Not working

One of my friends says he sometimes feels a though he’s in a Russian short story because of the things that happen to him here.  With the situations I’ve found myself in, I’d say I feel more like I’m in a Soviet comedy (and yes, the Soviets did make funny comedies).  The last few days/weeks have provided plenty of examples.

Last week, my classes were simply canceled.  At eleven on Monday morning (my classes theoretically start at 12 but never have), my host mom calls my host dad to see if I’ll have class that day.  She then tells me to go to the station now because they’re all there.  In shock that I’m actually having class, I hurry up to get ready and head out.  Once I get there (a few minutes’ walk), they tell me to sit down.  After a few minutes, they tell me in Russian that we won’t be having class anymore.  After a few minutes of chatting, one of them then drives me to the bank, since I had to go there to add money to my phone (yes, that works here).  When I get home, I tell my host mom, and she’s also shocked.  I email 2 various parts of my program and get no response.  My class is supposed to end next week.  I’ve only had 2 actual classes.  I get no response so Tuesday call my program. After 4 phone calls, I get told that I’ll have a meeting about school next week.  Having done all I could, I resign myself to over a week off.  I realize most of you will be envious, but I’ve had so much time to rest, I want to work.  I also have friends who are actually working.  Alas, I am stuck relaxing in the mountains for a while longer.

I am doing some work, though.  Yesterday at breakfast, my host sister asked me if I was going to the garden.  Having heard nothing of this, I of course say I want to.  My host brothers, grandma, host sister, and I all get in my family’s old Zhiguli (Soviet car).  My 13-year-old host brother drives into the middle of a field.  Part of the field is roped off, our garden.  There are a few stalks of corn, lots of weeds, a few unidentified plants, and beans.  I discover that we are picking beans.  This means we actually uproot the entire plant and stuff it in a bag.  This was a first for me, and quite fun.  It did not take us that long, and we drove back home.  I got a ‘molodets’ (good girl) from my host grandma and a few neighbors for working.  Pictures below are the others (since I was behind the camera) and our haul.

Last night my host grandma’s 2 sisters, who had come to visit a few days ago, came back into town.  They’ve been sorting the beans from the plants and then opening the bean pods.  Thus, today for lunch we had ‘lobio’, or beans.  It was simple but delicious.  My host grandma’s one sister now lives in Greece.  This is the first time she’s been back in 5 years.  She’s little and feisty.  Did I mention before how the first time I met her she tried to sell me her husband?  She did.  I really like her, mostly because she’s funny and she likes talking to me in Russian.  She had said several times how she wants me to see how tall and big her husband is (so then I will want to buy him), so she asked if we could talk to her family on Skype.  Of course, I said yes, however I couldn’t find him when I looked up his Skype name.  My host sister came in and tried to help.  She speaks minimal English, so we’re trying to talk in English, they’re talking in Georgian, and my host great-aunt and I are trying to talk in Russian.  Shockingly, we’re still not getting anywhere.  We think my host sister might be able to get a hold of him on her Skype account, so we try that to no avail.  After the other great-aunt calls someone on her cell, we finally find the right Skype name.  After about an hour and a few more calls, we finally get a hold of the family in Greece via Skype.  Although I knew it was probably using up some of the last of my high speed internet for the month (it re-ups in a few days), I was so happy I got to be the vehicle for the family to communicate.  Not only did I get to see her family in Greece, but my host family got to see and talk to family they had either never met or had not seen in years.  There was a lot of ‘this is Gela’s wife, this is Gulo’s granddaughter’, etc.  Hooray for technology!

To give you some insight into Georgian communication, last night I found out my host family is going to Kobuleti, a beach town.  Last week I had told my host mom I was headed to Batumi, the main beach town, this weekend.  About 10PM last night, they tell me they’ll be gone for 5 days to Kobuleti.  My host grandma and her sisters are still here, so I’m not stranded.  If I had not had plans, I probably could have gone with my host family, but the whole situation is just so un-American in that I have lived here for over a month but they did not tell me until less than 12 hours before they left.  I’m pretty sure that’s totally normal for Georgia.

Another memorable event was my drive to Tbilisi last weekend.  Our neighbor was headed to Tbilisi as well.  As he’s a bit spoiled, he’s too good for the marshrutka (public taxi/van that I normally take), so he convinces me to take a taxi with him.  Sharing a taxi is only about $2 more per person. We actually found a guy who had a car full of stuff who would take us for only 1 GEL more than the marshrutka, so a great deal.  I think once he found out I was an American and new, he decided to act as a tour guide.  He showed us castles and fortresses in the distance, pointed out an ancient battleground where a greatly-outnumbered Georgian force beat the Turks, and even stopped the car and had us get out to look at a cliff where Stalin used to send people over the edge by sending them over the cliff.  The taxi drivers I’ve met have been nice in general, but this man was so friendly and made the experience so pleasant.  He even gave me a plum from his garden!