TBS-KPB-PEK-OKA

Yesterday, my brother-in-law came home from a seven-month deployment overseas.  I just wanted to take a moment and say what an incredible badass I think he is.

That's my beautiful sister welcoming her husband home.  Welcome back, my honorary brother and excellent friend!

And, thank you for being so willing to share your wife with me for the next month!

This time tomorrow, I will be in the Kiev airport.  Waiting out a five hour layover before boarding an 8-hour flight to Beijing, a TEN HOUR layover there, and then humping the final leg to Okinawa, where these people will be waiting for me.  This will be the longest trip I've made in my life so far by a long shot, but I would happily take a trip four times as long if it meant I could see these two at the end of it.

I haven't packed a thing yet, but Christmas presents are all bought.  Eve and Brad, I hope you like Georgian kitch! :)

I love traveling.  I even, in a warped, messed-up kind of way, love airports.  I love how everyone is going somewhere.  Everyone is on a road, be that business or visiting family or finally making that dream vacation you've wanted all your life.  I love making single-serving friends at airport bars or sharing the same space in a squished seating row.  When you're in an airport, it sort of by definition means that you are in transit.  You are leaving something behind, whatever it is and for however long, for something else.  Maybe something new.  Maybe something sad.  Maybe something life-changing.  Maybe something small and inconvenient.  But maybe something awesome.

I have a feeling I'm heading into a whole lot of awesome.

I'm also, little by little, catching up to Matt. :)

I have this beautiful song on my iPod, and I hear it in my head whenever I'm about to step onto ground I have not felt before.  When I was going through my depression of earlier this year, I watched this video a lot.  It always made me happy, and it also helped to re-cement my love of seeing new, exotic, and possibly difficult places, and hardened my shattered resolve to try and live the kind of life I knew I wanted.

I'm completely convinced that this man has the single Best Job in the World, and I want to be him.  Failing actual body-snatcher success, I'm pretty sure that right at this moment I am as close to being Matt as it's possible to be.  Three countries in 24 hours?  Yes please.  Even if two of those are just airports.  Because like I said, I dig on airports.  I do not think I'd be able to get anyone to dance with me though, although I'll never know for sure because I don't plan to try. :)  I leave the dancing to the professionals.

A week in the life...

Been a week since I left you with probably more negativity than you wanted on your Sunday.  And, as my mother and a good friend so wisely remind me... "This too shall pass."

My Program did end up calling my host family on Monday morning.  When I got home from my first day at the new school, my host Mom was very awesome and we had a long talk -- as much as such a thing is possible with the  language barrier! :)  She broke out the apple chacha and we mended fences the true Georgian way.  My Program also assured me that extraordinary circumstances were in play that had nothing to do with me.  My bedroom's still really chilly, but I'm leaving my door open a little more these days.

The first week at my new school went really well.  My new co-teachers so far seem very supportive and eager to collaborate.  A little different from my Poti school where I wrote in my journal most classes to stave off mind-killing boredom!

I did not work on Wednesday however, because the Tbilisi volunteers got an invitation to attend a meeting with Georgia's Minister of Education at the Sheraton Hotel.  There were about a hundred of us, so it's not like I actually got to meet the man or anything, and no one else was taking pictures (except for journalists) so I didn't feel comfortable snapping any shots either.  But I enjoyed his presentation; he seems very progressive and eager to take our Program even further than it's already come.  Meeting ended around 2:00 and I spent the rest of the day (and well into the night!) hanging with some new expat friends.  Pretty cool day all around.

Friday was a bit of an adventure... I only have two classes on Fridays so came home at 11:00 after a very hard workday. :)  My host mom had lunch ready and once again pulled out the apple chacha.  That stuff is truly deadly.  It sneaks up on you.  This is twice now I have gone from "fine" to flatlined with very little warning in between.  So after my... nap, I arose refreshed and ready to tackle Tbilisi's incomprehensible mass transit system.

I have slowly come to the irritating conclusion that, unless I want to plunk down five or six lari for a cab ride (may not sound like a lot to you Statesiders, but please keep in mind this is almost HALF of what I make in a day!), it's going to take upwards of 30 to ninety minutes to get ANYWHERE.  Doubtless I'll learn some additional secrets as the weeks and months roll out, but as of now I have learned the hard way to budget at least an hour and a half to get anywhere.  That's a little redic, even for someone with as much free time as I have these days.

But back on Friday, I only gave myself one measley hour to get to Suzanne's place, and so was half an hour late.  Oh well.  We were meeting there to travel to Dani's 23rd Birthday Party.

Dani's family must dig her a lot. :)  Huge spread at an excellent restaurant, kareoke (I did NOT sing), followed by dancing.

Me and the Birthday Girl!

This loooong table was all Dani!  Also, Mark and Julie came to town!

 It was a great time, followed by a cool conversation and standing massage (so awesome) at Suzanne's after.  Many thanks to Dani and her family!

Last night was another good time, but I don't feel like uploading photos right now so you will have to wait a few days for the next installment of my Nutty Life Chronicles.

Oh yes, and this time next week I will be wrapping up my first day in JAPAN.  I have been waiting for this for so long, it's almost weird to have takeoff finally so close.  Eve sent me a link to this fabulous website, with instructions to email her with a list of things I wanted to see/do/eat.  Needless to say it was a long list!  Castles, temples, waterfalls, snorkeling, whale watching... and lots and lots of time sipping champagne in pajamas and watching silly movies.  And all of it with two of my favorite people who I haven't seen in almost two years!  Just thinking about that is enough to make me forget a couple of minor second-world inconveniences.

This week is going to fly by what with prep and packing (I love lists so much!), not to mention Christmas present buying which I have been a complete slacker on thus far.

Gloves off

In my last post, once again I talked about everything that was good -- host family, location, meeting with friends in the city.  And everything I told you was 100% truth.

I just didn't tell you all of it.

But tonight, for reasons that I trust will soon be made quite clear, I am inspired towards honesty.  Truth without the rose-colored glass I so often write my posts behind, because this sucker is public and I am afraid of hurting someone's feelings.

But tonight, just once -- heck with that.

I am fighting it, but the truth of the matter is that so far my Tbilisi life has been quite frustrating and more than a little disappointing.  Being so far out on the city outskirts is a gigantic pain in the ass.  Among other things, it means I am very isolated in the evenings and I have not found any other expats nearby to play with.  After seven months with my very cool, always-up-for-an-adventure Poti crew, this shit is like a steady drip of cold water while standing naked in a Georgian winter.  I am BORED.

An exploratory long walk of my neighborhood was completely depressing.  There are two possible restaurants, and an additional restaurant that is probably a strip club or something else unsavory.  (Georgia has a lot of these.)  There are about 35 gas stations, a couple furniture stores, some autobody shops, and the usual array of seedy local markets run by grouchy bent babushkas who glare at you like an American flag is going to pop out and distract everyone while you steal something.  In short, there is precious little to do within walking distance.  And even though I have yet to try either of the restaurants, exactly how much do I want to fork over my lari to sit in a drafty cafe and eat Georgian food (salty and bland, hooray!)  by myself?

A huge source of frustration has been regarding my attempts to (re)connect with the other expats here.  Messages have gone unanswered, promises to call have yet to be fulfilled.  I have no idea what the heck is going on, but so far I have felt very alone here.  It was quite excellent to see Suzanne and meet some new people on Friday.  But (and maybe this is just my social anxiety acting up), I don't know that I really gelled with most of the people there.  And I am really kind of over begging people to come and hang out with me.

Today, I got up (and put on earrings, even!) and marshutkaed into downtown Tbilisi because my friend Levan (from the 11-hour Kobuleti bar extravaganza) was playing at the Tbilisi Marriott for Sunday brunch.  But Levan completely failed to mention that this event was not something where it was cool to just roll up by yourself.  There were nothing but big tables for large groups, and even if there had been a bar or a convenient two-top in the corner, it wouldn't have mattered because you needed a reservation.  It would have been really, really cool to have known this in advance.  I got to say Hi to Levan between songs and walk right back out of there again.  Fucking super.  I sent Levan a text to call me when he was done and we'd meet for a drink.  Radio silence.  Whatevs.

And now, for the grand finale of my bitching -- the host family.  I wrote that they were wonderful, and they were.  I hope they will be wonderful again.  But for the past several days, they have been dealing (badly) with some family issues (I think).  There was a very big and terrible blow-up Thursday night that had the family at each others' throats until almost 3:00 in the morning.  It was not pleasant to witness, even from behind a closed door.

And since then, there has been a whole lot of screaming and yelling and the occasional meltdown.  Earlier this evening my host Mom screamed into the phone for half an hour, and is currently at it again with a family member or two.  This whole deal is -- to say the least -- extremely uncomfortable here recently, and I have been doing a lot of hiding in my room.  Last night for dinner I had Doritos.

Hiding in my room (natch) sucks a lot.  It sucks because I am fucking bored (see above), because I sit and listen to whatever awfulness is happening in the kitchen and wonder what in the HELL could be going on, and also because the only heat in the apartment is generated from a gas heater in the kitchen next door.  When my door is closed, it gets very chilly in here.  And -- much like my last host family, and one of the reasons I decided to leave -- they have refused to supply me with a heater that they are contractually obligated to provide.

I don't know exactly what to do about all this.  If the fighting and screaming and uncomfortableness continues then of course I will not be able to stay here.  But I have emailed my Program about this issue and have yet to receive a response.  Just one more frustration in a whole sea of them these days.

For now I think I will visit one of the local shops and purchase another dinner bag of Doritos.  And maybe some vodka.

Tomorrow I teach for the first time in my new school.

Tbilisi: First Week

Hello again, faithful readers!

Well, here I am in beautiful Tbilisi, settled in my new room in my new host-apartment with my new very excellent host-family.

Turns out I am not in Saburtalo; closer to Digomi or Didube.  I am distinctly on the edge of the city, but things could definitely be worse, mainly thanks to Marshutka #40, whose route takes me on a 45-minute journey to Freedom Square, on the way passing Tbilisi's massive nutty main Bazari, the stadium, a brewery, a marshutka station, a Thai restaurant, Tbilisi's Catholic Church, a nice district north of the river that has plenty of shops and restaurants, and a McDonalds.

Speaking of, I ate at McDonald's twice yesterday.  I am not ashamed.

McDonald's in Tbilisi is a bit of an odd concept.  It's McDonald's, so their Big Mac (I had one!), their double cheeseburger (had one of these too!), and their McChicken (and one of these!  Blame the Georgian beer!) all are wonderfully identical to any of the same taste explosions you might get at a rest stop in New Jersey.  But because they are the same, they are priced the same.  This transforms McDonald's from the inexpensive last-resort-meal-on-the-go to an incredible extravagance.  For example, earlier in the week I had lunch at a cute little restaurant near the Bazari.  Giant chicken shwarma wrap and two draft beers came to just under nine lari.  In contrast, my lunch of Big Mac, small fries and large coke came to a mighty eleven lari.  And this for a meal that did not -- for the record -- even include any alcohol.

The true irony here is that I would likely cut off my own pinky than eat McDonald's twice in one day when in the States.  Here, it was just awesome.  But also something reserved for special occasions, for the sake of both my BMI and my wallet.

Still, that Big Mac was fucking good.   Anyway.

Life in Tbilisi, believe it or not, has been pretty quiet so far.  I arrived a week ago today, at just about this time.  It was starting to snow.  I had a quiet dinner with my new host mom and host sisters (with fruit juice as beverage!!), took a sleeping pill and had an early night.

The next morning I woke up to this:

View from my apartment's balcony.

You can see from the rather sparse urban landscape that my new host-apartment is not exactly in the middle of things!  Probably not entirely a bad thing that this is so. :)

Also, my host family had chickens on their balcony.

The next day started off just as quiet.  I've started reading Kerouac's On the Road and spent a lot of the day doing that.  But at dinner, the homemade apple chacha came out (delicious, and made by my host grandpa!), and the night got very Georgian indeed. :)

Shots with my host mom Kate, dance party in the bedroom with host sister Tatia and her cousin Ann, and then Kate decided we needed to visit my host dad Zviadi at the restaurant where he sings!  So we did.

Tatia and Ann

Host Mom Kate and me.  We bonded this night a little. :)

 The week has proceeded apace.  On Monday, Kate took me to the aforementioned massive, utterly insane Tbilisi Bazari.  On Tuesday, I took good old #40 into town and splurged on drinks and lunch at the Marriott.  Mimosas (real mimosas!!!) and smoked salmon and French onion soup.  YUM.  I've taken a couple walks and braved the Bazari on my own and met a few friends, and so far I have to say I am very happy with my life in the Big City.

View of the city from the playground next to my apartment.

Last night I braved the bus system (different than the marshutkas) and went into Saburtalo to meet my old Orientation roommate Suzanne and some of her friends.  All very cool people; we drank plenty of Georgian beer and Suzanne and I had our late-night trip to McDonald's to finish off our night.  A bunch of folks there were heading downtown to a bar after that, but it was 1:00 AM and I decided to call it a night.  Looking forward to hanging with those guys again though.

Quiet Saturday today after last night's shenanigans.  And my little host sister, Anano, just came in wanting her second English lesson of the day!  How... wonderful.