Life, Rollin' Along

Hello, loyal blogosphere!

Life is continuing to happen here in Tbilisi -- I finally got over my intestinal distress last week, which turned out to be something called Enteritis.  For real, I think my body is trying to see how many "-itises" it can rack up in a 13.5 month period.  It's not funny, body.  Quit.

But yeah.  Long working days four days a week, then one short working day and two nights of stimulating Tbilisi's economy, one Natakhtari at a time.  Sunday has become my Day of Rest.  I had this weird epiphany a few days ago, that somehow my life in Georgia started looking a whole lot like my life in America.  In a lot of ways that's a good thing -- for example, I have discovered Entree, a simply heavenly cafe that serves actual sandwiches and actual salads, as well as pastries and coffeehouse coffee.  Completely delish, but money spent on eating out has greatly increased recently.

But I realized that it's been a little bit since I've done anything really Georgian.  One thing about living in Poti, my host family there was always cooking up a supra or going to a wedding (or once, a funeral) or inviting me out to see free concerts of Georgian dancing in the park.  Now, I love living in Tbilisi, eating chicken sandwiches on crusty wheat bread and drinking with cool friends in their very own flat, but my days have been missing a lot of what makes Georgia cool.  This past Friday evening, a friend and I had dinner at an off-the-beaten-path Georgian restaurant -- we ate ojakhuri and kinkhali (and shot some vodka) and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed myself there.  Kind of want to go back. :)  For one thing, beer was hella cheaper than any place downtown!

Also, seriously, must travel.  It's getting redic.  Unless it is pouring rain (or snow!), I think I am definitely getting out next weekend.  Gori or Davit Gareja, anyone?

Speaking of travel -- I got some amazing news last week!  One of my very best friends, my heterosexual lifemate Chris, is coming to visit me next month!!  She is timing her visit with Georgia's Spring Break, and we are going to Armenia together.  I'd be hard pressed to find a cooler travel buddy for my Armenia adventure, and I simply could not be more excited at the idea of showing her Tbilisi.  Although I need to stop going to only expat places and find some awesome Georgian hangouts before she gets here, because "hey look!  This bar is almost like something you'd find in DC!" isn't exactly the kind of Georgian experience a traveler would find particularly exciting.  Guess it's a good thing I think I've finally topped out on this most recent homesickness wave.

Finally -- look!  Someone published something I wrote on the Internet!!  That's right, my very first official TLG blog post went up today.  I don't think this one will exactly win me any awards; it's a "don't forget this" packing list from the girl who definitely brought too much shit with her to Georgia.  Working on a couple posts with more actual substance, and of course I will let you know as soon as my literary brilliance hits the cloud.

All you lucky bastards back home who never had a winter and now apparently are enjoying summer, please send some warm thoughts across the ocean for me!  Dying for t-shirts and flip flops here.

At the end of the road

With the idea that perhaps saturation will eventually lead to catharsis, and also because I really want to see all this loveliness written down, I present to you a list.  (This is specifically the "doing" list.  The "eating" list is forthcoming.)

Things I Absolutely, Positively MUST Do When I Finally Get Home

1. Sit with my folks on the back deck, in front of a chiminea fire, drinking excellent cab sauv and snacking on crackers and cheese
2. Sit with my folks on the back porch with G&Ts and listen to the Prairie Home Companion
3. Take a bubble bath
4. Trip up to New Jersey to visit family
5. Visit Will and Ally at their beautiful home and enjoy their newly renovated outdoor space
6. Epic Ping and Mary Weekend in the City!  (Already being planned... DC is not ready...)
7. Day of winery visits with Matt
8. Hanging out in some capacity (maybe that cool bar in Gainesville with that awesome band?) with Bart and Tara
9. PX with Jeff and Lucy (and others?  Followed by awesomeness at Pat Troy's?)
10. If there is still hockey, watching a Cup game at Bugsy's with assembled relevant personnel (you know who you are!)
11. Some sort of comprehensive friend-gathering event so I can give out 50+ hugs to everyone I have missed
12. Walk around Burke Lake
13. Work in the woodshop with my Dad and succeed in completing a Project
14. Smithsonian Day
15. Trip into Northwest to visit former colleagues and catch up on office gossip (while enjoying champagne on the W's rooftop terrace, natch!)
16. Day in Old Town Alexandria with lunch at Madeline's, a tour of the Torpedo Factory and afternoon river cruise
17. Church (Father Martin represent!) and Farmers' Market with Mom
18. Watch all three original Star Wars movies with my Dad
19. Star Trek TNG EPIC MARATHON OF SUPREME GREATNESS
20. Buffy/Angel marathon
21. Finally watch Bones Season 5
22. Have the neighbors over so I can shock and amuse them with my horror stories
23. Fall asleep on the back porch
24. Visit Fair Lakes Whole Foods (skirting the line into "food" territory here)
25. Get a pedicure
26. Scrabble Night
27. Visit a dentist
28. Dinner and movie in Shirlington
29. Hiking at Great Falls
30. Rockband

Think two months will be long enough!?  It sure as hell better be because not a single item is coming off this list.  And this was just one evening of brainstorming so this list is only going to get longer... I'm sure there are at least 30 things I've forgotten!

Much love to all my peeps back home, especially my awesome Dad who is having a knee replacement tomorrow!  Thinking of you and sending positive healing thoughts across the Atlantic.  I will see you soon!

Self-Imposed Exile

To put it mildly, I have been obsessing about home lately.  I don't even know if what I've been doing qualifies as homesickness.  I think it goes beyond that and crosses over into possible pathological disorder.  I do something like wash my hands in my host family's bathroom and am flooded with images of memories I never even knew I had, washing my hands in various places around my house.  I almost started crying in class today (I am not exaggerating, I had to wipe an actual, literal, tear) because out of nowhere I got this picture-perfect flash of what it will be like meeting my parents at Dulles.  And I think about American food like... All.  The.  Time.  Right now as I type my brain is cycling through possibilities of What I Would Eat Right Now If I Could.  In fact, it does that on some level for most of my waking hours.  Yeah, it's that bad.

Now, I have been quite ill, and as everyone knows sickness can pretty quickly wear down a person's resistance and resolve.  Came down with a bad cold and cough two Sundays ago, which morphed into a terrific stomach flu last Sunday, and is just on its way out today (God I hope so, anyway).  Nothing makes me want my Mom more than a series of 3, 4, and 5 AM staggerings to the toilet with a 102 fever.  Also, that approach of SPRING which I have been so exultantly crowing about since January has yet to make an appearance despite promises from several Georgians.

I am trying to keep my spirits up.  I promise you I am.  I gave myself quite a long and impassioned pep talk last night as a matter of fact.  I want to re-find my mojo and rekindle that excitement about visiting all those places I keep saying I'm going to visit soon.  I am likely going to Armenia in a month.  Armenia.  That's awesome.  How many people do you know who have been to Armenia?

I fear that I just might be... coming to the end of it.  The end of my metaphorical expat strength, although that sounds unnecessarily dramatic.  I struggle to remember to enjoy the extraordinary and remarkable things around me because I know in my heart that I would a jillion times rather be eating tuna noodle casserole and drinking Two Buck Chuck while watching House Hunters International with my parents and dog while wearing my green LL Bean robe and playing Angry Birds on my iPhone.

Back during the summer, when I was having some issues with various things, I wrote in my journal something to the effect of "If you slip into Waiting, that will be it.  Any remaining joy will leech out of this experience, and you will find you have wasted your time here."

That still could not be more true.  In fact, it is truer now than ever, because I am in a new place with new people and have more opportunities than ever before.  With my second job, I have the means to take advantage of these opportunities in a way I couldn't otherwise.  My new host family is great, and I  know very well that I simply could not be placed in nicer accommodations.  I have precious little to complain about (besides recent gastrointestinal explosions) and I still have three more months here.  That's a long time to wish you were somewhere else, especially when I fought so freaking long and hard to get here in the first place.

It's not so long that I can afford to waste any time being unhappy.

Yes, I am aware of the irony.  Also aware that I need to snap the fuck out of this.  I keep trying.  Looking back, it seems I have been trying ever since I got back from Okinawa.  I keep blaming the winter, but how far can that excuse really stretch?

Again, I think I might be just done.  "So long and thanks for all the kinkhali, Georgia."  I don't want that to be true but if it's one thing I know about myself, my heart rarely if ever listens to my head.

My homesickness is so encompassing that it is even affecting my motivation to solidify my next step.  I am researching options across the globe -- mainly Chile, Argentina, and Turkey, but even as I write my cover letters, and mean everything I say, I can't stop thinking about cleaning up the backyard garden with my Dad and then sharing a beer on the wooden swing.  I think about all the birthdays, get-togethers, dinners and Caps game viewings that my friends keep on having without me.  While I am making memories over here, how many memories have I missed?

But the thing is, I know that returning home, for good, will not be the blissful idyllic party that I am so constantly imagining.  And this, unfortunately, becomes the heart of the matter.  As I said in an email last night to a friend: 

"If I give up, and come home for more than just a visit, I will need to get a job.  I do not want a job.  I do not want a job so violently and completely that I would rather voluntarily exile myself to the second world for the foreseeable future than face the possibility of getting another Ursula for a boss."

Of course, when I say job, I am talking about the kind of job I would have to get back in DC.  The very crux of everything I ran so hard from, gave up everything to get away from.  The possibility of going back to THAT?  After only little over a year?  Makes me feel like dying.  It would, in fact, feel exactly like giving up, like the most complete and abject failure of my entire life.

I'm not doing that.

So here I am.  Grimly, teeth-grittingly determined to enjoy these last months in Sakartvelo, and praying that the two months or however long I get before The Next Phase will be anything close to long enough.

Days Like These

Journal Excerpt, 3/2/12

On days like these, it is easy.

On days like these, I had just been granted a spontaneous day off because my school is having electrical problems.  Because I am an old fart and my Tbilisi working days are long, last night I began my just-extended weekend by reading some Dave Barry and turning the light off at 11:30.

Friday morning, I wake up at 10:30 (guess I needed the sleep).  My room is bright with morning sunlight, and this is important because it means that it is not raining like yesterday.  The heat in my host family’s house, which has been out since Tuesday, is working again.  The bathroom is free and there is plenty of hot water.  I take a long shower.  An American-length shower.

The apartment is empty.  At 12:30, I wander into the kitchen and help myself to some leftover roast chicken (a rare wonderful find!) and an apple.  But just as I am sitting down, my host parents come home.  My host Mom shows me the cake she’d baked (I missed it, cleverly disguised in a plastic bag on the counter); my host Dad throws some sausages in a pot and asks (in Georgian, natch) if I would like some beer, because beer is very good with sausages.  I hadn’t been thinking of starting my drinking at 12:30, but you know, why not?  Beer IS very good with sausages.

In addition to the sausages, they’ve come home with fresh cheese and shoti, a sort of chewy flatish bread.  I’ve never been able to get along with Georgian cheese, but shoti I love, and it makes an excellent addition to my rapidly-expanding lunch spread.

My host Mom rarely eats with us, and today is no exception.  But my host Dad sits down with me and pours me a generous mug of Karva.  We talk, in his pidgin-English and my pidgin-Georgian, about the weather.  He asks me my plans for the evening.  I explain that I have some work to do this afternoon, saklishi, but sheidzleba will go out in the evening, after I get it finished.  All conversations with my host parents include charades, and this is no exception.

Lunch is finished.  I take my refilled mug and settle back into my room, grading Midterms and doing a little writing.  Mid-afternoon, I send a text and make a call, and evening plans are finalized.  We’re going to happy hour at one of my new favorite places in Tbilisi – free food and 2-lari beers and one of the best views around.
__________________

On days like these, it is easy to love Georgia, to let all the accumulated frustrations and confusions evaporate like so much ephemera.

Some days, of course, it is not so easy.  Days like the day before I wrote that, when I arrived at my evening job decidedly damp because I’d elected to angle my umbrella so as to protect my laptop bag instead of my actual self.  When my best attempts to control and corral a classroom of exuberant fifth graders ended in defeating, abject failure.  When I walked in and out of five banks before finding one that did not have a ginormous line and would agree to change my 100-lari note into smaller bills without my showing my passport (which I do not carry on me for obvious reasons).  When the woman in the shop stubbornly refused to understand my (increasingly embarrassing) charades for “tissues.”  No, it’s not like I got run over by a car.  But I challenge anyone to maintain a rosy-cheeked disposition after all that nonsense.

Winter is not my favorite season,  and the constant cold since returning from holiday travels (not to mention the only recently-disappeared ice and snow that covered all Tbilisi sidewalks) has tested my love of and enthusiasm for this country.  Winter always tends to make me feel trapped, but never more so than this past season, when snow closed roads and schools and made the prospect of traveling to the store both unpleasant and dangerous, let alone traveling outside the city.  Just forget it.

To put it simply, Georgia is making me grouchy, and my grouchiness had become so all-encompassing that I’m not entirely certain that it was all completely Georgia’s fault anymore.

Sort of a confusing grouchiness chicken-and-egg analogy.  Just go with it.  The point is that, even though there were snow flurries yesterday, it is now March and I am very eagerly anticipating Spring.  This means, of course, that Spring better freaking happen, and Georgians tell me that March can be a very atmospherically schizophrenic month.  Whatevs.  I’m ready to put aside my wool hats and filthy white parka (never, EVER bring a white winter coat to Georgia.  Ever.  I mean it.), and embark on one of those long-awaited weekend trips somewhere.

Getting Out

So -- lovely day trip to Mtskheta aside -- I have yet to "get out" of Tbilisi, thanks to winter and busyness.  But I have come across some pretty cool night spots that I feel are worth sharing.

First and foremost -- Besty's!  I hesitate even to post about this, because the venue is small and it was crowded enough last Friday.  But I just cannot keep silent.  Betsy's is a hotel on the top of a hill (get to it by walking up the street next to the Rustaveli McDonald's) and thus offers some of the best views around.  Their prices are about what you'd expect at an expat hotel, except they have Happy Hour every Friday from 6:00-8:00, and drinks are half price.  Even better, they serve a small buffet of free food every happy hour.  Two Fridays ago it was awesome chicken curry and white rice, and last Friday it was chicken wings and macaroni and cheese.  So this literally means that for under 10 lari you can get something ridiculous like 4 beers plus a yummy western dinner.  Plus the staff is cool and speak good English, and the decor is cozy and chic.  Real wood-burning fireplace!  Clean, modern western bathrooms with toilet paper, soap, and hot water.  Safe to say I will be spending many, many Friday evenings at this amazing place.

Superior view from Betsy's Bar.

This past Friday I met quite a few very cool expats, from a group of Marines who were celebrating a friend's promotion, to a Scottish businessman chatting with a diplomat from the American Embassy.  Come to Betsy's.  Just... don't bring many friends, and behave yourself. :)

The place, apparently, to bring (a whole lot of) friends is where we've ended up the past two evenings after Betsy's, Canudos Ethnic Bar.  Beer here is 3 lari, so not bad.  Getting a beer, however, might prove more of an ordeal than you're willing to go through.  Last Friday night, it was so crowded that I literally had to resurrect my Concert Skills to get from one side of the room to the other.  It was so crowded that I left after one beer rather than attempting to throw myself into the drunken crush in front of Ethnic's tiny bar in hopes of eventually getting a second.  The bathroom is Not Good, and there is only one toilet which inevitably means a line, especially when it's crowded like last time.  Still, music is usually decent, good rock n' roll for the most part, and they don't care if we play beer pong in the back room.  So, pluses and minuses.  Ethnic is the hotspot for meeting expats these days, which means if you are looking for something to do on a Friday or Saturday, chances are decent you'll run into someone you know there.

Cool people living it up at Ethnic -- fellow TLGers Dan, Ryan, Jennifer, and Callie

Another place I recently discovered is Re-Life Cafe, on Chardin.  A quick google search did not reveal a website, but it's across from KGB if that is helpful.  I remember the beer here being a little more expensive -- 4 lari I think, which would explain why Re-Life is extremely popular with expats who aren't TLG.  Chill small place with couches and low tables for chatting, except the music is really too loud for chatting unless you really throw your vocal cords into it.  Bathroom is nice, separate for men and women which means less pee on my toilet seat, especially as the night wears on.  Bonus.  They let us stay over an hour past closing (we didn't know!) before kicking us out, so props to their niceness on that one.

Dani, Suzanne, and me with another cool TLGer whose name I forget.  My bad.

Finally, I went with a whole bunch of TLGers recently to Mirzani Brewery.  We went to the one in Marjinashvili, but Mirzani is a chain so they can be found all over Tbilisi.  Don't be put off by their Chain status!  Being a brewery, they make their own beer, and that means you can get a very decent mug of beer for the enviable price of 1.50 lari, pretty unheard of elsewhere in the Big City.  They also had house wine very reasonably priced, and the wine was decent.  Their food was excellent too and not badly priced.  Highly recommended!

So there you go -- four pretty decent places to get out in the evenings.  I hope you find them as favorable as I do.  Stay tuned... rest assured I will be back with more savvy tips as find them.  Gaumarjos!

Finally, this is not exactly an expat hotspot, but I didn't want to sign off without saying some good things about the wonderful concert I got to go to last night!  One of my private tutoring pupils invited me out to the Nino Katamadze concert last night at the Tbilisi Philharmonic, and of course I accepted with pleasure.  Turns out she had box seats!  So I literally had one of the best seats in the house for this show, and I enjoyed it immensely.  Nino Katamadze is sort of like a Georgian mix of Adele plus Florence + the Machine, so it is no wonder I liked her.  Of course, could not understand a single word, but her voice was incredible and so was the music.  Check her out!

Saburtalo So Far

Time for another "what's been going on" post.  I am irrationally tired, so don't look for much creativity here today.  But without further ado...

My new digs.  Highly preferred.

View from my bedroom's tiny balcony.

Me with my new host brother Beka, in my family's very beautiful living room.

Host dad Badri, Host mom Marina

 A few Sundays ago, we piled into the car and went to take a look at nearby Mtskheta.

I thought Mtskheta was beautiful.  It's probably very similar to what Svaneti's Mestia will look like in a few years once all the construction is finally done.  The downtown was certainly very touristy with plenty of shops selling kitch.  For 50 tetri I got to wear this sexy traditional hat and have Beka take my picture.

We didn't stay terribly long in town because the cold was a significant problem.  But we did stop in and check out this incredibly beautiful 11th century church in the center of town.

Svetitskhoveli Cathedral

On the way home, we stopped at a Kinkhali House for, well, kinkhali.  And vodka.

Marina and me, and one sad uneaten kinkhali. :)

View from the restaurant's window.

Later that day, the family decided to take me to see their country home, in a village about half an hour east of Tbilisi.  Apparently they spend a lot of their time here in the summer, avoiding Tbilisi's city heat.

Badri and his homemade wine.

Then, last weekend Marina decided to show me how to make kinkhali.  I at least got the dough to stay together although mine were nowhere near as pretty as Marina's!

Also last Sunday, Beka's sister Keti came to visit and took me to see a friend's art opening in a small gallery downtown.  I very much liked his work, check it out if you're in the area.  OR Gallery on Lezelide Street.

So that's what I've been up to, at least as far as host family and culture and stuff.  A second post to catch you up on beer and shenanigans (and less culture) is forthcoming.  I also have a pretty mammoth post on this whole Teaching in Georgia experience, which so far I have been quite silent on.  For a reason.  So until next time.

An Intervention

The other night I had a conversation with my host dad (with my host brother as translator) about food. Specifically about American food, and how universally unhealthy it is. Now, it was late, I'd had a long working day, and maybe I wasn't as diplomatic as I could have been when I replied that Georgians could throw stones about health when their dinner table included vegetables of some sort.

(I said this laughingly, teasing, and not in a mean way. But to my host family's incredible credit and generosity [they are truly awesome], dinners for the past several nights have included salad. The kind with lettuce. In fact, tonight's dinner was exceptionally wonderful.  So let it be said that my host family is to be exempted from pretty much everything that is going to come below.  They are simply way cooler than average.)

Americans have a bad rap for fast food and obesity, and this in many situations is justified. But I'm not sure that a culture whose main staples are white carbs, cheese, undefinable animal parts, and chacha can really pass any judgement in this particular department. And also of course there's a lot more to being healthy than just what is on the table.

The other night was hardly the first time I have had to defend American food and health habits to a Georgian.  In fact, this post had been percolating in draft form for about a month before I dusted it off.  So, Georgia -- you think we've got messed up ideas about health and good food?  Allow me to reply.

Not long before leaving my Vashlijvari family, I had another relatively brief but violent bout of food poisoning. Unfortunately food poisoning is no longer something to write home about because it is just one of those things that can be expected from time to time. And why is this? This is because Georgians have this really interesting idea that it is unnecessary to refrigerate anything. The culprit this last time was bean stew (lobio), which ironically is one of their "healthier" staples but any nutritional properties of the dish go literally down the toilet when the stewpot has been sitting on the stove for 36 hours straight, next to the heater.

Georgia: food will go bad if you do not properly store/refrigerate it. Eventually, all food will go bad even if it is properly stored. Eating this food will make you sick. This is a fact.

Additionally, while this more relevant in the summer, flies and other insects carry disease. Having them crawling on your food because you leave stuff out and uncovered is gross. This too, is a fact.

And finally -- when you wash your hands and you don't use any soap, this does not count as washing your hands. Not washing your hands spreads germs. And yes -- this is another fact.

Let's move on to food itself.

Above, I mentioned a typical Georgian table's complete lack of vegetables, but it merits further review because I want to point out that during my entire stay with my Vashilijvari family, not ONCE did a fresh vegetable appear. This is not hyperbole, not an exaggeration to make a point. This is truth. And back in Poti, once my host family's own garden stopped producing tomatoes and cucumbers, they stopped serving veggies too. It goes without saying that Georgians don't take multivitamins, so this means that for the entire winter... what? They get their vitamins from the air? Honestly I am surprised scurvy is not a common Georgian disease. Oh, and btw -- covering vegetables with oil or mayonnaise, while better than nothing, does kind of defeat the purpose some.

Georgia: vegetables are awesome. They are out there, waiting to love you. Do not fear the vegetables.

The pitfalls of a Georgian table hardly end here. With the exception of cheese, there is practically no dairy. I rarely if ever see kids drinking milk, and adults don't even put milk in their coffee. I don't think it would come as a surprise to anyone (except maybe a Georgian), that this likely is a major contributor as to why so many older Georgians have terrible osteoporosis, as well as the horror-movie quality of Georgian teeth.

On to meat. Georgians love to boil stuff. They boil it into irrecognition, and either no one has told them that boiling removes a good deal of nutrition from anything, or they don't care, or they disregard this as "theory." When (most) Georgians get meat, the first thing they usually do is boil it. Then when it's nice and stringy, they hack the poor waterlogged creature into indefinable chunks, taking into zero account such finer points as the actual cuts of meat, let alone things like bone, fat, gristle, skin, and my personal favorite subgroup, the sneaky sneaky bone shard. It's not terribly appetizing, to be honest. And I feel kind of redundant saying that boiling something to pulp and then frying it in sunflower oil is not exactly the healthiest way to go about getting your protein.

Let's move on to carbs. Georgia loves carbs. They love carbs a bunch. Every meal includes bread, and a lot of it. But let me tell you about something near and dear to my heart (sarcasm), a lovely little dish called ghomi.

Poti is in a region of Georgian called Mingrelia, and ghomi is a traditional Mingrelian staple. Ghomi is grits. It's basically coarse-ground corn flour boiled in water. It has practically no dietary fiber, a ton of carbohydrates, and almost no vitamins. Despite popular (Mengrelian) belief, not only is ghomi not healthy, but it tastes like something I imagine they serve prisoners in North Korea. It's like the gruel Oliver asked for more of. I freaking hate ghomi. I would rather not eat rather than eat ghomi, and I have.

When I lived in Poti, I got ghomi a lot, and was hoping that since it was a regional specialty, I'd be spared this particular cultural experience in Tbilisi. Sadly for me, my Vashlijvari family loved the stuff, but my new (sane!) family has told me that they hate ghomi.  Hooray for them!  And for me.

Georgia: Eating tons of white bread (or similar carbs) at every meal is not healthy. This is also a fact.

No post about Georgian eating habits would be complete without mentioning the booze.  Some might call me hypocritical for bitching about Georgia's collective love of boozing it up, as clearly I have had no problems with this tradition in the past.  But Georgia, even though I may agree that shooting back chacha for hours while toasting everyone from God to Saakashvili to all my aunts, uncles, and cousins twice removed is good solid family fun, surely we can agree that this habit is not particularly good for you.  Most grown people in other countries do not carry bottles of vodka with them to visit friends.  In fact, it's pretty uncommon for most folks out of college to do shots at all -- special events like bachelor parties, job firings, unauthorized credit card activity etc., not withstanding.

This last particular anecdote is not directly related to food, but is related to health, so I think now is a good time to share with you that many Georgians honestly do not believe that spending hours in the sun with no protection will give you skin cancer. On the other hand, I have been told, with utter seriousness and sincerity, that cats will give you lung cancer. Now, if "cats" were a code word for "cigarettes", which nearly every Georgian over 18 (and a good deal younger) smokes like they think the answer to the universe will be found on the other end of the filter, that would make sense. But the (young and educated!) Georgian that told me this did not mean cigarettes. She meant cats, and she explained that this was the reason that many Georgians did not like cats. I'm just going to take this moment to say the following, for the record.

Georgia:  Yes, those giant black and white labels on your cigarettes are not lying. Cigarettes are bad for your health. Broiling your unprotected skin for hours in the summer sun is also bad for your health.  These are facts.

Cats, on the other hand, I'm pretty sure are in the clear.

We come from the land of the ice and snow...

First... more news! I've been selected to be a guest blogger on my Program's official blog! I suppose at this point I finally need to stop sidestepping this issue. The big reveal....my "Program" is called Teach and Learn with Georgia, although seriously that is probably an open secret by now. I will be sure to post links when I write in my new official capacity. I wonder if I can work in a post about Star Trek.

I feel it really must be noted that, for closing on a year I keep on somehow getting pretty much what I ask for. Whether what I ask for is always actually what I really need is another story, but...

My newest host family just keeps blowing my mind on an hourly basis. We are currently closing out the evening watching the Travel Channel (dubbed in Georgian). My host dad and I are sipping whiskey on the rocks.

Yeah. Sipping. From glasses that contain actual ice cubes. My host family owns an ice tray.

Their apartment is utterly lovely. My room is huge, gorgeous, and boasts its own private teeny balcony. There are built-in radiators in every room. And seriously, you should just see the kitchen.

I live with my host mom and dad Mariam and Badri, with their 20-year old son Beka. There are also two grandparents that live in a granny suite, so I see them maybe once a day for a few seconds. Beka speaks excellent English and so far we are getting along great. This is good, because I found out yesterday that my family also owns the apartment directly above this one, and that is where my host parents sleep and spend part of their day. With the grandparents behind closed doors, this means that Beka and I have this enormous beautiful apartment all to ourselves for a good part of the time. Honestly this could be a little weird if it wasn't for my young host's impeccable manners and hospitality.

The four of us have had dinner together the past three nights, and overall things have been nothing but pleasant and easygoing. Mariam and Badri don't speak English but Beka is a very willing and able translator. Badri has selected a different libation for each evening. The first night, it was homemade black wine. The second night, Russian chacha. And tonight, the whiskey. Tomorrow night we are having white wine to accompany the goose he shot today while hunting with his friends.

On Sunday, they are planning to take me on a day trip to Mtskheta.

The one, and I do really mean the only one, less-than-good thing about my new situation is that they do not have wireless. I am posting this from the family's computer which is located in the hallway. I have started the conversation regarding my paying for the extra service if they're willing to get wireless; if that doesn't work I will have to get one of those portable routers like several other TLGers have. So, stay tuned for jealousy-inducing photos as soon as I can upload them.

Yesterday, I had my first day of classes at the Ministry of Justice. They both went very well and I am looking forward to our next class tomorrow. But I don't exactly have my commute to my new home streamlined yet, and it took me over an hour and a half door-to-door. Beka sent me a few texts and finally called, saying his parents were worried about me. I didn't know how to take this -- after all, I plan to be out some nights a LOT later than 9:30! But I finally stumble in the door shortly before 10:00 to find that they had actually held dinner for me. This is not something that my previous host families would have ever done, so needless to say I was thrown for a little bit of a loop! But they were everything that is gracious and we had a wonderful meal with lots of laughter.

Today was very quiet; I did work for my MOJ job most of the afternoon. It snowed (again, for a change) most of last night and today, utterly quelling any possible desire to set foot outside if I did not have to. And Beka just told me that tomorrow will be even colder, with -- yes, more snow. Guess I am rocking the waterproof hiking boots at the MOJ tomorrow.

Ah yes... and of course I am currently waiting to start at my new school in Saburtalo. The weather is shite enough that schools have been closed nationwide until Monday. The (tentative) plan is for me to meet my new co-teachers on Friday, and then start on Monday. We will see.

So... yeah. TLG job co-teaching, job with the MOJ, TLG blog writing, personal blog writing, and studying for my Business English certification. Oh yes, and figuring out where I am going next. It just might be a good thing that this epic winter is keeping me inside where I belong. Because as soon as it warms the heck up I am not going to want to spend many weekends in Tbilisi. There's a country to see, somewhere buried under all this stupid snow.

This has been in my head recently (with good cause).  Now it will be in your head too.

The Modern Era

I am procrastinating on writing my Upper Intermediate syllabus while listening to Georgian folk at window-rattling volume (which I'm pretty sure is deliberate punishment for my being stubborn and insisting that I got a hot shower last night [which required staying up until past 4:00 AM]), so here is is:

21 simple inventions I really, really wish Georgians would embrace:

1. The clothes dryer
2. The street sign
3. The accessible and accurate bus and marshrutka schedule
4. The window screen
5. The "change ringtone" option on their Nokia cell phone
6. The taxi meter
7. The ice tray
8. The charcoal grill
9. The snow shovel
10. The snow plow
11. The gravel salt and icemelt
12. The central heating (and AC!)
13. The volume button (specifically the down button) on their television and computer
14. The food preservation safety precautions
15. The mealtime (not to mention the concept of breakfast, lunch, and dinner)
16. The traffic lane
17. The sheet set
18. The dental floss
19. The privacy
20. The personal space
21. The child discipline

Changes

Well.  Here we are again, my lovlies.  Many exciting things have happened recently in my exciting life that I am very excited to tell you about.  Excitedly.

First, I completed my TEFL course.  I am now a certified to Teach English in a Foreign Language.  The particular course I signed up for also came with a free supplementary course in Business English, so really I am just rolling right along, learnin' stuff.

And just a few days after I finished my TEFL, I got a second job!  I really am very pleased about this, because it will effectively double my take-home pay.  Which is huge (in importance, not in $$. Sadly).  However, I have told myself that this extra income is for two things -- travel, and savings.  We'll see how well I hold up with that.  The job is teaching Advanced and Upper Intermediate adults at Georgia's Ministry of Justice.  Pretty sweet resume booster, but this also looks to be no slouch.  I just spent most of this afternoon and evening rewriting a very detailed syllabus for my Advanced class, and it's not even done.  After that there is the UI syllabus to tackle, and class hasn't even started yet.  I am looking forward to the challenge, and it will be a refreshing change from the feral playground that is the Georgian school system.

Lastly... I am moving.  I found out last night that my host family is selling the apartment and going... somewhere.  So I have to get out.  Luckily, my Program found me another host family within 24 hours, and I move on Monday.  The really good news is that this time I actually will be in Saburtalo, near the Delisi metro stop.  I'm not going to pretend that I'm not really, really happy to be getting out of Vashlijvari.  This village life is not what I expected when I moved to the Capital!  I have felt very isolated and just plain bored here.  I am looking forward to not spending an hour or more on mass transit when I decide I want to go grab dinner out.

It's a little bit of a bummer how things have ended with my host family here though.  I have absolutely no details and they are sharing nothing, so I can't speculate on whatever situation made them so abruptly decide to pull up stakes.  But (I am leaving so I guess I can afford to be honest), although these people have been very good to me, it has become obvious that the family is dealing with some ongoing and pretty serious interpersonal issues.  They really are not in a position right now to host anyone, even if they weren't moving.  I wish them all the best, but I am relieved to have gotten this opportunity to let them work out whatever serious issues they are apparently facing, and relieved as well to be able to gracefully bow out.

(There are a whole plethora of small issues I could cite as more specific examples as to why I am happy to be leaving, but I started to type and it all just sounded horribly petty, so I guess that's for another time if at all.)

No Gori for me this weekend, clearly.  Even if I didn't have to pack and write two syllabi, Tbilisi's currently savage winter makes traveling anywhere both unpleasant and dangerous.  They say it gets better in March.  I am very, very glad February is a short month.