During a recent visit with my Grandma, Kay Ambur (shout out! You're internet famous G-ma!) I was informed that she was somewhat disappointed that my blog had come to a sudden and abrupt halt and that I needed to wrap things up a bit. This is that.
The last week of my stay in Georgia was a bit hectic. The weather got really cold, which I believe caused the pipes to freeze, so we didn't have running water for like a week. That meant using water heated in the kettle to wash your face and brush your teeth, and using tubs of water heated over the wood stove to bathe. It also meant that I couldn't do laundry. Jamie smelled a little grody that week. The snow that we had also made it difficult for me to get to Telavi to turn into my books, and to Tbilisi to turn in my phone and go to the doctor to take care of an infected belly button piercing. But I made it both places safely.
The last week also entailed me being blessed by a Georgian Orthodox priest, licked on the face by a drunk old man (long story), and I received a lot of homemade cards from my kids at school saying things like "Me <3 Jeimi" It was adorable.
My host family drove me to Tbilisi after my last day with them and then I headed to Batumi on the overnight train, where I caught a flight to Istanbul. There, after getting royally ripped off by a taxi driver, I met my fellow English teaching friends Mary Ellen and Max at a hostel. We spent Christmas in Istanbul, where we went to one of the few (if not the only?) Christmas Eve masses at a Catholic church. We also saw the Hagia Sofia and had our first Starbucks in 4 months.
Then Mary Ellen and I bussed to Athens, where we spent a beautiful day exploring the Parthenon. Then we got on a ferry to the island of Santorini. It was obviously the off season, so we were able to stay in a nice hotel with very friendly owners who gave us free pasta, free cake and coffee, and a free bottle of wine. This awesome place only cost a bit more than most of the hostels we stayed at. On Santorini, we did a day hike from Fira to Oia to watch the "most beautiful sunset in the world." Unfortunately, it started raining, and we didn't get much of a sunset. We did see some water spouts in the ocean though, which I was pretty excited about. We also saw the ruins of the ancient city of Akrotiri, and ate a seafood lunch less than 10 feet from the Aegean.
We ferried back to Athens and rang in the New Year at the James Joyce Pub. Mary Ellen headed back to Tbilisi the next day, and I stayed in Athens one more day to explore the ancient Agora and to take the tram to the top of Lycabettus Hill, Athens' highest point.
Then I took the night train to Thessaloniki and spent the next day in Greece's second city. I bussed back to Istanbul, spent a day seeing Topkapi Palace and eating more delicious Turkish food, and then got a flight back to Batumi the next morning. I had a lot of time to kill in Batumi before my night train to Tbilisi, which was kind of depressing because it was rainy and cold, and I was carrying around my bags. I got back to Tbilisi the next morning and hung out at the hostel where I had stored my bags, met with a couple of friends, pulled an allnighter, and got a taxi to the airport at 3:30 a.m.
My journey back to the U.S. was long, but went smoothly. I arrived in Atlanta to see my sister and my new niece, Lucia, waiting for me at baggage claim. An hour later, I was reunited with my dog Macy, who I missed most of all :)
I spent the next month with friends and family in North Carolina, Tennessee, Iowa, and South Dakota.
As most of you probably know, on Monday, February 11th, I arrived in Denver, CO to be a corps member in AmeriCorps first FEMA Corps class on the Denver campus. It's now Thursday the 14th (Happy Valentine's Day!) and I am loving it. FEMA Corps is a new branch of the AmeriCorps NCCC program, and entails 10 months of service working on a team of about 8-10 corps members on FEMA projects across the U.S.
I'll keep you posted on how that goes...not sure if I'm going to blog about it yet. But if you're interested in updates, follow the AmeriCorps NCCC Southwest Campus on Facebook to see pictures of our training and updates on our activities throughout the next 10 months.
Thanks for reading :)
Nakhvamdis!
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