Rainy day

Trying to think of something to write about other than the rain. But the storms have been rolling in almost like clockwork for the last 11 days! It is like nature is taunting us. This morning I woke up to hail, which turned into torrents of rain, which turned into a drizzle that sometimes comes back as a torrent. Then the sky completely clears up and blue skies, the sun, and puffy while clouds come in and make you think the world is wonderful, but it isn't and even as you enjoy the sun, you can see the storm clouds coming to ruin everything!

Ok, I am feeling a little anti-rain right now... I had just bought a bike of one of the volunteers who was leaving Poti when this never ending precipitation began, and I really want to go visit the park that people keep telling me about. Last week Lela took me to meet one of her friends who lives down the street and who spent some time in America which means she speaks a very good English. She works for the national parks service and has offered to show me the park, I really want to take her up on her offer, but this RAIN is kinda killing me. Though, it could be worse. The coast has rain, but 40 minutes east of me, Ben has never ending snow, something that I thought I would prefer until he told me it was wet slushy nasty snow, and well, colder than it is here...

Also bringing me down, the volunteers in Poti are starting to clear out, heading back home to their respective countries or east to Tbilisi to start their next chapter with TLG. We have gone from a sizable band of 9 to a group of 5 in one week.

But things are looking up. I got a package yesterday that made life very happy, though I am pretty positive the twizzlers are going to be the death of me, or at least my teeth. I went through four packs on my own.... And a couple days ago, while watching the news, the Klezmatics appeared. I scared both Lela and Margo with my jump,  my cry of “wha”, and my frantic search for my phone, followed by the realization that there isn't anyone I could call who would understand what was so exciting (though big thank you to those I did call and who at least pretended that is was all very exciting). By this point they started laughing at my mad dash to my computer to tell people at home what had happened. That was a fun moment. It was also really fun that I had just shown them the Youtube clips of the Klezmatics singing with A Besere Velt. I am not sure if they understood that I was saying though because I was not speaking as slowly or clearly as I try to in the heat of the moment.

Other than that, there really isn't all that much more to report. Oh, more more fun food that I have not mentioned yet, and honestly, I am lucky that there aren't any Georgians who read this blog, because at this point they would be screaming, "what about khinkali?" Khinkale is the second food that every child asked me if I had eaten when I first got to the school. It is a dumpling, but for me it a diffent kind of dumpling from anything I have had before. You have to eat it with your hands, because otherwise, it can be very messy. Ok, scratch that, eating khinkali can be very messy. You have to bite a tiny hole in the dumpling and drink the soup inside first, only then can you take a bigger bite without making a huge mess, though I have to say, it is still pretty hard. The meat inside is really yummy and I have another Georgian food to miss for a month when I get home, though I think that instant hot water will somehow manage to get me through the hardship. And Lela and Margo have promised to show me how to cook some of the foods when I come back in January.