6 months bite the dust

The Alaverdi monastery complex

The thing with moving into a new house is that there are no instructions. The adjustment process is all about trial and error and there are new discoveries to be made everyday. My second day here I noticed what our bathroom plumbing looked like and had a good laugh. The toilet is on the second floor of the house and is an actual toilet. However indoor plumbing isn't much of a thing. Instead there is a massive pipe that shoots out from behind the toilet, it heads outside for a few feet and then drops at a 45 degree angle until it hits where the old outhouse used to be. Basically it's a waste water slide... I'll have to send a picture sometime.

Mskheta's church, old as dirt- but we look fresh!

In addition to the water slide, there is also the matter of heating the water to take a shower with. I went 2 years with cold showers in Brazil, but when it's cold outside you'd have to be crazy to take a cold shower as well. I'm still not sure how it all works, but I know that it takes an hour to heat up. If I don't plan ahead then there is no morning shower for me. (I might have missed a few days this week.)

Other fun discoveries of the week all take place in my room. First my ceiling is made out of wallpaper. I am not totally sure how it works but it's not attached to anything, it just sort of sags but when you push on it there is some give. Either way it looks real nice. Next my bed. To the naked eye it looks quite normal. When you climb in you might notice a difference, and if you roll around on it you will spot the problem real soon. There is no mattress. My bed it made out of a hodgepodge collection of cushions and pads.  For the most part it feels ok, I like a firm bed anyway. However, the bottom corner of the bed is made out cylindrical cushions which don't fit in quite as well. I was quite surprised when I peels back the layers to see what I was really sleeping on. No complaints though, I sleep like a baby every night.

The City of Love (aka a free Georgian marketing scheme)

As for my week, things were really easy. Wednesday was a holiday and Friday I had to go to Tbilisi so I only had 3 days of teaching. On Thursday I caught the marshutka to Tbilisi where I met up with Melody and we prepared for our weekend together. I met her at a semi formal gala at the Marriott in Tbilisi (not your stereotypical Peace Corps environment by any means) where we got to meet several people involved in international development and have delicious food- despite how great it is, it is easy to get tired of Georgian meals.

Megan's first khinkali experience in Georgia

Friday we set out together to meet my friend Megan at the airport. She was flying in on her way to Turkey and we were going to spend the weekend together. I wasn't originally going to be able to meet her at the airport, so my presence was going to be a surprise. 6 months in and I was getting my first visitor, not even an hour long bus ride could spoil my excitement.

How do you eat a pomegranate anyways?

When we got to the airport Melody found her first and when I came walking towards her she just looked at me, and in her own words thought "that guy looks a lot like Logan." Once it clicked that I was there to pick her up too she was just as excited as me. From the airport we headed back to the city and then caught a marsh to Mskheta, the old capital of Georgia. There we feasted on khinkali (Georgian dumplings) per Megan's request, and then we visited the old church in the center. Next we fulfilled Megan's childhood dream and picked some pomegranates from tree on the side of the road.

Jamming to some One Direction with the youths

Later Melody's counterpart picked us up and took us out to a small village where the Embassy's book mobile was stationed for the day. There we spoke with some students and played some childhood games like duck duck goose. We also helped them practice their English and listened to some 1D, (teenage girls are the same all over the world).

The crew for the afternoon

That evening we made the trip into Skra and spent the evening with my old host family. The already love Melody (my host dad said she was the best girl in all of Georgia) and they accepted Megan with open arms. She got the full village experience and was forced to eat more food than she probably ever expected. Everything was delicious per usual, and of course it was also all from their own farm. We has a chicken from the yard, blackberry sauce, candied pears, apricot jam, fresh cheese, khatchapuri, salads, and more. My host dad kept the wine flowing (as Georgians always do) and made the required toast for the meal. (Toasts to God, family, country, etc.) It was a beautiful evening.

My village brothers Nika (left) and Vano (right)

The next morning we woke up early and headed into Tbilisi to start our next adventure. We found ourselves a taxi, who turned out to be impressed that we foreigners could speak and would bother to try and learn Georgian. He was easy to talk to and offered to be our private taxi for the entire day.

Fall in Georgia and it makes me feel at home

Our trip took us throughout most of the Kakheti region of Georgia. We visited the Ujarma fortress, Shuamta monastary, Alaverdi monestary, Gremi fortress, Nekresi monastery, Sighnaghi, and Bode covenant.  All in all it was a lot of time spent in the car and visiting old sites which I know nothing about. I can appreciate something that is old even if I don't know it's history. I am impressed that some things could actually survive that long. Some structures were over 1000 years old! I dare you to find something man made that is over 1000 years old.

Friends who travel together stay together

Finally our last day was spent in Tbilisi checking out the Tbilisi "fair" and wandering throughout the city. Overall the weekend was an astounding success. I got to see some fall colors, I got to see a dear friend, and I got to eat copious amount of sugar and still feign some ignorance about it's side effects. Georgia is a magical place, although that magic might rub off sometimes, experiencing it all again through another person was a good reminder of how great it can be.

6 months behind me and many more ahead