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.

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.

More Pics...

Get out of the way cows! I'm trying to go to class!

View of my village from top of a hill which I was not fit to climb... it was exhausting

You would think there would be more statues of the most famous Georgian in history?

View of my road to school with a turkey family and all!

Cow just chilling on the side of the road. He says moo when you say whats up in Georgian.

Summer rains bring cats and dogs...

In one of our PST trainings was a topic about animals in Georgia. What I took away from it was that basically all the animals in Georgia were everywhere, dangerous, and have rabies. The 3 painful rabies shots we got recently was a remainder of that. But recently it seems I've been surrounded by animals, and cute ones!! Puppies, kittens, chicks, etc... all adorable and makes me want to pick them up and pet them all! Which I have, and have not gotten rabies as of yet. Time will tell on that one.

Sorry I haven't posted as often as I wanted, but I've just been so busy with training and learning the language. I think I'm getting fairly well with it, I can have decent conversations now and buy stuff and get around okay. Still kinda weird for me since I'm the only Asian here in the country, and Georgians love to stare at foreigners, especially Asians. So I do a game where I stare back at them, and it usually dissuades them from looking at me further. The weather here is wild, its cold one day, crazy hot the other, and rains either days. There's even hail sometimes.

In the next few days, I'll be job shadowing a guy whose working for a Georgian winery. Needless to say, I'm super excited. We're going to be wine tasting friday. I've been kinda bad with alcohol here, since we drink it all the time, and have been black-out drunk at least twice. Good times in Georgia I guess...

p.s. I just shaved my head. Not sure I like it (I didn't like it last time), but it should be a lot cooler now.

This was later today with me rocking the mohawk mid-shave.

Is it a kitten or a ferret? This was today..

This puppy runs up and tries to bite my shoelaces off. Very adorable...

My Cluster-mate Sean holding one of many chicks around the town.

Getting caught in a hailstorm is not fun!

Reading while in Peace Corps

Walking behind sheeps always makes me feel like a shepard

Park overlooking beautiful Borjomi

My view on a foggy morning day in the mountains

The cutest host sister ever!

These two had a very dysfunctional relationship. The dog will try to bite the cat, but they sometimes sleep in the same box.

It feels like its been forever since I've arrived in Georgia. I feel like a native now, and the roosters that wake me up at 6, the bulls and pigs on the road don't faze me now. The squat toilet is weird, cuz I can no longer read. Nearly 90% of my reading previously has been on my porcelin throne, I will now have no time to read.

I'm finding myself agreeing to random stuff that I don't understand. I should start saying I don't understand what you're saying, but instead, I say ho, ho, ho (ho is yes in Georgian) and it makes me feel like santa claus and also like a fool when I find I agreed to go on a road trip in the middle of the night. In Georgian language, every name has to end in a vowel, so my name would be Engi, and my host sister Mari always yells out "ENGI!" when I get home. Its adorable, but I think i'll get tired of being called such a cutesy name. Although often times I find myself calling one of the older volunteers "Craig-eee."

Living in a Village Pics

My Host Family!

My new Room!

My view from my balcony

View when walking to my new house

My yard.

Living in a Village

May 6^th 2010

So I’ve started PST (pre-service training). This is what the PC is all about. Living in with a host family and spending an insane amount of hours learning a hard language for 10 hours a day. The first few days has been a bit surreal, and it seems I have been here forever. I live with a pretty cool host family, it’s a small family, and a fairly young one at that. The Georgian language is kinda weird in that a mama is a papa. Whenever the 4-yr old kid calls out “mama” the dad comes over, and it confuses me a lot. The kid is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen though. She loves to scamper around the common room, which isn’t that big, and all of us just hang around there most of the time.

The host family is fairly young, in that I find it weird calling my host-mom my host-mom because she’s only 27. I kinda depend on her for a lot, and she’s also a teacher, so she patiently works with me on learning the language when I come back from training. The first day in my host family, I had something called chacha. This is probably the strongest alcohol I’ve ever had. I also took a bath/shower the first night. We have running water! However, no hot water, and the running water is so cold, everytime I pee into the toilet, steam rises. So, we have a bucket that we set on top of the furnace which then I use to give myself a sponge bath. I find myself only using maybe a gallon of water total, which surprises me how little water I can use to take a shower. I’ve yet to take another one. I might tonight.

On the 2^nd day, I fell a tree. We just took a single axe to it, and then climbed it and started chopping at its limbs. It was a dead tree so it cut easily. But the tree was a good 40 ft tall, so it was quite a work-out. I was initially worried I would gain weight living here. But I feel I’m getting a good workout on my legs just walking to my house from school because I’m way up hill. Plus all the squatting going to the toilet has been a good workout.

On the first day of school the school director wanted to greet the Americans with a mid-morning tea. Now you know these people love their alcohol when you get served a shot of vodka with your mid-morning tea. Good times. I’m still getting used to all the nature around here. I keep getting woken up by the roosters around here, and all the dogs howling. Also, randomly on my way to school a cow or bull or pig will go running by me. Getting a lot of stares from people and I’m quite confused all the time. But, I haven’t felt like leaving yet, so tough luck for all those who had me at a week on the when will Eng leave pool.