Travel Day

Today was a travel day. I went back to Tbilisi and when I got here I went to a market and bought some Churchkella, hazel nuts dipped in grape juice that forms a hard surface around the nuts. I hope to make this when I get back to Vermont. then to the Vernicular which took us up to an amusement park. I rode a roller coaster and then went back and ate dinner.  We then saw some American blues music, song by a Georgian man, before retiring for the evening.

Final Day in Akhaltsikhi

I presented my host teacher, Lela, with an I Love Milton shirt.

Milton Bear with the Dancers.

Today was my final day in Akhaltsikhe. It was my favorite day in a school yet. In the morning, I introduced the 10th grade students to whiffle ball. It was great watching them pitch and trying to hit the ball. We then played some football (soccer) and ended the period with basketball. Luckily for me the rim was very forgiving I was able to score two baskets. It was great to see how you do not need language to play sports.

I then visited a seventh grade and second grade classroom. We ended the school day with the 8th graders. We had the students write about their favorite object and took a picture of the object. We also video taped them talking about their objects. It was great. At the end of class, I gave them one of my favorite books, Stargirl, and I handed them two Rubic's Cubes to solve.

After school, I went to Girls in Civics meeting, where we talked about American schools. I showed them a few clips from Yellow Jacket TV, and they were impressed.

Finally I ended my day watching the students perform a traditional dance. I was completely blown away with what I saw. I wish all of Milton's dancers had seen this dance. There are not enough superlatives in the English language to describe how awesome it was.

Here is a link to watch this amazing performance. It is well worth the wait to watch it.
Akhaltsikhe Dancers

Zadzaria Monastery, Abustamani Barbecue, and the Observatory

Milton Bear looking at a telescope at the Jupiter and three of its moons.

After teaching, we visited Zadzaria Monastery and then the resort town of Abastumani. This place was awesome. It reminded me of being at Yellowstone or the Grand Teton's National Parks. The mountains were high, the air fresh, and it just had a very nice feeling to it. We hiked around a bit and then went into a bath house. That had hot natural spring water fed into from the ground. We explored the Romanov's abandon bath house. The Romanov's were Russian's last monarch It would make the perfect setting for a scary movie.

Zadzaria Monastery

Bones of dead monks.

Abustamani

A waterfall at Abustamani

Abandon Romanov Bath House

Wild horses. It was fun to see them run.

We then ate barbecue, which was fun. We fortunate enough that they just let us eat inside the cafeteria that featured a statue of Stalin. This was a very nice meal between the four of us, Lela, Amiran, Wendy, and myself. We toasted to friendship, to families, to the children, and to good relations between our countries. 

BBQ. Making pig and Kachapuri - For the first time in over 20 years I at meat. I ate it so that I could have the full experience. I also know that pigs are raised in humane conditions at someone's house. The pig was marinated in homemade wine.

Our most excellent guide Amiran.

Stalin overseeing our meal. 

We ended the day visiting the Abustamani Observatory. We met R. Natsvlishvili. He is an astronomer that has founded planets, stars, and 107 flare stars. This was a very cool place. We got to look at the moon and Jupiter and three of its moons. I was thrilled to talk astronomy with him through our interpreter.

The telescope looking out at the moon.

Village School and Reading

I went and visited a village school. This had a very different feeling to the schools in Akhaltsikhe and Tbilisi. There were a total of 40 students in the school. Many of the students who attended this school were from families who were farmers. I went to a fifth grade classroom, where there were only four students in the class. It was interesting to see the fire place in the classroom. This classroom also served as the computer lab, which did have internet service and a projector. We got to see an English lesson. The students first interviewed each other in English and then they reported out on what they learned about the other person. Then they began a lesson on Shel Siverstein's, "The Giving Tree." Afterwards, they completed a word sort. Then the bell rang.

Irma teaching to her class of four.

I was a little shocked to see these images from the Georgian Orthodox Church in the classroom. When we talked to teacher, she mentioned that the entire population of the school is Georgian Orthodox. The teacher from the school in Akhaltsikhe said, that they could not do this in there school because there are Catholics, Muslims, and Georgian Orthodox students in the classroom.

We then went back to the school in Akhaltsikhe and taught a first grade class. We got to read to them. I read "Are You My Mother?" and my partner teacher, Wendy, read a Elephant and Piggie book. This was fun and I enjoyed being a teacher as opposed to an observer. Afterwards we played Baby Shark with the students, which is similar to "What Time is it Mr. Fox?" and then we taught them Duck, Duck, Goose. Then we got to see the biggest birthday celebration I have ever witnessed in a school. They put foot long sparklers on the cake and lit them. I do not think this would be allowed in Milton.

Menu

This is just a menu at a cafe. It has the names in English and Georgian.

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