What a crazy day. After the morning swim with the family, I got Host Mom to drop me off at the bus/train station in Kobuletti to meet up with E (she's from New Zealand). It was an effort in communication, but we finally figured it out, and I got the day to myself.
E and I met A (from New York) on our way to K's(Mississippi). A and I could not stop talking. It was the first time either of us had seen English-speaking people since arriving with our host families. E and K laughed at us, because they had seen each other and W (Florida) 2 days ago.
Once we had all gathered, the 4 of us stopped into a café for a drink (I had Fanta). It was really interesting to hear about everyone’s different living situation. K’s family runs a hostel in the touristy section of Kobuletti. So though his Host-dad doesn’t speak any English, there’s almost always someone there who does. E lives on a farm with a cow named Barbara and some chickens. They spend their time swimming in the nearby river. A’s host family lives up a mountain. The quickest way to walk there is on these little not-quite-paths, as I had a first hand chance to experience. And the climb is almost straight up.
Before we could go to the beach, A and I both needed to buy towels. Mine is blue with polka dots. We practiced our Georgian and A haggled, but she couldn’t get the price any lower. We found out that it was because all of the other vendors were selling their towels for 10 lari more than that woman was charging. So, towels in hand, we made our way to the beach. We hung out in the water and just chatted. It was fantastic not to have to struggle to communicate the most basic thought, or idea.
When we were done in the water, we stopped for drinks at the shoreline café. Again we chatted and I had a piece of the most delicious chocolate cake. Over the course of our chatting, A and I discovered that we lived near each other just off of the same mountain road. So when we left the beach and walked K home, we decided to catch the same bus back.
It turns out that the bus doesn’t stop where we thought it did. Also, that we don’t actually live that close to each other. So when the bus went past the stop, we got off at the next stop, without paying, cuz we couldn’t figure out how. At this point, I was farther away from home than I had been when we started. But we walked back to A's host family’s house, thinking that from there I could call a taxi.
No such luck. And her host sister called my Host Mom and said that I was going to stay the night. Normally that would’ve been fine, but we are meeting the President of Georgia tomorrow, and I wanted to get home to shower, and have fresh clothes to wear.
For a really long time, neither A nor I could figure out exactly what the plan was. So when her family told me I was staying to eat, I didn’t argue. While we were waiting for dinner, a bunch of her host-mom’s relatives showed up. It was funny, because all day she’d been telling us that she hadn’t had any visitors, her family hadn’t shown her off and no one had asked her personal questions about her marital status or religion. So when the extended family got there, she didn’t know what to do and I was like, "Welcome to my life. This happens every day, usually several times." But she couldn’t get over it.
In the shuffle and bustle of family and food, the specific details about my situation got lost. A’s host sister kept talking about going to get my clothes, but I couldn’t figure out why if someone was going to my house, I couldn’t just go with them and stay there. It was 10pm before someone finally told us that I was going home. Unfortunately, even after we figured out that I wasn’t staying the night, no one called HM to tell her, so they weren’t expecting me home. Luckily they were still awake, and let me in, but I felt SO bad, especially when I found a fan waiting for me in my room, complete with a remote.
I’ve definitely learned my lesson. If I’m ever allowed out of the house again, I’ll be taking a taxi directly to my door.
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