I'm a Ranger, a Park Ranger...

So today was site announcements. I'm just going to write a little about that since I'm not sure how much we can describe right now. Let's just say the west side of Georgia is the less hot, less cold side, next to the black sea and the beaches and turkey... and the east side is the hot, cold side with all the good wine. 27 volunteers got sites in the west (with a few on the beach probably) and I got one of the three in the east. I'll be working for a national park doing eco-tourism and business development (I think). The park is very beautiful and it looks sorta like new zealand, with plush landscapes, glaciers, tall mountains, and lots and lots of nature. Needless to say this is going to be a big departure from my life in LA. One good thing I heard about my future site is that it has a very nice toilet, which in Georgia is a very big deal if you haven't figured that out by now. I think I could tolerate the extreme weather just for that alone. You know you're in a developing country when you visit resturants or nice places so you can use their toilets and you count the hours/days till you can (especially since recently my house didn't have running water for 5 days and the electricity shut off for a day -- damn random storms!).

A week ago, we had our Job Shadowing trips. These trips were to let us experience what the previous year's volunteer (who are entering their 2nd year of service) do and how they live. I got lucky and got Johnny, a guy who works at a winery! I drank a lot of wine, and had a lot of fun. But it was sooo hot, I'm glad I shaved my head or it would've been unbearable. Oh, did I mention that this area is in the same area my new permament site is going to be? We also had a picnic where we barbecued tons of meat (barbecuing in Georgia is making a fire, putting meat on sticks, and cooking them over the fire... it was good!), played beerpong, and had a lot of general merriment.

We're doing site visits next week, which we get a first glance at our new sites and our new organizations we're going to work at. I'm very excited. I think I might be riding a horse even! If I get a park ranger uniform and a horse, I'm going to be very happy. Although I doubt it, since I'm mainly doing business development and developing eco-tourism in this place. For those who know me, I like to complain when I hike. I think I'll be complaining a lot soon. Fun times in Georgia! This is like the quintessential Peace Corps experience.

Stalin's favorite wine... it's pretty good actually.

Friends standing on a statue of Ilia who is a very big deal in Georgia. Also, I think we saw Russia from this statue on a hill... I'm like Sarah Palin!

Wine tasting was good... got kinda buzzed, didn't want to spit anything out.

"Special Reserve" wine, which we tasted, and it was delicious!

I should've asked for a case... or put a few in my bag...

Park I'm going to be developing Eco-tourism in... beautiful.