and maybe some bags, too
in January last year (2021) some friends and I drove to Zugdidi, just because. Well, we thought we’d try to go to Abhazia… in the middle of the pandemic. Yah, that didn’t happen. We did eat at McDonald’s and drove around the cute little downtown. Not surprisingly, I didn’t manage to take any photos of that, but I did of the border town on the Black Sea coast that evening.
Apparently, this means deadline. You’d think I’d heard this before, but deadlines often tend to be not very important, at least outside the US. Or, maybe since the pandemic… they’ve become irrelevant as one day morphs into a week, a month, a year… and nothing has yet come to a catastrophic end.
On a different topic, this letter annoys me. V is a great sound – vvvvvvvvrooom, virgo, vivacious, vermont… and the georgian textbooks say it’s pronounced:
HOWEVER, I hear nearly everyone saying it as “wuh” … swaneti… mtswadi…shwili… which is funny because many languages don’t have the wuh sound so when speaking English they replace it with “vuh” … vat are you doing? vy must I do this? ver are you going? Is this an overcompensation thing? Or is the vuh dropping to a wuh in the middle of words?
Still trying to learn Georgian. Memrise helps, hearing it helps. But it is so far away from any other language I’ve learned. The words are just completely different.
More and more it’s apparent that being only a native English speaker is a curse. Parents, raise your children with another language, at least one other!
I love good food. I’m not super picky, but I do want food that has a bold flavor. When I cook for myself I pack in as much as I can. Maybe sometimes it’s too much, but I figure if I’m going to the trouble to cook, I should make it special. And interesting. I’ll try most things once.
I enjoy when other people cook if they make it with passion. And I want them to enjoy the cooking experience as much as I enjoy the eating. Don’t just throw an egg in some hot oil and call it done. Think about each ingredient… is it adding to the dish? Is it better than the last time I made it? Food *is* a process. When you take the purest and simplest of ingredients, it’s a process to turn them into something delicious and delightful. Even picking an apple off a tree…
When I’m mad, or sad, and someone else seems to be connected to my mood, I think about what I did to cause them to do whatever made me mad, or sad. Thinking backwards in time to the point where I flipped into a not-happy place… Had that person also? Did they flip first?
When it’s difficult to get along because of misunderstandings, one person speaks unclearly, or says things that don’t mean the same thing to the other person. We both do it… everyone does it. But not everyone takes it as an opportunity, or a reason to get mad, or sad.
Two months later, and here I am back in Georgia. I got all my stuff out of Iraq, got it all to Italy, and got back to Tbilisi for a week of quarantine. Now soaking up the sunshine in Sighnaghi with Sasha.
Due to technical difficulties (read: someone made server changes that blocked my access and didn’t tell me), I haven’t been able to write for a while.
Nearly exactly 6 months after I left Erbil, I left Tbilisi. And then 5 days later I was back in Erbil. Hopefully I’ll be back in Tbilisi in a couple weeks.
The world seems completely different now. Or, rather, it is magnitudes worse than it was 6 months ago.
And yet, in other ways life has improved. I love my new job (even though I’m not going to be able to survive on it after the end of this year). I’m leaving Iraq with my stuff (fingers crossed). I’ll finally get back to Italy (toes crossed). And maybe I’ll see some old friends again.
I want to say something. I am so moved by the words others have said today, and during the last week, about racism in the US. When I try to say something it comes out weak, and not at all what I feel. What can you say after someone says, “I can’t breathe!” You can only listen and let that person breathe.
<rant color=white gender=ciswoman>Yeah, I knew adding to the blackout meme was questionable. Before I did it, I thought, I’m sure people are going to tell me why this is wrong to do. Mostly I thought it would be people from the “all lives matter” ilk. That I can deal with – they are kindly exposing their ignorance and latent racism with that response. Amazingly, a number of people that espoused that sentiment previously have finally figured out why it’s problematic. Others, such as my mother, are still refusing to listen. And I even anticipated the backlash of “you’re doing it wrong”… “this isn’t helping” … and worst of all “you’re hurting the cause”… And sure enough, those came out. Even though many people I love and admire joined in, and that moved me to stand in solidarity, I get it. I don’t want to silence anyone, even if they’re telling me to be silent. </rant>
Turns out a lot can happen in a 2-month lockdown! Actually, a lot happened in this last week, which saw much of the lockdown measures lifted. Who knew the world could stop for 2 months and then come back as if nothing had happened but suddenly now we wear masks and definitely don’t talk to strangers. Except, we do… I’ve talked to more random people in the last week than I have in the last 20 years.
Part of the responsibility for that lies with this new little lover
Seriously, could she be any cuter? I mean, Boris and Stella totally won on best dogs ever in their era, but this one crosses her little paws just so. And she’s really an angel, mostly calm, and she came pre-house-broken, which is HUGE.
Having a dog again has really brightened my mood. It’s an expense, and it’s an obligation, but it also brings structure and focus to my days. Plus I just cannot stop looking at her. Endless entertainment.