Georgian Journeys: Between Kutaisi and Batumi

As usual, I have not updated for awhile and feel as though it is time I should. Life has been busy. There have been classes to teach, lessons to plan, tests to grade, people to visit, sights to see, and graduate school applications to write.

Where to begin? Halloween fell on a Thursday this year and nobody in my school did anything to celebrate because they all thought the holiday fell on the 30th despite me telling them otherwise. They didn't do anything on the 30th either, that I could tell. However, on Thursday, we had debate club where talented students (and lovers of English) from Keda and surrounding villages come to practice their spoken English - which is actually pretty good. Afterwards, I met up with a couple Peace Corps Volunteers and headed to Keda's only cafe for our weekly rendezvous. I am pretty sure the three of us are what keeps that cafe going; we have never seen anyone else there.

Friday, I headed to Kutaisi for the second weekend in a row to attend a Halloween party that was being thrown by some Peace Corps volunteers. I ended up crashing Chase's place (he is a BOREN Fellow), and we were both sleeping in Saturday morning after having been out late the night before. What finally got both us on the move, or at least me, was Destinee showing up unexpectedly Saturday morning (needless to say, Chase and I both kind of startled her because she didn't know I was going to be there and Chase was supposed to be in Tbilisi). The two of us met up with Shawn and we went to a Chinese lunch at some sketchy compound in a hotel that had no guests. This was all designed by the same Peace Corps Volunteers who designed a giant game of Assassin, which I did not really participate in, and the party to come that evening. After lunch, several of us strolled the city, had dinner, and then went to the party. What can be said about the party other than it was like a typical college/undergrad party where there was drinking and dancing and drinking and dancing. Sunday, I slept in for far longer than I normally do but I will not apologize for it.

Kutaisi Theater

Here I am striking a pose in Lover's Park in Kutaisi.

Central Kutaisi.

Last week, on Wednesday, Keda had Kedaloba, a festival celebrating the local traditions and foods of the region. There was plenty of food, wine, dancing, and singing! It was a gorgeous November day in the upper 60s/low 70s, sunny, and pleasant. The weather has been so nice lately and I will take whatever I can get for as long as I can, because come winter, I suspect a perpetual chill will set in. I am a northern girl, I should be used to it. While at the festival, I ran into two volunteers from the Teach and Learn with Georgia program and after the festival, we decided we would have a late lunch at the cafe. Before we could get out of the park, however, we were stopped by a host of Georgian men who immediately gave us their phone numbers, told us we should be guests in their homes, and that they would give us tours of various sights in Adjara. This kind of thing seems to happen a lot. They were happy I was able to speak Russian with them and strangely hounded one of the TLGer's for not knowing Russian (his Georgian is better than mine, though)! Anyway, one of the men kept speaking to me in a blend of Russian and French despite me telling him at least five times that I do not speak French. An interesting side note is that I have been living in Georgia now for about two months and still barely know a lick of the language (I have mastered the alphabet), but the sounds and the looks of it have become less foreign to me. I more or less "recognize" it now, kind of like Spanish, I suppose...there is a certain familiarity that I have with it.

I was going to post a video, but it isn't working...technology is killing me today. Here are pictures instead. You will be able to watch the video if you follow this link: Kedaloba 2013

Wonderful fruit.

Traditional Georgian dancing.

Terrific spreads.

I've been told to include more pictures of myself on this blog so here I am at Kedaloba!

This past weekend I, along with my host mother and brother, journeyed to Batumi. The intention of their visit, I am really not quite sure, but we stayed at my host uncle's apartment. Saturday morning I spent Skyping with a friend whom I had not spoken to in awhile. In the afternoon, after my host mother returned from an appointment (she had insisted I wait for her), she told me she had no time to show me around Batumi so I ventured out by myself. Camera in hand, I took pictures, of course. I spent much of that outing exploring the giant waterfront park that is one of Batumi's claims to fame. I caught a whiff of the Black Sea, bought a shirt with Russian cupolas and martroshka dolls on it (because I am not obsessed), and looked out at the sea. It was interesting - the Black Sea was always this place I had heard about and to finally see it was and is special. Despite the weather being warm, it was slightly overcast and there was a certain strange air to Batumi, as if the city's energy had been drawn into a pair of lungs, waiting to be expelled.