Saturday was our last day in Tbilisi. We woke up and headed to the EUMM (European Union Monitoring Mission) in Mtskheta. This is part of an EU mandate to patrol the borders of the conflict zones. Unfortunately, they can only monitor the Georgian side of the conflict, because the Russians refuse to let them in on their side. They were incredibly interesting and offered an actual, on the ground perspective of the conflict. To hear them talk about how they find sources and what they monitor for as signs of conflict really was intriguing.
After the EUMM, we headed back to the hotel for a last lunch and to have a guest speaker from the village of Akhalgori in South Ossetia. This is a village of Georgians refusing to be ethnically cleansed from their homes. Unfortunately, their resistance does not help the Georgian cause, which means that the Georgian government has turned on the heroism of its own citizens and has turned off the electricity and gas to these people. Their life is very difficult and is monitored by people on all sides of the conflict. Tamar's story was unbelievably sad but also inspiring that she is willing to fight for what is right and true.
After lunch, we held our final meeting of the week and went over what we had learned this week. I'm not sure if this was a good thing, but our professor seemed pleased when I said that I felt like I was leaving more confused than when I came. I learned so much that now I'm not sure who is right, who is wrong, and how in the world they are going to resolve these conflicts.
After this meeting, Katie and I ran out into town to do a little bit of souvenir shopping. I didn't have much time because I had signed up to go to the opera. There were four of us who went and boy were we surprised when we got there and realized that the opera was in fact the ballet. It was okay, but was so long we had to leave at intermission to make it to the group's final supper. The other weird thing was that outside of the actual theater they were taking pictures for "Little Miss Eurasia." It is by far the creepiest thing I have ever seen in real life. It was a greek theme so they had all these little girls wearing togas and gold bracelets and TONS of makeup and fake eyelashes. Ew! I didn't really get a good picture because it was just so weird, but here was my attempt:
While we were in there, the sky opened up again and the roads of Tbilisi completely flooded. I've never seen anything like it except on the news when whole towns flood. Cars were floating, and the roads looked like raging rivers. It was crazy!!!
Luckily we made it to dinner at a place called Old House Tbilisi. They had live music and incredible food. It really was an incredible way to finish the week.
After dinner, most of the group went out, but I had to rush back to pack my bag because I was leaving for the airport at 2am. Between all my clothes, my books, and the few souvenirs I bought, I knew it was going to tight. Coming over, my bag had already been 5 pounds over the weight limit.... Luckily I got it all packed and the driver took both me and Amanda to the airport. If you are thinking that it would be empty at 2:30am, you would be wrong. It was PACKED. We finally pushed our way up to the front and checked in, unfortunately my bag was 30 pounds over the limit (80 pounds oops!) so I had to go pay the overage charge before they would give me my tickets. I went and they swiped my credit card at least 3 times before deciding that their machine wouldn't work until 5 am, so I had to go exchange money, go pay the other counter, and then go back through the long line to get my ticket. By this time I was in a foul mood. So of course, you know what is coming next, I was the lucky person chosen to get felt up by the security people. By the time we got on our flight to Istanbul at 4am, I was exhausted. I slept the WHOLE way to Istanbul, where I had another 5 hours to kill. (I am SOOOO glad that I will not have to visit that airport anytime soon).
After a Turkish version of an omelet, which came with french fries, and some orange juice and a few hours of retyping a week's worth of notes, it was time for the THIRTEEN HOUR flight home. I was excited to have an aisle seat, unfortunately the girl behind me decided to take up the entire arm rest and a few inches of my seat, the guy behind me kept digging his feet into the back of my seat and kicking me, and the guy next to me across the aisle thought it would be cool to sit on my arm rest and talk to the person caddy-corner to me. Seriously? 13 hours of this. Needless to say I did not sleep at all, BUT I did have a Harry Potter marathon and watched the first several movies.
Luckily, all my bags made it and when Caleb picked me up, he had several surprises for me, including: gummi bears, a new dvd, dinner at chili's AND he had set up the bathroom at home for me to have a PERFECT bubble bath. It was fantastic to eat good food and then just relax and defuse after a horrible flight. Thanks Caleb for being the best ever!
So what have we been up to since I got back? Well, Caleb had been working very hard at his internship. Unfortunately, I am still waiting on the bureaucracy to transfer my security clearance over, so I haven't been able to start my internship yet. Last week that was great so I could unpack and recover from jet lag. This week has been a little harder. As you can see from my previous post, Scarlett got a bad haircut that she is starting to grow into. Unfortunately, I decided I would be nice and take her to the dog park yesterday. We hadn't been there ten minutes when this beastly jack russell came and flipped her over and started attacking her! Luckily we pulled them apart pretty quickly, but the owner didn't even apologize! I couldn't believe it! Scarlett was pretty traumatized and refused to let me put her down so we had to go home. Needless to say, I won't be returning to that dog park!
On Monday, Caleb and I had a softball game in what has been dubbed "rivalry week." We played the other team from our church and..... despite me and caleb's two hits and 4 runs, our team got mercy ruled..... It was a rough night, especially since we are on a team of hot heads. Oh well,last night was the last game before the playoffs and we are going in as the number 2 seed, so I guess we'll see what happens!
Yesterday, Caleb and I had a special lunch date. In DC, they have a whole lot of food trucks. These trucks make anything from cupcakes to ice cream to pizza to barbeque to mac and cheese. ANYTHING! There is one truck that Caleb and I have heard endless good things about, the lobster truck. The problem is that it is so popular that it only posts where its truck is going to be for the 2 hours of lunch a few hours ahead of time. We have never really been able to track it down, UNTIL YESTERDAY! The truck parked a few blocks from where Caleb works, so we met up at a park and enjoyed lobster sandwiches, homemade root beer, cape cod chips, AND because it was national lobster day, free whoopie pies!!! It was a fantastic lunch date. So.... if you ever come to DC.... we'll try to track down the lobster truck for you!
ANDDDDDDD, now you are caught up on our lives. Be sure to check back later this weekend because we have a very busy weekend planned!
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