On the road again

I guess you would say this is our second day in Tbilisi?

Wednesday afternoon, a gentleman named Ace picked me up and kept me company on the drive to JFK airport. After a few hours of waiting at JFK, my flight to Istanbul left at midnight. I was sitting in between another TLG (Teach Learn Georgia) volunteer and a delightful older Turkish man. The girl was nice but quiet; the man called me “daughter” and told me the Turkish names for all the food on our dinner trays.

We landed in Istanbul around 5 pm local time, and our flight to Tbilisi left at 11:30 pm. That means I had a chance to sit in an internet café and play “spot-the-other-people-in-my-group.” I was actually rather good at it, and soon there were a whole bunch of us performing the customary introductory interrogations (What’s your name? Where are you from? What did/do you study? Have you taught before? How did you find this program? Are you excited? How sick of airports are you?). At some point we got on a plane. Then we got off a plane. Then it was 6 am and we were in our hotel in Tbilisi. I jumpped in the shower, and when I got out I noticed that the sun had risen, the sky was filled with bats, the horizon was interrupted by mountains, and there was a rooster outside my window determined to keep me from sleeping. He failed, of course.

The first day was a bit slow. I woke around lunch-time, and then I walked around outside with a new friend for a while. We gaped at old men fishing in the river that cuts through the city. We wandered through an outdoor market, unconfidently murmering a mantra of “Ara…gomadlobt…” to placate the saleswomen who called after us. Can I say we saw anything recognizable from a tourguide? No. However, we enjoyed marveling at the mountains which surrounded us and the grapes that crawled along the telephone and electrical wires. Then we headed back to the hotel for our evening meeting.

We went out adventuring again after the meeting. A group of people took the subway to Rustavelli Avenue, and we walked around until it was time to head back (we have a rather early curfew). I went back tonight with friends, and we had an excellent dinner…but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Perhaps this whole post is rather getting ahead of myself. I spent the summer working, interning, and trying to see friends before they scattered around the world (myself included ) for another year. There were lots of wonderful and interesting things that happened this summer—I went to Boston and New York, hosted a friend in scenic Chester County, made strawberry-mint jam, went kayaking, moved Becca into college—but suddenly the summer has ended and I’m saying “Gomarjoba!” to Sakartvelo.

Today was our first actual day of orientation. We started with a general meeting, spent the next four hours in Georgian class (with breaks for coffee), had an hour lunch break, and regrouped for “Intercultural Education” class. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the people here. The volunteers come from different countries, experience levels, and age groups. I’ve really enjoyed talking to them and hearing all of the incredible stories about where people have lived/taught previously.

Now I am actually going to head off to bed because tomorrow is an early morning. President Saakashvili surprised the program organizers by inviting all of the TLG teachers in western Georgia to a performance in Batumi. The performance is tomorrow…so we’re getting up early for a 5 hour drive to the scenic Black Sea coastal town. I’ll let you know how it goes!