top 10 of georgia

I I have been meaning to do this for a while, but with my imminent departure, I wanted to present to you my assessment of the best, the worst, and the funniest/strangest things about Georgia.

Top 5 Peculiarities (couldn't really get to 10)

5. Georgian Orthodox priests and nuns dress from head to toe in black (priests in a little middle eastern hat, nuns in something approaching a burka), which really screws up my sense of symbolism that I learned in middle school English. They feel more evil than good. One morning I was out early, and I saw three nuns in flowing black robes approaching me, and I felt like the angels of death were coming for me.

4. Here, lemonade= any soda. So if someone asks you if you want lemonade with lunch, you are likely to get pear or tarragon (yes, tarragon! it's an eerie shade of green) soda. And by the way, lemon-flavored lemonade tastes like cleaning solution.


3. Speaking of lemon-flavored cleaning solution: try Barf detergent! "Barf means better."


2. Speaking of barf: the fact that the road to the airport is called President George W. Bush Street.


And the number 1 peculiarity/strange thing I've seen in Georgia: The picture on the sign for George W. Bush Street. What is he doing? Trying to direct traffic? Saying hello? High five? Not that it's out of the ordinary for our president to give a strange and ambiguous facial and hand expression.

Top 10 Bad things about Georgia (in no particular order)
10. Ugly soviet buildings
9. Power goes out unpredictably and at very inconvienient times
8. Coffee here= Nescafe. Turkish coffee= lots and lots of Nescafe in a small cup, with a splash of water
7. Dust and broken glass
6. Georgian food gets monotonous
5. Georgian food made me fat! (It has nothing to do with beer. Or willpower.)
4. The vast majority of beggars are elderly women. This makes me sad. Most of the time their husbands have died, and they have never worked, and they don't have enough money to live.
3. Gypsies who harrass me. Ok, I know it's not politically correct to say gypsies (they're "Romani") or to say that they're bad--I'm sure that 95% of Georgian Roma people are perfectly nice, they work, whatever-- but here I'm talking about the ones here who have literally hit me, thrown lollipops at me, dumped out peanuts on the ground that have been given to them, and stolen half-drunk sodas out of the hands of my friends.
2. & 1. I can't think of a ninth or tenth and nothing else really bothered me, so we'll leave it at that.


And most importantly:
Top 10 Best things about Georgia! (in order)
10. They have Chupa-Chups!
9. Cute stray dogs. I want one.









8. Cool Soviet cars. Volkswagen Rabbit (car of my childhood)+small SUV= Lada Niva.

I want one of these too.

7. Kazbegi brewery. Yummy beer, sun, river, and occassionally beerpong and the very friendly toothless lady who sells great peanuts.

6. Cool statues and sculptures.


5. Public transportation is convenient and very very cheap.
4. Georgian food: although monotonous and the reason for my pants being tight, it's damn good. My Georgian cookbook should arrive in Watkinsville from Amazon about the time that I get home. Khinkali anyone?
3. Green and mountains everywhere, even in the city. It's a really beatiful country.
2. Hospitality and generosity that has not waned and has not been beaten by any country I've visited. They celebrate guests, treat us with food and drink (lots), store keepers and cab drivers share their things and sometimes refuse payment, waiters allow us to steal beer mugs, they're always impressed and amused at any small attempt to speak Georgian. I will really, really miss this friendly culture.
1. Our Georgian friends! More than anything else here, I will miss Salome, Irina, Giorgi driver, Giorgi Emory, and all the others we have met and who have taken care of us, had fun with us, and also been so generous in the Georgian spirit.

This may be my last report from Georgia. I'm spending the next few days tying up loose ends, giving gifts to all the people at the AIDS center who have helped me out, possibly a cheap trip to the salon with Salome, packing, etc. We had a nice tourist day in Tbilisi on Sunday, visiting its historical fortress with amazing views of the city. We'd attempted to go before, but although you can see it from anywhere you are in the city, it is amazingly difficult to locate the one street that leads to it from among all the windy roads in the Old City. Saturday we had an interesting rafting trip with some visiting Emory physicians and their Georgian counterparts followed by a bonfire and the best picnic I've ever seen next to the river. I tell you, the Georgians know how to do it right, and I'm trying to take lessons.

So I'll leave Tbilisi on Thursday at 11:35 am and arrive in Atlanta (via London and DC) at 11:50 pm, about 20 hours later. I can't wait to see all you Atlantans and Athenians and talk to everyone else!

my georgian vocabulary

very useful words: hello, goodbye, good morning, thank you, thank you very much, please, excuse me, I'm sorry, I can't speak Georgian, I don't know, big, very big, a little bit, 1-10 & 20, right, left, stop, bank, church, cheese, bread, tomato, cherry, beer, wine, water, various other foods, bill/check, all the conjugations of "to want" (my biggest accomplishment), I like, I am happy, how are you?, good, fine, cool (as in, "Cool, man."), cheers!

words of debatable utility: elephant, baby elephant, puppy, penguin, cow, hepatitis, f*** off

The combination of all these things has lead to the use of some very interesting Georgian sentences (aside from ordering food):
I want cow!
I am very big happy.
Cool beans. (That was Julian)

happy to be "home"

It's amazing how you can get so used to and comfortable in a place (Tbilisi) without even knowing it, but you appreciate it after being away in a less familiar land...

Our long weekend trip turned into the majority of a week trip when we returned on Tuesday around noon to Tbilisi. Somehow I thought that overnight train meant that it was only during the night, even though I heard it was going to take around 16 hours. For the record, I am done with overnight trains for a long, long time, especially when it is around 90 degrees outside, and the AC only works when the train is moving fairly fast (i.e., not at 4 hour border stops), and especially when Azeri border gards are involved. I thought we might get kicked off the train when Salome shouted at one of them for smacking her on the leg to wake her up and get her passport. (It was totally uncalled for, by the way.) In keeping with their reputation, though, the Georgian border guards were very nice and civil.

So let's start with the good things. Like I had heard, Baku was indeed the most modern of all the capitals of the Caucasus countries. Its oil wealth was apparent, and unlike Tbilisi, most buildings looked freshly painted kept up with, at least outwardly. The geography is much drier and more arid than Georgia, and the city definitely has more of a Middle Eastern flavor combined with the Soviet and European. There was a large, very European and pleasant pedestrian section that held many nice clothing stores (of which we visited some). We got there around 9 on Saturday morning, and since I had some kind of respiratory allergy all night, I had barely slept and felt awful. Fortunately the others picked up the slack and found us a comfortable, cheap hotel. We went from there into the historical walled city part of Baku, which I loved. Its windy streets climbed a moderately-sized hill, at the top of which stood the Palace of the Shirvan-Shahs. It included a mosque, bath, and apartments with beautifully carved stone and wood, and courtyards filled with hibiscus and pomegranate trees. Also, around the courtyards there were lots of stone tablets filled with Arabic and human and animal forms that had been rescued from a mosque somewhere else in Azerbaijan that were really fascinating. Then we went to the Maiden's Tower, whose function is not really known, but one of the legends is that one ruler wanted to marry his own daughter, so she had him build her a huge tower to prove his love, and then when it was done, she jumped off it to her death (or something like that). It had great views of the city stretching out to the Caspian Sea. We spent a good amount of time walking through the old city and poking our heads in carpet/tourist shops, and I picked up a few nice scarves for gifts for the people I've been working with in Tbilisi.

Saturday night we picked out a few restaurants that the Lonely Planet book said had authentic Azeri food and some belly dancing and asked the taxi driver that hung out outside the hotel to take us to one. He instead suggested that he take us to a much better, cheaper, and more authentic Azeri place that also had belly dancing, so we thought, what the hell. We got a little suspicious when the cab ride took more than 5 minutes and seemed to be heading away from the center, but when we arrived to a parking lot filled with very nice cars, we started to feel better. We walked into a kind of garden filled with tables and lights, a stage where a live band was playing Azeri music, and absolutely no other foreigners- it was great! Fortunately for us, Salome speaks Russian, as do most other people in the region, so she could do a little better with ordering food for us. The food we were brought was probably the most beautiful spread I had ever seen. (I tried taking a picture, but it was dark and didn't come out well.) They brought two plates each of fruits- plums and little red berries, a plate of tarragon, parsely, and a cilantro-like herb, one of delicious cheese, yeast bread and flat bread, and fresh vegetables to start. Then we had two types of salads with cooked vegetables and chicken with mayonaise-like dressing, and for the grand finale, a beautiful plate of Azeri shashlyk (kebabs), with beef ribs and ground meat of some sort that was wonderful. We definitely partook in the dancing (more on that later) and really had a nice time.

Sunday was cool, cloudy, and a little rainy, so we decided to not go to the other side of the Abseron Peninsula to find a beach. Instead, we did a lot of shopping both for normal clothes and for souveneirs in the touristy street market, and then we went down to the waterfront for some beers and doner kebap. (At about $1-2 for a huge sandwich with fresh veggies on it, we had this very frequently.) We went to another Azeri restaurant and ate another delicious meal with much the same food, but this time with some other traditional food (I forgot the name) which is bread with meats (this time chicken and peas and stuff) baked inside. It reminded me of a chicken pot pie.

Monday we traveled 10 or so miles outside the city to visit the Zoroastrian fire-worshiping temple. Because the huge amounts of gas and oil in the region, there used to be spontaneous fire coming from holes in the ground there, and so the fire-worshipers built a temple around it. I read that now it is artificially fed with natural gas pipes, but it was still cool. We returned to the city and took a little ferry ride around the bay of Baku before getting back on the train for a long trip back.

So as I hinted, there were things that were not so good... we had become used to the enthusiastic hospitality and friendliness of the Georgians, and the Armenians were more or less indifferent to our appearance in their country. But the Azeris gave us a different feeling- they were somewhat suspicious, and at times somewhat hostile to our presence, in a way that made most of us feel uneasy for some or all of the trip. The most obvious manifestation of this attitude was at our first dinner on Saturday night, the great authentic Azeri restaurant. Perhaps it wasn't so good to go so authentic. We seemed to attract a lot of attention, first of all by being young foreigners, and second of all, with our exhuberant at the food, drink and dancing. In Georgia, people would probably be delighted if you appeared to be enjoying yourself that much with their culture; in Azerbaijan, they didn't seem so. While we were dancing (not at all provacatively by our standards), perhaps because us 3 girls and 2 guys were dancing together (not kosher in this Muslim country?), perhaps because we were being loud at dinner, perhaps because we were not welcome in general and from the start, an Azeri guy on the dance floor flashed an Exacto blade at Julian. There were other factors as well that made us feel unwelcome: from the beginning, the embassy gave us a hard time and made us pay $100 for the visa. Border guards were really rude and unnecessarily harsh. While one of the hotel desk workers was extremely friendly, another commented to Salome that we shouldn't have gotten such a good deal on our rooms and that it was strange that men and women were staying together (even in two rooms joined by one bathroom). Cashiers were unfriendly. There were some exceptions, but generally we weren't left with a good taste in our mouths. It's not that this kind of attitude is malicious (well, except for pulling a razor on someone), but it was cold and it was not expected by any of us, including Salome, and it took us by surprise.

So for that reason and others (like I hadn't had a shower for 3 days), it was great yesterday to get back "home" to Tbilisi. I took a 20 minute shower and brushed my teeth for 5 minutes straight. We went out to our favorite Khinkali House, where my love of Georgians was reaffirmed by this little gesture: I have been looking all over for a Kazbegi (Georgian beer) beer mug to take home. We were served beer in them at Khinkali House. Salome mentioned to the waitress that I had been looking for one and where could I find one. So, not only did the waitress ask her manager if they could gift me one (he said no), she told us that she wouldn't count the glasses when we left, and then she actually took one of the empty glasses, washed it, and brought it back so that I wouldn't have to drip beer in my purse when I stole it. It was amazing. I really haven't seen people so consistently this generous anywhere I've been, and I'm surely going to miss that when I leave.

Like I mentioned, Wednesday made the third 4th of July that I did not spend in the US, but the first one that I actually celebrated the 4th abroad. We had been a couple of times to a bar in the Old Town that is run by a feisty Irish-American woman named Rebecca, mainly because it is the only place in town that shows rugby games, and Julian loves rugby. Since there were always at least another table of Americans there (not so in any other bar we’d been to in Tbilisi), and it was run by an American woman, it seemed like a good bet. We got there to find that they had decked out the place with an American flag and patriotic tablecloths, and had a foosball tournament and fireworks display planned. I had a cheeseburger and fries, and the closest we could come to American beer- Czech Budweiser (or Budvar, which is a totally different beer than American Budweiser- and better, I might add). The fireworks were kind of comical because the big ones, which were nice, only lasted about 30 seconds, and then when they decided to shoot Roman candles off the top of the building and over the patio where we were eating, it rained ashes down all over us and our food. Everyone was groaning instead of cheering. As it tends to do, part way through the evening the power went out all over Tbilisi, but due to the frequency with which this used to occur, many places, the bar included, had a generator to put lights, music, and tv back on. And then, to top it all off, they were showing a BRAVES GAME in the bar! It was from July 3 and we lost, but still, it was the icing on the cake. Not to mention that we were joined by a very fun visiting Emory ER physician, Bryan McNally, who treated all of us to the whole night. It was really about the best fourth we could have expected in Tbilisi.

I’ve gotten into a fairly comfortable habit of the workday for at least 4 days out of the week (when we take our long weekends for travel). I try to get there between 9 and 10 since the person whose computer I steal gets in between 1 and 2, so I get a couple hours free. (Picture left: outpatient AIDS clinic and research center- literally crumbling. The building is so bad that the first floor isn't even used. Broken windows everywhere.) Twice a week around 12 I show up at the inpatient AIDS center, and one of two physicians take me around to show me the patients. Then, I either have brought some fruit and some cheese for lunch, or I go to the fast food place with the boys and get a lobiani, a strange construction that is a pita-sized piece of soft bread filled with beans of a refried consistency. I like to think that it is better for you than bread stuffed with cheese (the ubiquitous khachapuri), but judging from the grease stains on the paper bag they put it in, it is probably not. Then I steal someone's computer for another hour or so, half writing emails and the blog, half looking up papers, perhaps I talk to the epidemiologist for a little while. Concerned about the magic that Georgian beer and cheap Georgian feasts are working on my waistline, I have started walking to or from work each day, usually from since walking there in the morning I would arrive with sweat stains all over me. It takes a solid hour, so it's probably 3 miles or so, and a nice time to take in some of the city's goings-on. It's mostly quite nice, through the nicest neighborhoods in the city: Saburtelo, where the ID center is, and Vake, where we live, but I like to refer to the long street connecting them as "Taxi Drivers' Urinal"- it's heavily car-trafficked but not pedestrian-trafficked, and so taxi drivers like to stop there, whip it out, and take care of business right there by the street. On hot days it does not smell nice. None of the walk is dangerous except for the shards of broken glass everywhere that could make their way into my flipflops, which I guess should be a real concern of mine. I'll get home around 3 or 4, and I always intend to do more work, but half the time I get lazy and read my book or watch BBC news instead. Then we usually go out for dinner somewhere (the cooking at the apartment has fallen off when we realized it was much cheaper to go out), meet some other American or Georgian friends, and have a few beers.

The time I spend in the inpatient center is about my favorite thing I do for “work” for several reasons. First of all, the doctors are really great and friendly, and all of the doctors, the few nurses, and the medical students that work there are women, making it a unique little environment. It kind of reminds me of working in the hospital in Buenos Aires, back when the whole group was made up of women. Nato is one of the older (like, not my age) physicians that shows me around; she is really sweet and tries her best with limited English to explain all the patients and their treatments and to answer my questions. Pati is the other "boss" of the inpatient center. She is a very stylish woman who speaks even better English, and I have been shadowing her for the last few times. Although she gave me the impression that she is kind of stern-- not excessively friendly like Nato--once I spent a little time with her, I especially enjoyed it. I really loved the way she approached the patients, with obvious intrigue and curiosity about not only the signs and symptoms of disease, but also the social and personal details of the patient's life. Despite the fact that she is always impeccably dressed and styled, she really connects with and wins the trust of the mostly drug user or former-prisoner patients. She invited me for coffee after rounds and we had an interesting chat. On average, each patient stays for 2 weeks, so if I go a couple times a week, I can really see how their care is progressing (or not), and they get to know me and try to converse through the translation of the doctor. Yesterday I was told by one of the patients that I looked like a Siberian woman, not an American- apparently a compliment.

Yesterday I spent almost all day running around making arrangements to go to Baku, Azerbaijan tonight. Getting the visa was kind of a hassle but it was achieved: you apply, wait 3 business days, go to the embassy at 10 am, get a bill, go across town to the Caucasus Development Bank, pay $100, get a receipt, go back to the embassy at 3 and pick up your passport and visa. We also had to go across town (another way) to the train station to get tickets. It was a really busy day, but there is something really gratifying about being able to get business done in a country and a language that is not my own, taking 3 taxis and 2 different buses without any trouble. There were even some delightful parts about it: the cashier at the train station who spoke English, and so, unlike many Georgians, picked up on our strange playful mishmash of Georgian and English words and loved it; the cab driver that took us from the train station to home who somewhat aggressively insisted that we eat the cherries that he uncovered from a little compartment in the console of the car.

We're getting on a long train ride at 5:15 pm tonight until 9 am tomorrow morning (with a 5-6 hour stop at the border) to Azerbaijan. Apparently Baku is the most modern and wealthy of the 3 capitals of the South Caucasus, but also the most conservative due to the Muslim religion. Looks like it has all sorts of Middle Eastern food and some other international foods. The thing you're supposed to buy there is carpets, and even with the $200 ish price tag, I'm starting to think an Azeri rug would look really good on my hardwood bedroom floor in Atlanta. It's also right on the Caspian Sea, so that should be nice. Hope y'all have a good weekend.

news flash: the black sea isn't really black!

This weekend we had a rather lazy, anticlimactic (at least for me) visit to Batumi on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia. Probably more than any other part of Georgia, I was intrigued by the Black Sea coast and had been dying to go there. The main disappointment was the weather: clouds, chilliness, and rain were not conducive to living it up on the beach, and that weather dominated Saturday and Sunday. We finally got to the beach on Monday and had a pretty good time. It's a rocky, like big rocks, beach, and so it's not the most comfortable to lie on (and let me tell you, when a wave knocks you over you don't get a mouthful of sand, you get your knees torn up by rocks- take it from me). Nevertheless, we enjoyed some sunning and swimming, and the rest of the trip we mainly sat at the charming guesthouse, read, ate, and drank. Very lazy.

You can see the patio of the guesthouse to the left, and you can barely make out the hammock that looked up into grape and kiwi vines (did you know kiwis grew on vines? I didn't). It was great- situated kind of on the side of a mountain that overlooked the beach. It was actually not in Batumi but in a smaller town a bit closer to the Turkish border called Gonio, the whole of which was attached to the side of the mountain and filled with people's houses and lots of vegetable gardens and livestock. I think we basically took the amazingly charming Gonio by storm and were probably the talk of the town. It’s hard to figure out if all the locals were gathering at the guest house because that is the normal place to gather, or because everyone was interested in us. Although Batumi is the primary tourist spot in Georgia, I imagine it rarely attracts many Americans, and even if so, they stay in Batumi and don’t go to the surrounding villages. I am fairly sure that the children that gathered at least were there because of us. Scott and Julian, probably because they are still children themselves (and they will say so too, it’s not just an insult), were like the pied pipers of the kids. For a couple hours on Sunday they gathered a swarm of at least 20 children and taught them to play tag. They were having so much fun that the older men wanted to play too- it was hilarious. The little girls weren’t allowed to play. The little one on the right of the picture was my favorite- she was like a little doll and I wanted to take her home with me. Highlights, besides the town and swimming, also included: a baby calf walking into the kitchen of the guesthouse; making a “vodkamelon” from a watermelon on the beach; playing carnival games in the park in Batumi-- I never won that stupid hedgehog from the claw-grabbing-toy game; interesting but not so comfortable overnight train rides there and back, which the boys thought was a perfect time to drink all night and make friends with Georgians by sharing their vodka.

Well, happy July 4 everyone. I was thinking that this is the third time I've celebrated the 4th in a foreign country. The American embassy is throwing a big party at a nearby lake on Saturday, but unfortunately we will be in Baku, Azerbaijan. Giorgi-Emory is up for constructing some kind of cook-out, but as there is not a grill to be seen, we are not quite sure how we're going to arrange that. Perhaps we can find some activity at one of the expat-frequented bars around. Honestly, I don't get all that patriotic about our independence, but I do like the festivities that usually celebrate it in the States, so maybe I'll do like I've done in Bangladesh and Argentina and think about all the swimming and fireworks people are doing back home and smile.