My most controversial post yet!

Well, I made it to Tbilisi. Our flight from JFK went through Poland, however, allowing us a 13 hour layover in Warsaw. We made the most of it. Well, we napped for a bit, but then made the most of it.

Warsaw was 38 degrees and rainy the whole time we were there, making for some miserable weather conditions. The city itself was worth checking out. Much of the architecture hailed from Soviet times (most of the pre-Soviet buildings didn't make it through WWII), including the Palace of Culture and Science, a 42-story building that's the tallest in the country. It was a gift from Stalin's USSR to the people of Poland. I'm sure Poland asked for a gift receipt so they could return it in for something they really wanted, likely involving the Soviets leaving them alone. Alas, the Soviets had a strict "No returns; also, you are under arrest" policy. It's now a museum that dominates the landscape in downtown Warsaw, and still features a statue of a man holding a book with the names of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and a conspicuous space where Stalin's name was plastered over.

In Soviet Union, gift returns you! (to the gulag)

 Much of the rest of Warsaw is very modern, looking as if it was built in the last 10 years. This includes the Warsaw Uprising Museum, a very worthwhile museum about the Polish Home Army in World War II. It is full of first hand accounts of the uprising and the unfortunate aftermath of the war.

After Warsaw, on to Tbilisi! We arrived at 5 in the morning on Sunday. Georgia so far has consisted of a hotel in Tbilisi that has played host to our Georgian language classes (there are different letters for sounds transliterated in our alphabet as "K", "Q", "KH", and "QKH"), orientation meetings, and general Georgian cultural training (do not toast with beer, and don't worry too much about being on time - except at school. Apparently, Georgians use the expression "GMT" to mean "Georgia Maybe Time".)

People in Georgia consider their countrymen poor drivers, at least to American eyes. (This is, of course, a gross generalization. It's akin to someone saying "Wisconsinites generally own a cow or two.") The main thoroughfares are wide, but traffic moves at a good pace. Sometimes, this good pace is not enough for people, and I've seen (and heard about) vans and taxis beeping at someone going too slowly, then cutting into the oncoming lane or the center line to pass them. The use of seatbelts has only been a common thing in the last year, and many cab and van drivers are apparently offended if you put a seatbelt on. I will do it anyway.

Also, drivers are predominantly male. There's no law against women driving, it just doesn't seem very common.

Such driving is moderately unacceptable

I look forward to posting in two months about the imperialistic American generalizations I made in the text above, and how ashamed I am of them.

Today I head to the city where I'll be for the next 5 months - Zugdidi, in Samegrelo region. That's in the northwest of the country, and for those family members who may be worried, is nowhere near Chechnya or Dagestan or North/South Ossetia or Ingushetia. It doesn't border Russia at all! (It does, however, border Abkhazia, but I am not too worried about this.) Don't know where in town I'll be teaching yet, and I think I get to have some say in what grades. Kate is in Zugdidi as well.

Some stats for you:
11 - Nationalities I've counted in the teaching group (American, Canadian, English, Scottish, Irish, Australian, Argentine, Polish, Mexican, South African, Italian). The Italians will be doing Italian language classes in Georgia. Georgian reminds me a lot of Italian.
1 - Main thoroughfares from the Tbilisi airport named "George W. Bush Street"

Georgian language info:
dila mshvidobitsa - Good morning!
gamarjobat - Hello
nakhvamdis - Goodbye
diakh or ki - Yes
ara - No

The vowels all have the same sounds as Spanish. There are no capital letters in Georgian.