I'm afraid I'm just going to just jump to the end and say it's a happy one. Now to quickly jump back to where I left you. I found myself ditched at a hostel, albeit a nice one with my own room, unsure of what the agenda was. If I'm about to be punished for what I did they have a funny way of showing it. The lady at the hostel speaks some English and tells me some other TLG people are here; coincidently my friends Maegan and Kyle are in the room next door, which is funny as I had talked to them earlier and they had sent some of their friends to the café to see me. I rang them and woke them up and made them say hello. We had a hui and caught up, they were off to Armenia the next day and I went to bed.
The next morning I get a text from a Georgian friend, the same one who gave me a new laptop adapter, telling me of a rugby game between Georgia and Canada. With that piece of knowledge I promptly got on the horn to rally the troops. I also met some other TLG girls who had arrived early that morning who were now in the room next to me. Instant posse really.
One of my friends waited for us at the gate, then inside when we were late. It took longer than I expected to meet people then get to the game, oh well, no major. The game was okay, Georgia seemed to be dominate, especially in the scrum.
After the game we met some guy who turned out to be a famous Georgian author at a radio station. The taxi ride there was quite a sight as we pilled one more than could fit comfortably. We chilled at the station for a while and then went for a ride in a Hummer to town to go to an interview the author was to give at a café. After that we lost two of the Tbilisi folk as one had a poker tournament and the other a suphra to go to. With just the Adjara folk remaining we found an Indian restaurant and got some dinner. Afterwards we went to an Irish bar to watch the All Blacks game. True to Georgian style the bar was playing a mixture of Elvis and live music and wouldn't play the game with sound. It wasn't really the right atmosphere to watch a game as the girls were tired having just arrived on the train this morning and having already seen most of a game of rugby they had really already filled their quota of rugby for a long time.
I ended up going home after the game and after much consultation thought I had the right way on the subway. For me it's always a question of getting on the correct side of the platform; no matter how many times I get on I always find I need an adult. After my transfer I ran into Tamara, one of the TLG guides that looked after us in training. She told me I was going the wrong way and made me get off with her and the new arrivals: group 8, which consists of 8 people.
When we worked out I was heading the right way she insisted she follow me to the hostel as she (rightly) didn't trust my navigation skills. I told her my story of how I came to be in Tbilisi and asked her if we were punished or they hated us. She seemed kind of surprised by the question and insisted we weren't on a shit list. I told her the morale was low for the Adjara folk.
We disembarked from my subway stop and immediately I'm off in the wrong direction, we get a cab, she drops me off and off she went into the night; I guess that was better than me doing another bus shelter.
Sunday was pretty casual. I met a guy with the girls who had the email address of the travel agent and had booked his own flight home. I got it, should I decide to use it. On the train home in the afternoon I heard some guys talking about football. If I can understand you that's immediately an invite for me to join the conversation, no matter how out of place I would be in it. It turns out their English, which figures giving the subject of the conversation and that their names are Dan and George, which also figures as I already know and English Dan and George. They ask if I want to join them at a bar. I look at the girls as if I'm an 8 year old and we quickly disembark, realise it's the wrong stop and force the train doors open and get back on with many well deserved stares.
We quickly stop at McDonalds, my second time that day, and then make our way to the bar to watch the game. The game was well, typical and eventually I'm just enjoying the wifi and the company. Afterwards we go separate ways and I continue to the hostel.
When I arrive back the girls have already gone back out and have had dinner. Faced with the can't-be-assed doing much syndrome I head down two blocks to the Georgian convenience store and grab a big bottle of banana juice (try it if you can) and some katchapuri. That night I ran into Ashley at the hostel, which could be almost dubbed the TLG wing; she had left her village in Terjola because her host father acted improper to her, putting it delicately.
On Monday I caught up with some others, we had over priced pizza in a hotel room. Afterwards I left them and caught up with another friend I went to the rugby with. During our café session I get a call from TLG asking me to get ready to move. I leave, head to the subway take my two stops to my transfer, realise I've gone two in the wrong direction, take four stops the other way and take the transfer. After the transfer I take the right stop but get off on the other side of the road and think I've taken the wrong stop. The whole process is a shambles. I talk to a girl on the street and true to Tbilisi form she speaks enough English to get me where I'm going, after a phone call to ask where the hostel is; I swear I need adult supervision here.
Again I get the same driver and we head off to my new place in Terjola. It's a long drive, but really only half the distance to Batumi, I guess being awake makes a big difference. On the way there I manage to ask my school director, who came along for the ride, about my family. I ascertain that there is a father and three boys.
We arrive and I'm thinking 'Terjola is nice'. That led to 'wait, you've gone past it' to 'fuck, not again'. Soon we pull into a village then down a street; already this shows more promise than my last village. We pull into a gated house and the first thing I notice is the house looks modern and there's a BMW parked in the driveway. I meet the host father and suddenly we're inside having some stew and a drink of red wine.
Eventually my driver and director leave and I'm shown around. My first fear is relieved as I have a proper toilet. I'm shown my room, it has no furniture other than a bed and two chairs, but they showed me in my phrase book and by miming outlines of furniture that, well, I still don't know what exactly he was getting at. That was just the two of us who stayed here.
The next morning we picked up some neighbours and went for a ride to some village near Gori. Already I have done my travel in his vehicle than with my last family in their ambulance. We got to some village and I met his wife and his sons, who are all around my age; excluding the wife of course. We had a huge feast as it was a public holiday and luckily someone was there from Tbilisi who spoke English. I was told that the cracks in the ceilings were from 2008 as this village was between two fronts and the vibrations made cracks and broke every mirror in the house. Some guy from the village wanted to give me a tour of his village, which might as well of been a village pub crawl as he took me to almost every house and in every house there was wine waiting for me. I slept the whole way back and I think my body is still paying the price two days later, but then again I could be having another bout of TD with relocating and adjusting.
Yesterday I went to school, or should I say schools. I went to a meeting and was then quickly thrown into a class with my new teacher Rita. After the one class with the 6 graders we went over to the new school which is pretty swank. I don't think I've mentioned this, but it's going to be opened tomorrow officially by the president, who also wants to sit in on one of my classes. Gulp. Suffice to say we're practicing tomorrows lesson again today. Why oh why did it have to be during Movember?
But yeah, I get a nice weekend pretty much paid for by TLG, I get a great family who wants to talk to me and treats me like a son and they actually drive me around, I get driven to school due to the distance. I have no regrets about what I did now.
