Settling In

I've been here almost two months, now, and I find that, even with the language barrier, I've gotten comfortable. My family and I are pretty good about being able to communicate, I have enough Georgian to get by on most forms of public transport as well as in shops and other similar situations and the things that shocked before (Turkish toilets, insane driving, staring) no longer bother me. Perfect timing, too, since now that it's getting cold and I'm trying to save money to visit India over my Christmas break, I'm going to need to stay where I am for the most part. No more weekend trips to Tbilisi to visit with friends and shop in underground tunnels, no weekend trips to Svaneti to see the incredible mountains, no spending loads of money on internet for my house (le sigh).

Luckily, when I woke up this morning I could see the distant snow-capped peaks from my bedroom window. Not exactly a sight I'm going to complain about.

I wish I had more to say, or pictures to post, but that'll have to wait for another time. I'm having a total mind-blank on everything that's happened in the past month and I'm in an internet cafe with small Georgian boys giggling and staring at me periodically. Rather distracting.

I'll leave it with one anecdote about my trip to Kakheti (the wine region) this past weekend. For the most part I haven't met or spoken with any of the teachers from the groups that came before or after my group, but this past weekend I went into Tbilisi to visit with a friend, then went to Kakheti for the wine festival. While there, I was surrounded by the teachers from the fourth group (the lucky ones placed in the city, with actual running water and internet). The only person that really made an impression was a man who had previously been working in Sudan as an English teacher. He's obviously been teaching for years as he'd been to China as well and he told us during our 2 hour suphra (feast) that while he was teaching in England he made a blood oath with some of his students to change the world in a positive way. So, while in Sudan teaching English, he also took it upon himself to save over a hundred child soldiers from militia camps in the area. In order to do this, he (the rifleman), three of his friends and an African from the area (the driver) would sneak into camps late at night, get the boys to climb into the back of their van and as they made their getaway, my new friend would shoot their legs out from under them. He was injured on one of his rounds, and instead of going to a Sudanese hospital, he dug the bullet out of his foot, wrapped it up, flew to England and said, "I've just been shot while in Sudan. I need medical attention."

Needless to say, we were all flabbergasted and impressed.

Despite any discomforts or frustrations I've gone through while here, the people I've met are worth the trouble. They're intelligent, well-traveled, kind and they have the best flippin' stories I've ever heard.

Next time I'll try to talk about teaching and post some more pictures. I know it's been a while.