In Tbilisi!

So, I’m in Georgia now, writing this blog post from the hotel in Tbilisi where we’re having our orientation!  The flight from New York went well, all my stuff made it alright, and I’m having a blast making new friends and playing the role of clueless foreigner!

There’s about twenty to twenty five of us here, most from the US, but a few from Australia, Canada, and one girl from Egypt.  I met a whole bunch of them in the airport at JFK, including my roommate, who is from Alaska.  Most everyone has had some travel/expat experience, though most of us are fresh out of college.  A couple of us know Russian, but that’s about it–no one really knows Georgian.

The people here seem friendly enough, at least the ones we’ve attempted to speak with.  I knew it was going to be disorienting not being able to speak the language, but…wow.  There’s nothing quite like being the clueless foreigner.  All I really know is that the word for “hello” sounds a lot like “gom jabbar.” The only thing for it is to abandon all shame and do your best to get out there and communicate, which my Alaskan roommate is really great at.  I think we’re going to get along quite well.

That’s about all I can say for now.  I hear that Georgia is in the American news now, with Iran trying to attack the Israeli embassy–yeah, that’s just what my parents needed to hear. :/ Don’t worry about me, though; I’m doing fine, and I’ll be sure to keep my eyes open and stay out of danger.

I’d write more, but I don’t want to plug in my computer until I have a surge protector, and I’ll need to conserve my battery if I want to write at all later today.  I haven’t been writing hardly at all in the last few days, but of course I’ve been busy getting adjusted to all the new changes.  I’ll try to do about 500 words a day minimum, but I’m not going to be too strict on it–I’ve got a lot of other things going on, after all.