So We Had A Little Aftershock

Most importantly: I have not figured out what I'm doing about the Super Bowl, but I will watch it somehow. I must.

First off, I'm not actually in Zugdidi. I'm in Zugdidi District (similar to a county), but about 10 km south of the city itself in a village called TsaPPishi. (Sometimes transliterated as "CaiPPshi", just as "Tsar" is sometimes "Czar".) According to a rough translation of the Georgian Wikipedia article on TsaiPPshi, the town has about 2200 residents. From my observation, it has a similar number of cows and probably 6 times as many chickens. It is most famous for its resort status during Soviet times, when apparatchik from all over the USSR would come here for TsaiPPshi's baths. Those baths were a result of the natural hot springs that send very hot sulfur water out of the ground.

I have yet to acquire a proper Empty Bottle to make full use of the Hot Spring Water

I do not have internet at my house, so blog posts will likely be a weekly thing at most. Kate does, though, so hopefully she will update you on the embarrassing situations I find myself in. She is a ways from me, in Zugdidi proper. This is not ideal, nor is it what we asked for from the program, but, to paraphrase one modern philosopher-singer, we are where we are.

The 7-hour marshutka trip taught me that my observation of Georgian driving was somewhat unfair. There is a system - most roads are three lane roads. One lane goes one way, the opposite lane goes the other, and the middle lane straddles the center line and can go either way at any time. On the plus side, seatbelt use is far more common than we'd been told during our training.

That trip was capped off with a lovely welcome dinner (at 11 pm) from my host family, their neighbors, and fellow teachers at my school. My host brother Imedi is 15 and speaks some English. His father and I generally communicate in my broken Georgian and broken Russian, while his sister (12) doesn't seem to want to speak to me, even though I know she's taking English at school. They are farmers, raising chickens and pigs and growing mandarins, kiwis, and a variety of other fruits in their extensive backyard. It is a change for me from everywhere I've ever lived, that's for sure. They are wonderful people though, and have been excellent hosts, even when communication between us is difficult.

I've wandered a bit around TsaiPPshi, seeing the hot springs, the River Jumi that runs through town, and the hill behind the house that provides an outstanding view of the Svaneti range of the north Caucasus. The town is easy to spot from the road, as a giant Georgian flag on a giant Georgian flagpole dominates a hill outside my window. Assuming the flagpole isn't brand new, it has seen 3 flags in my lifetime. The Soviet flag that flew there until 1991. A new Georgian flag came about after Communism, and lasted until 2003. When the old regime fell in that fall's Rose Revolution, the old flag was deemed too controversial and was replaced by the current one, which is based on an old flag of an independent Georgia.

New Georgia flag

Former Georgia flag

Aside from my phrasebook, mentioned below, my host family has an English-Georgian dictionary that they've used to help them with their homework. It has some peculiarities, as it was written in 1974. It therefore contains translation of such commonly used phrases as "class struggle", "petty bourgeoisie", "Leninist", and "dictatorship of the proletariat".

Next up: Teaching!

Stats:
1 - signs saying "Happy Journey" while leaving Tbilisi. My guess is someone translated the Georgian into English as "Bon Voyage", and then someone else, believing that to be French (technically, they were right), translated that to "Happy Journey."
3 - seemingly wild horses that ran across the highway in front of our marshutka just outside TsaiPPshi at 9 at night. This was one of many events that caused the driver to make the sign of the cross on the window, but by far the closest call.

Georgian:
marshutka - "minibus" used as the most common form of mass transit. A Russian loan word (originally Marshrutka)
jgiro - "goodbye" in Maghreli.
puri - bread
kargi/kargad - good/well
capitalisti - capitalist (Note: I do not know how to translate "capitalist lackey")

Phrases the authors thought were important to include in my Georgian-English phrase book.
-"How can we protest against (something)?"
-"Are you a believer?"
And, lifted in order from the book:
"Let me buy you a drink."
"Why are you laughing?"
"Is my Georgian that bad?"
"Shall we go somewhere quieter?"
"Leave me alone, please!"