Gamarjobat,

I arrived safely in Tbilisi after a long trip from Minnesota. I had a short layover in Chicago followed by a long layover in Munich. We landed at about 3:05AM local time. My flights were pretty uneventful, although they switched planes for my flight from Chicago to Munich to a smaller plane, so I didn't have a seat until after half the people had already boarded. I received my ticket eventually and was happily surprised when I realized that I was bumped up to Economy Plus, which was rich with leg room and, somehow on this full flight, no one was seated nex to me on the one side. It was very nice.

I took the train into the city when I got to Munich and went to a paleontology museum that boasted a large collection of saber toothed cats and mammoths. I got there and there was one big room with about 20 skeletons of different animals and a second floor balcony with some information on early humans and some replica casts of their skulls. Needless to say, I didn't kill as much time as I was hoping at this place and was a little disappointed that I had to walk quite a ways for this place. So, after 15 minutes in the museum, I began to explore Munich on foot a little bit. I walked a couple miles and looked at some areas that we didn't get a chance to explore last year, so I had a good time. I also had a delicious Bratwurst. I spent a couple hours in the city and decideed to head back to the airport to find a bench to nap, which I did.

Irakli and Martha greeted me at the airport when I (and my luggage) arrived. I went to the museum and worked for a little while yesterday and actually didn't feel too jet lagged. It is really nice to see so many familiar faces again this year. We will be working at the museum until next week, then we will take a trip down to Dmanisi to see the site, as the other two students have not been there yet. Reid's excavation of M5 will start next week as well.

Our apartment is in a nice location, about a half a block from where we were last year. It is a two bedroom and 1.5 bath, but the living room and dining room are quite large so we are not too squished with five people.

Not much else is going on here yet, but I will keep posting as we have internet in our apartment this year.

Also, the Twins were on tv here last night for some reason, but I'm not complaining.

Nakhvamdis,

Reed