Hey I'm alive living it up in saqartvelo...and i have a picture website which will drastically reduce my need to write about my bizarro life here in georgia. it's a win-win and its another way to perpetuate my laziness.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jessica.c.wallace/Spring08

so there you have it....chock full 'o georgian goodness and a lil peak into my life

Miss yinz over there in 'merica. Hope all is well.

Spring....sort of

Some of my students after an

english prsentation about the history of chala.

Typical table after a supra

My host sister, neighbor and I in Chiatura, a real town about an hour away

March 8th is international women's day...we had a wild lady supra as evidence of the stovetob dancing

The bridge connecting chala to another village called speti...it collapsed in november and this fine wooden structure has replaced it.

Armenia

So in January I went to Armenia with two of my friends, Ryder and Kelly. We stayed in Yerevan for 3 days. Here are some pictures:

more later on...

The real winter in chala

Winter in Chala, above is me infront of my school looking dorky. One of the stores in our village and my yard after a day of non-stop snow

My sister and I washing each other's hair...a true bonding experience

Making tacos for the host family...the jury is still out on whether they liked them.

Winter Part 2

I know you have all been waiting on baited breath for this blog entry so I'll get right to it, February is a god awful month anywhere in the world. My village, Chala, has gotten about a total of 2 meters of snow, that'sabout 6 feet for you freedom fry eating, toby keith -listening capitalist pigs who have not discovered the joys of the metric system.Its been a pretty mild winter I have been told as I hastily shove morefirewood into my "pechi" or metal wood burning stove that is in mybedroom. I now have the hands of a 1950s steel worker after severalmishaps with trying to light my pechi, Unfortunately they don't sellthose sweet Dura -flame logs here in Georgia. The pechi is how people in Georgia heat their homes in the winter and you'll find one in everyhouse. My pechi was professionally installed by my neighbor, Mamuka, who took a sledgehammer to my wall to make the hole for the stove pipe, awesome. So when my pechi is not fired up I am hanging with my host family downstairs in the"pechi room." Georgian families spend several HOURS a day in a singlesolitary room together during the winter months, They play cards,knit, watch south american soap operas (big industry here in the postsoviet world) OR wrestle. Yes, wrestle. My host mother and brotheroften have impromptu wrestling matches…oh the joys of culture shock. Ionce was invited to challenge my 14 yr old host sister to a lilwrestling, I declined.What else is going on…I went skiing last month in Bakuriani, one of thetwo skiing towns in Georgia. It was pretty rad. I took a lesson with a man named Igor whose only English consisted of "Ok" and "You are supertalent." I am not a super talent.. Also due to the fact that it was my only exercise in months my entire bodystill hurts. .In other news, I went to Yerevan, in Armenia (No need to pull out the maps,,it's between Georgia and Iran). I am going to be that person who travels to the most random, hole in the wall places and then shamelessly tells uber-pretentious anecdotes about my time there. Yerevan is actually areally great city and CHEAP!!!! It has a strange combo of soviet andmiddle eastern influences so I got to eat some really good Persianfood and there was a falafel stand on ever corner. I also got to take4 hot showers and sleep in a centrally heated building.
In village news….the pipes in the village have frozen so we havent hadwater for about 2 months. Once a week I take the 45min 1970s sovietminibus ride to the town of Sachkhere (goggle map it when you losersare at work/school/home) and go to the "Hygiene House"which is a public bathhouse and for only 3 lari (2 USD) I take a nice30 min hot shower. I have been attending a recent slew of lady supras aka middle aged village women gone wild. A supra is a big wine drinking and meat eating party that can last for half a dozen hours. So anyway I am officially "in"with the neighborhood ladies and often get invited to their supras.Just a quick recap of the last one…my host mother and the 3rd gradeteacher wrestling in the snow, lewd jokes, drinking out of a goat's horn then a bowl then a jug. The lady supra, the Georgian outlet for the housewife. Also, I will be marrying a Georgian man and living the rest of my days in my village…sorry friends, it was good knowing you. A final note, my students still do not know much English, though an 11th grade boy did say, "I am a donkey" in class. It was a true break thru and worthy to a be scene from one of those gritty tough love teacher movies that we all love. I have always thought I resembled michelle phieffer. Well that is all for now.

Winter in Tchala

So big news in tchala is that we got a new roof. My host dad, brother and our handyman neighbors slapped it on in a mere two days. We then had a supra in celebration which lasted 5 hours.

The pictures above are from the christmas concert extravaganza at my school. The boys are from the 3rd form class and the tovelis babua (snow granfather) is from my 11th form class.

These pictures are from my wild new year's eve/day celebration. I think the one with my host dad, sister and grandmother (bebia) sums it up. Yes, they are holding sparklers. As you can see Georgians also decorate a tree but for the New Year instead of Christmas. Christmas here is the 7th of January as people are of the Orthodox faith. They also celebrate the "Old New Year" which is January 15th.

Random Pictures from Tchala

I wear long underwear at all times

I was walking home from school today with some of my students and the village marshutka comes tearing up the only stretch of asphalt in tchala (about 50 meters) and who is behind the wheel but one of my 7th form students, Giorgi. With a goofy smile and look of unadulterated bliss barely making it past the steering wheel he careens past me and in my absolute shock and disbelief i fail to notice the large puddle to my right. Giorgi hasn't mastered avoiding potholes yet, maybe when he is 13 he'll get the hang of it.


Tchala Secrets: The music teacher once coached a contest on GeoStar, Georgia's equivalent to American Idol.


So I went to Tbilisi for the first time two weekends ago and here is a re-cap:

Tbilisi is drinking glenfiddich on the rocks in a bar called buffalo bills with a Georgian cover band playing dire straits. yeah it was awesome.

Conan O'Brien, the love of my life

Ok so i have decided to add a segment to my blog inspired by a great man of our time who i dearly miss, Conan O'brien. No, i am not adding a Walker Texas Ranger lever to my blog ( you know i would if i could) but i am adding a "Tchala: Secrets" segment. Yes that is right folks (by folks i mean the 2 people that watch Conan and have a vague idea of what i am talking about--Jamie Dawson, AKA laZer and ...ok maybe just one person) Anyway i learn new and EXCITING things about my village frequently, they are often midly funny or interesting so i will be sharing them.

"Tchala: Secrets"

I can take a real shower with hot water when it rains heavily. I have come to enjoy bathing in rain water and I do rain dances daily.

Tchala has a "cafe." It consists of two tables and five chairs. You can also buy phone cards there. I thought it was an abandoned building for a month and a half.

Many people have summer homes in Tchala and vacation in my quaint village. One of these people includes a Georgian millionaire who lives in Moscow. Don't start thinking my village is the Jackson Hole of Georgia or anything.

Tchala has its own Tbilisi marshutka...thats right, a straight 3.5 hr shot.

More to come...

Tchala, What What

I know its been awhile and I’m sure most of you have given up hope of me ever updating or making this blog mildly interesting but listen the Starbucks in my village does not have free wireless. Sure you can get a delicious double caramel mocha chip latte with half skim, half 1% and no one makes them better than Tchala’s baristas (Tchala= my permanent residence for the next two years) but god forbid you pick up a WiFi signal. Also I think the Banana Republic in my village has been pawning off last year’s fall line as this year’s new arrivals,. The nerve.

Ok, so what is my life really like aside from all my retail troubles…actually I don’t have retail troubles at the two “stores” in my village, because naturally the customer is always right. Enough with the lame jokes…I have been in my permanent site, Tchala, for over a month. I was picked up in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, after being officially sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer -- that’s right you can now officially say you know a Peace Corps Volunteer and rack up the street cred--by a family I had never met but surely would grow to love over the next two years. Scary. Luckily they are pretty awesome and buy me ramen and pomegranates. I have a host mom, Nana-34 a host bro, Beso- 13, a host sister, Teona-14, a host granny (bebia) Gulnaze- a youthful 65, and a host dad, Roini- 39. My host dad works and lives in Tbilisi most of the year but comes home occasionally for a week every few months. We also have a dog who didn’t materialize for a couple weeks after I arrived. His name is Paco and I will never touch him. Did I mention our cow? She comes home everyday at 5 o'clock.

I live in a village of 900 people and countless cows, chickens, pigs, donkeys --these animals have got to make the most god awful sounds-- and lambs. They all run wild-- yes, the people too. Tchala is nestled in the foothills of some mountains and is pretty flippin’ picturesque with a nice little river running through it. Tchala is located in the Imereti Region of Georgia. The Imereti region is know for its Khatchpuri (cheese bread type thing, somewhat like a quesadilla, that I don’t like) and its temperamental people, haha. Luckily I have not come across the latter very often. It takes about 3.5 hrs to get to “The Big City” -Tbilisi- and the closest volunteers are just a hop skip and jump of about 1.5 hr. Georgia is roughly the size of South Carolina but it lacks good infrastructure so traveling can be on the difficult, frustrating “I could get there faster on my bike” side but I am getting the hang of it and no longer eating before I travel. Most transport is via old school soviet buses or vans--think one of those obscenely large vans for sports teams or very fertile families. My village is about 10km (40 mins on unpaved road--yeah i'm racking up the sympath--did i mention i suffer from motion sickness? haha) from the nearest town. That’s where most people go to purchase perishables they don’t themselves grow and non-perishables at the bazaar (huge outdoor market---should be interesting in winter). People in my village are pretty self-sufficient as far as food goes. My family grows their own corn, tomatoes, apples, beans, plums, cucumbers, potatoes, grapes, onions and garlic--makes their own bread--raises chickens--and cans various produce for the winter months. Eating is a very important part of Georgian culture…to be continued. Pictures aren't posting, i apologize.

Hey Hey, Its me again! Just wanted to post my address so you can send me all those thoughtful care packages you are been thinking sending me. You probably even have the boxes piling up in the hallway.

PCV Jess Wallace
Box 66
Tbilisi 0194
Republic of Georgia

It wouldnt hurt to throw on some religious symbols on the many packages you will be sending me to prevent tapering and whatnot. That is all for now.

Ok Ok, I have been really slacking on the blog posts but i just haven't been able to pick up a wireless signal in my village, strange.

Anyway things are going well here, only 3 more weeks of training until I go to my permanent site for 2 yrs. I will be sad to leave my host family and my great village of Kheltubani. I just finished up two weeks of practicum, which was pretty much summer school with the village kids. We planned four lessons a day in english for kids between the ages of 8-14. It was really fun and i learned a lot about teaching in general, especially classroom mangaement. I did have to enforce a "no wrestling rule" a couple of times but other than that it went quite smoothly. I even was asked for my autograph by a number of students, repeatedly. I am finally getting the celebrity i deserve and alll I had to do was come to Georgia.

This is a picture of part of my totally rad host family, Giorgi, Ledi and Lela (she left for of all places Texas for a student exchange program today.) This was taken at my first birthday supra which involved much bad dancing of both the georgian and american variety.

Below is a picture of my house in Kheltubani. It's a pretty sweet pad even though it looks like some sort of factory building in the picture. Geogrgian houses are like motels in a way. Usually two stories but all rooms are accessed from the outside with the stairway outdoors as well. This will make for fun times in the winter I'm sure.

Now for the piece de resistance of my post...drum roll please....the cave city of Uplositkhe!!! My host family took me on a little excursion to this ancient cave city outside of Gori last week.

This city is high in the hills of Georgia making for some killer views of this river (its name i have forgotten but probably couldnt spell or pronounce it anyway) which runs the entire width of Georgia, from the Black Sea all the way east to Azerbaijian.

That is all for now, I hope this will hold you over for a couple weeks.

As requested some pictures from Georgia:

All the G7s in Tbilisi after touching down in Georgia at 4 am.

The soviet era mountain resort outside of Tbilisi we stayed in during our first week in Georgia and the location of my last western toilet.

Some views from our first digs.