Judgement Day

There was so much anticipation leading up to the last day in Tbilisi when we were going to head off with our host families. A couple days before that we were given a paper that gave us our city, town, or village along with district, region, family, school, and whether or not we had internet/ indoor bathrooms. I found out that I was placed in a village called Surami in the district of Khashuri and region of Shida Kartli. At first I was disappointed to see that I was in a village because I initially wanted to be in a city. However, after looking up my village online and in a book, I found out that Surami was only 1.5 hrs from Tbilisi, actually the size of a town (10,000 people) and that it was a resort area that people come to vacation in the summer.  I also found out that I would have a 15 year old brother, 16 year old sister, a mother, daughter, and grandmother. Finally, I was very pleased to hear that my family has internet and an indoor bathroom.  I prepared myself to be happy either way because cities and villages both have their pros and cons. The best news was that I was in the middle of the country and near most of my friends so I could easily travel and see them on the weekends.

On Wednesday training ended and we finally met our families. Everyone felt incredibly anxious because we were about to embark on such a crazy adventure. To add to this anxiety, TLG turned the process of being introduced to our families into a huge show. All of the volunteers were lined up on one side of the bottom of a big staircase and all of the Georgians were on the other side. For the most part it was host families that came to pick up their teachers, but if they were unable to make it, co-teachers, principals, relatives, or friends came in their place. Our TLG training leader, Tamara, announced the host family, the volunteer, and then both parties would meet in the middle to the applause and laughter of a few hundred people that were watching. The encounters were pretty awkward because most people weren’t used to kissing someone on the cheek when first meeting them.

When my name was called, there to meet me were my host dad, brother, and sister. I was very relieved to find out that my brother and sister spoke decent English and my brother was even wearing a Los Angeles shirt. We were able to talk for a lot of the 90 minute car ride so it wasn’t awkward at all. We discussed sports, music etc… and I was really excited to have cool siblings.

My village is beautiful and kind of in the mountains and my house is really cool. It is mostly dirt roads besides the main one and cows, pigs, and chickens roam everywhere. Apparently the house was built by my host dad and his father. There are three floors. In the basement they make wine, on the main floor there is the kitchen, family room, bathroom, and everyone in the family’s rooms. I have the top floor all to myself but there are like 3 other huge rooms like mine that have beds in them and are empty. I think they may rent the top out in the summer or something because it is huge. I have a decent view out of my window and I love going over there to smell the fresh mountain air in the morning. I was very happy to see that they do in fact have an indoor bathroom and internet, even though there is no wifi.  The living room is very cozy and the kitchen is very old and simple looking. I will try to post pictures soon.

At first I assumed that I would just show up to school the next morning, on Thursday, but then I found out I was supposed to wait for the call from my regional representative who would tell me when my meeting was. I will talk about all this in my next post.