I've been home for almost two weeks now, so I figured it was time to sit down and write my closing blog post for Georgia or it would never happen. (I'm a terrible procrastinator like that.)
My last week was bitter sweet. The nearer the day of my departure grew, the more I knew I wasn't ready. Not ready to leave my students, not ready to leave my co-teacher, who I had finally begun to work better with, and not ready to leave my host family, who I came to love dearly. I had brought some school supplies with me, pens, mechanical pencils, and some chalk, that I gave to my co-teachers as a good bye gift, along with some sweets. I also received some good bye gifts. A candy dish and some nail polish from my co-teacher, and from the rest of the teachers, a set of wine glasses, to drink from at my wedding they said, knowing that I have no such plans, and a chocolate bar. It was sweet of them.
There wasn't really anything special that we did as a host family for my leaving. We spent time together, and it was enough. The only good thing about not making concrete plans was that I could procrastinate leaving until the last possible day...
I managed not to cry until after I was on the marshut'ka heading towards Tbilisi, until Samtredia, my city, my school, and my home in Georgia were fading away behind me. Luckily, there were only a few other passengers at this point. It was about a 3-3 1/2 hour drive from Samtredia to Tbilisi. It felt weird as we neared to Tbilisi, when the road changed from one lane both directions, to become a divided highway with multiple lanes. And stoplights...those were weird. Everything about being in such a huge, obviously more modern city, felt weird. I got to the hostel later than planned, ate too much while walking around because I was starving, couldn't find a Liberty bank, and ended the day crankily, and early, since I had to get up at 2am for my flight home.
The first part of my trip was the easiest...it was only a three hour flight from Tbilisi to Warsaw, where I would catch the plane home. The airport was an 8-10 hour layover, and the first half went really fast since all I did was sit and read my book. Then I was bored, followed by a crappy airplane ride, without personal entertainment (which I had been looking forward to), really bad food, broken headphone jack, and an ipod with almost no battery power.
Being home took some adjusting to. I missed my kitties a lot, and now being home feels natural. For now, I need to earn money, and spend time with my family, my friends, and my cats. Hopefully, in a few months, I can find another short-term teaching job overseas. If and when that happens, I will start this blog again. Thank you all for reading, and following me along this new journey! Maybe someday I will go to Georgia again. :)
