When it rains...

Or, in this case, when it SNOWS.  SURPRISE!!!!!11!!11ELEVENTY.  Happy St. Joseph's Day.


Yep.  This morning I woke up to a fresh coat of snow lining the track to the bathroom.  I do the familiar all-purpose-question-hand-gesture to host g-ma.  "Vigundaot?" she responds, making a snowball and pretending to toss it at me. (So, a language that can express "let's have a snowball fight" in one word can't be ALL that bad, right?)  However, it was all melty by the time I got off school.


I headed to Kwareli today with my counterpart to observe the computer trainings that some teachers from our school are taking (that my host mom skipped out on today).  They were doing stuff on an interesting website, lemill.net--it's got some interesting links for sharing resources.  If every teacher here lesson planned and shared their lesson plans on there, the education system would be much improved.  But pooling resources doesn't seem to be The Way with teaching.  Money and food and most things, yes.  Hm.


And, the computer trainings might be more fruitful if the teachers grasped basic concepts like select, cut, and paste, more concretely before trying to post their lesson plans on this site.  At least I have an idea of how much work my potential tech training in the village is going to be.  Too bad all they want is a CERTIFICATE, hell if they actually know how to tell the difference between my documents and microsoft word.  *sigh*
Maybe I'll just spend some time on GIMP and make my own.  You're Pahoola Shmidi certified!!!^©


Anyway, take it from me, you've never lived until you've pregamed a violet-picking-hike with three shots of chacha.




მომავლის მიზნები:
grad school?
thus, GRE?
(aka, work on figuring out what the heck to do with myself when this gig's up)
get muscles back
install kubuntu with working internet by the end of the weekend
catch up on the various PC stuff I should probably do...
work on being a little less intense/less of a wet blanket on my own party
start up work on Georgian again
learn some Russian while I'm here
be more attentive to people not in my immediate surroundings that I care about, PCVs and friends back home included
bake some babovka tomorrow (if there's milk...) for late st. j. day. celebray.

Mokle List.

The Sucky:

• Rainy weather makes our water yellow.  Good thing we have those handy-dandy PC issued filters!
• Rainy weather also makes for less-than-ideal trips to the toilet in the middle of the night in a path that falls right underneath the edge of the roof and ends in a mud patch.
• Rainy weather also makes me want to feel sorry for myself, (more than usual).
• 2 Georgians now have said my Georgian isn't good enough.  Also, apothecary lady when I went to get Mono cards for Internet told me I need to start an English club so her son can go, and proceeded to yell at him for not studying before I could escape.
• Trying to reassure my counterpart she's not a bad mom because she works hard and doesn't have a lot of time for her son.  She is the bomb.  And I don't mean the ones brought to mind by a certain TV station who cried "war with Russia."

The Good:

• My host mom, telling me my Georgian is understandable and that I don't need to work on it because I won't need it after I leave.  Which will be a good and bad time for me, and not really a good time at all for the fam because I'm not annoying.
• Hair cuts that make me feel cute.  All for the low low price of conversation and a gift of tights given to me for women's day by my secondary counterpart (the one who worked with "Lizzy" from Montana [read:not too keen on the newcomer who is notlyssa]), size large (for people 60-80 kilos, or something ridiculous like that).
• A new ring, that I don't need.  Georgian people don't understand the concept of "I want it, but I don't need it."  Thus, when the ring lady comes a knockin', Cara and I yield to temptation to buy ourselves the first things we've bought ourselves in a long time.
• Successful journey to Tsinandali, complete with marshutka "layover" in the middle of nowhere.  Woot!
• Nettles are delicious vittles.  Cluny the Scourge adds his seal of approval.
• Also, a neighbor gave me a pear when I was walking home the other day.  Because he could.  It was delicious.
• Today, I used the fam's old Singer and a pair of the host bro's old jeans and reconstructed the awesome denim skirt that I burned a hole in the butt in out of distractedness (and putting it on a heater to dry.  Oops.).  SEW GOOD!

The Usual in Georgia:

• Breaking resolutions to train for the 2016 Notrunning Team.  My left leg HURTS LIKE AN EMPTY BOX OF CHOCOLATES.
• Study time with host fam consists of a lot of impatience on the part of the kids with the cousin, who learns at a slower pace than they do.  But the host bro reprimanded the sis for laughing, keeping things back on track.  *proud of subtle signs of maturity*

And, it's probably about time I explained my blog's name.  The guys in the family are known as "Kwavebi" = "ravens" or "crows" (not sure), because they're dark skinned with raven hair.  My official last name, as host unc informs me, is Schmid-Mosulishvili.  Thus, I'm a Kwavi, too.  One with significantly different plumage than the rest of the family.  (Tetri = white.)  Tetri Kwavi.

Video blogs for your viewing pleasure!

I promise, I'll actually tell you about things going on with my life when I have some time.  Maybe tomorrow after school.

For now, enjoy these videos I finally got uploaded.

The Georgian Homestead
Ra lamazia! (How beautiful!)