It's Official!
Hello everyone!
On Friday, August 18, we were sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers. We're official and now disbursed throughout Georgia. The ceremony was a lot of fun, even though there was no air conditioning in the place. We had it at this beautiful theater in Tbilisi, the old European kind with five levels and gold leaf everywhere. The second-in-command at the US Embassy was there to swear us in. He gave a talk before the ceremony about US-Georgian relations and our strategic interest here and how we as PCVs fit into it. We are important after all! There were some opening speeches and we got up and took the oath ("...to defend the Consitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic..."). After that, there was some folk dancing and singing and then it was all over.
It was a major media event! We had every Georgian news station there filming it. I was pulled by the embassy press guy to do some of the interviews for the Russian language stations. I ended up doing two interviews in Russian, one with the station that the Georgian government broadcasts into South Ossettia. Somewhere, some Russian family is entertained with my attempts to sound intelligent. After the ceremony everybody scattered and went to our respective corners of Georgia. My host sister, Nino, and her cousin escorted me back to Gori on a very, very slow bus. After we arrived in Gori and were walking to the house, it hit me that I was in this for the long haul. It was a very strange feeling. I texted a few people that day and they said the same thing happened to them. Call it post-training depression.
So, that brings me to the point in the story where I move in with my new host family, have dinner, and then throw up from their balcony. Yes, food poisoning again. I'll spare the public of the details, but let's just say it was a very long night of bonding with the new host family. I think they wondered why they were sent the sick American.
The good news is I'm better now and I'm at my new office in Gori. I'll post more in a few days discussing my site and placement (and get to those stories I promised earlier). Now that I have my own computer, I'll be able to keep this site better updated.
Until then, take care and stay away from strange foods!
Cuttino
On Friday, August 18, we were sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers. We're official and now disbursed throughout Georgia. The ceremony was a lot of fun, even though there was no air conditioning in the place. We had it at this beautiful theater in Tbilisi, the old European kind with five levels and gold leaf everywhere. The second-in-command at the US Embassy was there to swear us in. He gave a talk before the ceremony about US-Georgian relations and our strategic interest here and how we as PCVs fit into it. We are important after all! There were some opening speeches and we got up and took the oath ("...to defend the Consitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic..."). After that, there was some folk dancing and singing and then it was all over.
It was a major media event! We had every Georgian news station there filming it. I was pulled by the embassy press guy to do some of the interviews for the Russian language stations. I ended up doing two interviews in Russian, one with the station that the Georgian government broadcasts into South Ossettia. Somewhere, some Russian family is entertained with my attempts to sound intelligent. After the ceremony everybody scattered and went to our respective corners of Georgia. My host sister, Nino, and her cousin escorted me back to Gori on a very, very slow bus. After we arrived in Gori and were walking to the house, it hit me that I was in this for the long haul. It was a very strange feeling. I texted a few people that day and they said the same thing happened to them. Call it post-training depression.
So, that brings me to the point in the story where I move in with my new host family, have dinner, and then throw up from their balcony. Yes, food poisoning again. I'll spare the public of the details, but let's just say it was a very long night of bonding with the new host family. I think they wondered why they were sent the sick American.
The good news is I'm better now and I'm at my new office in Gori. I'll post more in a few days discussing my site and placement (and get to those stories I promised earlier). Now that I have my own computer, I'll be able to keep this site better updated.
Until then, take care and stay away from strange foods!
Cuttino
1 Comments:
At 1:12 PM,
marriedwithchug said…
Wow Cutt...you seem so freaking excited to be there.....if only sarcasm could transfer into the written language and not just spoken....gah....I MISS YOU
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