Aug. 17 - Hanging out

After the late night last night, S and I decided to sleep in. HM popped in around 9 to see if S was riding back to Batumi with her. In sleepy, mangled Georgian, I somehow got across that she’d go back in the evening.
When we finally did get out of bed, the cows were migrating down the mountain. It’s old news for me, but S lives in the heart of the city, so she doesn’t usually get to see the cows migrate. Two young cows decided that they liked the road right in front of our house, so they hung out there while all the other cows went down the hill. S and I watched them for literally 45 minutes. They were real cute.
For breakfast we had peanut butter and honey on bread and tea with honey. For some reason, pb is very scarce here. Most supermarkets don’t carry it. But, yet again, I lucked out and my family has some. It made my life complete, knowing that I can have my regular breakfast (sans toast, but still).
We decided to spend the day in Kobuleti, shopping and meeting up with anyone else who happened to be there. Since HM was at work and HD was MIA, we decided to catch a bus into town. Well, about 3 houses up, one of the neighbours saw us and was like, "We’ll give you a ride, you’re not taking the bus." So we got a ride in.
My Georgian is progressing rapidly. And it’s not anything as easy as osmosis (though exposure is part of it). I spend hours each day studying, just so that I can make small talk with Grandma and the neighbours. I’m actually pretty proud of myself when I think that I’ve only been learning the language for 15 days.
Anyway, in Kobuleti, we spent the whole day walking. We walked up the town to get to the main strip where we did some shopping. (I may have purchased a new bathing suit and dress.) Then we met up with K. It had been my and S’s intention to go to the beach, but K was washing both of his swim suits, so we ended up not going. We did stop at this café and eat a fantastic "lunch" (at 4pm) of chicken kabobs and vegetable salad. Then S exchanged some money and we both put minutes on our phones, because text messaging saves sanity.
At the end of the day, I called home (as ordered) for a ride, but HD was sleeping, so I got to take a taxi home. S also took a taxi, because after waiting for 45 minutes for the bus, we decided that it probably wasn’t going to come. So we found S a cab to Batumi for about $12, while my 10 minute cab ride cost me $2.50. It was a bit of a rip-off, but I’m getting better at haggling.
At home, I went for a swim and had dinner with HM. After dinner, I came up to my room and set up my Skype. It is really cool. I’m a little sorry that I missed the boat on it for so long. I called Mom and Grandma T. And I got lucky, because T and L were at grandma’s, so I got to talk to them too. I love Skype.