On Thursday after class, (well, we actually left class early) I went to my co-teacher's house which is in a village about 15 minutes away. It was her daughter's 8th birthday as well as some church holiday where everyone eats fish. At her house we ate a massive "snack" and drank a couple of glasses of wine. Then we all, (Darejani, her husband, her daughter, her niece and her husband's friend) hopped into her husband's friend's mini van and he drove us to Gremi, which is a big old church. We climbed up in the church on some very dangerous narrow stairs. It was a very beautiful place and the view from the top of the church was great. Then we went to some monastery that I don't remember the name of. It was very cool and up really high on a hill so the view from there was REALLY cool. After this we went back to her house and ate more food and cake. Also, news got out that my brother's bday was on Friday so we had to drink numerous toasts to my mother and brother and may they have long lives. And when we have a toast, we have to down the whole glass of wine apparently. I drank quite a lot of wine and so did everyone else (not the kids) and it was a good time and there were only a few awkward questions like "will you get married here if you meet the right boy?" followed by "i have a nephew who is your age you should meet" and so on.  The next day I was supposed to come back to Vardi for my "club," but Darejani really wanted me to stay another night and called the school and canceled my club for me so I stayed another night. I ate SO much food while at her house I thought I might explode.
I was supposed to go to Sighnaghi on Friday to visit Shay with Cort, but the only marshutka was leaving Telavi at around 3 and I couldn't get there in time (because I was supposed to have my club). So last minute I called up Lydia and instead decided that we should go to Tbilisi on Saturday because we really didn't want to have another uneventful village weekend. On Saturday morning I wasn't even sure I was going to make it to Tbilisi because I had a stomach bug that made me feel really nauseous. But I decided that I would fight through it and go anyway.
Lydia and I didn't do a whole lot in Tbilisi, just ran some errands and I bought a couple of books at the bookstore there that sells books in English. I finally put more money on my cell phone--I've been at like 3lari for over a week and I thougth Cort was going to kill me because I hadn't been able to text him all day every day like we normally do. Lydia and I also got some noodles and made pasta at the hostel. Then we drank really cheap vodka that the workers at the hostel kept telling us was so bad and not to drink it. It didn't taste all that bad in my expert opinion. But they were right; it's a terrible hangover.
We went to a couple of bars with the guys from the hostel. We already knew them because I stayed at the same hostel, Boombully, last time we were in Tbilisi. I guess nothing especially memorable happened, except next to Bude Bar there was a dirt pile that Lydia and I found to be extra exciting for some reason and we have a lot of ridiculous pictures of us standing on the dirt pile. After this we went to a club to dance and then we went back to the hostel. At the hostel they asked if we wanted to go to a party so we said OK but the party ended up being us sitting around the living room of a thirty-something year old woman's house while they spoke a lot of Georgian and drank vodka. Then the woman's 15 year old daughter came out of her bedroom and starting drinking with them. During this time, I was mostly sitting there and giggling at the ridiculousness of one of the guys we we were hanging out with. He was an enthusiastic insurance salesman who "could sell insurance products all day every day and all night every night" and was very angry when he found out that Lydia was not Jewish (no idea why he even assumed she was). At one point he was trying to slap me with a piece of ham. I was laughing so much I ended up laying down and falling asleep. I woke up confused when Lydia was telling me that the cab was there to take us back to the hostel. Insurance salesman wanted to come back to the hostel with us but Lydia said no and then he told Lydia she was "black listed" and looked out the window and wouldn't talk to her anymore.
I ended up only getting about 3 hours of sleep, which seems to be what always happens when I go to Tbilisi. I felt terribly sick and had a raging headache this morning thanks to the crap vodka. We took a weird shared taxi cab back to Telavi. There was a kid who was probably 18 sitting next to me trying to converse with me in English but it was kind of awkward. I think he was just nervous about speaking in English and had a bit of a crush on me. Shortly before his stop, he invited me. And yeah, that's what he said. "I want to invite you" (this is a common phenomenon I've experienced here with people who aren't fluent in English. They will "invite me" and not say where they are inviting me). So I asked him where and he said "where you like" which could mean anything. Either way, he asked for my phone number and I gave it to him, which may not have been smart but I thought he seemed nice! Then he told me I had beautiful eyes and got out at his stop. After this, Lydia and Mary (another TLG girl who lives in Telavi) were saying they thought he seemed weird and sketchy, but I really didn't think he did. I guess the saying this made me feel weird about the whole thing even though I thought it was all perfectly fine.
So, if I start getting crazy phone calls I guess I will know I made a mistake.
And now I have another week of school. But in 10 days I will be going to Armenia! I am very excited.

Sakartvelo! Sakartvelo!

My computer broke and I'm on the family computer. So I'll make this snappy.
Yesterday I returned to Vardi after a weekend in Tbilisi. We stayed at a new hostel called Boombully which was in a great location and really awesome and fun. The guys who work there/own it are really awesome and with the exception of a couple people, the rest of the place was booked to TLG people for the weekend.
On Friday night we got a bottle of cheap vodka (and wow.... it was cheap--tasting). I drank a lot of it and stayed up late. We didn't even leave the hostel. We played Kings Cup for a while and then did who knows what else. I guess a lot of sitting around and talking. And throwing pretzels out of the third floor window for a stray cat. And I forgot to bring clothes to sleep in so I had to sleep topless. Luckily I was just in a room with Lydia, Cort and Helene so it didn't really matter. Except for that every time I needed to leave the room I had to put on a different shirt. I'm pretty sure I ended up in the kitchen wearing Lydia's sweater and then 4 minutes later wearing Cort's sweater. I don't know where my own sweater was.
I woke up at 8:30 on Saturday morning, which is what happens when I am a bit hungover... and by I bit I mean incredibly. Like I said, the vodka was BAD. So I climbed into Cort's bed and made sure he was awake for reals (misery loves company) and we slowly all got it together and left. We wandered around the city and went to the big ferris wheel on a hill that was at the WEIRDEST theme park place I eve ever witnessed. The ferris wheel was super slow moving and basically just there for the purpose of getting a good view of Tbilisi. We ate sushi for dinner. Then we had to get back because we had tickets to the big Georgia vs Croatia soccer game at the stadium.
The stadium was HUGE. It was more people than I have ever seen in my life. And it was all so confusing and exciting. Everyone was chanting and yelling and we couldn't figure out how to get in because there were so many people and mobs and nothing in Georgia is organized. We ended up getting in through a part that was just a bunch of security guards who I think only let us in because we were foreigners. Then we found our seats and it was great except for when the girl next to me (another TLG girl) asked for my drink (a juice and vodka mix) and I gave it to her and she apparently gave it to a little kid (like 5 yrs old!) because she thought it was just juice and he was thirsty. I felt guilty about that. And then i had to pee SO BADLY i thought i was going to die. And it was close to the end of the game so I was trying to hold it but I nearly panicked and felt like I might cry so I just made Cort go with me and we got back right in time to see Georgia score like 2 min before the end of the game. And Georgia won! So everyone was SO EXCITED. The city was crazy with guys cheering and screaming and hanging out of car windows/sunroofs/on top of their cars waving flags and singing. It was great!!!!
Then at the hostel we all hung out and drank and cheered to Sakartvelo (that's Georgia in Georgian) and the hostel and then we went out and stayed out until 5am.
Yesterday we took the marshrutka back to Telavi and then I came home to find that my computer doesn't want to start at all, and when it does it just keeps saying "not responding" when I try to open anything. It's lame and depressing.
Today was a bad day, which is a mix of being incredibly tired, stressful situations at work and the feeling I get after having a nice weekend and then having to go back to "normal." I'm feeling better though this evening, so I don't want to think about it anymore. Tomorrow will be better! :)