Borjomi/Bakuriani

So, it has been almost 2 weeks since my last blog post so I thought I would update you guys today.

Last weekend, I went out on Saturday night with some friends in Abasha. We drank and ate kinkhali and Lasha and Davit attempted to teach me some traditional Georgian dance, which the other restaurant goers found amusing. I was terrible.

Sunday, it rained all day. Not much to report there.

Last week at school was hectic as usual. My school is a madhouse and all the teachers are crazy. I love it!! A traveling peddler, selling clothes from a duffle bag, came into the teachers lounge last tuesday and the teachers all went on a crazy shopping spree. Clothes were flying off left and right and I perhaps saw a little more of them then I wanted to see (note: these are all 45-65 year old women). In an attempt to try and force me to take my shirt off so I could try on a sweater, my belly button ring was revealed, which of course caused a scene. Everyone wanted to see it, (popular to contrary belief: they loved it and kept telling me it was beautiful!) and they wanted to know if I had anything else pierced. Where else would I have a piercing that you couldn't see? Hmmmm not anywhere that I'd like a piercing. I thought it best to not show them the tattoo I also have on my hip. That may be pushing their traditional boundaries.  On Wednesday, Nino told me that she liked my body and insisted that I write up a diet plan for her. I was simultaneously flattered and shocked. Lord knows, no one has ever asked me to write up a diet plan before.  Not sure how this will go because I don't see a lot of vegetables in Abasha. Tomatoes are fairly common, but most other vegetables, like carrots, you only get in a soup. And I have not yet seen anyone exercising. There isn't a gym in Abasha so I try and go running as much as I can and everytime I do I always get weird looks from the Georgians. This coming week, my kids, grades 8-12, are participating in a spelling competition with school number 1 and a few of the surrounding village schools. I spent a good part of last week going over the words and repeating them with my students. Just today I had our final study session and they can spell all the words!! I am so proud of them for working so hard, I hope they all win!

This past weekend I stayed in Kutaisi again. Greta, an ETA living in Keda, came up and we all spent friday night with the Kutaisian ex pat community at their weekly happy hour. We took a gondola up to the top of a hill, a sort of amusement park, and drank beers overlooking the city. Chase guided us to a sketchy dark back alley in the amusement park where we saw an actual bear in a cage. Of course this was super sad because it was a tiny cage and he was pretty much just chilling there. But, it was also a little unnerving because there wasn't much in the way of a safety net. If you wanted to you could stick your hand right in there or the bear could reach out and paw you. And of course, I didn't trust the rusty Soviet era cage for a second. Then we had a delicious dinner, where all 20 of us legitimately tried to squeeze in at one table. The night ended at the Turkish Coffee House, where a few of us smoked some sheesha and sat on the floor surrounded my persian style pillows. You would think in a country relatively close to Iran and bordering Turkey that Hookah would be a little more of a normalcy. But alas, there was one hookah at this coffee house and one flavor. It is my new mission to find the best Hookah bar in Georgia.

Saturday, Greta, Shawn and I took a marshukta out to Borjomi, where they have a natural spring and where a lot of Georgia's mineral water comes from, and met up with Kenny, another ETA, and his ex pat friends in the area.  All six of us took a marshutka from Borjomi to Bakuriani, a small town in the mountains, famous for its beautiful ski resort. We were under the impression that we would be able to ride horses here, but since the town was not yet in season (it is still too warm for snow) there were no horses. Pretty sad, but it was a beautiful place with gorgeous views of the mountains. Hopefully when it snows, we can make another trip out there to go skiing. Pictures of this adventure are to come soon! After another delicious dinner in Borjomi, we parted ways and Shawn, Greta and I headed back to Kutaisi for the night.  Saturday night, Greta and I, who were staying at Chase's house in Kutaisi, played a pretty intense game of "Risk." Risk is essentially a board game where you are given armies and your task is to take over the world. Tom, an ex pat living nearby Chase, joined us in our quest for world domination. Chase beasted on all of us, by the end of the game he had dominated every single country on the board EXCEPT for Afghanistan, where I had amassed an army and defended unrelentingly until the end.

Sunday was the Georgian presidential election!! Here are a few good sites if you want to check it out.
nytimes
BBCNews
aljazeera

Next Saturday, I will head back into Kutaisi again for the night (I know right? enough already) for an ex pat Halloween party! Yay! I love Halloween. I will write a blog post about how that goes!