It took a while - like a seven hour drive to Chicago, and an excruciatingly long night there (not by anyone's fault, just because of my own excitement!), and then a ridiculously long plane ride over the Atlantic, coupled with a super lengthy layover in Warsaw, and then the longest. Flight. In. History. To T'bilisi - but I'm here!!!!!
Before I get to Georgia, I just want to say that the highlight of the trip in Chicago was easily my 89 year old aunt trying to convince my sister to grow and sell marijuana (since it's legal, and lucrative, in Michigan to do so). Chicago to Warsaw was nice because the kid next to me and I spent five out of the nine hours just yapping at each other about shit - Star Wars, video games, ex relationships, etc - that by the time we actually were getting close to Warsaw, most of the trip was over with, and we had also squeaked in some sleep. The 8 hour layover in Poland was probably my favorite leg of the trip, though. A couple of us decided to say eff it to the airport, and after some hilarious shenanigans with the lockers to put our bags in, and the train tickets to get into the city, we found ourselves in the middle of Warsaw. I am so bummed that we only got to run around for about an hour and a half - I could've easily spent days in that city alone. Warsaw, I'm coming back for you!
The plane to T'bilisi wasn't departing until almost 11 pm, and all of us (there were almost 20 TLG volunteers in Poland for this layover) were exhausted from however many hours of travel previous, so pretty much all of us slept on the last leg of the journey. I do remember waking up partway through the flight to the Georgian woman next to me putting a blanket on me and sliding a pillow under my head. When I woke up before we landed, she kept asking me how I slept, while simultaneously freaking out about how the plane was never going to land because something was wrong and that her ears hurt and she couldn't hear anything.
And then Georgia happened. Wonderful, amazing, exhilarating Georgia. We didn't see much at 6 am driving from the airport to the hotel, but I did notice a lot of Soviet style apartments that are slowly being renovated to match the Georgian architectural norm. I mean to say, they're turning grey boxes with small windows into more livable, interesting spaces. Poland looked like it was in the process of doing the same thing. I guess when your country has been under a predetermined set of rules for a long time, the physical detriment is great. Most of the buildings in T'bilisi that we saw today were under some sort of construction. I'm not sure if it was to renovate them, or remodel them, or just that 200 year old buildings require slightly more upkeep than most, but given the fact that I'm from the midwest, where our two seasons are summer and construction, the work was noticed.
All that said. T'bilisi is incredible. There are vendors and restaurants and shops and cars on the sidewalk and cars going in reverse at 40 mph in oncoming traffic and random Irish bars where everyone inside only sings English songs. The love I have for this city, after being in it for about 12 hours, is ridiculous. And it's strange to me to talk to the other volunteers - almost no one did any research on Georgia before they came. They kind of just let it happen, and will roll with whatever happens. And that's great and all, but it just makes me feel way too neurotic to travel. Almost like I don't belong in this demographic of 20somethingyearolds who are currently country jumping. I've wanted to come here for almost two years, and I've read blogs, and articles, and watched videos and found pictures, of just about any possible thing that goes on here. And I'm still way too excited to be here. It feels kind of like I'm broken, and that I'm expecting things because the internet told me to. And while I don't personally believe that's the case, because I have loved every second since we touched down, I'm concerned that others here think that since I can tell you what all the different regions of Georgia are known for (because I can, cause I'm a stalker like that) that it means that the experience is somehow lessened. I sort of see where they're coming from, as true spontaneity is always amazing, but given that this is something I have wanted for so long, and that I am so to-the-core happy about, there was just no way I wasn't going to look up every possible thing I could before actually coming here.
At the end of the day I don't really care what they think, it's just strange to see the complete difference in them and me. Which is good. Everyone's been great so far, and with the other half of the volunteers arriving today, I can't wait to meet the rest! Plus, when I'm in a country that has a hilarious sense of humor, it's easy to not really care about much.
Being informed is not the same thing as "not being spontaneous". Don't let anyone feed you that line of bullshit. Also, you can make more spontaneous decisions with better results if actually, you know, informed about something beforehand. Different learning curve, with a different baseline. Just sayin'...
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