We had our first disappointing dinner. After the marathon haul to Telavi and one of the most jarring roads I've encountered in my lifetime, we had roasted trout and bland soup in a smokey pub. Georgia still allows smoking in public places. Even after being a smoker for so many years (four years sober!), it disgusts me, especially around food.

We left Tbilisi and headed to Gori and Kutaisi. We have substantial luggage, but as it seems we compliment each other, it was packed in minutes and we were off. We tipped the porter five lari and I left the hotel staff 10 for the room, which we later found out to be way too much. Karma! It all comes back sooner or later.

Gori was a quick drive from Tbilisi. Birthplace of Stalin (good times!), it was depressing. Quiet and crumbling. We had our meeting and discovered while the city was falling apart, the people weren't. Lively and questioning, the group looked like they would be a good group. There's a program in Georgia called Teach and Learn, which was meant to be a shock troop of English teachers paid for by the Georgian government. The early days were filled with adventurers and you can only guess how that went, but it seems to have turned a corner and is doing better.

We saw the train that hauled Stalin around the CCCP and the actual house, enshrined like a temple with a neo-Greco Soviet thing encasing it, where Stalin was born. We also saw what must be one of the last statues of the man. I do not need to say more. It's Stalin.

We entered the apartment complex to help our colleague with her luggage. Most Georgian buildings are legacies of the Soviet era, and they are falling apart. It's shocking for an American, but you have to adjust your mindset and then start to see something miraculous. In Soviet times, the buildings were maintained like a collective, meaning the internal parts were cleaned by all. Those days are long gone, but they are now replaced by this bizarre mix of people reclaiming property, building rooms that weren't there before, managing to get water through jerry-rigged, MacGyver-esque systems, etc. It's to each his own, and its wild. Doors replaced, whole different walls. It's jarring at first, but then you realize people have survived through some dark days in Georgia, and the human ability to adapt and create starts to come through the structures. Inside, the apartments are warm and inviting, and everyone seems to have a flat-screened TV with endless channels. It's an urban designer's playground and nightmare.

We left Gori after piling up on bread and mandarins for everyone as we realized we would have to skip lunch to stay on schedule, and headed to Kutaisi. Along the way, we had to veer around cows on the highway, while we were driving at incredible speed. Driving in Georgia is a hail Mary-type of adventure. Once again, it's scary, pee-your-pants, not for the faint-hearted type of stuff. The pass through the mountains was stacked with snow, and we passed pottery stands and sweet bread kiosks, where elderly women come running out to the cars to sell bread, which is soooooo cheap and soooooo good in Georgia. Kutaisi is everything Gori isn't. Georgia's second largest city, it's wild. Belle epoque buildings mingle with Soviet and modern buildings. Much like Tbilisi, it's frenetic. It also seems young. We had a quick coffee at McDonald's (and we joked that to find our colleague, all we had to do was follow the golden arches). Another meeting, and we met the first and only male teacher in our entire roster this session. Immediately, we were invited to a play with young learners on Tuesday, and we had to readjust our schedules to work it in.

We went to set up our colleague in his apartment. Again, another wild building, but the apartment was quite a steal for the price. The owners were incredibly nice, and left home-made wine. Everyone decided we had to have a toast, and before walking down eight flights of jumbling steps in the dark, we had a drink. BAM! Strong stuff. We all piled out into the hallway of death, but human invention pulled through. Everyone whipped out their cell phones in seconds, mini-flashlights to the ready, and we were down in a flash. It's a compliment to Georgian women, but their ability to walk in killer high-heels under such conditions is truly remarkable.

We had dinner, which is always a marathon of eating and courses in Georgia. We were easily compensated for the smoked-infused trout by new Georgian dishes, including tongue. We talked about some type of cow-leg soup that the poor originated (left over goodies from those pesky aristocrats), which becomes a gelatinous mess that people eat when they're hungover. YUM! It's eaten with garlic and drunk with vodka. We managed to avoid that dish and had spicy tomato and mushroom, fries with sauces and crab salad. Georgian meals are like tapas, and it's eat as much as can and there STILL is more coming. The Georgians have this pizza-like thing that we've eaten everyday we've been here that says STOMACH, MEET GROIN! as we will be fatter than hell if we keep consuming it at the rate were eating it. It's sooooo yummmy, but becomes a rock when it turns cold.

AS I learn more about Georgians, their society, their culture, their way of life is infectious. I mean, there is a quick sense of camaraderie without fakeness that I've haven't met anywhere else in the world. Do you know friends you haven't seen in years and you can start up with again like no time has passed? That's how Georgians are. After Scandinavians, who are a little cold and difficult to meet, Georgians are a complete breath of fresh air (hopefully not after they've eaten that cow-leg thing). They're worldly and hip, weary of history but still so damn friendly and open.

One Georgian colleague, who you want to sit down and talk with all day because he is mucho kind and interesting, told us about his time in Georgia, the state. It's a trick to tell people that you live in Georgia as opposed to Georgia. Still, Georgians in Georgia seems like a fun T-shirt to make. The Atlanta-Tbilisi express!

I don't like to write too much about colleagues, but it's almost impossible not to mention this spitfire of a woman, who reminds me of mini-Cher (hair and look to boot...how cool is that?), who is a high-belt in judo and played concert piano. She's just so damn funny and stylish. I almost live to see her next outfit. She's also lively in conversations and personal without being fake. We all agree we got lucky to be working with such funny and clever people. Still, it has been hard not to throw down in a Cher impersonation. It is almost a religious rite for my people.

We went out for a bit around Kutaisi. I had my first taste of smoke-infused beer at a world-class Georgian, state-of-the-art microbrewery, which frankly tasted like bacon. We quickly switched to something Belgian-like. Before we went to the brewery, we passed the River Rioni. On the bridge sits a statue of a boy with two hats, about to jump into the rockiest river I've see in years. We were told, and a film I've seen in my Soviet days, that in the film, the boy takes the hats from two grandmothers and jumps into the river. This bridge is THREE-STORIES UP. We then were told that in summer, the bridge is full of kids doing the same. I nearly pooped myself thinking of kids jumping from that height into the rocky, no, actually boulder-filled river. It seems it's much like Georgia. They're not afraid of much, and realize life is about taking chances. You might end up smashed to bloody bits on a rock, but on the other hand, you might have a good time as well.