On Saturday evening, Peace Corps Orientation was over. We were able to finally meet our PST (Pre Service Training) host family!

I found out that our “Host Mother” was actually a few years younger than me- and I’m still in my twenties! Her oldest child is 7 years old- which I’m assuming means she was about 17 years old when she got married. First culture shock- check.

We got off the bus and immediately hugged with such kindness. When we got home, she pulled out a bag of rings and immediately started placing them on my ring finger. Now, I discovered that married women in Georgia actually place their wedding rings on their RIGHT hand, not the left. So, at first, I thought she assumed that I was making the appearance of living in sin and she wanted me to have a good image in the community. I tried pointing to Justin to say that we are in fact married and gave her 3 fingers to indicate our years of marriage (well, we hit 3 years in July). She kept on shaking her head- in which I realized that she thought I was asking for a ring for Justin! First miscommunication check.

As I’m sitting there confused for hours on what that ring signified, Justin was dealing with his first cultural immersion. As we were eating dinner, Justin was offered shots after shots. Georgian alcohol is quite impressive in the sense that it is extremely strong! As the men began showing signs of drunkenness, the mission became apparent. Get Justin drunk to impregnate Rawan in the fertile Georgian air. Even with zero understanding of Georgian, this was very clear.

This is where my pocket dictionary became my lifeline. By the way, trying to use broken Georgian from a dictionary is not an easy way to converse that a baby will not be happening any time soon. But, the silver lining from my pocket dictionary is that we accidentally found the word for “present.” the ring my host mom gave me was simply just a gift and nothing more.

The day to leave for Georgia has finally come! Before we even left Staging, the Peace Corps told us that our scheduled flight to Georgia has changed a couple of times. Originally, we were going to check-out of the hotel at 4:00 a.m. and have a solid 13 hour layover in Istanbul. But now, we were able to check out at 12:00 p.m. and only have a one hour layover in Turkey. I got all excited…..which was premature. Let me explain.

We did check out at noon, that was great. We only waited about an hour for the buses to pick us up in Philadelphia to take a few hour drive to JFK in New York City. We got to JFK around 4:00 p.m- so three hours later. So Justin and I head to the check-in counter and were very excited to hand her our freshly minted special Peace Corps Diplomatic Passports. She took one look was like, “Miss, you cannot check-in because you are EIGHT HOURS early to your flight!” Puppy eyes and polite pleas did not work here.

So literally all of us moved to a deserted corner in the airport (hard to find in JFK) and busted out a card game on the floor and played for a few hours.

The second we were able to check-in around 7:45 p.m., we immediately did so and then proceeded to security. And that is where I am right now. Silently awaiting for the clock to hit midnight at our gate. Unlike Cinderella, I want the clock to hit midnight sooner rather than later.

Here are my closing thoughts, by the time we go on that plane, we could have been half-way to Georgia right now. True Story.