Aug. 13 - Culture Shock continues

Black Sea again this morning. After a breakfast of cereal and milk. I know you're thinking "ah, just like home." But if you are, you'd be wrong. The cereal was Nesquick chocolate puffs and corn flakes. The milk was boiled on the stove with water and then poured (still hot) over the cereal. It actually tasted ok, but the texture was iffy. Luckily host-mom knows I like fruit and had watermelon handy.
I met the director of the school this afternoon. She was very nice, but didn't speak a word of English. Her French is very good, though mine is not. She brought me the English curriculum to go through, which was kind, even if it was written in Georgian. The Russian teacher picked her up, so I got to meet her, too. Again, no English. I'm a little worried about meeting the English teacher, but I think that's happening tomorrow, so we'll see what happens.
Host-Grandma is back from her vacation. She doesn't speak English, but seems to be very good at charades. We bonded this afternoon over Brazilian soap operas dubbed into Georgian. It was sweet.
It's the same soap that all of the English teachers have seen in the last few days. I talked to 3 of them this afternoon. We're all getting a little squirrelly, sequestered away with our host families. The pace of life is much slower here, and we're all bored out of our minds. It's not so bad for the city-folk, but out in the villages, there's nothing to do and the host-families seem reluctant to let us out by ourselves.
To keep me occupied this afternoon, Host-mom took me for a walk through the orchard. We sat at a picnic table and had some cold water direct from a mountain spring. It was lovely to spend some time outside, but in the shade. My sunscreen is working full blast. Even with all the time in the sun, I haven't burned (knock on wood). My HM thinks it funny that I'm so white. It is quite a frequent topic of conversation.
After a supper of macaroni and cheese, Host-Dad's twin brother came over with his wife and daughter. They were very interested in me, but didn't speak English, so our pigeon-english-georgian conversation was a trial. We worked through it, but trying to explain that I don't really have an ethnicity besides Canadian was difficult. Tonight was much more relaxed than any of the other times there were visitors. We hung out in the a.c. room and tried to chat. The daughter took English in school, so she was excited to practice.
HD's brother told me that it was ok to call home to Toronto from his cell phone. "No problem" he said, but I declined. Then he invited me to stay with their family in Batumi for 5 days. I tried to decline, but I don't know if I did. All I know is that I'm going to Batumi on Monday, but I don't know if I'm coming back. I'm not worried, though. I'll find out sooner or later.