living like an eskimo

hi there 2011!

so despite being away for most of the georgian winter holidays, i figured i should still put a little bit in here about the cultural significance of the many winter-related holidays here.

christmas – january 7

georgians celebrate Christmas (შობა) on January 7.  on the night before, all churches in the country begin the solemn liturgy. after the service the most interesting and entertaining part begins: festive parade alilo (a modified pronunciation of alleluia). believers and priests walk down the street with church songs, carry icons, crosses and church banners high above their heads. thus, they carry the good news about the birth of christ. all who are interested can join the procession. most members of the alilo march are children and they are given sweets by the adults; also, gifts and sweets are distributed to orphanages and asylums. The alilo carols vary across the provinces of georgia.

on christmas night, candles are lit in every georgian house. they are especially placed near the window, so that the light is visible to passers-by. this tradition is observed in memory of events of the bible, when joseph and mary sought shelter for giving birth to their son. georgian christmas has its own culinary traditions. for this holiday, georgian women bake kveri – tasty Christmas cakes.

georgian santa claus — grandfather snow

the georgian equivalent of santa claus is tovlis babua (თოვლის ბაბუა), literally meaning grandfather snow. He is traditionally portrayed with a long white beard, dressed in chokha and wearing a fur cloak called a nabadi.

2 new years

georgians celebrate new year twice due to two calendar systems. the gregorian calendar, or the western calendar, was only introduced in georgia only after sovietization — january 1. however, the georgian orthodox church has continued to celebrate holidays according to Julian calendar introduced since the fourth century — january 14.

and, as with any georgian holiday, they all come with lots of food and lots of wine. some of the foods are seasonal, but its the usual fare.

school has started back up, but i at least get a counterpart to teach with this semester. holla! things have been good splendidly too! she’s a year younger than me, has a 4 month old baby and is super great with the students. unfortunately, she won’t be attending a very important training in february because of her baby. this is an extremely vital training conference peace corps puts on once a year for volunteers and their counterparts. as i understand, we will have sessions over classroom management, using available resources, teaching to different levels and so on. but, maybe she will be able to go with me next year. hopefully, we can work something out. in the meantime, my secondary counterpart was supposed to go instead, but her health hasn’t been too good as of late so she will also be missing out (not that big of a deal; she’s already been to 4, but no harm brushing up on things). i think this semester will be a little less stressful, mostly because we have a number of conferences this semester and now i have a counterpart that can do all the georgian-speaking in class. also, i’m aware of how the school is organized and run and i have a better idea of where the students are in terms of their english skills. now margo and i can hone in and really start making some progress with these kids. having a renovated classroom with bookcases and a whiteboard would help too [click the DONATE NOW star to your right to help out]!

the inside of the school is probably 20 degrees colder than it is outside. great. today had to have been about 60 degrees out in the sun…the school, maybe 40. still no snow :[

the other day i was sitting on my bed watching the wire and i noticed my bookcase shaking. the bed also started to shake. turns out it was a 5.8 earthquake whose epicenter was about 40 km away from kutaisi (about 2 hours from me). my very first earthquake and i thought it was the wind shaking the house!

animal update: our cat has become our very own bug catcher...then she eats them. today's count: 3; appy the cow is long gone. where he is, we don't know; our pig has had her piglets. 6 healthy and pink cuties that have to stay outside. i already asked if we could bring a pig inside to keep bella company. i was met with a number of frowns and "i don't think sos"; speaking of pigs: there are a lot of pigs on my little lane that are HUGE! i'm a little scared they will rush at me and eat me much like the ones in hannibal do; one of the chickens has had more chicks. 9 at the beginning, but 3 have died; speaking of chickens: for some reason my host mom was feeding them water with minced garlic in it. what?!?;  the turkeys still get lost on occasion; i'm also starting to get the idea that bella might be a boy...don't ask me how i know that one -- officially confirmed: bella is a boy.

france was fantastic. it was great to eat a variety of food and i tried to check all my "food wants" off my list: nutella crepes, chocolate croissants, steak frite and, of course...SUSHI! mission accomplished...a few times over. food amazingness came in the form of smoked salmon, lettuce and creme fraiche on a bun at the champs-elysees christmas market. seeing my parents was definitely the best part of the entire trip (a close 2nd was seeing a  fellow georgia PCV who was also visiting paris and meeting her peace corps-mali boyfriend)! my parents and i had a great time strolling around, shopping and going to museums. the trip ended way too soon and i was definitely sad to go back to georgia. but, luckily, i was able to catch a cab to our guesthouse with another pcv and 13 hours of dawson's creek ensued. it's certainly not the typical readjustment technique, but a lot of good laughs with good friends helps a lot!

cold weather tip #1: putting hot water in a coke bottle and sleeping with it as your would a teddy bear is an efficient and earth-friendly way to stay warm at night...no central heating here. although, because my mom back in the u.s. was always very conservative with turning on the heat in the winter, i feel i have been conditioned for this sort of non-central heated environment. thanks mom! i have yet to break out the official peace corps provided sleeping bag. it's kind of unfair since my region seems to be one of the warmer ones, but it's still a little fun to compete with other PCVs. we do have space heaters, but the only time i've really used it i had to hug it to keep warm. my room is really big so it doesn't get warm very fast. oh, once i used it to dry laundry. my room smelled like soap for 2 days and the windows steamed up. apparently they're bringing in better heaters for the next group of volunteers arriving in april.

peace corps is celebrating it's 50th anniversary this year! please don't let the recent negative press about peace corps scare you (or deter you from applying). i am 100% safe and i know that if i ever have to report anything, our safety & security representative will take everything i say seriously and will act to the best of her ability. i love it here (most days) and hopefully this blog reflects that! happy 50th peace corps!

hopefully you all had a happy holiday and may your 2011 be fantastic! only a little over a year to go...time flies!

thanks for all of your support and kind comments :]