As the wine flows!

October 26 2009

I have completely lost track of time and we are both somewhat exhausted from all the activity here. Some of the fatigue may be a result of adjusting to a new culture and all that entails. Hard to say. Thursday night there was a special dinner for us and the Rusts who were on an official visit to Georgia from Portland,  Ken is the past president of the US Government Fiannce Officers Association and was here for a meeting of the Georgian gorup.  This was something Tim had arranged.  The meal was another Supra... with toasts, koits of wine, and great Georgian food.  The "macho" drinking was also evident with many rounds first from glasses, then from bowls and finally from rams hons. 

On Friday we went on a wine country tour.  wa was ent in a van with a professional driver. That allowed everyone to drink quite heavily when we had the supra later in the day as the professional drivers do not drink and drive, unlike Georgians in general.

The ride took two hours and there was pretty scenery. I think there were nine or ten of us in the van plus the driver. First we stopped at the estate of a famous poet. The grounds were incredible with huge trees. We toured the house with a guide then walked around the grounds and visited the wine cellar which contained 16,000 bottles of wine from the 1800’s. Because this is now a museum the wine is not consumed. What a pity!

Then we drove to an ancient church, where the women were required to put on wrap around skirts over our long pants. The church is being restored but it was wonderful to see such an old building with very high ceilings. Apparently when the Soviets overtook Georgia they white washed all the frescos in the churches. Now the Georgians are trying to restore those that can be restored.

From here we ventured forth to a demonstration farm. We picked grapes and watched them be pressed by a man in rubber boots. The wine flows into a large clay vessel that is buried below the floor then sealed for I think four-six months then the wine is ready. Georgian wine has lower alcohol content than US wine. Then we saw how they make chacha which is homemade vodka.

Next we saw Georgian ‘snickers’ being made. They string walnuts on a thread then coat it with concentrated grape juice that has been reduced to a thick caramel like substance. In the end it looks a lot like a lumpy hot dog. But think fruit leather with nuts. It is quite tasty. Next we saw bread being cooked in a clay oven where they stick the dough to the sides of the conical shaped oven much like naan bread is cooked in a tandori oven.

Then we had a supra, sitting outside in a sheltered area. By now we were joined by another four to six people who seemed to know some of the others present. This started off like all others we have attended. To make a long story short, this supra lasted five hours. The drinking began with traditional wine glasses which are like small juice glasses. As the night wore on, they men progressed to the clay bowls which hold considerably more wine. Here they would balance the bowl on the crook of the arm at the elbow which is held shoulder high, parallel to the floor and consumed in one drink without using hands. Then the bowl is then flipped into the air and caught with one hand. Think showmanship here. As the men became more intoxicated the drinking became fiercer. By this time I had gotten up from the table because we had been sitting for hours and my back hurt from the hard benches. I was standing by the oven nearby. The tamada (toastmaster) looked at me and asked me in Georgian to bring the horns out. Then someone realized I was not an employee and we all had a good laugh. Next they brought out the rams’ horns. The staff brought out the horns which were huge and held lots of wine. By now the men stood on their chairs to drink from the horn, emptying it in one long drink. By the end of evening they moved on to drinking directly from the serving pitcher which held about two quarts. They filled it to the brim and six men passed it around and it was empty by the sixth person. I was ready to jump out of my skin. I left the table and stood by the oven again which was warm as the night was quite cool. It was a long ride home and we arrived at 11:00 p.m. exhausted. I don’t drink alcohol so seeing this kind of excess is actually difficult for me. I will do anything to avoid such a feast again.

The next day was Saturday and a big celebration for Tbilisi as it was the City’s anniversary. We met at the Sheraton Hotel where the Rusts were staying and Dato and crew picked us up there at 11:30. Off we went to the center of the celebration where the first thing was to have designated men put on rubber boots and press the grapes. Ron and Ken got to participate but we had left the camera at home. There were probably fifteen men holding on to each other by having their arms wrapped around each other’s shoulders sort of like cancan dancers. After the grapes were pressed, we watched traditional dancing which is quite athletic for the men and very graceful for the women. The women take tiny steps so they literally glide across the stage as though they were skating. It was wonderful to see them in native costumes. We also got to hear traditional singing which I believe is called polyphonic and it was a real treat.

We then walked to old town which is being redeveloped and reminds me of the Pearl district in Portland with lovely sidewalk cafes and interesting shops and apartments. We continued to walk up a very steep, very high hill. At the top was a huge statue of Mother Georgia. In one hand she holds a sword to defend Georgia from her enemies (Georgia has been invaded throughout its history and conquered many times by many different enemies) and in her other hand she holds the traditional bowl of wine to welcome her guests. Wine plays a very critical role in this culture we are learning. The views of the city and the area were the best we have seen here. Fantastic! Did I say we are still enjoying sunshine daily here? Being from the ‘greyt’ NW, this is our idea of heaven.

Next we went on a log raft ride down the river. Each raft had a small table with benches and the traditional supra foods although it was limited. In additional to all the guests on board there were dancers and musicians playing traditional music on traditional instruments. NO one could move very easily here and the dancers had a very small space in which to perform. Outside the rafts there were numerous safely personnel in boats should someone fall into the water. There were no life vests. It was fun and I was glad it was brief as I was about ‘supra-ed out’. It was our fourth days of these events.

Next we went to the largest cathedral in Georgia and it is about ten years old. It was paid for by the government, rich business men, and others. It is huge and made of beautiful carved sandstone. We arrived in time for mass so we saw the patriarch who is the equivalent to the pope in the Georgian Orthodox Church. The churches here are filled with icons and worshippers kiss the icons. There are no pews or chairs and worshippers stand during the services which on Sunday are 3.5-4 hours long. If you are old or pregnant it is acceptable to sit. The best part for me was the choir. Again they were singing in the polyphonic songs and with the acoustics it was a real treat. Afterwards we went home, very tired. After four days of supras we had cereal for dinner and were glad of it. I wanted to go to bed then but it was about 7:30. We made it until 9:30 I think.

Sunday was our first day at home and I relished it. I was able to put all our clothes in order in the closet which is huge and straighten out the dresser drawers. We needed some food so I ventured out to get some veggies and fruit. There is a woman Tim told us about who lives across the street next from us who bakes bread. When I went outside our gate I saw her garage window was open which is the signal that she is selling her bread. I went over and she brought me two rounds of hot bread. It cost about $0.90 for the two. I came back home and pulled out the butter and took it up to Ron who was upstairs in the office. YUM! After the treat I went back out looking for a veggie stand.

Ron spent a frustrating day (not what was needed after this week) trying to get our computers to function. After a bit of expletives he got it done and we went out for lunch. We had no idea what was in the ‘hood’ but stumbled across an Italian place within a few blocks. It was fabulous but the portions were huge so we brought home leftovers. We also found a great shop that had some good home furnishings. If I haven’t mentioned it I am rather particular about such things and it is one of the things that is difficult about living in a developing country: the availability of goods. There were places to get ugly cheap goods but to get quality takes some work. We didn’t buy anything but found some things we liked. I came home and Ron told me he thought there were some leftover bath tiles in the storage room. Sure enough I crawled into the furthest corner and some each color I needed to match towels to tiles. Each bathroom is a different color and the blue towels I brought don’t go with any of the bathrooms. We continued to putter until dinner time and decided to eat light after our big lunch. Ron has managed to add some pounds with all the supras so we are going to try to eat light at dinner time until the weight comes off. We had fruit, cheese, bread, nuts and dried fruit. It was great.

We worked at our computers until bedtime. I was almost in tears I was so exhausted. Ron had a difficult morning with the computers and I was just plum worn out from the week. We have discovered that we have a barking dog behind us and one to our left. They are large dogs with deep barks and they keep us up all night. I was so tired I slept through it mostly but not Ron. He was ready to throttle two dogs last night. We are getting desperate for sleep and rest around here. I told Tim via email about the dogs. He promised us we would learn to tune them out with time.

Today is Monday, Oct 27th.. We had our language lesson first thing. My head was mush so it was a struggle but our teacher is patient. Have I talked about the language here? The alphabet has thirty three letters and a few even look like something you might recognize but that has nothing to do with how the letter sounds. For instance the letter that resembles ‘m’ is pronounced ‘o’, the letter that looks like ‘a’ is pronounced ‘m’, the letter that looks like ‘b’ is pronounced ‘s’. Are you still with me? My favorite word so far is ‘nine’ which is spelled the equivalent of ‘tskhrav’, go ahead, I’m listening to you trying to pronounce it because there’s no friggin’ way to say that word, yet Elza our teacher does it. These guys are short on vowels is all I can say. Ron laughs every tine I attempt to roll my r’s. But the really cool thing is being able to recognize the letters we have learned. Today I was trying to figure out what the three appliances I bought cost me. I was able to read enough letters on the cash register receipt to figure out which one was the blender. It is great fun to learn a new alphabet and language but let me just say I got a loooong away to go! It does make grocery shopping a real challenge however as I haven’t found anything printed in English yet.

After our lesson we got our rabies shots. Yes, there is a problem with rabies here and everyone seems to own a dog. We then got our emergency radio, checked our mail and cashed a check. Ron went to work and I went shopping. Gia helped me. I managed to blow $500 on household items: blender, coffee maker, trash cans, etc. We blew up several appliances when we went to Sri Lanka using transformers and decided to save ourselves the agony this time and just buy appliance that are 220. Unlike Sri Lanka, things are expensive here. Today was my first day to do any serious shopping. I haven’t bought enough food yet to have a feel for the cost of things. The fresh veggies and fruits at the outdoor markets seem very reasonable. And the bread I have mentioned I got for a song.

Oct 28 2009

Today was a great day. We went to bed at a reasonable hour last night and slept in until 7:30 this morning. Georgians go to work around 10 and work later than we do. Ron went to work and I went to an IWA (International Women’s Assoc) monthly meeting. This is a very diverse group of about 100 women. Some are professional working women and some are spouses of men who are working here. About 40% are Georgian. There are women from all over the world here. They do a lot of fund raising in order to do good deeds here. They had a raffle and I won! It was a huge basket with champagne, two flutes, dark chocolates, luxury soaps, candles, olives, cheese and a pillow. Lovely. After the meeting I had a massage at the apartment of the massage therapist. I appreciated being able to see how a typical Georgian lives as many expats live a luxurious lifestyle here. The apartment was tiny and meager but the massage was good. I have had a lot of discomfort since the plane trip here so was glad to start working on getting my strained muscles to loosen up.

Afterwards I came home to meet the guys who were delivering wood for our fireplace and the man who is measuring for window screens. Tonight Ron is at a dinner meeting with reps from IMF (International Monetary Fund) and I get to have a quiet evening alone. I spent most of the time studying my Georgian and writing five simple sentences. I am thrilled that I can already write with the new alphabet but had to admit it is a brain buster.

Slowly I am making headway with finding the things we need for the house: towels, a dish drain board, etc. It takes a real effort to shop here. Yesterday I went to Danish House. I had envisioned lovely items from Denmark such as beautiful table linens, artful knick knacks, and the like. The store was more like Newberry’s, a cheap five and dime. The search continues. I did find a great store for towels but they don’t have wash cloths. So when you come to visit, you will such have to ‘ruff it’.

October 20, 2009

It is another gorgeous day in Tbilisi. After exercising, showering and breakfast, Gia picked us up and we dropped Ron off at the Embassy. Last night when Ron came home from work, he told me that Dato had planned several activities for Ken and Patti Rust who arrive here tomorrow from Portland to attend a conference. We are being included in all the activities. The bad news is this is a conflict with our move in date. Ouch! So I went to the house after we dropped Ron off to see how the painting is going. Well heck, they are DONE! The yellow looks great downstairs and the off white has really softened the look upstairs. I am quite pleased. Back to the Embassy, I found Rami, who has held my hand all along the way and I asked him if there was any way we could move in on Thursday. Of course, he said YES. What a huge relief.

So the plan is tomorrow, Wednesday, I will meet the furniture guys at the house at 11:00 SGT (standard Georgia time which Rami said means any time between 11:00-1:00). I will show them what to take out of the house and where to put the new furniture. On Thursday Ron and I will meet the shipping firm reps at the house at 9:00 a.m. to receive our air shipment. On Friday the professionals come to clean the house. We most probably will wait until Friday to sleep at the house as we have dinner obligations Wednesday and Thursday nights and tours on Friday and Saturday. I will be somewhat frustrated that I won’t have enough time to get things put away and groceries bought, etc but at least we will be able to sleep in the house starting on Friday. We get our VAT exemption card on Monday of next week which will save us 18% on most purchases so it is probably just as well that I won’t have time to shop for the needed household goods and groceries.

On Saturday when I was with Betsy I told her I would be looking for work. After I told her my work background, she recommended I contact a friend of hers, Elizabeth Winship who runs a program here. This afternoon I am meeting with Elizabeth to learn more about the program. The organization she works for is American Institutes for Research. In addition to the many programs they have in the US they work in over 30 developing countries providing various educational programs. The Internet is a wonderful thing! I have no idea how difficult it will be to find work here. I have no idea what is available and how much competition there is, much less what the pay might be. But today will be a start to see what I can find out. Networking has always proved most useful when trying to find the answers to such questions. I definitely think the community of NGOs (non governmental organizations) is a small one and I will be able to find appropriate organizations for the skills that I have by networking. If I am unable to find meaningful work I feel sure there are ample volunteer opportunities and I have already seen some classes I want to take. Richard Bolles who wrote What Color is Your Parachute? used to say ‘No one is free unless they have choices’. I think I will have plenty of choices as to how to spend my time.

October 22

I met with Elizabeth and she was most encouraging. She gave me multiple contacts and also said she would be interested in me doing some career development consulting work with her organization. It has been a couple of days since I met with her and she has asked me to complete a bio data form which is a first step in moving forward with a consulting contract. She wants me to work 25 hours a week and travel to a couple of sites within ROG. I am pleased that things are moving along so easily.

Yesterday I was at the house for about five hours. The movers arrived right on time and proceeded to remove the pieces of furniture we didn’t need or that were being replaced with new furniture. I had to laugh as every 30 minutes they took a smoke break. Did I mention that many Georgians smoke? I am so pleased that Gia, our driver doesn’t smoke. But the smoking makes for an unpleasant meal in a restaurant. They don’t know about non smoking sections yet.

Our new upholstered furniture is dark green with large gold scrolls, so not us but hey, it’s free and I didn’t have to go out and shop for it so I am delighted to have it. Our neighbor Chris will be laughing because she knows Ron doesn’t much care for green in our home in Vancouver. We did break down and paint our dining room green this past year however.

Ron came over for lunch and then we came back to the hotel to rest before heading out for a tour that Dato had arranged for us and the Rust’s who are here to attend the first ROG public finance officers’ meeting. Ron had been ill the previous night with diarrhea and a real bad cases of the chills about 3:00 a.m. It was frightening to me to see him shake so hard but he was almost back to normal by morning. Cipro to the rescue.

Marika, Ron’s assistant picked us up at the hotel and we met Dato et al in Mtskheta, the ancient capital of eastern Georgia. Mtskheta is about 20 minutes from Tbilisi. There we had a guide who took us through the archeological museum. From there we went to the 4th century church located on a bluff overlooking the convergence of two rivers. Absolutely beautiful! Then we went back into the town to visit the cathedral with beautiful frescos including one of Christ surrounded by his disciples and the zodiac. Yes, you read me right, the zodiac.

From here we headed to a lovely restaurant where we had a Georgian feast. The food was almost identical to the feast we had with Dato for Tim’s send off although I think there may have been one or two additional dishes and one or two different dishes. At one point during the toasts (remember every one of these feasts includes a toast master (tamada) and copious amounts of white wine) Dato produced a clay bowl with wine in it and he drank the entire bowl and asked Ken and Ron to do the same. I don’t know how well you know Ron but he never drinks more than two glasses of wine. Well he had already had one or two by this time so drinking a small bowl of wine was a real push. But it didn’t stop there. A few toasts later, Dato produced another traditional drinking vessel, a ram’s horn. It was about 12-14 inches long and he poured a full glass of wine into it and drank it down. Ken and Ron were asked to follow suit. Ron tried his best to decline but they wouldn’t hear of it. Down it went and he was still standing! Patti Rust even tried it but didn’t drink an entire glass. It reminded us of freshmen drinking rituals in US colleges.

Today we went to the house at 9 and met the shippers who had our shipment from the US.

The crew of three and the two of us got busy unpacking all the boxes and had them unpacked within a few hours. Ron and I continued to work until noon then he had to go to the conference so we came back to the hotel, he changed and I ordered lunch. We woofed down our sandwiches and Gia dropped Ron off at the Sheraton and took me back to the house to meet the alarm guys. I continued to put things away, made our bed and tried to get things organized. The alarm guys came an hour later than we had agreed on but hey, it’s Georgian time. I had plenty to do. Frankly I don’t think we need an alarm since you cannot break into our house without a blow torch but I wrote down lots of instructions. After they left I asked Gia to take me grocery shopping as we will spend Friday night at the house. I wanted to get some basics and went into the store without Gia thinking I could figure out the packaging. I was able to get everything except dishwashing powder for the dishwasher. I went outside and asked him to help me. It turned out they only had liquid soap for the dishwasher so I got it although I am apprehensive. I have a ton of things to buy for the house but didn’t have the time or energy for it today. We get our diplomatic card on Monday and it will save us 18% VAT so it is best to wait anyway.

Back to the house to unload the groceries and try to get the counters cleared and pick things up off the floor as the cleaning crew comes in tomorrow to a big clean. I was exhausted by then - 4:30- so came back to the hotel before meeting Ron at 8:00 for yet another feast. I will report on it next blog.

A week-end in Tbilisi

Friday night we went to the bar to join Tim for a drink and meet some of the ‘locals’, mostly expats who work in Tbilisi. Friday night is a big deal here and the same crowd can be seen at the Betsy each Friday evening. After about 10 minutes I escaped to the lobby as I could hardly handle the noise and smoke. Goodness, everyone here seems to smoke.

After about another 10 minutes I went back in and met a few more folks then we went to dinner downstairs. After dinner Tim wanted to share his 16 year old brandy he had bought here three years ago when he arrived so his brandy is now 19 years old. He and Ron toasted one another and after a sip decided it was harsh brandy but Tim said after five sips it wasn’t so bad.

Saturday I took a taxi to the Iranian Embassy where I was to meet Betsy (as in Betsy’s Hotel). I had told the taxi company dispatcher where I wanted to go and I told the driver. However something got lost in translation and after about 10 minutes I realized he was well on his way to the American Embassy. I showed him the address (remember we have a different alphabet) and he stopped the car. After a discussion where I wasn’t making any headway I called the dispatcher. Ultimately it took a second person at headquarters to get the message. At that point the driver said ‘Ayatollah Khomeini’ and I said YES and we were on our way. Betsy and I went to a great nursery owned by a Dutch ex pat, a young man who served in the military in Afghanistan for four years. Oy! No wonder he now works with plants. I found a lovely large red glazed ceramic pot and bought it. Ivo will hold it until we get moved in. I should mention it is the first glazed pot I have seen and the first large pot I have seen. Our home looks like a stone fortress so I need to soften the look and add some color. It is a small start. I also ordered 100 tulips in bright oranges and purples. That should liven things up in the spring. We can plant tulips until December here and they will arrive mid November. I was told this was the best nursery for selection of plants and price. Let’s just say ‘we’re not in Kansas, Toto’. The selection is limited by our standards. But I am glad to have been introduced as I would never have found this place on my own. The street doesn’t even have a name! Welcome to my new world.

I came back to the hotel. Ron had taken a hike up the hill behind the hotel while I was away. We ate a quick lunch on the patio then headed out to the Ethnological Museum where there are numerous houses from the many regions of Georgia. Here we could see the many styles of architecture in these typical houses. In one of the houses we met an artist who had displayed some of his work, which we both liked. We took his name and cell number. He spoke excellent English as he had studied in the US for a while.

It was the perfect day to be outside. There were many families there and some had spread blankets on the ground and were enjoying elaborate picnics. The setting of this outdoor museum was high on a hill overlooking Tbilisi. Just perfectly lovely. Note Trica standing by the large ceramic wine casks that are usually burried in the ground for storage of home made wine.  So far there have been no perfectly clear days. We assume this is partly due to moisture in the air and to pollution. Afterwards we returned to the hotel and relaxed until dinner.

On Sunday we got up early and took a cab to the Embassy where we met up with about 10-15 other volunteers and we caravanned to a village about 30 minutes out of town. The roads were in terrible shapes and at times there was no payment. This road is used by the large trucks that carry goods between Turkey and Georgia. Here we joined US Marines and some men from the Georgian Army where we all worked to help rehab an old school that is being converted into home for young adults with disabilities such as cerebral palsy and Down syndrome. This is an old Soviet era building: concrete, three stories, no ornamentation. It is in terrible shape and has no running water or gas for heat. The residents are to move into the facility in mid November. Ron and I joined those working outside. For the past five weekends the Marines have been volunteering their Sundays on this project and recently asked for volunteers from the Embassy which is how we found out about it. We helped to clear brush. Unfortunately we were way short handed with tools to get the job done. Fortunately the head Marine had a slew of gloves for us to use. Since we were clearing rose bushes and blackberries the gloves were essential although the thorns went right through the gloves with the slightest pressure. At one point Ron was bleeding on both arms from the scratches. I had fewer abrasions as I was simply hauling the brush to the fire but did manage three healthy scratches. We both lived to tell the tale! No tourniquets were required…

We worked for a little over two hours but had to leave as the person with whom we had hitched a ride needed to go as her four year old son had had enough. Prior to leaving we were interviewed by a young woman with a microphone and were filmed by a camera man. It just may be our 15 minutes of fame! She seemed inexperienced as one of her questions was ‘who is working harder, the US Marines or the Georgian Army?’ Being ever so tactful, Ron answered ‘everyone is working hard for these young adults so they may have a good place to live’. Yeah RB!

After another lunch on the patio we decided to learn how to ride the subway here. It is an old system with long distances between stops and only has one main line and a short arm off that line. We managed to transfer to the second line and ultimately find our house. The painters worked all weekend and we stopped by each day to see how they were doing. We had requested that the ‘toddler gates’ used to blocked the stairs on each floor be removed before painting. On Saturday when we stopped by, we reminded the painter of this. He spoke no English so we pantomimed what we wanted. On Sunday the gates were still in place so I found a painter who spoke limited English. When I explained that the gates needed to be removed in order to paint the walls, he remarked ‘it is not our job’. Oy! We took the subway back and climbed the very steep hill to our hotel and cleaned up since we still had our work clothes on from the morning brush clearing job.

Then we took a cab to a new neighborhood where I had my haircut. We had arrived early so took a stroll down the street and found an attractive shop with home furnishings. We went inside as we were quite impressed with what we saw in the window. They had curtains, rugs, and furniture, all brightly colored with flashy designs. There were four or five staff members and no customers except us. I saw some attractive towels and one of the women came over to show me they were on sale. The price was 113 for the set so I asked if this was GEL (Georgian Lari which is about 0.60 per lari). At that point a man came over and in excellent English informed me these products were from Italy from the MOST famous design house in the WORLD (I of course have never heard of them) and the price on the towels were in Euros. Hey a set of towels for about $168 on sale yet!!!!!!!!!!!! If you don’t know us well, let me just say we didn’t buy them.

My haircut took 15 minutes. Luba was recommended by Betsy and she sat on a stool that allowed her to scoot around me as she cut my hair. It was a fair job but no one has ever cut my hair as well as Mike back home and I miss him today. The cost was 30 lari, about $18, a little over half of what I pay at home. Back to the Betsy we realized we were tired from all the activity and went to bed early.

This morning I went to see Rami, the contact at the Embassy and he was going to send someone out to remove the gates. Yeah! I cannot get over how supportive and helpful they are.

I want to tell you about our language lessons. We have a wonderful teacher and we will start seeing her at the Embassy three times a week now. The Georgian alphabet has 33 letters in a script unlike ours: some letters are written on the line, some below the line and some above the line. Some I am sure were created to confuse the heck out of people who use the alphabet that we are familiar with. For instance the letter that most resembles an m is pronounced ‘o’, the letter that resembles a b is pronounced s, the letter that looks like the number three is pronounced v, the letter that looks like an a is pronounced m. Fun huh?  The two pix above say the same thing... English & Georgian

But yesterday as we rode the subway it was fun to read the ads in Georgian and see how many letters I could decipher. It was very rewarding to see that I know about half the alphabet after two lessons! At times Ron and I feel that it will break our brains to learn the language but we persist! Tim was very impressive with his command of the language so I am afraid we have a lot to live up to here!

Getting the house ready

Yesterday was a great day. I met with Rami from the Embassy at the house to discuss changes. Because we are new and there have been no changes to the house for years (at least five), we are entitled to a new paint job and window treatments. I had chosen a color from some paint chips I had brought from home. I brought these as we want to try and find a bed covering for home and wanted to make sure it would match the paint we intend to paint our bedroom when we get home. I had a limited palette to work with. As it turned out the painter brought one of those fan color charts but I wanted to keep it simple so stuck with my colors. I did not know until I arrived at the house yesterday that we were entitled to new furniture since what is there is worn and had not been replaced for years. Rami assured me that new furniture would match the sand yellow color I had chosen for the downstairs wall. So we will get new upholstered furniture. I have not seen it so it will be a surprise and I will hope for the best. We will get new dining room chairs also as the current ones have stained seats. New coffee table, end tables, some new lamps and new patio furniture. A new bedroom set for the master suite. I am most grateful that we can get rid of the vertical blinds that hang from every window. I don’t even like them when they are new but these are very tired, worn and dirty so yippee, we get new wide mahogany colored wooden blinds for the windows and thin ones for the balcony and patio doors. I chose mahogany because all the wood furniture is mahogany colored. This is a more formal look than we would choose but hey, I don’t have to go shopping for furniture and I don’t have to pay for it so I ain’t complaining. Rami said we were lucky because the warehouse is full of new furniture. Timing is everything. We hope also to switch out the electric stove for a gas stove. In addition to the yellow walls downstairs, the rest of the house will be painted a soft off-white as opposed to the stark, cold white that is there now.

We are re-arranging the rooms in terms of usage. We will use the third floor as the master suite. It has a giant walk in closet, full bath and large bedroom as well as a storage space entered through the closet. The second floor has three bedrooms. One is on the back side of the house and according to Tim there are some barking dogs that can be heard frequently from that room. We are going to make that the office and exercise room as it is the largest bedroom on that floor. We brought a stationary bike, a weight bench and bought Tim’s treadmill. We are hoping we can get a second computer desk for the room since we have two computers: my desk top and Ron’s laptop. We will also put one of the TV’s we bought from Tim in there to watch news when we exercise. The other two rooms will remain bedrooms. This floor also has a full bath and a laundry room as well as a large foyer. We will probably put a small sofa in the foyer to take up some of the space.

I am hoping that I can find some large ceramic pots for the front porch and back patio. They are made of attractive stone work but need softening. So far the only attractive pots I have seen were at the Marriot. I know some things will not be available here and this just may be one of them. The house itself is concrete with some stone tiles and has the distinct look of a fortress. Only in America can you see houses made of wood. No one else has any trees left! Here everything is concrete/stucco. Some homes are quite attractive and most of the apartment houses are incredibly unattractive, many left over from the Soviet era. Many are poorly maintained. Most have laundry hanging outside the windows.

Our first two Supras

Well where to begin? On Tuesday night we were taken to a dinner by Dado, the Finance Director for the City of Tbilisi. There were six of us: Tim, Marika who is Tim’s assistant, Gigi who works for the National Ministry of Finance, Ron, Dado, our host and me. The occasion was to give Tim a proper send off and to welcome Ron and me. In retrospect I would call it a ‘mini supra’. A Georgian supra is a feast. It is a ritualized event with a tamada, a toast master. Traditional foods are served and there is a very specific order to the toasts and a very specific theme to each toast. No wine is consumed unless there is a toast.

Food

Let me start by saying that Georgian cuisine is fabulous. I had been told that is was by everyone who had been here but I have been astounded by how good it is. When we arrived last night we were the only people at the restaurant. I don’t know if it was a private club or public place but it was quite lovely. The table was set and many dishes were already on the table when we arrived. This is typical of a supra. I will try to recall the food that we were served. There was fish: four kinds of fish served at room temperature on small platter including what looked lox, a white fish which was salty and a couple of other that I didn’t try. There was another platter with two other kinds of small whole fish. In addition there was caviar. There were olives, a green salad with tomatoes and parmesan, a platter with a spinach mold that had hot red peppers with something that bound it together, maybe cheese, eggplant with walnut sauce, there was a cheese platter with four cheeses, a bread basket with four or five kinds o breads, a traditional thin hot bread was served individually that always has hot chewy bubbly cheese that is slightly salty and another bread called cornbread but in no way resembles our cornbread. This was made of corn flour, it was about the size of your palm and quiet dense. It was probably fried with a crispy buttery outside and a soft, creamy inside. Cream cheese wrapped in thinly sliced cheese. Cold cuts. Later came stuffed mushrooms in wine sauce with hot, chewy cheese. Then hot sturgeon with pomegranate sauce, there two kinds of barbeque meats with green plum sauce, fried potatoes. This was topped off with ice cream for those who could handle it and huge platters of fresh fruit: honeydew melon, watermelon, peaches, apples, grapes, pears. Unfortunately I thought everything on the tables was the meal and had no idea that more hot dishes would be served. Live and learn. The key here is to pace yourself and only eat those dishes that interest you the most because you can’t eat some of everything and live to tell about it!

In additional there were four kinds of drinks on the tables: a tarragon soda, a pear soda, still and carbonated mineral water which is called gassed water versus still water. White and red wine were served which is what is used for the toasts.

Dado served as the tamada, the toast master. Toasts have a specific order and are much more elaborate than ours. In this case many of the toasts were educational, giving us history lessons as we went along. Each toast was announced as ‘I would like to propose a toast’. Then Dado would give background information as to the reason for the toast, the subject of the toast and then make the toast. This may take up to five minutes or more. Then all glasses would be clinked and then a few more words before the actual drinking of the wine. No wine is drunk in between the toasts and it is best since there were too many toasts to count. I would not be exaggerating if I said there were twenty or more toasts. Some toasts require draining your glass. Our meal lasted about two or two and half hours. Not our usual meal in the US!  It was a super Supra!

Dado asked if we would like to go up in the hills to get a view of the city. Of course we said yes! Tbilisi is surrounded by hills and mountains. We drove for maybe fifteen minutes up a twisting road and got out to see a spectacular view of the city. We were able to spy various landmarks and regretted not having our camera.

So that was Tuesday and then Wednesday we got invited to yet another celebration to acknowledge Tim’s departure. This was at a restaurant that is noted for a traditional dish called khinkali. This event was attended by Roland who is the manger of the Betsy, Marika and her husband Goba, Leah, another staff person and her husband Sosa, Tim and the two of us. Roland served as tamada. This is a huge restaurant spread over a large area with lots of outdoor seating and many private rooms. Since we are a fairly large group we got a private room which was nice. Usually you would just eat khinkali here but not tonight. We had a tomato and cucumber salad with crushed walnuts, a cheese platter, the hot cheese bread described in the previous meal, eggplant with walnut topping. Then came a platter of long sausages wrapped in thin bread much like the popular wraps in the US, only better tasting. Two kinds of barbeque (pork and beef) with barbeque sauce were also brought to the table. Frankly I can’t remember what else. Later came the khinkali which is a large dumpling filled with meat. The dumpling is a flour wrap similar to a wonton but larger. It is filled with a pork and lamb (?) meat filling and herbs and the flour based wrap is then twisted with many folds. The shape is somewhat like a Hersey’s Kiss but much larger and with multiple folds at the top from the twisting. Apparently there should be 32 folds but whose counting? It is boiled until the meat is done, about twenty minutes. The trick is to eat the dumpling without spilling the juice that has formed inside the dumpling from the meat cooking. It is literally like eating a meat soup in a dough package. I did well and Ron slurped some filling which causes lots of joking. You do not eat the twisted end of the dumpling. People eat four or more of these at a sitting but I could only manage two. Once again they are delicious!

After everyone had eaten their fill, the waitress came in and took the remaining dumplings back to the kitchen where they reheat them by frying them in a skillet so now you have the equivalent of a pot sticker and they are returned to the table for more eating. As much as I wanted to try one there was no room. At this meal, liter sized glasses of beer were consumed as this is supposed to taste best with khinkali. Leah brought a bottle of homemade ‘chacha’ which is a form of vodka made from the remains of grapes after squeezing for wine and is very common here. Most families make their own wine and chacha. Only four people drank the chacha and they drank a liter of it. It was used as the drink for the toasts. Several of the people had two beers (two liters each). Oy! I don’t know how they do it but let me just say I am glad I don’t drink alcohol because I couldn’t keep up and would do a face plant into my meal each time.

Try to imagine eating these two meals on two consecutive nights. Your stomach should be moaning at the sheer volume. I was so thankful that Thursday night was free!

On Columbus day we're discovering Georgia

Monday was a great day. We got up at 6:30, exercised in the workout room for thirty minutes, showered, and had breakfast. We headed out to Tim’s at 8:30. It was another beautiful Indian summer day: cool morning and warm sunny day. Lovely. Tim gave us an orientation. He has three floors of belongings being shipped to two destinations. The movers arrived right on time and the three of us were able to help them keep straight what was going where. They finished around 3:30.

We were able to think through how we might use the space in the house. From what we have seen those who work at the Embassy are provided with large homes and ours is no exception. We will have four bedrooms. We will use one as an office. We haven’t figured out where we will put our exercise equipment yet but did determine which room we would use as our bedroom. Tim has been in the house for three years so the maintenance crew will arrive (we hope) at the end of this week when he moves out and start with any needed repairs and painting. The interior walls are stark white and the living room furniture is a slate/gray blue with a dull gold/yellow accent color. We are asking for the walls downstairs to be painted a soft yellow that will match the accent color in the upholstered furniture. There are a lot of stone tiles in the downstairs: fireplace, wall near the kitchen and a surround in a door way. The stone is a warm gray and we think the yellow will work well. We are requesting a gas stove and to change the totally ugh vertical blinds. On Thursday I have an appointment at the house with a representative from the Embassy to choose the color and talk about how to deal with the window treatments. There are numerous security devices in the house such as bars on the windows and we need to consider how the window treatments will impact any security device or the ability to open a window since the windows open into the room not straight up like a sash window. We realized today that we will not be able to use the window treatment that we want in the kitchen but frankly we aren’t too concerned about someone looking into our kitchen. We have very high walls around the entire property but there are lots of multi story apartment houses in Tbilisi so some neighbors from above can look down into our house both in the front and the back.

We finished making arrangements to hire Tim’s staff: Zarab and Nino, husband and wife, who will do the gardening and housework and Gia, Tim’s driver. All of this is costing more than we had anticipated but we are committed to employing Georgians when we are earning money in their country. They have all worked for Tim since he arrived and he has only good things to say about him. Now we have to live up to his reputation as he is well loved and considered a good friend by the three of them. It is a relief to us to have this settled and to know we are hiring people who are reliable and trustworthy. Gia uses his car and we buy the gas.

We came back to the hotel and took a great walk on the high hill behind the hotel. It has a radio tower on top and I think I mentioned it is lit up like a Christmas tree at night. The climb was steep but it had a good trail, part of it paved with cobble stones. The views were incredible. We could see almost the entire area from up top. I think if the air were clear (is there any left on the planet) we would see the Caucasus Mountains from up there. We came back to the hotel and sat down on the patio chatting with another resident of the hotel. He is a physician who retired five years ago and has been traveling with his wife ever since. The charity he works for now trains physicians and other medical staff in resuscitating babies who have respiratory illnesses. He has been to India, Thailand, Indonesia, Africa and many places in the former USSR. He, like us, can’t get enough of international travel. We had fun exchanging travel stories. Later we sat together at dinner.

Today we got up late as we had gotten to sleep quite late. We went to bed on time but I couldn’t sleep so quietly got up and in the dark was on the computer. Remember we are living in a hotel room. Of course one of our kids found me on line so Skyped me and the sound woke Ron up. He spoke with David then they added Mark to the call and chatted until 12:30. Then Ron and I couldn’t sleep until after 2:00. Oy, we are too old for that silliness! So no exercise today.

After breakfast I walked down the hill to a small shop and got some juice that I wanted to take to Patti’s house and to help make decorations for a Christmas bazaar that raises money for the International Women’s Assoc. (IWA) This group as I understand it is made up of women who are expats from all over the world. I took a cab to Patti’s and she has a very large home with a large room that is great for making decorations such as wreaths and garlands. I am not particularly crafty but managed to stay busy from 11:00-4:00. I was impressed with the quality of what was being made and the camaraderie. The women are all ages and their husbands work for NGOs, the American Bar Assoc., the Embassy, etc. I met someone was England, Armenia and of course the US today. It was a great place for me to learn more about things like ‘can I safely use my credit card here?’, what about milk products as I have heard you can’t get pasteurized products and that here TB is spread through the unpasteurized products?’, ‘I’ve been told I need to go to London for my eye care because they don’t have the proper equipment here to test for my glaucoma?, etc. They were very helpful telling me most of what I have heard/read is not accurate. I am feeling more comfortable all the time here. Tomorrow the IWA has a coffee here at the hotel so I will join them at 11:00 for that. The Betsy seems to be a happening place.

The low-down on our slowed down week-end

It is Sunday and another beautiful fall day here. Yesterday was a ‘ruff’ day for me. I woke up at 6:00 and had a classic case of food poisoning. After tossing my cookies, I went back to bed only to return to the porcelain goddess twice more. The third time there was nothing left in my system and I thought my stomach would come up through my esophagus. I slept off and on all day, drinking lots of water. Sunday I managed to have a light breakfast then promptly fell asleep for a morning nap. When I got up we decided to walk to Rustaveli and get a feel for the area where we are staying. We found the main branch of Prospero’s Books and were pleased to find a wonderful bookstore with books in English. We were told that the owner is an American married to a Georgian woman. They also have a great coffee shop with espresso drinks and sandwiches. They have a small branch in our hotel lobby. We ran into the consular from the embassy with his family. We had our first language lesson on Friday at the Embassy and today prided ourselves on being able to recognize the letters we had learned. There is hope for these old dogs! After eating at Prospero’s we came back to the hotel and I promptly fell asleep for my second nap. Yesterday took a lot out of me, so to speak!

Friday night we went to a welcome function at the Marine House, where Marines reside who are stationed at the Embassy. The event was to welcome newcomers. It was informal and great to meet some of the folks here. After an hour it was totally claustrophobic and quite loud so we headed out, came home and had dinner. Saturday we had planned to attend a ‘class’ on Georgian carpets where we would visit a collector’s home and learn tips on buying carpets and then visit a few stores. However my getting sick led to cancelling those plans. It is a little boring hanging out at the hotel but it is about all I can handle today.

Tomorrow we go over to Tim’s in the morning. It is Columbus Day and a holiday observed by the Embassy. We will help Tim as it is his pack-out day. Shippers will arrive in the morning to ship his things to Portland and to Cambodia, his next post. We are going to help as there are three floors and multiple packers. He doesn’t want Portland things going to Cambodia, so we will help to keep things straight. He will move out of the house on Thursday so we are hopeful that the maintenance crew will come in on Friday to paint and make any repairs for our moving in. Once they finish we can move in. I’ll keep you posted. Needless to say, I am anxious to get us settled and already am somewhat tired of living in a hotel, although I couldn’t ask for a place nicer than the Betsy. Our shipment is supposed to arrive on Tuesday and the embassy will store I until we move in.

Ron has been listening to NPR via the computer although Gia, the driver can also get the station on his car radio. How cool is that? I must say this post feels like a breeze so far. Then again I am in the honeymoon stage and will probably find frustrations down the road.

My suitcases arrived Tuesday afternoon. I had planned to unpack only one as we had organized our packing so we would not need to use any of the others. Unfortunately I discovered that some of my clothes were wet so checked and sure enough every bag had damp to soaking wet clothes in them. What a royal pain in the tushie. Obviously someone left our bags out in the rain in Turkey. I spread clothes all over the room and bathroom. I strung a line on the balcony and hung things out to dry. Once while I was in the room, a strong wind whipped up and tore one of Ron’s shirts right off the line. I went outside and peered over the edge looking for the shirt. It was nowhere to be found. I went downstairs and peered over the patio, no shirt. I scanned the ground, the trees and no shirt. I turned my head and there, hanging on the side of the next building was the shirt. I went out front to see how to retrieve the shirt and realized there was no easy access. When Ron came home, I showed him where the shirt had landed. Here is a man who can solve any problem and he couldn’t figure out how to get to the shirt as there is construction going on in that building and access is blocked. Ultimately the security staff of the hotel retrieved the wayward shirt. I begged to use the hotel laundry after realizing there was no way I would be able to dry so many wet clothes, given the limited hangers and space I had. Remember I had four large suitcases full of wet clothes. So after the staff left, we were allowed into the bowels of the building where the funky laundry was housed. I find it hard to believe that this hotel even though it is small, uses three residential size washing machines and two residential size dryers. We were able to dry everything within an hour.


The food at the hotel continues to please us. Each evening at 7:00 dinner is served. The room is quite small with four tables set for four places and one table for two and one for three. We get to meet some interesting people staying at the hotel because of the shared seating. The vast majority are Americans doing business here. Each evening there are three or four salads that are self served and two entrees to choose from. Dessert is fresh fruit, some baked goody like a brownie or pastry and ice cream. Breakfast is the same each morning: eggs prepared any way you want them, toast, four cold cereals, French toast, pancakes, oatmeal and bacon cooked lightly. Tea, orange juice and coffee. Usually around 10:00 when our room is being cleaned I go to the lobby where there is a bookstore/espresso bar and I have an Americano. Life is good here at the Betsy!

We have spent this week checking in at the Embassy. Ron is required to touch base with a number of offices for orientation. I go to a few of these. I am impressed with what is available to us. The CLO (Community Liaison Office) has activities of every description for the Embassy families. They have a resource library with brochures, books and videos. Saturday they are sponsoring a carpet tour that we will attend. First we visit a collector’s home and learn tips on buying carpets then we visit a couple of shops that sell carpets. Our hotel is filled with Georgian carpets, some well made and some not. But I do like the designs and colors. I am eager to get out and about to learn more about Georgian crafts. The Embassy also has a health clinic, a cashier service where we can cash checks for up to $1000 and get money in either Georgian Lari or US dollars. They have the best exchange rate. There is an HR office where I can apply for jobs within the Embassy. In addition there is a commissary where I can get Starbucks coffee for home! They get shipments every two months so I would guess they run out of items in between shipments. And there is a cafeteria where they have affordable lunches. Also we will take language lessons through the Embassy. They have thought of everything and make the transition much easier than if we were trying to find these resources on our own, as we did in Sri Lanka.

Yesterday we went back to Tim’s house, our future home, and had a little more time to look around. We went out back and there is no yard at all. But there is a private patio with outdoor furniture and a second terrace/patio off the second floor. I doubt that we will have any need to use it. There is a small outdoor fireplace for Georgian barbeques with a small sink. We brought a Weber and there is room for it on the patio. All Embassy housing is quite secure with alarm systems, high walls all around the perimeter of the properties and window bars, steel doors, etc. We have been to other settings where razor wire is the standard. We were glad that was not the case here. The kitchen is large although not well laid out. We have a standard size refrigerator like our 24 year old one from Sears and an upright freezer so we can freeze the fruits and veggies that are so abundant here in the summer. There is a table that seats four in the kitchen and a formal dining room table that seats 10 comfortably in the front room. There is a short bar between the kitchen and living area. There are no bar stools but I think we will try to find some after we get settled. There appears to be plenty of storage space in the kitchen cabinets for dishes and pots and pans. Off the kitchen is an ample pantry. There is a half bath, completely tiled next to the pantry in the hallway between the front door and stairway upstairs. The living room has high ceilings, a fireplace, a couch, love seat, and four (I think) upholstered side chairs. There is a china cabinet, a cabinet for table linens and a cabinet for the TV and stereo equipment. We might take a few leaves out of the table to reduce the crowded feeling in the living area.

Last night we had dinner with the Culpeppers who have lived here for six years. David works for Treasury also. It was so funny to see the exact same furniture in their home as is in ours: same exact dining room table, same exact couch and love seat. I had to laugh. Their home is gianormous! We only saw the living/dining area but they have four floors of living space plus a basement. I am grateful for the house we will have and I find it a bit too large for our needs. Apparently housing is assigned by family size and since there are two of us we may have been eligible for more space. No thanks! I wonder for whom these large homes were built. Surely some were built when the Soviets were still here. They do not fit my image of Soviet housing but rather they are more like the US McMansions. Perhaps they were built for the high ranking officials within the Soviet hierarchy. I think our house is a newer one but don’t know. In some places, I think the houses are specifically built on spec for the expats who work in developing countries. Apparently our landlord owns three of the houses that the Embassy leases.

Today I ventured out into the ‘hood’. We are in an older area. The buildings are almost all concrete. Most I would guess were built in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s. They are very tired looking, all in need of repair. Most have balconies, some with beautiful ornate iron work. Others have pretty ugly but functional iron work: rebar. Some have beautiful designs in the concrete: scrolls or faces or floral motifs. Other buildings look like a classic Soviet style architecture: butt ugly! All of them appear to have multiple units for multiple families. Hopefully we can get out this weekend and take some photos. It has rained off and on today. This is the first day since we arrived that we didn’t have sunshine so I can’t complain.

And so it begins

We have arrived. Our trip here was long. We were to get up at 3:15 a.m. to catch a 3:45 shuttle to the airport. However neither of us slept that well and I was up by 1:30 and Ron a short time afterwards. We flew direct to NY and changed planes. Our plane was on time and pulled away from the gate then came to a stop on the tarmac where we sat for three hours waiting for storms to pass through. Water and peanuts were served. Bummer! We arrived in Istanbul just in time to race to our connecting flight. We made it; but our luggage didn’t. It seems they won’t arrive in Tbilisi until tomorrow. Tim Grewe met us at the airport. Ron is replacing Tim who is now going on to Cambodia to work. We checked into Betsy’s Hotel. We managed to stay awake through dinner at the hotel but weren’t long for this world. We went to bed at 8:30 then woke up three times and talked, read, checked email, etc and then fell asleep afterwards. That's how it goes when you travel for thirty hours and are in a time zone with an eleven hour difference. In a few days to a week, life will return to something normal, so to speak.

Our hotel is great. It was started by an American ex-pat who has since retired. However it definitely caters to American tastes. Breakfast and dinner are included. Meals are served communally so you meet people quickly here. The dining room is quite small as is the hotel. It originally had about twenty-five rooms but now has a new wing which is where we are housed. I like it because it is small and nicely appointed. All the rooms seem to have balconies with great views of the city as we are perched on a hilltop. Last night’s meal was Georgian: veal in a wine and fruit sauce, and four salads: greens with wonderfully ripe tomatoes and cucumbers, egg salad with mayo and red bell peppers and carrots, eggplant salad and sliced apples, grapes and another yet to be identified fruit. Since we were ready to do a face plant into our dinner plates, we skipped dessert: apple pie, fresh fruit or ice cream. This morning we were pleasantly surprised at breakfast: four kinds of cold cereal, hot oatmeal upon request, eggs prepared any way you wanted, toast, French toast, pancakes, bacon, all upon request. Oh yes and bad coffee. There is an espresso bar in the lobby that opens at 9.

Our room has a small balcony with two views of the town. The room is quite large by any standard with desk, armoire, a large armchair, nightstands with reading lights. No overhead light
however. The bathroom is also large. After being in Italy where the bath rooms were so small you had to be careful not to step into the toilet when exiting the shower, this is pure luxury. They even have wash cloths which again is quite unusual outside of the US.

The weather yesterday and today is gorgeous: sunny and warm. The morning is cool. How perfect and how welcoming. At 9:00 this morning Tim picked us up for a half day orientation at the Embassy: an hour long security briefing tour, meeting with various folks like the mail room clerk to get a mail box assignment, tour of commissary, etc. Afterwards we went to the Goodwill, which is a huge store that is similar to Fred Meyer back home. They have a very large grocery section that really surprised us with what is available. There seems to be no limitations here. In addition to the food section there was a gardening section for tools and household goods. Everyone mentions how expensive things are here. I haven’t been able to determine how expensive yet as I haven’t done any shopping.

Afterwards we ran by Tim’s house for a brief tour. We met his gardener and housekeeper whom we will employ once we have moved into the house. The house can be seen easily from the street which reminded us of Sri Lanka. Most private homes seem to have a secure entrance so there was a high wall around the house. There is a small front yard and we didn’t have time to see the back which I think is mostly patio. Inside the house is quite new and well furnished. There is a large formal dining table that looked like it would serve ten people and a smaller table for eating in the kitchen. The kitchen was large and the pantry is a god send with loads of storage. The floor plan is open with the living room and dining room being one large room. There is a bathroom on the first floor. Upstairs on the second floor is a large landing and three bedrooms and a full tiled bath, and a laundry room with washer and a dryer! We never used a dryer in Sri Lanka since we had sun every day we were there. On the third floor is a large master suite with bath, walk in closet and a large storage room. Needless to say we are thrilled to get this house and to have it furnished. Apparently all the Embassy staff houses are furnished similarly. Tim said everyone has the exact same dining room set. It is all dark wood furniture with upholstered couches, etc. Tim moves out in mid October and the maintenance crew will repaint the interior walls white then we will move in. We will reside at the Besty for three to four weeks, which is typical when going to a new post.

Tbilisi is lovely, surrounded by hills with a river running through the heart of the town. There is some Soviet architecture here which is in a word ugly. According to the reading I have done the best times to visit are fall and spring. We hit it just right. The mornings are cool now and the afternoons warm. The rain is supposed to start soon to remind us of the ‘greyt’ NW! This time of year is supposed to be perfect for visiting the wineries. Georgia has 500 varieties of grapes and exports its wine.

Today I read about ‘supras’ which are feasts that have a very specific ritual of toasting with wine. Each supra will have a toastmaster and the description of the toastmaster’s and guests’ roles took three single spaced type written pages!!! According to what I read you never stand around drinking at a supra. You NEVER drink wine except after the toast has been made and only then. You are to drain your glass at that point. A single toast can take 10-15 minutes. It is a disgrace to get drunk at a supra. These events can go on for hours and there can up to 20 toasts at an event. I cannot fathom how one stays sober with 20 glasses of wine but will report back after we attend a supra. Welcome to Georgia!