Summer Ends...doh!

Well,
Normalcy has returned here in the Republic of Georgia after a long and lovely four-month break from school. My summer culminated with a week in the woods at eco camp, a weeklong tour of Turkey, and some new guests arriving in town. Eco camp was fun. I had my first successful jaunt in the woods sans amenities. I was worried before going to camp but living in tents for a week is not much different than my time at flat rock river summer camp. Living in tents is not much different than living in cabins...so all those nay sayers can go suck an egg. I have now been anointed wood nymph status as i am an expert river bather. The kids at camp were great and especially enjoyed activates like ultimate Frisbee, making god's eyes, and singing camp songs. I also think they learned a bit about the environment.
After Eco camp I went straight to our mid-service conference that was held in a little village above Tbilisi. It was boring as usual, but such is the life of a government functioner...even in the peace corps one cannot escape federal bureaucracy.
However, this conference did signify that we had successfully completed one year of service and the differences between this time last year and now are jarring. Things seem much more normal now. There is a proverbial light at the end of the tunnel and it seems as if time is slipping away here in Georgia. there is so much still that i want to do here and so much to do to prepare for my homecoming. I have to take the GRE, study for the GRE, learn Russian, implement my grant, see everything in Georgia I possibly can, and figure out what I want to do when I get back to the states (going back to indy is NOT a viable option).
After MST I immediately left for Turkey to meet Ben and Julie who were given stick instructions by my worried mother to help me wrestle down a career trajectory. Though only a country away seemed like worlds away from life in Georgia. The way that Ben and Julie traveled was far different than I was used to. Evidently their days of living in hostels and eating street food for every meal are over and I was more than willing to benefit from their kind generosity. They say that I will be able to afford to travel well in six years, but i have doubts regarding this claim. We also decided that I should look into a career in design and this prospect seems both exciting and interesting so i am currently researching programs in my free time.
Since arriving back from Turkey I have been kept busy with a variety of guests. There are two new sitemates that live in Rustavi and having them around is great. it is a vast change from being the only volunteer at site as i practically was last year. It doesn't seem quite like peace corps at times, but it does make things less lonely. Erin also moved in about a month ago and is going to move out again in a few weeks. Peace Corps policy dictates that volunteers cannot live together, so she has found an apartment of her own in new rustavi. Don't feel too bad for her. Her apartment is fully furnished and she has a washing machine.
Living close to Tbilisi has its advantages and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is that we are painfully close to the office so when visitors come they bring them by to see how volunteers in the trenches really live. A few weeks ago we had two visits in one week from the country director. We met with the regional head of safety and security and the director of EMA (eastern europe, Mediterranean, and Asia). The meetings were okay. The safety and security guy was nice and seemed very affable. The EMA director was a bush-appointee...nuf said.
School started last week and things are even more chaotic than they were last year. My school was remodeled over the summer ( it does not look much better, the floors still suck but at least we have new windows) and as a result school started three weeks later than it was supposed to. Nothing is really finished yet and no one is really ready for school to start. I only taught one class last week because no one knows when or where class will meet. I also have to buy TVs and books for my grant, but right now there is no place to put anything.
Like i said, I have a better idea now what to expect here in Georgia. Things are chaotic but i just go with the flow. I have ten months left, which seems insane. So much to do in so little time. I have yet to figure out what i'm going to do for the winter. Guests are welcome and i have plenty of vacation days if anyone wants me to meet them somewhere. Craig says he is going to visit but he is flakey so everything is still up in the air. But that seems to be the theme here…Eh, c’est la vie.