Teacher woman

Well I've had my classes now Thursday, Friday and this morning, and so far it hasn't been a disaster. Still feeling a bit out of my depth ("like 90% of working people", apparently!), but I can at least explain the simpler things. Now I've also got a group of people who are pretty good, and I'm a little unsure where to start with them. The students (of all the groups) are a mix of local government employees, people working for local NGOs and media, young girls as well as older women from collective centres and some women from Abkhazia, who have to cross the border every time to attend class (and who will therefore have a very sporadic attendance - it's not always safe for them to cross). Right now I'm pretty tired, and that's probably why I'm feeling somewhat deflated. I'll just have to learn along with the students. In Georgian they don't have the "f"-sound, by the way. "Fish" becomes "pish". It's pretty cute.

Just came from another local performance of traditional Georgian dancing (check it out here - these are the professionals). The age range at the performance I went to was something between 6 and 18 - we were invited by a neighbour boy who we met the other night while he and his friends were dancing down the street - and I think it's really nice how popular this is among younger people here. S. asked me about folk dance in Sweden, and the only people in the few Youtube videos I found were around 50 or so and not terribly professional. Compare with the clip I just linked to.

Anyway, punctuality is not such a big deal with events here. So far I've seen two dance performances and one play (all in Georgian of course, but thanks to translation of the important plot points and a reasonably straightforward story line I managed to follow it quite well - Host and Guest, the name of the playwright escapes me now but he's one of the biggest in Georgia) and none of the performances have started on time. Delays ranged from one to two and a half hours... And this for reasonably official functions. Same with meetings I've been to at other organisations (admittedly not so many yet): but at least the meetings are usually just delayed by 30 minutes. I'm not exactly a model of punctuality myself, so perhaps these delays just bring out the small time nazi hiding deep within me and that's why I complain. Next time I, too, will be half an hour late (two hours if it's a performance) and things shall run much more smoothly for all concerned!

Will try to catch some football now. So far, I've only managed to see one game (Germany-Australia) and that was on the big screen in the park. The reception at home of the channel that broadcasts it live on TV is too bad, so much white noise that you can't see the ball so it makes watching pretty pointless. The park is really nice, but only shows the evening games and since they finish past midnight here, it's not really convenient when I have to get up early most mornings. But the screen in the park probably has the best location of all World Cup screens - mounted on an old pretty building with the Dadiani palace in the background and the sound of the fountain nearby, which is usually drowned out by the speakers. Here, all speakers go up to 11, regardless of if it's necessary or not. Now I understand my initial sleepless-in-Tbilisi experience much better - it's not that the guys wanted to play loud music at 4am, they just wanted to play music and played it at the only volume that exists!

Am I complaining too much? I really do like it here - the food is great, the people are usually incredibly friendly and hospitable and will go out of their way to take care of their guests. It seems the Georgians really pride themselves on their hospitality, and it's very important to be a good and generous host. In fact, when with me S. can usually go places where they wouldn't normally let her in, because when people realise I'm a foreigner an exception can always be made - I really have to see everything that Georgia has to offer, and they certainly won't stand in the way of that!

The nature is fantastic, and I like this quiet little town with the shady boulevard and the beautiful, wild park right in the centre. I only find myself wishing I'd brought my running clothes so I could shock the Georgians by going for a run in the park in the mornings. I've only seen two joggers here since I came - most people don't get the point of running in the park. The park's for strolling, meeting people and riding one's bike (another thing - nobody uses their bike to actually get to places here, only for fun in the park!). And I should be going to Svaneti with my organisation at the end of the month, so that's something to look forward to. Camera battery will be charged, memory card will have enough space...