Every new beginning...

So... behind on posts again, forgive any conflicting tenses, lost thoughts and outdated information. I started writing this during a layover, and have been incredibly busy since I landed in Batumi, so I've been trying to write about how I felt at the time.

До свидания Москва! Boarding the plane at Domodedovo airport, heading to Minsk. My 2nd flight of the day.

June 24th: Today was just one of those days... I'm incredibly exhausted and have just been struggling to get through the day without curling into a ball and giving up on the rest of my adventure. At least I finally know what day it is. I woke up in a lovely hotel in Irkutsk on Tuesday, at 5:30 am (12:30 am Moscow time, 4:30 pm Monday est) and started my long, stressful, anxiety filled journey to finally get to Batumi, Georgia.

It's now 4am Wednesday Moscow/Batumi time (9am in Irkutsk, 8pm Tuesday est) and I've finally landed in Batumi! In the past day and a half, I've been on 2 continents, in 3 countries, crossed 6 time zones, and time traveled twice as well. All on only 3ish hours of sleep. It has taken an incredible amount of strength to keep pushing on and not breakdown crying.

I feel like I got jipped out of saying goodbye to Moscow. I only had a few hours between landing back in Moscow and taking off again. No time to be sad or nostalgic over that though, I can do that once the Fall semester starts. Last summer I felt like a loner, because I was the last one to leave Tempe. This trip, I wasted a lot of time once the rest of the group had left, and now wish I had just ventured out on my own and taken the city in a bit. I thought being the 1st to leave for a change would feel better, like I wouldn't have time to be sad over leaving, but I was wrong. If you're ever in one of these group travel situations, the best option would probably be to stick with the group. Leave the same day the majority of them do, if you have the option.

Ah, that's where I was going with the title of this post... Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end. Lame? Cheesy? True? Yes. Moscow had to end in order for the unforgettable adventure in Siberia to begin. (I'll post more about it later, promise) Then Siberia had to end to start the adventure in Batumi. It's hard, and it definitely didn't make this hectic day any easier.

After a 4 hour layover and tons of confusion in Minsk, my final plane of the evening - and they bumped me to business class!

Anyhow... the journey to Batumi marks the 1st time I'm really traveling abroad alone. It's scary. Really scary. Pretty sure I've been having an anxiety attack since we got back to the dorms and ran into trouble with my departure. Again, I'm flying a foreign airline, because there really isn't another choice. Belavia, a Belarusian airline. Things I've learned from this experience... the Minsk airport is special and European airlines have different baggage policies, so short haul flights lead to big baggage fees if you're like me and packed way too much. (Not completely my fault- the pre-departure packet told me to pack a bunch of stuff I didn't need)

I FINALLY made it! Now... where's this white boy from CLI that's supposed to pick me up?

After sitting in airports and trying to sleep on my luggage, as well as on planes, which I still can't pull off (though the business class upgrade from Minsk to Batumi helped me almost sleep), all I wanted was to see a friendly face and hear some English. I was greeted in Batumi by 2 men I've never seen, had no clue if they speak any English, but did my best to try to understand what was going on, the whole time thinking "getting into a car with 2 strange men in a foreign country, this is a GREAT idea! What could possibly go wrong?" And just looking forward to those friendly faces with American accents waiting for me at school.

Quite a view for my 1st night.

To make the situation even more sketch, we pulled into an alleyway. I remind you, it was 4:30 am here by then. I had been up for over 24 hours at this point and had only taken a 3 hour nap before then in hopes of falling asleep on the plane and nipping any jet-lag in the bud. At that point I didn't really care about my safety, or that this vaguely resembled the opening of "Taken", or how many Lifetime movie specials they could make from this scene. I placed my trust in the CLI program; that they would not let anything bad happen to a student (unless it was a result of their own stupidity).

Beyond that sketchy alleyway was a sketchy stairwell with a small elevator, then on the 4th floor was the door to my new home for 8 weeks, in front of which I was greeted by a very friendly face, that of my host mother. Just not the friendly face I had expected or longed for. We tried not to wake anyone up as she helped me get settled a bit and got to know each other a little. 

The 3 hour nap I got before waking up for class was the hardest nap I've ever taken. (In a good way) Then my host mom made me breakfast and introduced me to the rest of the family before my host brother walked me to school and made sure I found some of those friendly faces. I almost cried. Out of joy this time, not from anxiety and stress. 11 months had passed since I last saw 4 of my fellow CLI students, 2 of whom I have the joy of considering some of my closest friends.

The rest of that first day is a bit of a blur. I wasn't jet-lagged this time, just suffering from some severe sleep deprivation. At one point there was a big celebration for Seafarers Day, a bunch of new acquaintances made, and some homework struggled through. I only dozed off in class a few times...

Students from the Batumi Marine Academy parade along the port in honor of Seafarer's Day

I think that should be enough for finally putting up a 1st post from Georgia, considering I've been here for 4 weeks now. I'll catch up on my thoughts and posts and awesome things I've experienced later. Like I mentioned in Moscow, the less frequent I post, the more fun I'm having :-)

2 of those dear friends I waited almost a year to see, with one of those new acquaintances in the middle