Dedicated to the Fallen Blackberry

Hey dudes and dudettes!

Writing to you live from the Old Testament. You may wonder why? Well, it seems as though the plague of flies has ended, and the plague of moths (?why??) has begun! I was the lord of the flies by no stretch of the imagination, and here I am now: the mothman... What more is to come? I have killed a couple spiders in my bathroom, but I don't feel so bad, because I know there still at least one in there.

I was able to go into Tbilisi yesterday and do a little fix-o change-o on the school's computer purchased with the grant money I applied for. I wasn't exactly provided private transportation, so I am pretty sure I have a bruise on my shoulder from having the CPU strapped to my back, but there's peace of mind in knowing that it is fixed. I also got some important papers signed for the school, and I'm making my director happy = good.

I was wondering why I was starving this afternoon, because I kept forgetting that the gas has been out, but low and behold, around 5 or 6 the gas came back on! Gas + electricity = hot water to do the dishes and hot food. I didn't have anything else I could've made without gas.

While in Tbilisi yesterday, the hours dwindled into twilight and I missed the last marshrutka (mini-bus) back to my site. I go to the PC "guest house" and come across 1 current volunteer and 3 new trainees! I learn that one of the trainees was going home in the morning. 1 was staying in the guest house to get some rest. And 1 was illin, but she's a trooper, so the three of us (2 noobies and myself) set out on the town. I wanted to show the noobies a good time. We went to one of my favorite restaurants (a little pricey), went to get some gelato afterwords, and we went for a little site-seeing tour through some of the more beautiful parts of the capital. It was really glad to get to know the trainee who was illin, she's very cool, and I predict good times will be had yet to come (if that makes sense). However, I was really sad to see the other trainee leave. It's kind of weird how I haven't known her for that long, but yet she left such an impression. One might even say, she integrated.. :) Nevertheless, I think that's a dark cloud hanging over me today.

I am really grateful that one of the trainees, BPRSI, is here. It's a good group of trainees! They all can put a smile on my face.

In other news, my apartment looks like an explosion has taken place and is in need of a cleaning/tidying. My water filter still needs to get replaced, but Rome wasn't built in a day ya know...

Did I mention that today is St. Andrew's Day? I hope you celebrated it well.

One of the good things about "Fallen Blackberry" is that before she left, she transferred a ton of her digital material to my external hard drive. There are seemingly endless hours of media watching ahead of me.

This Friday is my schools "Last Call" or "Bolo Zari." It's where the 12th graders will celebrate their graduation. It's a huge deal that starts around 11 or 12 in the day and goes on for a little while. This Friday is also an important event for FLEX and additionally an afternoon planning opportunity for PDO... I kind of feel torn as to what I should do. Maybe I'll flip a coin? I really do want to stay in my site for more than one week. Possibly on Saturday I'll be giving Flap a haircut. Flap, if you read this... let me know if you're coming.

I want to start baking. I need to begin some emotional eating and baked goods always make me feel better. Emotional eating is better than alcoholism, so I'm supportive of it. Mostly just eating. I love eating. I feel like one of those dogs that stuffs itself when you put any food down. It will eat until it will die and our stipends control when we can eat. Back to earlier, i don't really have anything to be emotional about, but I know I have a lot of feelings in general. Emotions are good, so why not add chocolate chips and eat them?

Tomorrow will be an interesting day: 1)A morning Russian lesson- I haven't done the homework because of preoccupation with thinking, but also I've never had a morning Russian lesson so far in Georgia 2) English club- hopefully students come!!! (I had one on Monday) 3) New private student. It's a dangerous situation to have private students. I've turned down so many parents, and there are so many English teachers that would be pissed about losing the income. Luckily, this girl currently doesn't have a private tutor, but it's something that can upset the community balance. There's a part of me that feels like it's a good thing. This girl is Azeri, one of the minority community. I still have another year here, and in that year, I could really advance her language. She's young and seems really motivated, so it's possible that by the time I leave, she could be prepared to make some great changes in the world. I think of course, this latter vibe is something a little to idealistic, but it's good to have your head in the clouds every now and again. I'll keep ya'll updated.

These are all the things running through my head. I'm off to dream a little dream, so hopefully I'll see you there.