Kobuleti!

My new home is Kobuleti Village, 10 kilometers from Kobuleti, located on the Black Sea.  When I learned about my placement toward the end of our 5-day training in Tbilisi, I had a few things that I was excited to see. 

Kobuleti Village is

-         accessible to a larger city or town – check

-         located close to the Black Sea – check

-         near a major road

-         near a train station

In other words, I was excited to see that, in addition to the Village experience, I should have the opportunity to travel while I’m here.  I’m not sure that I’ll be able to tour all four hopeful countries (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and (eastern) Turkey) in depth, but being within 40 miles of the Turkish boarder and on a major train line (with night trains to Tbilisi) certainly does help.  (Also, did I mention that Batumi, 30-45 minutes down the road has flight to Istanbul for something like $60 one way?) 

I will write about my host family and home at another time, but my first few days have been somewhat eventful.  While the first day here I spent the day lounging on the balcony looking at the lush surroundings (and also planted some beans with my host father and a picked a few lemons from his lemon trees), in the past few days I’ve been to Batumi twice (one for a meeting with the director of my school and others) and once to socialize with someone and basically get the lay of the land in Batumi (Bixi bikes in Batumi!). On Friday, while meeting the other teachers at my school, I was asked to be a judge in a local language competition – which I did the following day (aka Saturday).  At that competition, I met several people in Georgia with my organization plus Peace Corps Volunteers and Peace Corps Response Volunteers.  I’ve been in the town of Kobuleti, put my hands in the Black Sea, and have watched the news (in Georgian and in Russian) and Georgian “Dancing With the Stars” with my host family.  I’ve determined that, in addition to learning some Georgian, I need to improve my Russian.  All in all, a fairly successful bunch of days. 

In the coming days, I’ve got a few goals: 

-         figure out my schedule at school and set up meetings with my co-teacher

-         acquire a USB modem so that I can use internet at my host family’s house (their internet is currently broken)

-         acquire a Russian text book and start relearning Russian

-         come up with a plan for learning Georgian

-         contact a bunch of people I’ve met recently about potential projects

-         purchase doggie biscuits (so that I can make friends with the neighbors guard dog who seems pretty determined to bite me when I got too close to his driveway after dark last night)