Thanks for visiting our wedding website! We're looking forward to having all of you join us in Chapel Hill in a few short weeks. We hope that this website will be helpful, especially for those of you not from the area,

Here are some quick links to the information on this site:

Gift Registry Information

Getting to/from Chapel Hill

Ceremony Parking

Special Hotel Rates

Other Hotel Options

What to Do in the Area

Places to Eat

More information may be posted as we get closer to the wedding, so check in again.

THE BASICS

Date: Sunday, January 18, 2009 - M.L.K. Weekend

Place: Chapel Hill, NC

Time: 1:00 p.m.

Ceremony Location: Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 300 E. Rosemary Street

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Parking can be hastle in town. The good news is on-campus parking is free during weekends. The bad news is you're competing with thousands of students for spaces. Parking lots on or near Franklin Street are your closest options. Download this map, which shows all parking lots on campus. Additionally, this website contains a complete list of parking garages and lots provided by the Town of Chapel

Rather than give you a complete listing of restaurants in the Chapel Hill area, we thought we recommend some of our favorites...

For some classic UNC atmosphere (dining hall notwithstanding), visit Spanky's Restaurant & Bar (101 E. Franklin) or walk across the street to Top of the Hill (100 E. Franklin) for a great view from their rooftop bar.

For cheap Italian, visit the sketchy Pepper's Pizza (107 E. Franklin) or the slightly-less sketchy Franklin Street Pizza & Pasta (163 E. Franklin). If you have a car, go to Brixx (501 Meadowmont Village) and check out their extensive beer selection, too.

For some local flavor, Mama Dip's (408 W. Rosemary) offers Southern soul food. Allen & Son's (6203 Millhouse Rd) is a bit of a drive, but it has some of the best North Carolina BBQ in the area.

After a late-night Franklin Street crawl, visit Cosmic Cantina (128 E. Franklin) for cheap bean burritos and nachos. Time Out (133 W. Franklin) is another local late-night favorite, ...

Reaching Chapel Hill is easy as it is located on or near two major Interstates (I-40 and I-85). For those who wish to fly, you should book your tickets through Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU). There is limited public transport between RDU and Chapel Hill, but we'd recommend renting a car if you can afford it. The airport is approximately 20 minutes away.

Those who are driving, follow these directions to the church. Chapel Hill has a very extensive and efficient public transport system. Best of all, its

While our wedding is the main attraction, if you're interested in having a long weekend in the Triangle area (that is, the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area), we'd recommend the following activities...

For info on movie theaters, shopping areas, etc., visit triangle.com.

In Chapel Hill:

1. Carolina Basketball- The Tarheels will be playing Miami on Saturday, and while the game is officially sold out, you can probably get tickets on the street from any of the countless scalpers by the Dean E. Smith Center.

2. Morehead Planetarium- This is a great option for families with small children. The Planetarium offers entertaining and educational shows on the weekend.

3. Ackland Art Museum- Located at the edge of campus, the Ackland has a solid collection of European and American art.

4. Tour UNC Campus- Our alma mater is the oldest public university in the country and has many interesting and beautiful buildings. The UNC Visitor's Center offers historic tours in addition to tours for prospective student...

Click the links below for our registry list:

TargetWilliams-Sonoma (search required)Bed Bath & BeyondREIMost registry items are available in both the store and online. Contact Cuttino or Jessica if you have any

The following hotels are reserved for our wedding weekend with special rates. To find out more information about how to reserve rooms, contact Cuttino or Gary Clark.

Franklin Hotel

311 W Franklin St. - 919-442-9000

King size or two queen suites, $198-221

Centrally located on Franklin Street and brand new, this hotel would be a great deal for groups of four (with the queen/queen suites).

Residence Inn by Marriott

101 Erwin Rd‎. - 919-933-4848

Studio (king + pullout) or one bedroom (2 queens + pullout), $139-149

Hampton Inn

1740 Fordham Blvd. - 919-968-3000

All rooms $85, free breakfast

See below for other hotel information.

Just a few quick updates:

Hotel blocks have been reserved for the Franklin Hotel and the Hampton Inn. Prices will be discounted. For information on reservations at either of these places, contact either Cuttino or Gary Clark.

We have set up wedding registries at Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Williams-Sonoma and REI. The items on our list are a bit outdated (they were selected last summer), so please wait until after Thanksgiving for the final list.

Only a few more months to

I'm writing this from Cairo on my way through a pretty large chunk of the Muslim world, Central Asia and China. Unfortunately, due to the current problems in Georgia I'm going to have to delay my return to the country (I was supposed to go for a short visit in September). I have heard from a number of my coworkers, who have been allowed to return to Gori. Society Biliki is back up and running with minimal damage. Since they are in the thick of the relief efforts, they have their work cut out for them.

Since I'll be traveling, I'm planning to organize a project to help out with this work after the holidays. Hopefully by the winter we will have a better picture of the long term needs arising from this crisis. In the meantime, a group of former Peace Corps Volunteers have started an initiative to help out with the current basic needs of displaced people. You can visit their website here

This has been a very difficult few days. After a few days of intense fighting in South Ossetia, Russia invaded sovereign Georgian territory, including my former site, Gori. Apparently the mandate of Russian "peacekeepers" included bombing civilian targets outside of the conflict zone. I know for a fact that one of Biliki's children was killed in Sunday's bombardment. Today, despite a "ceasefire" Russian troops have surrounded Gori and have allowed Ossetian militants to loot and burn the city. I know a few people who remained to protect their property and homes, but I don't know how they are doing.

Peace Corps has completely pulled out of the country. All of the new trainees were sent home almost immediately and the remaining volunteers are safe in Armenia. I finished Peace Corps a week before the war began. The most frightening aspect of all this is how quickly the situation spiraled out of control. When I left the country two days before hostilities there was no indication tha...

I know its been a long time since I have updated this blog. I finished out my service last week and left Georgia two days ago. Work got very busy and things fell by the wayside and I apologize for that. In the near future I will post some blog entries reflecting on the positive times during my last days in Georgia.

For those of you who have seen the news in the last few hours, the South Ossetian conflict, which has been boiling for years now, has become very violent. The threat of a new war is growing. I have every confidence that Peace Corps will take care of its volunteers; for me, I am safe in Turkey. We can only hope and pray that this violence does not spread further and threaten the progress for which my friends in Georgia have worked so hard.

In the meantime, for those of you looking for updated news, as always, I recommend www.civil.ge and

It was generally agreed that this winter was the worst in a decade. In December and January, the temperatures were well below freezing. I heard rumors of Siberia-like weather in certain areas of the country, but this goes unverified. What I do know is winter here can be no fun. My wet clothes froze almost immediately when I put them on the line. I could literally fend off attacks with my solid underwear.

Making life even more difficult was the fact that my water pipes froze in early January and did not thaw until February. Apparently insulating pipes were a little too bourgeois for Soviet planners. A single faucet in the courtyard of my building remained, thanks to the fact that it was kept running all day and night. Once a day, the residents of my block would trudge down, buckets in tow and fill up.

But, life hasn't been all bad. Before I moved into the apartment last year, my landlord installed a modern gas heater. This heater can make an entire room toasty...so warm, in fact...

Nothing starts off the holidays here in Gori quite like Stalin's birthday. Every year on the 21st of December, nostalgic pensioners gather in front of the Stalin birthplace to hold speeches, wave flags and banners, and reminisce about the "good ol' days" of the U.S.S.R. My friends and I went to see the festivities. Despite the snow, some 50 people (a few were members of the Communist Party of Georgia--yes, it still exists) were milling around in front of the museum. It was quite possible that we Volunteers were the only ones there under the age of 60. Despite the fact that for most of these people's lives our two countries were enemies, the response to our presence ranged from curiosity to benign indifference.

I'm sure it seems strange to an American that Stalin would still be held in such regard, and I realize that so far I have written very little about the "Stalin cult" here in Gori and, to a lesser degree, in all of Georgia.

We all know what Stalin did while in power. Many Georgian...

Well, I've let this blog sit and languish over the winter for far too long. What's happened over the time away? Georgia has been in the grip of the coldest winter in a decade--leaving me without water for weeks (seriously, can insulation really be that hard?). Saakashvili was reelected, but the opposition remains unimpressed. We celebrated Stalin's birthday, American Christmas, New Years, Georgian Christmas, Georgian New Years, and Epiphany. And, finally, my fiancee Jessica came to visit.

I'll post more on all this meore

It's never too early to book a hotel! We will book a group of rooms at a couple Chapel Hill hotels within a few months; however, if you would like to do it yourself, here are some suggestions:

Major Chains:

Holiday Inn

1301 N Fordham Blvd/Hwy 15-501

(919) 929-2171

Days Inn

1312 N. Fordham Blvd/Hwy 15-501

(919) 929-3090

Hampton Inn

1740 Fordham Blvd

(919) 968-3000

Best Western

54 East Circle Drive

(919) 932-3000

High-End:

Carolina Inn - Four Diamond Hotel on UNC campus; 10 minute walk to the ceremony and reception sites.

211 Pittsboro Street

(919) 933-2001

Franklin Hotel - Newly-opened boutique hotel one block from campus; near many restaurants, shops and bars.

311 W. Franklin Street

(919) 442-9000

Siena Hotel - Luxury hotel located approximately 2 miles from campus.

1505 E. Franklin Street

(919) 929-4000

Click here for a more complete list of hotels in the area. We will post more hotel suggestions in the greater Triangle area

The wedding is just over a year away, but here is the basic information that we have gathered for you so far.

Date: Sunday, January 18, 2009 - M.L.K. Weekend

Place: Chapel Hill, NC

Time: TBA (most likely around 1 p.m.)

Ceremony Location: Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 300 E. Rosemary Street

View Larger Map

Find driving directions and parking information by clicking this link.

The Iowa primaries may be 16 days away, but the Georgia presidential election--two days later--promises to be way more entertaining (or is it nerve wracking?). For those of you who haven't been keeping up, a snap presidential election was called following the events of November 7. There are currently seven candidates bidding for the presidency, including Saakashvili, who was required by the constitution to step down to run.

These elections seem to be an even wilder variation of the primary season. However, the only person who seems to be embracing the glitzy American-style of campaigning is Saakashvili, who has enlisted the help of pop stars, athletes and other celebrities. Last week, he came to Gori on a campaign stop. Judging from the preparations, the event was to be quite a show. A large tractor trailer truck, covered in Georgian flag decals and "5s" (the ballot number of his party), rolled into Stalin Square early in the morning. Later, it opened up to become a stage. More ...

Life has returned to normal...we'll see how long that lasts. In the meantime, I've posted a lot of pictures from our St. George's Day celebrations--the be all and end all of Georgian holidays. As usual, the residents of Gori went up to Gori Jvari and sacrificed their lambs...and later had a supra with lamb stew. Below are some of my favorite shots...the rest are on Flickr. A warning though, some of them may not be for the weak-at-heart.

The sheep market

This old woman sang on the mountainside for hours.

Children at the church, waiting to get the chickens blessed.

My apologies to PETA.

Little has changed in our situation since I last posted. There is still a state of emergency, the Peace Corps Volunteers are still of standfast, the opposition and authorities are negotiating back and forth. However, there are signs of improvement. It was announced that the emergency rules will be lifted at 7 p.m. today. Things are quiet here in Gori, but no doubt things will be interesting once the campaign gets into full swing.

Enough time has passed now that the Western media has begun to write analysis pieces on the recent events. While some of them are fairly accurate, its frustrating to see how much of the coverage lacks context and understanding of the country. It seems that some journalists, having last looked at Georgia in 2003, are now struggling to come up with a tidy new paradigm to explain what's been happening. If you're looking for coverage, the New York Times has been particularly detailed and, as far as I can tell, is the only American newspaper to be filing its ...

Well, its been a roller coaster of a day. This time yesterday, it seemed that there would be no happy end to the crisis here. Peace Corps Volunteers were packing their emergency bags and updating their resumes. It may be too soon to say we're totally out of the woods, but there is a palpable sense of relief in Gori today.

As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I'm restricted from sharing my political opinions on the matter...doing so would compromise Peace Corps' status as a non-political organization. If you're looking for opinionated commentary, there are plenty of private blogs reporting on the events from a variety to different perspectives. That said, I'll try my best to report my personal experiences as the events unfold.

The situation changed rather quickly yesterday. As I was leaving from work, I received word that President Saakashvili would be making a major address to the nation at 7 p.m. He announced that snap presidential elections will be called for early January 2008. Additio...

I've received a couple emails of concern about the recent developments here in Georgia. Yesterday, violence broke out in central Tbilisi after six days of opposition protests. Police in riot gear cleared the crowds with tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets. During the night, authorities shut down pro-opposition television and radio stations. A state of emergency has been declared in the capital and non-government news sources are not functioning.

I can tell you that the situation outside of the capital is calm, almost business as usual. My NGO opened for business today, the power on, the internet is running. Some of the schools let out early, but in general, it feels like a normal day. We have been instructed by Peace Corps to remain at our sites, stay up on the news, and be ready in the event of an emergency. This is similar to the alert volunteers were place on for over a month during the Rose Revolution of 2003. Time will tell how things will turn out, but for the time...

While traveling through the wine country of Kakheti, I stopped by the town of Signagi (pop. 2,146). I have to admit, I've never seen anything quite like it. As I mentioned before, the Georgian wine industry is attempting to put itself on the map. Naturally, wine attracts tourist, and these tourist have discriminating taste, so to speak. Up until now, there has been a lack of a destination--a place where these picky travelers can sit in posh hotels and admire the scenic views over some wine and cheese.

So, while most of the towns in the wine region gradually paint over their former-Soviet dullness, Signagi has opted for an extreme makeover in an effort to meet this future demand. In a throwback to the old days of Five Year Plans and centralized planning, the government is conducting a massive renovation of the entire town. Every storefront has been repainted, every street has been repaved (in quaint cobblestone); there are fancy new European lampposts and a fountain with a giant ...

October is grape harvest time and as luck would have it, last week I was in the wine region of Kakheti at the height of the season. I took the opportunity to visit the main wine factory of Badagoni, a fairly new wine company based outside of Telavi. Badagoni is a joint venture between Georgians and Italians. The result of this partnership is a strange combination of East meets West, Telavi meets Milan. The finest Italian wine making technology is plopped down in the middle of rural Georgia. Their marketing campaign (you can view television ads on Badagoni's website) juxtaposes a quaint Georgian bebia with some chic Italian models.

This is Georgia??

For all the rich tradition behind Georgian wine, its surprising that its not all that well known in the West. For a long time, Georgians were exporting strictly to customers within the Soviet Union. The Soviets' emphasis on high yield forced Georgian wine makers to sacrifice quality for quantity. Old Georgian vineyards were destroyed ...

I've been working with a group of volunteers to create Sakartvelo: Stories of Peace Corps Life in Georgia. We hope that this will be a monthly podcast about Georgia and our work here. Check out our website at www.sakartvelopodcast.org, or you can find us on iTunes.

Please, feedback is very welcome!

Right before fall set in, a group of friends and I decided to spend some time at a cabin in Borjomi National Park. The park is one of the largest in Europe and is impressively run. It regulates the visitors, has a full-time ranger staff, and keeps everything in good condition. So, its great to see such a nice destination that remains relatively untouched.

Unfortunately, the hike to the camp turned into a 15 kilometer trek up the side of the mountain. Nothing too extreme, but I found myself woefully out of shape and exhausted most of the way (the supra the night before certainly didn't help matters either). By the time we reached the top of the mountain ridge, it was getting dark and we were getting nervous about finding the cabin. As we continued along the trail, we found ourselves in the middle of a sheep herd. Two shepherds approached us and invited us in. They were kind enough to help us find the cabin, built a fire, and shared some vodka.

We had brought some marshmallows and ...

Admittedly, I’ve done a pretty bad job of keeping everyone updated this summer. I promise that from now on, you’ll be hearing a lot more from me. Anyway, here in Georgia, the leaves are changing, it’s a lot windier, and we’re planning the Gori Halloween party. Fall must be upon us. But before we get into that, I’ll share some things that happened over the summer… In mid-August, I traveled to Kobuleti, a Georgian beach town, with my NGO for a staff retreat of sorts. Kobuleti is the Myrtle Beach or Coney Island of Georgian beaches—a real blue collar resort town. It lacks the faux nineteenth century architecture of Batumi or (so I’m told) the natural beauty of Sokhumi. However, it makes up for this with a sparkling new amusement park and a loud, raucous café/discoteka every fifty feet. Kazakh investors are pouring money into the town and there are about five large hotel complexes under construction. The feeling one gets walking down the street is that Kobuleti is a very rough...

After a month-long hiatus I'm back in the swing of things in Georgia. I returned to the US to find that it is still there, just as I left it. It was kind of strange to be in a country with all those shiny new cars, air conditioning, traffic laws, and fast food. Coming back to Georgia, I found the daily temperatures approaching 100 degrees and almost no rain for a month. Home sweet home.

Last week, I received a summons from the Gori Regional Court to come and testify in the case of the theft back in January. My host cousin was facing his court hearing date and I had to come and...say something. I was instructed by Peace Corps to simply say, "I have no more claims against this person, please don't call me again." We initially tried to do this in writing, but the judge insisted that I come to the hearing.

We arrived about 30 minutes late to find that the hearing (of course) had not started. So the waiting began. I spent most of the time in a van with one of the Peace Corps staff me...

Its been far too long since an update, but life has been busy despite the heat and the slow pace of summer. The new group of volunteers-in-training arrived last week and Gori is the base of operations. This means that I get to play host, answer a lot of questions, and show everyone the ropes. Its actually a lot of fun and its nice to have everyone coming to me for a change.

Last weekend, I travelled with three of my friends to Kazbegi, a mountain region in north Georgia. Its the last major stop along the Georgian Military Highways, the main road that cuts north and south between Tbilisi and Russia. I think its the most beautiful area of Georgia, and the pictures don't really do it justice. But, until you can come see it for yourself, you can check it out on my Flickr page.

Mount Kazbegi is actually a dormant volcano with an elevation of about 16,500 feet. The church in the foreground is Gergeti Sameba--or Holy Trinity Church. As a point of reference, it stands at just under 7,900...

Recently we received a bulletin from our medical staff about a rapidly-spreading case of African swine fever. We're always vigilant for bird flu, had a small bout with rabbit fever, but the case of pig fever has seemed to take everyone--including the Georgian authorities--by complete surprise. The virus doesn't affect humans, but it has the potential to completely obliterate the pig population in this country and make it impossible to restore it.

Public Enemy No. 1

In case you were wondering, pigs are a big deal here. First of all, they're physically huge...I've seen pigs that are as big as cows. Most of them wander around freely, much like the cows, and aren't confined to one pen. This is going to cause some problems when there are sick, free-roaming pigs in the country. But most importantly, pork is a staple here. Mtsvadi (pork kebabs) are a national dish; most New Years supras feature a large pig head as its centerpiece. We're in danger of losing a lot of good food!

The concern...

The weather has turned hot and dry, so in order to enjoy "the nature" before everything turns brown, my sitemate and I went on a hike. We went up along the mountain ridge above Gori to the site of a ruined fort. Here's a picture:

Also, Georgian wine has been in the American press a lot recently. Read this article from the Washington Post about one man's personal mission to raise awareness of kartuli ghvino among American

After the fun in Lankaran, I headed up the coastline to Baku, that boom town on the Caspian. The city is flush with cash--oil and gas revenues--and so it feels way more cosmopolitan than anywhere else I've been in the Caucasus. It has a much larger foreign population than Tbilisi, many of whom work for BP and other oil companies. There's a definite sense that the city is going places. Its one of the fastest growing in the world, if all those construction cranes are any indication.

Baku panorama. The gothic-looking building is a Soviet-era government building.

In Baku, I stayed with a young expat couple who are working for BP. It was a bit strange to move from Peace Corps Volunteers to young professionals; I sometimes felt as if they had picked up some scraggly homeless man of the street. Needless to say that their living standards are much higher than mine--no bucket baths for them. But I was very grateful for their hospitality and showing me a good time. Incidentally, one of my ...