The First Day of School

Wednesday: the first day of school-- and what a school! OK, so there are six or seven powerpoints and lots of butt-in-seat time, but lunch is out on picnic tables on the terrace, overlooking the soccer fields, Tbilisi, and over six millenia of history. There's Kara, next to our colleagues John, Julie, Jackie, and Emily...Lunch was pasta bolognese, hotdog sandwiches, cauliflower stew, and cans of ice coffee; or, if you're Kara, you bring lobio, kasha, and fruit. Some choice quotes from the day: "Our joint inservice last year was cancelled due to Russian invasion, but welcome..." and "Yeah, I live five doors down from Misha Saakashvili [yes, the president]"...Asa and Tata [Tatiana, our new nanny] spent the day together and apparently Asa was very good, eating a bowl of tomato-cauliflower soup for lunch...The school is beautiful. Tbilisi got a new school; Yerevan is getting a new school; Baku gets a new website...Tata made us peppers stuffed with saffron carrots for dinner. We feel blessed.