I've done it! I've made it through my first week of real work in Georgia. So much has happened this week that I could easily fill pages with my adventures.
I want to start by saying that the food here is incredible! They don't have a wide variety in their fresh produce supplies, but what they do with them defies description. On Sunday night Will took Oliver and me to a restaurant. It was some of the best food that I have ever had. Everything beautifully prepared and each dish having such a strong and unique blend of flavours. We all ate our fill and enjoyed some local lemonade. Back home, a meal of this size would come to quite a bit, but we got all this for about 22 GEL each! (Georgian Lari, roughly 15 AUD)
Due to our kitchen not yet being completed, I've been mainly eating take away salads from the local supermarket. It seems to be your average salad bar on first sight, but on closer investigation, the rich and complex flavours have to be tasted to be believed.
I did pay a price for suddenly eating all this rich food. On Monday, I had a very unhappy gut and a mild case of diarrhea. I wasn't the happiest camper for that day, but the next day I was fine and have had no problems since.
Our accommodation is in the same building as the Georgian Ballet School and the company's costume department. The room is clean and well equipped with television, DVD player, air-conditioning and a small fridge. Our floor has obviously just been renovated and turned into a floor of rooms the company is going to be use to house the international dancers. The renovation is so new that they (as I mentioned earlier) haven't finished the kitchen yet. Washing is awkward at the moment as we have to get someone outside of business hours, with a key to open the washing room.
Tornike has been great with helping us get settled. He is a really cool guy who speaks perfect English (as well as Georgian, Russian and German!) He gave us an orientation to the city as well as helping us with all the practical and bureaucratic stuff you need when you change country. We got our Georgian bank account set up with his help and he is coming with us tomorrow on a shopping trip. (I just realised, I now own four bank accounts in three different currencies on three different continents!)
The company has been very welcoming and friendly. I'm slowly starting to remember their names though simple are often very similar. Cola, Nina, Anna, Dato, and Zarro are just a couple of examples. Some of the dancers speak very good English, but most of them only speak Russian and Georgian. I can manage a few simple words in Georgian, but am still struggling to remember enough words to put a sentence together. As a result, rehearsals often end up being a linguistic soup of Russian, Georgian and English. (With a few charades just to make sure we understand each other.)
The standard of the dancing here is surprisingly high. A lot of the girls are extremely good. All of the dancers here come from the ballet school upstairs, but with compulsory military service plus a very conservative society, it isn't the best place for developing male ballet dancers. Hence, they are suffering from a loss of boys which is why they are starting to import from abroad.
We are currently rehearsing two ballets, Siberia to Moscow and Giselle. I'm just understudying Siberia to Moscow but we have been cast to do some chore work in Giselle which opens next week. It is only simple work, but I'm really enjoying it.
Arrrgh! There is so much more to say, but my word count is already way too high. I'll have to save it for next week. I've got some pictures on the side (or follow this link)
Feel free to leave any questions or comment below.
Dream on,
Rodney Cuthbertson
DreamChaser
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