The hardest thing I've ever had to do...

...is this... this is the hardest thing I've ever done. Yup. I'm pretty sure of that.

I truly have to apologize for the delay on this post. A more accurate and in the moment description of what I've experienced would have been best, but I'll try to describe things as accurately as possible. I was incredibly busy since I arrived in Batumi, I know I've mentioned it before, but seriously, it was really a challenge to find some "me" time. If it's not obvious enough by the fact that I've only posted once in the past 8 weeks, and that I'm retroactively posting... considering I finished writing  this on a plane to New York and am finally posting it days later as I wait for my flight to Orlando. Sorry. The adventure may be over, but that just means once I'm settled in Tally again I'll go through photos and post things in more detail.

Anyway, going back to why this is probably the hardest thing I've ever done... the following post is based on what I felt for about my first 2 weeks there, and I'll even give you a spoiler just for some peace of mind: things changed...

I think this is what culture shock feels like. I didn't really experience it in Moscow, because big cities don't scare me, and I got reacquainted with dorm life last summer, so nothing was all that new. Yeah, I sounded like an idiot plenty of times when I tried to communicate and looked like a deer in headlights plenty of times, but nothing really put me out of my comfort zone.

Here, on the other hand... what did I get myself into? I can't read any signs, I don't understand most of the languages spoken around me (yeah, there are plenty of people around here who speak little to no Russian), and I know nothing of the culture, customs, food, or area. Oh did I mention the amount of fear the officials in the program have tried to instill in us? I know they just want us to be aware and cautious, but I feel like I'm in a dangerous and hostile place. Not fun.

Have I also mentioned that I haven't lived in a nuclear family since I was 4ish? That's over 20 years of living without a patriarch in the house, and certainly no little siblings. All of a sudden, I have a mom, dad, and 3 little siblings. How do I do this? How do I acclimate to family life? How do I get used to new family customs, and not being able to communicate with everyone in the family? (Yeah, I'm not allowed to speak English at home, and my littlest sister speaks more English than Russian. Frack.) WALK ON ALL OF THE EGGSHELLS!

In addition to the stress of getting acquainted to a new style of home life, and dealing with changing dynamics in old friendships while trying to make new ones again, let me tell you about some of those things  the officials kept warning us about:

Don't stay out at night, and if you do, make sure you're not alone, preferably have a male with you. -- Honestly, it was the males that were likely to get in trouble. By the end of the program I felt perfectly safe walking home alone at night. Safer than in Moscow.

Watch out for suspicious characters. If someone is overly interested in the fact that you're American, they're probably a spy and you need to report it. --ok... I'm not totally sure if this actually happened to someone, but I think I overheard some people talking about it happening once.

Watch out for men following you. The whole kidnapping wives thing still happens on occasion. -- this actually got worrisome on occasion. One girl did notice someone following her on 3 occasions, and someone else confirmed it. -- and I think we came pretty close to getting wived once in the Southern Caucus Mountains, but that's another story. Another fantastic and unforgettable story...

Then there's the things I kept hearing from other girls in the program: the men are really aggressive, they don't know how to take no for an answer, they think because you're friendly that you want to date them... --well I had zero problems with that. It seems like they could all tell just by looking at me that I'm an old maid. (Cue sad trombone)

And to add to all of that stresss, the CLI program is intensive. 1 year of Russian in 2 months, nbd. I know people here from last year, so it's not too bad, but showing up a day late, with a zombie brain, means I had no clue what was going on the whole first day. My teacher seemed nice, but I spent the first few weeks trying to feel out if she liked me. Doesn't help that I'm a slacker. Yeah, doing homework for a few hours every day, but not studying for hours for the test totally puts me in slacker zone around here.

Despite all of this, I'm still glad to be in a place I never thought I'd ever be, making some awesome memories and learning a lot. Still haven't really gotten homesick yet either.

So, bring it on CLI Batumi!

Batumi's famous Cha-Cha Tower, where at 7pm, for 10 minutes, Cha-Cha flows freely

Students of the Maritime Academy in Batumi disperse after Maritime Day Celebrations in June, 2014

Batumi's Alphabet Tower - letters of the Georgian Alphabet glow green at night as they spiral up to the ball of the tower. 

Another beautiful sunset over the Black Sea

SOMEONE made the mistake of petting one of Batumi's stray dogs. He followed us for the rest of the day. We named him George. He stalked us for the rest of the summer, knowing we were happy to feed and pet him.

Being buried on the beach here is a wee bit different than back home.

A statue depicting Madea and the Golden fleece, with Batumi's only skyscraper in the background.

One of the best (and worst) things about Georgia: Khatchapuri

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