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.