You Are My Sunshine

Today in one of my grade 2 classes that I hadn't seen for a while, a little boy named Nika stood up and started reciting "You Are My Sunshine" (did you know that that song has OTHER lyrics!? I DIDN'T!!) Well Nika knew them by heart and sang them while looking me in the eyes.  It was honestly the cutest and sweetest thing to watch him.  I never ever want to forget that moment.  

 

This week has been a tough one with all the running around I have been doing.  We have "Foreign Languages Week" happening at my school whereby teachers hold open lessons. What is an open lesson you ask? Well it is the dumbest thing in the world.  Basically a teacher picks one of her "good" classes and invites other teachers, the parents, the vice principal and principal to watch the class while "teaching". The thing is, it is ALL fake-- and everyone involved knows it.  It's a fake lesson in that the kids are trained for about a week or so as to what to expect.  So all the material, activities and who says what, where and when had already been predetermined AND rehearsed.  Since I am queen of resources I have 4 different teachers asking me to make certain types of flashcards, posters, banners, find these types of videos, find those songs, make this kind of PP presentation all of course LAST MINUTE.  Don't get me wrong though, I love doing this stuff but a. not so last minute and b. not the same week as I am working on teachers college applications.  OISE OFFICIALLY SUBMITTED :) 

Which brings me back to why I am writing this-- Nika totally made me forget all my own issues with the way he sang my favourite song to me with his cute little face and those eyes that melted my heart. 

(Nika my little ball of sunshine)

(For anyone that is interested the other lyrics are here)

The other night dear, as I lay sleeping

I dreamed I held you in my arms
But when I awoke, dear, I was mistaken
So I hung my head and I cried.
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are gray
You'll never know dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K480BTMTpvo&feature=related

sakhlshi gogos

Friday after school, I spent the afternoon trying to sleep. TRYING being the key term.  If it wasn’t people calling me, it was text messages making my phone go off every 20 minutes.  I felt like I was back in Toronto—not in a good way. Why I didn’t just turn it off you ask—what if someone was getting killed is my question to you. YOU EVER THINK OF THAT?! So after about 2 hours of struggling to sleep and getting more and more angry at my phone I decided it was time to get up, get ready and head to Tbilisi to hang out with a friend I hadn’t seen in a few weeks. Once I am in Tbilisi it takes us (I kid you not) 30 minutes to find each other since I do not know how to describe my whereabouts on the phone—apparently, “I’m standing next to the massive concrete asteroid hole that is covered by metal” wasn’t clear enough.  We then enjoy some food, wine and a cup of tea.

Saturday KUTAISI day! I get to see Erica and Clare with my main goooogoooo Eva.  We get to the station around 11ish and off we go on a lovely marsh to Kutaisi around noon.  The ride was relatively pleasant.  I got to take a nap while our driver blared a mix between Georgian music and possibly a variety show he had taped 20 years ago.  We get to Kutaisi around 4ish to find home girls (sakhlshi gogos) hanging out at Mcdonalds (one of the only interesting local attractions), hung over and about 3 minutes… HA… away from death.  We run into some other TLGers who are so quiet that I am sure they had developed an intricate code of blinks to communicate.  “What do they talk about AIR?” We get to see the lovely Katherine and Lora, hang out for 5 minutes and go off to find Giorgi’s Homestay.  Once there we get comfortable, we swap some stories about how Erica is a cock blocker and other entertaining events.

(my thumb looks like a penis)

“I don’t know how or why you put up with her; I would literally just fart AT her.  I do it to guests at the restaurant when I want them to leave.  If you are ever eating out and smell something weird, its most likely that the servers do not like you.”  During this time we hear very odd noises outside that turn out to be aliens prepping our room for an invasion. We get ready and go out to dinner.  Dinner was great as we found ourselves at a random restaurant with live music but no singing until an old man was opera-ing later on. They had some chicken salad that was out of this world.  Luckily, we were almost done eating by the time Georgian Andrea Bocelli came on. 

(If IKEA made furniture out of rocks)

(dancing partner)

 We head back to the homestay as we know we have a long day ahead of us as we were planning to check out these super cool caves and dinosaur footprints in Satapila (about 7km away).

Sunday we wake up to hear the most intense rain ever. Bye bye, dinasour footprints L I aint walking around in the rain looking like some rejected frog.  So we slowly, but surely get up head back to the same restaurant from the previous night for the chicken salad.  We then hop on the #1 bus which takes us back to McDonalds (which also happens to be the marsh station).  The ride to Tbilisi was just leaving so we quickly say our goodbye and hop on a huge double decker tour bus.  Eva and I get on, and of course I fall asleep like I always do. I wake up to the feeling that I am sliding so I sit up and notice that my seat is LITERALLY not attached to the bus—so if I was let’s say a chicken, I could lay an egg and it would just fall down into *hopefully* a soft pillow waiting on the floor.  I then move seats to sit right next to Eva... and during one of the tour bus stops a man sits RIGHT next to me even though there was an empty spot next to him. For the following 2 hours I had to endure his elbow in my side, my hands by my "butt thigh" and finally him using my thigh as an arm rest.  Initially I was annoyed and kept moving away.  It would seem like he got the point until he would change his touching tactics.  By the end, Eva and I were literally in hysterics laughing at how ridiculous he was. After almost 6 hours on this brutal bus we finally get to Tbilisi and hopped on a marsh back to Rustavi amazed that we got nothing accomplished other then getting felt up by a man that was half bird.

All Hallows Eve

Halloween weekend in Tbilisi really was not as fun as I had expected.  I hate building things up in my mind and then being let down—that probably explains why I have such low expectations. Anyway, I dressed up as Mr. Jolly—a character from the first English World Book (the shitty book we use to teach).  Best Costume Ever! But when Halloween isn’t an event or even holiday in Georgia, you look mighty crazy walking around with baby powder in your hair and eyebrows in the middle of a Saturday night while everyone else is in fashion-ista gear. 

Friday, Duncan and I took the marsh into Tbilisi together, got to Big Star hostel and chilled for a little bit with his lady love and some other chick that is RATHER bland.  Next thing I know I am in the room with bland-o for what seemed like eternity and I realize that these fools “left me in the room to DIE”. I find the love birds and invite myself along to their date but decide not to be a cock blocker for too long and go chill with the rugby crew.

(Not a wig, its a hat. A hat that I MUST have)

Saturday I got to sleep in until 2—it felt like heaven! I got up, hung out then went to a late lunch / early dinner with Nikhil (a friend I met in training).  We swap Georgia stories and polish off a bottle of delicious semi-sweet red wine. I then head back to the hostel to get ready for what I thought was going to be an EPIC night. As I am getting ready, I start to meet new TLGers which is always interesting as you never know what you are going to get.  I am really interested to meet the people that DID NOT qualify to teach in Georgia because there seem to be PLENTY of “all-star” characters in the mix.  BOOGLES THE MIND.   There is a mini pre-party at the hostel and I get to meet my internet “arch nemesis”.  This dude is from Welsh and as loonie as they come.  *pause* Is welsh the country or is welsh what you are when you come from Welshland? Anyway, after a few beers, I tell him that I think he is crazy as fuck but that we should get over our rivalry—as long as he tones down the “I’m a proud Welsh person bullshit”.  By this time, the majority of the people that were at the pre-party left to go elsewhere; I am secretly happy as I was in no mood to spend my night with them.  ISSUE! Once we are ready to go, we have lost the ENTIRE crowd which means we are going from place to place, checking things out LOOKING LIKE A SMALL PACK OF LUNATICS—with masks on and baby powdered ass hair.  We slowly but surely, give up and head over to my favourite hooka bar. Yes friends, the one with the tattooed arm boy. LOVE HIM.  By this point, I order a beer, slowly sip it but I feel SOOOOOOOOO SICK. Time to call it a night!

 

(this is my only picture of the night!)

What’s a weekend in Tbilisi without a RUGBY GAME; so on Sunday, I went to see one. BORING. I spent the entire time texting and calling people.  Later, Duncan and I thought it would be a good idea to spend the night in Tbilisi and just go to school straight in the morning. BAD IDEA. I could not wake him up for the life of me, so I then left him… TO DIE… in Tbilisi and slowly but surely made my way back to the RU just in time for school.

Monday night then rolls around and I think I am going to have a nice, relaxing quiet night in. WRONG. I get some dates mixed up and realize that Kathryn (the chick that I switched spots with back in training) is flying back into Tbilisi TONIGHT.  Her grandpa had passed away 2 weeks back so she had left urgently to attend the funeral.  I did not want her coming back into Georgia with no familiar face at the airport.  So BACK I went to Tbilisi. I met up with Lora, another friend who was there to greet her and hung out at Friends Hostel until her 4am flight came in.  It was so nice seeing her! She was so surprised! We headed over to our favourite place and enjoyed some wine at 5:30 in the morning.  I got to see an awesome sunrise on my marsh ride home.  Good times in Georgia!