Snackage

It's mid-morning, so naturally my thoughts have turned to lunch. (And, I'll be honest: dinner, too.)

I was happy to find out there's an outlet of Georgia's ubiquitous grocery chain Populi just up the street. It's a tiny little shop the size of an American 7-Eleven, selling a decent array of food and booze. Sadly, no Slurpee machine.

Occasionally, food appears in the kitchen here at the office. Often, my host mom sends me to work with a container full of something delicious and guaranteed to give me terrible breath for the entire afternoon. Failing those options, I stroll up the road to Populi for the perfect lunch: fruit, sesame sticks, a sour cherry juice box and yogurt.

I feel a little like Mr. Magoo choosing packaged foods here. I can't read Russian (language of most packaging here) and you can't always rely on the picture to identify what's inside. Last week, I made the mistake of buying what I thought was yogurt but turned out to be a tub of gloppy canned-pie mix covered in petroleum-style whipped "cream."

Also note: the water bottle, filled with Tbilisi tap water. Yes! You can drink the tap water here. Perhaps only my Peace Corps friends will appreciate how glorious this is.

Larisa has some patients this afternoon, so my host brother and I are on our own for dinner. She said she would leave us some khatchapouri and lobiani:
No problem.

Updated: Magic lunch appeared in the office today! Schweet!