This week I have felt like crap. Thursday I was an absolute witch to my classes and Friday wasn’t much better. Luckily, for my last class on Friday afternoon, only 3 girls bothered to show up. We got quite a bit done. I found out later from Neighbour Boy that everyone else was visiting a classmate and his new baby. This isn’t like in North America, this classmate also had a wife, who was also a former classmate. Of course, since she’s already a wife and mother (the pinnacle of a Gerogian woman’s ambition) she no longer needs an education.
After school on Friday, Neighbour Boy came over for help preparing for his English tutorial. Then Boston got here, cuz she’s spending the weekend. Once we’d greeted the family and had a bite to eat, we came upstairs to watch movies. Boston had brought her computer and some videos from home. We watched a Doris Day and Rock Hudson rom/com and It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.
After the movies we went to bed. I had made arrangements with the private school teacher to have lunch with her today, so I got up near my regular time, but let Boston sleep in. We had a leisurely breakfast of bread with peanut butter and jam and tea. Then got ready to go. I still wasn’t feeling great, but I just wanted to get this meeting over with.
This crazy lady (CL) texted me at 10:30 to confirm our attendance. I texted back in the affirmative. We were waiting to catch a ride down the mountain when she called at ten to eleven. "Where are you?" she asks. I told her that we were still in the village, but coming soon. She remined me to meet her at the bazaar and told me that she was already there. We caught a ride shortly after this canversation and were in Kobuleti minutes later. As we headed to the bazaar, I got another phone call. "Where are you?" I told her we’d just got to Kobuleti and that we would be there soon. She said ok and hung up. Ten minutes later, another call. "Where are you?" I said that we were almost there, and I would call her when we got there.
Finally, the bazaar is in sight and I was just pulling out my phone to call this woman when I get a text. "When you get to bazari call me." I just showed Boston and she was like (paraphrased to maintain a PG rating) , "Well, duh. You just told her you would." As she was saying this, the woman emerged from a store behind her. I performed introductions and we were on our way.
While we were on our way to her house, CL is explaining that they haven’t had water, so she couldn’t make me a cake, but that it’s ok because she will make me a cake for my second visit. (I raised my eyebrows at Boston. There will be no second visit.) Then she mentioned us visiting her school with her. (Though this had been part of the original arrangement, through text msgs, I got the impression that this was no longer part of the visit.) She also explained that her apartment is very small, so we will be entertained in her aunt’s apartment which is in the same building. And that they will boil khingali (giant dumplings filled with meat) for us. I expained that I’m vegetarian and that the fruit would be just fine. She seemed upset, but we moved on... or rather back to the lack of water and thus cake. Again, I told her that was fine and conversation moved on.
We arrived at her aunt’s apartment and met one of CL’s private students. He was a 13 year old boy and nervous about speaking in front of foreigners. Boston and I tried to break the ice while CL and her aunt prepared lunch. Then CL came back and yelled at the boy for being shy. We both assured her that we are also shy sometimes and it was fine.
Food was served and we tucked in to some fruit and chestnuts. CL mentioned going to buy khajapuri (bread and Georgian cheese) for me to eat. I convinced her not to go and told her that I wasn’t feeling well (it’s the only way to get Georgians to stop feeding you). They switched out our plates for clean ones (giving me a new one, in spite of the fact that I said I was finished eating.) The kkingali was brought out and everyone took one except me. I was happy drinking my juice because at this point my throat was on fire and I was having dizzy spells. While everyone else was happily eating their dead things, CL kept telling me to take one. I explained again that I don’t eat meat and she said, "but they’re very delicious" I told her that I’m sure they are and I’ve had potato ones and cheese ones, but I don’t eat meat. On about the 5th time she told me to take one, Boston jumped in for me and said quite forcefully that there was no way I was going to eat the meat. I loved her for it. Of course, about 5 minutes later, she was arguing her own case for not eating more. She was perfectly pleasant, but the "forceful voice" did make an appearance.
At this point, I realized that there was no way I could sit through a lesson at CL’s school. Even for politeness sake. So as she was gathering her things to leave, I made my apologies and told her that I was too sick to go. Once I assured her that I would be ok and that Boston would take care of me (a process which took 15 minutes, in spite of the fact that she was late to teach her lesson) she spoke to a cab driver and arranged for him to bring us back to my house.
On the way home, we passed the cinema. Apparently it does show movies. There were signs up and a whole crowd of kids waiting outside. I saw on the news that it was showing a cartoon. The cartoon looked an awul lot like the Eastern European Itchy and Scratchy from the Simpsons.
After a morning of so much Georgianness and politeness, we decided to watch an American movie featuring horrible people. Eurotrip was exactly what we needed. And FYI Bratislava looks an awful lot like Georgia. It made us laugh so hard. After the movie, we went downstairs for tea and sweets and then returned to the couch.
At one point, Uncle Suliko stopped by to take Bebia to Batumi for a birthday party. He wanted to see me, so I went down and made Boston come with me. He was surprised and pleased to see her. It’s always so funny when he’s here; we laughed so much that I coughed for ages. After he left, we had another cup of tea and then came back upstairs.
We watched some English tv programs and then turned on the music video channel, so that we could have a nap. The rest of the afternoon we lounged and watched tv. I was not good company at all, but Boston was ok with it. After she watched Mad Men, we both went to bed.
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