Sorry about missing the Trope Tuesday post yesterday. My internet was sporadic, and I didn’t think it was worth it to keep refreshing every time I wanted to access tvtropes. I’ll make it up next week with a good one.
The rest of the week is going to be pretty busy. We have a make-up class on Saturday and I’m going to Tbilisi on Sunday for church, so things might be a little sporadic on this blog. However, I’m making good progress on Star Wanderers, even if it is a bit slower than I would like. I should finish up Part III this week and Part IV sometime in early May.
I haven’t heard anything from Writers of the Future yet, but judging from the forums, neither have most of the others who submitted this quarter. The official results should come out in May, though, and as soon as they do, I’ll publish the first part of Star Wanderers (provided it doesn’t win).
I’m really excited about this one; it’s one of those stories that came when I least expected it, and practically wrote itself. The first part, which stands completely on its own, is about 17k words, or 60 print pages–basically, a very short novella. It’s a science fiction romance set within the same universe as my other Gaia Nova novels; in the next few days, I’ll post a blurb and the first couple chapters for you guys to check out.
So that’s what’s going on out here. In other news, my Georgian host family just got a washing machine, and the excitement it generated reminded me of that scene in Fiddler on the Roof when the village gets its first sewing machine. Here’s the youngest son watching it go round and round:
Between this, internet TV, and the hot water heater they installed a few months ago, they seem to be moving steadily up in the world. Hopefully I’m not putting too much of a burden on them. I buy fruit from time to time and got the host mom a piece of silverware from Turkey. From what I could tell, she was really happy with it.
Anyhow, it’s getting late and I’d better go. ღამე მშვიდობის!
So I just got back from Easter vacation in Turkey, at Trabzon and Lake Uzungöl. It was pretty awesome–I’ll definitely be blogging about it in the next couple of days! First, though, I wanted to share something interesting that happened on the way back.
While I was hanging out in Batumi with some other TLG volunteers eating Adjarian khatchapuri (an experience in itself), we got to talking about what we’re going to do with our lives after we get back to the States. Most of them didn’t really want to think about it, which surprised me, so I asked why.
They told me they didn’t want to have to figure out the rest of their lives–that coming out to Georgia to teach English was a way of putting off those major life decisions. Fair enough. They then asked me if I’ve figured it out. I said yes: that I want to be a full-time writer, and that I’m out here to see the world and get some cultural experience as I try to make that dream a reality.
One of the girls then asked what my backup was if that didn’t work out. To be honest, I had no idea what to say. My plan at this point is to just keep teaching and traveling until the dream becomes a reality. Am I confident that it will? Eventually, yeah–as long as I keep writing, which I certainly will.
I thought about it a bit on the way back, and realized that my mindset has shifted tremendously in the past few years. When I was back in college, and to some extent for the first year after I graduated, I used to worry a lot about my “backup plan.” It was a way of addressing the fear of failure, of creating an illusion of safety by having a “fallback.”
I’m sure there are careers where that’s a good idea. Generally, those are careers with definite paths, where if you don’t pass a certain number of checkpoints, you’re basically screwed. With writing, though, there is no set path that everybody follows–especially now with ebooks and epublishing. Because of this, it’s impossible to really fail–either you keep on trying until you make it, or for one reason or another you give up.
Ever since I graduated in 2010, I’ve been structuring my life in such a way that I can continue to pursue my writing. Every job I’ve taken has just been a stepping stone, a bridge to allow me to keep pursuing this dream. Have I made it yet? No, but I haven’t given up yet either, so I haven’t had to fall back on my backup–whatever that would mean at this point.
From the outside, it probably looks like I’m being hopelessly responsible–that, or willfully oblivious to a hundred things I should be worried sick about. However, I’m actually quite confident that I’m on the right path and things will work out–and that surprises me. It’s like that moment when you realize you’re actually swimming, not just kicking and thrashing about the pool.
Worst case scenario, I fall head over heels in love with an awesome, wonderful girl, and after a few heady months filled with blissful romance, I wake up one morning and realize that I’m married. If that happens, I might have to put my writing on hold for a while until I get things sorted out so that I can support both myself and my wife–but then again, with her help, I might be able to do twice as much, or even more. Perhaps that will help my writing career even more than trying to go it alone.
So really, there is no back up plan or worst case scenario–just the future. And as Georgians are so fond of saying, “no one can know what will happen in future.”
მოტაცება (pronounced mot’atseba) is the Georgian word for bride kidnapping, as opposed to regular kidnapping, which takes a different word. It’s an ancient practice in the Caucasus region that doesn’t happen as much as it used to, but still happens, especially in the rural areas. Today, most Georgians condemn it, but there’s still a whole slew of lingering cultural subtexts that can be very difficult for a Westerner (like me) to understand and navigate.
The video clip at the top is from a Georgian comedy program (named, aptly enough, “Comedy შაუ”), and does a pretty good job illustrating how mot’atseba works. Of course, the genders have been reversed–50% of Georgian humor is cross-dressing, and the other 50% is cross-dressing with slapstick–but everything else is pretty accurate. Like I said in a previous post, it’s like a weird game of capture-the-flag involving sex and arranged marriage, where the flag is the girl.
This is how it works: boy meets girl. Boy decides to marry girl. Boy gets his friends together and kidnaps the girl (with or without her consent), holding her captive overnight. The next morning, boy contacts girl’s parents to ask for girl’s hand in marriage.
Since the girl has been held overnight, the implication is that she’s been raped (which may or may not be true). Therefore, to avoid a scandal which could tarnish the family’s reputation, the parents will usually marry their daughter off as quickly as possible. However, if the girl can escape, or the girl’s brothers can rescue her before nightfall, the crisis can be averted.
I first heard about mot’atseba from this post on Georgia On My Mind, back when I was looking into TLG about a year ago. It disturbed me a little, but not enough to dissuade me from coming to Georgia. A couple of weeks ago, however, I learned that that was how my host parents got married.
Here’s the thing, though: they both seem to remember it kind of fondly. In fact, when my host mom saw the clip from Comedy შაუ, she couldn’t stop laughing. Her mom lives with them now, and from time to time they go out to visit his family in the village, so it looks like everyone’s on pretty good terms.
So what the heck happened?
Here’s the story, as best as I can piece it together. They were introduced by his sister, who was her coworker at the hospital. After a month, he got together with some friends and took her without violence to his family’s house out in the village. She was surprised and upset at first, of course, but her parents gave their consent, and so they were married the next day by a magistrate. Now, they’ve got four kids–a huge family, by Georgian standards–and seem to be pretty happy together.
As a Westerner, it blows my mind that a strong, healthy family can come out of something as violent as an act of kidnapping. Indeed, I have yet to be convinced that that’s a normal outcome. However, after asking around and doing some research, I’ve come to realize that mot’atseba isn’t a black and white issue: there are all sorts of cultural subtexts that make the issue much more complicated.
The key to understanding how all this works is the following proverb, which underscores the entire Georgian concept of gender roles and the differences between men and women:
If a woman says no, she means maybe. If she says maybe, she means yes. If she says yes, she is not a woman.
From this, two things follow:
1: Women are fickle, therefore men should be assertive.
As a man, I see this all the time. All three of my co-teachers are women, and all of them constantly defer to me, even though they have far more professional experience than I do. When I had some pretty serious differences over teaching methodologies with one of them, she suggested that I take over the next lesson and teach it without her interference, so that she could get a better idea that way. This isn’t the case with the female volunteers–many of them complain about how hard it is to get anyone to take their suggestions seriously.
2: A woman can never say no.
If “no” is constantly interpreted as “maybe,” then it follows that no one (or at least, no man) is going to believe that a woman is even capable of saying “no.” This turns the whole concept of rape into a nebulous gray area, unlike the United States, where women have a lot more power at least in terms of the law.
This is not to say that in Georgian culture, women are doormats or property (even though that’s what some TLGers claim). Women have a number of support networks, such as family, friends, and other women, and can use these networks to ward off unwanted attention. When I asked my host sister if she’s worried that a mot’atseba would ever happen to her, she said no, because if it did, her three brothers would kick some serious ass.
On top of all this, Georgians have no real concept of casual dating. If a girl and a guy are seeing each other, they’re either married or about to be married. This shows up in the way they use Facebook and other social networks: instead of listing themselves as “in a relationship,” the girl will give her password to the guy she’s dating. And they don’t just do it because the guy demands it–when my host sister was seeing someone, he asked her if she wanted to give her password to him, as if that was the natural next-step in their relationship. From the way she told me, she seemed to be worried that she’d made a mistake by telling him no. Of course, I told her she’d made the right decision!
Combine all of these together, and you should start to get a clearer picture of some of the subtext surrounding mot’atseba.
When I asked my first co-teacher about it, she said it was only an ancient practice and absolutely didn’t happen anymore. When I brought up rape and asked if that was also a part of it, she was horrified and didn’t want to talk about it. However, when I asked if it’s possible for a happy marriage to come of it, she kind of smiled a little and said that if the woman likes it, then why not?
My second co-teacher was much more straight with me. Yes, it happens occasionally, though it was a lot more “fashionable” about twenty or thirty years ago. No, it’s not romantic. Yes, a lot of the marriages aren’t very happy, which is why so many of them end in divorce. She told me that one of her friends from college was married through mot’atseba, and that she knows of at least one case in our school where an 8th grader was kidnapped and married. However, under President Sakashvili, mot’atseba is now a serious crime, so it’s not as common as it used to be.
My third co-teacher’s answer was a lot sketchier. The first time I asked about it was in passing, as she walked in on the conversation I was having with my first co-teacher. When I asked her about rape, she laughed and said “well yes, of course it happens!” as if that wasn’t a big deal. Later, however, she sat me down and said quite seriously that mot’atseba is a horrible thing, that it’s a criminal act, that it doesn’t happen anymore, etc etc.
However–and this was perhaps the most illuminating thing–she said that sometimes, when a guy and a girl are in love, but she’s being wishy-washy and non-committal, he’ll sweep her off her feet and carry her off. In fact, that was what happened with her: her boyfriend wanted to marry her, but she kept putting it off, so one day he tricked her into getting in the car and told her “all right, enough is enough–we’re getting married this weekend.” And they did.
When I asked her if that was mot’atseba, she said no, but I think the subtext was similar. A real man knows how to assert himself and take what he wants. Since a real woman will never say yes, sometimes you just have to man up and tell her how it’s going to be. And don’t worry if she says no at first–she only says that because she doesn’t really know what she wants yet. She’ll come around eventually.
It sounds pretty horrible, but that seems to be how it works. And really, there are gradations of it. Most Georgians will agree that it’s wrong for a guy to kidnap a girl he doesn’t know so that he can rape her and force her to marry him. But if the guy and the girl know each other, and are already pretty serious (ie seeing each other at all), and he wants to speed things up–or, alternately, if she knows her parents would never say yes otherwise–that’s when everyone speaks of it with a wink and a nod.
And really, can we say that our culture’s problems are any less abhorrent? What about teenage pregnancy? Secret abortions? Date rape? At least with mot’atseba, the guy is trying to marry the girl, not just sleep with her and walk away. If it’s just sex that the guy is after, there are a lot more easier ways to get it than risking a prison sentence.
So is it “wrong”? I don’t know if it’s possible to say yes or no, except on a case by case basis. My host sister knows a girl who was kidnapped at age 12 and had a baby the year after. I’m pretty sure that’s wrong. But when I told her what would happen to that guy in the states–that he would go on the registered sex offender list and spend the rest of his life ostracized and unable to find work–she thought that that was wrong too. And as for my host parents, well, it seemed to work out well for them.
I don’t know. But either way, it’s definitely an interesting anthropological experience.
So I’ve decided to stay here in Georgia for another semester. Things are working out really well, I enjoy teaching English, and for the full experience I think it will be better to stay for a full year.
I’m not sure if I’ll stay in Kutaisi yet, though. It’s a convenient place to live, but I have upwards of 30 kids in my classes, which can be a real challenge. I’d kind of like to spend the next semester in a village or small town, where I can know all the kids by name. Then again, I really like it here in Kutaisi, and I’m doing so much where I am that I’d kind of like to stay, just to see how things turn out.
Currently, I’m teaching grades 1-6, 9-10, and 12. It sounds like a lot, but I’ve got great co-teachers who help out a ton. I teach 18 class periods per week, which is enough to keep me busy but not so much that I feel overwhelmed. My favorite grade to teach is probably 4th or 5th, where the kids know enough to surprise you but don’t have all the issues that come with teenagers. There are different things I enjoy about each grade, though, so it’s good to have a mix.
The second semester doesn’t start until September, so that’ll give me a few months off to do whatever I like. My current plan is to come home and work on getting print editions of my books out. TLG will pay for my flight out and back, and my parents will let me stay at their place over the summer, so I think things will work out quite well.
As for what to do in December once this tour is finished–that’s an entirely different question. I could probably leverage my experience here in Georgia to get a much higher paying job in Asia or the Persian Gulf, but all I’m really looking for is a job situation to tide me over until my writing career takes off. That, and an awesome cultural experience.
What I’d REALLY like to do is find some remote desert village in the Middle East, where the locals will pay for room and board, my book royalties will pay the rest, the cultural experience will give me a chance to practice my Arabic, and my teaching skills will make a real difference in the local community.
Towards that end, I found this site called Workaway. A friend of mine used it to get a short-term job in a Bedouin camp in Wadi Rum, and there are TONS of other opportunities listed just like it. I freaked out a little when I saw it, because it looks AWESOME. When I was in Jordan, I used to fantasize about spending some time in the desert with the Bedouin, so getting the chance to actually do that would be amazing!
TLG will pay for my flight home at the end of the second semester, but I can opt to go anywhere else, so long as the ticket price isn’t any more than Tbilisi to JFK. Since this is the year my sister’s get together with their in-laws for Christmas, it might be better to go straight from Georgia to my next job at the end of December.
I was thinking about it as I walked around my neighborhood earlier today, and it made me wonder: why did I wait so long? There are so many awesome opportunities overseas–if you don’t have any debt or anyone you need to support, you could spend years hopping from one random adventure to the next. I could spend years doing that. And with epublishing, all I really need is my netbook and periodic internet access to put up new books as I write them–everything else more or less takes care of itself. It’s fantastic.
In any case, that’s the plan for now. I’m taking the night train to Tbilisi tonight, so I’d better go get ready for that. See you around!
From what I hear from my friends, it’s been a pretty mild winter back in the States. Here in Georgia, though, it’s been a much different story.
I think we’ve had only three sunny days since I arrived here in Kutaisi almost four weeks ago. The natives tell me that this is highly unusual. The temperature hovers right around 0 degrees Celsius, which means the snow is wet and melts extremely fast. It’s pretty for a day or two, then it turns to rain again, and that means mud…lots and lots of mud.
During a break in the snow, I ventured outside to take a few pictures of my neighborhood. In a couple of weeks, the weather will hopefully be warmer and things will look a lot different, but still, I thought it would be good to give you guys an idea of what this place looks like.
My host family's apartment. We live on the second floor, which is good since there isn't an elevator.
I live in the Avtokarkhana settlement, near the old Soviet auto factory. The apartments are about 50 years old, and haven’t been renovated much since then. It’s a poor neighborhood, but it’s comfortable enough, with all of the basic amenities like water and heating.
An abandoned bus along the road to my school. My host father has some choice words to describe his Russian-made vehicle.In Soviet Russia, puddle splash YOU!
The roads are pretty nasty; they haven’t been repaved in decades, and the potholes are so deep you practically need a raft to get across the street. Most of the locals wear rubber boots during the rainy season, but I recently treated my boots with beeswax and that seems to be doing fairly well. Besides, after a while, you figure out where the stepping stones are, and then it’s not so bad.
One of the local free-range chickens. There's a cow, too, but she was staying out of the snow.Where the chickens go to keep warm. My host family laughed when I showed them this picture.
Even though Kutaisi is a fairly large city, I get the feeling that there’s still a few lingering elements of the village mentality. How else would you explain all the free-range chickens that people still keep? The school is within walking distance, as are the stores where we buy our bread, and even though the pharmacy is a short drive away, I could probably walk there in fifteen or twenty minutes.
The local church. It seems pretty small, but Georgians don't really have weekly worship meetings like we do in the States.
Because of the snow, I haven’t gotten out much in the past few weeks. I haven’t been stranded, though; there are about a dozen other TLG volunteers in the city, and we’ve had a few parties and get-togethers. Kutaisi is a small city, as far as cities go, but there are plenty of interesting places if you know where to look, and even in the dead of winter, it’s still quite pretty.
The road I walk back from school every day.
So yeah, that’s what my neighborhood is like. When the weather gets better, I’ll bring my camera to school and take some pictures of my school. I should also take some pictures of my host family’s apartment, come to think of it. What else do you guys want to see?
About three weeks have passed since I came to Georgia, and I’m starting to feel comfortably settled in this new place. I like it a lot out here: my host family is great, I get along really well with everyone at the school where I work, the kids are so crazy eager to learn it’s awesome…really, I couldn’t ask for more.
Of all the places in Georgia where TLG volunteers are placed, Kutaisi seems like one of the best. It’s the second largest city in the country, so it has access to several amenities such as markets, hospitals, restaurants, parks, and basically anything else you’d expect in an urban center. However, it’s about 200 km from Tbilisi and has very little exposure to the West, so culturally it’s very authentically Georgian. It’s also much less crowded, and (in my opinion) much more beautiful.
My host family is great; I get along with them real well and already feel like a member of the family. My youngest host brother, Kako, is 9 years old; I showed him Star Control II over the weekend, and he’s been addicted to it ever since. We also play chess, and I’ve kind of taken him under my wing to teach him the basics of good strategy. He’s getting steadily better!
Gura and Kati are the two teenage kids; they also speak English, so we’ve had some fun discussions. Besides Facebook and her cell phone, Kati is really into books; I showed her my Kindle, and she wants me to help her persuade her father to get her one! Gura is into Call of Duty and spends a lot of time hanging out with his friends; he lacks confidence when it comes to English, but he knows it better than he thinks he does.
The parents don’t speak much English, but they are really good people. It’s a working class family; the dad works as a welder, and the mom is a nurse part-time and a home-maker full time. They spend an amazing amount of time and energy on their kids, which is pretty typical for this part of the world. They’re both non-smokers, and they’re very respectful of the fact that I don’t drink coffee, tea, or alcohol. Some of the extended family keeps trying to push wine on me, but in the land known as the cradle of wine, that’s to be expected.
We basically spend all of our time in the family room when we aren’t sleeping; it’s where the heater is, so despite the relatively cramped space it’s the most comfortable room in the apartment. Furniture consists of a couch, a computer desk and office chair, a bucket seat from an old van, a folding table, several small wooden chairs and a stool. The TV isn’t quite a member of the family, but when the power isn’t out, it’s usually on.
The neighborhood is this bizarre mix of urban and rural elements. The roads are super muddy and free-range chickens wander everywhere at will, but everyone lives in 9-story apartments that were built back in the Soviet days, when Kutaisi was a major center for the auto industry. The school was built 50 years ago this year and has barely been renovated since, but it’s just starting to get some much-needed attention, with a computer center and a resource room for special needs students. When the weather clears up, I’ll bring my camera to school and take some pictures so you can see what the classes are like.
I’ll have to do a post later on Georgian culture; there are some really bizarre and paradoxical juxtapositions, such as the way they mix religion and alcohol, or their strong belief in the nuclear family with their easy-going acceptance of bride-napping as a “Georgian tradition.” I have yet to really get a handle on all this stuff. However, as a culture, they have a great respect for literature; when people ask my profession and I tell them I’m a writer, their eyes light up, and they show me a degree of deference that I never would have gotten back in the States.
Partly to have something to talk with them about, I’m reading War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy right now. I just finished Book III, where Napoleon smashes the Russians and Austrians in the Battle of Three Emperors. Everyone says that it’s the best novel ever written, and now that I’m in the thick of it, I’m starting to agree with them. There’s a lot of really good storytelling here, as well as passion and depth. I have the feeling that I’m going to be on a Russian literature trip for a while, though I should probably pick up some Rustaveli and Kurban Said as well.
As far as writing goes, I’ve had some difficulty settling down into a solid routine, not because of lack of time so much as trouble with my current WIPs. Star Wanderers has more or less stalled; I ran into another wall midway through part III, and I’m still not quite sure how to get past it. I’ve decided to take a break for a while, but I think my experiences here with the Georgian language are going to give me what I need to really make this novel come together.
In the meantime, I’m working on the 2.0 draft of Stars of Blood and Glory. I’ve decided to try something new: revising not by chapter, but by viewpoint character. Isolating each of the five viewpoints is helping me to see which ones work, and which ones are missing something. I’ve also been using Dan Well’s 7-point outlining method, which is helping out a ton.
It feels like I could be writing more, but I’m not pushing myself too hard at this point. I’m still adjusting to life in this totally new culture, and I’m also spending a lot of energy getting my TEFL career off on the right foot. It’s paying off; I’m having a great time teaching, more than I thought I would. Pretty soon, though, I’m going to start putting more energy into my writing. I just hope that I’ll have enough mental space left over to really immerse myself and make it work.
I had a realization as I was visiting Tbilisi this weekend: I love traveling.
I love standing beneath a tattered, windswept tarp surrounded by market stalls and people bartering in a language I barely understand. I love walking down the dusty pavement of a chaotic bus station in the developing world, and the confidence that comes from knowing how to navigate it.
I love the thrill of knowing that I’m on the other side of the world from most of my friends and family. I love laughing at the email alerts I get for all the mundane, dead-end jobs like office support or market research that I used to chase after so desperately. I love being in a place where I can make a real difference in people’s lives.
I love never quite knowing exactly what’s going on, but getting along anyway. I love taking things one day at a time and letting tomorrow take care of itself. I love being surrounded by strange and interesting sights, and by people whose hospitality amazes and humbles me. I love entering an alien culture as an outsider and becoming part of the society before I leave.
Is this all just part of the “honeymoon” phase of culture shock? Perhaps, but this isn’t the first time I’ve traveled. In many ways, the experience here in Georgia reminds me of my experience in Jordan, and I think I’ve been able to adapt better because of it. In spite of all the cultural differences, I feel quite at home here. Kutaisi is a great place, and I’m looking forward to getting to know the people and the city better.
One of the really interesting things about Georgian culture is the way the people’s eyes light up when I tell them I’m a writer. They seem to have a lot of respect for that profession, more than in the states. I haven’t been writing a whole lot other than in my journal, but things are more or less falling into place at the school and I think I’ll have a lot of time for other pursuits. Hopefully, by this time next week, I’ll be able t start writing regularly again.
In the meantime, all of these cultural experiences are really great, and I think they will enrich my writing considerably. I’m not thinking much about that now, of course, but I’m sure I’l come away from this place with a wonderful pool of experiences and images to pull from. But right now, I’m about to pass out and crash, so I’d better call this a blog post and send it up with the others. Good night!
That’s Georgian for “good morning, Georgia.” It’s 7:20 am in Tbilisi right now, and I figure it’s time for an update before starting another day of TLG orientation.
So Georgia is a pretty interesting place so far. We haven’t seen too much of it, because we’ve been in the hotel most of the time doing various cultural and language training sessions, but last night we got out and hiked to the top of the fortress in Tbilisi which was very fun (unfortunately, I didn’t bring a camera–next time!). I’ve just about mastered the alphabet, though I can’t really read it well yet, and I know a few basic phrases that together with gestures and pantomimes will help me to get around. Very few people speak English; that’s what we’re here as part of the TLG program to change.
There are 33 other teachers in my group, and they’re all pretty awesome. Most are from the US, though there are a handful from Australia and New Zealand, which is fun. Most of us are the same age and in the same life position: young, single, fresh out of college, fairly well educated, free of major life responsibilities and looking for an adventure. For that reason, I think we’ve been able to bond fairly quickly, which is encouraging. I don’t know how often I’ll see most of these people once I’ve been placed, but I’ve been making friends and getting along fairly well.
So far, the people running the TLG program seem really on the ball. This is only the program’s second year, but it’s a major initiative from the government and has really started to have an impact. It’s humbling, actually, to see how much the Georgians are investing in us; the program might not pay as well as JET or EPIK (TEFL programs in Japan and Korea), but for a developing country like Georgia, it’s quite a lot. The country has been through a lot of tremendous difficulties, but they are pushing forward for a brighter and more prosperous future and I hope that I can make a difference and be a part of that.
In case you’re wondering whether I feel safe, don’t worry; everything in Tbilisi is fine. Yes, there has been a lot of saber-rattling with Iran, but that hasn’t directly affected Georgia other than the attempted attack on the Israeli diplomats (which could have happened anywhere). If the Western powers do undertake a major military operation in the area, Russia could become antagonistic, but I think Obama has made it clear that the US is going to stick with sanctions, at least for the foreseeable future. Personally, I think a military strike is unlikely. Slightly more disconcerting are the Russian anti-terrorist operations in Chechnya/Dagestan, but that seems to be an internal Russian affair, so don’t worry: I’m safe.
As far as the local culture goes, I think there will be some challenges but I should be able to get along quite well. It seems that the people have a strong sense of community, emphasize people and relationships over rules and regulations, are honest and outgoing, very passionate, and very friendly toward Americans.
The biggest challenge will probably be the alcohol; Georgians are very proud of their wine, and men are expected to be heavy drinkers (REALLY heavy drinkers–like, even the Australians are nervous about it). Hopefully, I’ll be able to communicate that I don’t drink because it’s forbidden in my religion, and they’ll respect that.
In general, the orientation has been preparing us for the worst (Turkish toilets, difficulties with co-teachers, host parents trying to marry us off), so a lot of us are nervous, but we’re also very excited. This is definitely an adventure! And three or four months from now, I think most of us will look back and laugh at how nervous and scared we were.
Honestly, I’m not scared at all. If not for the study abroad trip to Jordan, I probably would be, but so far the experience has been quite similar (though I’m sure it will be quite different). I’ll just keep my eyes open, be a gracious guest, work hard, and experience as much as I can of this beautiful and wonderful country.
I got my flight plans today from the TLG people in Georgia! I’ll be flying out next week from JFK, connecting in Kiev and arriving at Tbilisi Wednesday afternoon. On Monday, I’ll take the train down to my aunt and uncle’s place in New York city and spend a couple of days with them before flying out.
As you can imagine, I’m really excited about all of this! It’s an adventure, a chance to experience a new culture, and an opportunity to start a new career and get some good experience, both for my resume and for my writing. Since this is such a huge change in direction, I want to do some thinking aloud about where I see myself going in the next couple of years. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please chime in!
Stay in Georgia for 2+ years: Right now, this honestly doesn’t seem too likely, but I’m not ruling it out. After getting some English teaching experience, I’ll probably want to take a higher paying job somewhere else. The biggest reason to stay would be if I find a local girl I’m interested in pursuing, but that’s not why I’m going out there so I’m not planning on it. But then again, you never know.
Spend 1+ year(s) in Georgia and take a job in the Persian Gulf region: This is probably the most likely scenario. After teaching in Georgia, I’ll hopefully be in a good position to apply for for more lucrative jobs in Saudi Arabia or the other Gulf states. I also really want to go down there because of the chance it would give me to work on my Arabic. From what I’ve heard, there’s not a whole lot of interaction with the local culture, but I’m sure there’s plenty to see and do–and if there isn’t, then all the more time to spend writing.
After a couple of years in the Gulf, I’ll probably have enough money saved up to come back to the US and focus for a while on my writing career. That would be pretty awesome. Or maybe I’ll decide to take that money and travel for a bit. The potential downside, though, is that it’ll probably be harder to find a girl in Saudi Arabia–but then again, you never know.
Spend 1+ year(s) in Georgia and take a job elsewhere in the Middle East: Not as lucrative as the gulf, but the cultural experience might be more fulfilling. I’ve already been to Jordan once, but only long enough to barely whet my appetite. 🙂 I’ve got friends there, too, which is also huge. And even if I go somewhere besides Jordan, it will give me a great chance to work on my Arabic, maybe even more so than the Gulf.
The biggest downside, of course, is the security situation. With the revolution in Syria quickly turning to a bloody civil war, and the brinksmanship between Israel and Iran getting worse by the day, it doesn’t look like things are going to be any better a year from now. I’ll have to keep an eye on developments as they happen, and stay away from the region if thing heat up too significantly.
Spend 1+ year(s) in Georgia and take a job in Eastern Europe: This would be my second preference, after taking a job in the Middle East. I’ve got a friend in the Ukraine who says it’s really good there, and I’ve got a lot of Czech heritage so it might be good to shoot for a job in the Czech Republic as well. I won’t be able to work my Arabic as much, but my sister is making a lot of family history breakthroughs so it would be kind of cool to get in touch with those people. Also, the security situation is considerably less volatile. Not sure about pay, but I’m sure it will be enough to get by.
Spend 1+ year(s) in Georgia and take a job in East Asia: I don’t have a whole lot of interest in East Asia right now, but I hear there are some fairly lucrative teaching jobs out there, and I have a lot of friends with connections to Japan and China. It would definitely be another adventure, that’s for sure.
Spend 1+ year(s) in Georgia and come back to the United States: This is probably the least likely scenario. My main goal in going to Georgia is to use the experience with TLG to launch into a career teaching English as a second language. Coming back to the states after a successful run would be kind of pointless…but hey, sometimes life gets in the way, so I can’t rule it out.
Come back to the United States in June: Right now, I’m only signed up with the TLG program through June, but if I find the program agreeable I’ll probably stay on for another semester. Probably. It really depends, and I can’t say for sure.
If I did come back to the states after fulfilling my term, it would probably be because I change my mind about pursuing a TEFL career altogether. The only real way I can see that happening is if teaching English seriously hinders my writing, and that seems highly unlikely (it’s only thirty hours per week, including prep time). From everything I’ve seen, this seems like a career I’m well suited for, and one that will be much easier to balance with my writing than anything else short of working graveyard shift at a hotel.
And if, by some random fluke of luck, my books start to sell like crazy while I’m overseas, I’ll probably still pursue this career choice, at least for the next few years. When you don’t have anything else to get you out of the house, writing can be extremely boring. Besides, I want to have something to write about, and what better way to do that than to spend a few years living and working abroad?
So that’s what I see happening in the mid- to near-future. I’ll definitely post regular updates on my adventures, though the main focus of this blog will still be my writing.
And as for the next week, I plan to revise through Star Wanderers: Part II before leaving, then work on the next two parts of that novel before potentially moving on to Edenfall. Really, I have no idea what I’ll do, but before Tuesday, I want to at least get Star Wanderers: Part II ready for my first readers.
That’s right! After what felt like six hours of un-anesthetized brain surgery, Stars of Blood and Glory 1.0 is finally complete! Here are the stats:
words: 76,326 chapters: 18, prologue & epilogue ms pages: 360 start date: 20 Dec 2011 end date: 2 Feb 2011
Some extended stats, just for fun:
days spent writing: 36 miles traveled: ~5,500 viewpoint characters: 5 characters from other novels: 9 major characters who die: 3 space battles: 5 planets slagged: 1
The wordsplash:
And the most influential song while writing:
It’s good to finish another novel, but this one definitely needs a lot of work before I feel that it’s of publishable quality. I think I know how to fix it, but my mind needs a break in order to give it a fresh approach. I’ll probably let it settle for a few months, then come back either this spring or summer.
I’m pleasantly surprised with how quickly I was able to finish this book. Thirty-six writing days is something of a personal record. Still, it feels like it needs a little more fleshing out. 76k is definitely too short for a novel of this type; hopefully in the second draft, I’ll be able to bring it up to 80k or 90k.
In other news, I heard back from the TLG program, and I’m happy to say I’ve been accepted! I’ll fly out to Georgia in a little less than two weeks, have a seven day orientation period at Kutaisi, then ship off to wherever the Ministry of Education decides to send me. I’ll be there until at least June, then either renew for a second semester or go somewhere else, maybe Eastern Europe or the Middle East.
Needless to say, I’m pretty excited! Hopefully, this new career will be a good fit, and I’ll have many awesome adventures in the next few years. Even if my writing starts to take off and my books start selling hand over fist, I’ll probably keep teaching for a while just for the experience. Writing is fun, but when you have nothing else to keep you busy it can also get quite boring.
The next few weeks are going to be pretty freaking busy, so I’m probably going to ease off on the writing, at least until I get settled into the new routine. Before I leave, I need to:
Find affordable expat insurance.
Pick up a 220 to 120 volt converter and plug adapter.
Publish Journey to Jordan on Amazon and B&N.
Get some new clothes.
Clean my parents’ guest room.
File state taxes for Utah (federal taxes are already filed).
Write up the last couple of Trope Tuesday posts for the backlog.
Finish the covers for Star Wanderers (while I still have access to my desktop computer).
Read up on Georgian customs and mentally prepare myself for the inevitable culture shock.
Shouldn’t be too hard, but it’s only going to get crazier once I’m over there. I’ll be sure to keep you updated as much as I can, though; this is going to be fun!
So yeah, another novel down; this one makes my sixth. Just another 94 to go before I reach my lifetime goal of one hundred!
