No News is Good News

Nothing too terribly exciting going on- thank heavens! We've started training for our two upcoming bicycle tours, but, as we don't have a good, safe place to ride, we are doing it via a lot of squats and, well, we joined a gym down the road that has one sad, old spinning bike that is literally duct taped together. When we road it the other day, we also discovered that it desperately needs tuning as it basically has 3 speeds: easy, medium, and hard, despite the regular clicks made by the gear-shifter. Well, I won't complain. At least, it is something.

We had a brief conversation with Ani Chkhavidze, the student from Georgia (country not state), about our upcoming trip to Georgia. IREX will get Jason's ticket from Frankfurt to Tbilisi. They will be picking us up from the airport, putting us up in a hotel near the university (I am fairly certain that it is an actual hotel rather than a dorm a la Zaporozhye). His class will be in the evening, so we'll have the daytime to explore the city and the surrounding area. If you don't know anything about Tbilisi or Georgia, there is a nifty online guide at:

http://www.inyourpocket.com/data/download/Tbilisi.pdf

I don't think we can do everything, but I imagine we'll get to the 5th Century Fortress overlooking the city, the UNESCO World Heritage sites outside of town, and, of course, the wine-growing region. I have also informed Jason that we have to go to the hot springs (tbili), for which Tbilisi was named. We can't wait. If anyone wants to join us there, just let us know. In the meantime, I need to start cramming the Georgian Alphabet, so I can read street signs...

I am attaching two photos- one of a "Milk Truck" that we ran into. It is rather like the water truck that shows up at our building every Wednesday at noon, only this one was serving up moloko, or milk. Also, Jason went to a meeting on Friday and was given...wait for it!... a watch. It is made in Ukraine and has the school crest on it. Igor Polyschiuk, Jason's colleague, said it meant he was important.

I don't even know if it was "fresh" milk or 2% or what. All it said was: MOLOKO. 

The famous watch.