Day 2: Travel in Tbilisi/ Who wears short shorts?

Gamarjoba! chemi sakhelia Mikhal Pisciotta. (Hello! my name is Michael Pisciotta to all my friends and family back in the United States). I hope everyone that is reading this blog is doing as well as I am right now. And even though the Republic of Georgia is 8 hours ahead of us, I still have managed to stay up to 1 A.M. Georgian Time. Seems no matter if I travel 6500 miles away, I will still revert back to my all too familiar Athenian night owl mode. We still have our busiest time still ahead as the camp will be the 13th-16th, but so far we have managed to remain in fifth gear. As Renee mentioned previously we were all extremely tired after a large Georgian meal, so we did not hesistate to crash into our beds as soon as we returned to the cozy british (mari) house at 11 P.M., G-Time. After a solid 9 hours of sleep, we started the day with breakfast at our hotel - Eggs, Bacon(which was very good), Georgia's famous fresh bread(I'll talk about this later), and pear jam. After much fellowship, we decided to hit the town to trade in the good old' American Dollar for the Georgian Lari (1.42L=$1.00). Now we're ready to see the sights, and what better place to start than the National Orthodox Cathedral. It was one of the most amazing structures I have ever laid my eyes. It was surrounded by a serene garden, a goliath chapel bell, and a few smaller chapels (Some dating back all the way to the 12th Century).

It was also during this time, when I realized there are a lot of feral dogs just roaming the streets of Tblisi. All-in-All I counted 12 strays, and took as many pictures of the elusive animals as I could. As a great man once said, "Please get your animals spayed and neutered."

Next, off to Georgia's oldest bakery. "So what's so historic about this bakery?" you might ask. Other than the fact that it is underground, the walls are made off cobblestone, and the bread sticks to the brick oven's wall like it's been super-glued there, there is a underground tunnel that connects the underground bakery to the adjacent cathedral. Yeah, well it might sound pretty crumby (no pun intended that it was a bakery, HaHa), but I enjoyed it.

Now t0 the adjacent cathedral. It was very old, very dark, and I had the faint distinction that someone was looking at me. Well it was not any of the St. Mary, St. Peter, or St. George pictures on the wall that's eyes follow you as you move, but it was the Church's female hymn/worship leader.

Let's gather ourselves for a second. The Republic of Georgia is not exactly a tourist destination, and not saying that foreigners are not welcomed with open arms but you are very easily noticed if you are not Georgian. Thankfully our translator/tour guide/georgian FLEX student Teona keeps us informed about what's going on in the world where we can only understand a few words.

Back at the church: I turn around and I see her scolding Stephen, as well as pointing at his shorts. I knew what was coming when I saw the same lady turn to point at me. Once again, Teona intervened and told me exactly what I already knew, "No Shorts in God's House."

This all made sense - we saw tens of thousands of people today and only 2 were wearing shorts other than Stephen and Myself; Respective ages - 3 and 5.

So we were kicked out of church because only sinners wear shorts in Tblisi, apparently.

Thankfully, Dr. Jenn made me feel a little better by spinning off of the Right-Said Fred song with the line "I'm too sexy for your church..."