New Blog

I have moved on to a new blog. gretchenkeepsmoving.blogspot.com

Ireland

So I email my parents to say hello from Ireland...my dad's response was the following:

"Gretch: you need to update your blog...everyone is asking. "

Hahaha. Here it is DAD! Hilarious. Ireland is beautiful, duh. We have gone around the entire island and met lots of amazing people. It has been a nice distraction. We started in Dublin and are back for a couple nights. Our flight is on Tuesday and I am actually a tad bit happy to be going back to America. If for no other reason than the dollar sucks.

We went to Belfast- talk about intense. Then we stayed in County Donegal, in a little town, Dunfanaghy. From there we headed to Galway for a few days. After Galway, Cork. From Cork we headed to Kilkenny. We got to Dublin last night and we are SICK of buses. Tomorrow we are doing a tour of Wicklow.

Last night we went to a comedy show and I laughed hard. Then we headed to a pub where a man tried to steal my purse. I proceeded to walk up to him, start random conversation and then asked him why he was trying to steal my purse. He just gave me a blank look and walked away quickly. It was a very satisfying moment to say the least. Amanda and Chris got a good laugh out of it because they didn't know that I had gone over to call him out. I think I found my new path in life...fighting petty crime one pub at a time. The Guiness is just amazing here (I may or may not have gained 25 pounds from it) haha.

I am going to go now, euros don't grow on trees and internet cafes are not cheap! I look forward to seeing people, at least briefly while I am home.

2 more days...

Armenia

For a person that loves to travel and wants to see the world...I am pretty sad to be in Armenia. Peace Corps Armenia has been incredibly kind to us. The country is pretty and we are staying in a safe place.
I am at a loss for words right now, so I apologize if this is boring in comparison to older posts. The news leaves our ability to re-enter completely up in the air. Basically we are all sitting ducks, hoping that Washington D.C. will tell us what our options are soon. We are all really safe.
Returning to America is not something I even want to consider...if I have to I may just hitch-hike to Egypt, check out a camel or two.
My heart hurts for the people of Georgia right now. Our staff is absolutely amazing and I am beyond grateful. There is not much more to say right now. There are about 80 volunteers hanging out in this random hotel in Armenia...but we're safe. :(

Start watching CNN World News!

For those of you who have already forgotten about me, shame on you. haha. Just kidding! Things here are heating up, and I am not sure how concerned I should be seeing as this conflict has been going on for 15 years...
All the trainees have been consolidated and will be staying in Bakuriani (the mountians where orientation week occured). It is frustrating to be so cut off from the outside world. Especially when the information I want concerns the country I am IN! haha. Oh well.
Please keep up with the news, even if you find it boring. I miss and love you all.

Word on the street is...

Hello! If this actually posts it will be a miracle. I am attepmting to do this via my phone. I love technology...sometimes.
Things are plugging along. Job shadowing was fun. I got to go swimming in the Black Sea, it was super duper! We were near Turkey so I said what's up to the boarder patrol. :)
I got my permanent site placement. I will be near Turkey and Armenia, in Akhaltsikhe. What? You have never heard of it? Shame on you...get a map! Haha. My host family is really sweet and my school is brand new. My host mom is half Armenian and teaches it. Naturally everyone speaks Russian also. My georgian is sick nasty...JUST KIDDING!!! I am studying and trying my best.
We just had summer camp for the teachers training. It was pretty awesome. Physical fitness day, teamwork/ leadership skills day and Environmental day. The kids were really into it which was nice because we needed an energy boost. One girl wrote us the nicest thank you note I have ever read.
My host family now is still rockin out. Their house is coming along nicely. Oh! Funny side note- my new host family's house is under construction too!! Woohoo. Actually it is really cool because it means indoor plumbing. Holler at your girl! The winter may suck here but I will have a toilet in the house. Yea I said it.
I have really missed people from home lately. It is hard not being able to just call anyone I want. It's all good though, you know how I do!
Amanda and I visit each other like we have visitation rights. It is pretty funny but I love it. Speaking of, she got placed...wait for it...wait for it...BATUMI. Yea, you heard me, BATUMI!!! The beach resort haven for Georgians. Haha. It is cool for me. She will be doing tourism development there, and I will have a free vacation spot. Feels me??
All in all things are great. I am alive and well. Still no major illnesses so things are looking up. I'm poor but that is the point so...everything is as it should be! Haha.
One last thing for those of you that know me- don't worry everyone here knows that I am crazy. I am surviving because of my random noises, faces and BAD jokes. (Sarcasm too, however that does not translate as well...) Haha.
Aight home boys and girls. Gretch Out.
P.S. I want a chipotle burrito and Pizza. SO badly...

July 11, 2008 Word up? Not only class but a TEST on Saturday? SUPER DUUUPPERRRR!

…NOT! (Insert Borat accent here). It is another fabulous Friday here in Kveshkheti. I am posted up in chemis sakhali (my house) doing my mass amounts of work and yes, that’s correct – studying for a teaching test. No big deal really common sense material.

This week has been crazy insane- insane crazy. Yea, that’s right, I said it! So Monday was my first day teaching. I rocked out. Tuesday I taught 7-9^th grade. I did not rock out. Wednesday I taught a double session in the 5-6^th grade. I rocked out hard. This pattern has been a steady sin wave in all honesty. There is a comfort in knowing that no matter how hard I try (and how much I have my supervisor translate) the counter part I work with for the 7-9^th graders just does not know english. It becomes awkwardly apparent when the lesson starts and she is not doing her part. I am learning a lot about my strengths and weaknesses at a rapid pace. My already existing respect for teachers has grown exponentially this past week. For all of us that never cared in class, or gave our teachers a hard time…try teaching and you will probably want to shoot yourself in the foot for ever being rude. Hahahaha. 35 minutes has never been so bi-polar – it can be the shortest or LONGEST amount of time I have ever experience all in one day.

Teaching methods here are still very Soviet-oriented. This is the biggest challenge for us, as we are pushed to use rather controversial methods. There is not a grading system in the schools here, and students are just given passing grades and pushed through to the next grade. Although frustrating, it is the only reality the teachers and students know. It is going to take quite a bit of time to change the larger issues. I have faith that over time things will improve, there are so many bright teachers that have a willingness to promote change.

Our lesson planning takes up most of our evenings now. Add language assignments, cross-cultural assignments, evaluations and the multiple tests we are given and it equals the BEST WEEK EVER! (Insert sarcastic tone here). I personally enjoy having a lot of work to do but I know a lot of people have hit a wall. It is difficult to truly integrate into our communities and families when we literally have over an 80 hour work week. We are so focused right now that our perspective is very narrow. This makes it quite difficult to see the bigger picture – volunteering is not going to be like training, and training is going to make volunteering possible. I have faith in our staff, they are all very smart and helpful. Five weeks from now and into my service I hope that I can look back on this time and appreciate all the silly tasks I had to complete.

The spiders are multiplying in the shower, naturally I started to name them all: Fred, Bono, Brett, Giorgi, Alfred, Igor and Zed. I am pretty sure they are all making babies with Shaniqua because there are more every stinkin’ day. I contintue to administer a no tolerance policy with insects in my bedroom and no I do not discriminate!

Tomorrow I have a four hour language class, then my technical test. Afterwards I am heading to Khashuri to use the internet! I am going to spend the night at Amanda’s and we are having lunch with Tyler’s family on Sunday. Next week is going to be packed too- we have teaching Mon- Thurs, a Hub session all day Friday and then TEFL has job shadowing that weekend. We get our permanent site assignments on July 25^th! I am SO excited.

OH SNAP! I almost forgot the most exciting thing! Yesterday I got to wake up at 4am to travel to Tbilisi…to meet Condoleezza Rice!!! She came to town and decided to shout a holler at some U.S. volunteer agencies in Georgia. Nah, I’m just kiddin’ she was here on some official business but she did fit in a session to talk and shake hands with some volunteer groups currently serving. Not everyone got to go due to a limited capacity so I was excited to have the opportunity. I got to get out of language class for a day and we got our driver to stop at McDonalds. A BIGMAC AND NUGGETS HAVE NEVER TASTED SO GOOD! Haha.

OK, now I am done. I have to study and sleep. Tomorrow demands way too much as it is!

PEACE OUT.

July 6, 2008 Super Duperrrr

I am started my fourth week of training today! I cannot believe how quickly things are moving along. The language is becoming really fun and all in all I was being a little dramatic in terms of my struggles. I am doing well with it all. I am actually really lucky to be doing as well as I am with the grammar/vocabulary retention. Technical training is the more stressful – I teach my first english class tomorrow. Of course I got placed with 10^th /11th grade, how exactly do I make grammar fun for 15-17 year olds during the summer? I will let you know after my first creative lesson plan. Haha.

Saturday I met Amanda in Khashuri. We played on the internet for awhile in the Peace Corps office there with a few other clusters. A bunch of us then went next door to grab some beverages and snacks. It was really quite fun to see some new clusters that are further away from the west-siders. Yeah, that’s right, for the first time in my life I can say “WESTSIDE!” and have it actually apply. Holler at a player when you see her in the streets. Haha. Anyway, Amanda and I had a lovely time with my family and stayed up most of the night chatting. We are freakishly similar and I will leave it at that. She is a ball of energy and my family absolutely adores her. Today we walked around the village and took lots of cool pictures with my sisters.

Tyler came to meet up with us this afternoon, and we all went to Brad’s house for some attempted Mexican food. Kathleen and Jen did their best to cook up some Mexican…pretty impossible here. They did an awesome job! It was a lot of fun. Garrick, a fellow trainee in a neighboring village, came over with his guitar! He sang songs, we stuffed our faces and relaxed all afternoon. Pretty sweet day. Amanda, Tyler and I came back to my place and chilled out for an hour or so then they hit the road back to Ruisi. We have to be in our villages by 8pm, (for those of you that may not know me- I am not the biggest fan of being told what to do and have never had a curfew in my life) needless to say, that has become quite challenging for most of us to abide by! In any event things are peaceful but never dull. I am learning so much and hope it never stops. Georgian culture is so intriguing. My host family rocks my world, I can only pray my permanent site placement is as awesome!!

Droebit Ojakhi da Megobarebi! Stavlob kartuls! (See you later family and friends! I need to study Georgian!) If only I could write that with the Georgian alphabet…than you would really see what I have learned. Too bad I didn’t install it on my computer before I left, oh well.