Hop, Skip, and a Jump: Lo and behold, I'm in Georgia.

After a very long flight, a very long layover, a not-so-long flight, and a not-so-long wait in the airport, I have arrived in Georgia. We left Chicago at 10:30pm on Wednesday night and finally arrived at the hotel in Tbilisi at 5am Friday morning. With the time change, it feels like we just skipped right over Thursday, so needless to say, I was a bit confused on the time yesterday (which was actually earlier this morning). I got settled into my room at the Bazaleti Hotel where I will spend the next week in training and orientation.

The trip – so far – has been fairly uneventful, but I will highlight some of the great parts about it.

           1.       The small child sitting in front of me on the plane to Istanbul. She was super 
                cute and risked getting in trouble multiple times to smile and laugh at the funny
                faces I was making at her.

           2.       Getting somewhat confused in the Istanbul airport because apparently if you are
                leaving the country, you do not, in fact, need to go through passport control.

           3.       Walking into the bathroom at the Tbilisi airport to a woman smoking, which I
                thought was just one of those things I take for granted in the States. I later
                found out that you’re not allowed to smoke in the airport here anymore than
                it’s allowed at home, which explains why she was doing so in the bathroom.

           4.       Waking up to the sounds of Tbilisi – honking horns, cars braking, and whatever
                other sounds were pouring through my window at 9:30.

           5.       Getting my last suitcase from baggage claim – both of them made it safe and 

                     sound!

           6.       Skyping with the ‘rents (it sounds cool to say it like that…) and getting to use
                the internet after going without communication for so long.

 

I would love to tell you (and by “you” I mean, the collective body reading this post) that all is well, I’m super excited, and I am eager to start learning Georgian, but right now, I’m exhausted. I think everything is well, I will be super excited, and if I can stay awake, I’ll be very eager to start learning the language; those feelings are just buried a bit by the idea that I can take a nap.