GYLT Month: Get Your Life Together Month

Ok, ok I know it's been a while since I've posted (at least that's what my mom pointed out when I skyped with her this week). That's why I'm calling this post GYLT Month: -conveniently pronounced guilt - Get Your Life Together Month. March went by so fast to be honest with you. I've been in Tbilisi every weekend this past month for trainings and meetings...mainly in preparation for the NESC competition this past weekend.

Things I've completed this past month:

1) Wrote and submitted my first Small Projects Assistance (SPA) grant proposal....all 20 pages of it...Crossing my fingers in hopes of it getting funded. I'm hoping to get funding to create a Language and Cultural Studies Cabinet in our school where we can use new technology and visual aids to aid in learning about foreign cultures and their languages.

2) Finished an online course in Epidemiology due to interests in going into social work and public health for grad school after PC. Not sure at this point whether I want to pursue a graduate degree in Social work or a degree for international studies. That being said I just started a new online course called International Human Rights Law: Prospects and Challenges.

3) I read  The Lonesome Traveler, Anna Karenina, Three Cups of Tea, and The Giver. Trying to read more if I can help it. My next planned book is The Red Tent by Anita Diamant followed  then  Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

4) Eleven months of service (March 23rd made it 11 months in country)

5) Finished up the Write On Competition  at my school. I had about 14 students at my school participate. I was very impressed with their creative answers to the questions given. Questions like "If you could invent a type of candy bar what flavor would it be and why?" or "If trees could think what would they think about?" All of this mind you in English, my students' second language...like I said I was very impressed by their writings.

6) Worked at the National English Spelling Competition  this past week. I basically helped out with last minute items for the participants, worked on their certificates and helped my fellow PCV Rachel with her role. On Tuesday we the G13 NESC Committee members were nominated for specific committee roles for next year since we will be facilitating all of this next year. My new title is Administrative Coordinator and I'll be in charge of keeping up with the spelling lists, creating transcriptions, translations (in Azeri, Armenian, Georgian, Russian and English) and coordinating all of this with the Project Coordinators for both the East and West regions of Georgia. Maybe this is a blessing in in disguise seeing as I'm not a great speller at all (might have had to look up disguise just to type this) so bring on the spelling words

7) Started running again the first time today. I didn't run all through summer, fall, and winter because of rabid dog obstacles, oogling  men, and cold weather. However, I've decided to use the town's local football stadium in the mornings since it's starting to get warmer. The stadium keeps the dogs at bay and it's kind of hidden..or so I thought. I still had an audience of 9 today, five men and four boys watching me run...guess I'll just have to get up earlier to avoid it.

8) Started my school's English Club back up. So far we have talked about Women's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and April Fools celebrations. We have also done fun activities related to adjectives, and readings in class as well. I think I might do an English Slang lesson this month.

9) Attended the Georgia vs. Romania qualifier for the Ruby World Cup 2015. It was really fun and actually was the first sporting event I've attended here that had the energy and fan base that I usually feel at a UT football game.


Things I'm planning on doing this month:

1) Work out more
2) Study Georgian more (I've kind of let my language skills go to the way side after learning enough to get by  on a daily basis)
3) Going out west to visit the town of Chiatura. I want to see the Katskhi Pillar and Stalin's Rope Railway
4) Celebrate Easter (the biggest holiday in Georgia) with my family
5) Attend my host sister's and host brother's dance recital at the end of April
6) Take more pictures of my town and of the Kakheti region
7) Meet the new volunteers, the G14s, at the airport in the wee hours and welcome them to Georgia.

March Madness!

Well I think I have survived winter here.  The days are getting a little bit warmer and the chances of having our water frozen again look pretty slim.  January and February have been the hardest months of service so far because of the cold weather. PCVs here often call February “Depression Month” because it is the coldest month and many of us are bound by necessity to stay in the petchi room (often there only being one in the house) with the rest of your host family 24/7.  I myself had to abandon my bedroom upstairs and sleep in the living room in order to stay warm at night. Being in a room with all of your host family members every day for 12 hours straight with nowhere to escape can get to a person. However like I said, I believe the worst of winter has passed. I had distractions like the Olympics, the events in Ukraine, phone conversations with friends and school to keep me going.

View of Tbilisi's main church

I spent most of January and February getting back into school mode. It’s been hard to do so because the start of school has been hindered by two long weeks of training by Peace Corps. One training was for reporting purposes and the other training (which ended this weekend) was focused on how to write grant proposals and project proposals for our communities.  So far since school has started I have managed to start our English club back up and get a set of donated books delivered to the school.  After this training though I’ll be working on trying to get a project proposal written in order to get funding for a new language cabinet at my school.  Other tasks on my ever growing list are: working on the applications for GLOW NGO, revising and editing our TEFL Education activities book, and working on logistics for NESC’s (National English Spelling Competition) final competition coming up this spring.  

My third grade and their new books!

This month is looking pretty crazy already with all the things that need to get done. Some exciting news is that we, that is the G13 group of volunteers, have received our megobari (friend) information about the new volunteers that will be arriving in April. Basically we serve as pre departure pen pals to the new kids, mainly giving them advice about what to pack, what the culture is like and what to expect before arriving.  I can’t believe it’s almost been a year since I’ve been here. I remember receiving an email from my megobari, Kristen, and me promptly writing back to her worried questions about last min packing advice and what the gender role expectations were for women in Georgia.

Me and my new birthday hat!

Among all of these trainings and projects, I managed to turn another year older and finally hit 25. My 25^th birthday was pretty tame since we were at a training conference but my friends managed to make my day memorable. Ten of us were crowded in a hotel room playing card games and toasted to my birthday with champagne at 12am. The next day we all had project training and grant writing but I still managed to receive a birthday call from my parents in Tennessee, numerous “Happy Birthday” text messages, Facebook shout outs, a birthday card signed by my friends, gifts, and lots of singing. 

Five Things Friday 08.09.2013

Five things that happened at site this week:

1) On Thursday I made ice cream floats for my family as a dessert. They told me they liked it but they might have been being polite.

2) Mari (my host sister), her friend Nino and I had a girls night in my room and watched August Rush. We were going to watch Notting Hill but the external hard drive was having none of it.

3) My whole family and I moved our very large wood pile into our barn space so that the wood can stay dry during all of the summer thunderstorms we've been having. I think my family was concerned that I was helping them but I reassured them that there were many a day back in East TN where my family I would chop and stack firewood....not to mention pick up sticks, rocks and rake leaves (Now that I'm looking back at it, I'm pretty sure my parents had all of us so it would be easier for them to do yard work...just a theory)

4) I was only asked three times this week by people in my community if my hair was in fact my hair. That's a new record.

5) I accidentally broke one of the glass panes in my bedroom door when a gust of wind closed it quickly...oops


Five words/ phrases I've learned this week:

1) ობობა (oboba): spider...I thought with the word being oboba that it would be the translation for a much cuter animal....I was wrong

2) დარჩენა (darchena):  is the verb "to stay" ...useful when my family was asking if any of my  friends in Georgia would come here and stay for a weekend

3) ვირი (viri):  donkey...we have one on our street who always eats the blackberries off of the bush on that corner

4) დოქი ( დoqi):  yarn...i need to know they one because I want to buy some yarn at the bazaar in order to make god's eyes for camp.

5) საფული (saphule): wallet...because the former Volunteer who lived in my site before me lost her wallet the day before she COS and my family was asking me where she had lost it.


Five books that I have read while being at site:

1) Getting Stoned with the Savages - J. Maarten Troost

2) Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

3) The Road - Cormac McCarthy (Yay Knoxvillian!)

4) The Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac

5) Lost on Planet China - J. Maarten Troost

Five books I read in Georgia before I got to my site:

1) Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer  (Love the movie...had to read the book)

2) The Art of Being Single - Judy Ford

3) Wild Things - Dave Eggers

4) The Definitive Guide to Stuff While People Like - Christian Lander (Makes fun of every and all trends...some I am guilty of being a part of lol)

5) This Twenty Something Life - Jon Rance

Five things I'm looking forward To:

1) Going and and exploring Tbilisi with my host sister sometime next week

2) Having my summer camp in Sagarejo

3) Receiving care packages from home...bring on the taco seasoning and peanut butter. 

4) My overnight trip to Khevsureti with some of the G13s and G12s

5) The start of school...though I am kind of nervous about it....and when I say kind of i mean mortified