Before it was the Fast and the Furious, they were Slow and Content.

I spent the weekend in Ozurgeti aka the homeland of Erica and Clare.  What a mission it was getting there.  I got to Tbilisi at 2:30 to find out the marshrutka I needed to take only left at 6—BRUTUAL. So I found the marsh, got on it at 3 and sat there for 3 hours before it left.  Why I didn’t leave and just walk around Tbilisi still boggles my mind – I had a fear that once it filled up it would leave and I would literally lose my mind if I missed it.  So we finally leave around 6:30 and drive for 5 hours with the windows open going 60 km/hour.  It was soooo freaking cold, I thought I was going to lose a couple of toes.  I made a friend named Giorgi (what a surprise) on the marshrutka.  He shared his nuts and I shared my mp3 player—I was shocked to learn that he knew who major lazer was– I just re-read that.. his peanuts that is.  Communication here is difficult. It seems that if you write in English, they seem to understand what you are saying versus talking.  

I get to Ozerguti around midnightish, frozen into a big old block of pig jello, and realize that the hot spot of OZ was closing down for the night. Thus, we head back to Clare's house, watch Modern Family and pass out.  We wake up at 11 and the ladies show me around OZ—they have made best friends with a shawarma man.  I am getting hungry just thinking about those delicious shawarmas.  We head back home, hang out for a bit then get ready for dance class.  So I thought dance class was going to be an hour TOPS and then we can go get our drink on. *long pause* TWO AND HALF HOURS LATER… and me only learning 8 steps… Erica, Clare and I go off to get some food with Rezo and Zura, the dance teacher—who for the record can do a double jump in the air. Yeah. A double jump—a pump jump if you will. 

We had an awesome night filled with questionable conversations and diagrams about how going to hookers really doesn`t help sex once your married.  The night ended with us back at the dance studio listening to a rock band practise.  They were really good! They even played some requests.  We stayed until 4 in the morning with a bottle of vodka and Georgian red bull.

Since Clare is awesome and forgot her keys we had to sneak into Erica`s house to sleep that `night`.  I woke up to her host siblings looking at us through the door, saying HELLO J We got up, went to Clare`s where I grabbed my belongings and caught a marsh back to Tbilisi.  The ride back was HORRIFIC.  The driver would hit the breaks so hard that you would think he saw the ghost of his dead mother.  I somehow caught a cold… AGAIN. So I spent the majority of the trip trying to breathe and sleep while my head slammed against the window every 3 minutes.