June 30, 2008 Order in the classroom?

Today was a great day overall. Another rollercoaster ride of emotions ranging from enthusiastic, confident, tired, frustrated, joyful, grateful, and finally utterly exhausted.

Language class was great because we had an enormous amount of information thrown at us. It made it fun because we actually had decent things to add to a conversation now…relatively speaking of course. The past tense has never been so rewarding! The moral of the story is that class seemed to pass by a bit faster today. We went to the store for break because I wanted Koka Kola somethin’ fierce and a snickers bar. The store owner thinks I am a ‘gizhi gogo’ (crazy girl)! I made her laugh until she cried the other day…ok, fine I’ll tell the story.

I had just learned how to pronounce the word Tsitsila the night before and really like saying it. SO we were in the store and I asked the lady for water (Tskhali). She looked at me with confused eyes and I realized that I had said tsitsila which means CHICKEN, not tskhali. Hahaha. And as she handed me my bag, instead of Madloba (thank you), I said gamarjoba (hello) for a third time! I attempted to play it off by pretending that I had been talking to myself. I looked up and said madloba but it was not enough to save me. Needless to say, my brain was done processing Georgian that day. It was funny and we all still get a good laugh out of it.

Technical training was interesting today. We learned how to manage a classroom. And to answer your questions- being a teacher is similar to running for president. I have never been introduced to so many “theories” and “middle areas” in my life. IT ALL DEPENDS, is the theme of the next 2 years of my life. It was a frustrating lesson to say the least.

When I got home I hung out with Salome and Lizi. We worked on my homework, played cards and watched spanish soap operas in georgian. Haha. At least I can understand the spanish! Then we went for a walk with Travis and his host sister, while Nona started dinner. When we came back in I noticed their piano. I played a few songs and the girls got very excited. Salome played a song, she is very good. They encouraged their mom to come play- Nona is amazing!!! Her tiny fingers owned that instrument. From classical to traditional Georgian music, she played and sang until her fingers quit. I took pictures and watching in awe. Afterwards we continued to cook dinner as Salome played her songs. Nona had not had a chance to eat all day long so she devoured her dinner. Poor thing works so hard, I am constantly amazed by her.

I could write for hours about how awesome these people are but I have to wake up early. Ugh. Wake up early to attempt to cram in as much of this language as humanly possibly before August. SUPER DUPER. Haha. In all honesty it has been a lot of fun so far, I have no complaints. NOT ONE! Thumbs up Peace Corps. Oh, and we lost one more today. My roommate from Philly went home this morning apparently. She is in the east TEFL cluster so I do not get to see her to know but I received a few messages today. We have exceeded the 10% marker for early termination. This is beginning to seem a lot like survivor yo. Let me just say once more, this is the time for people to really decide if this is what they want to do for two years. And it is much better to decide to go home now than during our actual service time. Either way it is not an easy decision for any of us and I wish everyone that left the best of luck!