Settling In

How to Attain Celebrity Status Overseas
1. Be American
2. Join the Peace Corps

Follow those simple rules and you will see how in no time you too can become an instant celeb in your country. Being the local "Amerikeli" can do wonders when it comes to publicity.

Exhibit A.
The first week in September I helped host a summer camp with 2 other volunteers in a town about 40min away. The camp was a week long and had about 40 students. Day 1 we had a local (and by local I also mean national) tv crew come to film the camp and interview the volunteers. The same day I found myself being randomly stopped on the streets by people who said they saw me on tv. Some nice international exposure if I say so myself- can I put that on my resume?

Exhibit B.
In July during our training, we hosted a summer school in our training village. Our objective was to tap into our student's creativity through different types of activities. For one of my classes I decided to have a sci-fi themed class and have students design their own aliens. They had to present it and tell the class where their alien came from, what they're called and then how they said hello in their native language (that right there was some craziness!). So in the middle of the presentations, a camera crew comes in and starts filming. Of all the days and classesto film us they choose sci-fi day! What are the locals to think? This crazy American is teaching our kids about space aliens? Weeks later I saw the edited version of the clip...and there I am talking to students with a bright green, 6 eyed, 4 legged alien behind me. Oy!

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"Here drink some wine. It'll warm you right up." And with that I greedily accepted a glass of red wine from my host father. In the month that I have been living in Gori the temp has dropped from the 90s down to the low 50s...and then some. Needless to say this is not boding well for apprehension about the upcoming winter. The fact that I am wearing wool socks at night plus my long johns is worrying me a lot! It's been nearly a decade since I've experienced an actual winter! From the town center I can see more and more snow gathering on the Caucusus mountains. Oh bring back my heatwave please! As a joke or maybe it was out of pity my sitemate Mark gave me some footwarmers. Doesn't matter, I was highly appreciative!

So it's been just over a month since I swore in as a volunteer and moved to my permanent site. With a month before classes were set to begin what's a TEFL volunteer to do? Read, read, read! As a Peace Coprs volunteer you literally have all the time in the world to read. All those books I wanted to read but never had a chance to due to school or work, well now I have no excuse. Where would I be without the PC lounge and its library? But then again there's only so much reading one can do to keep from going stir crazy.

I've been teaching english classes at a local youth-oriented NGO (non-governmental organization) where another volunteer works at. I have 4 classes a week for kids aged 9-16. I'll be doing that until my school opens up. Regarding my school, the good news is that they are finally under going long-needed renovations. Its been 50 yrs since the last one. Bad news is that the renovations are taking longer than expected and it won't be open on time. This unfortunately is the situation that many TEFL volunteers have found themselves in. All operational schools began classes on 18 Sept. Currently my director is hoping for an October date.

In the meantime, I'm also working at my host mother's school, which she also founded. My host mother is a go-getter! I'm working there 3 times a week teaching grades 4-9. When I was visiting the 2nd graders they were singing '1 little, 2 little, 3 little Indians...' So cute! It definately feels good to be actually *doing* something now and feeling productive. Everytime I visit a new class the students are always eager to ask questions. It never fails that I get asked if I have a boyfriend--definately a foreign concept because in Georgia if you have a boyfriend he is essentially your fiance and you're expected to marry. Now when posed this question, I can go one of two routes. I can say ''no'' and then be prepared to deflect the immediate offers to introduce me to some kargi bichebi (good boys) or I can say ''yes'' and say that he's either back in America and still face a barrage of questions regarding why I'm not married yet and when do I think I'll have kids? *Sigh* no win-win situation.

Between that, reading and harassing my sitemates, I've also had a chance to acquaint myself with our satellite tv. The majority of channels we get are Arabic. I even get channels from Iraq, Iran and I have the famous Al-Jazeera. Also have access to China's official English channel. Now that's an interesting channel to watch! There's also quite a few German channels. Every wonder where shows go once they get cancelled? Hello overseas audience! I have seen Home Improvement, Beverly Hills 90210, Andromeda, and....ALF! There's also tons of cartoons...remember Talespin? Check. Apprentice- yup Georgians created their own version which is identical to ours except 'Trump' has better hair. Probably what I get a kick out of the most though is the Russian-dubbed Sopranos- now thats kickass.