My Internship and Stuff

I can't believe I've already been here for more than a week. Actually, today marks the halfway point. Nine days here and nine days left. I figured it would go by really quickly, but it's still a bit of a shock.

I started my internship at the Georgian National Museum this week. It's located in the middle of Tbilisi, near the main squares, and... while it isn't the biggest or most impressive museum I've seen, it's not a bad one. My host dad works there, so I've been able to carpool with him, which is nice. I particularly appreciate this because on my first day, Monday, I ended up having to walk to the museum by myself. I made it there, but... it wasn't an enjoyable enough experience for me to want to do it every day. I'm just not cut out for walking around cities by myself.

The first two days I was shown around the museum and introduced to people, and yesterday I finally got assigned some work, editing English descriptions of various aspects of the museum. I spent the whole time sitting in a shared office, working, while other employees wandered in and out. I was perfectly content, but at the end of the day one of the employees came up to me and said she was worried because I hadn't had anything to eat or drink the whole time I had been there. She insisted that I let her know if I got hungry in the future, and said that she wanted me to feel like I was part of the museum staff family. It was startling and gratifying at the same time.

Today I was assigned work in the paleontology department, re-shelving and arranging the bones in the collection. It was fun, though I was a little embarrassed because the paleontologist I was working with had to keep explaining what kinds of bones they were and which way I needed to arrange them. Still, though, it was fun. And those of you who know about my work with rat teeth this summer will be happy to know that this time I was working with 2 million-year-old rhino bones.

My little corner in the paleontology collection.












Now for the promised Stuff.
On Wednesday, a few of the other students in my program and I hiked up the big hill in the middle of Tbilisi. It was a pleasant walk through a rather scraggly forest, and it offered some great views of the city.

Partway up the hill, in the middle of the woods,  we found a strange, makeshift workout center.

Yes. That's a dumbbell... made out of car wheels. I want one.

...Or I'll just steal this one.











As if the mini-gym weren't strange enough, at the top of the hill we found a little amusement park. There was a man working there who told us to get in by crawling under a fence. Slightly sketchy, but we went with it. It had some funny little rides and one big ferris wheel. And there were actually quite a few people there, so it ended up not being as sketchy as it had initially seemed.

Finally, I've been getting to know my host sisters more and more, particularly the younger one. It's a lot of fun spending time with them,  and we've managed to find games that don't involve speaking, like chess and... um... playing with a laser pointer.  Also, the younger one has been teaching me to count in Georgian.

My big list of Georgian numbers, courtesy of my little sister.

















I think that's all the stuff for now. Tomorrow I'm leaving on another excursion to various parts of Georgia and, once again, I'll try to take a lot of pictures. For now, I'll end this post with a picture of my family's big puppy, because I don't think I've shown her to you yet.