It wasn't long after Jenna had closed her eyes, and her soul had drifted into oblivion that they came for him. He was holding her hand, kneeling beside the bed they had shared for only 5 years. She was TOO young to be dead. It wasn't fair. 

They found him sobbing. What they didn't hear, were his whispered words to her. “Jenna, I will love you forever. They won't take this memory. I won't give it to them, so I have got to run now. I love you. Forever.”

They were just about to grab him, when he slipped by them. Their moves were slow, clunky, they were awkward machines. They'd never expected someone to run from them, they did not have a command reaction to this kind of input. Luckily for Evan. They did not follow him, but he knew they would soon. He would have to find somewhere to hide, somewhere safe, where he could freely express his grief without being noticed.

He ran along streets, passing deceptively happy houses. Houses with remarkably happy, care-free families in them. “Clearly the machines were working well. How could they possibly imagine that what they were doing was better? How could it possibly be better?” he thought as he ran.

He was just about to turn a corner when he notice them coming towards him. They had backup now, and they seemed to have been given a new command sequence. They moved quicker now. It was then that he remembered that they weren't allowed to enter the homes of the clean. They had permission to enter, only when cleaning was required. He simply needed to enter another person's home and hide, until he could think of a plan.

There was a big white house, with a cheery red picket fence around it, and an open window on the one side. “That will work,” Evan thought, “as long as no one is home”. He vaulted over the fence and jumped through the window before the machines could even zone in on him.

The room he found himself in, was a little girl's room, judging by all the pink, fluff and unicorns scattered about, as an explosion had occurred inside a rainbow. And, it was void of other humans. Perfect.

There was a big wardrobe opposite the window he had entered. It looked big enough to hold a man, and Evan moved towards it. He found, upon opening the door, a neatly organised collection of tutus and princess dresses. Adult-sized high-heels were set in rows on the floor of the wardrobe, and a bright pink feather boa crept out as the breeze caught it. He had found the dress-up closet. “This will have to do,” he decided as he pushed the heels out of the way and folded himself into the wardrobe. He pulled the doors shut, and suddenly it was dark and silent.

The silence was broken by a heart-wrenching sob as Evan found himself in a place, an unusual place, but a place where he was finally safe enough to grieve. Images of Jenna on their wedding day, their first date, her last birthday party, their honeymoon, and how she looked when she was sleeping flooded his mind. As he relived each memory, his sobbing increased. He brought his knees up to his chest, buried his face in his arms, and wailed. “Perhaps they are right, nobody needs to live like this, nobody needs this kind of pain.”

She had been everything to him, and to watch her slowly fade, slowly forget who he was, forget who she was, or even where she wa,s had been torture to him. But, he could not trade that month of torture, those brutal memories for obscurity. Before the torture had been several years of pure bliss, sweet sincere happiness. And love. Love so deep that it could take your breath away. He couldn't give that up for anything.

Evan cried quietly in the wardrobe, in the pink room, in the cheery white house, for what felt like hours and no time at all. When his tears where finally spent, he fell into an exhausted, cramped, defeated sleep, between the pretty dressed and beautiful things.

He had no idea how long he had been alseep, but was jolted awake as the door of the wardrobe swung open, to reveal a pair of large, startled green eyes, set in a porcelain face and little rosebud lips. Rosebud lips that were parting into a scream...

*For the first time in a long time, I was able to write and complete an entire story. I have written many stories that just have no endings. This one does. I hope you enjoy it.) 


I used to be amongst the small, white blooms that decorated that busy, sparkling avenue. I stood proudly amongst my peers doing my aesthetic duty as best I could. We often fulfilled our roll so well, that people slow their step, just for a second, to glance at us standing proudly in the sun. Just the hint of a smile would flicker across their eyes and then they would be gone. Back to their busy lives. And we would stand, straight and proud. 

Everyone knew not to pick us, and we were left mostly to ourselves. I had seen some of my friends picked by the gypsy beggars, only for them to be ripped, limb from limb, thrown to the ground and trampled - the petals left to float along hopeless on what little breeze there was. 

I always thanked my lucky stars that it had never been me. I had been left to shine. Until one night. One night it was my turn to wish I had never been seen. We were all settled for the evening, preparing for a day of sunshine. Some young people passed by, laughing and talking in happy excited voices. One of them broke free from the group, came over to us, and started to reach towards me. 

I was so scared. His hand closed around my delicate middle. There was a wrenching pain, as he pulled, and my stem ripped in half. Then suddenly, I was free of bonds. I could feel myself start dying a little, but it was an exhilarating feeling too: That one small flower of such beauty, could be chosen to be removed from the bed. He had picked me. Out some hundred flowers, he had picked me.  It's hard not to feel conceited that it was the way I looked that got me to where I was. Well, a combination of prideful conceit and regret, that perhaps if I had not been so beautiful, I would still be standing in that garden. 

We were moving then, back towards the group that the boy had walked away from. He had a sly smile on his face. He extended his arm, with me clutched in his hand, towards another. A girl, with a face that looked confused and excited and happy, and weary, and sad at the same time. She reached out and gently took me. Gently caressing my petals, she sniffed deeply to see what perfumes I had hidden between my petals. 

I took this opportunity to look right into her face. She had a smile, which seemed to come easily to her. There was a promised of something more behind her sad eyes, a spark of potential. I saw it only briefly before she tucked it away behind her woeful gaze. This girl had felt something so painful in her life that it was leaking out of her, a sadness that could not be contained. 

We carried on down the avenue they call Rustaveli, laughing and talking. It was as if the cares of the world were away for the night, and they could just play. Dance and laugh, like children let out into the rain. 

The girl kept glancing down at me, as if to make sure I was really there, her eyes would dart from the boy who was playing the fool, to me, and a secret smile would spread across her face. It was then I sensed that I was representing something far greater than my own simple beauty. The sense of responsibilty set in. She had a kind face. I hoped I wouldn't let her down. 

We passed several other beds of flowers, so many colours, so many shapes and sizes, they really were beautiful, but none of them had the important job that I did. None of them knew anything about these humans, I felt like I had suddenly learnt a lot in a very short time. These flowers simply stood as a symbol of something good and pure in this world of things gone wrong. I thought then that every street should have flowers, just as a reminder that happiness can belong in something so small. 

I spent many a happy moment, clutched in the sad girls hand, until finally, she placed me tenderly inside a book, and flattened me. There I was to stay , to be preserved. A tangible memory of a night where for once, her sadness did not dominate her life. And someone else made her smile. 

It was not an uncomfortable life, a bit dark, and I dried out, my petals faded to brown and I was not the beauty that I had been before, but, I was still cherished and that feeling gave me a sense of contentment. I still represented a point of joy and light in the sad girl's life. Every now and then she would open the book, and look at me, with that distant look in her eye, and that tiny flicker of joy would appear and disappear quicker than a blink. 

I represented joy and light, until she opened the book one day with dull sad eyes. There was no hint of a memory in her eyes, just a look of despair, regret and disappointment. She picked me up, as delicately as ever, and held me up to the light. There were flashes of memories now. A look of quiet contentment followed by pain. And then, she did the unthinkable. 

She took me back, we walked right back to my flower-bed, the one the boy had plucked me from. She took me in my dry, dead state, back to the place I was taken from. My friends would not recognise me now, I was, quite literally, a shadow of my former self. She placed me gently in the soil, so that I was facing the sky, and whispered the saddest words I had ever heard, with the saddest eyes in the world; "I'm sorry flower, you were never mine to cherish. You should never have been picked. Flowers should only be given with feeling. You were a mistake."

With those words, she gave me one last glance, and then turned and walked away: slumped shoulders, lost in a broken memory. 

I could still feel the sun on my face, in my dry decrepit state. It was a foreign, friendly feeling. A light breeze was ruffling the leaves and petals of my living, breathing friends. As the breeze hits me, there is just a faint crackling sound, as I start to crack and fall apart. Slowly but surely, I am being torn apart. Just brown dried fragments of a dream that never happened, being carried off into oblivion. 

I look forward to the day when I can't feel or remember anymore. When I can no longer see those sad eyes before me. Those sad eyes that so briefly lit up upon seeing me thrust towards her. I don't want to feel her pain. The hurt of having something and then realising you never had it at all. I feel like I let her down in someway. I don't want to remember her last words to me or that defeated glance as she walked away. 

As I lie here, between the soft green grass, and the promising blue sky, I think I will just rest awhile, and perhaps I will dream. Dream of the sad-eyed girl, no longer scared, no longer sad, clutching an entire bouquet of flowers to her chest, with a smile on her face, and a smile in her eyes.

Yes, I think that would be a good dream. 

This past week has consisted mainly of not going to school, spending more time than I care to at a medical centre, and hanging out with some very inspirational kids, and the seeing Tbilisi zoo. 

I won't tell you much at all about the medical centre experience, which is the reason for not going to school, because I wrote a blog about it for the TLG blog. If it gets published there, I will stick the link up on here, alternatively, if not published there, I will stick the entire blog up here at a later date. For now, all you need to know, is that I had a back thing, and it is being worked out. Through a series of injections. Oh me, of life. 

Yesterday, (Saturday) I got the chance to meet some highly inspirational kids. One my friends, and avid supporters of my writings, Sarah,  (still not sure if she is a Sarah with an “H” or without, but I digress) runs an international programme here in Georgia, called The Oceans Project. (http://www.oceansproject.com)  I will not try to desrcibe it in great detail for fear that I actually explain it completely incorrectly, please have a look at the link provided. But, basically, it is about creating awareness of the environment for children in Georgia (and across the world) whilst also allowing the kids to improve their English skills as well. 

They meet every Saturday and do something fun and educational, and they truly are an awesome bunch of kids. This Saturday was a fun adventure about team work in which the kids did a treasure hunt of the city (Tbilisi) they were given a crazy list of things to do and get and they had to record it in pictures or video. They had an absolute ball, and some of the pictures were just amazing, will try and get a link to some of the pics for you from Sarah so you can see just how cool these kids are. 

Of course, being a big group, and a hugely exciting day, I didn't get to spend much time with any of the kids specifically, which I was a bit sad about, because they all seem to have such passion. They are busy working towards being selected to go on a massive adventure to work with some of the best researchers in their fields, some of these opportunities include going to Kenya on a rhino project, the Amazon,  and doing archaeology in Sweden. Amongst other things. And boy are these kids passionate. I got to speak to the one guy who desperately wants to go to the Amazon, he is crazy about plants and has been collecting and pressing different flora since he was 12. I just think it is so fabulous that these kids are getting these opportunities. I think the best way to describe the project, and the best way that I understand it, is that it is like the boy scouts for scientists/researchers. But don't quote me on that.

As I mentioned, I didn't get much time to speak to any of the kids, until something very cool happened. One of the leaders a Georgian lady by the name of Tako (am I right?) who is doing her PhD in things pertaining to the environment and conservation (I wish my mind was less of a sieve, she told me the real title and I forgot it, because I am an eejit), got talking to me, and told me she works at the zoo, doing enrichment for the animals cages. She said that today, for the first time, they were going to be putting live fish into the tiger's pond to try and get them to catch their own prey. Would I like to come with her and see?

“Oh yes of course, yes please,” I answered. “That'd be so cool.” I was weary. I have been avoiding the Tbilisi zoo because I am generally weary of zoos. I tend to feel quite sad about them and the animals tend to look miserable, but I was curious, so I said yes. Sarah, and another Oceans Project leader, Lothar joined me, as did 3 of the kids from the group, who, as it turns out, also volunteered at the zoo, doing cage enrichment as well. 

We got VIP treatment there, the full guided tour, and one of my favourite moments, was when Tako was tickling the lions through the bars of their cage. She has known them since they were cubs, and they were fully grown beasts, quite happy to let her give them a good rub. You could see that they knew and adored her. 

The zoo, is not very big, but bigger than I expected. I was saddened at the state of some of the animals and some of the cages, and I think I would have been completely outraged if I had been there without our guides giving me information that gave me great hope.

The kids, as I mentioned were very enthusiastic and were telling me what they had already done, and what their plans were to do in future, and I was most pleased to see that they were also outraged at things that I thought perhaps, they simply chose not to notice. So it did give me hope. They were such lovely kids. Of course it gave them great pleasure to take me into the snake house and watch me be completely disgusted. :/

I also felt like I came from some foreign country, oh wait... nevermind, because I have so many stories of my own to tell about wild animals causing chaos. I was even starting to think that I sounded far-fetched. I knew someone who had been bitten on the ear by a warthog, I have had a civet cat in my tent, we have been molested by monkeys on multiple occasions, I have a friend who had a baby babboon, I have been in a car that has been charged by a lion,  I have touched a huge dead black mamba, we have had so many snakes in our house, I can't even count them all, I have seen an angry elephant too close for comfort, I have touched a zebra and touched a giraffe, I have seen a very large very angry crocodile from a river bank. My parents and brother have been charged in a car by a rhinoceros, I have been mountain biking in amongst rhinos, I have been kept awake by the cackle of hyenas, I have watched a leopard eat a carcass. I have been very in touch with nature, and it just sounds so very strange in a country where things like that are just dreams for people.  But they are all true stories. I swear it. My parents made sure I had a very well-rounded childhood and included getting very close to nature. :) For which I am very glad.    

After the visit to the zoo, I came back home, feeling ever so happy and content to be in Georgia, just as it was starting to rain, and I woke up this morning to find that there had been floods, and people had died, in the very district I live in. We live fairly high up the hill, so I am not worrying too much, however it did just start raining again. Not cool. There were cars down by the river with water up to the tops of the windows, and a mother and 2 children died in a mudslide. Which is not awesome at all. I hope it stops raining soon!

Oh also, I might just be entering a writing competition for a radio programme. Am feeling massively threathened by the thought, but I have a good idea for a script, so am going to give it a bash. 

Here's to a happy weekend, and to feeling so very calm. 

 (Also, don't forget to click the picture to see more pictures.)

This is a blog that I was supposed to write on Sunday. I didn't. It's Wednesday. I am writing it now. Lets hope I remember what it was that I wanted to say.

Well, I think the first thing I should mention, is the very sad news from back home. On Saturday evening, my uncle had a heart attack and died. Such terrible, shocking news. My thoughts and prayers are with my family back home as they deal with this terrible loss. It is difficult not to feel almost entirely useless being so very far away from them all right now. I wish I could just pop over and offer hugs and cups of tea and provide the same kind of support that they provided my family and I with when we went through my mum's death. I guess that is one disadvantage of having a travel bug. You are never home when it counts.

In other, happier news, I had the chance to spend sometime with some TLG people on Saturday, we had a Cinco De Mayo party (5th of May Party for those who are Spanishly-disabled). They had made loads of delicious Mexican food and invited a whole bunch of us to celebrate with them. It was really nice to spend sometime with people, other than the usual tourists at the hostel, people who understand your experiences in Georgia and who can relate to them. I ate too much of course, but it felt good to eat something familiar. That was my Saturday afternoon's entertainment. It is kind of difficult for me, being the TLG kid who has no friends here. I wish in someways that I had had the opportunity to go through the training again, simply so that I would have had the opportunity to meet people and make proper friends with the. It can be a little lonely.

Although that said, on Monday night I only went to bed at 2:30 because I was having such a fun chat with 2 Lithuanian guys and a girl from Moldova. However, it seems like the theme of my year is "people always leave". It is something I just need to get used to. I do thoroughly enjoy meeting all these people though. My tally of Nationalities for April was 18. I met people from 18 different countries in the space of 2 weeks. I don't need to travel, they come to me, and it's as if I have been to their countries. And it's strange, no matter where they are from, when I say I am from South Africa, they all just think that's the coolest thing ever. Represent. (It clearly is the best thing ever, I just didn't know other people thought so too.

On Sunday, I made my way to Sagarejo to visit the old host family. It was really good to see them, and of course when I told them that I am now feeding myself, my host mother told me I look too thin (as if) and then proceeded to feed me almost constantly for the time I was there. We also went out into the garden and picked some fruit, which I then of course had to bring home with me, and when I got home I found some other bits and pieces of food that had been tucked into my bag. They also took the time to inform me, that my room in their house, is officially called Brigid's room. If something is in there, and someone asks for it, they will be categorically told that it is in Brigid's room. If I can become famous they could rent it out like a hotel room, like the room in some hotel where Agatha Christie stayed. It would be a novel experience. (Haha) "Yes of course, you can stay in the Brigid room. She stayed here once for 6 months. She did a lot of her thinking that made her famous in this room".

What silliness.

Today is a public holiday, its Victory Day, apparently this is a Soviet holiday. I don't know. I don't really mind what the purpose of it is, if it means I get to stay at home for a day in the middle of the week, ignore guests, and hide out in my room.

School is still going swimmingly, and we have a few excursions coming up. I have been invited to join the kids on several of them, because I am the teacher rock-star. Am quite looking forward to these experiences because they all go to different places, and some of them are places I have never been before. YAY!

Much love and many hug dear friends!

f you know me much at all, you will know, that I am quite a fan of rain. I can't explain it. I am just a rain kind of girl. I am a fan of other weather types, there is lots of room for sunny days, and cloudy days, and warm breezy days in my world as well, but something about a rainy day just gives me a little additional thrill. 

I spent the afternoon out walking by myself. The sky was looking very foreboding, so much so, that I turned back and fetched my umbrella before I went any further. I decided to take a nice slow walk down Rustaveli Avenue, and pop my head into any store that took my fancy. I find that usually when walking down this particular street, it is either 4am and I am concentrating on walking, or I am rushing to get somewhere, so either the stores aren't open, or I have no time to look at anything. Today I decided to follow wherever my inner-child took me.

I saw all sorts of weird and fascinating things. Went into a shop that predominantly sold lego and looked around at all the weird legoey things you can get of a day. When I was a wee pup, lego was so LAME, in comparison to what it is now. Luckily kids nowadays are lame in comparison to my day so we are sort of even. (KIDDING) [Or am I?]

Anyway, as I made my way along the road, the first drops soared down from the sky and dive-bombed the pavement, and any person unfortunate enough to be wandering beneath their chosen paths. I think I was the only dork on the street with a smile on my face, looking up at the sky and grinning. I like how ominous the sky looks when it rains. "I warned you" it says, "and now I am really angry and here comes my wrath". Which also makes me giggle. "Angry clouds wrath" is kind of like throwing cotton balls at kittens. They kind of enjoy it. I am a rain kitten. 

<I swear I am not on anything. I am just narrating on behalf of the things in nature which cannot speak for themselves, and whose message perhaps you have failed to interpret yourself.>

I rather smarmily put my little travel umbrella up, smirking at passers-by who had not had the forethought to peer at the sky before leaving home, and wandered along, singing merrily to the rain. I then happened to spot a rather snug looking bookstore, hiding in an alcove off the street, so I went to investigate. 

I was not expecting much, generally the book stores are full of Georgian books (duh, I am in Georgia) but I like the smell of these magical places, and they tend to have stationery in them as well, which is a wonderful bonus for my pencil-smelling-persona. I  was correct on both counts. But, and this might be a surprise to you, I didn't walk away with a pretty smelling pencil, but in fact with a book. Written in Georgian that was printed in 1952." Very gothic-chic. What on earth did you buy a Georgian book that was printed in 1952 that looks gothic-chic for?" I hear you ask (don't think I didn't hear you). And the answer is simply this; its for a project I intend to undertake in my time here. No I am not going to learn to read Georgian books. Think of this book as a frame for a picture which I will be building. I am a little excited about it. (If by any weird chance any of my dad's flower arranging group is reading this, you might know what I am doing with it)

From the bookstore, I moved on to one of my favourite rainy day pass-times in the whole world, eating ice-cream in the rain. I had lemon flavoured ice-cream in a cone, and wandered down the street, giggling a little at the tormented looks on old ladies faces mentally berating me for doing something so careless as eating ice-cream in the rain. I am sure it will probably cause me to bear children with orange hair and freckles on their knuckles or something equally terrifying, but I think that is a risk I am willing to take. On the upside, the ice-cream eating drew their attention away from my obvious lack of acceptable baby-bearing footwear. (If none of this baby bearing stuff makes any sense to you, that's okay basically last year my host mum told me that if your feet get cold you can't have babies.)

I had finally exhausted my inner-child's whimsical nature, and truth be told,my feet were feeling a little chilly, so I decided to use the Number 11 Bus (a cunning way of saying you are walking- because your legs look like an 11. Get it?) and head home. I went and sat on the balcony for a bit and there I heard a rousing chorus of "Happy Birthday to You" being sung by some boisterous boys in the rain. Which made me smile. And then I went to sleep. 

Had a crazy night last night, had guests arrive at the hostel at 2:30, 3:00, 4:00 and 4:45. No sleepy sleepy for me. So I took a much needed nap and have been lazying around since then. Writing this load of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
nonsense. But it has been fun. Happy reading, dear listener. (oh how these jokes crack me up.)

Rain and happiness to you.
x  

It would appear that life, in the last few days, has settled down into some kind of routine, and will continue to be thus for a few whiles to come.

I started school on Wednesday with a bit of a surprise. School days for me run from 8:30 to 16:30. Which will be quite an adjustment to make. It's a long time to be at school, especially when you aren't working in every lesson. I have a lot of off lessons. The number of students (aprox 1300) far outweighs the available classes, so the school is run in shifts. Some kids only start school around midday and other are already finishing at that time. It seems a bit crazy, and to make it even crazier, from September, the school will house 1800 kids because the school down the road will be merging with our school and it looks like the day will be divided into 3 sessions then. Tricky times ahead I feel.

I have a 90 minute commute to and from school each day, which I enjoy. Weirdly, there is something fun for me about having to walk and use the metro to get where I want to be. It does however mean I have to leave the house at 7:45 to get to work on time, which is a foreign concept for me because I use to only wake up at 8:00 in Sagarejo. Also, I get home around 17:30 and then have to take over the shift at the hostel from 18:00. Which is not difficult it is not a busy frantic kind of job, it's just that I don't have a lot of time to myself. So I am still in the process of learning to balance all these things.

My co-teachers are all superly nice. I have spent a lot of time with the one specifically, Eka, and I think she has a bit of a crazy streak like me, and we have really enjoyed getting to know each other. I haven't spent as much time with the other two yet, but they are both really nice and I think I am going to enjoy being at this school. And, so far, my classes have been nice. Well my scheduled classes have been nice. They seem to adore me, judging by the mass hugs and kisses and notes and gifts I am getting. <the life of a rock star> LOL

I am finding also that I have so much writing to do, now with my creativity course, the blog for TLG, the blog for here, my journal, weekly reports, all sorts of things are popping up and I have to learn to make time for all of them. A lot of adjusting happening in my life at the moment. Which to be honest I am enjoying. I am liking the challenge of having to deal with things. I am feeling more empowered (that is such a flaky sounding word) than I have in a while. I guess over the last week, one of my main crutches that I have used a lot was suddenly gone, in a time I needed it the most, and it turned out I didn't need it and I could actually stand on my own two feet. I guess I would never have known I could do it, if it hadn't gone away. So I guess thank you crutch for disappearing from my life, but you can come back now, the lesson has been learned and I am quite a fan of you.

I am enjoying the work in the hostel. If you could call it work. I enjoy being a host in the hostel. I have gotten to meet so many interesting people and had so many interesting conversations, and I have only been here a week and a half. Working in a hostel for me, is like having little strands of string coming from all over the world and all the little strands get tied in a knot in one place and then lead away from the knot, going back to their own lands, but the knot is always there, the place where our lives intersected. I like it.

Of course you get some guests that you just get along better with than others. There was a guy from Finland here for a couple of days last week. He had been travelling for a full year. Georgia was his last stop before heading home and I think he was quite exhausted, so he was quite happy to sit around in the hostel relaxing a lot. Which means I had the chance to get to know him well. We, and some other guests, had a great time together. He had so many interesting travel tales and a great sense of humour. 

There was also a South African guy here who had the chicken pox and stayed with us for a few days as well. I got to have some conversations in Afrikaans which was kind of fun too. I haven't had the chance to really do that in Georgia yet and it was nice to hear a familiar accent. 

Uuuum, I think that is all I need to report about right now. So I shall leave you with that.
Have a lovely week my lovelies.
 xx

I don't really have any news. Well, I have news, but I am sure it fails to be of any interest to anyone. Even me. 

I have moved into the Friends Hostel, in the Old Town part of Tbilisi (so lucky, its beautiful here). I have my own little private room, with a little midget door designed especially for me. *Obs* Its a really nice place to be, with everything I could possibly need to live comfortably, including lots of tourists for me to chat to. I also now technically have a pet in the shape and form of Fifo, the little hostel cat who likes to come and sleep on my bed with me. It's a foreign feeling, having a pet.

My new school I have seen for all of about 1 hour when I went there for the introductory meeting on Wednesday and was then told that I would only be starting school the following Wednesday because Easter holidays had started. So here I am, patiently awaiting Wednesday so I can get going. The school is number 87 in the Isani region of Tbilisi. It's well situated about 100m from the metro station so I can commute there fairly easily. I am excited about working in a city school, I think it will be a very different experience to the town school I was in. My co-teachers all seem like really nice ladies. For two of them, this is their first year of teaching so I think we will work very well together, both figuring out new and exciting ways to make English seem entertaining. I also noticed that some of the walls are a little bare in the one class, so I am excited to get some posters up there as well. Hopefully. 

Apart from that, I seem to have spent majority of my time over the weekend in the hostel. Which has been pleasant and a little boring. I have managed to make myself feel a little miserable spending too much time on my own, and well, its that time of the month again. The mid-month crazies. Can't believe it will be 6 months on Thursday since mum went away, This time always cracks me up a little. 

I have started doing this awesome course called The Artist's Way which I am enjoying immensely. It is challenging me both creatively and mentally, as well, and has made me face one or two things in my life that I had to face but was previously too afraid to. I don't know if I feel very happy for having faced them, or that the results were as I wished them to be, but I am proud of myself for being brave enough to even try. I do however know, that living with regrets is no way of living at all.

Yesterday I had some time off, from the hostel and it was a beautiful day so I took myself down to the pretty park nearby and enjoyed the sunshine and some good alone time. I love the neighbourhood I live in, I really feel so honoured to have the opportunity to be here and so I wandered the streets, looking at different buildings and people and animals and trees and feeling remarkably okay. 

I still have a few more days of holiday and am really hoping to catch up on some sleep over the next day or two so I am awake and ready to tackle the little people. 

This seems very broody and sullen piece. It is I think.

Love and leprechauns. 

It's been a frantic last few days. Frantic in a fun way though. So much holidaying since Friday that I feel like I need a holiday. 

I got the chance to spend the weekend with some amazing people, and in some amazing places. You may or may not know this, but I love this country. It takes my breath away.

Some friends came over for the weekend, from Germany, (of course) and we (Peter, and I) had the chance to try and show them, why we love this country as much as we do. It all started on Friday morning, I made my way to my old haunt, The Rover Hostel, to meet up with them and start our adventure. And adventure we did. We visited all over Tbilisi on Friday and spent the evening in a pub that played live music. When I say evening, I suppose it is more appropriate to say we spent the early morning in a pub with live music.

On Saturday we got ourselves moving fairly early for a day of travelling in marshrutkas. It was a pretty warm day so the travels were interesting at times but we made it to our destination alive and well. I love the way you can travel across this country at a moments notice. Georgia has got something special that I think a lot of places are lacking and its so thoroughly fun. We entertained people on the buses with our mad singing and outrageous laughs. It really was so much fun.

We ended up in Borjomi, having travelled via Gori and Khashauri (places in Georgia, just trust me) and found ourselves without a hostel because the place I knew had closed down. And coincidentally it just happened to be at the same time as the information centre being closed. So we wandered around for awhile looking for a place to stay, which we found eventually. YAY! It was a nice little hotel, that was comfortable enough for sleeping purposes. And then we set out the water park.

Borjomi is best known for its mineral water which is well-known for its healthitude. There is a park you can visit where in summer you can swim in mineral water, but while we were there, we could just taste water. That's what we were told. But we didn't even find any water to taste. So we just walked about the very beautiful park playing on children's swings and playthings and just enjoying the fresh mountain air. Borjomi is one of my favourite places in Georgia, there is just something ridiculously calming about it and it is a happy place to be.

On Sunday we booked a taxi to drive us the 2-3 hour drive to Vardzia, this really cool cave town, which is really old, and fantastic. Do yourself a favour and read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vardzia

We then went on to see a Nun's Monastery (Oxymoron?). Which is one of the most tranquil places I have been... ever, I think. There are just a whole bunch of ladies living up in the mountains, and sometimes the monks come to help them do some manly chores, but otherwise they are completely secluded.

We then got to walk around a fortress for a bit. I think our taxi driver thought we were terrible tourists because we were so quick to look at things, but I have this theory about it all, which is best illustrated by the fortress experience. The fortress is a ruin, so it is a matter of simply looking at it for a couple of minutes and that's it. My theory is, if they could put some mannequins or something similar in the place, you could make it a little more interesting. I don't know how your general knowledge of the workings of fortresses is, but mine is non-existent. If they could use the mannequins to show what happened in different parts of the place, I could spend more time looking around. Just a thought. Use it, don't use it.

We then headed back to Borjomi to catch some lunch and a ride out of town, back to Tbilisi. It's a long way when you are tired, and tired I think we were, but we still managed to go out and have a good evening in a pub.

On Monday we did some more touring of Tbilisi which included a park a church and riding a pedal boat around on the lake. It was lovely. It was a beautiful day and we got to spend it entirely outside.

Monday was also the last day for the Germans, so I guess it was a little bitter sweet, you know how I feel about making friends and having to say good bye to them, and Peter, Franz and Jacqueline (Tank) were no exceptions. They were extraordinary people and we had so many wonderful laughs together. (And many wonderful singing sessions. ;) )

So it was that I bade them farewell at 1:45 and finally got some sleep.

I am currently sitting awaiting a call to go to school for an orientation meeting so that I can start teaching tomorrow.

I also have some fairly exciting news on my accommodation front. I have managed to procure myself a job at a hostel which basically involves me going to stay in the hostel and work in the evenings for them. This is great for several reasons and I am really excited about it. I am moving in their tomorrow. I am sad to leave my host family, because they are really nice people, but I am also excited because I get to be a little more independent. So that's my exciting news.

I am feeling more like myself that I have in a very long time. Very satisfied with life. I haven't felt that in a long time.

Unicorns and Cute little donkeys!!!!
 Loves xoxo   

PS. New thing, if you click on the picture, it will link you to the album it comes from on FB so you can see more pictures. Enjoy.