How to Make Ready Your Life for Winter

1) Take your insulated sleeping bag from behind your wardrobe and unroll it in all its unwashed glory. You'll be spending much of your winter here, though at least this year you can work on your laptop inside the sleeping bag instead of wearing the sleeping bag while you work on the family computer in the next room. Apply ample Febreze.

2) Get your projects to a nice stopping point, far enough along so they won't roll back into nothingness but not so far that they're too time-sensitive to withstand the long winter months, during which it is neither fruit season nor community contribution season. Don't worry; your projects will crank back up in April, around the same time that your community members start appearing outside again.

3) Borrow your site mate's portable hard drive and fill your computer with movies. This is not a time to be discerning: by February, you'll wish you'd taken that copy of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

4) Take your winter clothes out of suitcase storage. It'll be just like in the US, when you realize how unstylish everything you wore the last season was, but it won't bother you because all anyone will ever see you in is your coat. It's a faithful little coat, but you can also take this moment to contemplate the 100% possibility that this'll be the last year you wear it. Hopefully the remaining button will hold tight.

5) Teach your family how to make cinnamon buns. You'll have to ignore your mother's voice in your head telling you to teach them how to make redeeming American food instead, since you're not quite sure what that is, and since you're pretty sure that it involves nonexistent things like boneless skinless chicken breasts and lettuce.

6) Wash all your clothes. The six-month rain season is not conducive to doing so, and you never know when you'll have the chance again.

7) Give yourself a list of Emergency Productivity Activities. It's quite easy to completely waste a day when it gets dark at 5:00, so why not study Georgian some more? Why not learn to knit? Why not read all the handouts and manuals from every conference that Peace Corps has given you since training? The RPCV Career Manual is highly recommended.

8) Put away your sandals. It's still warmish outside, but your neighbors and family will have daily coronaries if you wear such foot-bearing shoes outside in months that end in "-er." You'll catch a cold. Keep warm instead with the thought that the next time you wear those sandals, it'll be time for your Close of Service conference*.

9) Wear layers.







* This is not to imply that you are anxiously awaiting your release from the fine republic you live in, but rather from teaching. The end approacheth.