Pictures from the Slaughter!

The lil guy before the slaughter.

Avert your eyes if you hate the sight of blood!

Decapitated, and ready for skinning and cooking.

Chopped and seasoned!

Over a very warm toasty fire. In the end it was very delicious, very fresh.

Holidays in Georgia

So since I'm not going home this holiday season, I'm spending holiday's in Georgia. It's going to be interesting, and cold. I already spend some of the holiday season here, starting with Giorgioba! Basically you put -oba at the end of any name and it's the birthday celebration of that person. So you could call my birthday party "Engioba." Which I will. Giorgioba is the celebration of St. George, the patron saint of Georgia and its name sake.

For this Giorgioba, I went up the mountains to have a traditional Georgia feast with many wine, toasts, and meat. In fact, we slaughtered a small sheep for the festivities. It was very interesting seeing an animal killed, skinned, then chopped up and cooked before my very eyes. I usually go to the supermarket and buy meat there, neatly wrapped and artificially reddened. As always, in any Georgian supra, we have many toasts. The typical ones are for the family, for the moms, dads, sisters, brothers, children, grandchildren, grandparents, etc... We also have for love, for peace, for Georgia, for America (since I'm there), for the fallen, and finally for God. Mind you we have to drink an entire glass of wine for each one, so I get pretty hammered by the time we get to God. It's going to be interesting re-adjusting to America when I have wine, then just chug it. It's how we do it in Georgia, I might forget that we sip wine in America.

I also made a Thanksgiving dinner where we had music (my guitar teacher came and played songs), lively conversation, and lots and lots of food. Except turkey. Not sure where to get Turkey here, I sometimes see them wandering around the train tracks, but I never see anyone eat them. Maybe next year I'll chase one down and eat it. This year, I made chili, fried rice, salad, bruschetta, sweet carrots, mashed potatoes, and apple pie. It was exhausting making so much, luckily I had someone helping me, other wise 2 days of straight cooking wouldn't have been enough. The dinner paled in comparison to the PC thanksgiving dinner, which was hosted 2 weeks before actual thanksgiving. That dinner was awesome, and I'm pretty sure I gained 5 (very needed) lbs that weekend.

We're also planning a Christmas dinner for those who are too cheap to go home or don't have family who want them home this Christmas. Hopefully we'll have some pumpkin pie. Or at least some eggnog.

Home made wine for chugging!

The spread before the meat.

Serious Georgians making serious toasts.

Thanksgiving with Peace Corps. Roasted Pumpkin seeds are good!

New Routines, New Beds

So I understand I haven't updated my blog in forever. Seems like a common theme of all my blogs, first I start by apologizing for not updating, then I update hastily about my life. Well, thing's aren't changing! Sorry for not blogging more, there has actually been stuff happening in my life, I guess I'm just too busy or too lazy to do blog about it.

First things first, I moved out of my host family. There was nothing wrong with the host family, and in fact, there are things I miss about living with one. But, in the end, I think it's better this way. I get more independence, which was vital for me, since I've been living on my own for the past 7 years, and it was weird to be back with a family being so dependent all the time. And, most importantly, I'm closer to work. Before, my commute was one hour walking, and now it's less than 10 minutes. I moved to the center of town, so I'm close to all the markets as well. I can also stay up late and make all the noise I want without anyone bother me. Only downside is that I have to clean after myself and do my own laundry. I can't just leave for Tbilisi on a weekend and have everything cleaned and tidied up by the time I get back home.

I also picked up some new routines. I picked up formal guitar lessons, which I have twice a week, and Judo lessons, which I have as many times a week as I want. The guitar instructor used to play for this band, and he's been teaching me classical songs as well as pop songs. Although I feel half the lesson is him writing chords in my book (by hand, painstakingly) and singing songs to me, and the other half me actually practicing. Also, he doesn't speak English. So it's an interesting lesson usually when he tries to explain something new to me. It's basically my Guitar/Georgian lesson.

Judo lessons are similar. No one speaks English, and I'm confused half the time I'm there. I'm also with the 10-16 year-old boys, and I usually spar with the 15-16 year olds, who are my size and can usually kick my ass. The fun part is when we practice throwing, I'm usually behind, so they always offer to let me throw them around. I throw them. Then they get up and say "kidev!" (again!) and then I throw them again. I feel kinda bad throwing around a 15-year old 20 times until I get it right. It kinda hurts to be thrown on the mat, which isn't very soft in the first place. But I guess they get some advantages as well as they get to practice falling?

It's also practically freezing here in Borjomi. I basically walk around in my room seeing my breath follow me every time, day or night. These are the times I miss sunny California.

My new digs! See, I messed it up already!

My new small kitchen. Which I recently used to feed 16 people in a Thanksgiving dinner.

My warm fire place. Which I used only twice because I don't know how to start a proper fire.

My guitar teacher. Which has taught me a few Georgian songs. Which I can't sing.

My Judo class. During warm-ups, I feel terrible fighting 15 -year olds. I feel even worst getting my ass kick by them!

How Small is this Town?

Today as I was walking home (look!, I'm writing a blog about something that happened recently, instead of several weeks ago!), I thoroughly undressed one of the repeat offenders who routinely yell "chineli!" at me and other nonsense. As I addressed him in very firm Georgian, he recanted everything he said and I had him back-tracking on his statements. However, honestly, I didn't take pleasure in half-way yelling at a 12-year-old Georgian boy. He's not the only one who does these things, but it definitely reminds me of why I want to move closer to work. My one-hour walk home definitely affords people the opportunity to stare and yell things at me.

In thinking about these incidents, I often consider how much safer Georgians have it (especially in a village, which Borjomi is not). First I think to myself, how often do they see me walking by that they aren't used to me by now, then I think to myself, how we Americans think of staring at someone as rude and why we don't usually do it. Looking back at my own childhood, I'm reminded of incidents of my precocious nature and how that got me in trouble. I remember flashing a light into a car once, and the driver of the car in return pointed a gun at me. I was only 6, but I definitely stopped flashing flashlights at people then. I also remember staring at people in my youth, only to be yelled back at in very aggressive terms like "what YOU looking at boy?!" or the equally aggressive stare-down plus head nod which usually, in my experience, is a precursor to a fight which usually involved guns or knives and unequal amount of opponents. I guess growing up in Echo Park and East Los Angeles is a lot different than growing up in Georgia. Although I guess if I grew up here, I would probably be worried about the Russians invading again.

Now, to distract you from this serious post, I would like to show you a picture that has me cracking up every time I see it:

Borjomoba Pictures

Georgian Folk Song performance. The girls to the left in blue and grey are from California.

Very athletic Georgian dancing for guys. I know, I tried to learn, its crazy tough.

Georgian folk dancers in costume.

More costumed dancers

They had stands out where they made kikani, one of my favorite dishes. It's basically a dumpling with meat inside.

Is it cold here? Or am I just getting old?

I know I haven't written in a long time. I keep thinking I should write something. But then I get lazy and I forget. So instead I'm going to write a long post trying to hazily remember the past few weeks.

So in Borjomi, we recently held the annual Pan-Parks conference. It's a rotating conference, and it just happened to rotate to Georgia this year. The Pan-Parks organization is a confederation of National Parks that promotes wilderness in Europe. It has parks from all over Europe from Portugal, Finland, Italy, Bulgaria, etc... The cool thing about having the conference here is that representatives from every country come and I get to meet them. Even representatives from Rocky Mountain National Park came, and from the U.S. forestry dept. It was cool being one of 4 representatives from Borjomi Kharaguali National Park, and probably a bit confusing for everyone else. I'd never thought I would meet so many rangers from all over the world before. Peace Corps is definitely giving me a bunch of really interesting experiences.

I went to Tbilisi again, it's a monthly thing (hopefully). I don't want to go into the details because if you know me its the same drunken craziness that happens every time I drink with purpose (the only way to drink in my opinion). Needless to say there was lost phones, running from police, wandering around the city till dawn, and marriage proposals. Typical weekend in Tbilisi. I did enjoy the fact that when I bought a bottle of vodka at a bar/club, and offered shots to two Georgians, they put the bottle on their tab. Very kind. Although there was another scenario where a few Georgians had bought Jack Daniels for us and then they drunkenly left without paying. It was an awkward situation.

It was my birthday last weekend. It's also been getting really cold here. There's no heating in my apartment building, so it feels even colder in my room than outside. Not sure if I'm going to survive through the Borjomi winter. To celebrate my birthday I went horseback riding with a few friends. It was a fairly adventurous day with us climbing a wet rocky mountain and then climbing down. I thought I was going to die at several points during the trip. My horse even slipped a few times and that was pretty scary, especially seeing a 200 ft drop a foot away. But It was really fun, and as a souvenier I had a really sore ass for a few days. I also had an American Supra with a few friends and lots of wine. I've done these American Supra's (basically a dinner party with lots of wine + toasting) many many times. Sometimes for Americans, but mainly with the accompaniment of Georgians. I usually try to make something different every time, but I always feature my crepes, which has been a hit here in Georgia (courtesy of Teddy). Horseback riding + American Supra was Saturday, Sunday was the Borjomoba. This is a festival to celebrate the founding of Borjomi, where everyone in the village comes out for dancing and festivities and food and drinks. I'm not sure who sponsors these things, but there were many stands and everything was free! I drank from many bowls of wine (not a good idea then since I was hungover from the night before) and even ate a rabbit! It was delicious. I also went to a circus that was there for some reason and as I was leaving, the ringmaster pulled me in to participate in a performance. It was weird standing in front of hundreds of Georgians and having someone yelling instructions in Georgian. There was also a performance at the cultural center theater which was one of the most bizarre experiences I've had in Georgia yet. Basically it was a bunch of groups singing and performing Georgian songs and dances. Except some of the groups were from California, Norway, and England! The Georgians loved it! I think they always appreciate when someone tries to learn their culture, I know I get good remarks when I speak to them in Georgian. I got to hang out with some of the Americans after the performance and learned that they were from the San Francisco area and they've been performing Eastern European songs for a while but for most of them it was the first time to Georgia. I meet a lot of Europeans here, but seldomly do I meet Americans (except for PCV's) so it's always a treat to talk to them.

On Monday, my actual birthday my host family threw me a Supra. They invited this girl that has been coming to my house every now and then. They've been trying to get me to marry her, or something like that. Who knows, I might have already agreed; when I don't understand what someones saying to me in Georgian, I usually just say "ho" (which means yes) a lot hoping to not look stupid. I should be more careful about what I say. At the Supra was also the girl's mom. Which I feel was a definite sign they were inspecting me or something. On a side note, did you know that Mama in Georgian is Dad, and Deda is Mom, it throws me off every time I hear a child yell Mama! and then their dad comes over. So after this extensive weekend of partying, activities, and drinking, I feel very sore. It doesn't help that it's been cold. In the past, I could've done this easily and been fine. Now I have chest pains, soreness that lasts longer than I could remember, and other ailments that afflict the old. I also find myself telling people "you're so young, just watch, when you get my age, you'll know" in reference usually to people's optimism and hopefulness. I guess being old beats that out of you. Or maybe I'm too jaded for my own good. Hopefully I survive the winter.

Sunset on the Black Sea in Ureki. Where they have black magnetic sands which Georgians love to roll around in (for medicinal purposes).

Bridge in Borjomi that's lighted up at night.

Horse Convoy... I wasn't in back for long, my horse was kinda wild.

Many many bowls later.... (there's wine in there)

Borjomi Festival!

Long time, no see...

I know it's been a while since I've written in my blog. And since then a lot of things has happened. Most I don't remember. Some I shouldn't write as it might be scandalous to do so. But I'll share some highlights of the month of August in Georgia.

August in Georgia is the hottest month of the year. It is also when nearly everyone has vacation and that goes for 90% of the PC volunteers as well. Unfortunately, or fortunately (depends on how you see things), I'm in the 10% that still have work. In fact, August is probably our busiest month, since that's when all the vacationers come to Borjomi and to hike in the park. Most Georgians don't actually go hiking in the National Park, but rather spend time in the city park which is where most of the Georgians congregate at night. Most are from Tbilisi. The real hikers and the campers are from Europe (mostly Israel and eastern Europe--Poland, Czech, Germany), and strangely enough, I have yet to meet a single American. I've met a few Canadians, but no Americans. Just a few days ago, we started construction in our office and so now its very load and dirty here, and I'm finding myself working from home more often. I'm already pretty unproductive, working from home just makes me more so.

I did some traveling in August as well. In early August I went with a few friends to Tbilisi to buy a guitar (which I successfully did, but have trouble really learning it since there are few videos online to learn the classical guitar, which is what I bought). I also went to do some sightseeing, and saw a lot of churches. In fact, Georgia is one of the few countries which religion has really blossomed and expanded in the past decade, as opposed to America and Europe. There was a huge church building boom, and I got to visit a lot of them. I stayed at this small hostel in the middle of the city where I met a lot of cool people. One of them was a Spanish guy that had an irish-english accent and an American who was a PC volunteer in Ukraine but now goes to law school in San Francisco. We partied the entire weekend, and as I recall, I did shots of Beer + cha cha in what I would best describe as sake bombs. What they consist of is a full cup of Beer, a napkin over the top of the cup, a shot of chacha poured through the napkin, then a quick chug of the cup. I had three. Another highlight of the night was me grabbing a bottle of water chugging it then spitting it up after realizing it was vodka. Well, that was what someone told me I did.... I can't recollect.

Later in the month, I also had the chance to visit Batumi. It's a very nice resort city on the coast of the Black Sea a few miles from the Turkish border. Lots of fun in the sun, lots of swimming and diving, and drinking and partying. Also went to a nice club that was the scene of a wild night. Lots of drinking and dancing for sure, but also an American pop-group on stage (ala pussy cat dolls) and a stripper on stage (strange for Georgia). Best part of the night though was dancing to American music for once and jumping up and down like and idiot, and of course fist pumping ala Jersey Shore. For those who live in the region (which is the majority of the G10's) I'm not sure how they ever afford anything else, since I would be so tempted to go out every weekend in Batumi if I lived that close. For me, it is a 5 hour trip and cost 17 lari to get there, not very comfortable and not very affordable makes that trip a rarity for me. Luckily Tbilisi is only 2 hours away. But I don't necessarily like the fact that I am in the center of the country whereas everyone else is in the East, or in the West. I'm not close to many people, so I only see people who come in who want to hike in the park. It's like living in America, and living halfway between work and play. Would you prefer to be a few minutes to work and avoid all that commuting 5 days a week, or would you prefer to be a hop skip and cab-ride away from many bars and clubs? I always preferred the latter since I don't support drinking and driving.

The last two weeks I've finally succumbed to some food poisioning and digestional problems. I know a lot of people have already done so, but 4 months in, I guess it was just my time. Fortunately I have cable internet in my apartment which allows me to download a lot, add the fact that I brought a bunch of media from home and have a guitar now, I'm seldom bored or have little to do even if I'm stuck at home. Very excited by the new Mad Men season, and of course looking forward to the Football Season. I suppose I can stream NFL games since I'm only 8 hours ahead of the east coast.

Borjomi in August was fun. The entire population seems to swell three-fold as tourist from Tbilisi comes. It seemed like I went out every night to go drinking and dancing with friends. Now, it's cooling down a bit and it seems people will be moving back to Tbilisi to resume their normally scheduled programs.

Diving in the black sea. It was a little frightening since I'm not a very strong swimmer and I barely made it back to shore. Fun times...

Sunset on Batumi.

The largest and newest church in Tbilisi.

Lots of weddings in the Church, especially on Saturdays. Apparently that's a prime wedding day.

Borjomi. Lights on and all.

More Random Observations...

So this is a random observation I could've made the first week I was here. It could've been made definitely after the first month. And it still holds true today. I just wanted to see how time passing changes this observation. I can safely say that some, if not at least half of all Georgians are racist. No one is really forwardly racist anymore to me. But there are every day comments of racism I hear around me as I pass groups of people. I could be talking in Georgian to another Georgian and I can still hear racist remarks. I could even be talking in English to other Americans and I could still hear subtle racist remarks. Now unfortunately I haven't learned Georgian enough to discerned what exactly they are saying, but by tone and a few sparse words, I gotta say, it 'aint nice. Its sometimes conflicting for me to work and toil trying to do my part to improve and help a country that doesn't like me or my kind very much.

I used to complain about the racism in the country a lot. But now I just ignore it mainly. But it still gets to me sometimes. I mean, I live in the community now so I would have hoped I would have fit in more with the community and I wouldn't be targeted as much. But I guess being chinese-looking isn't a good thing here in Georgia. But I guess it could be worst. I heard Asians are treated terribly in the Middle East.

I also gotta note that Peace Corps is probably the least diverse American governmental organization I have seen. Probably one of the least diverse big organizations in America. Although I understand why. Imagine who would come to a program where you need a college degree and are willing to go 2 years without pay for adventure and altruism. Although I've experienced being the only asian before. I was once the only asian kid in a school of 500 near the Mexican border, and I think I had a good time.

So there are also new volunteers in my office. Theres a EU program where they send volunteers to random places for 3 months at a time. These two girls are from Latvia and Germany. Hopefully this should be exciting.

My adorable host sister making faces (many many poses) with my glasses.

This small black kitten follows me around when I get back to my house. It literally fits in the palm of my hands.

Random Observations...

Sometimes I feel my time in Borjomi is like being in a gay bar where no one is really gay (or so I suppose). Going out to a disco here where men are dancing with you is really weird and awkward.

I feel there are mainly 2 types of Georgians. 1) Those who know me and really like me and think I'm cool. and 2) Those who don't know me and have a strong dislike of me mainly because I'm Chinese looking. Its a weird and interesting dictomy. Very little in between.

Now for some obligatory pics of clouds...

Picture during my hike...

Picture taken from my iphone in Kvibisi right before a thunderstorm.

More Pics...

And this was one of the better bridges in the park. The rest were... iffy, and this one was too.

The rain forest. I was tempted to try a mushroom, but as our PST training taught us, that would probably be a bad idea.

I wish I were on horse at times...

Hiking through the national park.

A Georgian picnic. We unwrapped an entire chicken then proceed to eat it even as it fell on the grown and got dirt all over it.

Theres a catapiller in my pants!

No really, there was literally a catapiller in my pants. It wasn’t a subtle self deprecating title, its about my fun time with bugs here in Georgia. I was in class one day, and I felt something near my knee cap, I quickly reacted and grab at my jeans and cupped whatever was there, and in my mind I’m thinking the worst, even though its probably a piece of lint or something that tickled me. But as the title tells, it was in fact a catapiller in my pants! I rolled up my jeans and out popped a scrimy catapiller.

In other bug related news, as I was typing this blog, something startled me. Now usually things don’t startle me any more here, since lots of strange things happen all the time. But seeing a quarter-size giant spider roll down from the ceiling on her silk line straight to your keyboard was pretty freaky. Bugs here are not afraid of humans too. If you pretend to swat them away, they’re left unfazed. I’m not so lucky.

So I started working this week as well. On my first week here, I was tasked to join an expedition of sorts to improve the trail markings of one of the more popular trails in the national park. It's a 3 day trail and it was quite challenging and diverse. It was made more challenging by the fact that after the first day's hike, we celebrated with shots of cha-cha which definitely didn't help my stamina the next day. The first day was a good hike, I felt fresh, there was definitely a lot of uphill and we climbed probably 2 kilometers up. It was like walking through what you would expect a national park would look like. The 2nd day very different. We started by walking through high mountain terrains right at the cloud line, so it was very misty. There were also quite a bit of horses running around. It was pretty cool, and cold, unlike the first day, which was quite hot. The whole terrain looked like a painting of sorts, with very beautiful wildflowers all around. After the flowerly mountains, we went downhill through what could be best described as a rain forest. It was muddy (2 feet of mud at parts) and damp. It was also very green and dark. It was sorta fun running downhill through lots of mud, but when your shoes get stuck in the mud and when your shoes and pants get all muddy and wet, it isn't so much fun. Overall it was pretty cool, very adventurous, especially with a hangover. The last day was more of a routine hike, but with lots of bugs and mosquitoes and even leeches! It was more of a day where I had to cross log bridges, swat bugs away, and ignore the pain of my blisters on my feet.

In other non-nature related news, the volunteers here were able to visit Hilliary Clinton. It was brief, but a cool experience. We also swore in as real volunteers finally, and moved into our new host family houses. My move was quite brief, as I just moved one village down, to Borjomi, a resort town. My new digs are in a smallish apartment building. I don't have a lock yet, and I have a balcony which everyone uses so they go through my room. But it's comfortable and I leave the balcony door open at night which allows me to sleep in a cool-ish temperature. Last week, the Borjomi volunteers (me and Ruta) had American visitors from previous peace corp groups (G7's and G6's). We visited Vardzia which is a city carved into a cave walls. It was a fun hike going through short and cramped stairs, something out of those 3-d maze books we had as kids. I know a lot happened since I last posted, so I'm trying to include everything, but my most important observation happens to be about Lebron James going to the Heat. I mean, WTF? I'll leave it at that.

Running down a misty rain forest with extremely deep muddy tracks was very fun and challenging.

Wild horses spooking us in the mist. After the clouds past it was very beautiful.

My crew walking up in the clouds. We were there to put up new signs and repaint old ones.

The city of Vardzia. Its a spectacular cave city with crazy maze-like stairs.

We waited several hours for a few minutes of Hilliary. The McDonalds afterwards was well worth it. I can't believe I would ever crave McDonalds... but in Georgia...

Changes, Changes, and no Change...

I've been to Tbilisi, Georgia's Capital City 4 weeks in a row. Now some might call that lucky, I call that tiresome. Especially since 2 of those days were one day trips, and that trip is a bumpy 2 and half hour ride on a sweltering hot van they call a marshutka. I also visited my ex-host site. I say ex, because I was recently informed that there will be a ban on Americans to my particular site because of its proximity to Chechnya (like a few kilometers away). So now I have a new site. This site is not really a new site, since it is Borjomi (I wasn't stating actually places before because I thought we weren't supposed to, but it seems everyones doing it... so why not). Borjomi! A very awesome site, and I'm pretty excited and happy to stay here, since I've enjoyed it here. On the other hand, I was also excited to go ride the horses up on the steppes of Tusheti. Oh well, I think there are horses here as well. I'll still be doing the same thing, just for the Borjomi National Park, which is actually a more popular park, but a different kind of park. Tusheti was more for the adventurous and brave, Borjomi is a lovely park, but a different kind of park. So, still a park ranger, just in another park.

Me and my cluster successfully hosted an American Supra at my place a few weeks ago. I made some crepes for the supra, and since then, my host family has always asked for more. So I've been making lots of batches of crepes, and I'm becoming quite the expert at crepe-making. I'll like to thank my friend Teddy for the recipe (sans vanilla extract, which I can't find). Tomorrow me and my cluster are going to have another American Supra, where I'll attempt making fried rice. Yep, crepes and fried rice are American food I guess...

2 weeks left till the end of PST. Then swearing in and off to... well... down the street? Not really, but its really close. Now, I just gotta meet my new host family. Looking forward to that.

The TV I watched USA draw with England on. These are the TV's we have in Georgia. Even on these small TV's Italy still flops and look like wusses.

This guy was outrageous. We did shots of wine from that same thing on his finger. Death Supra... gotta love it.

Drinking from the horn... not just once.

Picture from my many Tbilisi trips.

Picture I stole from Sean's blog. My first crepes, they have turned out better since, but these were also delicious.