Georgia on my mind

There is something about this place that is uniquely old. I feel like I'm back in time and in another world all together. It's part third world and part early 1900s.

The place we are staying is heated by a wood burning stove. Almost all of the furniture is hand made of wood from our hosts great grandfather. There is a vinyard in the back yard along with maybe two dozen chickens, two pigs and a bunch of bee hive boxes so they can have their own honey. While I'm sure they have to purchase some things here they really live almost entirely off of their land.

On the side of the house there is a wine cellar and they also have cured meat hanging from what I assume was the last pig the killed. We had some of him for dinner last night. We had him smoked. We had him grilled. And I think he was on the table in sala form which is just fat prepared in some way that really isn't appetizing. Same for the chicken, boiled and roasted. There was also fresh wine that they made. The red was probably better than the white but neither were that good to me. It's related to the way they process the wine though to utilize all of the grapes. They did have grape juice too, and that was excellent. After touring some of the city we ha tea with their honey, walnut jam, and something else that was made from watermeloon skin. It had a faint taste of watermellon before I started to taste something else that I isn't really enjoy.

I'm not sure what they are putting on the table right now for breakfast but the table is filling up fast.

I walked into the kitchen earlier and the grandmother was at the stove stirring a pot of something. I could half imagine being in Italy 100 years ago and having an old lady stirring sauce and meatballs from tomatoes they grew on this same land.

While this all sound nice, the 2.5 hour car ride had some rather unpleasant scenery. I felt like I was in Africa but with dirt and grass instead of sand. While this may not be the part of the world that lives on less than two dollars a day, I wouldn't think it's more than five. In fact the average salary in the main city is 150 local currency which is really about 90 dollars - or about three dollars a day - or about half of a venti chai laté with skin milk and no whip... Or anything else from starbucks for that matter.

Also, I've just realized that they are serving us for breakfast what was left over from dinner. Yay?

SO it turns out that lunch was what was left over from breakfast, which was left over from dinner. By this time nothing good was left and what was left was cold and dry.

One of the interesting things over breakfast was the homemade cha cha. Cha cha is Georgian vodka. Homemade vodka is something similar to moonshine as I discovered. It tasted like it would run a car for at least 15 miles. Later I got to see where they make the stuff. It looked like someones science experiment from middle school. There was a brick oven with what is basically a spiraling set of tubes that I think he said collect the steam and whatever else evaporates when the fire beneath is going. The tubes then spiral through a large lat of cooled water before coming out of a small spout. It looked about as confusing as it sounds, and quickly I started thinking of toothless people in Mississippi watching Nascar and drinking moonshine. I would honestly love to know what proof the stuff was because it was strong.

Sadly I wasn't given any as a going away gift. Instead I got a sizable jar of honey, a bottle of red wine, and a snack type food that it nuts dipped in a gel made of grape juice and flour which then hardens and it is coated lightly in sugar. We made some of our own today and the old lady said I was a professional based on my skills. My travel partner was a different story.

And as for her, I finally figured out the best way to describe her. After driving for two hours through what can only be described as the third world and arriving at our destination she made a comment about how she was going to plug her computer into the internet and check her email. I was surprised about running water in this area, so the idea of Internet was rather amusing. And so yeah, Fulbright scholar and all, the free tuition doesn't come with any common sense.

So now that we are back it is the night before Easter. There is a fast that some people do related to today. As such, to help people as they finish their fast the bar right next to my hotel has free beer tonight. Yes, free beer. It starts are 10, I got here at 9 so I could get a seat.

I will put up pictures from the rural parts of Georgia and the nice touristy spot we stopped at when we arrive in Armenia tomorrow. The wifi in this current hotel is crap and I'm ready to get rid of it.