Real Update!

Hello folks. Time for a real update, since I've failed to do one yet! Okay so I have been in Georgia now for three weeks. I flew out Wednesday, the 26th of February... no I didn't get lost in the airport... almost though... I had a three hour wait and it took me... an hour and a half to get settled! Yep. I fail pretty hard. I would sit down, take off my backpack, dig out my book, watch a bit of the olypics on the tv overhead, read a page, get up and pace for about five minutes, sit back down, take off my backpack, etc. This went on until about quarter after ten... I was supposed to board at 10:50 and fly at 11:5o... it is purely by chance that I got up to go to the washroom and looked at the leader board and realized our gate had changed without an announcement. Yay! I had about ten minutes to wait between when I saw the gate change and boarding.

My flight wasn't crowded and I had no one beside me... not many did unless they were sitting in the middle in a family. Speaking of which, there was a family of four across from me. The kids were about four and eight years old and adorable. But when they fell asleep, their parents didn't have any seats left because they just sprawled out lol. I passed over the extra blanket and pillow from the empty seat beside me and the stewardess came and pointed to some other empty seats nearby for the parents. They were really nice :)

Not too much to say about Istanbul. It's big and confusing but has some gorgeous money traps that I avoided at all costs.

Now: before I flew I emailed the Holts and asked them who would be picking me up. Dennis replied, saying "I'll be there. Just look for the best looking guy in the place and I'll try to stand somewhere near him!" :D So when I got off, got helped out by an Irish lady to find my way through and she made sure I didnt get lost (yay!) and then walked out looking for the best looking guy (haha relax mom, Im kidding) when... who did I find? JENNY! Let me say this: even at a ridiculous time of the morning, she is highly entertaining.

Our meeting went like this-

me: -in shock- JENNY!
her: Kyla!
*pause*
me: You're not Dennis!
her: no! How are you?
me: good!
*pause*
her: so I didn't expect you to be so tall.
me: ... I didn't expect you to have an accent!

Jenny, while American, has lived here for over four years now and has all Georgian room mates. Frequently while speaking, she forgets "Is" or words like that.

We went home but by the time we got there, the previously tired Jennifer was no longer tired and *I* was wired, despite not having slept much at all during the flights... so we talked for like... another hour before going to bed.

The next day, Christine (the other American girl), Jenny and I went for an adventure. We started on foot, got into a "marshutka" (?) and then the subway finally... all to get to the... *gasp* Bazaar! It was awesome. I got slippers and we ate hotchipouri (no idea on the proper spelling for this one, but it's basically this really good cheese in flat bread). All in all that first weekend was a great adventure. We had the introduction dinner on Sunday then started DTS on Monday.

So, here is how the living works: we have one toilet room for the ten of us upstairs (plus guests), and one shower room for the ten of us plus guests. There are eight students, six girls and two guys. In room one, we have two beds and a desk for the guests. Room two, there are two sets of bunkbeds, a shelf for each bed, and then a little grey movable shelf thing for each as well. That room sleeps Deanna (our DTS leader), Tony, Nino and Christine. Room three is my room. Same furniture, painted blue not pink and with no outdooors window. Tamuna sleeps above me, across from me Natia and above Natia, Jenny. Room four only has three beds and a shelf thing. Until now, its been Gio and Tamazi (Gio is staff)and Otari, the Babu (Grandpa) on the nights he stays over. Now that our last staff member, Wim, has arrived, he has taken that bed for the course of DTS and Otari gets to sleep on an extra bed.

Its a fairly random group. Naturally I feel closer to Christine... she was the first one I met, and the only other native english speaking student. We spend a lot of time together with Jenny and the Holts who are all excited since the last couple DTS's haven't had westerners lol. On my facebook I've put up some pics and more will be around.. eventually. I'm also trying to get some video up but its taking an extended period of time and frustrating me so we'll see lol.

In Georgia

Okay, so I said I would make a blog entry and I will! I just don't happen to have a lot of time at the moment! :) Its incredibly amazing here. The city is sooo old. For all of you who had a hard time picturing where Georgia is, here are some little things to help you remember: Its the location for the myths of Jason and the Argonauts, as well as the Golden Fleece. Matthias the apostle is supposedly buried here, and it was historically the second nation to actually claim the state religion as Christianity. It used to extend from the Black to the Caspian Sea, and in soooo many ways, it is the Ireland of this part of the world.

When I got here, I was telling Christine, the girl from the US on our trip, about home, and mentioned the Blue Mountains. Tony (Tonya but she doesn't like that), who is Russian-Georgian (She is Georgian but her first language is Russian) asked about whether at home it was mountains like here and I laughed and told her how we call it a mountain but its really just a big hill... it looks like a mountain because its mostly flat and coming out of a valley. She shook her head and said "In Georgia, everything is mountain" and boy is she right! Its absolutely BEAUTIFUL here. Tbilisi is in a valley type thing... surrounded by ridges. Our village where our base is, is on one of the ridges. Its only like a fifteen minute drive to get to Tbilisi... driving here is crazy (although, some of the boys back home I think beat them in the crazy catgory). Its so much fun...


Last night we were bussing from Tbilisi back to the village (mom don't have a heart attack, it was the entire group including our actual DTS leaders) and the bus was crowded... it was about 9 pm o it was dark outside as well... a family got on and Natia, the girl I was sitting beside all of a sudden got up because she saw them and gave her seat to the mother and daughter, who was maybe five. Well I sat another stop, before I noticed her husband was holding a baby and trying to keep his balance... so he had moved up into the actual aisle... So I got up and tried to give him the seat.

He kept trying to tell me to sit down, and he knew some english and Natia translated so I understood but I just kept saying Ara... no. Natia told him I got up because they were a family and he was holding a baby and trying to keep his balance. So... I got told to sit by his wife, and she then informed him to pass me the baby :P It was so random and so much fun. My Georgian is not very good but they tell me its okay lol... so they were all laughing at me when I sat down and started talking to the baby. There are now some pictures of me and the family. They were very nice and the children here are so adorable most of the time..

I will have to tell you all about Erma and David and Tia later, but for now, my time on the computer is more than up. :)