Blogs from Georgia, Asia - page 29

On Thursday it starts raining and I don’t think it’s ever going to stop. It’s been a strange week with Eka going off to work every morning and me staying at home. I did my first surreptitious wash up after she’d left one morning. Levan was still asleep in the living room so I closed the door to ensure he wouldn’t hear me and sneakily washed up the dishes in the sink. I figured Levan would think that Eka did it before she went to school and when Eka came home she’s think Levan had done it. My god I’m an idiot sometimes. I like the little ways I discover what’s acceptable or what’s expected of me though. On the first day Eka was going to school without me I thought it would be rude to ... read more

I wake up to my first full day in my new home feeling apprehensive to say the least. I’m not sure what the showering situation is so I get up and get dressed as quietly as possible prepared to face my first day without a shower since I last went to festival . I also have quite a lot of washing (that’s laundry to all you Americans out there) to do but I also don’t know what the situation is there either. I know the English are notorious for not wishing to offend people but I take it to the absolute extreme. I am constantly terrified of doing something wrong. Anyway, we have breakfast and Eka tells me we’re going into Zugdidi. I’m eager to see the town but first let me tell you a little ... read more

Today is when the fun really starts. From Sunday to the following Thursday we have eight hours of classes a day, four of Georgian language and four of intercultural training. I find the language lessons both useful and entertaining but, whilst I really like our intercultural trainer and she does give us some useful information, I can’t help feeling that what she tells us in four hours could be covered in about 30 minutes. Still, our classes are made infinitely more entertaining by one of the other volunteers, who shall remain nameless, who just comes out with the funniest shit. I don’t have the time or the space to give you all the examples but my personal favourite so far came during our second language lesson during which he asked the teacher, ‘Will we be given ... read more

I’m not even sure where to begin to describe the last week, but I guess the beginning is as good a place as any. About two months ago I completed my application to teach in South Korea in February next year and realised that I didn’t want to spend the interceding six months sitting around London. I started looking around online to see if there were any short-term placements I could do (not holding out much hope since most contracts are a minimum of one year) and that’s how I came across the TLG programme. For those of you who want to look at it in detail the website gives a lot of information (www.tlg.gov.ge ) but long story short, it’s an initiative set up by the Georgian government to bring English speakers to Georgia to ... read more

Time to leave Azerbaijan and see what Georgia has to offer. Ilgar's brother in law had collected me from the bus station on arrival, but Ilgar assured me that is was an easy walk back. It was down hill, but when carrying about 20kilos of luggage, a 30-40min walk is a long way. I stumble across the bus station accidentally as the directions I was given were wrong. The next minibus to Balakan is not for an hour, and it says Zaqatala on the front. It means I get a seat anyway which is good, many people have to stand and I am too tall for these minibuses. Also means that my legs are too long too so the ride is uncomfortable whichever way I travel. Only two hours to Zaqatala, there is meant to be ... read more