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. 

Bustling Brussels

December 23rd I embarked on my first journey abroad since arriving in Georgia this past April. It was exciting to leave Georgia behind and explore some of the world’s most exotic and historic cities.  My trip began in the early hour of 3am. My friend Kayla and I left our Tbilisi hostel and began our 30 min taxi ride to the airport. Both of us were nervous/excited about our trips. For me, it would be the first time that I would be back in a country where my blond headedness and my identity as “the American” would not apply. I would go back to a land of food, music, and culture that more resembled America.  For Kayla (an older volunteer who came to Georgia in April 2012), this would be her first time going back to America in 20 months. Like I said we were nervous.  Struggling to stay awake we checked into our respected airline kiosks and waited to board our planes. At 5:30 I boarded the plane that would take me to Istanbul’s airport where a 3 hour layover was waiting for me before boarding the plane to Brussels.  By the time I’d arrived in Brussels, I had been up for 2 days and 3 hours.

 Despite my slightly haggard appearance my cousin and her family claimed me at the Brussels’s airport exit. My cousin Natalie, my second cousin on my mother’s side whom I've only met maybe 3 times in my life…the last of which being 13 years ago at her wedding, was gracious enough to invite me to spend the Christmas holidays with her family and to show me around Brussels and the towns around it.  The first night Nat took me to go see the Christmas marketplace in downtown Brussels before we headed home to her very cute and very picturesque European farmhouse.

 Her two kids Allen (five) and Annabel (five months) were the cutest things ever and didn't waste any time in making me a member of their family.  Gino, Natalie’s husband and a policeman at the airport, arrived back from work later that night. The next day was a day of rest and preparation for the family’s big Christmas Eve dinner with Gino’s side of the family.  There were 17 of us that sat down to dinner that night.  In the house there was cacophony of languages ranging from French, Dutch, English and the occasional word in Georgian when I was asked to speak a few words of it.  The night was full of great food, Allen’s magic tricks and party favors.  Christmas morning around 6am, I found my name being called by Allen downstairs telling me to come quickly because Santa had come.  I came downstairs to find that Santa had also left me a little stocking full of American goodies such as peanut butter, syrup, Starbursts, long johns and woolen socks. We spent the rest of the day watching movies, taking naps and eating the leftovers from the night before.

The Girl who Squats

The Boy Who Pees

The next few days Natalie took me around Brussels and showed me some of local atmosphere as well. We saw two castles, Brussels’s main square the Grand Place, the boy who pees statue, the girl who squats statue, the military museum, the Leffe brewery museum in Dinant, the Caracole brewery, Waterloo, and even a small German town across the border called Monschau.  I found out local secrets such as where to get the best Belgium waffle (Brico apparently…a home improvement store that resembled Home Depot….Nat swears by their waffles) and some lesser known bars such as the Old Oak, an old Irish Pub that is popular with both the locals and the expats. Allen, Annabel and Natalie were great sports about seeing these touristy places for the umpteenth time and I very much appreciated their enthusiasm.

Me in the Grand Place at night

More of the Grand Place

Beautiful Cathedral in Dinant

The second to last night I was there two American soldiers that knew Natalie through  a friend of hers took me out one night to experience the Brussels’s bar scene.  That was a fun night to let loose a bit and meet people my age both country nationals and expats who lived in Brussels. I even made it to Delirium Café, a bar known for its long beer list, standing at 2,004 different brands and for being in The Guinness Book of Records for having the longest beer menu. The next day, my last day in Belgium, Natalie took me across the boarder to Germany where we spent the afternoon in a cute German town called Monschau. It was a perfect way to end my Western European adventure and to finally say that I've been to Germany.  Later that night I did laundry (my clothes were really confused, it was the first time in 8 months that they had seen a dryer) and packed up my backpack for my departure the next morning to my new destination….Istanbul baby!

Allen and I in Monschau

And the story continues...

Winter is Coming!!!

In the words of Ned Stark, "Winter is coming". Last night was the first night that I slept in my blue meanie long johns (you read correctly, blue meanie long johns) AND my sleeping bag in my room. I can tell this is going to be a harsh winter.

Update: I survived my first week of teaching. There are a few hiccups here and there like the fact that my whole fifth grade class does not have textbooks or the fact that 4th, 5th and 6th grade all have the same textbook and are essentially learning the same thing. On Friday however I was invited to attend a Teachers' Day concert to celebrate teachers around the world so that was nice. It's still weird to be called Miss Anneke in class...or the fact that I have to discipline these kids for not doing their homework . Oh well. I'm going to see if a rewards program with a chance to select a prize from the prize box will inspire more of my kids to complete and bring their homework to class.

On a completely different note, yesterday I learned how to bake bread Georgian style and how to make Churchkhela, a Georgian treat consisting of strung walnuts dipped into a thickened grape juice goo. Very good. Below are some of my pictures from yesterday.

Bread stuck to the inside wall of the kiln/oven thing

Wrangled me a loaf of bread from the oven with my hook

Before...

After!! Freshly made Churchkhela

My mom and I

My sister and I

Yum yum!