Wednesday, December 1, 2010

November lifea

I can't remember what I posted last so I'll just write and see what happens.

Two weekends ago we had a long weekend because of St. George's Day.  This holiday is to celebrate the anniversary of the Rose Revolution in Georgia.  I was also celebrating my village manager's birthday with they normal group of Georgians that I hang out with.  The only one of them that speak English is my English teacher from school and sometimes she is not there so it can be somewhat quite for me.

We drove to Kutaisi because we were wanting to visit at place called Sataplia.  At Sataplia there are footprints from both herbivorous and carnivorous dinosaurs.  Unfortunately it was closed, so we just drove back to Zugdidi.  When we got to town we went to a restaurant to have a supra in celebration of my village managers birthday.  (His name is Papuna and if you didn't already know he is the one who wants to marry me.  He tells me a few times a week that he loves me.  I have argued with him about this several times but it still does not seem to change things).  He left the restaurant around midnight and drove home to Didinedzi.

Then last weekend I went to my first Georgian wedding.  (I have been to two funerals since being in Georgia and I have seen two dead bodies at those funerals so, I think it is only fitting that I see a better part of Georgian culture).  I had a really great time at the wedding, even though I was with people who do not speak English.  There was tons of food and a groups of 3 guys singing Georgian music.  People were dancing the traditional Georgian dances and I, of course, was forced to participate.  When I wasn't dancing the Georgian dances, I was dancing with Papuna.  He really likes to dance and, I think, he just wants to be close to me.  Every time another guy asked me to dance, Papuna would cut in.  All the guys are afraid of him so he always won.  It was pretty funny.  But don't worry he is very, I mean extremely, respectful of me.
At the wedding my host dad was the Tamada (or supra leader), which means he starts all the toast and gets completely pissed.  He was really great to watch in all of his glory.  I have some video to prove it.
We finally left around 5:30 in the morning.  The band was still singing and I wasn't ready to go home but things were starting to die down.

Then this past Monday, a few guys came over for dinner.  (I guess as Tamada at the wedding my host dad received a cow head (brains being the most important)).  I was deemed Tamada of our mini supra.  So what does that mean? I got completely pissed.  And on a Monday night!  Yesterday was rough to say the very least.

I don't know what I am going to be doing this weekend but I think I'm going to get out of town.  I have been in the village for two weekends in a row and my body needs some descent food.  After that I will be in my village for another two weeks.  I am going to leave my host family's house on Dec 17 and go to Tbilisi for a few days before we all fly home.  Most of the flights are on Dec 20, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

7 comments:

  1. "Two weekends ago we had a long weekend because of St. George's Day. This holiday is to celebrate the anniversary of the Rose Revolution in Georgia." ====> ????

    FYI,
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_George%27s_Day

    (more specifically: "Georgians call St George's day Giorgoba. It is celebrated every year on 23 November (November 10 on Julian Calendar). It's a very important day for Georgians, schools and Universities are closed and everyone eats Georgian traditional food, and goes to church.")

    It kinda sucks, when a blogger doesn't do some researches about the subjects, being described in her/his posts.

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  2. "This holiday is to celebrate the anniversary of the Rose Revolution in Georgia."

    LOL!!!
    There was no Rose Revolution at all, when Georgia started celebrating St. George's Day quite many years ago. :D :D :D :D

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  3. Chaotic and Kate: Did you ever pause to consider that perhaps Ilana was writing what she had been told by other Georgians? I never cease to be amazed, as I travel, how many people in their own countries don't know or understand the background or origin of their own holidays and customs. How can one explain to a visitor what a holiday is all about if one doesn't know or understand it? Or it could be simply lost in translation.

    It kinda sucks, Chaotic, when a commenter feels the need to insult the blogger instead of just stopping after providing informative and useful educational comments. You did a great job with the info. Too bad you didn't have enough self restraint to stop there but instead went on to show ugliness.

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  4. @ ConnieF,
    "I never cease to be amazed, as I travel, how many people in their own countries don't know or understand the background or origin of their own holidays and customs. How can one explain to a visitor what a holiday is all about if one doesn't know or understand it? Or it could be simply lost in translation"

    that's why there is a thing like Google, where one can check the info, until sharing it with others.

    "Too bad you didn't have enough self restraint to stop there but instead went on to show ugliness"
    Oh, I am sorry that I bothered your beautiful life with my ugliness, but I don't think these words of yours did something different as mine (that "eye for an eye" concept makes your comment offensive and actually uglier than the one you were against) :)

    btw, I am a blogger myself, who lives in a foreign country and I NEVER post something about them or their religion or culture if I am not sure. :)

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  5. Well I am Georgian and for me this day is more important as a Revolution anniversary than St Georges

    and any whay only histerical religious zealots get touchy on this subject, so don't pay attention to them

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  6. I just realized people were commenting. I never had time to search for this because my internet time was so limited while I was in Georgia.
    Since reading your comments, only just today, I did some research and tried to remember what was said to my that weekend. I realize now that I was going off of my tour book (fyi: All tour books written for the Republic of Georgia suck and apparently not well researched), and what I could understand in my broken Georgian. I now understand that we were celebrating two things that are not connected, other than the day they are both celebrated. I want to apologize for the confusion and I wish I would have seen these comments while I was there so I could ask my host sister more quesitons. I also wish I could have had more internet access so I could have done my own research-I guess that is village life.

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