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.