Sunday was an incredible day for me. I travelled to the outskirts of town to visit with my friend Z's family. Z is in Ireland and a dear friend. I arrived at the apartment block and was met by Z's brother who took me upstairs to meet the family. 5 GENERATIONS were there! Z's grandfather, his father and mother and aunt, his brother and his brother's wife and children, his sister, his daughter and her husband and child. I've never been in the same room with 5 generations of the same family in my life! It was amazing. We sat down for a proper Georgian supra and the food came flying out of the kitchen. The men at one end of the table eating, drinking and toasting and the women at the other, nibbling. The feminist in me struggles sometimes, but today I was the guest of honour and I sat in Z's chair between his father and brother. His brother told me they killed a sheep today for the dinner. Poor sheep. Z's dad was the tamada and when he toasted me I started crying...I didn't understand more than 5 words but he was so expressive I knew what he was saying and I was really touched by this. We hooked up the Skype and got Z and his family in Ireland on the cam. The family started singing in 17 part harmony or so it sounded like. I started crying my eyes out. I looked over to the computer and I could see Z was crying too...we all wished he could have been with us...but it was not to be...not now.
Monday, started school. Everyone is an academician (or seems to be) aside from me. I'm learning Georgian for personal reasons and as I've never learned a language before I don't know HOW to learn a language. I thought it was just vocabulary and spelling but its really all about the grammar and by Tuesday, the 2nd day, I had fallen behind and had to ask for special support. How embarrassing! I'm going to give this my best shot...but I'm a little depressed realizing I don't have a clue about what I'm doing.
Tonight we say goodbye to sweet George, the son of our host family. He has been so helpful and is a truly wonderful guy. He leaves tonight for a clinic in the Ukraine for some treatment for an injury sustained in a car accident. Your prayers, positive thoughts and meditations are most welcome for his well being and successful treatment. We will be gone when he comes home so it will be a while before I see him again. :-( What a day!
Tomorrow is day 3 in school of 25 days. Wish me luck...or wish me some smarts!
More later...
Oh, Katie Melua who I don't really like is in town but she's sold out so we can't see her. It would have been cool to see her in her native Georgia.
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Wow! Throw in a couple of motorbikes, Charlie Boorman, a frazzled camera crew and you're Ewan McGregor! Great updates, keep it up...enjoy learning the language. I missed out on doing the radio show last week due to foot injury, had to cancel with Laure, my SXSW specialist but she'll be back in next week's show. Hope Tomás has my number for tomorrow night, will be listening in :)
ReplyDeletewoah, thomas. your updates are soooo great. i laughed & cried reading about singing over skype, too! you rule.
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