Georgia week 3: The mysterious ways of becoming a local

The week was full of trainings - we had morning class and evening class and during the day we would be preparing trainings as well. We got a new class of people to train and boy oh boy how active they were. They were from high school and the way the discussions were going on, you could have thought that somebody was insulting someone and a fight was about to break out. Of course, there were no fights. Sadly, they were speaking in Georgian which means I couldn't really understand what they were saying and yelling about. The weirdest thing was after they would scream at each other for five minutes, they would continue to talk normally and asked to continue like nothing happened.

We discussed with both groups (when we were discussing cross cultural communication) that Georgians might be close to Italians and Spanish people according to how they communicate with each other. I agree with them, they can be quite short tempered and when they speak, the whole room hears it.

At the end of the week we gave out certificates to the people who attended all of the trainings. We had a huge applause for the translators, because they did a huge job at helping us and our students understand each other. We even got surprise certificates for us as trainers!

Best students ever!

During this week I started feeling like a local - I stopped getting lost, I knew most of the streets (especially if they were in the center). I even got to find out some new streets, new places, saw the night Kutaisi, which sadly is very very quiet. But the lights at night still look beautiful. Now I even know how to get home if I'm at the other end of Kutaisi, but actually it's easy - just walk towards Bagrati. Or if you don't know the way, just ask the way to Bagrati.

To start feeling even more local, we started getting Georgian language classes. Let me tell you - their alphabet looks weeeeird and it's in a weird order. I wouldn't have a problem with it, but there are some sounds which are just not for my throat. I just can't pronounce them. Maybe at the end of the trip I will be able to but that's doubtful.

We also got a lesson in Arabic (since there's so many interns who speak it, why not?). The alphabet is also pretty weird and interesting - there's this thing where you have to remember where to put the dot on a letter. And the sounds are also not really adjustable to my throat. We will see how it goes.

This weekend we decided to go to Batumi - we had the need to dip our feet in the sea. So we packed our bags and went out. On the trip we regretted we didn't take the train, as the tracks go just by the sea, so we would have had a great view. 

Batumi is such a beautiful city - the architects and urban planners did a wonderful job there. We lived quite far from the center and at night we got soaked from the rain - we returned to the hostel (Anri) with no dry clothes. Of course, before returning, we had the obligatory 2am McDonalds snack. We went to the Delphinarium, saw a great show, went to swim in the sea (it was soooo salty and with so many rocks - I'm not used to it at aaaall. My feet were killing me). Oh and we just haaad to try the shooting range. I was a bit rusty, but it was good nonetheless.

Apparently the Ali and Nino sculpture moves!

The only thing we did not like from the tour is that we had to spend so much time in the bus. We decided to come back to Batumi again, but this time on our own and without a tour.

Georgia week 2: Time to start the work!

Another week flew by like a short minute and finally we started working in Kutaisi Campus Lions Club (by the way, our boss is super cool!!). But that doesn't mean we didn't have time to have fun.

When we came to work, we agreed to do some lectures about PR and how it is used, so we started preparing them. Before we actually started we did some interviews to get to know the participants. It was so surprising for me that some people who were studying in university did not know how to speak in English. So that meant we had to get a translator - and leading trainings that way made me feel like I'm in a conference. We got a group of very motivated people who were listening to us very attentively and taking notes.

This week we got a tour around the city again. Mind you, the city is REALLY not that big, so the whole tour took I think a bit more than an hour. And most of the time it took just to walk from one place to another and not hearing stories about the sights. But on the weekend we've seen so many sights - we've been to Martvili canyon and it was so beautiful there! Of course, some of us nearly fell while climbing down towards the place we could swim, but it was worth it. People from hot countries were shivering from the water, but it was around 16 degrees! That's normal swimming water! Not for them apparently. So that day we went around Samogrelo and the next we went to see some lakes and mountains. Now, I come from a country which is flat like a pancake, so mountains for me is something wow. I think I said like fifteen times "we don't have this in my country" that day while pointing at mountains.

We also got a new roommate this week and she also doesn't sleep at night, which means my sleep regime is completely ruined now. On the bright side, I taught other people the card game Durnius (Durak) so if we run out of talks (which is very rare) we just play it. Also, all of the interns just spend a lot of time together, either eating out in the evening, dancing in the park or at home, just being a little crazy. This week one of the interns had a birthday, so everybody was singing happy birthday in their languages, telling about their birthday customs. One time we also made fruit salad together, and let me tell you - the fruit here are dirty cheap. I have never paid so little for such tasty fruits. But it's weird that they only have seasonal fruits - like you can't find strawberries, grapes, oranges because they just don't have it. You can't really even find them in supermarkets.

Kutaisi is really a small town and after this time we kind of feel like locals here - we know the most important streets and we don't really get lost anymore. It just seems that in this city everybody knows everybody. Which is such a strange concept for me - I'm used to being a stranger in your hometown - everybody goes around their daily lives, not really caring about everybody else, but it's different here.

I wonder what will week 3 bring.

Getting to know the life in Kutaisi

I came to Kutaisi airport early in the morning and was greeted with 20 taxi drivers hoping I will choose them. I didn’t – I had to wait for a girl who would take me to the city. While driving I was curiously looking around – the roads seemed empty except for some gas stations and watermelon sellers. The city of Kutaisi seemed quite busy with cars driving fast despite their a bit shabby condition. I was surprised to see such old houses in the city as well.

On the first day I managed to lock my things inside a room and later was surprised by the idea that they don’t really lock their doors (they also don’t have pin codes in phones). Leaving my laptop in an unlocked house seemed weird at first, but I got used to it quite soon. The heat is still one of the things I cannot get used to and therefore I try to spend the hottest time inside (and sadly fail to do that as I still want to go around the city and explore it).

Magnificent Georgian sheep, just 30 min walk away from the center

To be honest, you get used to how the buildings look in one day. I got used to look twice or thrice before crossing the street as the city probably has two traffic lights, maybe five zebras and the cars rarely stop for pedestrians.

But you know, these things don’t really matter. Kutaisi has great parks and a huge river, which despite being brown still provides the mesmerizing sound of flowing water. Combine it with a view to the mountains and interesting old churches and you get a great town. They have lots of fruits being sold on every corner, the prices are low and the food is tasty. I’ve tried Xachapuri and Khinkali – national Georgian dishes and they’re really tasty.

The home owners (where I live) are Georgian and even though we don’t really communicate well because of language barrier, they are super friendly and always smiling – they made me coffee, brought some watermelon for all of us and they try to communicate how they can. One of the interns was even accepted to the Georgian men’s party (men party and women clean up here apparently. Even young girls don't really go out in the evening. That was weird.)

It was a bit of a shock when I came here, but if you have great people around you, where you are doesn’t really matter. And I am with wonderful people who came from a lot of countries: Poland, Czech Republic, Tunisia, Qatar, Egypt, Ukraine and Taiwan and there are even more people coming here. And I love the international atmosphere so much – you can hear different languages on daily basis, you can get to know different religions and customs, some of which are strange and some of them are similar to what we have. It’s just so great.

I think it will be hard to leave. Like always.

Some of us with LC Kutaisi