death, where we met two Australian sisters who were traveling around the world. Giorgi's has a nice balcony, so we all headed out to the balcony and just sat around, watching the grapevines and the rain and talking until dinner. The next morning, we were determined to actually see some of Kutaisi, and we were pretty close to the major cultural attraction in Kutaisi, the Bagrati Cathedral, so we headed out, thinking the rain might subside. I should insert here that we had been warned repeatedly that Kutaisi was hot during the summer, so for Sunday, I had just a tank top and a decorative scarf to cover my arms and head for the cathedral. Of course I had no jacket or umbrella—I am still not used to the fact that in humid climates, it does rain during the summer just because it's wet, not because it's cold (although in this case, it was quite cold). So we walked the 5-10 minutes to the cathedral, stood shivering in the cold, took some pictures, and then headed back. The cathedral was beautiful, and there was a profoundly spiritual sense of being in a place people have been worshipping in since the 11th century, but it was so cold and wet and uncomfortable that it was hard to truly appreciate it. Here is one picture (and you can see the rain in the picture, too):

The mid-LPI is preparation for our real LPI we take in another 4 weeks (it's really hard to believe we only have 4 weeks left in training now!). On our real LPI, we have to make intermediate low; on our mid-LPI, Brenden made novice high, and I made almost-novice-high, so we were told if we continue at the same pace, we should be at intermediate mid by the real LPI, so that's a bit of relief. The LPI is basically a 20 minute interview in Georgian where they can ask you about anything. They also have scenario cards that they pull out and you have to perform; so, for example, Brenden had to barter in the marketplace, whereas I had to tell the mayor of my city about my secondary projects. It was an extremely stressful few days before the mid-LPI and of course during the LPI (I had the “privilege” of being the very last person to take the mid-LPI, which one might think was an advantage, but was really just increasingly stressful, because our language teacher expected us to be learning new vocabulary while waiting for our turn, so she was trying to teach us about the rooms in our house, and I was desperately hoping the new material wouldn't force out the old vocabulary). I feel, in many ways, like I've hit the saturation point with new vocabulary; we're being exposed to new vocabulary, but if I memorize it, I'm forcing out the old vocabulary. I had the feeling several times in the last couple days that I used to know how to say this, but now I don't know anymore (and it was probably only 3 weeks ago that we learned it, but that's so long ago in terms of our language study it's not even funny).

So, onto the permanent site: we found out last Friday that we will be spending our next 2 years in Akhaltsikhe, a small city about an hour from the Turkish border. We're in the Western, southern half of the country, about 3 hours from Tbilisi, but luckily, unlike the rest of the West, although Akhaltsikhe does get very hot, it's a dry heat, not a humid heat. The city is 40% Armenian, so it's a really interesting cross-cultural experience; the Armenians in Akh are well-integrated, however, so all of them should speak Georgian, which is good. The city is definitely smaller than Gori, but it has a LOT of clothing and shoes shops, for some reason, which is nice. Also, here in Gori, we live in Kombinati (a neighborhood very close to the hub site we meet at on Fridays, but about a 10-15 minute walk from the bazaar, and a 20-minute walk from the major insection in Gori at Chachavadze and Stalinis), but our house in Akhaltsikhe is in the center of town, which is really nice. It's about a 15-minute walk east to Brenden's NGO, and about a 10-15 minute walk roughly west to my school. Past my school is more shops, the train, bus, and marshrutka stations, and the Old Town (I don't know much about that part of town; we explored the city center and the east side of town). It's a fabulous location, and our new host family is very nice, and very low-key. We met up with our sitemate, Jason; he is a G6 who teaches at the university in Akh. He showed us around the east side of town (where the university, the nice hotel, the abazana, and the pool are located) and also the best lobio place. What exactly, you ask, is an abazana? Abazana is the Georgian word for bathroom (this does not necessarily mean there is a toilet involved, FYI), and an abazana you pay for is the one place in town it is guaranteed you'll be able to take a hot shower. We will probably be spending the 2 lari per trip needed on a regular basis when we move there, especially during the winter. I also met up with the two youngest English teachers in my school; they are both in their mid-20s and unmarried. They showed me around the city center, so I was shown the park, theatre, post office, many of the shops, and the most popular cafe in town, in addition to my school. My school is Public School No. 1, which I assume means that it is the oldest school. It is rather large, with 1200 students and 85 teachers, and we just got in new computers and Internet this summer, so that will be nice, especially since the 2 Internet cafes in town aren't open right now (we're not sure why; it's possible they are just closed for the summer since all the students are gone, but I'm not holding my breath). The two teachers that I met speak excellent English and seem quite excited to be working with me, so that's really nice.