Greetings!

Greetings, friends!

First things first:

FULBRIGHT DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are the not views and opinions of the Fulbright Program or the United States Department of State. The views presented here are my own and do not represent the United States of America.

Okay. Now that the formalities are finished, welcome to my Georgia blog! No, not that Georgia. The other Georgia – the real Georgia. Tbilisi, not Atlanta.

For those of you who may not know me, my name is Hannah. I am a recent graduate of Stetson University where I majored in Russian Studies, Political Science, and International Business. I am a soon to be PhD student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. I am currently a Fulbright ETA (English Teaching Assistant) to Gori, Georgia. I will be living in the country for the next nine months teaching English to Georgian school children.

This blog is a record of my adventures and activities in the country and a way to keep in touch with friends and family while abroad. Hopefully, it may also be some use to those who are visiting Georgia and a helpful guide to future Fulbrighters. Whatever the reason you are here for, I hope you will enjoy the blog and join me in my journey!

First, a little about Georgia:

The Republic of Georgia is a small country about the size of, well, Georgia (the American one) and with a population of four million. It is located south of Russian and east of Turkey and is part of the Caucasus. The people speak…Georgian (which is nothing like Russian), although many people speak Russian as it was once a part of the Soviet Union.

Georgia has an extremely long and rich history – Noah’s son, Thargamos supposedly settled around this area. Georgia was conquered and ruled by various groups until the 18th century, when Russia became the major power in the region. After the Russian revolution of 1917, Georgia briefly gained independence, only to later become a Soviet republic (yes, this is extremely simplified – this is a very interesting time period, so check it out in you are so inclined). In February 1990, Georgia declared itself an annexed state. It finally gained its independence in April 1991. In the early 2000s, Georgia went through an exchange of power known as the Rose Revolution and Saakashvili came to power.

In 2008, Georgia experienced another crisis when Russia occupied South Ossetia (a separatist region north of Georgia). As a result, relations between the two countries have been….ah, less than civil, shall we say. However, Georgia has quite friendly relations with the U.S. – they even named one of the main highways in Tbilisi, the capital, G.W. Bush. Go figure.

I will be living and working in Gori, a smallish town about 1.5 hours from the capital known mainly for being the birthplace of Stalin. Until this past summer, it was home to the only standing Stalin statue, which they have since removed. The population is officially 62,000, though this estimate is quite high as many people left after it was occupied by the Russians in 2008. (Gori is 5km from South Ossetia.)
And that, my dears, is Georgia. Sorry for the brevity. I’m currently flying over the Atlantic and am quite tired at the moment. But, hey, maybe it was enough to get you interested enough to look into the country on your own? No? Oh, well, I tried…

I land in Tbilisi on September 11th for a few days of fun, friends and, le sigh, work before I head to Gori to begin my real stay!

I’ll keep y’all posted as often as possible. If this turns out anything like my Moscow blog, that will be more than any of you will be interested in. 