Georgia has turned out to be something of a complete surprise.

There is a strange, palpable dynamism that I haven't felt for a long time. The streets and buildings are threadbare, but the people are not. It seems everyone is trying. Trying to do what, I'm not sure, but they seem to all be busy, constantly. The city is frenetic.

I'm convinced the hotel is running some type of import-export business, as the rooms transmit sound like they are moving Hong-Kong type of freight. It's incredibly annoying but I'm clueless what the hell they are doing. After a long day of yet more meetings, and people I cannot mention here, we went out.

First, you risk life and limb walking the streets of Georgia. Cars rule, and you're merely in their zone. Cross and sidewalks are a reference rather than a rule. There are few if any sidewalks and most of them are broken with pitfalls. Still, you don't feel threatened on the streets. The pubs are still filled with smoke, something akin to death in western bars, but the service is astonishing. I can't begin to tell you how much the staff fawns and waits on you. I somehow felt like the waiter was ours alone and was so intent on clearing the plates and dishes I thought he was attempting to pick someone up, gender non-defined. The hotel staff is so abundant that it seems you have to weed them.

Georgian food ranges on the abundant to the absurd. There are these cheese quesadilla things that are out of this world. Sometimes they fill them with beans. Heavy on the cucumbers and tomatoes. There is this rather toxic-looking drink with tarragon that's so green the Hulk would've peed it. I'm excited to move on from the nondescript pieces of meat.

Back to our boring lives.

What is astonishing are the amount of programs that attempt to encourage the promotion and dissemination of the English language, and by extension American culture. The pure flow of faces and acronyms today assured us that we are not going to roll over to the Chinese. FLEX, GLOW, SUSI, ETA, EFL, ELCE, blah, blah, blah. We have it going on. Imperial culturalism be damned. Gasp, cooperation with the British Council who might have realized their boat was sinking even further than ours and cooperation with the Atlantic revisionists might serve them as well. If the Chinese and their said Confucius Institutes (which have nothing to do with what Confucius said) think they have anything on the world-wide marketing machine that is the US, they are sadly mistaken.

Even more importantly, we've all come to realize how much we like each other in a few short days, without all that forced cheery team crap that is forced on humans in group sessions and team-building weekends that are close to hell. Build a raft with seven tooth picks and three pieces of balsa, in your underwear! We've seen enough kids end in suicide. That said and done, I've somehow been incredibly lucky in the crap shoot of life to be with three people who can really tolerate and work with each other. One is a laid-back hipster from California, another is a teachinista who can rival anyone, and lastly, there is an older compadre who resembles Dag's parents in sheer stamina. I can only hope to be that on at her age.

As we're plumbing our ways through the lengthy and almost endless accounting and assessment system, it seems that they've stumbled upon the foundations of a Georgia-wide computer school system, much like Norway's country-wide system. The scaffolding is there to incorporate every teacher in Georgia into a unified online system. I'm not sure if they realize what the potential is, but they might have accidentally found a magic bullet to bring it all together. I wish they would stop thinking that half the teacher pool is inept. You drag the unwilling into the next century by the strength of those who get the future is happening and you need to jump on. Still, I sense a big bang is coming with the imminent replacement of a large number of retiring teachers.

So back to us.

We actually truly incredibly and thank our lucky stars like each other. This project could have gone south in four ways quickly, but dang it, we like each other, we really like each other! Sally Field, throw tears, audience, audience, audience, Oscar!

We've also think we've figured out a way to unify ourselves with a common marketing thread of friendship. The potential is huge. We're selling this curriculum, but if we all truly work together, we can promote ourselves into something even more tangible. What was the good omen? As we were walking back to our hotel, huge, massive, Stalin-esque snowflakes started falling, but unlike Stalin, they were clean and reassuring. I've always taken fresh falling snow as an auspicious start, and there it was. It was nothing for Norway, but a sign that we are all on the right track. We felt kid-like, silly, and down-right invigorated. Clean snow kicks ass.

The highlight of the day, for me anyway, was during a well-meaning presentation someone spelled PEACE CORPSE instead of PEACE CORPS. Peace is dead, but democracy still may have a fighting chance. It's a hella-more interesting than re-marketed five-year plans.