So, as some of my friends on Facebook might be aware, I have had an infuriating experience with my internet provider in Tbilisi over the past week. Fortunately, it is now partially resolved, so 1) hurray! and 2) I feel like now would be a good time to mention some of the wonderful things I love about this city!
First--on the bus:
I love that when people on the bus need to pay for the ride, they will just hand their wallets to (apparent?) strangers, to tap on the pay box. Even to raggedy young people. (It's the cutest thing!) Also, I've seen young men, women, and children, give up their seats to older ladies and men--especially when laden with heavy bags. It doesn't ever seem to be done grudgingly, even when the bus is quite full, and the seat is accepted with gratitude. Beautiful!
In the shop:
I have three shops near my house. One of them is kind of crap and they charged outrageous prices for my groceries (including for the pre-spoiled milk I mistakenly purchased), but the other two are so wonderful. In the first shop, they gave me the best smiles when I tried to speak Georgian and they help me make sure I'm not missing the spices and have the right amount of cheese, when I ask for "half." In the second shop, they insist on speaking Russian with me--which I thought was funny, since it only slightly helps, but they told me to wait and think and look around to make sure I didn't miss something I wanted.
My friends:
I've been catching up with friends in Tbilisi a couple at a time and it's so nice to feel like they are as excited as I am, that I'm back! I think I should have a party soon to get them all together in one place.
My team:
I have the loveliest survey team! We had a couple of great days in the field and then, yesterday, Nino and Rezo and I did hours of data entry in the museum and they both were so patient with me as I struggled with reading Georgian handwriting and keyboard. I'm really happy that we seem on the same page!
They collected some excellent sherds on Monday:
[For those of you who are interested, normally survey works like this: An area is defined for survey, over which the team will walk in very straight lines, spaced a certain distance apart (15 meters for us), looking at the ground to try to find any kind of cultural material (ceramic pottery pieces, stone tools, or metal objects). When we find something, we record it with a GPS device (to get latitude, longitude, and elevation) and if we find more than one something, we walk shoulder to shoulder over a smaller area (30 square meters for us), to give us an idea of the density of the finds (which we then call a scatter). This week, however, we are mainly recording known sites and collecting materials from these areas, which is a lot less systematic. Making a digital record of finds from the museum is part of the same process--to be sure that when we finish our systematic survey, we have all possible existing information in one place. Next week, we will begin the systematic survey process. The fact that the beginning of May is basically snake reproduction season may or may not be partially responsible for this schedule. (I saw way too many snakes when I visited Bolnisi to observe another survey last weekend!)]
Another bad news/good news pairing:
Bad news: I've been feeling so badly about my Georgian language abilities. I learned a lot over the past year about the structure and grammar of Georgian, but I'm feeling worse at daily conversation that I was last summer...
In the great news, I have funding for more Georgian language study from Cornell, so I will be able to fix the bad news soon!
First--on the bus:
I love that when people on the bus need to pay for the ride, they will just hand their wallets to (apparent?) strangers, to tap on the pay box. Even to raggedy young people. (It's the cutest thing!) Also, I've seen young men, women, and children, give up their seats to older ladies and men--especially when laden with heavy bags. It doesn't ever seem to be done grudgingly, even when the bus is quite full, and the seat is accepted with gratitude. Beautiful!
In the shop:
I have three shops near my house. One of them is kind of crap and they charged outrageous prices for my groceries (including for the pre-spoiled milk I mistakenly purchased), but the other two are so wonderful. In the first shop, they gave me the best smiles when I tried to speak Georgian and they help me make sure I'm not missing the spices and have the right amount of cheese, when I ask for "half." In the second shop, they insist on speaking Russian with me--which I thought was funny, since it only slightly helps, but they told me to wait and think and look around to make sure I didn't miss something I wanted.
My friends:
I've been catching up with friends in Tbilisi a couple at a time and it's so nice to feel like they are as excited as I am, that I'm back! I think I should have a party soon to get them all together in one place.
My team:
I have the loveliest survey team! We had a couple of great days in the field and then, yesterday, Nino and Rezo and I did hours of data entry in the museum and they both were so patient with me as I struggled with reading Georgian handwriting and keyboard. I'm really happy that we seem on the same page!
They collected some excellent sherds on Monday:
[For those of you who are interested, normally survey works like this: An area is defined for survey, over which the team will walk in very straight lines, spaced a certain distance apart (15 meters for us), looking at the ground to try to find any kind of cultural material (ceramic pottery pieces, stone tools, or metal objects). When we find something, we record it with a GPS device (to get latitude, longitude, and elevation) and if we find more than one something, we walk shoulder to shoulder over a smaller area (30 square meters for us), to give us an idea of the density of the finds (which we then call a scatter). This week, however, we are mainly recording known sites and collecting materials from these areas, which is a lot less systematic. Making a digital record of finds from the museum is part of the same process--to be sure that when we finish our systematic survey, we have all possible existing information in one place. Next week, we will begin the systematic survey process. The fact that the beginning of May is basically snake reproduction season may or may not be partially responsible for this schedule. (I saw way too many snakes when I visited Bolnisi to observe another survey last weekend!)]
Another bad news/good news pairing:
Bad news: I've been feeling so badly about my Georgian language abilities. I learned a lot over the past year about the structure and grammar of Georgian, but I'm feeling worse at daily conversation that I was last summer...
In the great news, I have funding for more Georgian language study from Cornell, so I will be able to fix the bad news soon!
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