Don't Shake the Baby

Earlier this month our friends Makeesha & Nika returned to Tbilisi to baptize their son Luka. Almost 2 years ago we attended Makeesha & Nika's wedding in an historic church just outside Tbilisi. Now we were fortunate to be invited to the baptism of their son in the Georgian Orthodox church. The baptism was held in a church across the street from my old apartment in a newly renovated section designed specifically for this sacrament.

Traditionally in the Orthodox church mothers do not attend the baptism. Makeesha, however, was having none of that. The church allowed her to be present but she could not be involved in the ceremony. Instead Nika's sister, Nino, was on hand to help out when needed (pictured below in the white head scarf).



Nika & Makeesha selected 2 Godfathers for Luka instead of the traditional Godfather and mother. This is a result of the specific criteria for being a Godparent in the Orthodox church. One of the stipulations is that the Godparents cannot be relatives of the child. Below are Luka's 2 Godfathers and the priest performing the ceremony. We exchanged a couple jokes about a Georgian children's book coming out this fall entitled, Luka Has Two Godfathers.



Baptism in the Georgian Orthodox church is a total body experience. The baby is fully submerged 3 times and is then walked around the baptismal pool 3 times. Luka was quietly sleeping up until this part of the ceremony. The poor little guy was shocked awake by the cold air and water.



After each submersion the priest pulled Luka out of the water and gave him a healthy shake. Those of us in the room who have watched too much AFN (Armed Forces Network, our television provider) know the public service announcement Don't Shake the Baby. We each exchanged knowing looks and tried not to crack a smile.



Luka settled down after he was re-diapered and wrapped up. Makeesha did a great job remaining calm while her son was screaming and she was not allowed to comfort him. Those of us who were allowed to remain and observe this ceremony were lucky to be a part of this cultural experience. As with all major life events in Georgia we left the church and headed to the supra for delicious food, wine and dancing.

Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs.

Remember when you turned 15 years old? The best part of that day was the trip to the DMV to register for your driver's permit test. During the car ride home you flipped through the study guide committing street signs to memory with more intensity than you ever put into preparing for your algebra final. This is serious. You will soon be trusted to operate a 1 ton machine moving at high speeds surrounded by other teenagers all in barely street legal hand-me down cars. You have been dreaming about this moment since you were 13 and you do not want to screw it up. Fortunately for you, in the U.S., your community and society at large want nothing more than to support you in not screwing up. Road signs are created with just your limited brain power in mind. Signs like...





and...



are highly intuitive and if you can't figure out what you are supposed to do when you see one of these perhaps it is best if you call "Shotgun" from now on.

During our time here in Tbilisi many of you have heard us vent about "Georgian divers". We have even blogged about the language of horn honking and the misunderstanding of how to handle a one-way street. We may have been too hasty. Below you will find a small collection of street signs commonly seen on the roads here. Could you pass a driving test in Georgia?



This sign indicates:
a. Do not enter
b. The road is about to transition from pavement to gravel
c. Your road is about to merge with another road and the other road has the right of way.



Ah, the yellow diamond with white outline. This sign clearly signals a driver that,
a. Turn around, you have mistakenly turned right when you clearly meant to turn left.
b. Sink hole, 500m ahead
c. Your road is about to merge with another road and the other road has the right of way



Should you see this sign, please be advised that,
a. "X" marks the spot, start digging for buried treasure HERE!
b. The road you are on is about to become one-way in the oncoming direction. Turn DOWN now.
c. No parking begins at this point.



Finally, my personal favorite. The white circle with 5 diagonal black lines. And this would mean...
a. Caution. Slashing panther ahead
b. High skid mark risk ahead
c. All signs and rules of the road prior to this sign are no longer valid. Essentially, all bets are off. Do what ever you want.

If you answered "C" to all of the above questions you are ready for the responsibility of driving in Georgia. Yes, I realized that the answer to questions 1 & 2 is the same. Apparently both of these signs indicate the same thing. I showed these pictures to a Georgian friend who honestly did not know what the signs meant and had to go home and e-mail me the meaning the following day. I'm not sure it's really fair for us to give Georgians such a hard time about their driving when they are not exactly set up for success by their own system.

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.

I'd rather be skiing right now. Maybe Tuesday...

We posted a while back that we were in Tignes taking some lessons from the Telemark Ski Company in Tignes, France. Thought I'd post a couple videos they have on youtube for some Sunday morning viewing pleasure. 

(Note: While I'm struggling to figure out how to turn with 2 independent feet, this is what my instructors were doing in their free time.)




Graham living the life in Italy.

Tax season? Ugh...

I knew getting married was going to complicate the tax forms this year, but shesh, I had no idea. It's not really that getting married complicated it so much, it's getting married to someone who is employed overseas and doesn't receive a W-2.

First of all, I'd like to say thanks to Intuit for making a great product called TurboTax. It has been surprisingly helpful in our situation. While our situation is by no means unique -- there are over 6.5 million Americans who live and work overseas -- if you asked Macy's, Dockers, Meijer or any other company who won't sell to foreign IP addresses, you'd never know it. Even the State of Virginia (OF ALL STATES!!) really doesn't handle non-military residents very well.  TurboTax has been refreshingly helpful in all regards.

That said, I've done plenty of homework looking to see if I have to report Meg's income. Yes, apparently I do. :( Looks like the risk of being audited may rise too, so I better be honest. Turns out if you are a U.S. citizen, made money overseas (to include interest from foreign bank accounts) and spent more than 35 days in the U.S. (TOTAL), then you have a federal tax liability. So between the wedding in 2008 (that was 30+ days right there), and home leave in 2009, we'll be stuck filing for both years.

However, life gets complicated if we actually wind up at a "nice" place in the future. "Nice" meaning less R&Rs or it's on our tab entirely to go back to the States. The distance between Windsor, Canada and Detroit, Michigan may be less than 1 km, but according to the IRS, it's a world apart. According to the IRS, foreign salaries can be tax exempt (to a limit) as long as you're overseas for 330 days in a year. Overseas for 329 days? Too bad. So counting days (and documenting days too in the event of an audit) may be another fun reality in the future.

Boy, that's EXACTLY what I wanted to be doing on a Saturday. :)

My first peek at a peak.

After much anticipation, we were finally at Gudauri when their new fifth lift was open and taking riders. Boy I wish I had taken my snowboard with me to Gudauri for the school ski trip. Either that, or I wish I had a clue when it comes to telemark skiing in steep and deep powder. I'm getting better, but probably not fast enough to really handle it this season.

There are parts of the rest of the mountain that have soft snow, but most of it is kinda crusty with some bare patches. Not up here on lift 5. Gorgeous views, good snow -- even on the groomed piece -- and thin crowds all make this part well worth it. You really feel on top of the world up here, at 3307m it's 300m above the previous max height in Gudauri, which before still looked pretty high up from the base. You're nearly a full kilometer above the base of the mountain. It's pretty awesome.dhjsklkghjlkghjl (Sorry, had to wipe the drool of my keyboard.)

I should mention: the summit on the right side of the above photo is Mt. Kazbegi at 5033m (16512 ft).



In other news, the school ski trip was pretty fun. Any time I can blow off two days of work to go skiing is a good time. Plus most of the kids were well behaved and made life easy for the chaperons. We stayed at the fancy "Sport Hotel" which is at the very base of the lift. While it is super convenient and there are other activities for folks who don't want to ski, there's no way I would pay to go to this place without a HUGE discount like we got this week. There are nicer rooms in Gudauri and the bar isn't so awesome to justify the costs.

Either way, a pretty awesome skiing week. Saturday (see previous post), then Wednesday, Thursday for me (add Tuesday for Meg) and we're going up again on Sunday. Why? Because we can and who needs a reason better than that?