Make that 14 and a half hours...

and still no word on our apartment in Georgia.

In preparation for departure...

So tomorrow I make the 13-hour trek to Florida to drop off the hound. It seems like there are a billion things to do before leaving for Georgia. For one, I have yet to find a place in Tbilisi. Our orginal plan has fallen through and so Tyson and I are scrambling to ensure that we are not living on the streets. I also have to finish a grant proposal in the next week and make arrangements to get my rent paid, etc. Most of this could be done today, but 1. I'm writing this blog instead, 2. I have commitments today that leave no time except between 6 and 7. I also have to do laundry today and pick up enough dog food for sebastian to survive for 6 weeks. To top it all off, I am hung over.

Tbilisi

In two weeks and 5 days I leave for Tbilisi, Georgia. There I will reside for approximately 5 and a half weeks. The goals of this trip are manifold. First I would like to get away to some place completely foreign to me. I need a taste of alienation. For some reason I have this idea that such an experience will stimulate productivity and I will be able to make considerable headway on my dissertation. The other reason for my inclination toward alienation is that Bloomington has become a bit small and distracting. Perhaps is my own lack of discipline, but I need to be somewhere without all the people, routines, and familiar places. Now, I will not be completely alone. I am going with my good friend Tyson, who will also be there to work. But Tyson is more a source of encouragement than he is a diversion.


I will arrive at 3am on May 7 and head directly to my flat and get to sleep. This will follow a 5 hour flight from Munich, which in turn follows a 15 hour layover. I suspect the first few days will be filled with sight seeing and sleeping and eating. We will celebrate my birthday with kinkhali, mukuzani wine, and khachapori. We will visit the embassy to register ourselves so that good ol' uncle Sam knows where we are. After the first few days things should calm down a bit and then I'll get to work (after my morning visit to the sulfur baths, of course). I don't know how often I will be able to post or send emails because we will not have internet access in the flat most likely. In the interest of being maximally informative to the greatest number of people, I will probably rely on this blog for updates and not email, especially since internet cafes usually charge by the time. So friends and my worried family should check back often.

In addition to seeing Tbilisi, we will visit the mountains in the north, particularly in Kazbegi, which is one of the last few areas in the north where tourism is safe. Here is a picture of Kazbegi




I found this picture on a travel blog, which you can find here. I enjoy reading those travel blogs and viewing the pictures of all these places that I'll soon be visiting.

Anyway, I don't have much else to write. It had been a while since my last post and I was a little excited about my upcoming trip, so here you go.