Training in Tbilisi

For some reason we decided to stay up until breakfast once we arrived at the hotel around 4AM. We hung out with our two new friends Chase and Aaron and drank wine while watching Bears-Cowboys Monday night football and waiting for our delicious breakfast of plain pasta and hot dogs that we would have for the next eight days. (Actually breakfast was my favorite meal because there was also yoghurt and cereal…Lunch and Dinner were awful, in hindsight though these meals are somehow much better than my homestay food) Anyways, us four ended up sleeping until like 3 PM after breakfast and then we headed out to the center of Tbilisi to get our first glimpse of Georgia.

Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital is home to around 1 million people, accounting for a quarter of the country’s population. It is a really interesting city. I’ve never been anywhere where there is a crazier combination of old/new, undeveloped/developed, and conservative/progressive. The city is filled with 5 or 6 ridiculous works of modern architecture that would be huge attractions in any famous international city. There are also a couple areas with beautiful old apartments and hotels. Tbilisi also has a picturesque river flowing through the city with mountains/hills on each side, so some parts of this city are really incredible. On the other hand, half of the city is a mess and it feels more third world than Western European. There are countless construction projects that have been stopped because of lack of money so that kind of takes away from the rest of the city’s beauty. Also, out of all the cultural differences between home and Georgia, the one I will never be able to understand is the Georgian pastime of littering. Trash cans are virtually non-existent here and there is garbage EVERYWHERE. Walking along the beautiful river with stunning cliffs on the edge of it is unfortunately really unpleasant because of the awful smell and insane amount of trash in the river. The reason I can’t wrap my mind around this aspect of their culture is because Georgians are so incredibly proud of their country and its natural beauty. Everyone I meet here loves talking about all the beautiful sights this country has to see—they have amazing beaches on the Black Sea, the snowy Caucusus mountain range, a beautiful wine country etc…Hopefully Georgia will start to do a better job of preserving these beautiful areas because this is the only thing preventing Georgia from becoming a massive tourist spot.

Anyways, our training was very similar to MTV’s Real World. Stick the most absurd group of people ever under a roof for an extended period of time in a crazy home and a crazy city and see what happens. As you can imagine, a group of 109 people that come to teach English in Georgia will be a tad interesting. The teachers in our training session were from young and old and from all over the place. The majority were from the US, but there were others from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England, Ireland, Holland, Germany etc. Our training was from 9-6 or 7 every day so it was pretty exhausting, but because there were so many strange characters it was entertaining. People would also ask the stupidest questions though so sometimes sessions that could’ve been a half hour went on for an hour and a half. Our training session mostly tried to prepare us for teaching, the change in culture, and the Georgian language. We had other information sessions about safety, finances, health etc and I was very impressed by TLG’s organization. The funniest and most interesting sessions were the cultural classes. We learned everything we needed to know in order to help us to adapt to this crazy place. Some weird/important/crazy aspects of the culture we learned about are:

-       Georgians are famous for their hospitality and think of guests as gifts from God.

-       Georgians don’t smile close to as much as westerners do.  Walking down the street it seems like everybody wants to kill you, even though they are actually very friendly people. Apparently if you’re constantly smiling you will immediately stand out as a foreigner. They told us that Georgians think that nobody can possibly be that happy all the time so they only smile when they actually mean it. This has been very strange to adapt to because it seems like people hate you when they actually love you. Kind of cool that they are more revealing and genuine about their feelings but I’ve never been anywhere like this.

-       Georgians live with their family even more than the Andalucians do in Sevilla. After getting married a couple doesn’t go live on their own. Instead they move in with usually their husband’s family. We were told that kids like me who are unmarried almost always live at home.

-       We were told that all girls except prostitutes are expected to be virgins at the time of marriage and men are supposed to be sexually experienced. Somehow that doesn’t add up.

-       Georgians are extremely emotional and will often yell/get in heated debates, mostly about politics (especially with the current situation)

-       Georgians are very religious and it is a Orthodox Christian country.

-       Georgians are insane drivers. WOW….casually driving into oncoming traffic every 30 seconds and constantly avoiding head-on collisions by like 10 feet. Unreal.

-       Homosexuality is extremely uncommon or hidden and guys that are friends constantly kiss each other and will lock arms walking down the street.

-       Georgians rarely exercise. (I’ve been on a run a couple times and people look at me like im from another planet)

There was a lot more, but those are just some fun tidbits that kind of portray how crazy this place is. The best part about the training though was that it allowed to meet other volunteers and become friends with them. Without the training we wouldn’t know anyone and James and I would be going on a couples retreat every weekend.

The food at training was horrible and I got sick for a couple days but at least I was able to get that adjusting done early. With the A’s in the playoffs and sporting events like Cal/UCLA, NFL Sunday, and Barcelona-Real Madrid, I took advantage of my hotel wifi to get my sports fix in before I most likely moved to a home without internet access. The rest of my free time at orientation we went out in the evening and I was happy to see that Tbilisi is a pretty lively city at night. There are several bars, hookah bars, and clubs that stay open late so hopefully I have a couple weekends to come back and enjoy this scene more.

That’s the gist of orientation and time at our hotel (which was the creepiest hotel ever by the way) Next up comes our host family placements.