Last week I told my host parents I wanted to treat their kids to some type of fun activity, something they choose to do. Their daughter is ten and their son seven, and they both had different ideas of what they wanted to do. One idea was McDonald’s (all the kids here love the place!), another idea was the Botanical Gardens, and another the Tbilisi Zoo. I of course was all for McDonald’s because it was indoors, the other two would be in the freezing (to me at least) Georgian temperatures! In the morning they decided McDonald’s was their chose (to my relief!) and we headed out the door. When we got to the bus stop they changed their mind and decided they wanted to go to the Zoo. At first I was disappointed because I would have rather been inside, but then I realized what a beautiful day it really was and how much warmer it felt than the last few days. So off we went to the city zoo and in retrospect that was definitely the best decision since it’s an experience I’ll remember much more than watching the kids play at McDonald’s.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that before we got to the zoo we spent about forty-five minutes trying to get the remainder of my AmEx Traveler’s Checks cashed. We went to four different banks before finding one that would actually cash them, then that process took close to half an hour. Let me tell you, it was a huge ordeal! While I was in Turkey I made the mistake of taking out a lot of cash (Turkish Lira) from the Citibank ATM thinking I would save myself money by not being charged a 3% ATM fee in Georgia. I even went online while in Ghana to see the exchange rate between the Dollar and Georgian Lari verses the Turkish Lira and Georgian Lari. The conversion website I used was apparently not updated since the war or just wasn’t working right altogether, but when I arrived to Georgia the exchange rate was 1.41 for the Dollar and .51 for the Turkish Lira. That meant I was LOSING money and BIG TIME! I was not a happy camper. I had about $300 Dollars left from Ghana, plus $150 in Traveler’s Checks so after my first exchange I decided I would try to stretch my Dollars as much as possible. Luckily (at least for my situation) the Dollar has gone up and is now at a 1.65 exchange rate, stretching my money even further. The only problem now is that I’m stuck with a large sum of Turkish Lira that I hope can be exchanged for a decent rate when I’m back in Istanbul for the day on my way back to the States.
Okay, so back to the zoo! When we first arrived (after only paying .50 tetri per ticket if you can believe that for zoo admission!) I saw a Baskin Robbins and even though it was still a little cold outside, I just had to have ice cream! We all got the same flavor, vanilla with peanuts and caramel, and I opted to splurge for a waffle cone for .40 tetri extra. When we finished our ice cream the kids got popcorn and then we made our way from one zoo animal to the next, starting with bears and ending with elephants. My favorite animal is a giraffe but this zoo didn’t have any, and actually I have mixed feelings about zoos in general. I think they’re great for kids to be able to see animals that they would otherwise never see, but part of me feels these animals belong in their natural habitat, not locked up in cages. I won’t get into this debate here though because I really did enjoy my day with the kids and seeing their excitement when they saw each animal. This zoo was a lot like a circus too. They have lots of different rides and games you have to buy tickets for but the only one the kids were interested in was the Ferris Wheel. Cartuna, a family friend, also joined us with her adorable five year old nephew for the last half of our time at the zoo.
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| From Tbilisi Zoo |
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| From Tbilisi Zoo |
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| From Tbilisi Zoo |
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| From Tbilisi Zoo |
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| From Tbilisi Zoo |
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| From Tbilisi Zoo |
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| From Tbilisi Zoo |
After the Ferris Wheel I decided to pay $10 Lari (US$6) to have a black and white portrait drawn of myself by the zoo artist. I thought it would be a nice keepsake to have from my time in Georgia, as well as a remembrance of the [G3] Mission.
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| From Tbilisi Zoo |
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| From Tbilisi Zoo |
After the zoo we went to a local cafe and had a bite to eat and my plan was to go home and change before I met Jenni at the Tbilisi Opera House for Swan Lake but I simply just ran out of time. I was a little concerned because I was in jeans and we had seats in the lower level, and even though my host mom kept reassuring me I looked fine, I personally just didn’t feel comfortable. So in-between eating she and Cartuna took me to a few different second hand stores in search of a skirt. I finally found one that was sort of my size (everything was super big on me) but then there was the problem of my sneakers. Wearing a skirt with Puma’s just didn’t look very classy. Then we decided that maybe we should start looking for trousers instead, but again everything was twice my size! When I was about to give up my host mom found a pair of khaki corduroy’s from J. Crew that fit perfectly, even in length. This was the winner! When I was reaching for my wallet my host mom and Cartuna quickly handed the shop keeper $10 Lari and told me this was their birthday present for me. I thought it was such a sweet gesture and I appreciated their effort to think about my birthday, especially since I had such a pity party for myself last night!
After changing into my new pants we went back to the cafe where we left the kids and finished eating, then they walked me to the Opera House to meet Jenni. I was so happy to be going to a ballet, especially Swan Lake! It brought back so many memories of my years in ballet, especially of my senior year in high school when my dance school performed Swan Lake and I was given a solo. I have to say, I really miss performing in front of an audience, and even though I was taking a ballet class in NYC it’s still not that same as being part of a dance team that performs. Maybe that’s something I should look into when I get back to NYC?!
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| From Swan Lake in Tbilisi |
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| From Swan Lake in Tbilisi |
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| From Swan Lake in Tbilisi |
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I had the most delightful day! That is until I tried getting home by public transportation…
I have no idea what it is about me and public transportation in this city but I waited for just about an hour for bus number 46 to get home and it never showed up. Fortunately I stopped in the Marriott hotel on my way to the bus stop and picked up three Georgian newspapers (written and published for English speakers) so that was at least a good distraction while I was waiting. But then my fingers and toes began to ache because I was so cold and I was frustrated because I didn’t know of any other bus that I could take, except for number 33 and then switch to a Marshrutka (minibus) by the football stadium. Of course as luck would have it I let a number 33 pass me by when I first arrived to the bus stop and hadn’t seen another one since. I was so annoyed at this point and I would have taken a taxi (there were plenty of those) if I would of had the notebook that had my home address in it. This past week I finally found a new purse size notebook to replace the worn out one I had been carrying around for over a year. I looked for a new one in Ghana but never found one small enough to fit in my purse so I got creative and cut small pieces of recycled paper and stapled them into the back of the notebook. Ya, it was pretty bad to say the least!
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| From Tbilisi, Georgia |
So anyway, my home address was in this old notebook and I had forgotten to get my host mom to write it into the new notebook (it’s written in Georgian) and I had no idea how to tell a taxi driver where I lived. On top of that I forgot to bring the phone that my host parents let me borrow so I couldn’t even call them to have them tell a taxi driver where to go. I knew exactly how to get home, I just didn’t know how to communicate that to the driver. I finally decided I would walk to the end of Rustaveli Street where the Marshrutkas route ends and begins and take the number 41. When I finally reached this area there were no Marshrutkas to be found anywhere! It was after 10pm so my initial thought was that they must stop running early on the weekends but I couldn’t understand why. I was starting to run out of options on what to do but then I remembered I could walk to the bus stop across the street from the Philharmonic and pray that either a 46 or 33 bus would finally show up. I picked up my pace and hoped for the best.
About a block away from the bus stop a 33 passed me by and I began to run like I’ve never ran before. There was no way I was going to miss this bus and thank God I made it just in time! From the 33 I knew I needed to take a Marshrutka or bus 46 to get home and I was worried about both of these options. I hadn’t seen a Marshrutka since I left the Opera House and bus 46 seemed to be non-existent at this time. I took 33 as far as I could until it turned up a street in a direction I didn’t need to go and as soon as I got off a 46 passed me. Go figure!! I tried to flag down the bus but since it’s a city bus they only stop at designated stops, unlike Marshrutkas which will stop anywhere. At that point I lost it and broke down in tears. On top of freezing to death I was both hungry and tired, not to mention that I felt extremely hopeless.
I tried asking a few people if they spoke English but to no avail found no one. One lady who sat next to me on bus 33 kept talking to me in Georgian, then switched to Russian thinking I might understand her then. In English I kept telling her I didn’t speak either Georgian or Russian but she wouldn’t give up. She would stop talking for about thirty seconds and then start talking again. I appreciate her effort in trying to help but it was only making it worse! I haven’t mastered all of my Georgian phrases (which also happened to be written down in my old notebook; AKA “backpacker’s blackberry”!) and in my state of mind I couldn’t even attempt to conjure up “I don’t speak Georgian” in Georgian.
When I reached the next bus stop (where the 46 just left from) I had two options; 1) wait to see if a Marshrutka would finally appear, or 2) forget about public transportation altogether and just walk home. I wasn’t happy about either option but felt it would be better for me to just start walking home and if a Marshrutka happened to appear then I could hop on wherever I was at that time. I looked up at the sky and thought God must be trying to teach me something from this experience so I should suck it up and stop feeling sorry for myself. I began repeating “Tibet in training, Tibet in training!”, the phrase I use to calm myself down in what I find to be physically or emotionally difficult situations…this is because one of my long term goals is to go on a trek in Tibet. As I began my walk from the bus stop I happened to turn around and right before my eyes was a number 6 Marshrutka! Praise GOD! I ran back as fast as I could and climbed into the minibus with a huge smile on my face, and exactly two hours after I left the Opera House I was home. What an adventure!
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