I am here with several other MA students from the DC Consortium to study/participate in Conflict Resolution activities in the Caucasus. In particular, we are focusing on the conflicts between Georgia and its breakaway regions, Russia and the North Caucasus and Nagorno-Karabakh. We'll be meeting with students, NGOs, government organization and lots of other people trying to understand and work through the conflicts. At the end of the week we will be presenting at a conference here. It's going to be a crazy, long, intense week, but I'm super excited.
I spent all last week packing up all of my different research/reading materials and clothes for a week. It was super hard to pack because we have to wear professional clothes most of the time. Scarlett went into deep dark depression when I pulled out the bag, but when I offered for her to get in the suitcase she freaked out!
Oh well. Side note- if you are looking to travel anytime soon, or just organize your travel gear, go to the Container Store. They are running an unbelievable deal on all their travel organization stuff. It really saved me packing this time!
My flight left DC at 11pm on Thursday night. Caleb and I had our traditional dinner at Chili's before I left. My original plan was to stay up on that flight and finish up my reading for the course, but I was on the side of the plane with only two seats and the seat next to me was empty, so I curled up with both pillows and blankets and slept all the way to Istanbul. I had an 8 hour layover in Istanbul, which was kind of a bummer. I was just in that airport- but that time was 4 in the morning and nothing was open. Luckily, the airport had a Starbucks for me to camp out at and work on my reading. My only complaint is that they decided NOT to turn on the A/C in the airport and it was SOOOO hot in there. 8 hours was a pretty long layover. When they finally posted my gate for my flight to Tbilisi, it was at least a 2 mile walk through the airport to this really shady basement area where they basically loaded everyone on busses and took you out to the planes. It was a pretty interesting experience looking around at everyone with their maroon Georgian passports and being one of 3 people on the entire flight with blue US passports. At least it was easy to spot the other people in my group!
Overall, I highly recommend Turkish airlines except for their food. On my first flight they served salmon with horseradish sauce and an apricot cake- gross! My second flight was a piece of raw fish with cottage cheese. Nasty! So I was a bit hungry by the time I made it to Tblisi, or Tiflis as some say. On my flight from Istanbul to Tbilisi, I sat next to a Georgian soldier. We got to talking about what I was doing here and he explained that he actually fought in the war in 2008. What is interesting, though, is that he actually didn't understand what he was fighting for. He thought Russia was just trying to break up the country of Georgia (perhaps more cynical people would agree) but he had not idea that Abkhazia and South Ossetia wanted to be free, or why they did. It was a pretty interesting discussion - and made me excited for the conference to get started!
Finally we landed at 3:00 am. There were 3 of us on that flight and we waited about an hour for one more girl to come in before we road to the hotel. We road down George W. Bush highway (yes, that is its name), past Freedom Square to our hotel, which is pretty old (pictures to come). Luckily, my Russian has not completely abandoned me, because the hotel staff do not speak English. So we all got checked in and then I dragged my 60 pound bag to the 3rd floor (no elevator) and got ready to take a shower and...... no water. I went all the way back down and summoned up all my Russian vocabulary to try to understand why we did not have water. As of this moment (9pm the next day), still no water. I'm sure I look and smell as attractive as I feel right now. Oh well, looking at the shower, I'm not totally sure I even want to give it a try...
Anyways, about 5:30am I dropped into bed. I set my alarm for 930 and cringed, but knew it was the only way to fight the jet lag. Our hotel may be old, but we get homemade meals for breakfast and dinner. For breakfast it was hard boiled eggs, boiled potatoes with dill, and tea. Everyone then scattered to study and read for awhile (we are all a day early). In the afternoon, we braved the neighborhood to exchange money, buy some snacks, and see a bit of the town (thank goodness again for knowing Russian!) Unfortunately, my allergies are going completely crazy here. What I've seen is beautiful, but definitely a lot of trees and plants to make me sneeze! I only took a few pics today, but I promise more later!!
We all decided to spend the few hours before dinner studying a bit more (can you tell we are all procrastinators) but I ended up completely crashing for an hour. Oh well? For dinner we had a mushroom broth soup, some assorted salads - cucumbers, tomatoes, cauliflower, a weird tomato fish thing, etc. and a traditional Georgian food that looks like a quesadilla - looks like being the key word. I took a big bite an immediately regretted it. The cheese was soooooooooooo strong and had a nasty metallic taste to it. I had to drink an entire cup of tea just to get it down. I will try/eat/force down just about anything overseas, but I am unwilling to ever put that kind of cheese back in my mouth. Wow it was bad!
Now, its the evening and everyone is back to reading/studying. I am currently g-chatting with Caleb, but after that I will be getting down to business myself. The actual program starts tomorrow at noon. I am soooooo glad I came in a day early, the others are going to be soooooo jetlagged for the opening speaker tomorrow. Yikes!
I will do my best to update as we good. The program is pretty intensive and I think we will spend most of the evenings researching, writing, consolidating interviews and notes, etc. But I'll do my best! If anyone wants anything in particular from Georgia, speak now (or before next Saturday) or forever hold your peace! My last note for the night is about a tradition that Caleb and I have. I like to travel (obviously), which isn't Caleb's favorite. When I go, he tends to booby-trap my bag with notes and fun things. Our traditional game is that he sends his hog bracelet with me. It is one of those live strong bracelets but a red razorback one. That bracelet has gone with me to Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Ukraine, China, Turkey, and now Georgia. I was a little stressed leaving and last minute packing on Thursday and he told me that he didn't have time to get it in there. I was actually pretty disappointed. Last night as I was unpacking at 5am, I emptied my entire bag looking for it. No razorback bracelet. While I was g-chatting with Caleb tonight, I told him I was kind of disappointed and he told me that I obviously hadn't looked good enough for it. Sure enough, in my glasses case in my laptop bag, was the red bracelet I was looking for! We may be thousands of miles apart, but a part of us will always be together!!! That's all I have this evening- good night!
Glad to hear you got all the way there and with your bag! Your trip sounds like it will be a very neat and intense experience. Can't wait to read more about it! :) Be safe!
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