Just a little tidbit...

This weekend I realized how adapted I’ve become to Georgian life and how much I’ll dearly miss it when this fabulous year comes to a close.  As our Samtredia gang headed eastward to Tbilisi to greet exciting visitors from the homeland (aka Melissa’s parents) we went from needing a tour guide to realizing that we were the tour guides.  Granted there’s still a lot that I haven’t seen in Georgia, let alone Tbilisi itself, but for the first time we were responsible for telling foreigners about this place we’ve called home for the past 7 months.  (We also got to enjoy lots of fun presents sent from our families back in the states, and yummy goodies like, oreos, peanut butter and even apples from America!)

We noticed how expert we've become at Georgian life and culture when we went to a restaurant that we had gone to with some Georgians soon after we arrived back in September.  At that point, we had no idea what any of the food was, or how to eat anything, what to order, what to drink, etc.  The Georgians did all the ordering and we went along with it.  This time, we were the ones ordering everything without a menu, explaining how to eat food like kinkali and teaching our American visitors how to say cheers! (gaumarjos!) I realized how much I truly have fallen in love with Georgia, its people, food, music and culture.  I felt proud watching several Georgians rush up to do their favorite Georgian dances while the music literally blares in our ears.  I was happy to rush up myself and join them, although my Georgian dancing is not quite the same as their Georgian dancing! 

It’s interesting to have these moments where I’m aware of how much of an effect Georgia has had on me.  As I’ve passed the 3 month mark to my departure date, I’m filled with feelings of being torn between two worlds that are completely 100% different, but both allowing me to be extremely happy, and I know it’s only going to get worse as that departure date itches closer and closer.  I’m thinking of all the things I’m excited for at home while at the same time realizing how much I’m going to miss my life here.  Good thing there’s still many fun memories to be made in the next three months! A trip to Greece and Turkey, hiking in Kazbegi and Svaneti, visiting a city of Caves, beach trips to Batumi, and of course spending lots of time with my host family and my crazy students.  I have to say, I do love my life :)

Oh the Food We Eat…

I’ve been wanting to update you a bit on what I’m actually eating over here in Georgia.  This is one blog that probably should have occurred closer to the beginning of my stay here, but better late than never, right? Georgian cuisine is quite delicious and I really do enjoy most of the foods here.  I’d say my only complaint is that I miss the variety.  When we go to restaurants, we really don’t even need to look at the menu anymore because we always eat the same thing anytime we go out! I miss food from other cultures, but that’s what Israel and Palestine was for! The break was definitely needed and I ate extremely well while we were traveling.  It’s also hard during the winter because fruits and vegetables are harder to find, and are much more expensive; which makes eating healthy quite difficult.  However, you take what you can get!

Some basic Georgian staples are:

Khatchapuri: cheese pie.  It's delicious :) 

Adjaruli Khatchapuri: A variation of khatchapuri with an egg cracked into the middle that you mix into the cheesy bread.  Also, quite delicious! 

Kinkali, meat, potato or mushroom filled dumplings. You eat them by biting a small hole, sucking out the juice and then finishing off the rest, with the exception of the top.  It's bad luck to eat the top! Kinkali as also NOT to be eaten with a fork or knife! 

Lobio: My personal favorite.  It's often served in a clay pot along with mchadi, a corn based bread.  

Mtsvade: Meat and onions on a stick!

Ojdakhuri: Meat, potatoes and onions in a delicious sauce.  

Cucumber and Tomato Salad: Our veggies for the YEAR. 

 Sokko and Sulguni (mushrooms and cheese): One of my favorite meals.  

Churchkela: Kind of tastes like a fruit roll-up with Nuts inside.  The fruity part is made from grapes so this is a huge hit in the fall during wine season.  

As for what I eat with my host family, we often rotate through about 5 meals.  Sure, there are new things thrown in there every once and a while, but a majority of the time we eat:

*Lobio (a bean soup, which I’m obsessed with)

*Hacho (boiled hen, chicken, or duck in a yummy nut sauce– yes the meat comes from our backyard. They’ve learned to turn up the volume on the TV when it comes time to prepare the meal, if you know what I mean…)

*Meat and Potato Soup

*Borsht (Veggie soup – which I LOVE, but Cici hates – so it’s usually pretty funny when Lela makes it!)

*Stuffed Cabbage – it’s delicious.

*Bread and Honey – we eat this every morning and usually every night.  Sometimes it’s bread and cold meat, or bread and cheese, or bread and peanut butter or jam, but I think you get the gist that a staple of our morning and evening meal is BREAD.

I really can’t complain about the bread during the winter though, because Lela, my amazing host mother makes our bread about every day in our wooden stove.  It was the most pleasant surprise EVER coming back from Israel.  The girls have even come over several times for hot bread and butter, which I think would really only ever happen in Georgia.  I’m used to people coming over for a cup of coffee, but not a piece of hot bread and butter! I’m becoming quite spoiled and accustomed to homemade bread…I’m not sure if I’ll be able to go back!  I’m also addicted to instant coffee.  Never thought that would happen, but I’m going with it.

I do really miss cooking and being able to make yummy meals with new recipes.  It’s just one more thing to look forward to at the end of this journey, but for now I’m trying to get several of these Georgian recipes down pat so that I can come home and share them all with you.  Get excited… 

To Yerevan and Back

A few days ago, I returned from a 5 day trip to Armenia with several other TLGers.  Taking advantage of 2 holidays and a weekend allowed us to explore the cosmopolitan city of Yerevan and several other surrounding areas.  Our time was filled with delicious food, good conversation, many (many) churches and great people.  

Group shot with our Marshutka driver

We decided to couchsurf again and experienced all the perils that come with this particular endeavor.  Our first couchsurfer was a bit over the top, but welcomed anyone and everyone into his home.  While this meant 3 days of sleeping on the floor using our coats and sweaters as pillows and blankets, it also meant meeting tons of new Peace Corp volunteers, travelers and Armenian University students.  After growing weary of little sleep, a few of us headed to a different couch surfer who gave us a much quieter atmosphere, beds and yummy tea and jam.  One of the reasons I love couch surfing is having the ability to find all the bars where the locals hang out.  Sumit took us to this bar called Calumet where everyone was sitting on the floor on bean bags, drinking the local brew and enjoying each other's company.  I'm not sure we would have found the bar otherwise... 


There were about 7 of us ready to explore outside Yerevan so renting a Marshutka seemed to be the most cost effective decision.  Our driver, Roman, was so wonderful.  He and Michelle totally hit it off (probably because they could actually communicate with each other and carry on a conversation), but they ended up planning our next three day trips.  Roman basically drove us all over Armenia.  We visited many churches, monasteries and even a lake.  Each famous for its own old (literally) reason.  

A beautiful church, that we actually didn't go inside... nor do I remember it's name.
But look how pretty??!! 

Geghard Monastery - A beautiful monastery nestled up in the rock hills

Etchmiadzin - the mother church of Armenia - essential to the history of Christianity 

Look how big Mt. Ararat is! 

While all the churches and monasteries we visited were equally beautiful, I found myself growing tired of going from one church to straight to another.  A few of us spent one day wandering through a couple museums.  We visited the Armenian Genocide Museum and the National Art Gallery.  This was just a heavy day as the genocide museum was just pretty gruesome and nauseating to see pictures of and read about.  Its setting was beautiful with a backdrop of Mt. Ararat (in Turkey) and being able to overlook the city of Yerevan from the top of the hill.  The art museum was nice, but I'm not sure I was able to fully appreciate it after the day we had had at the previous museum.  Luckily we finished the day off on a good night with a lovely iced coffee at a nearby cafe.  It's amazing what a little caffeine can do to brighten a depressing day. 

A few of us outside Novamonk Church - its setting was absolutely breathtaking

Group shot in front of the mountain! 

We really couldn't get enough of the mountain,
we had to sit down and ponder it for a while. 

We also ate lots of delicious and yummy food, ranging from Lebanese, Chinese, American (pizza hut - don't judge - it tasted SO amazing) and of course, Armenian.  After being away for 7 months now, being in a city where there are options and variety when it comes to food is something that I'm just not willing to NOT take advantage of! While I do love Georgian food, (blog post coming soon about that...) I miss eating food from other cultures.  This was one aspect that definitely made Yerevan much more of a cosmopolitan city.  Variety in food, great night life, department stores from all over the world, and a mix of people from different cultures and backgrounds made Yerevan a city where I thoroughly enjoyed my time.  We even managed to mix a little Karaoke in there! 

Ice cream cones for 100 Dram! YES! 

While I enjoyed the trip, I found myself anxious to go back to Georgia.  I was ready to be around familiarity again, where I could read the signs and communicate with the people.  Always a good sign! So here I am, happy to be back in Georgia, where the sun is starting to shine more and more each day, leaves are beginning to sprout and layers of clothing are slowly being shed.  Spring has sprung! 

Skiing in Bakuriani is Definitely Different than Skiing in Colorado

First of all, I simply cannot believe that it's March 1st.  Where in the world did February go?? It turned out to be quite the busy month for us girls over here in the land of Samtredia.  Between computer power cord problems and losing internet due to crazy neighbors and malfunctioning cords/satelittes/i don't even know and stopped asking... blogging just hasn't been on top of the priority list!  I did want to get a quick post out though before we take off for our Armenian adventure (more about that later). 


With all the snow in February we decided it was absolutely necessary to go skiing.  The girls and I (minus Tara due to a injured foot), along with some newfound Zestaponi and Kutaisi friends headed back to Bakuriani (where we went horse backing through the mountains last fall) for a weekend of skiing and relaxing at our favorite hotel.  Both times we've visited Bakuriani we have relished in the warm rooms (you should see our faces when we realize we can wear a t-shirt and still feel warm), delicious food and the wonderful staff.  We are so taken care of whenever we visit, so we were definitely looking forward to the weekend getaway! 


We spent most of Saturday out on the slopes, which I was pretty much giddy about.  I've been itching to ski here for a while.  The last time I went skiing was in Colorado, which was clearly a great skiing experience - it's Colorado!! Let's just say that my skiing experience was quite a bit different here in Georgia.  First of all, there isn't a central ski lodge-type area where you go and pay for your ski pass for the day, find your rentals and leave any excess clothes you may have brought with you in case it's too cold or too hot.  This did not bode well for Michelle and I because we were basically dressed for the Arctic tundra! When we reached the bottom of the mountain, we were bombarded with Georgians asking us if we wanted to rent equipment from their stand.  As we looked around, we began to slowly figure things out, we were going to have to rent ski equipment from random Georgians, leave our boots with them (pray they didn't get lost or stolen) and just wear everything we brought! Finally, with the help of an English speaking man from Tbilisi, we were strapped into our new feet for the day and told to come back when we wanted to pay and retrieve our boots.  

Some of us at the top of the mountain, ready for a great run down! 

I think the most noticeable difference between skiing in CO and GE is the way we physically get up the mountain.  In CO, everyone stands in a line, waits their turn and safely gets helped onto a chair lift.  Makes sense, right? Well, in GE, everyone is crowding around the tiny little opening to get to the lift, there are ski's everywhere, people pushing, some falling over, etc. Then, rather than ride in a chair up the mountain, a man hands you a pole, with a circular piece of wood on the bottom,  that's revolving around similarly to a normal chair lift, and you quickly stick it between your legs and hold on for dear life as it drags you up the mountain! I was definitely a bit nervous and managed to only squeak out a small yelp, rather than a gut-renching scream as I struggled to maintain my balance and hold on for dear life.  But after a few times up, and after only one small fall (in which I managed to also wipe out a poor little 6 year old trying to make it up the lift as well) I'd consider myself a pro at the scary ski lift! 


The day was beautiful though, the view from the top was stunning and I loved the feeling of rushing down the mountains.  While I wished the hills would have been longer, I managed to challenge myself with some ski jumps and am proud to say I didn't fall once during the whole day!! 

Beautiful, right? 

Our evenings were spent drinking wine and playing cards, possibly belting a rendition of Elephant Love Medley with my girls and again, eating delicious food.  I really do love my life here.  I certainly can't complain!! 


As if life doesn't get any better though, the same group of us that went to Bakuriani is heading to Armenia tomorrow for a mini vacation.  We happened to have 2 national holidays (Mother's day and Women's day - yes they are holidays where kids don't have to go to school...Georgia LOVES women!!) so we're taking a couple days off of school and heading to Yerevan! We're couch surfing again and are really looking forward to staying with him! I'll be sure to post pictures when we return! Here's to a great trip!! 

Who Knew a Comedy Show in Georgian Could be so Comedic??

A couple weeks ago, the girls and I were looking to get out of Samtredia for the day, so we of course, headed over to Kutaisi.  After sitting in McDonald’s for a while trying to decide with some friends what we should do that day, we finally decided to venture over to Satoplia, a park where we can see dinosaur footprints.  Cool, right? We thought so.  Well, after making the drive full of winds and curves up the mountain, we arrived at a closed, locked gate and several guards looking at us very strangely.  We tried our hardest to convince them to let us in, but they wouldn’t have any of it.  ‘Come back April 1^st and we’ll let you in,’ was basically the advice we were given.  Ok…now what? We got back into the cabs (thank goodness they hadn’t left) and were left to walk around the center of Kutaisi, hoping to stumble into something. 

Good thing we did! After a quick tour of the brand new Kutaisi opera house (they let us backstage and everything -- and we even got to listen to an audition! The man’s voice made my heart melt, just in case you were wondering).  Anyway, after the tour, we meandered over to the theater, just to make sure we covered all the arts.  Much to our surprise, there was a comedy show, that afternoon! Well, we don’t understand Georgian, but it’s supposed to be a comedy show, so it’ll be funny, right? Again, we thought so. We bought tickets and went off in search of snacks (because who goes to a comedy show without snacks??)

Once the show began, we realized which comedy show we were actually seeing.  We were watching a live version of the cast of the late night famous Georgian comedy crew that plays in our host family’s homes nightly.  I recognized all of the cast members from their tv show.  Imagine getting tickets to the Jay Leno show, without realizing that it was the Jay Leno show.  It was quite hilarious.  The show was about 2 hours long, and while there were some definite slow parts because of the language barrier, overall, it was quite entertaining (well, we were reallllllly bored, so my opinion might be a bit skewed).  They sang a lot of American pop songs, with a Georgian flair, of course, danced a bit and put on several skits. 

I think the best part was being able to come home and tell Cici where I ended up that afternoon and see the look on her face.  It was like telling an American 16 year old I had just been to see Justin Bieber’s concert.  The next day, we happened to turn on the tv and the crew was on there performing a taped version of the exact same show I saw the day before.  I opted not to watch it for a second time, but enjoyed being able to assure Cici, that yes, this was the exact show I saw yesterday.  No, Amico didn’t sing Single Ladies, but he sang Shakira!

Oh, Georgia, how I love thee.  

Have I really reached the point where I’m frustrated, not elated by snow days??? I think so…

Pretty tree :)

Well, it’s officially winter in Samtredia now.  We managed to last until February 1 without a single snowflake, but now this snow/rain mix they call tovli here, is ever present in our little town.  Like always, I was extremely excited on the first day of snow.  I woke up and felt giddy as I looked out the window (and then really relieved when I heard that Mishiko came home to drive us to school).  The kids were marveling at the snow all day long so we scrapped all lesson plans and just talked about the snow and fun things to do in it (hey, it was all in English, so it counts, right??).  We even got out early and then I had the wettest, coldest snowball fight I’ve ever had with a bunch of my 8^th grade boys…all the way home.  However, that excitement has quickly (considering it’s only the 16^th) dwindled to pure annoyance. Snow seems to cause this town to come to a complete standstill.  Kids have just stopped coming to school! “It’s too cold out,” “It’s raining/snowing/it looks like it could rain/snow,” are excuses I’ve heard from kids for the past month and as weary as I’ve become of it, I’ve begun to accept that this is how it will be until the snow dissipates.

Students outside school before the bell rings throwing snowballs up at the classroom windows.
Kids over here in Georgia are just as crazy as the kiddos in America! (if not more)

I’m telling you, American children could learn a thing or two from Georgian kids about getting out of school! Some of my older kids will all text each other in the morning and decide whether or not their going to go to school! I don’t think I’ve taught a full set of students for a full week since I got back from Israel.  Let’s just say that it’s been difficult to move forward with lessons.  It’s just frustrating because the teacher’s can’t really do anything about it.  We don’t have control over whether students show up; I accepted that a long, long time ago.  However, the kids that are showing up are getting lots of small group review sessions and help with what they actually need help with.  Plus, we’ve been able to play more games and do fun activities, like make Valentine’s Day cards for each other.  I guess there is a silver lining to every cloud. 

The view of our school yard

We’ve all had lots of extra time on our hands with so much of school being canceled.  You’d think that would have allowed for a lot of blogging, but unfortunately my power cord needed some technical attention and I was without a computer for a week or so.  Luckily, author Stieg Larsson came to the rescue and provided me with great entertainment in the form the three novel saga that follows Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest).  As Michelle pointed out to me, I think I read over 2000 pages in about 3 weeks!  They are simply addicting and I highly 

recommend them if you’re looking for a great read.  

With all this snow, I’ve learned how much I appreciate and miss central heating back in the states.  I love our wooden stove downstairs, but my bedroom is mighty cold!  I’ve learned the art of layering, the necessity of warm drinks and the fact that showering when it’s cold out is completely overrated.  On that note, I think I’ll help myself to another cup of tea.  Hope you all are staying warm, wherever you are in the world!

An Unforgettable Journey!

Hello to all those who have been following my blog! It's been quite some time since my last entry and not surprisingly, a lot has happened since December 9th! One school semester ended, another began, I wished my Georgian family farewell and then returned to welcoming arms and we held a large supra in honor of Mishiko's 49th birthday.  Most importantly though, I visited the Holy Land of Israel and Palestine and embarked on a 30 day journey backpacking through both beautiful countries, rich with history, culture and pretty amazing people.  

Tara and I eating delicious hummus and pita (a staple of our Israeli diet) in Akko

A beautiful sunset in Tel Aviv

Because I could go on and on writing about my trip, I've decided to revert back to my high school days and play a game called Top 5.  The following are my top 5 favorite (in no particular order) memories, events or places from my trip.  Enjoy!


1. CouchSurfing

Instead of paying for hostels and hotels throughout our trip, we decided to couchsurf our way through Israel and Palestine.  It ended up being the best choice we made our entire trip because of the amazing people we met.  Our first couchsurfer was particularly great because he completely opened up his home to us and after only knowing us for 3 days, offered to let us keep our large bags at his place for the month.  We obviously took him up on his offer and so Jerusalem became our home base for the month.  We went back every few days to exchange for new clothes and I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to feel like we had a home in Israel.  We had our fair share of funny stories from later couch surfers, such as the couchsurfer who wouldn’t stop talking, or the one who thought it’d be a good idea to wake us up at 6:30 am to watch the sunrise…but we also had the amazing couchsurfers who cooked us wonderful meals, gave us entire apartments to stay in, and introduced us to other amazing friends.  All in all, couchsurfing definitely made our experience unforgettable and I highly recommend it if you’re going to go backpacking in the near future, or are just looking for a way to meet new people!

Hanging out with our amazing couch surfer, Eran! 

2. Swimming in the Dead Sea and Hiking in Ein Gedi

Swimming in the Dead Sea was quite the experience.  Because there is so much salt in the sea, it’s impossible to do anything, but float on your back or stomach and try to keep your head above water! We only lasted about 20 minutes in the sea because after a while, the salt becomes quite painful and it undoubtedly gets in your eyes and mouth and feels/tastes pretty awful.  

Tara, Michelle and I floating in the Dead Sea! 

We went in unscathed, but came out looking like a group of girls that had just been attacked! Our feet were all bloody from the rocks on the shore, my nose was running because I had gotten salt up there and I was crying because my eyes burnt so much from the salt! It sounds quite terrible, but after a cold shower everything felt much better and we were able to laugh at our ridiculous selves.  We spent the rest of the day relaxing in the warm sun and taking advantage of the oasis where we were staying. 

A beautiful view of the mountains we hiked in Ein Gedi

Hiking in Ein Gedi the next day was absolutely wonderful! We walked along a path from waterfall to waterfall, took lots of pictures and oohed and ahhed at the various desert animals we saw.  Later, Tara, Michelle and I decided to trek up the mountains a bit more off the paved path.  Along the way we picked up several other loner hikers and turned into quite the eclectic group of people! We hiked for about an hour and made it to the top of a small mountain, but had to turn around and head back so that we could catch the bus back to Jerusalem on time.  It was such a beautiful hike though.

3. Walking around Old City in Jerusalem

The Old City of Jerusalem is divided into 4 quarters: the Christian Quarter, the Jewish quarter, the Armenian quarter and the Muslim quarter.  Each quarter contained its own unique history and it was so wonderful to walk around exploring the markets and sights within.  I was fortunate enough to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus was supposedly crucified and buried.  It was quite the experience that I can’t exactly put into words.  We also visited the Western Wall in the Jewish Quarter several times because it was just such a calming and soothing place to be.  Exploring the markets in each quarter was a blast and we enjoyed lots of different foods including yummy falafel and shwarma in the Muslim quarter. 

Near the entrance to Old City in Jerusalem

Standing in front of the Western Wall

4. Christmas in Bethlehem

It was quite surreal being in Bethlehem for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but it was definitely one of my favorite memories.  The town was packed with tourists from all over the world and it was just really exciting to be a part of all of it.  We attended a Christmas Eve service at a Lutheran Church that was conducted in 3 different languages, English, Arabic and German.  At one point, we were all singing Christmas hymns in our own languages, all at the same time! It was so beautiful.  We had a delicious Christmas Eve dinner at a Mexican restaurant with some friends we had met that evening.  I was fortunate enough to meet up with Trena, a friend from college, who was volunteering in Israel/Palestine for the year.  It was so great to catch up with her; plus seeing a friend from home just lovely as home definitely felt far away!

Trena and I after the candle lighting procession

Christmas Day we visited the Church of Nativity, saw (rather quickly) where his manger supposedly was, went to Saint Catherine’s Church, visited Shepherd’s field (where the shepherds saw the star in the East on Christmas morn…) and enjoyed walking around Manger Square.  We also happened to make it on National television! There was a Fox news correspondent right near the entry to the Church of Nativity and he wanted people to say Merry Christmas in their native languages! We wished everyone a Merry Christmas in Georgian!

Posing in the Church of Nativity with our new friends from the Philippines!
(they were on the news too!)

This was taken on Manger Square in Bethlehem.  Notice: balloons, a man dressed
as a bee and a mosque and palm trees in the background.  Too funny!

5. Spending time in Ramallah, Palestine and other Palestinian cities

This part of our trip was a surprise because it was not originally planned, but it was probably my favorite aspect.  Seeing firsthand what is happening between the two countries and the effects of the conflict was a lot to handle, but incredibly eye-opening.  We explored many of the larger cities in Palestine including Nablus, Hebron, Ramallah and Bethlehem.  I also attended a demonstration in the small village of Bil’in.  I can’t even begin to explain how wonderful the people in Palestine are.  I met some that I will never, ever forget.  I felt so connected to several people that I had literally met the week before, which was what made it so difficult to leave.  I’ll be the first to admit that I was not terribly informed regarding Middle Eastern politics and the Israel-Palestine Conflict itself, but after spending a month directly immersed in it, I have such a craving to know more.  While I have no idea when it is I’ll be back, I do know that I’ll be back there, someday.

A beautiful sunset in Nablus

The four of us in front of the Tomb of Patriarchs in Hebron

Spending time with our couchsurfer/amazing friend Sam!

Ok, I should stop because if I don’t now, I never will! If you have more questions, please feel free to email or comment!