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Doctors:
On Wednesday I had a doctor's appointment in Tbilisi. I have not had my period since the first week I arrived in Georgia. That was three months ago. No, I'm not pregnant. It wouldn't even be possible for me to be pregnant. But still, it's really disconcerting. I know that a lot of things can affect this, like diet and stress and all that, but I don't know. Three months is a really long time. So, I sucked it up and got an appointment. Basically, the doctor's here love ultrasounds. When I was sick a couple of weeks ago with a stomach problem, the doctor in Telavi first thing did an ultrasound on my stomach. In Tbilisi, the doctor's office I went to is supposedly really good, or at least that is what my program told me. The doctor, Nino asked me some questions and then straight away took me to get an ultrasound. There is a whole area of the building that is all ultrasound rooms. So I got yet another ultrasound and they told me I wasn't pregnant (big shock) and declared that I must have a hormone problem. I was then taken to the gynecologist room, where I tried not to panic, and thank god they did not make me have an exam. They just asked me random questions like "do you like sweets? do you eat sweets often? do you eat sweets between meals? do you have any rashes?" Then they decided they needed to do a blood test on me, but I had to come back another day because it needed to be a blood test where I did not eat beforehand. So, I was scheduled to come back on Monday morning. So, yesterday I took yet another day off of school and went to the doctor again. They took a vile of blood from me. Then made me drink a DISGUSTING drink that was warm and sugary and thick and made me want to gag immensely. Then an hour later they took another vile of blood. And an hour after that, a third vile of blood. It was a glucose tolerance test (I googled the letters of the test, because no one thought to tell me what I was being tested for). I also think they are using the blood for some sort of thyroid test. I will hear my results on Friday I guess. I wish I could have taken pictures of the doctor's office, because everyone in the US would probably be shocked by it. There was weird wall paper that was all peeling and it looked like the floor hadn't been mopped in years. Also, the doctor's and nurses all wear crazy heels.

Batumi:
Batumi is the summer destination for Georgians. It's a town on the Black Sea and the government has been putting ridiculous amounts of money into renovating parts of it to make it more of an attraction for tourists. There are all sorts of fountains and statues and the buildings are quite nice. At least that's how it is in one part of town. The rest of the city, including the guest house we stayed in, were basically like the rest of Georgia. Except, I think the streets were actually worse there than in a lot of areas. They were all broken and dusty and dirty. The guest house we stayed in was really pleasant though, and the people who lived upstairs were really  nice and gave us a full breakfast one morning when we went up just to ask for a spoon. The beds were incredibly comfortable and we nicknamed ours (mine and Anita's) "the cloud" because it was so soft and the blankets were amazing. Needless to say, we spent quite a lot of time in the cloud. The rest of our time was basically spent at the beach. We got so much sun it was amazing. The beach itself was pretty much all rocks, and that is uncomfortable, but we found a bar/lounge place that had wooden platforms you could lay on all day, as long as you bought a drink or two. So we did that every day and had a great time. One day, someone even delivered me a free coffee drink. Awesome! Elyse and Shannon got burned on the first day, but luckily I reserved the burn for the last day, which means the train ride home was horrible, but at least I got to enjoy the sun fully the entire trip.

Hippies:
On the third day at the beach, some of our friends somehow came across a group of hippies. 1 American, 1 Australian, 1 Danish and 1 English (I think) all with massive dreads backpacking across the world for god knows how long making money by playing their music in random plazas and streets everywhere they go. They walked up while we were laying on our wood platforms and Elyse writes to me (yeah, we were on our iphones) "where did the pirates come from?" That's basically how out of place they looked. We left Cody with them all day and that evening we met back up and we all (except for the dane and englishman who went to sleep in a park somewhere) went to a restaurant. We drank vodka and beer and the two guys took out their guitar and violin and started playing music. We ended up having some good singalongs including backstreet boys, hanson, fleet foxes and the beatles. Then we made our way back to the beach and went swimming. We then found wood and had a bonfire on the beach, and the cops came and didn't quite not what to make of this event because a) some people were not quite clothed b) there was a fire on the beach c) they had probably never seen dreads before. But we weren't doing anything illegal I guess, so they left us alone. After we ran out of wood (this didn't take long because the only wood we could find was like random bits of palm tree), the sun was already starting to come up so we figured we should go home. The hippies didn't have anywhere to stay (a lot of the time they just sleep outside), so we invited them to our guest house and after getting a lot of junk food, we returned to the cloud and we sat in it eating until the rest of our group arrived (I took a cab with the boys, and the other girls walked because they had to stop and look for a sweater that had gone missing). Then, five of us crammed into our "cloud" which was two single beds pushed together, and we slept for about 2 hours until it was time to wake up and get the train back to Tbilisi.

Stupid:
I missed work yet again today, this for no good reason except for that I'm really stupid. I am actually feeling pretty guilty about it! It happened because yesterday after my doctor's appointment I was running some errands and such (you know, the important things like getting money out of the bank and eating ice cream), and then my friend D said he wanted to hang out but couldn't until 4:30, so I was like ok no big deal. So then he picked me up at the hostel and we went to get ice cream (yes, I got ice cream twice in one day, I'm obsessed with ice cream! I didn't tell the doctor this when she asked me if I eat sweets), and then we ate it in a park. Then he got a call from some workers who were going to his house to fix his bathtub and he had to go right then, so I went with him. So, time passed and then I realize I had been there quite a long time and there wasn't going to be a marshutka back to Telavi anymore! I was like "oh crap, I'm incredibly stupid!" so I texted my co-teacher and said I would try to get on the first one in the morning and just miss the first one or two classes. She said not to worry or be in a hurry, but I still felt like I needed to. My friend let me stay at his house since I didn't want to have to pay for yet another night at a hostel. We had a pretty good time and just hung out and drank some vodka-cranberry (which was so exciting to me, since that is my staple drink in the US but I haven't come across cranberry juice since I've been in Georgia), and we got some food from the store to eat for dinner. The woman at the store wouldn't sell us a certain dish though for some reason. She kept saying I wouldn't like it, and actually refused to give it to us. She told him that if it had just been him she would have given it to him, but since I was a foreigner she wouldn't. Weird. Anyway, this morning I woke up early and tried to get an early marshutka back, but it ended up not leaving as early as it was supposed to because it wasn't filling up quickly (yeah, that's how things work here, nothing is really scheduled, or if it is, the schedule is like a vague plan instead of a set thing). So I ended up missing three of my classes by the time I got back to Telavi and I had a raging headache because my allergies are acting up. I just went to sleep when I came home.  I feel so bad about missing work though!!!!! I've missed so much lately with being sick and the doctor's appointments and meetings all throughout May. Oh well..............

Side note:
People in Georgia stare, A LOT. They don't really make an effort to hide it either. It's especially bad if you are a foreigner. They are just so interested. I'm getting kind of used to it now. But yesterday when I was in the store with D, out of nowhere he was like "You don't especially look like a foreigner. But people stare at you all the time!" And then we had a conversation about it, and I was saying I probably dress like one, and he said no I don't look that different, he can tell when someone looks like they don't belong and I don't look that way, and some foreigners even walk differently (haha) and I don't have anything glaringly foreign about me. So now I just feel weird because he even noticed that people stare at me more than usual (I assumed that they just stared at me because I looked weird here), but it is also cool to know that a real Georgian doesn't think I look like a freak out of place tourist. Ha.

A L

Living in a village there's not much to do. I don't really have any friends; I don't feel like hanging out with my 10 year old host sister.... So, I am left with a lot of free time to ponder the important things in life and evaluate my own beliefs on certain subjects.

This is how I ended up Googling Adam Lambert for a good hour and a half today. I was sitting in my room, minding my own business (so to speak, I don't think anything is "my own business" when I'm online), clicking on links left and right when somehow I stumbled upon something to do with Adam Lambert. Of course I knew who he was thanks to Yahoo and all the weird press that goes along with American Idol (even though I'm pretty convinced that show has been dead for like 8 years now), but I've never really even heard him sing. Anyway, coming across him today I wondered briefly why I have basically ignored him for the past couple of years. I mean, he basically is everything I could ever want in a person. He can sing (apparently) and is a good looking and incredibly flamboyant gay male. The fact that I have never looked him up before is absolute ridiculousness on my part. I cannot emphasize enough how much I love people like this. Needless to say, I decided to start from the beginning of the Adam Lambert saga and watch some of his American Idol performances. Yep, he has a really good voice and was a nice change from what I remember most American Idol people being like (I don't usually admit this, but I did in fact watch the first two seasons of the show; my excuse is that I was in jr high).

Next step, Wikipedia. I read the entire Wikipedia page for him. I just had to make sure he didn't have any glaring defects that couldn't be accounted for by metal psychosis or extreme alcohol drug use (because if he wants to be a rock star, this can be overlooked). Basically he seemed like he had a pretty normal life, and then after a week at Burning Man and doing mushrooms he decided to audition for American Idol. I don't know what the hell type of person goes to Burning Man and comes back with a revelation about American Idol. But this weird connection alone makes me feel like he is a decent person. The entry basically ended on a note about his Finnish boyfriend, so I had to Google that guy and make sure he was acceptable. He seems fine (based on appearances alone).

I guess it's kind of ridiculous that I had to get a background on the guy before I even thought to look up his actual music. But I'm kind of glad I did, because if someone doesn't seem like a complete douche from their Wikipedia entry, then I'm likely to be more open minded to their music. For example, Ke$ha's Wiki entry is incredibly ridiculous in my expert opinion. I feel like the entire article is an attempt to justify her status in the music world. Rather than just being factual and informative, there is a definite sense that whoever wrote it knows she's hard to take seriously. Here is a quote from her Wikipedia article: "Kesha has also expressed frustration at the double standard for the objectification of women in music. Thus, in songs such as "Blah Blah Blah" and "Boots and Boys", she makes it a point to sing the same way men traditionally sing about women."  I'm finding it a little over the top that someone is needing to add this to her Wikipedia entry. I don't know, maybe I'm just a bitch!

Back to the point. Next step was watching all of Adam's (now I'm on a first name basis because I've got a good history, therefore we are BFF) music videos. I don't have any idea of the chronology of his singles because I skimmed over that on Wikipedia. I don't like dates! But the first video I watched was "Whataya want from me." And while that was loading (because it takes forever to load videos on my crap Georgian cell phone company mobile internet modem) I lurked a few pages of his Twitter. Looks like he is on there A LOT. Which means he's probably just as boring as I am on a regular basis. I decided to "follow" him on Twitter... and I'm PRETTY selective about who I follow. So that means I'm opening my heart to this fellow... unless his posts get annoying, in which case he will be axed! The video loaded and I watched and enjoyed it immensely. He looked really good and although his acting seemed pretty shitty, I didn't even mind! I think that most pop stars usually have at least one good song, so I needed to put it to the test and watch all of the videos.

Next up were "For your entertainment" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsPFDzAGb4A)  and "If I had you." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmXQFwlD7vk)  Both of which I am completely obsessed with now. I'm turning fangirl on this guy at the most rapid pace I've ever experienced. I'm actually kind of ANNOYED at how much I love these songs and videos. First off, with both of them I was a little unimpressed by the lyrics at first, but then suddenly I had a change of heart and thought each song was the best thing since sliced bread (which is something I could go on a tangent about as well, because I haven't had any in so damn long). Not to mention his wardrobe in both videos... I'm dying. That's how pleased I am by his clothes. In "For your entertainment" he is wearing a ton of leather, including a h studded and spiked shoulder pad thing on his right shoulder. I'm in love. I want one and a good excuse to wear it. In the video for "If I had you" his hair resembles a strange bird's feathers and his outfits are completely absurd. Everyone is dressed crazily and dancing in the middle of a forest. Adam's make up is the cooler and crazier than usual. I'm impressed. His leather spike and studden jacket in the parts where he is wearing white pants is AMAZING. I haven't been this jealous of a studded spikey thing since Britney's jacket in her video for "Till the world ends" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzU9OrZlKb8). His videos are like a mix of trashy Ke$ha and Lady Gaga or something. But he's a guy. And super hot. I'm definitely in love with him.

My research is complete. I have "liked" him on Facebook.

As I wrote this, it also occurred to me, that this is the exact reason that I will probably never have a boyfriend again. And we thought it was bad that I liked Hanson so much......

Winding down

We have approximately four weeks left of school.
I feel as though this means it's basically over already, and I'm fairly sure all the students feel the same way. Everything feels like it is moving by at an incredibly rapid pace, mostly due to the fact that I know I am running out of time. And when I say that, I know I am not running out of time with Georgia (because I am returning in September), but I am running out of time with all of the wonderful friends I've made in TLG 12 who aren't coming back in the fall.
It is going to be so weird without them.
It's funny to think that just over three months ago we were all strangers and now we are all sharing food, beds, health problem TMI, etc., as if we have known each other forever. I have developed a pretty good support system with them.
Only three people from group 12 (aside from myself) have decided to come back in the fall. I guess when I consider my return here, I don't feel at all nervous about where I will be placed or the new host family or school, just that most of friends won't be here anymore!

Gender/Math

This topic stems from a conversation in my 11th grade class yesterday. After reading passages about Einstein and Marie Curie, the textbook offered the following question for classroom discussion. "Agree or disagree: boys are better at math than girls." I laughed to myself because obviously by now we all know that "boys and girls are equally as good at math, but boys have just been historically pointed towards the subject of math and science in school." Oh wait, I'm in Georgia. Oh wait, only the boys in this class know English. G, who is always kind, sort of stepped back on this topic even though he usually has a lot to say. This may have been because when M and L stated that they definitely agreed, I gave them the "are you crazy?" look. L's reasoning behind the agreement was that boys are just naturally smarter and more genius (it's especially good if you could hear the way he was pronouncing genius "gene-you-us"), and sometimes girls seem better but that is only because the boys are being lazy, but innately boys are better. And the girls who are smart at math just had to work really hard to memorize everything, and it took much more effort because they are not naturally as good. He goes on to use Einstein as an example, because Einstein was very bad in school but he was naturally a genius. Then M comes into the conversation and says that even if we look at their class, all the boys are smarter than the girls. And most famous scientists and mathematicians were men. This is when G, who I think notices that I feel uncomfortable, comes into the conversation and starts saying that maybe it doesn't matter who is smarter because technology is advancing so quickly maybe someday no one will have to remember anything anymore. We will all have computers to remember everything for us.
So, I am basically in shock here, trying to decide how I will formulate a good solid response that is not only incredibly intelligent (because I'm a female so now I have to really defend females everywhere), but in simple enough English that they will be able to understand. So I'm coming up with my answer when my co-teacher, N, steps in. "I agree with you, I think boys are better than girls at maths usually." This is when in my haed, I am thinking "WHAT!"
And I shake my head and said "I really disagree." And the second I open my mouth to continue on, the bell rings.
As we walk out, N is still bickering a bit with M and L, saying that she was very good at math growing up, better than most of the boys in her class. I tell N that it's just no true, and she says "well, in their class it is true." And then the conversation ends.
But what I wanted to say all along, was that of course this seems true. Of course it seems as though men are better than women at math and science, when growing up boys are tracked into the scientific and mathematical areas of school, more because of gender roles than because of actual intelligence. And historically, of course more men were scientists and mathematicians because women weren't even allowed into higher education until fairly recently. The famous women scientists were aberrations not because "wow, it's so crazy this lady is actually smart!" but because they were the few who could step beyond the baby-making dinner-cooking gender roles expected of them. And living in Georgia, I suppose I should not be surprised by this mindset, because many of the women here are in the role of housewife. When I am frequently told about girls who drop out of school because they are getting married and having babies (in high school), it's easier to understand why the boys don't think they are intelligent. Because maybe the girls are the smartest in the class when they are young, but then they give up education for a simple life of diaper changing and dish washing, and although that is a role that is necessary in the world, it won't win a Nobel Prize...
All this talk just makes me want to go do a crazy science experiment and show my students what's up!!!

Sanatorium

On Thursday I ended up on a surprise trip to Davit Gareji Monastery with my host family. They have never really taken me anywhere so I was pretty surprised on Thursday morning (it was a holiday and we didn't have school) when my host mother asked me if I wanted to go with them somewhere (I wasn't clear on exactly where we were going, to be honest) and I said ok. Two and a half hours later, we were there. It was a really beautiful place. Basically it's a cave monastery, so all the parts of the monastery are built into caves. There were sheep all over the countryside we drove through. More sheep that I've ever seen in my life. After we were finished at the monastery we pulled over into a random field and the men made mtsvadi (bbq pork) and we had a big picnic. It was really nice. Except for the part where I was trying to show Tiko how to do a "bridge" and I bulled a muscle in my back so badly I thought I was never going to be able to get up off of the ground. I felt like a 60 year old man who threw his back out. And Tiko really didn't understand that I had hurt myself and kept trying to sit on me as I laid on the ground in the dirt and grass. It's pretty funny to think about now, but at the time it really sucked!
On Friday, it was my friend Kristen's birthday, so she invited a few of us to her village for a little supra. Basically we ate a ton of mtsvadi (this is like my new staple food apparently) and drank a TON of wine. We all made toasts to Kristen, mine went something like "it was great to meet you here, blah blah blah, I hope you find a Georgian husband and have a bunch of Georgian babies and live in Georgia forever!" And then later I made more toasts (apparently a little wine in me gets me wanting to start toasting to anything), one of which was to my brother and another one was about Phil (our British friend) moving to Nebraska. By the end of the evening, we were all quite ridiculous (because you have to drink every time someone makes a toast). Phil was stuck talking in a terrible Australian accent for long periods of time, the Georgian men kept asking us to dance with them (and we did), Phil got a bit sick (everywhere!), and all of us girls were just up late being giggly and having conversations that seemed really important at the time but I can't really remember any of now.
Yesterday after leaving Kristen's, Shannon Shay and I took a marshrutka to Tbilisi and met up with a few of our other friends and we all caught a marshrutka (after fighting off scary gypsy children and scary relentless taxi drivers) to Borjomi. Borjomi is a little town where there is natural mineral water. This water is really gross in my opinion. It tastes like bubbly salt water and Shannon described it as tasting the way your mouth tastes after barfing. But yeah, some people really like it! So anyway, Helene had met a Georgian guy who lives there and he took us all over the town buying things like pork and bread and vodka. He also took us to a hotel where we could stay, which ended up being a massive old place built in the 18th century and had been a sanatorium in the past. This place was creeeeepppppy. And it only had turkish toilets and the water that came out of the tap was brown. Excellent. But anyway, we got in our swim suits and we went to have a picnic/bbq in the woods where there is a natural hot spring pool. Turns out it was over 3km to get there. Poor Shay didn't even have a jacket and we were both wearing flats and it was quite a muddy trek and on the verge of raining. It was very beautiful though and definitely an interesting experience. Especially the part where we had to cross the river on a bridge that was made of a log with planks across it and a wire to hold onto. Once we were there, there were some other TLG people and the Georgian guy was making mstvadi (like I said, I've been eating a ton of this stuff). Then we broke out the vodka and people went into the pool (I didn't). I did pee outside like three times, which now that I've used so many squat toilets and outhouses I don't even really care about peeing outside anymore. Funny how normal things start to become after a while... So we hung out there for a while and I had some embarrassingly long conversations about Hanson and other things that no one even cares about but me.
Then we walked back to the hotel and it was raining and even more muddy and I had to walk through small creeks with bare feet (rather than getting my shoes wet), and we crossed the scary bridge again and the walk seemed a lot shorter on the way back than it had on the way there. In the hotel while everyone else was drinking more, my new friend Cody (also in TLG) and I decided it was the perfect time to investigate the creepy old building. Basically we went through the entire place and tried to open every door. We found some interesting things like a big empty room with an old stage and old piano behind the curtain, and an old library with strange old books written in Russian and old magazine pictures (some of which had Xs drawn threw the women's faces). We also found a room labeled "Laboratory" and we tried to pick the lock to get inside, but gave up when I got scared and kept thinking I heard footsteps. I ended up going to sleep fairly early because I was tired and everyone else was in the living room area watching TV on a tiny black and white TV.
Today we had to get back to our villages so we took a marshrutka back to Tbilisi and then Shannon and I got on one to Telavi. Of course, for some reason we were the only ones going all the way to Telavi and the driver didn't want to go just for us, so he pulled over in Vachnadiani and flagged down a random car and asked them to take us to Telavi. There were two men with bad teeth in the front seat, and a woman sitting next to me in the back. The men kept asking us questions and talking to us in Georgian and we didn't really know what they were saying, but they ended up buying us ice cream randomly (awesome!) and took us all the way back to our villages (my village is like 30 min from Shannon's village, so it was pretty cool). It was pretty random though.... of course, I'm kind of getting used to things like that.....

I'm really sucking at blogging lately. I guess I've been in a mood where things are a bit more aggravating than amusing for the most part, and I don't want to write all my annoyances down because I'd rather just forget about them when they are over.
On Friday night I went to Signagi with some friends and we stayed at a guest house where we got the entire second floor of a house to ourselves. We drank vodka and ate junk food in an outdoor gazebo near the main road and then we went back to the guest house and basically sat around dissing each other until we were all tired and wanted to go to sleep. It's amazing how much fun we can have just basically making fun of each other. On Saturday we walked around the city and looked at the beautiful sights and ate ice cream and then sat around in the park and on various walls. It was great weather and we were warm. Shannon got pretty sunburned.
Then we went to Shay's village where we ate dinner with her host family and drank wine. The next morning Shannon had to leave early but Cort and I stayed. The weather was crappy and rainy all day but we walked around a bit and got some beer and then went back to the house and watched a bunch of episodes of "Modern Family." We went back to our villages yesterday morning.
I got home just in time to call my mom to say Happy Mothers Day and hear some interesting news.
Last night I found out that a guy I am supposed to meet up with this weekend (who said he was 28) is actually 35. Now I feel weirded out that he told me the wrong age, even though he apologized quite a lot.
Today was another day very similar to most days in the village, except the weather was really nice and it's sunny and warm.
On the down side, I wore my flats to school without tights or nylons (and I was wearing pants) so the whole staffroom was freaking out asking me if I was cold and basically in shock that I would not be wearing nylons. I tried to explain that in the US people really don't wear nylons all the time, and my co-teacher said that's because we have indoor heating in the US, which might be right.... but also, IT WAS FREAKIN' WARM TODAY. Even inside the school that is normally like 2 degrees.
On a brighter note, one of my 7th grade girls made me a little wool heart that has my name sewn on it. She followed me to the staffroom after class to give it to me. The 7th grade girls are so ridiculously sweet; I love them.

rant

A couple of days ago, I endured a ridiculous monologue by a guy I hate (it went something like "I hate America; [except he's so stupid he never would have used a semi-colon] I would rather die than have been born in America" followd by "Obama is really Osama bin Laden") and although we already established he did not like me, he told me that he liked the other California girls who were with me because "they are tall and beautiful and they don't roll their eyes unnecessarily." Anyway, the main point is that someone owes me a lari for trying to get this stupid stupid stupid guy to lick a soggy churchela stick (which he described as looking like an uncircumcised Arabic penis, which is gross because "it is uncircumcised and because I hate Arabs").
........Oh yeah, this same person had the audacity to say a few weeks back that Americans should not have been brought to Georgia as good examples of western culture, because Americans are SO awful and blah blah blah..... I feel bad for all the Canadians with Russian parents (he loves to bring up that he can speak Russian) are being represented by this judgmental and pretentious human piece of scum.

Too much

Too much has happened without much of anything happening at all. I'm tired and I feel like I haven't written in a long time, which makes the idea of writing at all kind of stressful.
I went to Armenia for a few days during our Spring Break. It was a nice country and very beautiful, but the weather was bad for most of the time and we didn't get to see many of the things we would have liked to see outside of Yerevan. Yerevan was very different than Tbilisi. The traffic was better behaved and I didn't feel like I was going to get killed every time I crossed a street. The streets were wider and there were less people walked around it seemed like. It was a beautiful city, really, but I prefer Tbilisi even though I think most of my friends didn't feel the same way. In Yerevan, we ate way more food than we should have and a ton of ice cream. The hostel we stayed at was brand new and run by a couple who had two small children. On Easter they had a traditional Armenian Easter dinner for us complete with hard boiled eggs and wine.
This weekend I went to Saniore to stay with my friend Shannon again. We had a nice time even though the weather was awful and we mostly sat around her house. We did attempt making chocolate chip cookies which turned out pretty delicious, though they didn't taste "right" because not only is there no brown sugar in Georgia, no one seems to even know what molasses is.
Yesterday many of us TLGers got the day off of school to go to Kvareli Lake where TLG was hosting an event for us. Only 70 or so people could come and I, along with many of my friends, were able to sign up in time and go. It was a lot of fun and we got to go on paddle boats and some people rode bikes and there were swings. Then we were taken to a vineyard and had a feast with tons of wine and chacha. Most of us drank quite a lot of the wine and chacha.... Including our marshrutka driver.... but we survived.
I guess I will also mention that my life is incredibly random and I suppose the country is small. I don't know if any of you read the post where I mentioned giving my phone number to the random Georgian guy who sat next to me on a marshrutka... but yesterday while my friends and I were standing on the side of the road next to Gurjaani, guess who pulls up? Yeah, marshrutka guy. He got out and kissed me cheek and started asking me where I was going. I gave him a vague answer like 'some lake, I don't know what it's called, I have to go our marshrutka is here." It was incredibly awkward but I thought I had escaped unscathed until he called me a total of NINE TIMES from two different phone numbers. Lesson learned: don't give your number to random guys on marshrutkas.