I have been in Tbilisi for about 3 days. The first day seems like multiple days because we arrived to the hotel at approximately 6am, before daylight, got a few hours of sleep and then woke up again in time to shower, eat lunch and go on a three hour walking tour of the city. We climbed up a massive hill to a fortress/castle with a great view which made the hike worth it. There were four awesome dogs that walked with us most of the way, which if you know me is great since I love dogs infinitely. We were told not to touch the street dogs because they carry diseases (this is after I had already pet one of them, whoops) and might randomly want to bite you (which I don't know if I quite believe since I think I have a decent understanding of dog behavior and queues). Anyway, I guess I will avoid petting them in the future even though I really do have the urge to collect them all and take them to get shots and loving homes. This has nothing to do with Georgia and only to do with my dog rescue mindset....
The past two days have been about 12 hours of orientation. Including 3 hours every day of Georgian language lessons and yesterday 4 hours of methodology and tomorrow and following days of Intercultural lessons. It's exhausting. I can't tell if it's lack of sleep, jet lag, overeating, or sitting down for hours at a time that is making it so difficult. Of course, the language is really hard and we go through so much in such a short amount of time I feel like I might not ever pick it up... but I guess I know a couple of words.
The food at the hotel is good and never ending. At home I never eat breakfast, usually eat a decent sized lunch, and a dinner of some sort and that's about all. At the hotel we get free breakfast, lunch, dinner and two coffee breaks complete with little pastries or brownie things. Since I love free food, this is all becoming a problem. I don't think I've been truly hungry this entire time because I just keep eating every time food is available. I'm not complaining because I love food, but I'm wondering what all this food and sitting in class is going to do to my body. I guess it's good that in a few days we will be leaving the hotel and entering the real world.
Tonight was the only night we have where we finished "early" with orientation. Early means before 9pm. Pretty much all of us TGLers went out to a bar in the main part of Tbilisi. It was a bar themed with the Beatles, which is amusing since I don't even really like the Beatles. The cab ride was pretty frightening which was to be expected since the drivers here are crazy. Then we had some fun and drank a couple Georgian beers and danced a bit to American music and "Hey Jude" which isn't even a typical dancing song. We were in the last group of 6 people to return to the hotel (we have to back at midnight), so we all had to cram into a cab which was difficult and I ended up laying on top of four people seated in the back. We survived this trip as well, and even though I am starving and craving chips, no where is open at this hour so I am instead writing in my blog.
I suppose I will now go to sleep because I have an early day full of Georgian lessons and intercultural learning tomorrow. At leas I know breakfast will be waiting for me at 8am.
The past two days have been about 12 hours of orientation. Including 3 hours every day of Georgian language lessons and yesterday 4 hours of methodology and tomorrow and following days of Intercultural lessons. It's exhausting. I can't tell if it's lack of sleep, jet lag, overeating, or sitting down for hours at a time that is making it so difficult. Of course, the language is really hard and we go through so much in such a short amount of time I feel like I might not ever pick it up... but I guess I know a couple of words.
The food at the hotel is good and never ending. At home I never eat breakfast, usually eat a decent sized lunch, and a dinner of some sort and that's about all. At the hotel we get free breakfast, lunch, dinner and two coffee breaks complete with little pastries or brownie things. Since I love free food, this is all becoming a problem. I don't think I've been truly hungry this entire time because I just keep eating every time food is available. I'm not complaining because I love food, but I'm wondering what all this food and sitting in class is going to do to my body. I guess it's good that in a few days we will be leaving the hotel and entering the real world.
Tonight was the only night we have where we finished "early" with orientation. Early means before 9pm. Pretty much all of us TGLers went out to a bar in the main part of Tbilisi. It was a bar themed with the Beatles, which is amusing since I don't even really like the Beatles. The cab ride was pretty frightening which was to be expected since the drivers here are crazy. Then we had some fun and drank a couple Georgian beers and danced a bit to American music and "Hey Jude" which isn't even a typical dancing song. We were in the last group of 6 people to return to the hotel (we have to back at midnight), so we all had to cram into a cab which was difficult and I ended up laying on top of four people seated in the back. We survived this trip as well, and even though I am starving and craving chips, no where is open at this hour so I am instead writing in my blog.
I suppose I will now go to sleep because I have an early day full of Georgian lessons and intercultural learning tomorrow. At leas I know breakfast will be waiting for me at 8am.
Sounds like a great time to me :)
ReplyDeleteGreat blog, Gina! Everything sounds fantastic (except that part about not liking the Beatles - but we can work on that). This will inspire me to log into the internet more often (is that a good thing?). Stay well! -barbara
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