It has been quite a while since we last updated the blog and so there is a lot to relate.

We had a second day in Tbilisi because we both had to go for a dermatological check-up. All is well for both of us on that front. We spent the remainder of the day looking around and trying to do some shopping for the holidays. We did find the British bookshop and managed to have a tuna fish sandwich and a cappuccino each, which set us back 18 Lari ($11), a fortune by Borjomi standards. There was a little gift store next door with some interesting enamels. We met the jeweler who is having a show at the American Embassy in a few weeks. We liked her stuff a lot and may go back for some Xmas presents. Tereze is more imaginative though. We did find some Georgian felt in another store. It is much finer than what we think of as felt and is the most interesting Georgian-made craft we have come across so far (apart from Bob’s hat). We also found a pair of socks for Susan!

The week after we went to stay with Bob’s school director in Bakuriani, a well-known ski resort. Bakuriani applied for the Winter Olympics after the ones in Vancouver, but lost out to Sochi in Russia, which ironically is just over the border from Abkhazia. Bakuriani was a huge winter sports destination during the Soviet era and still has a very big winter season. Keti, Bob’s director, has a friend who is a former world luge champion. He is now training two young women athletes who are going to compete in Vancouver. Apparently, part of the training regimen is to eat tripe for breakfast – just one of the many reasons that Bob and I will never take up the sport. Felix, the friend, is constructing a luge run in the Bakuriani hills. We spent quite a bit of time discussing the physics of luges which was interesting. We were rather surprised to hear that they cost over 6,000 euro each (after all it’s only a bit of plastic). We also toasted athletes, peace, America, England, Georgia and everyone everywhere with some rather good Georgian wine that Felix had brought back from Telavi, the wine growing capital of Georgia.

Last Friday, Peace Corp’s country (Georgia) director, regional (The Caucasus) director and world (!) director came with their entourage to visit our host-family and us for breakfast. Our host-“mother” laid on a delightful breakfast for all ten of them and us and the event well very well. (The Georgian “supra” tradition ensures that most houses have a large dining-room and dining-table, so seating this number of visitors, the family and us was no big deal. By the way, the Georgian equivalent of “no big deal” is “it isn’t a market.”) After breakfast, they came to “view” our room. They did not come to Georgia just to have breakfast and see our room! They were on a regional tour for a few days and will visit a few other places in Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.

Needless to say, this visit prompted much scurrying around before-hand to ensure that the house in general and our room in particular would pass muster. The visitors made all the right noises, so I think they generally approved!

This morning we woke up to a thin covering of snow – the first Georgian snow we have seen. We are led to understand that this is a gentle hint of the snow to come later this year and early next. The weather is certainly much colder now and we are wishing that we had brought more of our winter clothes with us. Perhaps we can pick some up when we come to New York at year’s end. The cold weather prompts the family to either stay in bed (see the picture of Gill with her familiar) or congregate in the kitchen – the warmest room in the house – to watch TV or play! We have acquired a Georgian Scrabble set (called “Crossvordy”) and have been playing with Mako – our host-“sister” - who is studying in Tbilisi at the university there and is young enough to be our grand-daughter. It doesn’t really matter who “wins” because Mako provides 90% of our words for us – our vocabulary being so limited! Georgian is, like English, very suitable for Scrabble because it allows words to have letters appended (such as “s”, “ed”, “ing”, etc. in English) to create new words. There are more Georgian appendages because they do with appendages what we in English typically do with prepositions.

We have recently spent hours on the web trying to arrange our flights over the Christmas / New Year period. Times have changed! We found very few options and flights are much more expensive than was the case not long ago. We'll email our itinerary to interested parties soon.