World News

Hey everybody--New year, new blog!

Just kidding, it's the same one! Haha, got ya, I'm sure.

Anyway, hello again from the future! Oh I'm sorry, it's just that the jetlag from my incredible journey to the END OF THE WORLD hasn't quite abated yet, and my internal clock is all kinds of confused.

So as you may know, I left my comfortable Post Soviet confines this joyful holiday season to venture out to one of the countries closest to Antarctica. No big deal.

It was, as you might imagine, pretty great. My cousin's wedding was incredible-beautiful, fun, loving, and 12 hours long in deference to the Argentine tradition. So I fought back my inner elderly woman and stayed up until 7 AM dancing the night/next day of the wedding. And following other Argentine traditions, stayed out until 2 or 3 AM going out the days following. For someone who has largely given up my college late-night habits, this was not an easy feat. But I did it, and I'm proud, and I'm telling the world [those who read this blog]!

You may be wondering what the travel was like. Despite many wonderful advances in our world, and (as Louis CK would say) our ability to FLY THROUGH THE AIR, it's still not fun to spend 25+ largely uninterrupted hours on planes and several more in airports. So while I am VERY grateful for the modern technology that allowed me to get from Tbilisi to Buenos Aires in 72 hours, it was not a fun trip to take alone. Since there are no flights from Georgia to South America, I had to do some creative travel agent-ing and book 2 flight segments.

The first was from Tbilisi to London (with a stop in Istanbul), and the second from London to Buenos Aires (with stops in Toronto, as in CANADA, and Santiago, Chile). If you think you could have done better and matched the price, then my hat is off to you, Airline Master King of the Skies. As it was I spent a lot of time catching up on movies I would never watch and some TV shows that were surprisingly delightful. Thank you, airline touch screen inventors!

It was nice to spend a little time in London as well, where I have never been, and I found it to be quite charming. Everyone is so friendly, which I wasn't expecting. Is that a thing? That the British are friendly? Because they really were, and I liked that! Also, my old friend from college who lived there for grad school was stranded due to airport weather problems, so I got a really great tour of the city and had good company as well. I will definitely go back, so if you're down for some fish and chips, let me know. We'll make a date of it.

Buenos Aires is also a cool city. I bummed around for a few days and got to spend time with my younger cousin and his buds, plus the college friends of Ashley, the lovely bride. I did a LOT of walking and some shopping as well. I just really miss big cities, and I'm excited that when I go back to the States this summer I get to live in one again. There's always stuff to do and see, and the public transportation is great. People are really fun to watch, and that is a free, fun activity! That may be the motto of stalkers, actually, so maybe I should refrain from making that observation.

So now I'm back in Georgia, and I'm enjoying working from home on a few projects, since school won't start up again until the 20th. This last round of Peace Corps should go by quickly, since there are several things in the works that have to be completed, including my biggest project yet, the Girls Leading Our World (GLOW!) camp/summer school, for which I am putting together a curriculum. Despite the cold weather here, it has yet to snow and stick. I'm waiting for that to happen so my sitemate and I can use his sled (he's from Seattle, so he has a sled, duh).

To sum up, I guess I will say that while I missed most of the Georgian holiday traditions, I got to experience a whole new set, and I'm very happy about that! Here's hoping everyone had a fun and safe holiday, and that you are still keeping up with those New Year's resolutions almost 2 weeks in.

Adios!