Saturday, December 22, 2007

Merry Christmas

December 21, 2007

I realize that it is just a few days before Christmas and usually I’m running around trying to get everything done for the big day, but this year I don’t have to worry about that. I must say that I really do miss running around to all the holiday parties and trying to get everything done. In Georgia they don’t celebrate Christmas on December 25th but on January 7th. From my understanding at this point they do exchange gifts and get together with family members and friends and have a big meal. I will be sure to take good notes when the day arrives.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’s. May this coming year be even better and more exciting than 2007. I think I might do a little traveling this year.

My Birthday Supra


December 4, 2007

December 4th was the day of my big birthday supra. We didn’t have it on the 3rd because my host mother’s birthday was on the 4th so we just had one birthday supra. It was no easy operation getting ready for this supra. It’s not like in the states when you just start shopping a few days in advance and getting all the food and supplies. Here you actually have to make all of the dishes and it takes hours to make everything. Peeling, boiling and slicing vegetables and meats. The process of making a cake is something else too! Dinner lasted for a good 4 ½ hours or so. You might find holiday meals challenging but supras are a whole different ball game as you have tons of food, drinks and different hot dishes are brought out throughout the course of the celebration. It is very important to pace yourself during a supra. I had a nice time but I did miss having my quiet dinner with my family. When you are used to your small family gathers being apart of a big family is night and day different! So I’m now officially another year older……

Lake Bazeleti


Weekend of November 29th

This past weekend we had a conference at Lake Bazeleti about an hour north of Tbilisi. The hotel was great as it had just been remodeled. There were several great things about this hotel 1) HEAT 2) TERRYCLOTH BATH ROBES 3) LOTS OF HOT WATER. One doesn’t realize how much they might miss taking a hot shower and being able to put on a bath rob after they get done and not freezing to death. The showers were definitely a great indulgence to this conference. In America I never used the term “bathing” here I use it all the time. There is a difference between bathing and showering. Showering your whole body gets wet and bathing uses only a wash cloth of sorts (wet wipes) and dunking your head under the faucet to wash your hair. You do what you have to do sometimes. Needless to say I really do miss being able to take hot showers and continuing to be warm when I step out of the shower. I did say that I would probably miss my hot showers before I left. Now they are a luxury.

Really the purpose of this conference was to talk about safety and security and discuss the different committees that PC has. Friday we spent the entire day discussing safety and security and getting briefed about the current political situation in Georgia. Saturday we discussed the different committees that PC has and other helpful tidbits. But the other main highlight of Saturday was having Turkey dinner with everybody. We spent the afternoon making all the traditional dishes and Saturday night feasting. It was a great time. Not quiet the same as my mom’s but it will do the trick for now.

Oh, I also learned how to knit this weekend. I needed something else to do in the winter instead of reading all the time. Now I can add knitting to my list of things to do next to my heater! Have no fear I have started sewing clothes on the sewing machine and I really don’t see that happening anytime. The only sewing machine I saw was a hand crank sewing machine and well that won’t work for me since I couldn’t even sew a straight line when I took home economics in high school.

My first weekend in Tbilisi

November 24, 2007

I spent my first weekend in Tbilisi which happened to be Thanksgiving weekend and had a great time. I stayed at an apartment that was well heated and had running hot water! We even had turkey leftovers Friday evening for dinner since I wasn’t there for the actually day! Throughout the course of the weekend I went to several cafes and restaurants. I had a fabulous piece of lasagna at an Italian restaurant along with a nice glass of red wine. I tried to get a little shopping done but didn’t find anything that I needed like warm sweaters. One would think that you could find thick wool sweaters but I could only find light trendy sweaters and I don’t really care about being trendy at this point I just want to be nice and warm! Hopefully the package with my sweaters will get here soon. What I was thinking when I was packing I am not sure but anyways I am just layering everything and that works pretty well.