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So we are sitting in the Munich Airport waiting for our flight to Pisa. We left home at 2:00 am, hopped on a 4:00 am flight from Tbilisi to Munich, landed at 5:55 am (Munich time), and will depart at 10:40 am. I think I am really starting to get the hang of traveling with kids! Right now we are monopolizing a corner with all of our belongings spread out across the floor. All is good.

I can't believe it has only been a little over a week since we moved to Georgia! Here are a few things I have learned:
1. Always go to the bathroom before you leave the house. You never know if there will be a toilet or how strong the stench will be....so better to be safe than sorry (did I mention that Lucas pooped outside at the park the other day? I won't even go into it...)
2. If you go out to eat early enough, no one else is in the restaurant. Literally, no one.
3. When you move (or maybe even visit) a foreign country, it could take one's stomach a few days or even weeks to adjust.
4. The water can shut off at any given time for an undetermined amount of time. Please refer to number 3 and you can imagine how quickly this situation could turn into a nightmare.
5. In order to do well in a foreign country, you must be a good mathematician. Celsius/Farenheit, 24 hour clock/12 hour clock, Lari/Dollar... I am working on a little cheat sheet to carry around with me. I can't do that much thinking in one day.

Our plane is about to board, and I am excited to see my sister in law marry the man she loves this weekend. I will post more when I return to Tiflis (Tbilisi in European speak).

A Peek Into My Chaos

Just in case you didn't get to see the mess that I called my house the last month before I left, here are a few shots....but really these don't do it justice.

Imagine having to split all of your belongings into 3 piles: storage, air shipment, and luggage to take on the plane. Sounds easy peasy, right? WRONG. The hardest part was determining what we would need right away in Georgia (air shipment is not scheduled to come until weeks after we arrived in Georgia), what we wouldn't need for a year and could be put in storage (we really don't need that stainless steel ice crusher, right?), and what we thought we could use while living overseas (no negotiating, the triple layer cupcake holder is coming). Throw in a wedding in Italy and a beach vacation before getting our air shipment and that all equals too many decisions for one person to make. But I made them. I have no idea what ended up in each pile, or which piles the movers actually put in storage or in the air, but looking back now....I am pretty sure we'll be OK no matter what pile we receive in a few weeks.

...and she's BACK!

As promised, here I am! I know it has been rough for the 3 of you to be kept waiting, so I apologize. I just needed a mental health week after the last 10 months....and I have enjoyed every... last... lazy... minute!

So to recap for you, just in case my being away this last week made my whining a forgotten memory, here it goes: Emet moved to Tbilisi, Georgia in August of 2009. He still works for Chemonics, but is now a USAID contractor. USAID is a US government organization (part of the state department) based in Washington D.C. When people ask me why we are moving to Georgia my response is, "my husband is engaged in some really cool stuff to help make Georgian schools better."

If you are interested in a more technical response please see below. However, if you think my answer cuts the mustard, you can skip all the red text!

USAID’s Georgia Education Management Project is a three-year activity that aims at better management capacity and improved policy in the education sector by establishing an education management program for administrators supported by necessary financial and administrative policy reforms.

Objectives:

• Improve the long-term capacity of Georgian institutions to better manage the education system and lead its transformation; and

• Ensure the effectiveness of education policies on management, finance, and accreditation by supporting the Ministry of Education and Science (MoES), MoES educational agencies, and Education Resource Centers (ERCs).

So, we made the flight thanks to my friend Sarah who so calmly jammed all 14 suitcases into her car. She then stood in 3 different lines with us to check our bags while my kids wrestled on the floor. In anticipation of the L-O-N-G flight, I let them wrestle. Right there in line. At one point, I did ask Sarah if she thought it was OK....but really what is she going to say? I was teetering on the edge of a breakdown. She did great holding me together! I have to say checking our luggage was the most stressful part of the whole trip. Once we boarded the plane, we hung out, drew some pictures, used some paint (oops, the tray tables may have gotten a smidge of paint on them!) and then AL went to sleep. I can never sleep on flights, but since the kids were asleep the world was a happy place. I had to wake them up to land. We met the nicest man while traveling and he kind of adopted us. He told my kids when to walk faster, directed us where to go to get our boarding pass in Munich, and carried some of our luggage up and down the stairs. I was very happy to meet him! He claims to be a Georgian celebrity of sorts, so I look forward to seeing him on TV. Anyway, we only had 1 hour before our next plane boarded and then just a 3 1/2 hour flight before landing in Tbilisi! Where was this flight in March???!!!???

All in all, I am thrilled to be a family in one place again. Seeing my 3 men smiling because we are all together made the last 10 months seem a little farther in the distance...