pigs. cows. hot showers.

so, regarding the pig from the last post, there have been no more awkward “eat this strange part of the pig” episodes. it makes me wonder what has become of the gutted pig in the back of the marshutka. i just hope it didn’t go to waste.

let’s see. our trip to akhalsikhe was a nice vacation from the grind of trainee life. we did get to put our limited knowledge of georgian to use, even if most of the time it was unsuccessful. for the most part the 4 of us took our time in the hot showers, drank some wine and rested. we did get up the energy to walk around town and explore. we walked up to an old church and took some fabulous pictures of the mountains. we also walked through town and up to an old monastery and fortress. however, for some reason unknown to us, we were unable to enter the fortress. the worst part of all this was that not only were georgians going in and walking around, but the walk up to the monastery was pretty gruesome (we also didn’t know that there was a paved road we could have taken…we took that route down). but alas, the hot showers made the trip worth it :]

last night i had the opportunity to witness the re-shoeing of a bull at my clustermate’s house. it was very interesting, especially for a “city girl” like myself. the bull is held completely immobile by rope that is strung around its horns, neck, torso and feet. it almost looked like it was going to be dangling and roasting over a spit (yum. beef.), but alas, no. it was kept on its side while my clustermate’s host dad took off the old metal plates and scraped gunk off the hoof. then he nailed on new metal plates. throughout this entire affair the bull slept. i think. his eyes were closed. after it was all done and the bull was untied, he went to the stream and took a bath.

oh, but more importantly: my other run in with a cow (that i have, up until now, forgotten to mention) came in the form of a milking. that’s right. i milked a cow! and it was actually pretty neat. then i drank some of the milk in hot chocolate (it may not have been pasteurized or skim, but it was darned good)! yum!

this weekend i will be heading to the eastern part of the country for job shadowing. i, along with a fellow clustermate, will be following a g9 (georgia-2009, i’m a georgia-2010…g10) as she goes about her teaching business on friday. we’ll be there until sunday morning. the great thing about this trip will be getting a chance to see the other half of the country and seeing a g9 at work. super exciting!

bad news bears: i have found out i will not be able to defer my grad school acceptance until 2012, but i have been encouraged to reapply when i get back to the u.s. oh well. i know i am where i’m supposed to be!

hopefully i will be able to get some more pictures up so you all can see some more of the splendor that is georgia.

miss you all :]