Happy summer! Happy belated independence day to everyone from the U.S. and Canada! The heat is on! I hope that everyone had a great long weekend and is ready to jump back into it! Its time once again for a monthly wrap up! Please copy and paste the questions at the end and add your answers to the mix!
Where was I? Georgia & Armenia.
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| Ice cream for breakfast, kitties, lots of churches and mountains and historical buildings! |
1. What is the name of your last month's chapter or the theme of your last month if you prefer that?
January: Baguettes and Many Steps
February: In Like Minnesota; Out Like Hawaii
March: Wet and Wild
April: My Life is in Ruins, and Beaches Too
May: Al Fresco
June: Tales as Old as Time: The Christianity and Wine Versions
P.S. Armenia holds the distinction of being the first nation to adopt Christianity as its state religion in 301 AD. Georgia has a rich history and archaeological evidence suggests they were among the earliest regions to develop winemaking, roughly 8000 years ago, or around 6000 BC. Also, fun fact, they do not call their wine "red" and "white," they call it "black" and "amber."
2. What did you learn last month?
Aside from the above (that is a long time to be drinking wine!) I learned a lot, probably too much to go into here. However, here are a few notable things. First, there are a lot of men in Georgia named Georgi. My walking tour guide, whose name was...you guessed it....Georgi, said that if you ever forget the name of a friend or a cab driver or whatever, just call him Georgi and you will probably have a good chance of being right.
Interestingly, Georgia was not named after St. George, as some people may think. The natives do NOT call it Georgia, they call it Sakartvelo. However, Türkiye and Iran (and perhaps others) call it Gürcistan and Gurjistan, and Gurj means wolf, so the theory is that the Persians called the Georgians wolves because there were wolves in the region where Georgia is and it morphed into Georgian in English.
I looked up how the state of Georgia was named just for fun, and apparently it was named after King George II. But wait, you may ask, why was it named after a Brit when the US was trying to escape them? Well, supposedly it was named this in 1732, before the US had independence. Also, at this point in time, Georgia was a colony that also encompassed part of what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Woof, I think I need to brush up on my U.S. History!
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| Province of Georgia, USA |
3. What was the weather like where you are?
It was hot enough to go swimming (or to want to!) a couple of times, and then rainy a few days, but otherwise mostly in the 70s and lovely!
4. What event last month was your favorite?
I really enjoyed the churches and the wine; I mean learning about them! Okay fine, and drinking them in the case of the latter. If you ever see a Georgian Saperavi in the store, snag it, because that is my favorite kind!
5. What was the best thing you read, listened to or watched last month?
Book: How To Read a Book, or Look Closer
Movie/Show: N/A
Podcast: The Choose FI guys did an interview with James Clear that I found interesting.
6. Tell us one funny recent story.
This is not really that "funny," but when I was in Armenia, I got food poisoning (I think?) for the first time in my life. Although this is never really a fun thing no matter what, it was even worse, as I had booked a guesthouse with a shared bathroom (but my own room) since I was only going to be a few days there and I still kept my apartment in Georgia at the same time. Not only that, but I also booked a tour for the day after I arrived, and the night before, I was not doing so well, and so I tried to get them to change the date, but they wouldn't, so I decided that rather than lose money, I would go on the tour. I mean, at this point, I was not needing to run to the bathroom a lot, but I was not really feeling great.
The tour was good, but it was super hot that day and there was a lot of stopping to get out of the car, get back in the car, get out of the car etc. and every time we stopped, I would go to the bathroom just in case, but was doing okay for the most part. However, I did not have breakfast as I was not feeling great, but I thought maybe I would try having lunch and that would help. It did not help and luckily the last stop of the tour had lots of bushes, as I had to lose my lunch in one of them when everyone else's back was turned. It was not ideal.
7. What are you looking forward to this month?
I am looking forward to a lot of things! I will be moving a bit faster, which can get tiring, but will cover a lot of ground and will finally do a hiking trip that I have been looking forward to for a while!
JUNE:
1. What is the name of your last month's chapter or the theme of your last month if you prefer that?
2. What did you learn last month?
3. What was the weather like where you are?
4. What event last month was your favorite?
5. What was the best thing you read, listened to or watched last month?
6. Tell us one funny recent story.
JULY:
7. What are you looking forward to this month?
Bonus question! If you are from the US, what did you do for the holiday weekend? If you are from Canada, what did you do for Canada day? If you are from neither, when is your independence day holiday?
