It's been a sad two weeks.

I had to attend yet another funeral on Saturday the 25^th of February. I went early with Aniko and Salome. We ate some food and then Salome and I went into the living room to collect money. She wrote down the names and a cousin took the money and put it in a bag. It appears that everyone who comes to the funeral gives money to the family. I imagine the family uses it to cover the expenses of having to feed 200 people and the cost of the casket and paying someone to dig the hole and all other funeral costs. Lots of loud crying but I expected that. The whole family was here, all of Aniko’s 4 daughters and their husbands and children. After the funeral and the eating our house was very busy. 15 people will do that to a small living room. We stayed up late doing nothing really. I tried to draw portraits of my “sisters” but only one of them turned out well. It was very entertaining for everyone.  I guess I just don’t think about drawing as that interesting for others while the work is in progress. It’s just something I do. We went to bed late and I was woken up by children’s voices. It wasn’t exceptionally early I’m just used to waking up to a very quiet house so the noise confused me. We all sat around had breakfast and eventually made our way outside because the weather was nice. We had an unexpected visitor in the form of a baby cow that made his way up to the house to say hello. Then he walked into the house. That was actually a lot of fun to watch. Poor thing had the pee scared out of him. Shortly after the cow adventures everyone headed home but not before I got a picture of my family.

Baby cow in the house

Family photo. My host mom is the one in the back.

I slept very well that night. School was pretty normal for the week. I can’t really think of anything too exciting that happened. On Friday the 2^nd Kenneth and I made our way to Tbilisi. We left from his house. His host grandma, Roza, was very sick and I didn’t know if she would still be around when we got back. It was pretty emotional having to say goodbye to her. We arrived in Tbilisi pretty late that night and found our hostel. The next morning we met up with our friends and headed to Gori, the hometown of Stalin. Our objective for the day was to visit the Stalin museum. We spent two unintended hours in the slowest restaurant in Georgia and that is saying something, because in Georgia everything comes out of the kitchen when it is ready to eat. Not all at the same time. After that we went to the museum. We looked at pictures from before he was famous and many from after. We got a nice history lesson and saw the house where he grew up. We saw his death mask and his portrait. I learned that he had children and his daughter was living in the New York and died last year. After the museum we walked to the Gori Fortress to get a view of the city. There isn’t really much to see and the city isn’t that pretty. We eventually headed back to Tbilisi.

Stalin

Don't you want a Stalin floor rug?

Stalin's death mask. Kind of creepy.

Gori's Fortress

 One of the people we met up with knew of a really good India restaurant near the medical university. So we went on an adventure to go find it. It was delicious. It was so nice to have food that actually tasted different for a change. I’m not usually a big fan of Indian food but having new flavors for the first time in two months was so exciting. It was also cheap and run by an Indian family. We decided they must market directly to the medical university students. From dinner Kenneth and I went to Clement and Laura’s apartment (our French friends). It was Laura’s birthday and the plan was to hang out for a while and then go out clubbing. Their neighbor and some of her friends also came. It was a very international group. The neighbor and her friends all spoke Russian to each other (Georgian was their second language), English to us, Clement and Laura spoke French to each other. It was enough language to make my head spin but my heart was so happy to hear it all in one place.  We did go out clubbing and we were out pretty late and I had a lot of fun. I was so tired but it was worth it.

Sunday morning we woke up and again met with our friends. We went shopping at the dry bridge. You can find all sorts of antiques and artsy things down there. I bought a ring that might or might not have been made from ivory. The lady who sold it to me said it was and I don’t know any different so it might as well be. Kenneth bought an awesome fur hat. I don’t have a picture of him in it yet but I hope to get one soon. We finished shopping and then headed home. We had lunch at the window cafes at the bus station and left. It was a fun weekend.

The weather was pretty bad on Monday. It snowed and rained and the wind blew and then the sun would shine and then it would hail. The weather was nuts. Aniko told me that March has crazy weather. We didn’t have English club so I just went home to warm up by the fire. I got a text on Tuesday morning from Kenneth saying that his host grandmother had passed. I cried for a bit and then went to tell Aniko. She told me to just go back to bed for a while and then come to her work and we would go to together to pay our condolences at the wake. Aniko left her work before I got there but I went anyways on my own. The men were in the yard so I greeted Kenneth’s host father, Mamuka, and brother, Erekle, first. Then I made my way upstairs. Mamuka’s sister was first in the receiving line, then Kenneth’s host mom, Lali, then his sister, Ana. I couldn’t help but cry when I saw them all sitting there. Roza was a sweet little old lady who always said hello to me whenever I came over. I sat in the room for quite a while. Everyone else who was there was surprised that I was crying but if you know me then you know I wouldn’t have been able to not cry. I’m going to miss her a lot. I was at the house for a while, mostly I was waiting for Kenneth to get home. After school he went on a errand with one of the cousins. The rest of my week was pretty blah. The funeral was on Saturday.

When I woke up on Saturday it was snowing. I bummed around, took a while to get dressed and eventually Aniko and I left together to go to the funeral. We ended up joining a group of neighbors on the way their. We all went upstairs, paid our respects to the family and then went back downstairs, because of the bad weather many people did not stay to walk to the cemetery or to eat.  Around 4PM they brought the body downstairs and we walked to the cemetery. It wasn’t terribly far but the road there was very muddy because of the rain. The family said their goodbyes and then we left. We got back to the house and the guests were invited to come and eat. I sat with Kenneth and his host sister and some cousins of the family. It was a lot of fun. I was there very late and by the time I was ready to go home it was dark and everyone who could have driven me had a lot to drink. So I slept on the couch at Kenneth’s house.  I woke the next morning, had breakfast with the family and I left about the time the neighbors showed up to take down the tent and tables that were set up for eating. Yet again I was very tired after a long weekend but it was fulfilling in so many ways.

The weather on Monday was very unfriendly. It was very windy and cold. Because of the strong wind we didn’t light the stoves at school. If we had we would have all been suffocated by smoke. I was quite cold by the time I left school. I went to the kindergarten to warm up for a bit then I walked to Kenneth’s school for English club. We only had four boys and we did a lesson on clothing. We made them talk about it and then we made them come to the board and draw a person with clothing on and then talk about what that person was wearing. It became very apparent to me that they don’t often get a chance to express their artistic side.

I spent my Tuesday doing just some random things. I started to file my taxes for 2011, I researched things to do in Rome, and I filled out the FAFSA. I’ve decided that I’m probably going to grad school for my Master’s in teaching English as a second language starting next January so I might need some financial assistance to do that. It’s too late to apply for Fall for a lot of programs so I will have to wait but there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m excited about this next step in my life. Nothing is set in stone yet but I like the way my future is looking.

Wednesday was pretty average. My third graders impressed me and my fifth graders annoyed me. I found out a package was waiting for me in Lanchkhuti so today I went to the big city to pick it up. I’m excited. If any of you want to send me a letter or a package just let me know and I’ll give you my address. I hope all is well wherever you are.