Life in Georgia

In the past week since my trip to Armenia I haven’t done much, which is probably good for you guys. I tend to write novels when I actually do things. Kenneth started after school English Club at his school, so I walked down there twice this past week to help him out. The rain on Wednesday and Thursday was positively miserable. It rained constantly for 2 days and the temperature never got above 55. We finally lit the stove in the living room to help keep us warm. It’s pretty hard to want to do a lot of things when you just can’t get quite warm enough. Especially if you have a cold nose. My mom would always say that her nose would get cold and then she couldn’t get warm and I finally understand that. Someone really needs to work on making nose hats.

On Friday the weather cleared up and it was beautiful and sunny. The kind of weather that makes you want to be outside. It wasn’t the warmest but the sun is a wonderful thing. After school the power was out at home and my host mom had left to make a trip to Lanchkhuti so I went to Kenneth house. We decided we were going to make pizza again. We had just enough flour but no tomatoes. So his host mom pulled out some stewed tomato and onion thing that we cooked down and added a small can of tomato paste. It is always an adventure cooking and making pizza this time was definitely easier and less messy but it didn’t taste as good. It was still delicious but didn’t rank as highly as the first time. After dinner we were playing darts and they divided us into America and Georgia teams. We lost terribly and that was mostly my fault. I’m pretty bad at darts especially when I don’t get to practice. I was eventually taken home and I went to bed soon after that.

Saturday was a lazy in bed kind of morning. After breakfast we hung the bedding out on the line because it was nice and sunny. They do wash the sheets and things but they also hang the pillows and mattress toppers outside and beat the dust out of them. I guess it keeps things cleaner. Kenneth came over around noon and then we left my house to go somewhere. We didn’t know where we were going but we went anyways. On our walk towards Supsa we got picked up by one of the local cab drivers that was heading back to his house so he didn’t charge us anything. We grabbed a beer at the store his wife manages and I gave our friend Ren a call. She was in Lanchkhuti and told us we should come too. So there we went. We sat in the park and talked some about our Georgia experience. Ren’s friend from the village who speaks English also decided to join us. A little bit later a Peace Corps volunteer who lives in Lanchkhuti also joined us. We went to a little restaurant just across the street from the park in Lanchkhuti and shared some more stories. Someone said that they met a guy in Georgia who had been to 50 countries and he said that he had never been in a place that was quite as weird as Georgia. I think that says a lot about this place. It’s kind of backwards in some ways, it’s very different in other ways and you really can’t explain it. One of these days I’ll post a list of things I’ve learned while in Georgia. Many of you will get a good laugh out of it.

We finally headed back to the village and fortunate for us there is a 6PM marshutka that passes Supsa and goes to our village. It was running late yesterday but I made it home just as it was getting dark outside.

Today is Sunday the 23^rd of October and I haven’t done much except write my blog. It’s that novel writing that keeps me busy. Aniko(my host mom) and I went to our neighbor’s house for a little while to take some food because the mother in law is sick. While I was there I ate a piece of candy that was like chocolate covered cherries. I’ll have to find me some more of those. I also just got a call from Kenneth saying that I’ve been invited over for kebabi at his house. Sounds like a plan for me. It will get me out of the house again for a while and that is always a good thing.

 As of today I have one week to decide if I want to extend my contract and stay in Georgia until June. I would still come home for Christmas but then after that I would come back here to finish out a school year. I don’t exactly have anything lined up for me to do at home but everyday I go back and forth between wanting to stay and wanting to go back. It’s really a 50/50 battle but I have to decide and soon. Thoughts from you on the topic would be most appreciated.

Trip to Armenia

Friday the 14^th of October is a holiday is Georgia. That means no school. Yay! The strange thing was that most of my students didn’t seem to know that Friday was a holiday until I mentioned it. I know that when I was in school I always knew when the next day off would be, but that probably had something to do with me writing everything down in my calendar at the beginning of the year. On Tuesday Kenneth suggested possibly going to Armenia and I didn’t see any reason why that couldn’t happen. A visit to the world oldest Christian nation always sounds like a good idea.

As I said before I bought our overnight train tickets to Tbilisi on Thursday morning and then we just had to wait. The train wouldn’t come through Supsa until 10:30PM. I had English lessons with Giorgi as usual. I had dinner and then around 9:15 Kenneth’s host Dad picked me up to take us to Supsa. It took the usual 20 minutes to get there, so we still had some more waiting to do. Fortunately it had stopped raining. The train arrived right on time which honestly surprised me. I have come to realize that transportation generally runs on time even if everyone else doesn’t seem to. I’m not quite sure how those two balance each other out but somehow it works. We arrived at our train compartment and realized one of us would have to take the top bunk on one side and the other would be taking the bottom bunk on the other side. The two other people in the compartment were already situated. I felt bad because I think we woke them up. Anyways after getting settled we called our two friends who were also on the train and went to go say hello. They had already fallen asleep because there isn’t anything to do on a train but we woke them up to make plans for the next morning. This consisted of trying to find the McDonalds and getting breakfast. I normally try to avoid the golden arches when I travel abroad but sometimes even smelling something familiar is nice. So with that we retired to our compartment.

It was a long night and I think I might have slept or at least I recall waking up several times in the night. My alarm in the morning was a woman walking up and down the train selling K’ava(coffee) and water. She might not have been speaking that loudly but the sound carried in the train. We got off the train and made our way towards the taxis. I thought I remembered seeing a McDonalds on Rustaveli near the Radisson, so that is where we headed. We arrived to find that there was indeed a McDonalds there, but that it either wasn’t open yet or was recently closed down for renovations. We obviously weren’t meant to eat it that day. So instead we wandered down the street in search for breakfast. Clare, Erica, Kenneth and I ended up in a small grocery store where we purchased food for breakfast and Kenneth and I bought some snacks for our trip to Yerevan.

We walked Erica and Clare to the hostel where our other friends were staying and in the process we picked up another TLG teacher who was going to Yerevan. His name is Dan and he is from England. Together the three of us took a taxi to Ortachala bus station (the international bus station) to catch a marshutka to Tbilisi. We arrived just in time to catch one that would be leaving in the next 15 minutes.  It is always better to be on one that is leaving sooner rather than later. On the marshutka we also met Clement. He is from France and is in Georgia through a French program to teach French language. The ride itself was pretty uneventful. We spent most of it talking about school stuff and learning how to count to ten in Armenian. Yet another language to try and learn while traveling in the Caucuses. I really wish I had studied Russian too. The Armenian countryside is very pretty, lots of mountains all over the place. And it was the beginning of fall so there was some great color splattered all over the sides of the mountains. The strangest things about the geography were probably the random rocks sticking out of the grass. 

 Armenia

After about 6 hours of traveling we finally arrived in Yerevan. Our French friend had been to Yerevan the previous year and said the walk to the hostel wasn’t that bad. So rather than braving public transportation we hit the pavement. It was a good 40-minute walk but we got to see lots of things. A giant market, the brandy factory, beautiful people and we were able to enjoy the weather.  We got to the hostel, checked in and then went out on a search for food. We ended up finding this place that served traditional food and the inside of the restaurant looked vaguely like a church with its stained glass windows and wall frescoes. After filling our stomachs we took a tour of the city. We walked up the Cascade a giant set of stairs that has galleries and works of art in, around and under it. At the top of the stairs there is a monument that celebrates 50 years as a soviet nation. We did some math and figured it had been there since the 70’s. Unlike Georgia, Armenia still has good relations with Russia so many of their monuments to the Soviet Union are still around.  We wandered around a lot and after a while we headed back to the hostel to get some sleep. 

 The Casacade in Yerevan

The next day Kenneth and I got up, threw breakfast in our snack bag and grabbed a cab to a bus station. We were headed to Khor Virap. We arrived at the bus station just after 9am but fortunately our bus hadn’t departed yet. We rode 40 minutes and then had to walk 1 km to the monastery. Khor Virap is a monastery near the foot of Mt. Ararat, but on the Armenian side. Historically Mt. Ararat was part of Armenia but borders today have it in Turkey. The church at the monastery is quaint and we saw two christenings and one salt blessing happen in the three hours that we were there.  History says that St Gregory the Illuminator was held captive by King Trdat(a pagan) in a well at Khor Virap for 12 years. That well is still at the monastery and you can go down in it. It’s a terrifying straight down ladder into what would have been a very dark hole if it weren’t for the light fixture that is now there. The view of Mt. Ararat is stunning and would have been better if there had been less clouds but I’m definitely happy we made the trek out there. The trek back to the main highway was 4 km and definitely less fun. After reaching the main highway and waiting for several minutes I flagged down a marshutka that was already very full of people so we had to stand most of the way back to Yerevan. 

 Mt. Ararat

We got back to the bus station, walked through a tunnel under the train station and saw some delicious looking street food. We were trying our best to point and use Armenian numbers to order food but it turned out that the woman who was selling the food spoke great English(well it was good enough to sell us food and explain what the different things were). Always a bonus when that happens. Kenneth was also a bit adventurous and purchased a white beverage. The lady said she liked to drink it so we figured it couldn’t be that bad. Well it was. I didn’t try it but it smelled like spoiled milk. We ended up just throwing that one away. Fortunately we also had some water.

After our quick lunch it was another trip to another bus station. This time we were heading to Echmiadzin. This city was the capital of Armenia when the country adopted Christianity and it is also where St. Gregory was told in a vision to build a church. The church here is the Vatican of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Their Catholicos (highest ranking church official) lives next to the church. The cathedral is ornately carved on the outside with many bell towers. The inside is less ornate but has some beautiful paintings on the ceiling. In the very back of the church is a small museum. It holds many sacred artifacts. You have to purchase a ticket to go in but it is totally worth it. There is a spearhead that was used to pierce the side of Christ on his way to Cavalry, there is carved image of the crucifixion that was carved by St. John, there is a piece of wood from Noah’s ark, there is a fragment of the cross that Christ was crucified on and in some very ornate arm-shaped reliquaries they have bones of John the Baptist, Peter and Andrew. In addition to these items there are also several historical items for the Armenian Church. They have the miters from every former Catholicos and some of the staffs they used. They also have giant container of holy oil that is only blessed once every 7 years. It is very moving to be in front of so much history. After wandering around the grounds for a little bit longer we finally made our way back to Yerevan. 

 Holy See at Echmiadzin

We stopped by the hostel to drop off some things and to ask for directions on how to get to the statue of Mother Armenia and the park up on top of the hill. We waited for the bus for a while and then decided the walk couldn’t be that bad so we made our way up to the top of the hill. Fortunately for us the Cascade has escalators inside so you don’t have to hike up the stairs. The park is an amusement park as well so after walking around and looking at the monument we rode the Ferris wheel to get an every better view of the city at sunset. Our plan was to head back down, find a souvenir shop, grab a quick bite and then head on a night tour that was lead by our hostel. That didn’t’ happen. We ended up in a souvenir shop with the most amazing shop worker ever. We picked out what we wanted, purchased it and the started a conversation with him. He told us everything he knew about Armenian history and culture. I don’t think I’ve ever had such an informational trip to a souvenir shop. Of course after he was done I wanted to buy a little bit of everything so that I could better remember Armenia but that was a bit out of my budget. He did give us some good food suggestions. So with our souvenirs in hand and a list of good places to eat we left the souvenir shop. We wandered for a very long time before finally eating but in that wandering we stopped at a fruit juice stand. While I was waiting for my banana juice many men with earpieces and some police showed up and told people they couldn’t walk any further past them. After a couple more moments a large group of men in suits walked across the street and into a restaurant. Then some official cars pulled up one of them had no plates and Armenian flags on the front. The rest of the cars all had similar plates on them that said something like AM 001-1, -2, -3. I turned to Kenneth and said, “I think we just saw the Armenian President.” Before this trip I had never seen the leader of any country in person and now I’ve seen two(well definitely one and most likely 2). After a very long day of traveling we retired to the hostel where we met up with everyone else to discuss travel plans. One of our companions was going to leave very early so he could be home at a reasonable hour. We decided that wasn’t for us. 

 Mother Armenia

We woke up just after 8AM Armenian time(one hour ahead of Georgia), had breakfast at the hostel and then 6 of us piled into a cab to go to the bus station. We asked around for a Tbilisi marshutka but the one that was leaving soon was already full. So we waited a moment then we were escorted to the other side of the station and put into a marshutka that was very empty. I was worried we would be waiting forever. But 10 minutes later and we were off. We ended up with a personal marshutka ride back to Tbilisi. We were all so shocked we were convinced that maybe he was going to stop somewhere else along the way to pick up more passengers. Nope. It was just us, our driver and a girl sitting in the front seat. I guess we covered his expenses to travel back so he decided he could go. 

On our trip back to Tbilisi we took a different highway that took us through the mountains and past Lake Sevan. It was great. Our driver even helped us order food when we stopped for our break. It was the best experience I have had so far in a marshutka. We arrived in Tbilisi just before 4PM(Georgia time). We said goodbye to our travel companions and once again went to another bus station to head home.

Chill week near the village

I know that it has been a while since I have updated and you’ll have to forgive me for that. I haven’t been too busy to write, just forgetful. Last you heard from me I had an exciting adventure in Tbilisi and a not so exciting week at school. 

The weekend of the 8^th I stayed in the village. On Saturday afternoon I went to Poti with Kenneth and his family. The main purpose was to visit the bazaar and purchase a few essentials. By essentials I mean pizza ingredients. We made a plan to make real pizza for our families on Sunday afternoon. What they call pizza is nothing like pizza. It has no tomato sauce, it has mayonnaise instead of cheese and I’m not sure what the dough is made from but it just isn’t right. I also caved and purchased the wireless Internet modem while I was in Poti. After a bit of trouble I finally got it working and now have internet at home. 

On Saturday evening Kenneth and his family were going to a wedding in Gulian(a nearby village) and because I had been hanging out with them all afternoon I ended up being invited to that too. It’s about a thirty-minute drive and we squeezed six of us into the car. Not an unusual feat in Georgia. Upon arrival I looked around and my first thought was that this doesn’t look too different from a funeral. The only difference I noticed was that instead of lots of crying there was lots of music and dancing. The wedding ceremony was being held in a different city but the party was in someone’s front yard under a big tent. There were enough seats set up for 300 people. Yes, you read that correctly: 300 people in someone’s front yard under a massive tent. There was also more than enough food to feed that many people. I don’t know how it works but somehow they manage it.  The party consisted of lots of toasting to everything, loud music, lots of food, drinking and dancing. Kenneth and I were also asked to come to the front and be introduced as their American guests and then they played some Michael Jackson songs just for us. I had a really great time and even made some new friends. It is difficult to go anywhere in Georgia without making at least one new friend.

That Sunday my host mom and sister (visiting for the weekend) headed to Poti. They woke me up momentarily to ask if I wanted to go too, but I politely declined and then fell back asleep. I really wanted a nice day of rest. I woke up, had breakfast, watched some TV, did some laundry and had an all around bum kind of morning. I had to make an adventure to the store to add more money to my phone so I could use it. I ended up having to go to the store closest to Kenneth’s house so I just stayed there and we started to make the pizza. We found a recipe online for dough. It was an adventure in cooking because we were guesstimating measurements for everything: water, yeast, flour, salt. While we waited for the dough to rise we cut up tomatoes and threw them into a pot along with some other spices to make our own pizza sauce. It doesn’t really exist here so you have to make it from scratch. Kenneth’s host mom was watching us the whole time and whenever something was dirty and I took it to the sink to wash it she immediately jumped in to clean it. As much as you might want to clean up after yourself it just isn’t possible.

We spread the dough out, put the sauce on top and topped that off with cheese (suguni cheese which is only made in the Samagrelo region) and peppers. We turned to put it in the oven and remembered that it was a gas oven so cooking at a certain temperature was not an option. Lots of checking and rechecking while it was cooking to make sure it didn’t burn. It was finally ready and I would have to say that it was the best pizza I have had in a long time. It was a very thin crust but I’m okay with that. We also had some traditional Georgian food to go with it and of course there was wine.

Overall I would say that I had a very successful and fairly relaxing weekend. It wasn’t at all boring but then again I spent a lot of time outside of my house and that makes all the difference.

The week following my weekend at home was mostly uneventful except for a last minute decision to head to Ozurgeti to help Clare celebrate her birthday on October 11th. It is about 35-40 minutes from my village. Kenneth asked his host Dad if he would take us down there, we even offered money to help cover the cost of gas. That idea was accepted but in the end Kenneth tried to give him the money and he wouldn’t accept it. Her birthday party was being held at a restaurant in Ozurgeti, there was a lot of food but there wasn’t anyone else in the restaurant. It was like a large private party. There was even some singing and other music for us to enjoy. Naturally this lead to some dancing. I’m really glad we made the spontaneous trip down for her birthday.

On Wednesday afternoon Kenneth and I went to Supsa to try and buy train tickets for Thursday night to Tbilisi but we were told that the ticket office wasn’t open, but would be open in the morning. I then made the trip to Supsa the following morning (no school for me) to buy our train tickets. Everyday is an adventure in communication but this was a big adventure. I eventually gave up in trying to communicate with her on my own and I called the TLG(Teach and Learn with Georgia) hotline. They help with anything and everything that you can’t figure out on your own. In the end I bought two second-class tickets for the overnight train to Tbilisi for just 11 Lari. This trip to Tbilisi was going to be just the beginning of a weekend trip to Armenia. I'll have to write more about that later because it deserves more attention than I can give right now. 

Also I have received more good news from home. My brother and his wife are expecting a baby in June. I'm very excited about this. Congrats to both of you!

Tbilisi and more

After a long boring week of doing nothing in Shromisubani I left town. On Friday afternoon Kenneth and I hopped on a marshutka(bus) bound for Tbilisi. This was after Kenneth was walking towards my house, got rained on and then got picked up by his host dad when they were coming back home. They took us to Supsa(the closest place to catch a bus). I was grateful for that because I really didn’t want to walk in the rain any more than I had to. The dad flagged the bus and bargained our fare to Tbilisi. We paid 30 lari for both of us to get there. That’s about $18. Yep. Travel is cheap here. It was cold and rainy the whole way and overall pretty uneventful. The bus stops once along the way to get something to eat and go the restroom. It is about 6 hours to Tbilisi. Once we arrived in the city I called my school director’s niece, Tamuna, to let her know that we had arrived. We met her once before when we were picked up in Tbilisi by our school directors after our week of training and my director told me to call her when I arrived. She speaks practically perfect English so it was a nice change. She told us to come see her and her family. I figured they would feed us and then send us on our way. I always appreciate good food so naturally we headed to her house. Her family lives on the edge of town and you take the metro to the very last stop and then take a taxi to their place. 

They live in one of the many giant soviet block buildings. They are pretty shabby looking from the outside and the stairwells aren’t lit but their apartment (I guess that’s what you’d call it) is amazing. It is the size of a house and has nice floors and good walls and a normal bathroom. I’m always surprised when I go in one of the soviet blocks. Tamuna lives with her parents, her sister, her nephew and her daughter. I think her brother might also live there but he was out of town. I don’t know about husbands. I think they are married but from what I’ve seen Georgian men aren’t around very often so it is hard to know unless they say something. However it was very nice to see them. They all know a little bit of English, which is an extreme difference from my home life in Georgia. They gave us some snacks and then the dad arrived and he wanted to eat khinkali and drink tchatcha and wine with us. Tchtcha, from what I’ve read, is like Italian grappa. It is made from grapes but the alcohol content is way higher than wine. It burns like crazy on the way down. Definitely warms you up from the inside out. After a bit of eating and a small bit of drinking (only one shot of tchatcha and one glass of wine for me) we were put to bed. The couch pulled out like a futon and there was a spare bed in the computer room. There is so much to be said for Georgian hospitality. Yes, let me take in these people that I’ve only met once before and let them sleep on my couch and eat my food. Then I’ll help them find their way around the city and make sure they don’t have to worry about anything. I really love that part of being in this country. We went to bed and knew that we’d have to be up early the next day for an excursion with TLG.

At 7:30 we woke up, ate breakfast and then made our way to the Radisson where we would be leaving with about 50 other teachers to go to Kakheti to pick grapes, make wine and bread and then eat some food. Kakheti is known as the winemaking region. We called about this trip on Thursday after we had already decided to go to Tbilisi and thought that it could be fun. Later we found out that the president would also be making an appearance. It is always good to see native speakers and spend time talking with them. I’m still not quite sure of the location but it was about an hour and a half outside of Tbilisi at an agriculture school. The vineyard had a sign on it that said the US Department of States and the USDA funds it. I thought that was very interesting. Not quite sure why they do that, but they do. Picking grapes isn’t exactly fun but for a short period of time it is entertaining. You take a knife and cut the grapes from the vine then you put the grapes in a small bucket. The small bucket gets emptied into a large basket and then the large basket was carted away by a donkey. A very cute donkey. He looked so sad, kind of like Eeyore but he was white. After most of the grapes were cleaned off the plants they put them in a trough and people get in the trough (with rain boots not barefoot) and stomp the juice. Fresh grape juice is delicious, even from green grapes. The president made a brief appearance (with helicopter assistance) and spoke with some of us took pictures and just did. He seemed to be a nice guy and he even told a joke or two. It seems to me that most people like the president but they think he’s a bit eccentric. The minister (I think of education) was also present but he was there the whole time. He even picked grapes and made bread.

There was also a chance to make bread and by make bread I don’t mean add flour, water etc. I mean we got to put the dough into the “oven.” It is a big round thing and you stick the dough inside on the sides. There are coals at the bottom and somehow it cooks evenly and if delicious. It is called tonispuri(toni bread). The toni is the big round thing. There is nothing like fresh bread, meat right off the grill and khinkali straight out of the pot. We left after eating a lot of food and drinking some wine.

On arrival in Tbilisi Kenneth and I walked with our friend Ruth-Anne back to her hostel so she didn’t have to find it on her own. Once we got there we got to say hello to several of our friends and spend some time with them before we headed back to Tamuna’s house. We ate dinner, watched the kids dance around and then Tamuna, her sister, Kenneth and I went out to a club. We almost didn’t get in because Kenneth and I weren’t dressed appropriately but they knew someone who knew someone so we got in. It was opening night for that particular club. They had the band from the Georgian late night talk show, this girl with a great voice and this couple who one some sort of competition that is kind of like American idol/America’s got talent. Something along those lines. It was a night filled with good food, drinks and dancing. I haven’t had that much fun at a club in a long time. I definitely could have done without all the smoke but it was great. Also something amazing that I need to find in the US is cherry juice. It goes very well with vodka and it is pretty tasty on its own. Around 3am we finally headed home to a well deserved sleep.

The next day we got up at sometime. Ate breakfast and then went to Sameba Cathedral. It is a giant church on top of a hill in Tbilisi. It was just finished in 2004. It was very crowded when we got there and the reason was that the Patriarch(Georgian Orthodox Pope) was performing mass that morning. I couldn’t see him but I’ve seen enough of him on TV to know that he is an old, old man with a long gray beard and a shaky voice. I definitely felt blessed to be there with everyone else. There is just something about being around that much faith that just lifts you up. We walked around the grounds and down beneath the church where there is a small chapel. After that we headed back to Tamuna’s place. We stopped at an overlook of the city on our way. We then ate food and found our way back to the bus station so we could head home. After negotiating our fare and waiting around for a bit we finally left Tbilisi around 5PM. Again it was another fairly uneventful, but very fast bus ride. We were riding through this one town and picked up a new passenger and it happened to be our friend Riley who lives about 30 minutes from our village. The odds of him getting on the exact same bus are so low it isn’t even funny, but it happened. Georgia just gets smaller all the time and it is already small enough.

School this week has been pretty boring. My teacher book finally arrived and my co-teacher and I sort of “plan” right before we go into class. Much improved over last week. I don’t think I’m going to doing anything too exciting this weekend but you never know. Things just sort of happen around here.

Sorry for writing so much but I really don’t have anything better to do at the moment and there is just so much to tell you.

Also I just want to throw a quick congrats to my friend Rachel on her engagement and good luck in New Zealand!

I'll be posting photos on Facebook shortly.