Last Day as Part of Teachers for a Global Classroom

Today is the last day for the Teachers for a Global Classroom. I will be extending my stay in Georgia to ski at Gudauri ski area in the great Caucasus mountain range. I will be skiing above the tree line the base of the mountain is at 8000 feet and the summit is at 10,000 feet. I will then be heading to Greece on Monday and returning to Vermont on Wednesday night.

I will try to do a quick blog from Gudauri and Athens. I hope to do a final reflection when I have sometime to reflect on this awesome experience.

Today we just did a quick debrief and visited a couple of churches. 

Svetitskhoveli Church - The story is that the Shroud of Jesus is buried in the church with the person who brought it form Jerusalem. This church was built in the 5th century around a wooden church that was built in the 4th century.

In the background is another church, Jvari, that we visited on top of the mountain. I am in awe that they were able to build these churches without any modern equipment.

The River Mtkvari (left) flows from Turkey to the Caspian Sea. The Silk Road followed this river. The River Aragvi (right) flows from the Caucusus Mountains into Mtkvari.

Travel to Akhaltsikhe

I traveled to Akhaltsikhe with my co-teacher Wendy Morales from New Jersey. It was a great ride down. It was very nice to leave the city. I could feel all the stress from hustle and bustle of the city leave me as I saw some of the most gorgeous mountains I have ever seen. I was relieved when I got to see snow on the mountain tops. On the way to the Akhaltsikhe, we stopped in Borjomi National Park to visit the hot springs and visited the Green Monastery.

I especially like the Green Monastery because it was snowing and looked very majestic. It was built in the 9th century. We first went inside the bell tower and saw skulls of monks. Our cab driver told us these were from monks who were killed during the Ottoman empire. We then went into the monastery and saw monks chanting. Chanting goes on 24 hours a day. Each monk chants for three hours. There were candles in the monastery as well as pictures of Jesus and other saints. It was very spiritual. We were not allowed to take any pictures of inside the monastery.

 
 

Sunday in Tbilisi

On Sunday, I walked over 30,000 steps around the city of Tbilisi. I walked from 10:00 a.m. till 7:00 p.m. This city has some of the most varied forms of architecture. There are churches from 5th Century B.C. to very modern and funky architecture. I also found a lot of signs that American culture and businesses that has made its way to Georgia. In the near future I will be making a blog post, titled Even in Tbilisi which will bring you some of the highlights.

I visited a lot of churches today. When women enter the church they need to cover their hair. Most of the churches belonged to the Georgian Orthodox Church. At the Sameba Cathedra, I saw a Matins which is a one of their rituals. I could not tell exactly what was going on but it seamed very informal and there were at least 300 people standing around, watching the ceremony, blessing themselves, and lighting candles. None of the churches I visited had pews or seats. People seemed to be coming and going into the churches to practice their faith.

Sameba Cathederal or the Holy Trinity Cathedral. This was built between 1995 - 2004.

This church was built in the 1980s

This church was built in the 4th century and updated in the 17th century.

This is a mosque that was built in the 19th century. It is the only mosque in Tbilisi .

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House built within an existing castle. I am not sure how old the castle was.

This an example of some of the modern architecture. The presidential palace is in the background.  In the foreground was building that was never completed it was supposed to be modern music venue but when the president left office and the construction stopped.

The horse with the King who named Tbilisi.

This was part of castle and was really steep and little bit sketchy. I am pretty sure that people would not be allowed to climb this in United States with out any hand rails.

The Bridge of Peace

I am not sure I would want to live in that apartment building.

This is my cool shower. It has wooded floor and one of the nobs actually has the temperature on it so you know how hot it will be when the water gets turned on. The glass only covers 1/2 the length of the shower and there is no door.

This is only one of three table for the breakfast spread. The food in the hotel has been absolutely delicious.