Jet Lag is a Beautiful Thing!

I made it home on Saturday at about 2:00 p.m. The 10 hour flight from Munich to Denver was fabulous because no one was sitting next to me so I could sprawl out on my little 2-seat row. When I realized no one was sitting there I almost cried. Thank goodness for the little things because I was exhausted.

When I got home all I wanted to do was sleep. So now it's 1:40 a.m. on Sunday morning and I am ready for the day! I feel very productive right now cleaning, organizing and blogging. Hopefully I can go back to bed in a little while and try to resume my normal sleeping schedule.

Here are some random thoughts and photos on Georgia. I found Georgia to be a lovely and pleasant country. After having spent time in Albania, Georgia seems much more progressive, calm and stable (well, aside from the ethnic conflicts going on in parts of the country we weren't allowed to see, but that's another story). The people are lovely and hospitable. Conditions are generally good and it surprisingly did not have that "post-Soviet" feel to it. I can tell that the country is eager to westernize.

Georgia has been a Christian nation since before Christ was born. It's a very religious country and there are churches and monasteries dating back hundreds and hundreds of years. What treasures! This is the Bagrati Monastery that was built in the 11th century. It is currently being unearthed and restored (minus the ceiling).

Here you can see the icons they are restoring in the Gelati Monastery after the inside was white washed by the Bolsheviks.




Georgia has great food! I feel like I have been on an organic diet for a week. Everything we ate was fresh from the local gardens. They made wonderful salads with beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, fresh parsley, eggplant, etc. And they use walnuts in a lot of dishes. The meat was also fresh. And the cheese...oh the cheese! My favorite dish is khachapuri which is the national dish of Georgia. It is bread cooked with hard, salty cheese and it is fabulous. I have to say, though that I did get overloaded with the stuff. The last day at breakfast at my hotel the owner said, "Do you want khachapuri?" I said, "No thank you" and he brought me khachapuri anyway.

Happy cows! The cows in Georgia do not eat the trash like they did in Albania. These cows have plenty of grass and leaves to eat and it shows. They look strong and hearty and they taste good too. (My apologies to you vegetarians out there!)

These missions are always fun to make good friends from all over the world and re-acquaint with old friends from other missions I've been on. I was so glad to meet Bridget from Washington DC. She was my room mate, fellow tourist, and now a friend. I was also happy to see Lola from Spain who was an LTO with me in Albania last year.

Even though it was a difficult and tiring mission, it was a great experience. I am glad to be home!

Election Day in Georgia

I accompanied my interpreter Nana to her polling station to vote. I love the clear ballot boxes. I have never seen them before. Overall the election in our area went very well. The STOs did a great job. I am so glad it's over because I have only slept about 2 hours in the last 48 hours. I was up all night with Monique taking phone calls and helping the STOs. Tonight we had a farewell dinner and I am quite anxious to be finished and to come home. This has been an exhausting mission, so much so that I actually started missing Albania. However, I have had electricity and hot showers here so I won't complain too much. I think I came here thinking I was going to be an STO and I ended up not being so I am just worn out. My next post will be from home sweet home!

More Churches

The top photo is me at another church built in honor of 2 brothers who refuse to convert to Islam in the 7th century. They were killed and their bodies thrown in a river. Their bodies were found and they are laying in a small casket on top of the red stair case. There is a legend that if you crawl under their bodies 3 times in a row that your wish will come true. So I crawled under here.

The other photo is near the Bagrat monastery that is currently being restored. A view of Kutaisi is behind me. What a great place!

Monasteries, Dinosaurs and Toilets

Well, so today I got to take the driver and interpreter and be a tourist. We went to the Gelati Monastery that was built in the 11th century by King David the Builder (one of the national heros). It was absolutely incredible. During the Bolshevik Revolution the Russians whitewashed all the icons inside and they have spent the last 15 years trying to restore it after it was abandoned for 70 years.

Then they took me to a park where they found dinosaur tracks in the mountains. The place is in disrepair and as you can see, you can walk right up to the tracks, touch them and even walk on them. I gasped in horror that such a treasure is not protected.

I thought you'd also like to see the toilets I had to use. We stopped on the way here and 50 foreigners had to pay 20 Tetri (about 12 cents) each to use these horrible toilets. These are not the worst toilets I have ever used but certainly the most exposed I've been! Oh well. It's one of those suck it up moments and then take a photo to laugh about it later.

Turtle Lake in Tbilisi

This is me at Turtle Lake in Tbilisi. It is near the ethnographical museum we went to yesterday. Today we took a 4 hour bus ride to our area--Kutaisi, Georgia. It is a mid-sized city and it's very green. My partner is from the Nethlerlands and guess what? She salsa dances! She spends quite a bit of time in Cuba learning. I told her we'd need to practice because my dance teacher (shout out to Renee') gave me some things to practice while I am gone.

I met all our STOs today and they keep asking me questions as if I have any idea what is going on. The best thing about Georgia is the food. My favorite thing is khachpuri which is cheese bread. The cheese here is fantastic and salty and I can't get enough of it!

All is going well. I am still using my Russian out of absolute necessity. I can't believe how much I have to use it. It's still hard to speak as I am so out of practice but the understanding has very much returned.

Greetings from Georgia

We made it! After some serious jet lag (2 days of travel) I think I'm okay. I am having trouble finding Internet and can't hook up my camera to post picutres but I will keep trying.

We have basically had a day and a half free before starting our briefings today. I have paired up with Bridget from Washington DC and we have been quite the little tourists. Today we went to a history museum and I managed to negotiate a taxi in Russian and translate a tour of the museum from Russian to English for Bridget. I got to use words like "hunting lodge" that I had no idea I even remembered. I can understand pretty well still but I can't respond. I have lost the ability to conjugate verbs and decline nouns but I can get myself around well. Should have brushed up before coming but oh well.

Tbilisi is beautiful and mountainous. It is an old city and we visited many Orthodox churches. The food is fantastic and I can't wait to be deployed to my area. I am going to Svaneti in the mountains (imagine that--the mountains again!) up by the Russian border. Maybe the language will come back to me by the end of this trip. Russian is still very widely used although the signs and everything official are in Georgian which I can neither read nor understand.

And not to be outdone...

My nephews wanted to make sure that their Star Wars picture was posted too. Love these kids!

My Star Wars-Obsessed Family

This is a picture I received via email today from my 6 year old niece. Imagine my delight when I found out a few months ago that my niece and 4 nephews were all obsessed with Star Wars. My brother and I have always been big fans and we did several Star Wars movie marathons when we were younger. Now my brother and sister are passing on the love of The Force to the next generation. (Well, it's not all their doing. There is the wii, their friends, and a Lucasfilms marketing machine that just won't quit.) Needless to say, "Will someone get this big walking carpet out of my way" has practically become the family motto. Not that they need it, but I will work very hard to fuel this obsession. I am also working to convince them that Jar Jar is a useless, distracting and downright dumb charter. It is my moral obligation as their Aunt.

Ode to My Mommy

My mom is the reason I am a rocker chick today. This is us at a Moody Blues concert in Denver a few years ago.

I have the best mom in the world. Since it's Mother's Day I wanted to say a few things about my mom. My mom is an example to me in so many ways. As a single mom she went back to college to get her teaching degree so we were actually in college at the same time. She always stressed how important it was for me and my sister to get educated or have a skill because you just never know what life is going to throw at you. She has always encouraged me to make myself better and to try new things.

My mom serves diligently in her church callings. Even when she was putting herself through school and working she went to the temple each week, mainly because she felt that her children needed the blessings. She also taught us about tithing during one of the times that our family struggled financially. Those are lessons I have not forgotten. It wasn't what she said but what she did that sticks with me.

When I was in elementary school, my mom was on a bowling league and there was about an hour that I'd come home and be alone on Fridays before she would get home. She would always leave a note on the kitchen table with an activity for me to do and a treat. I felt so grown up being home alone but I also knew that my mom was thinking about me.

As an adult my mom and I have traveled together a lot. Once in Sea World we went on a water ride and got soaking wet. I don't know why it was so funny but the sight of each other drenched made us both laugh hysterically. My favorite memory was being with her in Baltimore and after dinner one night we were out by the water listening to a band play and we just started dancing with the rest of the crowd. It was a simple thing but it was so fun. Then, of course, there were the times when we were lost somewhere and screaming at each other in the car, but we won't go there...

Now that I live far from my mom I have come to appreciate her so much more. I look forward to the twice weekly phone calls. I always look forward to staying with her when I go home and I am always glad when she comes here. I realize now that I have turned into my mother--I am obsessive about recycling newspapers and I rinse my dishes and keep them on one side of the sink. (I would like to point out, though that our methods of housekeeping differ greatly, mine being the better way, of course.) I can't think of anyone better to turn into. Sure love ya, mom!

Amy Meets Sagan

I was home in SLC this weekend to celebrate my birthday and meet my new nephew. We had a birthday party for me on Saturday and then we went to Sagan's blessing on Sunday (followed by another party.)

He is a sweet little guy and he's very wiggly. I love seeing my niece and nephews. They are growing up so fast. All of them are obsessed with Star Wars, which is great for me to have them all laugh when I quote the movies. Mason and Ethan gave me a Princess Leia and R2D2 keychain for my birthday but they couldn't stand the surprise and told me on the phone before the party. Megan slept over with me and Grandma Liz on Saturday night and we stayed up late making projects. I don't have a fridge big enough for all the homemade projects I brought home.

For my birthday I got to have lots of Schmidt's Pastry Cottage pink cookies. I love them! I think I ate at least 15 of them over the weekend, some for breakfast. As punishment I spent 2 hours at the gym tonight. I'm afraid it's going to take a lot longer than that to work off the pink cookies. Oh well. It was soooo worth it.