October in a Nutshell

The weeks just keep flying by and I can't believe that it's already November! With how eventful October was, I can only imagine what these last months are going to be like. Although with the weather starting to cool down, I'm thinking that turning into a hermit and camping out in front of the fireplace will be in my near future. Sorry this will probs be a novel seeing as I haven't done anything with my life blogwise for the past couple weeks.

The Birthday girl, Lizico!

A few weekends ago, Carly and I decided to stay in the village for the weekend since we had been leaving our host fams every weekend for over a month. We stayed at her house the first night and went to a seven year old's birthday dinner where we all toasted (including the 7yr old) with black current vodka and overloaded on kachapuri until I thought we were going to die. The next day Carly and I went to Kutaisi to try and get some wifi in our lives and get updated on what's been going on in the world.We initially planned on just taking the marshuk'ta but while we were waiting at the stop some guy pulled up in a truck saying he was heading that way and would just take us for free so we figured we'd give it a shot. Big mistake. We ended up going on work visits and errands with him for a few hours and just sat in his truck while he unloaded poles, dropped off bills, and chatted with neighbors. Then he put me on the phone with his Spanish speaking friend and I had to try and explain in Spanulish (Spanish/Qartuli/English) that we actually did not have time to go to the supra where the guy was en route to and eat kinkhali. We ended up making it to Kutaisi after the long and unnecessary, yet free, excursion but only had about thirty minutes on the internet before our marshuk'ta home left. We're supposed to write weekly reports to turn in at the end of the month to our organization regarding our school and classes but I'm not exactly sure how they expect that. The only source of internet is over an hour away and with the elections and everything going on, the last thing I really want to do is teaching stuff. So in true Jenna style, I wrote all my weekly reports this past weekend in about the 15 minute time span I had between my marshuk'ta transfers :) But after we got a little clued in on what's going on in the world, we headed back to my village to spend the night with my host fam. We walked into a supra at my house and got to drink with my host mom's extended family for the night so that was pretty great. We've started playing a game involving seeing who can say various obscenities in public the loudest to pass the time or to make heinous toasts at dinner seeing as no one has any idea what we're saying anyways and we don't have the slightest idea of what's going on around us.
 The next weekend I ended up going with my 11th graders on their school excursion and I'm not sure why their idea of a school excursion hasn't spread worldwide. Essentially we rented out a marshuk'ta for the day and went to a nearby city where we went to a few gorgeous churches, the Promenthius Cave with my friends Rob and Jamie, and to an amusement park. We stopped to eat and drink wine a few times, and after drinking with a 7yr old the week before, I didn't really feel awkward in the slightest drinking with my 14yr old students. The parents supplied all the food and the wine for the day and there were about 4 of us teachers that went and the students paid for everything. The kids had a great time showing me around, wrapping skirts around me whenever we went to a church and helping me cover my head with scarves. In one church, it was customary to crawl under an altar, climb up the stairs to a shrine, make the sign of the cross, and kiss the shrine three times, then repeat the whole process again three times. As if I didn't already stick out like a sore thumb, I forgot that they make the sign of the cross the other way here which all the students and teachers got a big kick out of.
 The following weekend I ended up going to Azerbaijan for a jazz festival that Rob saw on TV the week before, which was a whole experience in itself. Long story short, I had an amazing time and more pictures from that are sure to come! After that trip, I've concluded that Rob and I might actually be the luckiest people alive given how smoothly the trip went considering we literally just packed a bag the night before and rocked up at the Azerbaijan Embassy in Batumi with a couple beers the day before we wanted to leave. Awesome, awesome, awesome.


 The whole Azerbaijan trip turned into me taking quite a few days off school which the school was pretty cool about.I ended up starting my English Club the week I got back in order to put in a few extra hours and opted out of traveling the next weekend to spend some time with the fam. I opened up the English Club to my two favorite classes to start with and every single kid showed up after school, along with some random lady and her 4yr old grandson who she wants me to start teaching English to.. even though he can't talk yet..bizarre. But she brought chuchella for me and the kids so that was pretty awesome. But English Club has been a big hit so I'm really excited about that. I basically put on some of my music and help them with their homework and then we just play games for the last part. Bringing the game 'Uno' was quite possibly the best decision I've ever made hands down and the kids and my host fam loooove it. I think I seriously play about 3 hours of Uno a week. But the weekend I spent with the fam went really well even though I had to break it to them that I wouldn't be extending my contract to stay the extra 6 months. Gia said he was just going to kidnap me, and Irma is still trying to convince me to come back but I'm just ready for whatevers next. Even though I have absolutely no idea what that is... such is life.

  Carly and I are making 'tacos' for the host fam tomorrow since they really wanted me to cook for them. They already eat pizza, there's no access to meat unless I want to slaughter and clean a chicken, so tacos seemed like the best option considering the resources. We're planning on making our own tortillas which should be great fun seeing as neither of us know what we're doing, but at least if we screw it up they'll never know! I went with Irma to the market this past Sunday morning at 6am to go get some fresh produce for the tacos and to help her sell her cheese. The stars were still out in full force and absolutely breathtaking from our mountaintop view, but it was still 6am and I was surrounded by angry women trying to sell cheese. Not the most ideal circumstance but it was definitely a lot of fun and quite the experience. All the women on our 'street' pile into a 'taxi' (aka van with a wooden bench in the back) with the goods they're going to sell and just pile all the stuff they buy into the taxi throughout the morning to take back to the village. Everything's sold from the trunks of cars or a blanket on the ground and all I could think of is how my vegetarian friend, Rhea, would die if she
saw some guy pulling live baby pigs out of the trunk of his car by a hind leg to sell/butcher. Only in Georgia..

Wedding at the Bagrati Iglesia in Kutaisi

  I was pretty wiped after waking up that early but there was no way I could turn down Gia's offer to go mushroom hunting with him the following morning at no other than 6am. First of all, I hate mushrooms. Absolutely despise. I've convinced a great number of people that I'm deathly allergic to mushrooms just so I can avoid them at all costs. I tried to politely explain that I hate mushrooms to my host fam but I don't think they got the extent of it. But nonetheless, I have been dyyyying to go hiking in the mountains here and this was finally my opportunity so I jumped on it. We couldn't see anything for the first hour as it was pitch black and we didn't really find very many mushrooms but I think Gia picked up that I'm not a very strong asset. I was busy looking up and around me the whole time as opposed to trying to spot the red mushrooms that could barely be seen hiding under the brush. But Gia I think got a kick out of having me around so it was great fun. While I was at school, my host mom cooked them up and all but force fed me, and I will admit that they weren't that bad but I think I'll still stick with the 'allergic' route when I come back home.

Me and my 11th graders

 In other news, I think Kevin is coming to visit me which has been another great topic of discussion with all the neighbors. I know enough Georgian to know when they're talking about me and the gist of what they're saying so I guess having them talk about how Kev is coming to visit is better than the usual convo about how I don't wear/match my socks or how I refuse to dry my underwear on the clothesline in plain sight of everyone in a five mile radius. I'm kind of curious to see how the fam reacts to having him around as I can't quite gauge what they make of us. For awhile I know they thought we were getting married when I got back to America, and then they caught on that he was just my boyfriend, but they still tell people I'm engaged. But I kinda think that's just so people will stop trying to set me up with their sons or give the look of disapprovement when they find out I'm not married and don't intend to be for the next 27 years.