Exactly two months ago I was sitting in the Munich airport, exited and anxiously waiting for my very late plane to Tbilisi, Georgia. I reached my destination at three in the morning and spent my first 35 minutes in Georgia arguing with a Taxi driver. Finally, I did manage to go to the apartment not before running up the wrong stets of stairs but let´s not mention that. The next days I spent exploring Tbilisi with the other volunteers; I immediately fell in love with the city, the graffiti’s, buildings, bars, people, dogs, cats and few points from which you can overlook the whole city.
After enjoying Tbilisi for two weeks, I went on a work trip to Batumi. For 10 days I got to attend an Erasmus+ study visit about youth participation. During the project, I gained valuable insights into youth engagement challenges, especially the lack of accessible opportunities for active participation across different countries. Besides that, I also met a lot of nice people, explored Batumi and went swimming in the black sea.
After this project I spent two solid days at the office in Tbilisi before I was sent to the next project. “Voices for justice” was the name of the one-week training course in Kobuleti. I again got to meet amazing people, swam in the sea and expanded my knowledge on informal education and improved my presentation skills.
The projects were wonderful but never the less I was very happy to be back in my Tbilisi. Tbilisi where the “Lobiani-lady” (Lobiani is a traditional gerogian backed good that is way too delicious) across the street gets exited about every new word I know in Georgian, where I life with my amazing flat mates and cuddle with the office cats. After only two months this city already feels like home. I have even gotten adjusted to the traffic my jaywalking skills have improved significantly so crossing the four-lane road on the way to the office is no issue anymore. Walking across that road feels like playing the “cross the road” game but just like in the game after a few tries you feel like a pro.
My weekends I mainly spend exploring Georgia going sightseeing in cities and hiking. The country is absolutely fascinating with its diversity; in the course of one week, I went from wearing shorts and t-shirt in Vashlovani national park to having snowball fights in Bakuriani. And obviously exploring Tbilisi´s nightlife is also part of my free time. The bars in our street already know me and my flat mates, as we joined a festival organized by them on our very first weekend in Georgia. We were the only internationals at the event so we stayed in their memory and get a lovely greeting every time we go there now.
I am also attending Georgian lessons twice a week progress is very slow but it is very fun. One of my favorite things is that they just add an “i” at the end of words to make them Georgian. My name “Judit” for example turns into “ჯუდითი > Djuditi” I think that´s very cute.
Overall, I have been enjoying my time in Sakartvelo so far and can´t wait for what is yet to come.
Judit verbringt ihren Freiwilligendienst bei DRONI, ihr Projekt wird ko-finanziert von der Europäischen Union.
