Ignorance is (Exciting) Bliss

In just one day I’ll be leaving for Georgia (uh, CRAZY). But before I say “gamarjobat” (hello) to my new home I have to say goodbye to family and friends and the luxuries of home. I’m temporarily trading New York pizza for homemade khachapuri, TV-on-demand for more uh, quaint activities. I really can’t wait to tell my birth family (wow that sounds awkward) about my host family and share stories about my friends from home with my new Georgian friends. Granted I haven’t even met these people yet but um, minor detail.

Plus, amidst all the packing, unpacking and repacking I’ve been doing over the past couple days (i.e. I realized I probably don’t need four going-out skirts and it may be a good idea to pack shoes) I’ve also learned more about the TLG program. I found out that in addition to being the only native English speaker at my school, I’ll get the opportunity to teach all the K-12 grades. I love this! I’ll get to do fun artsy projects with the younger kids, start a pen-pal program with pre-teens, and attempt to be a cool high school teacher too.

Of course, there’s definitely still a big fluffy cloud of ambiguousness floating above me. I still don’t know the town I’ll be living in, or who my host family will be but you know, therein lies half the fun. What I do know is that I’ll be living in the region of Imereti in Western Georgia and most likely I'll live not too far from Kutaisi, the second largest city in Georgia.

The red shape is Imereti, the region I'll soon call my new home!

While I can’t find too much information about Kutaisi there is plenty to read about Munich, Germany. And excitingly enough I have a fourteen hour layover right in Munich, the heart of Bavaria! That means my adventure abroad begins with beer gardens, pretzels and new friends. Ah, a big thanks to the Georgian Ministry of Education for booking my flight!

Thank you, Google

Funny how your life can change from stumbling upon one website. That’s pretty much precisely what happened when I was googling various ‘life options’ just a few months ago. I knew that sitting at a desk just wasn’t for me, so that ruled out many 9-to-5 options. Grad school was pretty much out too, since I still can’t decide what I want to do (I’ve ruled out physicist and acrobat, but the everything else is still on the table).

All I knew was that I wanted to do something adventurous and meaningful that involved being creative and working with people. Well hello, enter Greenheart Travel . While lounging in my roommate’s bed my best friend Melissa and I stumbled upon a paid program to teach English in the Former Soviet Union. We began our applications within the hour.

Needless to say, in one week I’ll be moving to the Republic of Georgia to start the adventure of a lifetime along with two of my best friends. Does life get any more perfect then that?