I had a realization as I was visiting Tbilisi this weekend: I love traveling.<\/p>\n
I love standing beneath a tattered, windswept tarp surrounded by market stalls and people bartering in a language I barely understand. \u00a0I 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.<\/p>\n
I love the thrill of knowing that I’m on the other side of the world from most of my friends and family. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0I love being in a place where I can make a real difference in people’s lives.<\/p>\n
I love never quite knowing exactly what’s going on, but getting along anyway. \u00a0I love taking things one day at a time and letting tomorrow take care of itself. \u00a0I love being surrounded by strange and interesting sights, and by people whose hospitality amazes and humbles me. \u00a0I love entering an alien culture as an outsider and becoming part of the society before I leave.<\/p>\n
Is this all just part of the “honeymoon” phase of culture shock? \u00a0Perhaps, but this isn’t the first time I’ve traveled. \u00a0In 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. \u00a0In spite of all the cultural differences, I feel quite at home here. \u00a0Kutaisi is a great place, and I’m looking forward to getting to know the people and the city better.<\/p>\n
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. \u00a0 They seem to have a lot of respect for that profession, more than in the states. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0Hopefully, by this time next week, I’ll be able t start writing regularly again.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, all of these cultural experiences are really great, and I think they will enrich my writing considerably. \u00a0I’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. \u00a0But 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. \u00a0Good night!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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. \u00a0I love walking down the dusty pavement of a chaotic bus station in the developing world, and the confidence that… Continue reading For the love of traveling<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[335,698,697,495,148],"class_list":["post-7067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adventure","tag-cultural-experiences","tag-teach-and-learn-in-georgia","tag-teaching-english-abroad","tag-travel","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-1PZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7067"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7069,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7067\/revisions\/7069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}