Three days out of Work and the consul :)

…And today my never ending, tiring and insane visa-application process is officially over! As I was told by a very experienced friend of mine, who tried to get the French visa numerous times but in vain, the French Embassy in Georgia is the most strict about giving out the permissions to visit their country. No doubt that for those from the developed world, who can afford expensive vacations in Paris, Niece, etc. that should not be a problem… However, for us, still living in the developing world, ‘loudly and proudly’ remembering those years of no electricity, gas, food, etc. the Western Europe still looks like a heaven… Heaven to a degree that many of our citizens along with Arabians, people from less developed African countries choose to go there and never come back. So French got so tired of so many immigrants literally taking away their space, jobs and everything they have, that they became really strict about giving out visas… Unfortunately, that was directly reflected on me, an 18 year old student who got a scholarship to ‘Ecole Superieur du Commerce – Clermont’ for one semester during my junior year at college. After submitting all the documents including insurance, grades, invitation from the French University, contracts between my University and recommendations from our dean etc. etc. I was invited to an interview with the head of cultural department of the Embassy who turned out a very hot young French guy.

French have diplomatic, fancy manners in their genes I guess, because in his behavior he was nice but still you could easily detect a sense of his superiority. He talked quiet, calm and looked like very sophisticated language came out of his mouth smoothly, without too much pressure. Before starting an interview, I was very nervous (naturally). As soon as we shook hands firmly and introduced ourselves to each other, the atmosphere became very friendly and I felt comfortable. In the beginning he mentioned that this interview was not an exam, he wasn’t judging me by asking questions, he just needed several things to clarify, like how long I’ve been studying French, how many hours a week, how I found out about ESC-Clermont, what I will be doing when I come back after 6 months... I managed to understand everything that he said in French and give an appropriate answer. Finally I even got a compliment from him and the translator as well who sat next to me and never had to participate in our conversation.

The interview lasted for less than 15 minutes… After I left, I was too lazy to go directly back to work and decided to walk around the streets near the embassy. It was really cool and fresh this morning after the rain last night and the sweet narrow streets with nice boutiques in Vera district seemed very attractive to me. In about 100 meters I ran across a very nice French place called ‘Entrée’. They sold nice croissants I literally adore. So I got a whole bag of them and left. After 1.30 ride in Metro and then in Marshutka, I came back to the office.

For those of you who don’t know yet, I’ve been working at Peace Corps Georgia as an intern. This is just a short-term summer job lasting for only 2 months. The job with environment and people around me is normal. Although once in a while I face some barriers that I manage to solve or if they aren’t that important, I leave them unnoticed. The biggest problem for me is that the job I have becomes boring very often. I have to be in the office from 9 am till 6 pm and do some paperwork, evaluations, reports… I feel like I’m not learning anything new and even forgetting what I learned during last 3-4 years. I have an impression that I could do the same stuff when I was in the 9th grade. So, to put it in a couple of words, my job is not challenging enough. And most of you already know that I get bored very easily…

To be realistic, I shouldn’t have expected anything else from the summer intern job. I don’t regret anything since I learn a lot about the organizational culture, relations between the employees and simply how to be nice to people you may not like at all. J)) Especially when you’re a person as awfully picky and moody as I am. The best side of my job is American volunteers. They are new in our country and I feel super excited when I see them trying to learn some Georgian, or say difficult words… They run across Georgian cultural weirdoes and bizarre stuff very often. It’s just hilarious just to sit in the back and listen to them explaining things and telling stories to each other, that are so every day and redundant for me, in a different, exotic way. (I guess, that’s how they see everything in Georgia).

I also managed to get out of work for 3 days. I had to go to Tbilisi to gather all the visa documents. So I spent most of the 3 days running around the different organizations to get everything ready. I also spent almost all my 1 month salary on translating documents (170 GEL)+ visa fee (50 euro) + insurance (150 GEL). And plus I went out to the movies, for lunch, dinner, and parties at night. My friends that were in Tbilisi haven’t been going out much lately, so when I arrived the time to party had come. We also went up to ‘Kus Tba’ which means the ‘Turtle Lake’ at night. We got all wet and then had beer at 4 am. I came home when it was already early morning… In a word, I had a great time. After all that, I feel like I’m ready for 3 more weeks to go at work. Then, hopefully, I’ll be leaving for France. I’ll make sure you are updated about everything I will be doing there. Pictures to follow as well since I’ll be taking thousands of photos there J