Photos, Disappointment, and New Surprises

PHOTOS OF ISTANBUL (FINALLY!)

Inside the Blue Mosque. I was disappointed that it wasn't THAT blue.

 Another one inside the Blue Mosque. Called the Blue Mosque because 1) It's a mosque and 2) They used a bunch of blue tiles in it.

 Blue Mosque. Not blue on the outside.

Inside the Grand Bazaar. It was HUGE and pretty cool.

Georgia has given me a sense of fashion.

NOT ISTANBUL:

This is Vardzia. It's a cave monastery. It once was a cave city. It was pretty cool. Inside were like mini caves. Most of those small pockets didn't connect.

I didn't take that many photos and actually all of the photos of the trip were taken by one of my travel companions. I'm not a picture taker. I'm going to Yerevan (Armenia's capital) in the first weekend of May. Don't expect many photos. And don't expect them up until mid-July. It's just how I roll. Are there any photos of things you all actually want to see? I guess my next assignment should be taking pictures of my host family. Maybe that will be a summer thing. Or a thing that won't happen. Ever. They're not much for the whole "Let's take photos" thing. I guess that's good since neither am I.

DISAPPOINTMENT:

School is still school. I *FINALLY* started my "American Club". Our first session was about American Holidays. So far we've met once out of three possible occasions. Back home I would think, "Only one of three times? That's a failure." Here I think ".333 is a great batting average." Regardless of how you might think your idea/club/project can better your community, you have to accept that not everyone will think the same way. Also, you learn to accept that not everything and everyone work on similar schedules. Even if they like your idea, there is no guarantee they'll show up. You learn to accept disappointment.

So I march on. This Friday, I will wait again as the day continues for 6th period and hope that my counterpart and students will find time in their schedules to stop by.

NEW SURPRISES:
I recently have realized that by living in a (by American standards) conservative village of a country much older than the United States with different cultural norms and values, some things surprise me that never would have before.

1) Women smoking in public: When we first got to Georgia, we were told that though some woman smoke, you would rarely see it (in villages and smaller cities). Mother's would never know that their kargi gogo (good girl) smokes. It would be on the hush-hush and would rarely be seen. So when I do see it, my first thought is, "What *would* your mother think?"

2) Women driving: Also pretty rare. I'm not as taken back by this as when I see them smoking, but still. You don't see it as often as you do back in the USA.

3) Dogs on leashes: That not only means that the dog has an owner, but the dog is actually cared for (more than just fed and not killed). We have a dog. He is like most dogs in Georgia: tolerated but not adored. He doesn't come in the house. He's only fed. Otherwise he's on his own. He doesn't attack. Only barks when people come by. So most dogs serve as guard dogs but their level of being cared for does not exceed being thrown food.

I'm sure other things that I can't think of now.

Later days,
Alex

Holiday

This post will touch on a few different subjects: Georgia update, Istanbul update, and General update:

Georgia update: School ended (our) Christmas Eve. I'm glad for it. I am ready to begin anew. With all the trainings I have been to and my counterparts being busy, I haven't had time to get much done. This will be a good break for me to get my head back in the game and come up with some future goals. Now I just have to get motivated. On Christmas Eve, I hopped on a public transit to go across the country to the capital, Tbilisi. I stayed the night there, not having done much. Christmas Day I spent with volunteers in the town we had many of our trainings in, Telavi. It was a wonderful time with great food and friends. I went back to my site the next day.

Istanbul Update: It was a great city. I only took a few pictures but I'll be sure to (eventually) get those up. Most likely, I'll just steal the ones my two travel companions took and post them as my own. The food was good. Because Istanbul is pretty modern and tourist-friendly, there were some Startbucks and Pizza Huts. We took advantage of both. With Starbucks, I went 4 times in 5 days. I couldn't get enough. There were many tourists. I probably heard a dozen different languages being spoken. Many of the shopkeepers knew English (also Arabic, French, and some others) so it was easy to get around (as long as it was a tourist-area).

The plane ended up leaving an hour late. We were waiting for more passengers. I assumed they were VIPs. Since our airport was smaller and further away, it took longer than expected to get into the actual city. It was believed to have been rush hour traffic.
The hostel one of my friends and I booked was not in operation. We didn't find that out until we got to our other friend's hostel and asked for directions. The receptionist at our friend's hostel called the owner of the one we intended to stay at for directions. The owner informed us that the hostel was
closed for repairs. He said that there was no way that we could have booked with him because he stopped accepting reservations months ago. He gave us a hostel of his friend's who had an extra room. It was almost double what we originally planned on paying but us being in an unknown city 3 days before the New Year, we didn't have much of a choice. We only stayed there one night because the hostel next door had a late cancellation. We were able to save some money and the hostel was a much better choice. Once we moved to the new hostel, the rest of the trip was smooth sailing.I definitely recommend it.

General Update: I'm alive and well and going to enjoy my break. Hope all is well with you all. I miss you.

Sincerely,
Alex