Love/Miss, catching up

My my, where to begin? Georgia’s been good to me over the past couple of days. Here are a couple of highlights, in no particular order.

– Finally went to a football game in Tbilisi on Sunday, Dinamo Tbilisi vs. Kutaisi Torpedo. I think a few more people in the crowd would have made it a bit more exciting . . . yes, this picture was taken mid-game.

– The normal greeting in Georgia is a kiss on the cheek, and when I ran into my most adorable fifth grader on the street after school the other day, he went right in for one. Not sure if this would happen elsewhere.

– I went to the other city of love in Kakheti, Tsinandali, and after we’d toured the main house (which belonged to Alexander Chavchavadze, a famous writer, not to be confused with Ilya Chavchavadze, another famous writer), our tour guide asked our two friends with guitars to please play them some songs. No traditional Georgian music, but I think they liked it alright. We even got some free wine!

– After a semester of Georgian dance, I’m finally going to have to face my performance anxiety and participate in a concert next week. AHH! And with boys! Who’ve been dancing their whole lives! Don’t worry, I’ll take video.

– I got to see the 1st graders in their “we learned the alphabet!” celebration. I guess the Georgian alphabet is hard, we didn’t get a celebration like this. Super cute video of tiny boys singing a traditional Georgian song here.

– The weather has been fantastic lately, which means that I want to be outside more, which means that I get more views of the mountains. Besides my kids, I think what I’ll miss most of all about Gurjaani is the constant mountain view.

And now, on to one of the things that I miss most about America — PLAYING HOCKEY. But I’ve found out that next year in Liberec I will not have to miss it. I’m extremely excited about that. If only there was an ice rink in Gurjaani . . . I’m sure that’s next on their list.