Day 1

We did not arrive to the hotel until 4:30 a.m. Georgia time which is 8:30 p.m. Georgia time. Hahaha, get it? Anyway, because it was the middle of the night here, we went to bed, and because of the time difference, we did not wake up till 1:00 p.m. Republic of Georgia time. We spent today meeting YMCA leaders and teen leaders. We have Rezi who leads everything for us, his boss (Gayla, I think), and George. The teen leaders are Luca, Nicka, Ana, Tata, and Helena. They were all wonderful. We are trying to teach them as many camp games as possible in the next ten days. A for now, I think they just think we're a little crazy. After meeting them, we all toured two cathedrals and went out to an authentic Georgian dinner. In the cathedrals, the women all had to wear scarves over our head, including myself, Sarah, and Leani in my Y group. Dinner included some fruit flavored sodas, some cheesey bread, and dumplings. I wish I could name what they were actually called, but I am struggling with the language here. The only word I know as of now is madloba which means "thank you." We went to a couple markets along the way, and I caught myself speaking Spanish to the women.... Well, I'm glad my Spanish comes so naturally (5 years post Panama'), but it's rather embarrassing to speak neither Georgian or English to the people here. After dinner, we walked around the city. It's gorgeous. There's this amazing bridge near the President's house like no other I've ever seen. Pictures will be uploaded as soon as I get home! As for now, it is 10:19 p.m. Georgian time, and it's 2:19 p.m. Georgian time, so I am off to bed!long day ahead tomorrow...