Normalcy

Today, as I was walking home from school, I saw some men carrying a box down my street. It was really large, made of wood, and had some kind of blue plastic inside it's open top. I quickly put the wooden box, shaped just like a casket, and the inordinately large amount of people in black slowly following it down the street (which is saying something, since this is a country where everyone's primary choice of clothing is black or some shade of grey, and everyone's preferred speed of walking is more of a stroll) together, and realized I was in the middle of a funeral procession. The parade was streaming out of a neighbors gated yard, and while I'm not 100% sure that the box actually was a casket with a body in it, I'm thinking it probably was. Because Georgia.

A lot of little things are starting to feel very normal. Like a restaurant being "nice" because it has a Western toilet, and the fact that all Western toilets here have buttons you push instead of a handle to flush. And that sometimes you need to pour water from a huge trash can acting as a cistern into the toilet since there are water restrictions depending on where you are. If you are grossed out by bathrooms, this is not the country for you. The nicer ones are about on the level of a sleazy diner in the middle of nowhere Midwestville, and the worst are Turkish toilets where there's just a dark hole of smelly grossness staring up at you from the floor.

Also, no soap, so forget about washing your hands, assuming that there's even a sink in said bathroom. And at home, unless some crazy Westerner is doing dishes (a.k.a. me) then you can also rule out having dish soap touch the dishes.

I've even gotten over the preliminary astonishment of no one refrigerating anything except for a certain type of cheese my family brings back from the village. It took some getting used to; coming home from school, looking into a pot of last nights borscht just sitting on the stove, and realizing that it had been sitting there overnight and all through the morning. I was able to skirt around this the first few weeks I was here, since there was an unending supply of cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese and bread. However, now that it's perpetually chilly in the house, I crave warm things. Most of the soups and dishes my mom makes have some kind of meat in them and, being an American who is convinced that I will most likely die of one meat based infection or another (thank you, hyperactive fear mongering media!), this was slightly horrifying. However, in the end, my stomach and good sense won over - this is how my family has been living for years now, and how their families before them were living, too. It didn't kill them, and it wouldn't kill me. I've yet to get the crippling stomach illness that so many other volunteers have been afflicted by, even with drinking weird street water of unknown origin and eating a variety of unrefrigerated meats. However, I'm sure me saying that will just mean that come next week I'll be puking my guts out, because fuck you, Universe.

Even little things, aside from microbes that could potentially prove hazardous to my coddled immune system, are starting to feel normal, like the paper. All of it is A4 sized, and while this may seem like a change that wouldn't take getting used to, having every sheet of loose paper you ever get be just SLIGHTLY longer than what you've grown up with leads to a lot of paper cuts. Thankfully, my hands are finally getting the hang of it. I guess my dexterity modifier is way lower than I thought (rimshot, RPG joke.)!

The various types of cars are becoming more familiar, too, although it's still a little weird to me to see a Jaguar rolling out of the Soviet bloc ghetto. It's been a transition, but it's most Western cars that stand out to me now instead of the Opels and Lada's that kept making me do double takes when I first got here. It's also fun to see familiar names with unfamiliar models. Ford and Nissan both have several cars here that I've never seen stateside, and they look compact and awesome, so I'm unsure why Americans are force fed overly large cars constantly. I suppose that's an entirely different rant, so I'll postpone that diatribe. Also, cars here are making me really mad that I can't buy one of those badass Toyota HiLux trucks unless I get it imported, because whoa are they awesome.
Fun Fact: My Georgian friend the other day told me that in order to get your drivers license here, you HAVE to be able to drive a manual. How cool is that? So everyone on the roads right now is fully capable of driving stick. This for some reason really amuses me, probably because I can only name a handful of people back home who can. My major gripe with this program is that I'm contractually forbidden from driving. I think when my term is done (hopefully next spring, unless they decide to not renew my contract, in which case I will cry, kill myself, and then go rent a car immediately and take it on crazy mountain roads) the first thing I'm going to do is rent a car and drive cross country. There are WAY too many awesome little side roads that I have no idea where their destination is, but I'm pretty sure me and a sturdy little 4x4 could find out what's down them. 

Life feels normal while being highly surreal. I'm finally used to the mountains over to the east constantly looking majestic, but I still smile every time I see them. And even though I've been eating fruit since Gerber's was making my mother shove it down my throat, I'm still not to be trusted around most fruit types here after the great fig fiasco a few weeks ago. It's basically like I'm a young child again, relearning all the universal truths of the world around her. Also, like a child, it's super difficult to articulate what all I'm thinking and want, since I lack the vocabulary for it. Georgian, with it's crazy infixes and postpositions, is really tripping me up. Slowly but surely, though. It's just a strange feeling to be 26 years old, and treated like I'm 23 years younger.

Here are some more pictures. I'm taking a lot, actually, but I'm finding that most of them don't do this place any sort of justice. I just reached over 2,000 pictures in my Georgia album in Aperture, and looking through them is a really big disappointment. However, that apparently won't deter me from posting them for your viewing pleasure.

Every single domicile I've been to so far has a super creepy contingent of stuffed animals in the living room. No clue why. Most of them are sold, second hand, at the bazaar. The amount of ridiculously scary dolls here is off the charts. Thankfully, none of them are in my house, and neither is Tranny Pony. Although there are two chairs outside of my room with giant stuffed gorillas sitting in them, and at night I sometimes forget they're there and I get a little startled when emerging from my room into the dimly lit upstairs common area and seeing two shadows just hanging out, waiting...

This thing is my most favorite appliance, possibly ever. It's our water heater, and you turn it on with a switch on the wall to the right (out of frame). It's ridiculously efficient, and gets water up to scalding within a minute or so. That being said, it's also partially electric, so if the electricity flickers when you're mid shower, you're kind of SOL on having warm water for the remaining time you're getting clean. This unfortunate truth leads to my showers being biweekly. Surprisingly, my hair has started to adjust. Normally it gets disgusting in a day, but now that it's learned it can either be smothered to death with baby powder, or just not get ridiculously oily, it's cut the crap. I can maintain a clean looking head of hair for up to four days now! Go you, hormones!
And in case you were wondering, yes. I was just bragging about how infrequently I bathe. What of it?

Previously mentioned Soviet bloc apartments. These start on the main road just by the bazaar, and continue down the large hill Telavi is built on. They're in pretty rough shape, most having not been updated since the 1950's when they were built. However, there's something strangely beautiful about them. As they are almost all owned by their residents, each apartments balcony is a little bit different - painted, unique railings, custom windows, laundry of various colors, frilly plants. A few have even bricked off the balcony to create a whole new room for their living space. It's really incredible to see such disregard for order and sameness that the Russians were striving for when they built these. Also, they've got a great view. 

I love how this is now a normal sight. Forget about the medieval fortress being something I see daily, but add onto it the weirdness of new buildings that look super European, and janky ass Lada Niva's around, PLUS a rainbow? I mean, it's awesome, but I still have a hard time remembering that this is my life sometimes.

I'm starting to get a feel for the mountains. We've had a long streak of very calm days this last week, with no usual howling wind at night. This means it's been incredibly hazy, and these clouds have been covering the back range of the Caucasus mountains. Normally, if it's windy at night, the mountains are crisp and clear for miles and miles back, with no clouds forming over them. As you can see, that was not the case when I took this, and since they also look incredible during magic hour, I hauled ass up behind the house into the scary ass Wolf Woods (I'm calling them that now since my host sister told me she has seen wolves in them. We can forget the fact that she also said they had red eyes, because that makes it sound like they're not real, but I'm sure they're back there, on account of us living on the edge of town, and these woods being part of the larger forest that spreads up into the middle range that runs through Kakheti.) to try to get a picture of them. This is the best I have, and it so does not do the incredible clouds any sort of kindness.
Also, speaking of incredible clouds! The other day I saw a few lenticular clouds just starting to form! Naturally it was when it was getting dark, and my iPhone's sensor just wasn't having any of it. That's what I get for leaving the Nikon at home that one time.

I don't understand why pomegranates haven't been a part of my fall life up until now, but moving forward they will certainly have to be. This one was sitting on a table that was overflowing with free grapes, apples, persimmons, and pomegranates last Saturday at a music and crafts festival in one of the parks in Telavi. Having my swiss army knife, and being able to whip it out in public with no one freaking out, is pretty awesome, and I'm fairly certain I'm going to end up in trouble when I come back to America and bust it out cause I want to dig into some tasty fruit.

In that same park here in town, there is a little amusement rides area. It has some bumper cars, a small roller coaster with a wine theme (naturally), a few other rides that you'd find at one of those traveling carnivals, and this carousel. Please note the gratuitous amounts of Disney and Harry Potter characters adorning it. All the panels on this are full of unlicensed intellectual property belonging to the major studios, and it is awesome. Actually, that's true of most of Georgia. Knock off Disney princesses are in most store fronts that cater to children, and many notebooks for students have some kind of character from these franchises on them. They look real, but are just SLIGHTLY different, and I've become so inundated with false Disney characters the last month and a half that I don't even notice they're fake now. Which is saying a lot, considering how much time I spent at Disneyland while living in California.

Another ride in the park. Please note creepy Winny the Poo, sitting on Manic Murdering Tommy the Train's face. I'm fairly certain that this thing actually embarks to Hell every night, although I don't have the evidence to back this claim up. But seriously. Look at that and tell me it's not evil.
 I'm really a fan of these little "commy fun parks" (coined by my sister, and pretty accurate!), and their goofy aesthetics. The park on top of the mountain in Tbilisi is full of stuff like this, as were the various seaside spaces in Batumi. 

The biggest thing that's become normal, however, is that food is always getting in the way of other plans.