Georgian Hospitality

When we found out that we were headed for Tbilisi, Georgia in 2007 Seth & I began to read up on the country, its people and their culture. One of the things we continually came across was a reference to the "famous Georgian hospitality." We read accounts of people being taken in for a hot meal and on a back country road or a village family insisting that a wandering traveler spend the night.

During our first year or so here we often found ourselves exchanging a look now and then that begged the question "Where is this legendary hospitality?" Last night I backed right into it.

I was downtown to meet Seth and some friends out for dinner when I spotted a primo parking space right across from the restaurant. I pulled over and put on my turn signal to indicate my intention to parallel park into the space behind me. As I was backing up I heard a quick horn blast followed by a crunch of plastic. One of our local VIPs had seen the same parking space and headed into it front end first...and then we met.

He didn't speak English and I speak enough Georgian to ask How you're doing and if I can have 5 tomatoes please so he went upstairs inside the apartment building we were in front of to get his friend who could translate. After we called the police the English speaking friend invited us upstairs to her apartment.

Here's where the hospitality comes in.

We come inside and plates of cakes are immediately brought out to the living room. Place settings with a knife, fork, and napkin quickly follow for everyone. Would I like some coffee? No thank you, I'm comfortable. Would I like some lemonade? No thank you, I'm just fine. You have a lovely apartment. Thank you so much for your help. It's no problem, would you like some coffee? Maybe just a little.

We talk about her work, she asks about mine. She translates for me that the other driver was just shocked that this happened because he is, after all, a professional driver. A what? He is a driver's education instructor. Oh, I see.

We go on like this for 20 minutes until the police arrive.

Regardless of the other quirks and complaints we may have of Tbilisi, this was remarkable. Having been involved in one other car accident in Washington, DC where the people involved didn't look at each other much less speak to one another MUCH less invite each other inside for cake and coffee I found this experience worth sharing.

A Pink Floyd Weekend

This weekend turned out to be quite musically inclined.

First we caught the USAF Heritage Brass and the USAF Langley Winds in concert. Other than the Ambassador and his wife, we were the only other Americans in a nice concert hall that held about 50. It was very relaxing and a lot of fun to listen to.

Immediately afterward, we hustled over to our buddy Mike's place and had a mini-wine tasting and watched the Dark Side of the Rainbow. For those who don't know, in theory the Pink Floyd Album, Dark Side of the Moon, syncs up to some parts of the Wizard of Oz. In practice, it may be coincidental and maybe really not that good, but the soundtrack is interesting, and with a few glasses of wine in you, who cares.



On Sunday after doing some boring housework, Meg's coworker called us up to see if we wanted to go see a finger puppet show. Yeah, we said the same thing? A finger puppet show? We immediately assumed some children's type of show. Au contraire mon friere. There wasn't a single kid in the theatre. (Understandably small due to the size of the actors.) The show wound up being Pink Floyd's rock opera, "The Wall". Apparently this is more than just a double CD set and has quite the musical analysis to it.

We were both quite impressed not only by the set design but also the actor's ability to make your fingers with appropriate costumes move very much like a real person's. Lighting made it so you could only see the fingers and not the people behind stage. It was a very good performance by any standard and for the cost of 6 Lari ($3.58) worth more than a beer in DC.

I've had various Pink Floyd albums stuck in my head all day. Might need to find something else to listen to in the car now.