A word on the Georgians: Never before have I met a people quite so aggressively, relentlessly, unabashedly, generously, at times annoyingly but most of all lovingly hospitable.
I know in my last two posts, as well as in the many needy emails most of you have had the misfortune to receive, my outlook has been less-than-rosy (as always, pardon the cliche). But blame it on the change in weather, blame it on the vino, blame it on the endless amounts of khachapuri that seem to apparate onto every table in Georgia...but for the first time in a while, I'm feeling really optimistic about the next four months.
I attended my first honest-to-goodness Georgian 'supra' last night, and as I sat eating my third/fourth/I -stopped-counting-after-fifth plate of food, I forced myself to take everything in, every heartfelt toast to the birthday boy (poor kid just wanted to play Resident Evil 4 on his computer), every traditional folk song, every poem and joke and rant, each one longer as the night went on and the wine glasses emptied.
It took a month, but I finally realized last night that this is why I'm here. There is work to be done and I don't expect my time here to be easy, but I can't let the frustrations distract me from all of the truly beautiful and unique experiences to be had. And maybe it was indeed the wine, but last night, I was all googly-eyed for this country and this culture and these people, who, from my colleagues to my neighbors to my neighbors' neighbors and all their friends and relatives, are insistent that I am part of their family, and that I should have a sixth plate of food.
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