georgian adventure

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ok so much to write about, i don't even know where to begin. i dunno if i should write about some observations i have made recently or what i have been doing. i will try to attempt both.
i am just gonna go in order of events that have taken place in teh last couple of weeks. so last week we went and saw georgian dancing. wow is all i can say. holy crap. i dont know how it is physically possible to jump up in the air and land on your toes! or land on your knees and 'bounce' back up. it was amazing to watch. it really nice too cuz we were there with our entire host family and it was a nice "family" outing. the show was supposed to start at 8 but no surprise it started at least 20 minutes late. but i am used to that being russian and living/dealing with other russians who have no concept of time. it was worth the wait and really cool to see Georgians still holding onto to their traditions and culture. in the usa, especially when immigrants come, a lot of them wanna become "american"-don't teach their children their native language or keep up with traditions. as much as i hated going to russian school, i am forever indebted to it for keeping whatever russian skills i have, intact. i mean there are even people in russia who dont know anything about their own history. anyway, the point i am trying to make is that it is nice to see people preserving their history.
so the next day after the performance we got to go to our host dad's village. technically his father grew up there because our host dad was born and raised in tbilisi, but enjoys going there often. the village is called tkviavi and is near Gori. The village actually was very close to the fighting during the august 2008 war with russia..in fact the house where our host dad's father grew up, was bombed and you can only see remnants of what used to be a beautiful stone home. (mama, don't worry. i am alive and safe and it was really safe there) Luckily, our host family had sold the house 20 years before so they didn't lose a home. Still it is unfortunate for those who were living there. I asked if the government provided any aid to those who lost their homes and he was told people were given $15,000. to me $15,000 sounds like a lot of money, but that is nothing to rebuild a home, even in Georgia. Now people who once lived in nice 2 story homes live in these little one room homes partially funded by the EU, USAID, and I think the norwegian refugee council.
aside, from the several bombed out homes, the village was beautiful as was the drive to the village. i finally saw the caucasus mountains. as nerdy as it sounds it was so freaking cool, especially since in russian school we would always read stories that took place in the Caucasus mountains. the photos i took weren't that great but it was so awesome to see them in person. our host dad's mom lives in the village in another house during the summer. she is in her 80's and lives alone. how she does it, i don't know. she was cleaning, cooking, farming etc. honestly, if i have her energy by the time i am her age i will be happy. i guess when u grow up doing that u get used to it and continue to do it until you physically can no longer do it. on our way home we got slowed down cuz a bunch of cows were in the road. we had to herd them via honking...it must happen often cuz the cows responded well and before you knew it we were back on the road.
ok sorry if this is boring. but for those of u who aren't, i will continue. on tuesday night we were planning on taking the night train to Batumi BUT of course there were no tickets....so we had to take the day train. never again am i doing that. it was only a 300km ride but it took 7.5 hours. i think a lawn mower could have gone faster. but at least i got to see some interesting things on the train. the lady i sat next to embodied georgian hospitality. not 5 minutes into sitting next to her, we got to talking. (she spoke russian, which was nice) she was so sweet and was so excited to meet an american girl. it was really nice to hear someone talk so well about america and she told me it is her dream to come to america, and after that she can die. all over the world, ppl are always speaking badly of america and it was really nice to hear someone say nice things. she asked me if its difficult to emigrate, how life was, if it was hard to find work, how i knew russian. she looked at pictures of san francisco. what is amazing, is that if this was the USA and some woman started talking to me, i would immediately think " who is this crazy lady? is she gonna rob me right now? and i need to change seats asap" but in georgia ppl are so nice u dont even think about that kind of stuff. she even said she would add me on facebook haha.....
so when i meet people here they can automatically can tell i am not georgian. i clearly have a VERY slavic looking face (blue eyes, light skin and hair) people assume though i am ukrainian. i mean technically i am part ukrainian, but i dont associate with that. anyway, on the train ride, we made several stops and at each stop women stand at the door ways to the train yelling and selling food,khachapuri(georgian cheese bread), gum, ice cream, drinks etc. so at one stop i wanted some ice cream (FYI ice cream in russia/georgia/armenia former soviet republics is the BEST in the world). so i go to the door way and start to scope my options. before i say ANYTHING, the old ladies start yelling at me in Russian to buy ice cream, bread, gum, drink etc. it was crazy and the people around me were laughing at me cuz everyone was hounding me. it was actually a little scary/nerve racking, cuz i was trying to get my money out they were just yelling etc i was being harassed to buy food. obviously it was harmless and i got my ice cream. it was sad though to see these ladies at the time when they should be resting, having to sell bread, ice cream or packets of gum as a means to survive.
ok so on the train ride itself were a bunch of interesting individuals. the guy in front of me thought it would be nice to watch LOST dubbed in Georgian without head phones. oh and he decided to put his seat down ALL THE WAY. i was squished between 2 seats listening to LOST in Georgian. great. my only salvation was that the ppl across from me were watching some dumb katherine heigel movie so i just followed along, even though they used head phones. So hear I am watching an American movie but listening to Georgian LOST, great….
there was also the little kid who threw up right outside the bathroom. The poor kid never quite made it inside cuz some guy was in there. however, the bathroom would wanna make anyone throw up. it was pretty nasty. morgan saw shoe marks on the toilet seat. did the person stand on the toilet to escape? was there a fugitive on board? or did someone just think it made sense to stand on a toilet to use it. of course the TV was broken, but honestly i was shocked there was even a TV. aside from the toilet situation and how unbelievable slow the train was, i was pleasantly surprised by georgian railways. it is definitely a few notches up from anything i have seen in russia.
there were some really cute babies on board too so they were nice to look and play with when they would walk by my seat.
OK this blog is getting really long, but I don’t wanna miss anything. Ok so I finally see the Black Sea. Sooo beautiful. Honestly it looks like I would think Hawaii looks like-lush green foliage, humidity, palm trees and water. The nice thing is that the water is warm. So of course the train was late so by the time we got to the hostel it was 5pm, but the sun was shining so we decided just to walk around the city, and the seaside. We found a little tiki hut restaurant and sat there over looking the water and sipping drinks for about 1.5 hours. It was so nice and relaxing not to worry about work, or anything. It really felt like a real vacation.
So we came home around 10pm and were pooped from the train ride etc, so as we are getting to wind down I get a phone call. It’s our supervisor’s friend who works in Batumi. And he is like let’s go see Batumi at night. Once again if this was in the usa I would in no way meet up with a stranger, but in Georgia the ppl are normal and he is a great friend of our boss. And he ended up being super cool, nice etc. took us all around Batumi showed us different monuments etc. all in all a good way to end our first day in Batumi. Ok I wont go into too much detail of the rest of trip cuz I don’t wanna bore you to death. Especially if u have already read this much. So lemme fastforward to the last day. On our last day I went swimming in the black sea one last time. Never in my life did I think I would be swimming in the black sea, but here I was swimming in the sea with my crocs on. Those crocs saved by life because they beach is “pebbly” aka small boulders everywhere.
Alright so finally unfortunately it was time to go back to Tbilisi. I really didn’t wanna leave, I could go to Batumi tomorrow and be happy. It was just so freaking nice. I loved it. So this time we actually planned and bought tickets on the night train Saturday night. So we got a coupé , which is a cabin for 4 ppl to sleep in. so we were pleasantly surprised to be rooming with an American peace corps volunteer. It was so nice to talk to someone who spoke English and was American. It was nice to see a “familiar” face. His family was visiting him in Georgia and he was showing them around and was planning on taking them to the village where he lives. He also told us about all the non-georgian restaurant in Tbilisi, if we ever need a break from khatchapuri ( a Georgian staple). So we were talking swapping stories etc, when our fourth roomie walks/stumbles into the cabin. This is how we met Giorgi, who had been in Batumi for the day at a wedding and needless to say, had celebrated pretty hard. Once again Georgian hospitality was quite visible. He spoke English with morgan, Russian with me and Georgian with the peace corps volunteer. However, sometimes he would mess up and speak Georgian to me, and Russian to the Peace Corps guy. Man, did he talk a lot, but all really nice things. He asked me how I new Russian and I told him how mama and papa are Russian but were born in china. And he went on to say how beautiful I was and how I didn’t look Chinese but I was an “woman of the world” (whatever that means). Honestly, it was such a trip, it’s hard to put it all down to type. He insisted Morgan looked like some French guy’s wife. He then brought some fruits out that his wife made him buy cuz they are cheaper in Batumi than Tbilisi. He was really nice and was like, if u wanna go to bed just say so and I will shut up etc. But it was far too entertaining to tell him we wanted to sleep. He even helped me with my Georgian. ( I am trying to learn Georgian)

so yea that’s pretty much the last week in a nutshell. More later

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