Breakfast started at 9am. It was a little weird. I don=t know if I can get used to the idea of the cold cuts, coleslaw, and dessert from the night before served as breakfast. There is cereal here, but the milk is different and I couldn=t eat it. So I=ve had yogurt and tea and hard boiled eggs to start my day. The hotel also reminds me of the Shining, the hallway leading to our rooms is really creepy. Also, smoking is allowed inside. It=s annoying.
After breakfast we had orientation. There was loads of media there again. I was lucky enough not to have to give another interview, but a bunch of different people did. We got a Georgian-English dictionary and our cell phones.
During sightseeing, we went to this super-old church, where there was more media. It had this wall, with really steep steps going up. I climbed the whole set. Before we left, one of the wedding couples wanted us to be in pictures with them, so we did and I got a couple on my camera, too. We also went to Goodwill, so that people could pick up some essential items, like wine. Here, Goodwill is like Walmart. They don=t have anything second-hand. From the bus we=ve passed this church on a hill, called metekhi, with a statue of a guy on a horse beside it. There are lots of statues of guys on horses around the city. Each one is a different king. The most famous is King David the Builder, but we only saw it from the back.
Before dinner, we had a couple of hours to kill, so I went for a walk with one of the guys, K, he=s from Mississipi. We wandered by the hotel. It was crazy, the houses in the middle of the city had gorgeous gardens. There are grape vines growing over everything. At one point we found this tiny little path that went through an overgrown orchard with many varieties of unidentified fruit; 2 of which we later learned were figs and pomegranates, respectively. The National Guard has a facility that we found, right after the fountain that looks like a giant ball. But we decided that it was a bad idea to go in, with so many people around. When we were back to the hotel, there was time to have a quick shower before dinner.
Dinner is a HUGE deal here, they call it supra and it can last all day. We spent 2 hours at the restaurant and there was enough food to feed 3x the number of people who were there. They pile the table with dishes, literally stacked one on top of the other. There is a cheese bread that is typical Georgian fare as well as egg plant and creamed spinach. They also serve a drink that they call Limonade, but doesn=t actually have any lime in it. It=s like a really sweet soda that comes in cream, pear, grape, and tarragon flavours. The cream one tastes like cream soda and the tarragon tastes like black licorice.
We were served Georgian wine at dinner, which I didn=t really like. But that=s ok, because when we got back to the hotel, we had a little party (in the creepy Shining-esque ballroom) where we drank the wine that we bought at Goodwill. We met the last teacher to arrive and chatted about our respective flights and airlines. It was a relaxing time, and the wine made me sleepy, so we went back to our room to pack.
On the way back to the room, we ran into a couple of Georgian guys having their own party in the hallway outside our rooms. They invited us to join them, but M and I needed to pack, so we went into our room, leaving D to hang out and practice his Georgian with them. But he called us later and asked us to come out again.
When we finished packing, we joined the guys in the hall, where we learned that if food or drink is offered, it=s rude to decline. So we each had a little bit of mulberry vodka, which wasn=t too bad, once the burning stopped. It was better than trying to take normal vodka straight. We hung out until about 2:30 and then went to bed.
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