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...