Departing for Georgia: Part I

Gamarjobat from Georgia!

After 16 hours of flying, lots of layovers, and a possible lost luggage scare, I'm here in Tbilisi, Georgia and enjoying (with the help of lots of allergy medicine) my time in the smoke-as-often-and-as-much-as-possible hotel lobby ;)

I'm sure you're expecting a follow-up from PackPossible! so I must confess that I did have a slight scare at the airport; My two 50 lb. bags ended up both weighing more than 50 lbs. Right as I was about to dish out an extra $200 for overweight bags, my new Greenheart teacher friend (a complete stranger at the time since I had only met her two minutes prior), offered to shove some of my weighty books in her carry on. We got everything figured out, slid through security with a surprising ease, and departed O'Hare at 8:45am CDT for many adventures to come.

I was then greeted at the Washington Dulles airport by two fabulous friends and ended up leaving the airport (thank you, 6 hour layover!) to grab lunch. We also had enough time to see Toy Story 3, so the time flew by quickly. I went back through security, enjoyed a farewell cup of java from my last visit to Starbucks on American soil, and boarded the flight for my Economy fare to Amsterdam.

Well...what I thought was Economy. Shortly after I stowed my much-too-heavy bag in the overhead compartment and came to terms with the fact that I would only have a centimeter of leg room, a friendly flight attendant asked me and the two other gals I was traveling with to pick up our belongings and follow her to...Business Class BABY! My new seat was - absolutely no exaggeration - a cushy, reclining, God-must-really-love-me, AMAZINGLY comfortable, Lazy Boy-esque chair equipped with a down comforter, fluffy pillow, and 3-course meal menu. I had shrimp brochetta to start, chicken sate for my main course, a cheese platter and ice cream for dessert, and a very unlimited amount of vino throughout the entire flight. JACKPOT!

Our layover in Amsterdam went as quickly as it arrived and we were soon on flight for Tbilisi. And on that note, I'm off to lunch. I'll report back later with Pt. II of my travels. Be excited; be very, very excited.