So this is Georgia?

I trekked to my sponsor’s office to get my visa extension. They told me to get there any time between 9am and 5pm. So I did. It took me forever to find the office because it was tucked away on some tiny, muddy street. Once I got there, it turned out that the woman whom I had to meet had her Georgian lesson. Something she didn’t mention to me when I originally made plans with her. And her assistant told me that I needed a passport size photo in order to apply for a visa extension. Something she didn’t tell me when I explicitly asked her what the visa extension procedure involved. Feeling really annoyed and exhausted, I went home with my visa extension form.

I realized in the past few days here in Georgia that if some says to meet him or her at 4pm, that actually means more around 4:30pm, if not even later. If someone says that he or she will be somewhere in 30 minutes, usually that means more like an hour and a half. If I ask a question, the answer will be contain information only pertaining to my question, there will not be any additional information that is vital to the question asked. For example, when I asked: “what do I need to do to extend my visa?” The answer was: “you will need to fill out a form. Please come to our office between 9am and 5pm.” It’s a little annoying but also great as I realize that I will never be later for anything. But like driving in Tbilisi where you anticipate the other driver’s move in order to avoid accidents, I also need to start asking more questions in anticipation of information that may not be otherwise said to me.