Feb 1 2011
The weather is finally starting to act like winter here. We have had many sunny days with warm afternoons and cold nights. Now we have grey and a few snowflakes. I am grateful that so far the snow has not lasted. Georgians do not know how to drive on dry pavement so imagine how they might drive in snow without chains or snow tires! OY!
Today I read an article about how the government might start ecological inspection of cars here. Georgia wants badly to someday be a part of the EU. Check out these statistics from the article. There are four million people living in Georgia. In 2000 there were around 200,000 cars registered here, 2005-400,000 and in 2009 -666,000. From the latest number only about 30,000 cars are less than five years old! Almost 270,000 are over 20 years old! If these cars are checked according to European standards of ecology, there is high probability that even cars which are younger than five years old will have problems qualifying.
My volunteer job at TSU ended last week. I am so happy to have some free time. The job took much more of my time than I had envisioned. It was fun and I was grateful to work solely with Georgians as I don’t have as much interaction as I would like with Georgians on this tour. But yesterday was my first free day and I had a blast doing things like polishing all my winter shoes, organizing three drawers of scarves, jewelry, etc. Nino, our housekeeper has been out for a week with family illness so I swept, mopped and ironed a little. No need to get carried away since she will return later this week! I cooked! I planned menus to make sure we use up all those groceries we shipped here in October. I caught up on email. I actually watched the news in the afternoon. It was a great day and I went to bed happy to have had some much free time to do things that needed doing and to do them at a leisurely pace.
Week before last I helped Ron’s office mate prepare for an interview for a fellowship to study in the US. She had never prepared for an interview and I had mentioned earlier to her how important preparation was. Today she found out she made the cut to semi finalist. Next are the GRE and TOEFEL tests. The applicant pool started at 4,000 and now she is in a pool of 30 people for 15 fellowships. I am very happy for her. Next I want to help our driver. When we leave Georgia, there is very little chance that Ron’s position will be funded for the next year. The Ministry hasn’t used Ron’s services and it is a waste of money to continue to fund a program that isn’t being utilized. Gia will need to find other work and wants to apply to the US embassy as soon as a guard position opens up. We have worked on updating his resume and now I want to help him with interviewing skills since he is a very quiet man.
Feb 6 2011
We have had a very laid back weekend. Five of us went to see The King’s Speech on Friday night. We had Thai dinner beforehand. For some reason there is a great run of movies here right now so a core group gathers before the movie to eat then heads to the show. Monday night I invited the group here for soup and salad beforehand. One advantage to not working is I have more time to entertain. I am enjoying cooking again.
On Saturday Ron and I slept in then puttered around the house before setting off to find some fabric we can use to have a carrying case made for our massage table. We want to leave the table with Maia, our massage therapist, when we leave so she can use it for outcall. The case will protect it as she loads it into and out of cabs. The table isn’t a standard size so we are having Lala make a custom case for us. Lala is currently working on another bedcover for us. Some time ago we bought four mafrash panels that are over 100 years old. Ron decided they would be great to incorporate into a bedcover. While in Sri Lanka we found the perfect fabric for the cover and bed skirt so now Lala is working on it. It will take a while since she works full time as a housekeeper for our two best friends. After finding the fabric we stopped by Entrée and had a light lunch before coming home and watching a Russian DVD at home last night. We slept in again today and had breakfast. I got on the treadmill and then after lunch we watched another DVD. Today I never got out of my exercise clothes. Laid back day!
The weather is finally starting to act like winter here. We have had many sunny days with warm afternoons and cold nights. Now we have grey and a few snowflakes. I am grateful that so far the snow has not lasted. Georgians do not know how to drive on dry pavement so imagine how they might drive in snow without chains or snow tires! OY!
Today I read an article about how the government might start ecological inspection of cars here. Georgia wants badly to someday be a part of the EU. Check out these statistics from the article. There are four million people living in Georgia. In 2000 there were around 200,000 cars registered here, 2005-400,000 and in 2009 -666,000. From the latest number only about 30,000 cars are less than five years old! Almost 270,000 are over 20 years old! If these cars are checked according to European standards of ecology, there is high probability that even cars which are younger than five years old will have problems qualifying.
My volunteer job at TSU ended last week. I am so happy to have some free time. The job took much more of my time than I had envisioned. It was fun and I was grateful to work solely with Georgians as I don’t have as much interaction as I would like with Georgians on this tour. But yesterday was my first free day and I had a blast doing things like polishing all my winter shoes, organizing three drawers of scarves, jewelry, etc. Nino, our housekeeper has been out for a week with family illness so I swept, mopped and ironed a little. No need to get carried away since she will return later this week! I cooked! I planned menus to make sure we use up all those groceries we shipped here in October. I caught up on email. I actually watched the news in the afternoon. It was a great day and I went to bed happy to have had some much free time to do things that needed doing and to do them at a leisurely pace.
Week before last I helped Ron’s office mate prepare for an interview for a fellowship to study in the US. She had never prepared for an interview and I had mentioned earlier to her how important preparation was. Today she found out she made the cut to semi finalist. Next are the GRE and TOEFEL tests. The applicant pool started at 4,000 and now she is in a pool of 30 people for 15 fellowships. I am very happy for her. Next I want to help our driver. When we leave Georgia, there is very little chance that Ron’s position will be funded for the next year. The Ministry hasn’t used Ron’s services and it is a waste of money to continue to fund a program that isn’t being utilized. Gia will need to find other work and wants to apply to the US embassy as soon as a guard position opens up. We have worked on updating his resume and now I want to help him with interviewing skills since he is a very quiet man.
Feb 6 2011
We have had a very laid back weekend. Five of us went to see The King’s Speech on Friday night. We had Thai dinner beforehand. For some reason there is a great run of movies here right now so a core group gathers before the movie to eat then heads to the show. Monday night I invited the group here for soup and salad beforehand. One advantage to not working is I have more time to entertain. I am enjoying cooking again.
On Saturday Ron and I slept in then puttered around the house before setting off to find some fabric we can use to have a carrying case made for our massage table. We want to leave the table with Maia, our massage therapist, when we leave so she can use it for outcall. The case will protect it as she loads it into and out of cabs. The table isn’t a standard size so we are having Lala make a custom case for us. Lala is currently working on another bedcover for us. Some time ago we bought four mafrash panels that are over 100 years old. Ron decided they would be great to incorporate into a bedcover. While in Sri Lanka we found the perfect fabric for the cover and bed skirt so now Lala is working on it. It will take a while since she works full time as a housekeeper for our two best friends. After finding the fabric we stopped by Entrée and had a light lunch before coming home and watching a Russian DVD at home last night. We slept in again today and had breakfast. I got on the treadmill and then after lunch we watched another DVD. Today I never got out of my exercise clothes. Laid back day!
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