Final Reflection

I am not sure I even know where to begin on my final reflection. I have been putting it off for over a week and I would be remiss if I did not complete it. This trip has forever changed me. It was my first time in over 20 years, where I was alone and the only two labels I initially carried were "Joe" and "teacher from Vermont." It was also the first time visiting a country where I did not know the language. Thanks to my travel cohort of 11 other teachers and the leadership of IREX's Claire Breedlove, this trip was wildly successful. It showed me how to do international travel. I am now ready and I have the confidence to travel to new places on my own and/or with my family and friends.

I lived in the moment. During my entire time that I was away, I lived in the moment. I appreciated and took advantage of all the situations that were presented to me. I tried to take in all of the sights, sounds, and smells. I was able to ignore the minutia of life and just appreciate the world. Now that I am back home, I am working on living in the moment.

I can get by with a simple "Hello" and "Thank You." I did not learn as much Georgian as I would have liked but learning these two words showed my appreciation of their culture. People were more than willing to help me out when I made the attempt to speak their language.

I am very lucky to speak English. Regardless of where I was, there was always someone around who spoke English.

Only knowing one language made me feel stupid. In my travels, I came across many people who spoke more than one language and some that were able to speak four or five languages. I wish that learning language was more of a priority in this country.

Teachers in Georgia complain about the same things that teachers in the United States complain about: lack of resources, not enough time, not enough pay, not enough time, poor parenting, etc. At the end of the day, all teachers still go to work and care deeply about their students.

Good teaching is good teaching. While I was in Georgia I saw schools that had limited resources, but I also saw some amazing teachers doing the best with what they do have.

Georgia had beautiful nature and history. There was something amazingly peaceful seeing churches and castles that were over 2000 years old. The nature of Georgia is absolutely gorgeous. I would go back to Georgia just go hiking/camping in Borjomi National Park.

I love visiting cities, but nature is much more relaxing and spiritual.

Athens, Greece was a nice stop on the way home. Seeing the Parthenon, watching the sunset, and visiting the ocean had a magic all its own. There is something special about walking the streets where there is over 2000 years of well documented history.

While traveling, I found that blogging and emailing my family, was very therapeutic. It helped frame my thoughts and gave me a sense of where I came from. I am very appreciative that this blog will serve as digital scrapbook of my experience.

I will travel internationally again both for pleasure and for work. Some possible destinations: Iceland, Finland, Spain, Peru (Machu Picchu), and of course I will take advantage of opportunities that will send me to some place new.

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.

Vardzia and Khvertsi

Please note that if you click on the pictures, they do enlarge and you can run through all of them.

Today was an awesome day in the mountains. I loved the nature, as they call it here in Georgia. Vardzia was fascinating. These underground caves made in the 12th centuries as a place of refuge for Georgians to fleeing the Mongols. There 13 stories of caves. They were able to hold 50,000 people!  The caves even had clay plumbing and chimneys. In 1283, there was an earthquake that exposed the caves. I wish I could repeat all of the history of these caves, but I was just in awe of being in something this cool and this old. My imagination ran wild with scenes from Lord of the Rings.

There a currently monks who live in these cave.  

 I will put a bad picture up, just to prove that I was there and that I did not pull the photos of the web.

Seats and a table.

A monk.

A tunnel that went up five stories.

Wine cellar.

Our Guide.

Afterwards we visited another set of caves with a church nestled in the cliffs of the cave. Hiking up to this was an adventure in and of itself and a little horrifying as one misstep would have spelled disaster. This was awesome.

Looking up at the church.

Looking across at the church.

Monks still live in the mountain and the proof is in the windows .

An alter just before the church.

The alter in the church.

View from the top.

Then we went to Khertvisi which was a castle that started out as a walled city in 400-300 B.C. The walls witnessed Alexander the Great in Battle. Then it became a castle during the middle ages and was a part of the Silk Road.

Not the best picture, but the people in the picture show the size of the castle.

Our awesome drive. Super nice, super courteous,  and he drove us through snow and over boulders.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Sapara Monastery

This monastery was originally built in the 6th century. There is a lot of history and it has been under Muslim, Mongol and Russian rule, just to name a few, and has seen many other changes. It had the feeling of a very peaceful place. I wish I was there by myself so I could just sit and look out at the mountains and meditate. They placed this monastery in the woods, so that it would be hidden from the invaders coning into Georgia.

This is only accessibly through ropes. There was one monk who lived here who was only able to get his food through ropes and pulleys. I could do that for about three days.

Bee keeping experts. They use the honey for food and for the candles inside the monastery.

My awesome travel partner, Google Trainer extraordinaire, Wendy from Middletown, NJ.

How many people, for how many millenniums have passed through this land?

Rabiti Castle

After school I visited Rabati Castle which was made into a tourist attraction in 2012. It was the site of a castle that has been around since the time of the Silk Road. Many people have inhabited the land around the area of the castle. In the museum, which I was not allowed to take pictures, I saw a petrified grape root that was 9000 years old. I also saw human artifacts and tools from 4000 B.C. to 1600 A.D.  There was so much information that I was told that it was impossible to remember it all and I will not even try to attempt to tell the story. I wish I had taken notes.

In any case, here are some pictures from Rabati Castle:

This is to represent a mosque. This was a church turned into a mosque back to a church back to a place for storage during the Soviet era and is now a replica of a mosque.

Cool art work.

The only Catholic Monastery in Georgia. Was built in 12th Century.

Our hotel from from as seen from the castle.