Trabzon, Part 3

For our last full day in Turkey, Julie and I got up early again (for us), and bought tickets on a bus to Sumela Monastery, about an hour inland from Trabzon.  As pretty much all things seemed to happen for us in Turkey, the tickets were purchased no problem; the bus was clean and modern and left on time.  We drove through some astoundingly gorgeous countryside and mountians, and eventually stopped on the side of one of those mountians so we could take pictures of this:

Sumela Monastery

 

After a few minutes, the bus drove us a little further along, then dumped us out to hike the rest of the way.  I was a little unsettled, because the broken-language communication I received was that the bus would meet us at a restaurant... down at the foot of the mountain   It had been a bit of a long ride to get up here... but Julie scolded me into worrying about such problems when they arose. :)  It certainly was a shame to not be giving this experience my 100% full attention...

Final trek up to the monastery.

I really enjoyed getting to walk the final part of the way up the mountain.   The day was so beautiful and the views just stunning... it was awesome to be able to take it all in at your own pace.  Also I'll admit to getting the very faint stirrings of being on a pilgrimage or some such, silly I know, for less than a half-hour walk up a path.  But still.  It was a lot cooler than just arriving by bus, that's for sure.  And back in the day, those people that actually made it to Sumela must have really, really wanted to get there.

View from the top.

Exterior of the monastery wall.

Inside the compound

Restored frescoes inside

Weight of the world... :)

Julie with restored exterior frescoes

 You are just plain going to have to forgive me for all these photos, because it's not like I could ever pick just one.  Finally, reluctantly taking our leave of Sumela, we began figuring out how the heck to get back down the mountain.  Turns out there was another path that offered a more direct, if steeper, way back to the town proper.  Unexpected bonus that we got to hike through some of Turkey's gorgeous wilderness -- and downhill, even!  Life is good, folks.

Looking down at a waterfall.

At the bottom, we emerged right onto a restaurant next to a river.  A restaurant that served beer!  Hooray!!!  And another really, really good Turkish meal was pretty much all it took for these two Americans to seal the deal with their Turkish love affair.  The whole experience of seeing the monastery, running fingertips over ancient walls, feeling your heart work and muscles move as you moved through scenery too incredible for words, and coming out to this amazing meal and yet more friendly Turkish people... I cannot WAIT to go back to this country!

As we were leaving to catch the bus, our waiter stopped me and pinned a little souvenir to my sweatshirt... a charm with a tiny dolphin and a blue bead painted with the Evil Eye.  :)

Back in Trabzon, Julie and I crashed like stones, napping in our crappy hotel room for something like three hours.  When we woke up, it was the perfect time for another little hike, this time up to the top of Boztepe Hill, just in time to watch the sun set over this amazing city.

I wasn't sure precisely where to go, but once again -- luck was with us, and a cute little Turkish kid attached himself to us for no particular reason and guided us safely up to exactly where we needed to be.  I gave him a lira. :)

At the top of the hill, we found a cafe and ordered Turkish tea... and this is what came:

The pot sat on top of the hot water jug, staying warm, and when the tea in the pot got low we could fill it with more fresh hot water.  Without a doubt, the coolest tea-drinking experience of my life, and one more little thing to make me fall ever more in love with this city and country...

Night falls over Trabzon.

And then, finally, it was time to head back down the hill.  We were trying to meet up with a friend of ours, James, and had left a note at his hotel to meet us at the Efes Pub that night at 8:00.  But sadly James had already left Turkey that morning, so Julie and I just had a couple beers and went to get dinner at one of Ataturk Square's many outdoor cafes.

Ataturk Square at night

Last dinner in Turkey! :(

 And then, finally, nothing for it but to head to the hotel for a last drink out of empty water bottles and a moderately early night.  There is not one single thing I would change about this vacation.  I loved every second and fell utterly for this city and its incredible people.  I can't wait to see what else Turkey has to show me.  Until next time!

The next day, we pretty much had time for a quick walk-around to pick up souvenirs and snacks for the trip, and then grab the bus back home.  Our bus ride from Trabzon back to Georgia was uneventful, and we crossed the border with a minimum of fuss.  In Trabzon, we had bought bus tickets to Batumi, so were kind of surprised and annoyed when our tour bus never picked us back up on the other side of the border!!  But, once again things work out for the best, as we met Arthur and Tigran, friends from Armenia vacationing in Georgia.  We rode the local bus back to Batumi, and then they asked us out for a beer.  We guided them to a place we knew nearby, on the water.

Tigran and Arthur with Julie

One beer turned into many beers and kinkhali, and two new excellent friends.  I couldn't have asked for a more perfect ending to our trip!

Home again (almost).  Sunset on Batumi Harbor.

Eventually we got a late-night marshrutka and a taxi back home to Poti.  I simply could not have asked for a better vacation to close out the summer!  And Georgia welcomed me back with open arms... the next post will be full of weddings and supras and shenanigans galore. :) 

Trabzon, Part 2

Ladies and menfolk -- we have internet!

Lord knows how long we will have internet, so by all means let's knock out some more wonderful Turkey experiences.

Day 2:  Julie and I both slept late, and woke up to the surprise of no hot water.  The management assured us it would be on within two hours.  (This was not true.)  I took a cold shower, then went for a stroll around the city by myself while Julie chilled in the room and hoped for hot water.  I got a light breakfast on Ataturk Square and walked around, discovering one of Trabzon's many markets and enjoying the perfect sunshine.  Trabzon is an incredibly beautiful city.

Pretty as a picture.

Pretty as an even prettier picture. :)

I met up with Julie and together we got lunch at an outside cafe.  Turkish food is awesome.  Then we walked around the city some more, ogling all the gorgeous markets and shops.

You seriously don't see fruit this pretty in Georgia.

I was also graciously allowed to enter my first-ever mosque -- shoes off and head covered and everything.  It was very peaceful and silent inside... no furniture except for a few benches near the back wall and a very squishy soft red carpet.  I only stayed for a minute and didn't take any pictures as there were a couple men praying when I was there.  Once again, I just can't say enough about the wonderful Turkish people and their indulgence to a grubby American tourist!

And then we discovered the Trabzon Museum in the restored Kostaki Mansion.

Yeah, I went to college and everything.

After the museum, we talked about either walking up to Boztepe Hill or grabbing a bus to the Ataturk Kosku, a restored mansion honoring the first President of Turkey.  But it looked like it was about to Monsoon, so we headed back to the hotel for a rest instead.  Then it was time for dinner... Julie, in an act of true friendship, granted my request and we ate at McDonald's.  No judging.  Georgian McDonald's don't even have chicken.

Then it was back to Efes Pub for a couple beers... we met three extremely cool Turkish men who invited us to join them.  They asked us to dinner the next evening.

Day 3:  Julie and I actually managed to get up early!  (For us.)  We caught a Turkish marshrutka (clean, modern, and utterly efficient, take notes Georgia) to Trabzon's Aya Sofya, a 13th century Byzantine church converted to a mosque and eventually to its most recent incarnation as a museum and tourist spot.  Utterly breathtaking, overlooking the Black Sea with gorgeously preserved frescoes on the interior.  Julie and I both loved it here so much!  If you see one thing in Trabzon, let this be it.

Breathtaking Aya Sofya

Amazing frescoes inside.

I was very probably not supposed to do this

There is a beautiful outdoor tea garden next to the Aya Sofya, and I suggested stopping there for brunch.  SO glad we did!  It was a perfectly gorgeous day, and so amazing to sit in the company of the Aya Sofya and the Black Sea, and sip Turkish tea... and gorge on a Turkish breakfast that might be one of my favorite meals ever.  Cheesy scrambled eggs, fresh bread with butter and jam, olives and cold meats, fresh veggies and mild white cheese.  Utterly perfect.  We lingered for quite some time here because we couldn't bring ourselves to leave!

But eventually we had to remember that there was quite a bit still to see in our newest favorite city, and walked -- with the aid of my finally-acquired map! -- through the city to the Gulbahar Hatun Mosque and Tomb.

Mosque we couldn't get into.

Gulbahar Hatun Mosque and Tomb

On the way here, we had tried to enter another mosque but weren't allowed for some reason (although they were still perfectly polite about it).  But we could go into this one no problem provided the head and shoes requirements were met.  And I was the only one in there when I went... so I risked a couple photos.

The Gulbahar Hatun Mosque and Tomb was right next to a lovely city park that housed a peacock enclosure and four swans swimming magisterially around a fountain.  We stopped for a Turkish tea and let the swans entertain us.

Then, I wanted to catch Bus 4 to the Ataturk Kosku, 7 kilometers out from the city.  But we missed the bus by literally like... a second, and after waiting for 20 minutes with no new bus in sight, decided to give up on the Ataturk Kosku in favor of dinner, and then... a Turkish Hamam!

This tasted even better than it looks.

The previous evening, our Turkish gentlemen friends told us about a Hamam right off Ataturk Square.  They did not tell us that this particular Hamam was only for men!!!  But, the wonderfulness of Turkish people shined through again, because when our waiter at dinner found out our plans, he took us by the hand (literally) and led us around the corner from the men's Hamam to the women's.

Now, I have no pictures of this (natch), but this experience puts up a good fight as being My Very Favorite Thing about the Trabzon Vacation.  The Hamam's women were so incredibly kind and patient and led us through everything, despite them not speaking English and our speaking maybe seven words of Turkish.  We were ushered into the main waiting/relaxation room where we were given a towel and proceeded to strip down to our birthday suits... then were led into the actual Hamam itself.

I of course wasn't sure what to expect... but I kind of thought Turkish bath implied maybe some sort of communal jakuzzi, where I would soak nekkid with a glass of fruit juice or something, and slowly prune with the other nekkid Turkish ladies.  Nope.  We were led to small marble bowls set against the wall, where hot and/or cold water could be poured according to your preference.  We were supposed to take small plastic bowls and pour this water over ourselves, and then when we were sufficiently drenched, proceed (nekkid) into a sauna, where we sweated until this was no longer fun, then went back out to pour more water over ourselves.

A very kind, very patient Turkish woman was my shepherd for the rest of the process.  I laid down on a warm marble table and she rubbed every inch of me with this special mitt that was pretty much the best exfoliation ever.  I did not have one molecule of dead skin on me by the time she was done (and it felt awesome).  So more water poured over me to wash away all the icky dead skin, then back on the table for the actual scrubbing and massage.  I have never, ever, in my entire life, been so clean.  She washed my hair too... but unfortunately for some stupid reason, sitting in this hot room and not being able to open my eyes (due to soap, while having water poured on my head at irregular intervals), triggered my claustrophobia big time.  I challenge anyone to try and communicate "I am seriously fucking claustrophobic and currently freaking  the hell out for no logical reason whatsoever, so please get this soap out of my eyes before I have a panic attack" while trying to cross a language barrier the size of the Black Sea, and while also incidentally being blind and naked.  But, my very patient attendant picked up that I was not happy and washed away the soap so I could see, and I think she may have cut that part of the service a little short, bless her.

That bit of unpleasantness aside, I seriously loved my experience at the Hamam.  It was strangely kind of liberating to walk around naked among strangers, and our Super Duper Cleaning could not have come at a better time considering the no hot water situation at our stupid hotel.

As I was resting in a lounge chair and waiting for Julie to finish up, I watched my masseuse emerge from the dressing room and begin to put on her street clothes.  Gradually it became apparent that this woman who had just had her hands on nearly every bit of me, whom I had seen in a bright red bra and matching boyshort panties, was a traditional Muslim woman.  I watched her assemble her layers like so much armor, cover her hair with her scarf, and suddenly I felt just so incredibly privileged to have gotten to experience this wonderful and intimate part of Muslim and Turkish culture.  This was a place for Muslim women to let more than their hair down.  It was a refuge.  I watched her leave, head and ankles and wrists properly concealed, and wondered how many other women in similar dress wore bright red bras or harbored other secrets you just might never suspect when meeting her on the street.

And then, after our already very full day, it was time to head to the hotel for a quick change of clothes and then to meet our Turkish gentlemen friends for a late dinner.  They picked us up and drove us to a place just out of town, to a place where you could actually order a glass of wine with your meal.  They wanted us to try raki, which is a lot like Greek ouzo -- very strong and licorice.  They ordered a bunch of sampler dishes of Turkish food, and we ate and drank and laughed on the shore of the Black Sea.  After dinner, I saw luminescent jellyfish lighting up off the coast.  So cool.

And then, finally, it was time to call it a night.  At least no one can say our Turkish vacation was boring!  And one more day still to go.

A very belated travel post, part 1

Well well, here we are again... if I even have any readers left after deserting you for so long.  Got a little derailed after getting back from Turkey.  School started, I came down with a post-travel bug, and worst of all I coped with a death in the family from the other side of the world.

Despite the silence, life has been barreling along here in Poti and its environs.  But first, let's finally knock out the trip to Trabzon, which was nothing but amazing and incredible from start to finish.

Julie and I left Poti via crummy marshrutka on Saturday, September 10, in the pouring rain.  A marshrutka from Poti to Batumi, then a quick stop in the city to pee, buy snacks and vodka, and exchange money.  Then a walk through the rain to find another marshrutka to Sarpi, on the Georgian-Turkish border.

Julie smiling in the rain as we wait in the passport line... for the first time.

It was really quite confusing figuring out where all we needed to go to get our visas... but luckily the Turks are some of the most friendly and helpful people I've ever met.  A random guy took us all the way to the opposite end of the border station, to a tiny kiosk we literally would never have found on our own.  Then a couple of other hoops to jump through, and viola!

Legit in Turkey!

Another helpful Turkish man helped us get a taxi from the border to Hopa.  And we never even saw the Hopa bus station, because our Taxi screeched to a halt on the highway and flagged down a bus that was... going to Trabzon.  Talk about convenient.  We pretty much grabbed our stuff and made the switch in a minute and a half.  It was a long bus ride to Trabzon, mainly because the bus made a ton of stops along the way, sometimes waiting for 15 or 20 minutes at each stop.  But eventually, after leaving my house at 8:15 that morning, the bus pulled over next to Trabzon's Ataturk Square at just after 4:00 PM.

Ataturk Square

I knew our hotel was right off the square, but had no idea as to exactly where, and Turkey is kind of like Georgia in that there are no goddam street signs.  So we just sort of wandered around... and after less than ten minutes, I spotted our hotel around a corner.  Things work again.

Our hotel, Hotel Erzurum, was very basic.  As in... Very.  But it was within our modest budget, was right in the center of town, and had a water view (from the right angle).  So who's to complain about no hot water and the occasional friendly cockroach? :D  (Only saw two of those, thank goodness, and both near the end of our trip.  Still, those who know me can be very proud of the hysterics I did not have upon these unwanted discoveries.)

Modest Accommodations

Our view, if you stood all the way over to the right.

Julie wanted to do some shopping, so we headed across the square to Trabzon's very bustling, very modern shopping district.

After the isolation in Georgia from almost all things Western, it was a very welcome shock to see a McDonald's AND a Burger King sharing a street corner.  Trabzon has pretty much every Western convenience you could ask for -- Julie and I made sure to stock up on shampoo, lotion, and other girly necessities while there, as such things are simply not available in Poti, or available for a horrific price.  But Trabzon manages to blend thousands of years of history in with their modern conveniences   I fell in love with this city pretty much immediately.

After shopping, we walked around, wanting to find an off-the-beaten-path restaurant for dinner.  This was kind of a mistake, and we wandered aimlessly for almost an hour and a half.  Also we did not yet understand that, in Trabzon, it is virtually impossible to find a restaurant or cafe that also serves alcohol, even beer or wine.  So we wasted some time looking for something that we simply were not going to find.

Eventually, though, our wanderings took us past a hookah bar.  They served food (barely), and we were starving and tired and frustrated and wanted to try a genuine Turkish hookah (they call them nargile).  So our first meal in Turkey was a crappy hamburger and sodas.  Bummer, but at least it was calories.  After dinner, we ordered a nargile with apple tobacco, which at the very least was a lot tastier than their burgers.

Right after this photo was taken, I was mugging for another shot on Julie's camera, and picked up the giant hooka itself, around the middle.  To my extraordinary horror, the bottom of the thing fell right off, crashed to the floor, and began spilling water everywhere!  I was so mortified.  But once again the Turkish people showed their grace and graciousness.  The staff came to my aid, whisked the poor busted thing away, smiled and waved away my desperate "Ozur dilerim!!"  (Sorry!), and soon returned with a brand-new hookah for us.  Oh well.  Stupid American trick #1, in the books.

After dinner, we walked back to Ataturk Square where I had seen Efes Pub, so we could get a few drinks.  The place was packed with Trabzonites watching their very own football team play Manchester, but we were able to find seats right away.  A few beers and glasses of wine, and then we retreated back to the room for a couple more drinks (mixed in empty water bottles, classy), and girl talk.

A very satisfying first day in Turkey!  More to come -- as soon as my family's internet starts working again!

In Memoriam

Well, I have been quite the absentee blogger  since leaving for Turkey.  I have quite a bit to share with you, have no doubt.  But I'm afraid that, after putting it off this long, it's going to have to wait a little longer still.

This post is about a very special, very wonderful man in my life, Robert L. O'Connor.  This man is my Grandpa, and he passed away on Friday, September 23, at the age of 89.

His whole life, nothing meant more to Grandpa than family.  Family was paramount.  Family did not just come first -- sometimes it seemed that there simply was nothing after family.  For all of my life, he and his wife Elizabeth, a wife of 65 years, reigned benevelolently over the expansive O'Connor clan.  Three of their five children remained within an hour's drive of their Murray Hill, New Jersey house, and his oldest child -- my mother -- remained so fiercely close to her parents that she spoke to them on the phone nearly every day, and would regularly make the 5-hour drive to visit even for a weekend.  Their house was the epicenter of all things O'Connor, the embodiment of what defined our family.  Bob and Betty O'Connor's children would marry, maybe take different names.  But really it was just the O'Connor clan that was growing.

So it seems only fitting and just that my Grandfather passed away in the very house where he and Grandma raised their five children.  He passed peacefully, in his sleep, surrounded by the family that he and Gradma had devoted their existence to.

I have so many wonderful memories of my Grandfather, and of that house.  When I was still small enough to believe in these things, Grandpa had me convinced that the small chandelier in their downstairs hallway was magic.  He would reach up -- he was tall enough to do this -- and come down with the jellybeans or piece of hard candy that he had stashed up their earlier.  And I was enchanted.

He was the first person I remember playing Candyland with.  He would make me warm milk and actually get it to be yummy.

When I was at their house and looking for something to do, he would take me to the top floor and show me his seashells and drawer full of foreign coins he had picked up during his world travels.  I was enraptured with the delicate skeleton of a tiny seahorse, and he gave it to me as a gift, padded in a jewelry box.  I treasured that seahorse for years.

I last saw my Grandfather last February.  I went up with my Mom for a long weekend, and this time it was my turn to dazzle him -- both he and Grandma were pretty impressed by my new iPhone 4.  I remember staying up late with him one night and Googling trivia for the last couple answers that were stumping him in his NY Times crossword puzzle.  Grandpa managed to hold out for an entire life spent without a computer in his house, but by the end of the weekend he was calling to me to "look up (this or that) on that gadget, will you?"

It is very hard to be across the world at this moment.  Tomorrow morning there will be a viewing, and on Tuesday they will lay him to rest.  I want so badly to be able to be in New Jersey, to say my final goodbyes to the Grandfather who was always so good and kind to me.  But I also want to be there for those people he is leaving behind... my Grandma, my Mother, my aunts, uncles, and cousins.  There is a hole in each of our lives now.  The O'Connor clan has lost its patriarch, and an era is drawing to a close.  From now on, things will be different.

Safe journey, Grandpa.  You have all my love and the love of an incredible family.  And that is the greatest legacy that I can think of.

Happy Birthday Pierre!

Just a short post because I want to make sure to do this, and tomorrow Julie and I leave for TRABZON.  I am so incredibly excited, not to mention a little nervous.  That trip from Poti to Trabzon, ugh.  But I just found out a random awesome bonus -- James, from our intake group, is also traveling to Trabzon tomorrow!  It will be great to see him, and the more the merrier when it comes to figuring out Turkish!

But first -- yesterday, my friend Pierre had a birthday.  His family had a supra for him, of course...

Birthday Boy in green

And it was a total blast!  Pierre's family is so warm and generous, not to mention excellent cooks.  They made chicken mtsvadi.  I know chicken isn't the most exotic of meats, but I love chicken, and hardly ever get to eat it in Poti.

I arrived at 6:00 and immediately had a beer put in my hand.  And the night just went up from there.  Pierre has a lot of Georgian friends and they were all there -- very cool guys.

I ate a ton of food to wash down the beer, homemade wine and vodka shots that were continually being passed around.  It was an all-around fantastic evening and I hope to be invited back to dinner at Pierre's family's house in the future!

Drinking out of the birthday qanci.

Grapes from the family's vineyards

Georgian dancing... sort of. :)

Gaumarjos!

Another amazing Georgian memory in the books.  And in a few days I will have pictures and stories from Turkey for you.  Peace, all.

Travels near and far...

So pleased to announce that I am going to Trabzon, Turkey this coming Saturday with Julie!

I am really, really excited, because this means I will get that passport stamp I wanted before September after all.  Trabzon is only about three hours away by car, and is also on the Black Sea.  The police training program will finish up tomorrow -- I have a mammoth final to give out to these poor guys -- and then I will have Thursday and Friday to get ready for Turkey!  Mustafa helped us book a hotel right off of the main square, and I plan to pick his brain for some helpful Turkish words and phrases I haven't been able to find on the internet.

So... even though Trabzon is only three hours away... it's going to take us a LOT longer to actually get there.  Here's what we have to do.  (Frankly I am really hoping to find some sort of tour bus in Batumi, because this is ridiculous.)

Take a marshrutka to Batumi.  Take a second Marshrutka to Sarpi, which is right on the Turkish border.  Walk through the border, getting our passports stamped and our visas ($20 USD, I have NO idea why we need to pay this in dollars).  THEN, once on the Turkish side of the border, negotiate a cab fare to nearby Hopa, and then get a bus to Trabzon from Hopa.

I am not making this shit up.  REDIC, right???  I have a friend here who went to Trabzon recently, and that is exactly how he got there, so apparently it can be done.  But seriously.  I will so pay a couple extra lari or Turkish lira or whatever to shave some steps off that route.  Negotiate a cab fare?  In Turkish?  Two American women who obviously have no choice but to accept whatever is offered at the end of the day, because we sure can't hang out at the border all day.  YIKES.  I am not looking forward to that part of the trip.

But once we finally arrive, it should be a spectacular time.  There are mosques and museums and parks, and one very cool monastery that is apparently a must-see for anyone visiting Trabzon.  We're going to smoke a hookah, drink quite a lot of Turkish coffee, drink wine and watch the world go by.  Turkey is definitely one place I never thought I'd be going.

And then... I skyped with my amazing sister Eve earlier this week, and we agreed to try and make my traveling to Okinawa for Christmas and New Year's a reality.  SO.  Excited.  Japanese Christmas!  I have not seen my sister in a year and a half, and my brother-in-law Brad for even longer than that.  We're going to try and make a stopover in Tokyo too... because when else will I ever get to Japan??  I really hope that I can work with my Program and make this happen.  How 100% awesome would it be to spend Christmas AND New Year's with THESE GUYS.

Partners in crime!

And then of course there are the trips to Borjomi and Svaneti that I have to make with Julie and Mark before they return Stateside in December. :)  Hopefully before it gets to terribly cold too, although we might be getting too late for that already.  Summer apparently ends with a great big finale come September.  Cool weather, strong breezes, and lots of rain rewarded by the occasional crystal blue day.  Loving Georgia a lot these days.

Realized during my walk home last night (after an entirely pleasant evening of good food and beers with friends), that I am living exactly the kind of life I wanted.  How many people can say that?  Sure, there have been some ups and serious downs, but at the end of the day -- I got out of my suit and my car and away from the poisonous woman who was sucking my self-respect dry.  In a few days I will visit a city I had never heard of before a few months ago.  When I come home, there will be mountians and winemaking and adorable enthusiastic little students.  And a trip to Japan to plan.

Damn, life is good.

What's been goin' on.

"The season is over," Georgians keep telling me, in varying degrees of sadness and wistful regret.  And to all appearances, they are right.  September has arrived, and right on cue, the hot muggy summer disapeared, to be replaced with storms and sudden dounpours, cool grey drizzly days with cooler nights, and reward our stocism with the occasional perfect blue sky.  Of course, today has been a day spent on my bed with my laptop on my legs, finishing up reports and such for my police work, completing another TEFL unit, and -- once the internet finally started working again (out for two days!), catching up on email, uploading photos, and now this.  Hey, I keep you folks in mind. :)So, it looks like the days of lazy summer afternoons at Ureki, Grigoleti and Malatqva might have drawn to a close.  This beautiful fall weather (yes, even the rain) is a pretty blessed change from the awful heat, although such an extreme weather change has me worried that winter really might not be too far away now though!

Well, here's some cool stuff that's been happening lately.

Last Thursday, my very excellent friend Patrick marshrutkaed into Poti for the afternoon.  He was in our intake group and had been posted in Tsalenjikha, a village about half an hour outside of Zugdidi.  WAY too short of a visit, but Julie and I took him out to the Beach Bar so he could at least get a glimpse of the Black Sea.  It was really good to see him, and apparently Tsalenjikha is quite beautiful, so I can add that to my list of places to see!

Me, Patrick, and Julie and the Beach Bar

Back on the farm, the host family and I continue to get along like a house on fire.  Thursday night, Nana and Nata made these pretty, yummy things, a kind of Georgian pudding made, of course, from wine.

Nata, Nana, and Izo, making pretty patterns out of red and white.

Touched by Nata's artistry

On Friday, I came back from a quiet dinner and couple of beers with Julie, only to find my family out in front of the house again, living it up.  I of course got called to join them, and the beer never stopped flowing.  We played checkers (Georgian checkers is weird), and some of the dudes played Nardi, which is Georgian backgammon.  They take Nardi pretty seriously, let me tell you.  Even when it started pouring, we just moved under the porch and kept going.  I said goodnight, FINALLY, at around 1:00.  Apparently the guys went until 4 AM or so.  I'm not used to being the one who goes home early from a party!

Nardi tournament

I am very proud of my little orange flower.

Just hangin' out with the dudes...

And... another day, another supra... on Saturday, I got back from running some errands at the Bazari to find my kitchen filled with men, food, and wine.  This is the life some people dream of! :)  More and more dudes just kept filtering through the door, and we gaumarjosed nonstop for four hours.  Actually, they gaumarjosed a lot longer than that, but I excused myself at 11:30, because I was beat.

Men standing up to Gaumarjos.

Spread.

Ucha, me, and another dude (you can just see his stomach) in a triple Vakhtanguri.

Sunday was pretty quiet, for a change.

Yesterday, Nana made this incredible birthday cake for a neighborhood girl, and then one smaller one for us just for the heck of it.

Nana and Anna

The grapes are from the family's vineyard!

Later on, I met Julie and Mustafa for good food and beers at Oscar's.  Julie is heading to Tbilisi for a few days... before we head off on another truly amazing adventure.  (Stay tuned!  More blog to follow!)  Then I walked home through the cool and quiet night to be greeted by Ucha and company outside the house, who had beer and a pot of kinkhali.

Safe to say that the homesickness and discontent I was feeling about a month ago has dissolved into so much ether.  I'm back to feeling more like I should feel -- that I am one of the luckiest girls in the world to have these people and these experiences.  And there is lots to look forward to on the horizon as well...

Worth Your Time

Lately, me and my BFF the kindle have been spending a lot of quality time together. I've been re-reading a lot of Terry Pratchett just for kicks, and that is one guy who can write a story.  But in between Sam Vimes and Granny Weatherwax, I also polished this one off.

Book Review:
The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman

The title kind of says it all, really. On the premise that human beings disappear tomorrow, Weisman discusses the full range of what will happen to all our miraculous, destructive devices and toys without humans there to constantly maintain the fragile, tentative balance we've created in order to sustain ourselves.  What will happen to our houses, or cities, our bridges and tunnels?  What about our oil refineries and our nuclear reactors?  Which animals and plants will thrive in our wake, and which ones may have already passed to far to come back from the brink of extinction?

Weisman gives a strictly gloves-off account of the true mess we have made of this planet, and discusses which of our marks will vanish without a trace in mere years, and which -- things like plutonium, plastic, and CFCs -- will likely last for thousands or hundreds of thousands of years.

I certainly was never bored reading this book. I was, at times, alternatively made hopeful and horrified by the implications Weisman put forth. It was pretty heartening to read that cockroaches in temperate climates, without the benefit of hiding in human-heated structures, would all die off within a winters. Take that, horrid gross creatures! It was, however, decidedly NOT heartening to read about the truly indestructible nature of one of the worst by-products of our disposable culture, plastic. Of course I knew that plastic doesn't biodegrade. Everyone knows that. I did not know that ocean currents have created dead zones in the pacific, where huge islands of discarded plastic have grown larger than the state of Texas. And it never occurred to me that plastic could be deadly to the planet even after it is ground down to particles too small to see. Because then, they are the perfect size for little plankton to eat, who easily mistake the little bits for food. At which point, the indigestible plastic becomes lodged in their tiny intestines, and the plankton die. Plankton, as I hope everyone reading this knows, are responsible for most of Earth's oxygen production. And there is a LOT of plastic currently floating around in our oceans. A lot.

After reading this book, frankly I don't know how anyone can say, ever, that nuclear power is safe or should be used as an acceptable form of energy. It's not, and it shouldn't. Any power source that requires an entire mountain to be hollowed out so the waste can be disposed of without killing hundreds or thousands of people should put up a red flag that hey -- maybe we should stop making any more of this stuff! And much like plastic, plutonium and uranium will be around forever, for all practical intents and purposes. The US government hired an artist to come up with warning signs that could be universally understood, should an alien or future civilization come upon one of these mountains and wonder what might be buried under there. Scary stuff.

Fortunately, not all of mankind's creations are so deadly or long-lived. The NYC subway system would flood in only a couple of days with no humans to continually man the pumping systems. Even the most massive and impressive infrastructures would fall likely in the first 100 years or so. And even with plastic, radioactivity, and CFCs continuing to muck things up, Weisman continually stresses Earth's remarkable ability for self-healing and regeneration. Eventually, even the most harmful of human-made byproducts will be folded into Earth's mantle and the carbon will be filtered from the air. And personally, I find that all remarkably comforting. Humans may have created more problems than they will eventually be able to solve. But for me, I can take some cold comfort that the Earth, at least, will abide.