Blogs from Tbilisi District, Georgia, Asia - page 16

Think you have it bad? Even though we've returned home, I still have some fun times to share. It turns out you can publish a book from your blog (these website operators are so clever about getting money out of us, aren't they?) and so I'm planning my first book "Adventures with Connie, 2009". I want to make sure a few more entries get included. To wit: My blog about Tbilisi wouldn't be complete without telling you about our entry for "The World's Worst Cubicle" contest currently being run by Dudley Dawson of the San Franciso Examiner. http://www.examiner.com/x-3040-Life-in-the-Cubicle-Examiner~y2009m8d3-Worst-Cubicle-in-the-World-2009--Week-2-finalists After viewing the week 1 and week 2 finalists, I knew these entries couldn't hold a candle to the work area of one of Irakli's friend that we visited in Tbilisi. So I submitted the following entry. Entries ... read more

Forming new charity partnerships Opportunities to share blessings with others surround us all, if only we have the courage to look and to ask questions about how we might be of service. Here's some more information about how we hope to expand our charity work into Georgia. Before we left the US, we invited Irakli's cousin Ilya to draw on his vast network to help us find potential partners for charity work. Since we have certain criteria, and since we need a local liasion to be our eyes & ears, we asked Ilya for both the introductions, advice and ongoing monitoring. As I've mentioned before, everyone knows everyone in Georgia, or knows someone who does-there aren't 6 degrees of separation here, only 2 degrees. We want to work with small, grass roots groups, that already have ... read more

Planning our trip inside Georgia So my husband, Irakli Natsvlishvili, despite being a native Georgian, has thoughtfully researched hiring a local guide to take us on a one week discovery tour of the South and Southwest of Georgia. Of course, his Georgian friends were outraged at the idea, and offered to escort us personally or have their relatives escort us. They were also outraged at the price (which seemed reasonable to us, both confirmed tightwads). One of his friends is the founder of a back packer's online forum and couldn't understand why we wouldn't take advantage of various lower-cost alternatives, such as camping or staying with friends of friends of friends. "My cousin's mother in law has an aunt living in that town. Let's call her and tell her that my classmate from University will be ... read more

The first day of travel is always the most confusing and often the most tiring. It is when the traveler has to deal with new languages and new customs in new surroundings, all the while often being jet lagged. I recall reading in a travel guide about the amount of culture shock that you can expect in any given place. Georgia wasn’t listed as one of the countries with the most expected travel shock, though by rights it should have been. The hardest countries to travel in were those with both cultural differences and incompatible languages. Some countries expect visitors and so there is often someone around who can speak some English, but Georgia draws very few travelers and so the English speaking population is negligible. So as Aleks and I stepped off the airplane ... read more

Georgia ... of my mind On traverse la Georgie en stop, les gens sont cool mais ils ne nous offrent pas le resto comme en Armenie ... on les aime bien quand même ! A Tbillisi, la capitale, Ana, notre contact n'a finalement pas put nous heberger; du coup on s'est trouver une auberge pleine de jeunes Baroudeurs qui font des projets comme nous : bonne ambiance innévitable ! On y a retrouvé deux cinquantenaires ayant rejoint l'Arménie à vélo en partant d'un patelin tout proche du Cheylard (bled de Pascal) ! Ficelle de caleçon les Ardéchois ! La ville est assez touristique (donc trop à mon gout) et très pitoresque, surtout la vieille ville et sa multitude de petites égloises orthodoxes avec leurs foules de fervents fidèles! Laurent, le mari d'Ana, qui vient lui aussi ... read more