Halloween and Shawn's visit

October 31st... Halloween!! It was officially my second Halloween abroad (in 2011, I spent Halloween in Barcelona, Spain).  On thursdays, I don't teach first period, so I was invited during this time to the 9th grade Halloween party.  Nino, my co-teacher/ best friend, came with me, as her daughter Veronika is in this class.  The children were very excited to have me there and they had all brought face paints! They spent the first period running around painting things on each other's faces and I spent most of the time avoiding being painted on. Veronika made me paint my name inside a pink heart on her cheek, which of course made all the other students jealous. So a lengthy process of painting everyone's faces ensued. Everyone wanted "I love Destinee," even the boys, which I thought was cute!  Lots of pictures were taken during these shenanigans, but not on my camera and they have yet to appear online! Later when the period ended, all the 9th graders showed off their new looks to the whole school. Everyone was intrigued. I was then invited to a small supra after classes ended for the day by the 9th grade class. Yayy my first high school party in 4 years!  We met up at a small cafe later that day around 3 to feast and drink. We ate pizza and Kachapuri and Kinkhali and to my surprise, drank beer. One of the 9th grade boys made himself the head of the table and so was in charge of making the toasts. We toasted to Halloween, America, friendship, etc. It was a pretty cute experience. After the beer and food had run out, Meri (my host sister, also in 9th grade) and I walked home together. She had styled her hair specially for Halloween; it was BIG and crimped and separated into two low pigtails and she still wore her face paint from earlier. The people watching us pass by must have thought we were crazy... there goes the American and her weird looking host sister.

Later that weekend on Saturday, I travelled into Kutaisi for the night.  Anne and Lady, two members of Peace Corps, had arranged a large gathering of peace corps and TLG members for a party.  We spent the afternoon playing an intense game of assassins where we all ran around the city with "missions" to complete and people to "kill."  I only killed one person, but I was the last person, besides the winner, to remain in the game! Apparently, she couldn't find me. Later in the evening, we met up at the Lions Club, a University owned space, and had a party. There was food, beer, chacha, vodka, music... everything. And there were also some great costumes. I didn't have a costume, mostly because I couldn't be bothered with finding one so last minute. Greta and Kenny, two other Fulbright ETAs, also met up with us for this Halloween shindig. There was a lot of drinking, dancing, gossiping, the usual. I felt like I had never left college.... what happens in the Lions Club stays in the Lions Club. But really... nothing too exciting. After the party ended, around 2 am, Chase, Shawn, Laurel, Melissa and I all retired to Tom's apartment nearby. Here we drank more beer and harmonized to the Rent soundtrack.... a little bit of Disney too. Magical. Around 5 am, Chase and I returned to his house, where Greta was also staying, but she had retired much earlier in the night.  Sunday afternoon, after sleeping in quite late, I met up with Tom (a Peace Corps member also in Abasha) and we took a marshukta together back into Abasha.

The following weekend, Shawn came to visit Abasha. Saturday morning I met him on the road (like a scene from a movie, both of us walking towards each other-- minus the dramatic embrace) and we walked to my host family's house. Along the way, I showed him the overly aggressive pig that lives nearby, and the cows and horses (all my neighbors- as Shawn puts it).  My host family met Shawn and I introduced him to little Giorgi and of course the infamous cat, "cat." After, we took a tour of Abasha. I showed him my school and the small park in the center of town. Then we caught a marshutka and headed to the neighboring, and much bigger, town of Senaki. In Senaki, we visited the bazaar, or outdoor market. Next I took Shawn to a restaurant which makes great Kinkhali! The kinkhali in Abasha is awful! At this restaurant is where the magic happened. We met a ridiculously HUGE man, he just looked like he could crack a walnut with his back and strangle someone in his bicep. And he was also a very drunk man, although he told us that he "didn't drink." Lies. We danced with him, and listened to his stories about being in the military and how he got his pinky shot off by a sniper. He was just way too hilarious. After eating lots of food and drinking three beers, one of which was free (thank you Mr. Biceps) we came back to Abasha and went bar hopping! Haha. I took Shawn to a bar where I frequent with my Georgian friend Davit. The little old lady who works there thinks Davit and I are in love and she loves us. So of course we decided it would be hilarious to go to this bar and shock this poor old women...well, she was not happy to see Shawn. After drinking and gossiping for about an hour we headed off to the Cafe Oasis, in the center of town. Here, we ordered another beer and got back to gossiping. Just two old ladies gabbing away, we were. Around 8 pm, Shawn and I saw a wedding party and decided to follow them. Here we actually ran into my friend Davit, and I was glad they got to meet each other. I sent Shawn off on a Marshukta back to Kutaisi and set off for my house. Along the way home, a car blasting techno music stopped and a young man tried to engage me in conversation. He followed me in the car for about 1/4 of a mile before he finally stopped the car and got out, frustrated by my lack of interest. After sizing him up, he was about 5'3'', skinny, and wearing a leather jacket 3 times too big for him, I introduced myself, his name was Nika, and I let him walk me the rest of the way home. Mostly because it was less creepy than him slowly driving next to me the whole way. Today on my way home from school, guess who drives by? My creepy friend Nika. Because it was raining and he looked even more pathetic in the daylight, I let him drive me home. Hope we're not married now. 

There is going to be another big festival in Abahsa next Monday for Saint George. So, I will hopefully have a post up about that soon!

Also I saw a MASSIVE roach today in the kitchen.... not okay.