Gudauri

I had a great time this last weekend in Gudauri. Gudauri is a small ski resort town on the military road that goes through Kazbeki and into Russia. It is about two hours north of Tbilisi. Gudauri is the more modern and upscale of the two main ski towns in Georgia, making the prices a bit higher than Bakuriani. For example, the hotel we stayed at in Bakuriani was an average place and we negotiated the price down to 25 lari (about $15) per night. In Gudauri we couldn’t find a hotel for less than 50 lari per night.

I went with David, another volunteer, and we had heard from another volunteer that he knows that there is a new hostel in Gudauri for 30 lari per night. We quickly found the hostel and called the number of the owner that was written on the door. He informed us that he was in Tbilisi and would not be able to come to Gudauri for a few days, so we could not stay at his hostel. This wasn’t good. The next cheapest option, 50 lari, was more than either David or I wanted to spend.

We had arrived about 11 in the morning and, unable to find a cheap hotel, we started considering other options. We thought about skiing during the afternoon, then catching the last marshutka to Kazbeki to stay the night there, and then come back to ski again in the morning. We had been searching for about an hour and saw one small place about a quarter mile down the road that we had earlier missed. It turned out to be some sort of hotel. Each room had multiple bunkbeds. The outside said ski school, so maybe it was a lodging for the ski school, and then a hotel when the school wasn’t in session. I’m not really sure. Anyway, it turned out to be 60 lari per night, and that price also included three meals and ski rentals. It was perfect.

We put our things down, ate lunch, and headed out skiing. I hadn’t skied in two years so I took it easy the first day. The snow was good, although a bit icy in places. The second day of skiing I went all the way to the top of the mountain end enjoyed a few inches of new snow on the expert runs. My longest wait in line was about 15 seconds, which was amazing. I skied the whole second day, only taking a small break for a snickers bar. The weather was great both days. It snowed and was cloudy here and there, but for the most part we had sunny weather. I got really sun burnt on my nose and cheeks. After the two days of skiing, David and I both had a wonderful sleep and headed back to Tbilisi the next day.

The first thing we did in Tbilisi was head to the sulfur baths. They felt amazing after a couple days skiing.

Supra Preparation

Ia’s birthday is the 18^th of February and Ramazi’s is the 19^th. They had a huge birthday supra at their house. It was quite the task to get ready for it and it was fun for me to watch (this was the first large scale supra that I had seen be prepared). A few days before Friday they started cleaning. Everything downstairs was moved and cleaned. Furniture was rearranged and tables were brought in for the 30 or so guests that were coming.

Tamriko, one of Ramazi’s neighbors, and her daughter came over Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to help cook. A pig and two turkeys were killed and cooked. Beef was bought and cooked into stews and sausages. Around 20 Katchapuri and 20 loaves of bread were baked. Multiple types of salads with different vegetables were prepared. Two cakes and dozens of pastries were also made for the party.

Cooking went on nonstop Wednesday and Thursday from 10 in the morning till 8 at night. Friday they started even earlier and worked up until people started arriving for the party around 3:30. All of the teachers from school came, along with Pridoni and Luisa, and some of Ramazi and Ia’s friends.

The supra lasted for four or so hours. It was good times!

Snowball Fight

The week after my birthday was a fun week. It snowed my birthday night and there was about a foot of snow on the ground when I got up in the morning. I spent a bit of time recovering from the night before, and around noon I went to Sopho’s house, where my friends David and Cody were staying. When I got there we played bat gammon and ate lunch. David and Cody both had to go into town to catch marshutkas back to their villages so they left early, around 3. I decided to stay at Sopho’s…mainly because I had just gotten dry from the walk there and I didn’t want to go back out into the snow yet. I ended up staying until dusk, and decided at that point to spend the night so that I didn’t have to walk home in the dark.

Sopho, Kote, Kote’s sister Tamuna, his father and mother, and I had a nice evening filled with supper, wine, and a lot of singing. Around 10 the power went off but we all decided that it was OK since Valentine’s Day was the next day. It seemed appropriate to continue eating by candle light. It snowed all night and we woke up to about 2 feet of new snow Monday morning, taking the total amount to about 3 feet. I was ecstatic about this!

At 10 AM Sopho called Ia, our principle, to see if anyone was at the school. Keep in mind school is supposed to start at 9:30. Ia didn’t have an answer, because she hadn’t gone in yet. Around 10:30 Ramazi called me to ask if I was going to go into school that day. I said yes and Sopho and I left her house around 11. When we got to school, about a third of the teachers were there, and the only students were some of the twelfth graders and an eleventh grader or two. Needless to say there weren’t any classes. When I walked in to the staff room everyone, student and teachers, were huddled around the fire. They all got up when I came in and told me they wanted to have a snowball fight. We spent the next hour or so tackling each other in the snow. Once everyone was soaking wet, we went back into the school, attempted to get dry, and ate the leftovers from my birthday supra. A second snowball fight followed lunch, and after that I went back to Ramazi’s house. It was a fun day.

Oh and one other thing. One of the teachers brought her daughter who is in her first year of college in Tbilisi to school that day. I was encouraged to spend my time around her while we were out in the snow and also to sit next to her during lunch. This was fine by me since she is gorgeous. Good times, good times.