Tired Eyes and An Eager Mind

I touched down in Tbilisi roughly 60 hours ago, yet I'm pretty sure I just mentally landed a few minutes ago. With a 30-hour initial airport trek—including a 13-hour layover in cold and rainy Warsaw—and extensive training sessions the past two days, I've had very little time to grasp the fact that I'm now residing in some distant, foreign land.

Talk about a head rush.

There are about 75 of us in the Teach and Learn in Georgia program being placed next week in various villages and towns across the country. The program is relatively new, initiated last March by the President and overseen by the State's Ministry of Education. In a sense, we are the fourth guinea pig class to come through; evident by the many unknowns (i.e. where I'm teaching at) we've had to endure. But hey, life's an adventure, right?

Most of my group landed Sunday at 5 a.m. We were transported to a pretty posh (for Georgian standards) hotel called the Bazaleti about 10 minutes from downtown Tbilisi. Although the building is relatively old, quite possibly a former Soviet hospital by the look of its layout, renovation has created a western atmosphere that would give any fine Holiday Inn a serious run for its money.

After getting settled in to our rooms, a few of us that bonded during our long day in Poland cabbed down to an area called "Old Town" and ventured the streets before hiking a ridge overlooking the northern fringe of one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe. Towering over our hike was the "Woman of Georgia", a large monument erected as a symbol of strength and compassion of Georgian women. I'm not exactly sure the background of the Woman, but that's just what I was told by a few teachers who read a book or two on the area. (I'll take their word for it, I guess) We ended the outing with some delicious khachapuri and local beer before cabbing back to our week-long home.

Oh, and let me give you a brief synopsis of "cabbing" in this part of the world. Think car chase in Terminator on a crowded street from Grand Theft Auto IV...then add an admission fee. A f&*king unreal adventure worth every lari.

My stay in Tbilisi has mostly been crammed with cultural intercommunication and language classes—hopefully preparing us for what's ahead. Our days have started at 9 a.m. and ended somewhere around 9:30 p.m. Although mentally and physically draining, the classes and perspectives from the up-and-coming teachers from across the world have been very satisfying and a bit of relief to my anxiety.

It's nearly midnight and my head is in a fog-like state. A hotel worker finished his night shift with a few piano ballads on the lobby Grand across from where I type, signifying the release of the last drop of energy in my body. Tomorrow we finish our training session early and I hope to explore the city night life.

Stay tuned for more updates.

-SCB