Leo @Leo@tincanphone.club

So of course the universe had to throw me one more curve ball and I missed my connecting flight to Zurich because once I arrived in Munich, I had to wait in line for an hour and half to go through security again, take a train to my terminal, and go through customs. But I did immediately start crying at the gate attendants and they got me on a direct flight to Boston with a row to myself. It does mean I had a long layover and will be getting home two hours later but I booked myself a two hour nap room and am now waiting to board at my gate. Almost there 🫩

We had a feast of all my favorite Georgian foods for my last meal! Khachapuri, Potato Khinkali and Kalikuri Khinkali, Mtsvadi, kebabs, and of course, a shot of chacha. Looking forward to finally being home but I will miss these guys dearly!

I went to court today and agreed to pay the fine and I am now free to go! I got a ticket home for tomorrow and am submitting a claim with my travel insurance to see if I can get it reimbursed. Thank goodness I packed some nice clothes lol

Yesterday we went to a figure drawing session. It was very hard but fun. Here's one if the rough sketches I did trying to figure out proportions, I still have a ways to go

So, to update everyone, I got a lawyer and everything suddenly moved much quicker! Today I went with him to the police station and signed some forms saying I would show up in court next week and they gave me my passport back 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

My lawyer said he is 99% certain he can get me in court on Monday which hopefully means I will be going home on Tuesday! I will keep everyone updated but this was a huge step and I am so relieved.

Today Sophy and I took an aerial tramway to the Tbilisi Botanical Gardens and had our own mini writing group session!

Was trying to wait until I got sent the group pictures but it's taking too long so I'm posting these instead. On Easter we went to Sophy's friend's house for a "Supra" which is a party where you sit around the table and eat for many many hours. Usually there's a lot of drinking and toasting involved but that didn't happen this time. Sophy's friend's dad came in 3 hours in after attending a different Supra (with drinking) and he rambled about Georgian history in Georgian for two hours. He decided he liked me because my last name was "Earl" and his last name belonged to a King so he insisted we take pictures together. "An Earl and a King standing together"

Some silly pictures from the past few days

Recent adventures: dinner at a nice cafe with Sophy and Bryson where the lights were big dresses. I also took a solo trip to the Chronicles of Georgia which is a giant monument to Georgia and it's christian history at the top of a mountain that overlooks all of Tbilisi. My camera did not do the size of it justice!

If anyone's curious, this was my reaction to the chacha

I spent most of the day drawing at a beautiful cafe made out of an old greenhouse in the middle of a park. Then Sophy and I went to a place called Fabrika which is old sewing factory that was turned into a bunch of restaurants, artist studios, and a hostel and I tried chacha which is a Georgian spirit made from fruit

Yesterday we saw Sophy's friends, walked around a park, saw a church (a common theme of this trip), and Sophy cooked a traditional Georgian dinner (Satsivi with shoti, sulguni, and cucumber and tomato salad). Trying to make the most of my time here so I don't lose my mind!

Tea with Sophy's friends Saba and Mari. Everyone in Georgia has a two syllable nickname they go by that ends with a vowel. So Sophy is actually Sopo here.

Sophy had a work taking photos at a jujitsu tournament today so I had a solo adventure to the hot baths and then I met her at the tournament and we went to a fabulous puppet show!

Today Sophy and I went to Mtskheta, a neighborhing city to Tbilisi. We visited two churches (but I only got a picture of one, Svetitskhoveli Cathedral), had some ice cream and coffee at a little touristy spot on the river, and dinner on a nice patio!

Dinner out for more Georgian food. In the far left is badrijani (eggplant with walnut), in the middle is Megrelian kharcho with nuts (its chicken in some kind of sauce), Ojakhuri (pork barbecue with potatoes which was my favorite). We also had Georgian beer which tasted like beer (so, gross) and pear flavored lemonade which was very sweet but it grew on me (unlike the beer which only got worse).

Waffles, art, and kada

We also went to the studio Sophy has been teaching acting classes at and took the metro which is one of the deepest in the world (very scary escaltor ride). I also included a picture I took of one of the streets we walked down at dusk. The light here is beautiful!

The arts are a big thing here, especially theatre (which we are going to later this week). The building is the theatre university, Rustabeli, the statue is outside of the most famous theatre in the city. Marjanishvili. Apparently Alan Rickman spent time between both places while studying acting.

We walked to around the city yesterday, Sophy lives pretty close to the center so there was a lot to see. We went to a nice park called Deda Ena (mother tongue) that has an artist market 365 days a year and a flower market. We also went to a bookstore cafe where they had a Georgian translation of Michelle Obama's book which I thought was hilarious.