Capitol Cities and Comrades

A Georgian student, American Peace Corps volunteer, and Colombian wandering street vendor get into a shared taxi together…. Sounds like a joke, but this was the beginning of the last 4.5 hours of my life as we drove from Tbilisi back to Poti. I opted to try my hand with a shared taxi (mini-van-esque) rather than the dreaded marshutka and my experience was 100x better. By the end I was still in a good mood rather than on the verge of strangling the first person to cross my path (seriously does anyone enjoy riding in a marshutka???).

 

I had my second karate lesson on Wednesday, here is our "dojo"

The Georgian student spoke pretty decent English, the Colombian spoke ok English as well as some Portuguese. Our conversations drifted in and out of four languages and it left my head spinning. It was quite the international experience. Each person wanted to learn how to say something in the others’ languages and we swapped some vocabulary and phrases. I couldn’t speak a complete sentence in Portuguese without dropping in some Georgian words as well. My comprehension remains keen but my communication is a mess. Regardless of all of the difficulties of separating each language from the others, there is something magical at the root of learning multiple languages. Your world expands and the potential for friendship and understanding across cultures expands, it is amazing. Now on to why I was sitting in a min-van taxi having conversation in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Georgian.

Wednesday night I was flossing my teeth when I noticed something hard in my mouth, upon inspection I realized it was a filling from my rear molar and that there was a large gap in its absence. The next day I spoke with the Peace Corps medical staff and they quickly set up an appointment for me at the dentist in Tbilisi. Just like that my weekend plans went from a 30km guys backpacking trip in Borjomi with some fellow PCVs to a solo trip to Tbilisi to visit the dentist- not an even swap by any means but I made the most of it.

Tbilisi from the fortress above old town

The week had been going quite well before the tooth incident. Teachers had returned to school on Tuesday the 1st so I had been meeting with the English teachers to begin planning our summer camp for next week. We also were given the school schedule for the semester and I was able to see what classes there would be for me to start teaching in, I am excited by all of my options!

Anyways I grabbed the Thursday evening train from Poti and headed on to Tbilisi, a 5 hour journey. About an hour into the trip I noticed some foreigners get on and one sat down next to me. Judging from the NYPD hat, basketball shorts, and t-shirt, I rightly assumed that he was an American. He was also the first American that I have seen/interacted with in Georgia outside of Tbilisi. We ended up chatting for most of the remaining 4 hours. We discussed Georgia a lot, its culture, food, people, and history. We also talked about life in the US, our experiences traveling abroad, and many other things. It’s been awhile since I have had such a great conversation with a stranger. 

Old town shop selling churchkela (the colorful dangling things)

 

It was dark when I reached the capitol so I decided to head straight to old town so I could get a bed in a hostel. I was famished from the journey and despite the late hour decided to indulge in some gelato and a shawarma, treats that can only be found in the city. The next day was mainly spent at the Peace Corps office and surrounding area. The visit to the dentist was quite uneventful. Georgia is one of the few Peace Corps countries where the PC allows for host country doctors to provide dental care because they meet the standard requirements. I do feel a little bad for the dentist because it took a lot of novocaine to numb my tooth and then I ended up dozing off a few times and had to be reminded to keep my mouth open. I had also decided to eat a Dunkin Donut (another Tbilisi treat) on my way to his office, hopefully the fruity smell made up for any donut remains in my teeth. 

Many Scots were in town for a soccer game, here are the Georgians and Scots playing together

After my dentist visit I met up with another volunteer who happened to be in town. We wandered around for a little bit and then went to visit the Tbilisi mall and famed Carrefour grocery story. I have a thing for grocery stores and this one is the Mecca of groceries in Georgia. (Carrefour is an international French chain that I first fell in love with in Brazil.) I wandered the aisle in awe of everything from Indian cooking spices to brown sugar, you never know what you will miss when abroad. I also did a little clothes shopping since I also found a Banana Republic (although given my current salary of $0, I couldn’t afford anything), I browsed and then went into the Georgian store to buy some pants at a much more reasonable price. The real highlight of the evening came later when we found a delicious hamburger joint that served me a delicious burger with guacamole, cheddar cheese, salsa, and spicy corn chips. I was in heaven, there were so many flavors in that meal that I hadn’t tasted in a very long time. 

The domes over the underground sulfur baths

On Saturday I had the choice to go home now that my teeth were ok, but I decided to stay in Tbilisi and do some sightseeing (in preparation for any future visitors I might have). I was up early as always and decided to get a jump on the day by wandering down to the sulfur bath district and do some cultural integrating. A short time later I found myself in an old soviet era locker room changing into my birthday suit and getting instructions from an older Georgian man on how to reap the health benefits of the bathhouse. First I showered off and then spent some time in the sauna. Once I was relaxed I took another quick shower and then hopped into the large communal tub full of hot sulfuric water, followed by an ice cold shower. The idea being that you continue to alternate between hot and cold environment which in turn open and close your pores, release toxins from the body, and help you to relax. Additionally since the water is coming from natural warm sulfur springs there are other supposed health benefits which I can’t quite remember- it just is. 

Bath #5 where I spent my time back in 1955 Soviet Georgia

Once I had completed the circuit of hot and cold, another old Georgian man directed me to lie down on a tiled slab/bed and he proceeded to rough and vigorously scrub of a layer of skin from my entire body. Next I was rinsed in warm water, then scrubbed again with a foamy soap of some sorts while he massaged out my muscles. Once he was finished with my I was smooth as a baby and feeling energized. I repeated the hot cold cycle one more time and then headed back to the locker room. There I was handed a sheet/towel and sat with the Georgians and made some conversation while I answered all of their questions for me, including if I wanted to marry some man’s daughter so I could become cousins with another man there. I declined, but overall I feel like the morning was a success. 

Bridge of Peace

Once I made it back to the hostel and got ready for the day I met up with Melody and we began our day as tourists. We took the cable cars up to the fortress on the hill, took a selfie with the Mother Georgia statue, explored a modern park, visited the Bridge of Peace, and meandered through more of the old town area. Next we trekked across the city in search of good Chinese food, which we found and devoured. Then we wandered through the Dry Bridge flea market for hours. It was full of vendors selling old soviet memorabilia along with other curiosities. The whole experience was mind blowing and made me feel like I was back in the USSR, it was easily my favorite part of the day. Following our soviet souvenir hunting experience we headed up to the Holy Trinity cathedral and toured through the building and grounds. It is a very impressive structure.

Soviet phone anyone?

After a brief rest in our hostel, mostly so we could enjoy some good ol’ AC, we wandered off to find dinner. It should be no surprise that we stopped in at the first Indian restaurant we saw, you can only eat so much Georgian food before you start to crave more variety (and protein). Lastly, we made the trek to the funicular station and rode that up to the top of the hill overlooking Tbilisi. From there we walked to the Giant Wheel (aka ferris wheel) and went for a loop- which was interrupted by people setting off some fun fireworks while we rode down- best view in the house. 

Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi

After the adventure of yesterday, today was rather tame. We rested most of the morning and then went to visit the local LDS (Mormon) ward (congregation). It was fun to see the members again after a short time. It was a great recharge spiritually which complemented my previous day’s physical recharge. We stayed for 2 hours and then had to sneak out to make it to the bus station in hope of finding a bus that wouldn’t get me home too late.

View of Tbilisi from the funicular hill

This week was a wonderful ending to a more carefree summer, and tomorrow I begin my gradual transition into the teaching world. I have 5, 3 hour days of English summer camp ahead of me. I am hoping that this one will be just as successful as the one we were able to implement in Skra back in the beginning of July. Once summer camp wraps up that will be the end of my summer to do list and school will start on the following Monday. Wish me luck!