So after posting the comment-rant of earlier, I realized that Rules for Playing in My House was in fact my 100th blog entry! If I had planned ahead, I might have organized a slightly less snippy, slightly more celebratory entry to commemorate this milestone. Ah well, whatevs. :)
I seriously am jazzed ( and continue to be surprised!) when folks from outside the Mary-circle find their way here. I hope my embracing the hated Censorship did not scare anyone away, or offend anyone it was not intended to offend. And no, I have received no vitriolic hate mail or typo-filled, grammatically horrific manifesto that acted as a spark for all this. There have been a couple of comments recently from aliases unknown that I would consider off-base, but nothing the least significant. Rather, the decision to hold comments for approval happened as more of a pre-emptive strike as it became apparent that my readership circle is moving slightly outside of the familiar. It started looking like a not-bad idea to take steps now, while the blog was still lucky enough to be mostly crazy-free. It's pretty dumb to put on a seat belt after you've already gotten in the wreck.
But enough on that. "Now back to the good part!"
Finally, this past weekend I was successful in getting out of Tbilisi! My friend Matt's host dad was driving to Kutaisi on business, and we hitched a ride. The weather as we left Tbilisi was sunny and warm, and I was super excited about getting to walk around a little bit and maybe even see that Art Museum that kept on being closed when Julie and I visited last summer.
On the way, Matt's host dad had to make a stop outside one of the refugee villages outside of Tbilisi. These were built after the 2008 war to try and house the thousands who had been displaced from their homes as a result of the war and South Ossetia's effective succession.
Matt and I walked around a little while business was being conducted. It was a little sad, of course, but I have to give major credit to the Georgian government, the EU, and USAID who were the main forces in getting these villages built so quickly and effectively.
It was apparently Garden Planting Day in the village, because that's what most of the inhabitants were doing. There were also several extremely large piles of cow poo sitting around, ostensibly for this purpose.
You can see from the pictures above that our beautiful day was not lasting... in fact, when we finally pulled into Kutaisi it was both freezing and pouring rain. Also our stop meant that it was 5:00 already. So... no walking around, no art museum. Matt and I walked with due speed straight to a nearby restaurant he knew and commenced with ordering our first real food of the day. We were able to meet up with a friend of ours -- also Matt! -- so that was quite cool. I hadn't seen him since I was last in Kutaisi. We ordered a ton of beers and Georgian food, including the worst Ojakhuri I have ever had. Bummer, because that's usually one of the dishes I can count on enjoying. After dinner, Matt's dad called to say he was done, and came and picked us up. And that was that. Hope to see more of you next time, Kutaisi. We had a fun time on the way back, sipping wine and vodka because Georgian has no rules about open containers in the car, as long as the driver is not drinking. I pulled out my iPod and we each took an earphone, and I honestly hope we did not annoy Matt's dad too much with our singing. :)
On Sunday, I woke up with a distinct "Ick" feeling in my sinuses and throat. Oh, not again. I took it easy all day until around 7:00, when my host family told me that there was apparently a massive outdoor supra being planned for that evening. So much for taking it easy...
We went downstairs to the back area outside the apartment complex where things were already warming up. A dude was making a ton of Mtsvadi. I <3 Mtsvadi.
In the background here, you can see the roughly half-dozen drinking implements of various shapes and sizes that were all lifted down and passed around during the course of the evening. I drank out of wooden horns, hollowed-out animal horns (awesome), flat shallow bowls, miniature kevris, a small pitcher, and a thing that looked like a clay oil lamp. Oh yeah, and a wooden goblet. And a mask. Good times.
The party broke up around midnight. Amazing, fantastic time with excellent people. I gave three toasts in (terrible but understandable!) Georgian. I hope that now that the weather has finally started cooperating that there will be many more of these!
This time next week -- if all goes well -- I will be meeting Chris at the airport! Could not be more excited. So much to do before then!! I realized the other day that I need to write BOTH my MOJ class midterms before I leave. Guess what I will be doing this weekend...
I seriously am jazzed ( and continue to be surprised!) when folks from outside the Mary-circle find their way here. I hope my embracing the hated Censorship did not scare anyone away, or offend anyone it was not intended to offend. And no, I have received no vitriolic hate mail or typo-filled, grammatically horrific manifesto that acted as a spark for all this. There have been a couple of comments recently from aliases unknown that I would consider off-base, but nothing the least significant. Rather, the decision to hold comments for approval happened as more of a pre-emptive strike as it became apparent that my readership circle is moving slightly outside of the familiar. It started looking like a not-bad idea to take steps now, while the blog was still lucky enough to be mostly crazy-free. It's pretty dumb to put on a seat belt after you've already gotten in the wreck.
But enough on that. "Now back to the good part!"
Finally, this past weekend I was successful in getting out of Tbilisi! My friend Matt's host dad was driving to Kutaisi on business, and we hitched a ride. The weather as we left Tbilisi was sunny and warm, and I was super excited about getting to walk around a little bit and maybe even see that Art Museum that kept on being closed when Julie and I visited last summer.
On the way, Matt's host dad had to make a stop outside one of the refugee villages outside of Tbilisi. These were built after the 2008 war to try and house the thousands who had been displaced from their homes as a result of the war and South Ossetia's effective succession.
Matt and I walked around a little while business was being conducted. It was a little sad, of course, but I have to give major credit to the Georgian government, the EU, and USAID who were the main forces in getting these villages built so quickly and effectively.
It was apparently Garden Planting Day in the village, because that's what most of the inhabitants were doing. There were also several extremely large piles of cow poo sitting around, ostensibly for this purpose.
 |
| With human for scale |
On Sunday, I woke up with a distinct "Ick" feeling in my sinuses and throat. Oh, not again. I took it easy all day until around 7:00, when my host family told me that there was apparently a massive outdoor supra being planned for that evening. So much for taking it easy...
We went downstairs to the back area outside the apartment complex where things were already warming up. A dude was making a ton of Mtsvadi. I <3 Mtsvadi.
 |
| Me about to drink from the qanci, all bundled up against impending illness. |
This time next week -- if all goes well -- I will be meeting Chris at the airport! Could not be more excited. So much to do before then!! I realized the other day that I need to write BOTH my MOJ class midterms before I leave. Guess what I will be doing this weekend...
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