I took the morning marshrutka to Batumi today to do one final search for chalkboards instead of whiteboards. Cajun and Kanise joined me there and showed me the market called Hoppa….and yes indeed: We found chalkboards! I ordered them from Emzari, the owner, who said they’d be there tomorrow. So we all went to meet [...]

Toma had to miss school the past two days because he had to help Nino and Medico and a bunch of the neighbors pick the mandarins off the trees on their land. I came home to find the garage packed full of them. I’ve never seen so much fruit in one place before – and [...]

So…when I did finally arrive home…there was no electricity…and there hadn’t been for the past 4 days….. Excuse me, What? In the end we didn’t have electricity for 8 days total. This means no showers, everything in the fridge had to be thrown away, and all my electronics died. Not the end of the world [...]

Well after a fun-filled weekend in T’bilisi one would usually head home but because I had a few extra days off of school I decided to head to Gori to visit some friends. Gori is known as the city Stalin came from, and no matter how you may feel about this historical man, Gorians are [...]

Thanksgiving coincidentally coincides with a holiday here in Georgia called St. George’s Day.  So that means we all got Friday off work! I left Thursday after class and started walking towards Ureki when Kanise and I finally caught a ride down the tropical mountain. We hailed a T’bilisi marshrutka and were on our way by [...]

This weekend was filled with more fun-packed-bar-hopping-adventures with the crew in T’bilisi….durning the days, I ate another real pizza (yummy), I took a bubble bath (oooh, aaah), and I even watched movies with popcorn (wow – no way). Yes, I’d say it was a Very-Western-Weekend with all the amenities, electricity and wifi one could ask [...]

Note to self: Never accept a ride to town with the host family ever again. I guess a more accurate “Note to Self” would be this: Have no expectations whenever I do accept a ride to town by the host family. I say this after four failed trips to town over the past few months. [...]

Step 1: Pack a full bag of dirty laundry and start walking in the rain after work to hopefully catch a marshrutka (mini bus) to the city. Step 2: Remain optimistic because a car will probably pick you up and drive you all the way to the stop. (Shroma rules.) Step 3: Spend 7.5 hours [...]

Here’s another reason to love chemi dzma. Apparently pulling pranks on grandparents is international. Hehehehe. Toma, you rule.