Much to Catch up On, Part 4: Back in Georgia

Of course, as all good things do, the vacation in Germany had to end. Not without the obligatory tears, which of course happened at THE worst time possible. My first flight from Munich to Istanbul was great. I had a whole row of seats to myself, and everything went smoothly. One would think if I was going to cry, it would be as I left Germany, but no. That would be much too convenient. It happened on my flight from Istanbul to Tbilisi, while surrounded on all sides by either Turkish or Georgian women, who, if you were unaware, are MUCH more nosy than Germans. One woman offered me a tissue, one guy leaned up from a couple rows back to ask me what was wrong with me... it was lovely. Hahaha. But I made it back in one piece at around 2 in the morning. I stayed in a hostel for a couple days, just to ease back into Georgia and to be surrounded by people for a couple days so I didn't get too lonely. Met some egotistical Americans I wasn't too fond of and a lovely Australian woman who was visiting her mom (who was TLG), who I suspect I have met before, but am not quite sure. Good times.
THEN, everything kind of goes crazy from there. I left to go back to Rustavi on Friday night, and upon arriving at my apartment, discovered that my host family has left for the weekend, taken the key to the door that is normally hidden there, and have failed to tell me ALL this information. So in a blind rage, I called TLG and my host sister and pretty much demanded this situation be remedied IMMEDIATELY. My host family claims they told me they were going to be gone and that they thought I wasn't coming  back yet, which was total crap. So after several frantic phone calls, TLG decides they're just going to take me to my new host family instead of making me go all the way back to Tbilisi to stay in a hostel overnight with my 20 kilos of luggage from my Germany trip. As bad as the situation was with my other host family is about as good as it is with the new. The place is WARM, they offered me a hot shower  pretty much the second I got there, and they're just in general completely lovely. My host mother is a proclaimed chocolate and tea addict, and I can tell we're going to get along juuust fine haha.
However, one would think it couldn't get any weirder with my previous host family, and they would be wrong. I went back to get my stuff, and my host sister told me her mom just left for Italy for the next THREE YEARS. I was like "Excuse me, what!? Three YEARS?" and she was like "Yea, 3 years..." like it was no big deal!? So I have no idea what is up with them, but I'm glad to be outta there. They just kind of do their own weird thing. As my own passive agressive revenge for the fact that they locked me out of the place I was supposed to be living in, I'm eating the chocolate I bought for my host sister. Take THAT.
And just because this post is all text, here's a picture of some of the Christmas/New Year lights in Tbilisi.

School starts up again on Friday, and I've already been told I don't have to go haha, so maybe I'll go, maybe I won't. I haven't really decided yet. As of now it'll be my last semester in Georgia unless I decide to renew my contract for another one after that. So far, it's off to a good start, and if I can reconnect with some of the people I met right before I left, I think it'll definitely be an excellent one.