One night last week we turned the corner on to our street and saw a man shoveling dirt from a giant pile on the sidewalk through a window to the inside of an apartment. The window was a few feet above him so he really had to heave the dirt up and over to clear it, which he did perfectly every time.
People keep talking about the new normal. But these people are not in Georgia, where, thank god, many things are the same old normal as before, which is to say not all that normal—at least not to me. But in a fun, harmless way. Nearly every week, I'm witness to a scene I can only squint at. This in itself offers a kind of comfort through consistency.
Once, in a tiny diner in Kazbegi, the waiter recommended the shashlik and khachapuri. (If he'd recommended anything else, I'd have eaten my shoe.) The shashlik was especially good, he said, because the meat was "all natural, from right here in the mountains." When the skewers came out, he said it again, "all natural, from right here in the mountains," the way someone compliments something before they poison you with it.
Of course, the food was gross, which I could have predicted, but what I didn't see coming was the sight that greeted us when we walked back outside: a huddle of livestock gorging on the contents of a dumpster. One lamb was licking some grease off a light pole while a dog looked us in the eye and shat on a chicken. If only the great Pirosmani were alive today!
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe: an apartment building in the shape of the colosseum; a restaurant inside of an upside down White House; an old sailor blasting Leonard Cohen's "I'm Your Man" for an audience of wild dolphins. I suppose these things aren't that weird; they're just weird enough.
I understand trying to make sense of things in a foreign country, but I find it can be just as rewarding to simply let things be and pretend you've woken up on a different planet, one that's a lot like yours but slightly sideways. So while I adjust to the new normal, I'll consider myself lucky that I can still find the nice old normal any time I want, same as it ever was, shoveling dirt somewhere from the outside in.