suitor

guram finally proposed. one evening, nino, dato, guram, and i went to a georgian restaurant down by the river. guram and i were chatting away in french while dato and nino were chatting in georgian. suddenly, guram looked at me intensely and proclaimed "you must stay."

- "what?"

-"you will stay, and we will marry. we will live here in the countryside."

as i squealed with laughter nino looked at us and asked, "what's going on?"

guram then began explaining in greater detail his plans for us in Georgian, sometimes speaking to me, sometimes to nino and dato. the more excited he got, the more he switched languages. the proposal lasted about an hour in a mixture of english, french, and georgian.

his plan is for me to stay in the countryside, feed the chickens, milk the cows, tend to the garden, and he will find work. we will have a little house, and no worries. after two years, we will go to Colorado.

nino said with her sly grin , "i think it's a good idea. you will never find a boy as good as guram. he is the best boy."

she may be right. but we will have to wait until the next lifetime…perhaps we'll come back as birds and really understand one another.

seedy

sunflower seeds. since the first day i arrived, i noticed the country is crazy about these tiny black unsalted specks. everywhere i go, someone is offering me a dirty handful of sunflower seeds. (the seeds are clean, the hands are dirty). typically, the Georgians will carry these little seeds with them in a cone of paper. the girls at the shelter love to force feed me sunflower seeds.

old women on the street set up little stools and sit all day and sell little paper cones filled with these sunflower seeds for about fifteen cents per handful. the other afternoon, as i was walking home, i was assaulted by a gold-toothed sunflower seed seller. she began jabbering at me in Georgian, trying to sell me some sunflower seeds. then she saw the very lost look on my face.

-"…kartuli?" (she was asking if i was georgian, or if i spoke georgian)

-"arra. bodishi." (no. excuse me.)

-"…ruske?" (Russian? she asked.)

-"arra."

she laughed every time i responded in georgian because how was it possible that i didn't speak Georgian, but knew how to say 'no'? she and i were stuck in a stalemate because she really wanted to sell me some sunflower seeds, and i really didn't want any. finally, she handed me a few, for free, and told me they were good.

-"didi modloba" (thank you very much) i replied and headed home.

when i arrived in the apartment, the first thing i noticed was that there were five little sunflower seed shells in the toilet. the housekeeper must have come while i was out.