Tim in Georgia

This is a blog to chronicle my experiences in the Republic of Georgia as a Peace Corps TEFL volunteer. *The views expressed herein are mine and are not necessarily those of the Peace Corps or the US Government.*

19 November 2006

Vaime Kartvlis Deda!

I am standing on a road leading up to the Kartvlis Deda (Mother Georgia) statue in Tbilisi.


This is the most beautiful place I have seen in Georgia, which is at the top of the mountain on which most of my town sits. When you climb the mountain and look away from the sea, you see the view above (the white specs are houses). However, when you turn around, you see my town and the Black Sea, which is pictured below.

The internet is being slow here at the office, but I will hopefully add more later this week from Batumi.

Tim


15 November 2006

Funky Weather

I'm a pretty sound sleeper. The earthquake a few years ago woke me up from my evening siesta, but other than that, the weather doesn't disturb my slumber. Until this past week. The weather has woken me up. Twice. The first time I was woken up by golf ball sized hail pelting against my window. Compoundingly, the window is not as thick as the slot for which it is intended, so in addition to having hail pounding against the window, the window rattles against the wall. Very loud. But, the windows defied my expectations and did not break.

The second time was much more interesting. My room has three doors - one to the outside, one to this rickety balcony that I am afraid of and never use, and one that connects to a common room. I generally close all of the doors when I am sleeping - not because the house is loud or anything, but to keep the weather out. But on Monday night, the weather invaded. It was raining (like it always seems to) when I went to sleep. There was also a strong wind, but nothing (yet) out of the ordinary. But, around 2am, the wind OPENED MY DOOR! Yes, that is the correct verb. The wind opened my door. Much nature came inside - leaves, fruit, dirt, my laundry that I hung from the railing and forgot to bring in. So that was really strange. I crawled out of my really really warm sleeping bag and shut the door. I made sure that I shut the door really well. And then it happened again. I don't really understand it. I can mildly comprehend differences in barometric pressure inside and outside my room causing my door to splinter or something, but to just open the door and not break it? Strange.

In other weather news, winter has rudely imposed itself on Gonio. We have the pechi out now, which heats the kitchen and the living room. The rest of the house is not heated. The kitchen is very small, so the six of us are all living in one room. It's not so bad so far. But, the power has been out since Monday night (it's Wedensday afternoon/evening now). On the bright side, I am curently en route (yah, the internet cafe is en route) to a conference in Tbilisi and I won't be home until Monday morning, so hopefully it will be back by then.

Who won the world series? And send me some articles about the election results, the internet is too slow for me to read what I want online (through email it works much quicker, though). Maybe another update soon, who knows.


Tim