A Letter from Orientation

Dear USA,

I've been staying for the past few days at the training site about 15 miles from the Russian occupied territory South Ossentia.  It's all peaceful and beautiful here, though.  We are staying in what our fearless leader Tengo refers to as the "that old, awful, run-down Communist era hotel".  The building, in reality, is clearly very nice by rural Georgian standards.  I was told to enjoy the nice flush toilets while I had them.  I share a small room and we have our own tiny bathroom.  You know, the kind with a drain in the middle of the floor so when you shower the toilet gets wet.  It feels a little like summer camp.

There are a lot of gutted Soviet-looking buildings alongside the road.  Otherwise it's deserted here.  I would really like to know why the buildings are gutted (as opposed to just empty) ... it's all done in the same pattern.  They're kind of cool and creepy.  It's strange to look inside and see where the chimney was and the stove was ... I wonder who lived in them.

Mostly for the past two days we've been attending meeting after meeting--security, food safety, Georgian politics, security, safety, security, Georgian customs, and health (safety).  The best part has been the language classes, even though they're really hard ... which is to be expected in a language that has like five different sounds for the letter "K" ...

All of this staying indoors in conference rooms is driving me crazy.  Each time they let us out I just bolt for the door.  I hate sitting indoors for that long.  It feels like all I've been doing since last Tuesday.  Sitting in a meeting room, sitting on a bus, sitting at the airport, sitting on the plane, airport, plane, airport, bus, conference room, conference room, language room, dining room, conference room ... I also sat when I got the first of my rabies vaccine set.  Which stung.  Awesome.  I am so excited to get my host family and to be free of some degree of these endless security meetings.  Even though I am sure that they are very important.  Sigh.

Overall it's pretty isolated here.  They're busy teaching us Georgian phrases like, "Where is the bathroom?" and "I don't speak Georgian, I am a Peace Corps volunteer."  The best phrases, though, come from my Georgian phrasebook--the one I got on Amazon about two months ago.  It has gems such as, "Will you help me clear the rubble?" and "It's OK, I have my own syringe." 


 It's been fun learning the culture, though.  The hardest part for me is going to be adjusting to not smiling so much.  Georgians don't really smile, and Georgian women don't smile at men unless they mean something by it.  So I'm going to be spending the first few months of training trying not to cause like an international smile incident.  Did you know that smiling actually sends endorphins to your brain that can make you happy, though???  Is it weird that I'm a little nervous that I won't be as happy of a person if I'm not allowed to smile as much???  I think I'm nuts.

They showed us this video and told us to pretend that the EU was the US and Italy was Georgia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28-P_pc8tmM

Love,
Me