High and low

In the past two days I've sampled Tbilisi's high- and low-brow arts by attending a performance of Gizelle at the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre on Sunday and a live broadcast of Geostari, Georgia's version of American Idol, Monday night.

I love ballet anyway, but it was especially amazing to see a world-famous dancer (Elena Glurdjidze) perform in a country famous for producing top ballerinas.

Geostari was memorable in many different ways--from the 5 lari ($3) tickets that Larisa bought from a scalper (at face value--huh?!) to the 10:30 p.m. starting time, crowds of teenagers romping around us in the balcony, and "creative" (to put it politely) interpretations of American pop songs.

Good thing tomorrow is a holiday (St. George's Day). I'm exhausted from soaking up all this culture--and from getting home at 1 a.m. on a school night!

Two more views of my daily walk

One reason I know Trevor is going to love it here: persimmon trees everywhere.
In typical walk-to-work fashion, I get to end both my morning and afternoon commute with a nice, long uphill. This one is just outside our house, and it's much steeper than it looks.

David Gareja Monastery

Saturday afternoon I placed too much faith in a very bossy GPS when I took a ride with Dave, Cuttino and Jessica to the Davit Gareja cave monastery complex, way out in the desert on the border of Georgia and Azerbaijan. The device sent us on a meandering path across dirt roads, through the shooting range of an army training encampment and within spitting distance of Azeri border guard towers.

Eventually, we made it to these amazing complexes of cave dwellings founded in the sixth century and scattered around a desolate patch of dust that is otherwise mostly inhabited by sheep, birds and the occasional fox.
It was a beautiful drive but it made me appreciate Tbilisi and its trees.

Thanksgiving

Since all the Georgia Peace Corps Volunteers were together for a conference anyway, we celebrated Thanksgiving a little early, on Friday evening.

Although it's always hard to miss a family holiday, this year I'm thankful for my fellow PC Response volunteers, pictured here with our stylish coordinator, Tamunia. Also, I'm thankful for the cooking and baking skills of the collected PCVs, including Dave (in the apron!), creator of the most incredible pumpkin soup ever.
And if I couldn't be at home, at least I got to chat with our jovial country director (left) and the American Ambassador. Not too shabby.

Real estate

Georgia is full of crumbling buildings and other relics of its Soviet past. This is one of several on the grounds of the center where Peace Corps held its conference.

Rumor has it that among other things, the complex was used as a radio-jamming station back in the day. Today, it's quite the fixer-upper.

Traveling shoes

I'm leaving for a conference, so of course I'm busy with important things like deciding which shoes to take and what I should load on my music player.

I won't be taking the shoes pictured above, since they're not mine. Don't think they would fit, either.

Birthday Party!

Anri wanted to celebrate his birthday at McDonald's, so he and Larisa and I bundled up and off we went.

The food was exactly the same as American McDonald's food (no McRibs, though, which is for the best, I think) except you can't fill your own giant tanker of soda. Whatever. What's different: they give the kids balloons on sticks, and the packaging came in at least four languages (pie wrappers are Turkish, burger papers were Russian).

I'm not sure America is exporting the highlights of its culture, but the place certainly is popular.