Fresh, Cheap Powda

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Originally uploaded by SethTri

This past weekend, Meg & I headed up to Gudauri to get some skiing/snowboarding in and just to get away from the city for a few days. We stayed in a really nice hotel, that included two meals apiece for pretty cheap.

The lift was a 5 minute walk from the hotel and the powder was awesome. This was the first weekend Gudauri had been open and they had about 2-3 feet of powder that had generally been untouched except for a few "groomed" areas. Saturday was spent getting my board back under my feet and playing in the powder with a few USAID guys I bumped into on the mountain. Sunday I put on the new splitboard got a few turns in with that, then split it apart and hiked up a bit. It's reasonably easy to take the board apart and make it into skinable skis, and I'm sure with more practice I'll get faster.

Once I got accustomed to the new board, it proved its value. Despite the split down the middle, the board does its job and keeps me on top of the powder MUCH better than my shorter resort board. In bounds the board doesn't respond as well, but a good portion of that is probably due to the fact that it's longer and I've pushed my center of gravity way towards the back for the powder. Skinning isn't exactly as fun as riding down hill, but it's certainly easier than hiking and being able to access untouched powder in the future will be great. That said, on Sunday we didn't need the skins to get to the powder, as they opened up the high lift and the steep, deep untouched snow was awesome.

Meg rented a pair of skis (for 30 Lari! Less than $20!) and skied the easy slopes for a while and felt pretty good about it. This place is a little over 90 minutes from home and will be a great place for most of the winter.

Here's a shot of the high lift, there are more shots on flickr that you can find by clicking on the flickr badge to the right.

Phone tag in Georgia

I swear. Someone has seriously got to teach these people how to use the phone. When you dial the wrong number, hitting redial, will likely result in the same. Wrong. Number. Also when the person on the other end of the phone call does not speak your language, continuing to talk in aforeign language will not change his mind to actually speak your language. To help clarify, let me give you and example of a series of phone calls I received from my friend at (899)751-394. (For those of you not in Georgia, that's +995-99-751-394. Feel free to give my friend a call. I hear skype is cheap.)

First call:
Me: Hello?
Him: Hallo?
Me: Hello?
Him: Hallo?
Me: I only speak english. Can I help you?
Him: Garmarjobat, goopity goop goop lots of Georgian here...
Me: I'm sorry, I don't speak Georgian, just English. Try again.
Him: (Lots of Georgian)
Me: Sorry, wrong number. (I hang up.)

10 seconds later. Same number. (Note: I've played this game before, so I'm getting better at it.)

Me: Domino's Pizza can I take your order, please?
Him: Vova? (more Georgian follows)
Me: Let me get that straight, you want a Pepperoni pizza and two cokes, is that right?
Him: Click. (finally)

10 seconds later. (Seriously, you can't type the number in that fast.)
Me: (Like Friend's) How you doin'?
Him: (Click -- I think he saw that episode.)

10 seconds later. (What does this guys seriously expect?)
Me: I still don't know Georgian. Wrong Number.
Him: Rattles off a huge line of Georgian.
Me: (Click)

10 seconds later. (This is costing him money by the way. Costs me nothing.)
Me: Sir, this is not your lucky number. You did not win the lottery. Calling again will not increase your chances.
Him: Click.
(FINALLY!!!!)


This happens ALL the time. And not just to me. I can't tell you how often I talk to people at work who complain about the same thing. None of us can figure out any explanation for why this would ever occur. It must be a Georgian thing.