Wrapping up: Healthcare, Service and Fun

Two weeks goes by all too quickly, and I feel like there is so much I haven't done in Ecuador.  I have been so surprised by the number of cool places and adventures that are available here.  With the various climates, there is everything from surfing to mountain climbing to jungle tours... I will have to come back!

I did get the chance to go to a really cool town called Banos which is about 5 hours from Quito, and boy was that a trip.  I went with a couple people my age I met in Quito, one of whom owns a hostel and was a fantastic host.  My favorite part of traveling is getting to spend time with local people, and I always seem to get lucky and meet amazing locals on my trips.  We toured waterfalls, went on a scenic drive around the local, active volcano, went swimming in a river while it was pouring rain, ate great food and got a chance to enjoy the nightlife which was heavy with tourists.  The town reminded me of the very touristy areas in Thailand I visited last summer, but without the beaches and Australians.  The trip left me exhausted, but it wouldn't have felt like a full vacation without it, so I am glad I went.

I actually met David, the hostel owner, through the woman who runs the service program I am working through.  She has established multiple schools in a small town, Lumbisi, which is about 45 minutes from Quito.  The town is set up much like a Native American reservation back in the States and is totally separate from the majority of Ecuador.  This has led to significant neglect and poverty in the area, but Maria Teresa, the founder of the NGO, is doing her best to make a difference.  She is truly a magnificent person and I hope that she continues to have volunteers for many years to come.

The schools are pretty new, and I was surprised at how nice they were considering the town they are in.  And the children were so much fun!  I spent a couple days with them (4-5 year olds) which was exhausting but just as rewarding.  I would like to say I was volunteering and helping out so much, but, honestly, 85% of my time was spent playing games with the kids and not doing anything tangibly productive.  I will post some pictures of the little guys when I get back!

The main aspect of my travel here was the work in the hospital.  It was a great experience and was definitely eye-opening as I saw some things that were really tough to swallow.  I saw bone marrow biopsy kits being reused with only a rinsing under the sink and a couple cases where the necessary medication simply wasn't available, which is especially heartbreaking in the oncology patients.  There are private hospitals here which offer more, but the free hospital struggles to offer the necessary level of care.  The waiting room was massive, absolutely packed, and the doctors would see three patients at a time in their tiny offices.  It is tough to explain, but suffice to say that it wasn't the ideal situation.  I would love to volunteer and help as a physician someday, and I hope I get the chance to do so.

I am catching the midnight plane tonight,  but I will be back tomorrow!  I will have to do some late 4th of July celebrating and grab a beer, get sunburnt by the pool and enjoy some Kansas City bbq as soon as I get back.  As rotations start in a couple weeks, though, I am sure I will be wishing I was back in Ecuador playing hide-and-seek with 5 year olds.

The Food, The Place, The Culture, The Politics

This is a long post, so I apologize in advance for that; however, it is broken up into four parts to make for easier reading.  I am having a blast here and I am going to do my best to enjoy my final week!  Enjoy:

The Food:

It is always tough to adjust to a new diet, but I ate something that made me sicker here than I have ever been before.  The nausea/vomiting only lasted for a half day at least, but I don’t know if my whole system will be functioning correctly at any point during my stay.  Between being sick and the small portions I expect to lose another 5 pounds on top of the 5-10 I lost studying for boards. 

While it is no fun to be sick, I have definitely had some good eats as well.  I have had beef tongue twice, which always sounds gross but I found to be quite good.  Also, as expected, the bread is fantastic.  Bread is one thing the majority of American just doesn´t do right, and the panerias (bread stores) have been a highlight of my trip here and when I was in Peru.  One major difference from Peru, however, is the lack of Pisco here in Ecuador which is served with nearly every meal in Lima.  In fact, no drinks are served with the meal at all until you are finished and then you get a glass.  It drives me absolutely crazy to be honest, but I am trying to get used to it.

I am debating between playing it safe and just going all out crazy with street food because I am generally starving and it looks and smells delicious.  I asking myself what was the worst that could happen and I realized it probably already had, so I will probably just go for it and have an update soon!

The Place:

Quito is seated on top of a giant hill and looks down on its suburbs which sprawl the surrounding valleys.  The low clouds and mountains in the background make for a beautiful view, one unlike any I have seen in the States at least.  Ecuador boasts mountains, beaches, famous islands (Galapagos), jungles and a vibrant capital – there is something here for everyone.

This weekend we visited  “El Mitad Del Mundo” which means the middle of the world.  It was fun to straddle the 0.0 latitude line and claim to be in both hemispheres at once, but the real excitement was the entertainment surrounding the monument.  Ecuadorian music and dancers entertained a couple hundred people and we were surrounded by vendors selling tantalizing snacks.  

The emcee of the whole deal was very entertaining and would pick out foreigners from the crowd to come on stage with him and dance while he made jokes about them which the foreigner would have no hope of understanding.  And wouldn´t you know it, I stick out like a sore thumb and was his next victim.  He had me dance with the Ecuadorian flag, wear traditional garb and a hat with an attached pony tail all to make me look completely ridiculous.  My host family captured the whole thing on video along with some pictures, so look forward to those soon.  I was completely embarrassed but I relish the story and I am glad I didn´t chicken out and refuse the invitation.

I would love to visit the jungles, relax in Galapagos, and climb one of the many scenic mountains, but two weeks is just not enough time to take full advantage of the country.  I will simply have to enjoy Quito and its Spanish architecture, massive cathedrals, packed buses and sometimes terrible traffic until I return.

The Culture:

For me, the most exciting part about travel is meeting the local people and doing my best to understand the local cultures.  I will never forget the hospitality Allison and I enjoyed in Thailand last summer and I will always have a home in Peru, Georgia and now Ecuador.  My host mom is absolutely wonderful.  I love how motherhood is so universal, because even though I can only understand about 60% of what is said, I know what she wants if for me to eat more, wear my coat more often and sit at the kitchen table to converse as much as possible. 

I don´t want to write a novel, so I will just run off a list of some cool notes I made about the culture I have experienced in Quito:  ancestors are very important and when we visited the cemetery there were fresh flowers everywhere and more visitors than I have ever seen at a cemetery in the States; I always pegged South America as being very religious, which is definitely true to an extent, however, I think it is more correct to identify the people as very spiritual; there is so much less shame here, which is tough to explain, but whether it is dancing in public, singing out loud or feeling ill, I thankfully haven´t felt as vulnerable as I sometimes do in the States; driving is crazy here and unless you are in the front you won´t have a seat belt; there are no casinos in Ecuador as of a couple years ago (a huge difference from Georgia to say the least), public transit is very important and very crowded, although much more difficult to navigate than I found either Tbilisi or Bangkok (I was lost for hours yesterday and had to flag a taxi to take me back home).

The Politics:

I am not well read at all on the topic of politics in Ecuador, but I will share what I have heard and the little bit I do know because I find it very interesting.  Also, there has been some recent stories about Ecuador which have made it to American headlines news : Snowden seeking asylum, an American high school graduate disappearing and a complicated lawsuit of Ecuador vs Chevron.  My only sources for most of this info is my host family, the doctor I am working with, and something I saw on Reddit the other day, so take this all with a grain of salt.

Anyways, Ecuador is probably the most socialist country I have ever been to, and it has been interesting to hear how people living here feel about it.  The doctor I work with really isn´t a fan of some aspects, but he said he tries to only concern himself with things he can change.  He works in one of the biggest public hospitals in Ecuador and will see about 50 patients in the clinic over a couple hours and is required to fill out detailed paperwork on them all.  When we asked if he got paid for each patient he saw, he said no.  When we asked what incentive there was for seeing more patients he said that going to jail would be the consequence for not doing so.  Take that for what it´s worth I guess.

Gasoline is only $2 a gallon here for the super stuff!  I thought I was reading per liter initially, but it really is only $2 a gallon.  My host dad said that it isn´t because they have oil here or have any special connections but because the government subsidizes it significantly.  He was very against this subsidy as he wished it would go to schools, roads or other things as people that could afford vehicles could afford gas on their own.  Everyone else would be able to rely on the public transit system which is already in place and effective.   He also laughed about the whole Snowden asylum thing because he felt that Ecuador only wanted to offer Asylum to show it has power and a role in the world political scene – a little kid puffing up his chest if you will. 

I am excited to learn more and I need to do some more research on the Ecuador-Chevron case where Chevron was found guilty of destroying precious land and now owes 18 billion dollars or something like that to the country.  They refused to pay and instead took Ecuador to court in NY to say that the decision was corrupt and the whole thing is bogged down there.  I don´t really know, but in the rankings that come out for corruption in government, Ecuador scored a 2.4/10 with 0 being the most corrupt, and 150^th out of 184 countries for transparency in its government. 

One final interesting note is that the US Dollar is the currency used here, which is super handy for us American travelers!

I will try to update the blog again and try to post pictures when I get the chance.  It is difficult because the internet situation isn´t ideal and whatnot, but excuses, excuses… I will be home in a week!

I do believe it is time for an update!  I really haven´t had good computer/internet access, so I havent had to chance to write at all.  We have internet at the house where I am staying, but it stops working randomly and when it does work someone else needs to use it.  No matter, I brought a bunch of books and the first two seasons of Boardwalk Empire to keep me entertained in my downtime.

I have not done much sightseeing or anything special to Ecuador yet, but I have been able to see and learn a ton in the hospital I am in.   I am working with a hematologist, Dr. Hidalgo, who is an incredible doctor and probably one of the most popular people in the hospital.  I am surprised he can get any work done because he has to stop every view second to say hello and exchange hugs and the traditional South American cheek kisses.  I am definitely luck to be with such a compassionate, patient doctor and I am excited to see how the next two weeks progress.

My Spanish isn´t terrible, but I wish I had taken more courses in college (more than just the one).  I understand probably about 60% of what is said which makes medical conversations difficult.  At least I can read Spanish well and I am familiar with the leukemias/lymphomas which comprise most of his cases.  All the other students leave around noon which leaves me with one-on-one tutoring until 3pm when he heads off to the university to teach classes.  Seriously, I don´t know how he does it, the guy´s day is booked from 4am until 8pm.

I am hoping to travel some this weekend and get to see more of Quito and Ecuador.  What I have seen of Quito is fabulous and I hope to post some pictures once I get the chance.  I haven´t been able to try much food either because everyone is very protective of me and says the food isn´t safe.  I will stick to their suggestions for a few days, but I think I will venture out and try the ceviche and street food soon.

I just got my first board score back and did really well, so I am going to go buy a beer and celebrate!

Well, I am off to Ecuador!

Edward Snowdon is stealing my thunder a bit, but I guess I should be used to that after Joran van der Sloot graced Peru whilst I was there.  Nevertheless, I am very excited about resuming world travel, especially to South America.  The promise of new foods, culture and people is always invigorating!  Furthermore, Unlike Thailand and Georgia, I have some working knowledge of the language which I am sure will come in handy.

I just finished my second year of medical school and the daunting board exams that came with it.  I can't think of a better way to escape the stress of medical school and board scores than to leave the country completely.  A family vacation in Colorado with the soon-to-be in-laws was fun, but it somehow left me more exhausted than I was before the trip.  I know travel abroad is taxing, however, I relish that moment when you land in a new country, look around the city and have no idea what is going on or where anything is.

As per usual, I am not exactly sure what I am getting myself into in Cumbaya, Ecuador.  I know that my host mother, Dr. Ulia, will be picking me up at the airport and that I will be seeing patients alongside her.  The program in Ecuador has a very broad outreach, so I feel like there is quite a bit of variation in what each volunteer could be doing. I am pretty sure, however,that I will be put to good use and will have the time of my life.

I will update the blog with pictures, notes on cuisine and some of what I have been doing when I get the chance.  I hope all is well with you guys back home!

Save The Best For Last- Railay Bay

Hey, Allison here. Steve has given me the honor of writing this post. We have been beach hopping the past couple days and ended here at Railay Bay, off the coast of southern Thailand. The island is incredibly beautiful and pretty small. It only takes about 10 minutes to walk across the whole thing. The weather has been less than ideal... it has rained on and off every day. There go my hopes of bringing back a tan. Or probably more realistically a pretty intense sunburn. So maybe the rain has been in my favor. On the plus side, the rainy season brings many less tourists to the islands, which has been very nice. Our days have consisted of alternating spending time outside, walking the beach, sampling Thai cuisine, watching bad movies on one of the 3 English stations, cave exploring, and a little swimming in the ocean. A few nights ago we went to a bar that advertised fire dancing and it turned out to be pretty cool. I don't think there are many locals that live on this islands, more that people come to live here to work. The same guy that was playing guitar and singing John Mayer was the emcee and main performer in the fire show. And we saw other fire people teaching rock climbing and doing carpentry work the next day. Multi-talented fellows.

On to the main event! We leave today to go back to Bangkok via an overnight bus and then fly out to go back home the following day. That meant that yesterday was our last full day here on the beach. We have been wanting to rent sea kayaks and explore the massive rock formations that aren't accessible by beach, but the weather has been less than cooperative. We waited all day for the weather to calm down so we could take them out. When it reached a point when the wind wasn't blow-you-over strong and we thought we stood a chance in the water, we strapped on our life jackets and took the two-seater out. I'll be honest. I thought I was going to die. I am not a strong swimmer. Once we were out for about 15 minutes the wind died down and the waves became significantly smaller, I started to feel more confident. We paddled around for awhile and Steve had the idea to land the kayak on a very small stretch of sand surrounding this giant rock jutting out of the water. The tides are crazy here. The difference between high and low tide is what feels like a football field. We knew from the night before that the beach existed, but at this time you could barely see it. I was hesitant, but Steve insisted so we landed the boat and sat down on the beach to enjoy the view. After about 20 minutes, we decided our kayaks were due back soon and it was about time to head back. As I got up to go back to the boat, he said my name and I turned around to find him on one knee with ring in hand. It all went by so fast. I managed to say yes. It started to rain harder, so we spent a little more time on the island and then headed back to shore. Needless to say, we are both extremely excited :)

I believe Steve is planning on one more post to sum up the trip. We will be back in a couple days and look forward to seeing everyone again!! Much love!

Friends and Seclusion- Phuket and Other Beaches

As much fun as Bangkok was, we were pretty excited to make our way down South and enjoy some beach time and island revelry.  Having a friend in Phuket to show us the ropes proved invaluable as we got to see much more than we would have otherwise.  It's funny how we can pick a country like Thailand and end up meeting with two friends to help us manage traveling around.  I feel like I have reached some sort of minor success to enjoy the hospitality of old and new friends, and I am excited to indulge that pride more in the future.  Perhaps when we attend World Cup 2014 in Brazil, we can further test the limits of our connections and mutual friends.

Phuket is Thailand's biggest island and attracts some serious tourism.  It is also the hub for further island exploration throughout the south.   This being said, you would think that transportation around the island would be just as easy as it was for the rest of the country.  We had grown accustomed to cheap taxis, red trucks that pick you up along their path for 60 cents or simply being able to walk places.  None of these things exist in Phuket due to the Taxi Mafia.  At first I thought this was a joke or an exaggeration founded in the ridiculous prices tuk-tuks and taxis charge, but it's actually a real thing.  A 10 minute ride that would cost about $1.50 in Bangkok is about $7-10 depending on your bargaining ability.  Efforts by the island have been made to establish more affordable transportation, but boats are sunk, taxi drivers are killed and city officials are on the mafia's payroll.  Crazy stuff, but I guess when you consider the mass tourism and a pure cash industry it isn't a total surprise.

Now that I have given sufficient background to the transportation situation I can more proudly explain how we beat the mafia's system: renting a motorcycle for $5 a day.  I had never ridden one before and traffic in other countries is always intimidating, but I am so glad we rented one.  It took me a while to feel safe, and even longer to feel safe with Allison as a passenger, but after a couple hours of getting around it was easily done.  I realize this is no major achievement for many of the readers, but I had a lot of fun doing it and highly suggest this method of transport in the future.  There is no way we could have visited the beautiful Rawai Beach, gone up to Big Buddha (seriously, a giant Buddha just up on a hill) and eaten at the different restaurants we did without the bike.  All for $5 a day!

It was great to meet up with Jason, who I taught with in Georgia.  He was a gracious host and was able to share his favorite spots with us since he has been here for about 9 months now.  I would like to elaborate briefly on people like Jason because it is a unique type of person that travels from country to country teaching English.  His roommate Tim is in Thailand for the world class rock climbing, his girlfriend is here because she had never been abroad before and wanted to travel before settling down in the States, some of his friends are musicians and travel the world posing as teachers so they can play their next gig and almost every other ex-pat has their own story.  These are the same type of people that go up to a ski lodge in Colorado and work for almost nothing so they can hit fresh powder every day.  I really value their free spirit and commitment to doing what they want to do.  Of course, there are many complaints a parent or grandparent would make towards such a lifestyle, but the freedom, the people and the passion these people all share justify the life choice.  I am jealous of them, easy as that.

Seeking further separation from tourism and society we went to Ko Phi Phi, an island about 2 hours away from Phuket.  Our Bungalow had a killer ocean view and a private beach to boot.  I was worried it would be too hot without AC, but since it is low season (rainy season) it was very manageable.  We fell asleep both nights to the repetitive lapping of waves just meters from our mosquito net-covered bed.  We arrived yesterday to Railay which is famous for its rock formations.  Expert climbers come from all over the world to conquer the sandstone cliffs, and it makes me wish I had trained all year to try one out myself.  I encourage you to google Railay, Thailand and see a couple pictures yourself, you will be jealous of us if you do.

We splurged a bit to stay at a nice resort with AC, a TV and hot water, but I must admit I appreciate modern amenities.  Life is great and we are sad to see our trip coming to an end.  We will try to spend as much time as possible on the beach over the next few days and take some good pictures to remember it by.  We miss everyone at home and are excited to tell more stories we we get back.

Family Time and Seafood- Back to Bangkok

We apologize for not keeping up with our 1 post every 3 day strategy, but we have been too busy, internet has been too scarce and we have simply been traveling a lot.  We are in good spirits as this is being written, but we had a stressful trip back to Bangkok from Angkor/Siem Reap/Cambodia and our journey from Bangkok to the south (Phuket, which is pronounced Poo-Ket) took about as long as our flight did from Chicago to Bangkok.

Summing up Cambodia and our final day at Angkor:  We watched the sun rise over Angkor Wat and explored the temple before the crowds overran it (pictures look good, coming soon I hope- it is hard to find an SD slot to upload).  Then we saw Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm which are the other two famous temples, the latter being the Tomb Raider one.  They were all incredible as expected, but the mass tourism about it all was overwhelming.  Tons and tons of Asian tourists littered every inch of Ta Prohm, more Nikons were in use at one time than I have ever seen before and little Cambodian children were relentless in their question "Lady, cold drink? Buy something?!"  Feeling a little exasperated, we called it an early afternoon and got some beers on the famous Siem Reap Pub Street.  Also, we had Vietnamese Pho and an Indian meal which were simply to die for.  It was sad to leave Cambodia because we knew we had only seen the most touristed area, but Bangkok loomed once again, and we were excited to finally get some beach time.

Having really found our footing in Bangkok, we found a neat little hostel near the mass transit systems and a giant, impressive mall (seriously, it is nicer than any mall I have seen in the States thus far.  I think we spent a total of around 10 hours there over the three day stay).  The highlight of our stay in Bangkok wasn't our shopping spree or bargain hostel, however, it was our time with Nat and her family (Nat is Torri Gray's friend from a high school exchange program).  We can't thank her or Torri enough for setting all of this up because our Thailand trip wouldn't have been the same without her.

Our first night we went out to the clubs with her and one of her friends.  The live band played popular Thai hits, so we couldn't sing along as many of the other frequenters were keen to do; however, that didn't stop Allison and me from dancing the night away and enjoying the rare American song.  It would be interesting to go to one of the clubs aimed at Westerners, but I definitely enjoyed our true Thai going out experience.  The experience did get us in trouble, though, because we came in late and I was loud -- much to the dismay of the up-to-now kind hostel owner.  We promptly changed hostels the next day to avoid the embarrassment of owning up to our shenanigans.

And now for one of our favorite days of the trip:  Our day with the Aroonmaharat family (Nat, her sister and parents).  A quick explanation of the family is simply a must.  Her dad is full of eccentricity, owning an expensive stingray collection among other items including a dragon fish, tiger pelts, samurai swords and ancient Buddha statues; the mother didn't speak any English, but it's amazing how Thai smiles, home cooking and a mom's arm on your shoulder can make you feel at home; her sister, Mild, was very shy and fun to be around; and Nat was a gracious host and an excellent translator.  We spent half the day admiring her father's collection (though Allison was a bit mortified by the tiger pelts: "This is the mom tiger, this is the son tiger" - insert proud smile and funny middle-aged Thai man), then we got a two-hour massage and then went out of the seafood meal of our lives.  It was a Smörgåsbord of crab, giant shrimp, catfish, mussels, soup, oysters, delectable sauces, fish cakes and a funny glass noodle dessert.  The meal was more than Allison and I ever would have expected from a host family we barely knew. I wish I could put into words how good it was and how grateful we were to share the meal with them.  It was a tough goodbye and we promised that we would stay with their family next time we come to Thailand.  I hope we keep that promise.

The Border and Beyond- Cambodia and Angkor

Where to start!?  The border crossing wasn't as flawless as I had hoped.  In fact, I would have to say that we were bested by practiced scam artists.  It is frustrating and embarassing, but I have found some consolation in approaching the event as a learning experience so I will relate it to you. 

Things went awry just as we got to the border.  We were taken to a restaurant where we (a group of about 12 were on our van) were sat down at individual tables apart from each other and given their spiel.  They said that they would need to process a special expedited visa for us because we hadn't already acquired one.  We knew this was a scam because we had read about it, but if we didn't comply they would not take us the rest of the way (2-3 hours past the border to Angkor), which we had already paid for.  We were cornered and so we were forced, along with everyone else on the van, to cough up the extra 15 dollars.  This was the first and least embarassing of the two incidents. 

The second scam pains me to recall, mostly because I am more to blame and it could have been avoided.  Once we crossed the border we were told that we should exchange money to the local currency.  Though the USD is accepted country-wide because it is considered stable and tourism is so significant, we were told local vendors take advantage of it because they don't use the coins, only the dollars; so this would mean that a 50 cent water would cost a whole dollar.  That part made sense at the time, so we went to change money at the place they told us had the best exchange rate (they actually told us there was no fee whatsoever, but that was also a lie having done research on the exchange rate which is currently 4150 Cambodian Riel to 1 dollar, crazy right?).  We were told to hurry because our next leg, a private taxi was booked and waiting for us.  Long story short, we were all cheated out of about $20 from the exchange place.  We were all changing Thai Baht (30 Baht to 1 dollar) to the Cambodian Riel.  In retrospect the math is easy, but as we were being forced through and they wouldn't let us use electronics to calculate, we were shorted about 80,000 Riel , 600 Baht or ~$20each.  Ugh it makes me so mad, and I would have loved to catch them red handed and make a giant fuss, warning the rest of my co-travelers and exposing the Cambodian bastards for what they really were: malicious thieves.  And what tops it off is that they asked for a tip (really told us we better tip them) as we were loaded on to our taxi.  Good grief!  Alright, enough complaining.  I will never exchange money in a hurry again, and I hope that you will always do the obvious thing and count out the money, do the calculation and make sure you receive a receipt for the transaction as any trustworthy place will provide.

A brief blurb on Angkor so far:  These temples are crazy cool.  I really can't do them justice by explaining how intricate and ornate every inch of them is.  I can't convey their imposing massiveness by relaying a comparison of size.  I would only embarass myself if I attempted to describe the eerie, knowing face that is carved into the stone entrances all over the ruins.  Look at our pictures, do a 5 minute search on Angkor ruins and visit the place for yourself.  It's incredible. 

We have spent two days traveling the area and seeing ancient inscriptions above waterfalls, trekking through jungles to see what remains of a long-lost civilization and being humbled by thousand year-old temples.  We saved the best for last, however, and tomorrow we get to see Angkor Wat itself, Ankgor Thom and Ta Phrom (which was the filming location for Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider).  A post about them, the city of Siem Reap, and some local nuances will be up soon. 

Hopefully our cross back into Thailand won't prove as troublesome.  I hope all is well back home!  Check Facebook for new pictures which should be up very soon.

Tasting and Feeling- Sukhothai

Sukhothai, the first capital of Thailand, is awesome.  Historical ruins litter the entire city over 3-5 square miles.  They date from the 14th century and they are straight out of a video game/Indiana Jones movie.  Allison and I explored part of the ruins on foot, and then rented a bicycle for a dollar and explored the other regions.  Giant Buddhas, assembly halls surrounded by stone elephants, ornate temples... considering these were the dark ages in Europe, life must have been pretty good in Thailand to have these kind of resources.  I am pretty jealous because we have nothing to compare to these 700 year-old artefacts.  Look forward to a ton of pictures coming soon.

After our two-day stay in Sukhothai we headed back to Bangkok and will head out from here to Cambodia early tomorrow morning.  We had to obtain US dollars for our visa along with 2"x2" photos of ourselves, so that was an adventure.  After we got the business stuff taken care of we thought we could indulge in an "American-style" evening.  We split a large meat pizza at pizza corner, shopped at a mall, grabbed a burger from McDonalds and even got an Oreo McFlurry.  Don't get me wrong, I love Thai food; however, it was nice to refuel our American tanks with a 2,000 calorie meal.

I have had a couple requests to elaborate on food, so I thought now would be a good time to do so:
Thai food is based on four flavors as previously mentioned: Sour, Sweet, Salty and Spicy (or bitter, depending on the translation).  With every single meal you will receive condiments to help balance these flavors.  For example, fish sauce for salty, sugar for sweet, pepper flakes and pepper juice for spicy and a lime for sour.  Loving flavor and sauce, I tend to over-season everything, but I love it that way.  Every meal comes with noodles or rice, but it isn't exactly that simple.  Just as Italians fancy their thousands of noodles, so do the Thais take pride in their rice and noodle and even rice noodle selections.  I can't say that I can really tell the difference between expensive Jasmine rice and the cheaper run-of-the-mill rice, but apparently it is there.  Most Thais don't cook for themselves often, so there are little restaurants -- more like street food -- on every corner in Thailand.  This dependency also makes a high competition market, so it's super cheap. Allison and I have had entire, multi-course meals with drinks for less than 4 dollars.  It's great.  While there are tons of dishes, I really miss the variety of food that we have in America.  We eat Italian, BBQ, mexican, burgers, asian and fast food all in the course of a week.  I haven't seen a culture yet with such a broad diet, but I guess I have only been to four countries besides the US.

Cambodia looms and we have a long day tomorrow.  Border crossings tend to be where most horror stories take place, but I think we have taken the proper precautions and are well-prepared.  Often, the borders are crooked because once you arrive there, you really have to pay whatever they ask because you have no other options.  It seems like luck plays the biggest factor, but I guess we will see.  Hopefully my next report is a positive one, I have a good feeling it will be.

Figuring Things Out- Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai has been a blast. It has been so nice to take it easy, do tons of shopping and sample all sorts of food. Plus, it is cool to figure things out on our own. We have done a lot of relaxing, but that isn't to say we have been completely lazy either. We explored old town Chiang Mai, shopped for hours along Saturday and Sunday Walking Streets, spent a day with elephants, ate "authentic" mexican food, took a cooking course, planned out our next leg in Cambodia and enjoyed Thai massages. It is easy to highlight the major things we have done, but as many of you world-travelers know, it is the small things that make up a country and its culture. I feel like we are really starting to appreciate these intricacies, and I am excited to become more aware as time progresses.
We have grown up as Thai tourists here in Chiang Mai. We would walk the streets and converse with local people about our trip, exciting events, their lives and then take advice on what we should do next. Allison I would just smile and look at eachother and think how nice everyone is. While I absolutely believe that the hospitality of this country is phenomenal, we were a little naive. A couple overtly nice locals pointed us in the direction of what we thought was the Tourist Authority of Thailand (known as TAT), the most trusted, recognized and accountable agency of tourism in Thailand. Not to say that all others are bad, but if you want the most fair prices, no gimmicks and only honest opinions, you have to go with them. We were pointed in the direction of T&T (also TAT on their signs) which took advantage of us as we booked our Cambodian get away. All in all, I think we were cheated out of $50, but it could have been worse. I could go into more boring detail, but it doesn't matter. Live and learn, right? I am still a little bitter about it, but now I know I shouldn't be so trusting and believe everyone is my friend, even though I love that disposition.
Even with that small misfire, so many things have been too amazing to really be down about. I honestly feel like I can cook half a dozen Thai dishes. I easily consider elephants my favorite animal, and I consider Mekwon, my elephant, a close friend. Shopping was great, our fellow travelers have been wonderful to talk to... life is good in Thailand. I think that this trip was considered audacious by some, but, compared to what youths from Canada, Australia and especially the UK it really isn't that exciting. Three European girls that we cooked with today are in the middle of a 1-year world-wide holiday, taking apopular "Gap Year." I wish that this was more common in the States, and I hope that our generation can propel the idea forward more and more.
Some funny things about Thai culture that I thought I should share: the people here are all skinny; woman obsess about fashion and looking good in public, no matter the occasion (no sweatpants/casual look here); no matter the service, you always pay after it is obtained (pay after you finish your coffee, fast food, internet use, etc.); shoes must be taken off when entering many businesses, eatings areas and especially temples; so many people know English (tourism is a MAJOR part of their GDP, so it makes sense, but it's still surprising); the food isn't terribly spicy- I haven't found anything here that is as spicy as Pearl Cafe in St.Louis; before taking money/tips, the provider will put their hands together in a praying motion and bow while saying thank you; you don't tip at restaurants at all; you can stay in an air-conditioned, wireless internet-having, cable TV flaunting guest house for $5 a night and you can get dinner for less than a dollar.

We are headed to visit the historical ruins and the second capital of Thailand, Sukhothai tomorrow. Then we have a night in Bangkok followed by the Cambodian border crossing, four nights in Siem Reap and a visit to the majestic Angkor Wat (please look it up if you haven't heard of it before, it looks incredible). We are ahead of our original schedule, so we might have time for something we hadn't anticipated. Stay tuned for more. I hope all is well back home.

Finding Our Footing- Bangkok

We are on our third day in Thailand, but it feels like we have been here for at least a week. A 22 hour plane ride, 12 hour time difference and noisy hostels definitely do work on one's Circadian rhythm. That being said, we could not be having more fun. We survived our first two days in Bangkok and, thanks to a mutual friend, got to see way more than we expected to. As I have been telling Allison, this is a lucky trip and I think the best is yet to come. Our first hotel picked us up at the airport which was great. I slept like a baby on the plane, Allison did not, haha. I got up early to explore and take in the smells, people and craziness that is Bangkok. We got breakfast and headed towards Khao San road which is the main backpacker area near Old Town Bangkok. Bangkok is MASSIVE. Seriously, I think it sprawls out more than Chicago which makes it more intimidating that I can express via blog. We met up with a mutual friend, Nat, who is a law student in Bangkok. She has been such a blessing and possibly the only reason we are still alive. She showed us around a major shopping area, MBK, which is a 7-floor mall touting every ware imaginable. She took us to a restaurant where we enjoyed Spicy Papaya salad, Waterfall Beef, Spicier Papaya Salad (gross actually), soup and none other than fried chicken (not KFC, though KFC is probably the most popular fast food restaurant in Thailand). We came back early, took a 6-hour nap, woke up to watch a Euro Cup match and went back to sleep. I got up really early and explored by myself and found delicious Pad Thai from a street vendor for $1. As if Nat hadn't helped enough she offered to show us around again. We went to a different part of Bangkok (God, the traffic is insanely awful, I would never want to live here) for noodles. Let me tell you, these noodles are something else. For 35 cents (10 Baht) you get a small bowl of noodles, so I think the three of us went through around 13 bowls. They were of all different flavors including one with a cinnamon flavor sauce, a pink bowl, a pad-thai like soupy noodle, and tiny baby noodles with beef. Thai cuisine focuses on four flavors: Spicy, salty, sweet and sour. You add condiments by preference to pretty much every dish to enhance/balance the flavor. I always tend to go too far spicy, however, whereas the Thais tend to add sugar to nearly every dish and even a bit of vinegar. After the noodles we got this drink that was made from grass apparently. It was basically sweet dark water with black, jelly-like wormy things. It wasn't as gross as it sounds, but I am still a bit traumatized by sucking these worms up through a big straw. We then went to a Wat (Wat Pho specifically), which is what they call their temples. There was this massive, and I mean enormous - at least 100m in length - reclining Buddha which we saw (picture coming soon). Allison participated in a fortune telling ritual with Nat and her friend and received a favorable fortune (some aren't so nice). We had to hustle back because our bus to Chiang Mai (12 hour trip north of Bangkok) was leaving soon. Nat came back to help us plan our time up north and was sincerely jealous that we were going to Chiang Mai (and for good reason, we love it!). The 12 hour bus ride was pretty grueling, but, per usual, I slept pretty well while Allison had water dripping on her from the Air Conditioning unit right above us incurring a sort of Thai water torture for hours on end. Chiang Mai has been splendid. It isn't so hectic, polluted or intimidating. Prices on everything from wares to food to accommodations are significantly reduced. Best of all, it just feels so much smaller and the traffic is negligible. The major mode of transportation are these red pick up trucks in which you just hop in after confirming that they can take you (and often multiple other people, usually Thais) to your desired location, although it might be after a couple other stops. We haven't been accosted by scam artists as we were constantly on Khao San road, and we haven't felt lost at all -- We feel like one could actually live here happily. We explored the old town area, stopped in at a couple of coffee shops to enjoy the AC and cheap Iced Mochas. We then went shopping for souvenirs on the Saturday walking street (along with half the city), and we plan on going out to visit the live music/bar scene here soon. All is well! It is nice to have so much of the trip yet to come, but also to feel a little established and adjusted. A little sleep deprived, sweaty and mosquito bitten we may be, but nothing can get us down when the best food you have ever eaten is a dollar a dish, every local you meet is kind and willing to help and days with elephants, cooking courses and beaches are yet to come. More soon!

We are about to set sail! Thailand, Bangkok, Angkor Wat, mysterious temples, tombs and caves await us. Updates, funny stories, tales of great food and more await the reader. Look forward to our first official post about life in Bangkok before the week is over.

It's Over... It's Really Over

I did a lot over the last two weeks, but I have come to realize that a lot of it would likely be uninteresting and similar to everything else I had been doing – so I will try to stick to the basics. I got my plane ticket which was set to send me home the 22nd, but that was inadequate because I wouldn’t be able to make family Christmas in Chicago. So, $115 later I changed it to come home a week earlier on the 15th. It’s kinda crazy because I went from being mentally prepared for 11 more days to having only 4. All things considered, however, I was excited about moving up the date.

For my last weekend I went to the my friend Jason’s village where we had suphra and spent the night. He has a really interesting situation because he has a serious thing for his host sister, like would consider spending the rest of his life in Georgia serious. She is really cool and I totally see why he digs her, it’s just crazy to think about meeting someone like this. It was an amazing way to spend my last weekend because I got to continue Georgian tradition with my 3 best friends here. It’s gonna be hard to leave everyone behind – I will likely never see many of them ever again. I guess true friendship finds a way, though, and I have faith in some sort of reunion.

I think the best way to sum up my experience is to explain my last day in Georgia because it really captured what this experience has been for me. Knowing it was going to be my last day it school, it wasn’t as hard to get out of bed as it usually is. Not to say I am depressed or anything, but my room is seriously really cold, and it is hard to muster up the strength to brave the nipple-hardening cold. I got dressed all spiffy-like, I figure you gotta go out looking good. There is one girl, Nino, who is pretty obsessed with me and was waiting at the entrance to the school property. She started tearing up immediately, and, though it was somewhat sad, it was a pretty hysterical tantrum – seriously, she’s obsessed. She asked me to give her my Mizzou beanie to remember me by, and I have no doubt she will wear it every day for the next couple years. I will put a picture of us up as soon as I can.

I only had 2 classes scheduled for the day, and I would like to say I usually work harder at school, but 2 hours of work has pretty much been the norm. As usual, I don’t think the students really got much out of the lesson. There are always a few students who really commit themselves and then there is everyone else… All of us teachers have had a tough time in the classroom, and I don’t think there is an easy solution to the problem as long as we are paired up with the Georgian co-teacher. Anyways, after my lessons my two favorite teachers gave me some gifts. Pretty much everything here is centered on wine, so they gave me these cool little goblet doodads and a fancy pitcher thing. It was really nice of them and I like to brag about it because a lot of the other Americans here have poor relations with their school and have no chance of getting such wondrous gifts. I definitely won the school lottery.

After some more tearful goodbyes, I quickly made my way home to drop off my gifts. I had to hurry because I was meeting my friends for Thai food which I was excited about. It is sad to say, but it was one of the best meals I have had in Georgia. For $7 each we got a ton of delicious, flavorful food, drinks and a sumptuous ice-cream dessert platter. Also, it was nice to sate my spicy food addiction because Georgian food simply doesn’t do the trick. I thought I was going to have to hurry and leave to go sign this super important form at the ministry of education. I need to sign something special to be officially affiliated with them so I can receive money when I recruit people to the program. And I wouldn’t be too worried about it, but it’s like thousands of dollars at stake, so I needed to get it done. Basically, the ministry totally dropped the ball and couldn’t get the form finished, so we are going to have to try and figure out some fax/email method of getting it done. It was absolutely fitting that my last day would include some screw up by the ministry, haha.

Since I didn’t have to go there anymore, I went with a couple friends to this park where they had a bunch of ping-pong tables. It was only 50cents for an hour, so I showed off my mad ping-pong skills, though Gilby and I ended up with 3-3, so we will have to have game 7 sometime later. One of the greatest things about this program has been having a hundred cool people to do something with all the time. Whether it’s getting different food, playing ping pong, going out or travelling to Armenia, there is always someone up for something – those of you that know me know how much I appreciate this.

I had to rush from ping-pong to say goodbye to James and Jason (2 of the best friends I mentioned earlier). I sat down for a quick 10-minute tea with and promised we would meet up at some point in life. I am gonna miss those guys. A bunch of people wanna backpack Europe over the summer, and, if I can throw some money together, I might make an attempt to do it. If anybody readings this wants to come, do it man!

I had to leave there early in order to get to suphra on time. Tornike, the 11th grade student that took me to the village and has hosted me for suphra twice previously, invited me over for my final Georgian meal. His buddies were all there too, and we suphrad as we always have before, but it is something that could never get old. They all told me how good of a guy I was and that they didn’t expect an American guy to be so cool, and I told them they are awesome and I could never forget them. Looking back now, it is almost unreal that the whole event happened. Georgia is awesome.

As much as I wanted to stay all night, I knew I should be getting back because it was my last night in the country and I should spend a little time with the family. They were all waiting for me, and it was nice that they had a little get together to send me off. They gave me a Georgian propaganda magazine with a small flag inside as a parting gift, and I am proud to say I can even read some of it! For my final meal, Levan threw some potatoes in the fire, let them burn and turn into coals. Then he served them to me… As gross as they appeared, it was somehow fitting that this was my last meal presented to me by my family. I ate my potato coals and considered what foods I would have first once I was back in the States. Another fitting family moment was that my host mom asked me to go buy butter from the local store because she was going to bed, haha. Ahh well, I love it!

The novelty of airports has pretty much worn off and I was a little pissed to find out that they wouldn’t let me bring all my luggage back without paying extra, even though I brought the same amount of stuff over on the same airlines. So I left all my shoes and a couple bottles of wine behind, but I didn’t get too worked up about it. I bared my 26 hours of travel fairly well and went through customs with a huge smile on my face. Everyone else seemed really grumpy, though, and I thought it was because they hate the travelling experience; however, I was made aware that I reeked like smoke and trash, so that may be it as well. I never realized how bad Georgia makes someone smell until I came back to a country that smelled nice. Every single thing I brought back smelled of Georgia, and I am pretty sure the entire Feist family judged me for the odor. But no matter how bad I smelled, at least I was back. I’m back….. I can’t believe it’s over. For better or worse…

I AM BACK!

p.s. I am gonna keep the blog going, but it won't all be about Georgia, though I am sure parallels will be made. So, if you wanna discontinue your following, I completely understand. But if you wanna know what I'm up to, stay tuned!

Armenia!

I was definitely really excited about Armenia, but my hopes turned into reality before we even entered the country. Eight hours on a van has never been more fun, although the Irishman and the Australian sheila would likely disagree. We drank homemade Araki , rotated as tamada and experienced friendship as Georgians have taught us to. We ended up singing “America the Beautiful” and other American songs while the two others in the back were shivering cold and mad at life – it’s good to be us. We had no plans for the next day so a few of us stayed up for a while once we got to the hostel and talked. We definitely started the weekend right.

On Friday, we toured around the city and took it easy because our big, day-long tour was going to be on Saturday. We went to a giant transcript museum which was only mediocre until this really nice woman came and explained the things we were looking at. Basically, there are only a couple things you need to know about Armenia: It is the oldest Christian country in the world; there was this badass dude named Mashtots (or mashed potatoes as we call him) in the 12th century that invented their alphabet and perhaps multiple others (including Georgian, although any good Georgian would dispute that); the country went through the whole soviet thing and got pushed around by them and the Ottomans; they are super proud of Mt. Ararat, but Turkey devastatingly muscled it away from them (which really sucks because you can see the mountain from like everywhere in Armenia); and, finally, there was the Armenian genocide in the 1910’s that killed over 1.5 million Armenians and forced many more to flee the country, hence the large Armenian population in The States. It was cool to look at books and bibles that dated back to the 4th century. I don’t know if a single thing there was younger than the US.

After the cool transcript museum we made our way to “The Cascades” which is a giant staircase that was built to commemorate 50 years of soviet rule. Well, they didn’t finish it for obvious reasons, but it is still a really cool hangout nevertheless. It was cool to sit and overlook a city I never thought I would visit and to see where Noah’s ark landed on top of that! Yerevan, the capital where we stayed, was really cool and clean. It had a distinct European feeling, but that ambience also came with an increased price tag for things. Nevertheless, we all loved the place although it doesn’t have quite the character of Tbilisi – people followed traffic laws, there wasn’t trash in the streets, the women dressed too fashionably and a ton of people spoke excellent English.

Saturday’s tour took us to 4 different holy places in the country including their version of the Vatican. The churches were all between 700-1600 years old, and I will never get over how old these places are. The views were beautiful, and it was very different from the Georgian countryside we had become so accustomed to. I gotta tell this one story about a church though because I think it is hilarious, so just skip to the next paragraph if you don’t care about old churches and folk tales. So this one king’s daughter fell in love with a lowly architect, right? And the young architect, whose nickname was Candles, asked the king for permission to marry his daughter, and the king had a brilliant way to deter him while saving his relationship with his daughter. The king told the architect to go create some building worthy of his daughter and the king would fund everything. The catch was that the architect must do everything himself. So, Candles began making this super awesome church way the hell out in the middle of nowhere. After 3 years the king came to check and see if the guy had wisened up and quit or if he was still building the structure to win his daughter. Candles was like 40 feet up on this sweet, innovative church and one of the guards climbed up and pushed him off and killed him! The king told his daughter that the guards had been so jealous of Candles’ skill that they killed him, and that is the story the Armenian’s tell about this holy place which later became a seminary as well. In my opinion, the king told his guards to go kill the guy if he still had the balls to try to win over his daughter, so they did. Then he could tell his daughter his guards were just assholes and then have them punished or something. Smart king, sad story. All the stories in Armenia are sad ones, no joke.

Saturday night, 5 of us went to a club and danced. It wasn’t anything fancy, but we had a blast and met some cool Armenian dudes that I coaxed into buying our drinks. We didn’t get to sleep til 4 which was a bad idea because we needed to wake up early if we wanted to make a couple more museums in the morning. The groggy morning was worth it, however, and some food quickly got me back on track. We took a walk and ended up visiting the single mosque in the country. Initially, they were not going to let us in, but Jason knows a fair amount of Arabic, so the dude let us look around inside. I guess it’s really unique because it is a Shiite mosque, although I wouldn’t know because it’s the first one I have ever seen. It was interesting to see the huge open space where all the people simultaneous prostrate themselves facing Mecca and pray. I know it is probably really hard to be a Muslim in Armenia, so props to them for having such a beautiful place to do in.

The final thing we did was go to the Genocide memorial which was really depressing actually. I am embarrassed to admit I didn’t even know about it in the first place, and even more sad to learn it hasn’t even been acknowledged as an actual event that really occurred ‘til recently (and the Turks still claim it never actually happened). Basically it was like the holocaust, but on a smaller scale. When Hitler’s advisors asked him if killing the Jews was a better idea than relocating them to Madagascar or somewhere Hitler said “Does anyone remember the Armenians?” and used the world’s ignorance to the genocide to justify his own. Anyways, it was humbling and terrifying, and I am so sorry for Armenia.

Sorry to end on a sad note, but my overall experience in Armenia was incredibly fun and enlightening. We spent way more money than we thought we would, but $150 to see another country and spend 3 days there isn’t too bad. I will just live a little on the cheaper side for my last 2 weeks in Georgia. This was kind of my last huge trip/plan, but I am guessing I will manage some more good times while I am still here. Many things are lacking in Georgia but fun times are more than abundant. More on those soon.

The Bad Things in Georgia

I feel like my time is slowly looming to an end here in Georgia, but I am happy to say that I am excited about coming home. A month into Georgia, there is no way I would have left willingly; however, I really feel that I have gotten almost as much as I can here, or, at least, everything I wanted. I am and have always been incredibly positive about Georgia, and my sentiments have not changed. I plan on returning here one day with friends to show them the power of Georgian passion. I would like to document, however, the things that really bug me, and I the reader should find them interesting as well.

First of all, laziness is rampant among Georgians. The men on my street play board games 10 hours a day, 7 days a week and it drives me crazy. Now, some of them are a tad bit older, so I can rationalize that, but a lot of the men are 20-40. In a country that is trying to become modern, to better itself, to present itself as a first world, so many of its people do absolutely nothing. To be honest, inherent laziness is something I abhor anywhere I am, hence my conservatism; however, it’s an epidemic here. It is funny to hear the older people talk about how good Stalin was, because he forced individuals to contribute and the country supposedly ran quite smoothly. Believe me, I am not a Stalin fan like most of the older people here, but it is interesting to hear that take on things for sure. As a leader, Saakashvili (their controversial president), has had the daunting task of inspiring and motivating a country for years now. Although many would swear he is failing (the opposition party here calls for his resignation weekly), the city is running a hell of a lot better than it was 10 years ago. It’s interesting to be in a country with thousands of years of history but is only 20-years-old. Good luck Georgia.

The second thing that bothers me is hygiene. I know that this is no new news to you experienced travelers, but, shit it’s just gross sometimes. I have a couple funny examples that will put things into perspective and serve as microcosms of the general hygienic theory here. First is my host dad who wore the exact same outfit for 11 days. I know he didn’t physically overexert himself playing backgammon all day, but after a week, I would think one would want a change for change’s sake alone. Second, my friend Lawrence’s host mother stole a pair of his socks and has had them on for over a week now. I don’t know how she thinks she can get away with this, because Lawrence, a gay Irishman, has…colourful socks to say the least. What are they thinking man?! My third and final example is the horror of marshutka travel (the vans). Those things always smell, and the best way I can explain it is to compare it to a Subway restaurant. You can smell that thing from blocks away, and if you go in there, you will go home smelling like Subway. The marshutka has the same permeating ability and it is distressing to go home smelling like the hairy hobo that sat next to me. As painful as these experiences can be, however, sometimes it is ridiculous you can’t help but laugh. The other day a dude stepped on to the marshutka and absolutely reeked of BO and what I think was car fluids. He sat behind me which made me tear up for multiple reasons… I was pissed. Right after he got on an obese, smelly Georgian man sat down next to me and let a huge fart go. He even leaned over, pointed it in my direction and then looked at me and showed off his missing teeth as he mischievously smiled. Right after this, a Georgian that looked exactly like Ben Stiller got on the marshutka! At this point I succumbed to the ridiculous situation and now treasure it as a hilarious Georgian memory. Things are what you make of them.

The third thing that bothers me is the education system. Discipline is really poor in the classrooms, teachers don’t come up with their own lesson plans and the parents at home don’t give a shit which makes it impossible to force anything upon them. Not to toot Stalin’s horn too much, but everyone I have talked to here loved the USSR educational system, and now Georgia has this generally lackluster approach… kinda sucks. I don’t have any idea how they should go forward with their system or improve it, but I know there are serious issues. I think a lot of the laziness common among the people starts in the schools, so something must be done – perhaps my presence here is an example of such a something. Something else that bugs me is that all the kids cheat on everything: homework, tests, papers, assignments, everything. The worst part (for me anyways… ) is that they suck at it. In the States people pride themselves on being great cheaters and innovators. Even their cheating is lazy! Ugh, good luck to Georgian education.

The fourth and final thing I would like to rant about is how women are treated. I am nowhere near a feminist, I think men and women are equal. Georgia violates women’s rights constantly, and, the worst part is, everyone knows it. I will give a couple examples of the unfair shit that happens to women and I will let you be the judge of such transgressions. First, men are not faithful to their wives, and this is not only expected, but laughed about. I have met multiple married men who have girlfriends and laugh about how nice it is. Prostitutes are also really common, and I must assume there are some nasty STDs everywhere in Georgia. Anyways, this bugs the hell out of me, and I feel so sorry for the Georgian wife. Another example is bride-napping… I can’t exactly remember if I ranted about this already, but I will do a quick summary anyways. Basically the dude stuffs the girl in his car against her will, takes her to his house, likely has his way with her and then she is socially obligated to marry him because she is no longer pure (though he has been having sex with prostitutes for years now). I know of multiple individuals who have suffered such a fate, and, in every single case, it has ended in divorce. It’s absolute bullshit, and I can’t figure it out. The social ignorance involved in every aspect of bride-napping is astounding, and many people lost all respect for Georgians when they heard about this (most Georgians will refute this, and I don’t mean to offend anyone. I am just calling it like I say it {and how every other volunteer here sees it}). Anyways, I feel bad for the women here. As Georgia becomes more modern I am hoping the gender roles do as well, but we’ll see. Good luck to Georgian women.

So, those are some basic complaints I have about Georgia. Honestly, a lot of the things I dislike here can be found in all countries, including America. I guess it is human nature to suck, or at least that is what we believe as Christians. I really, really want to bring people to this country eventually, but I suspect it will be very different in a couple years because the country is very dynamic. For better or worse, they are trying to be more like the US, and, regarding gender roles and education, I hope they achieve it. I hope that everyone understands how much I love this country and how much I have grown as a person because of it, so don't take my few complaints and blow them out of proportion. I still don’t know if I really agree with this program politically because they are spending so much money on us, but whatever. I have loved being here and I know I will enjoy my last three weeks here.

In other news, I had a good week at school, an interesting weekend and I am heading out to Armenia here in 2 hours. It should be a blast, and we are only gonna spend about $100 for the 3 days trip. I might get to go see Mt. Ararat which would be the first Biblical thing I have ever seen, or at least I think so. So, I am excited about that, and I will update everyone on how the trip went and post more pictures asap.

The Willage and Thanksgiving

Well, it was yet another week of hardly working at school, and I feel awful about it. I will have had 6 classes, totaling only 5 hours of work. As I always like to do, I can rationalize this somewhat by arguing that Tuesday was a national holiday, Giorgoba, and I was out of town Tuesday. Nevertheless, I still feel bad about it, and people back home have got to be wondering what I do with the rest of my time. Now, let me indulge your curiosity and tell you about one of my best weeks in Georgia.

For Giorgoba (St. George’s Day), I went with my student, Tornike, to the willage he is from. As expected, willages in Georgia are much different from our rural towns in The States. I am sure every reader would expect this to be the case, and so did I; but my comical expectations were more than satisfied after spending two days there. One of the first things we did was grab a rooster and take it to the church to be sacrificed. The tradition is to walk around the church with the rooster while praying (some people make one circle, some are there for hours), and afterwards there are two choices: you can sacrifice the rooster or you can let it go free. Since we were having suphra later that day, we chose the former option, and it was an experience that would make the average American cringe. The killer stands on the rooster’s legs, uses a small, sharp knife to saw off its head, breaks off the legs by hand and lets it bleed out. I had a picture of the experience, but I realized it was pretty distasteful, so, no worries, you won’t be surprised by such a picture in one of my albums. It was an experience to say the least.

After the sacrifices were made, we hung out at their willage home while suphra was being prepared. It was pretty cool to be preparing an animal that was alive just hours ago, although it’s a lot of work. My favorite food in Georgia is mtsvade which is basically pork kobobs with onions and delicious sauce, and the best I have had in Georgia was there in the willage. Tornike’s father had some of his high school friends come over and join us for suphra (they brought their roosters too), and I was somewhat of a willage celebrity. The food was great and the people were so much fun. They were very impressed and excited that I know Georgian, and I communicated quite well with the family throughout the trip. I got to try homemade wine, vodka and cha-cha which was pretty cool too, although I was super scared it would make me go blind or something do to improper brewing.

After suphra, I went to Tornike’s friend’s house where he showed me his guns and we talked about rock music – turns out rural Georgia and rural America have a lot in common. The biggest difference was the hole-in-the-ground outhouse which I do have a picture of, but it is slightly graphic (I am warning you because it will likely be posted on facebook). I am not sure how or if they shower, but at least that is something I didn’t have to worry about. One of the coolest parts of the willage adventure was getting to see their school and talk to the kids learning English. The classes were only 4-8 people big, and they had only been learning English for 2 years unlike the city kids. I can’t imagine how different it would be to be placed at a school like this, but I definitely don’t think it would be all bad. I think we would have stayed for longer, but I needed to get back because I had to tutor Dato, so we loaded up some homemade alcohol and returned to civilization.

Tutoring has been going really well, and it is nice to supplement my income a little bit too. I can see definite progress in his English, and, for better or worse, it is the most positive aspect of my teaching experience here in Georgia. I accidentally lost my US Bank card, so I have no access to my money back home, but it hasn’t turned out to be a big deal. Even though I have only gotten the one paycheck, I have managed just fine between that and tutoring money. It is nice to be a country where a full meal and drinks doesn’t exceed $4. I am excited about being able to take money home even though I will have travelled all over the country and Armenia on top of that.

As if I wasn’t a big deal here already, I made national news last night! One of my friends, Phillip, called me up and asked if I wanted to come over for Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday back home, so I jumped at the opportunity and brought some friends with me. It turns out that a news crew had been following him around all day to do a story about Thanksgiving. So, they caught us all at the dinner table feasting American style for a two-minute spot on primetime news. I want to briefly mention that this is extra funny because there is a lot of political strife surrounding our program, and propaganda, like this story, is really quite common – gotta love being a part of it.

Tornike wanted me to come with him to Kakheti, the wine-region of Georgia, for the weekend, but I kind of need a weekend with just American friends. It takes a lot out of me to constantly operate in Georgian, but it is also fun to recognize my progress with the language. I think my Georgian has surpassed my German, but it has a long ways to go to catch up to my Spanish. Anyways, I digress. The trip to Kakheti should be fun because the ministry is paying for all transportation, food and entertainment, so I’m excited. Also, apparently some American football teams are being put together to play some time, and I am really excited about that; however, I hope we don’t have to play with Georgians because, outside of soccer, they are awful at every sport I have seen. Hopefully the ministry doesn’t fall through on those plans… we’ll see I guess.

I have just over 3 weeks left which is pretty crazy. Other than our trip to Armenia, which is still on, I don’t really have anything else I want to accomplish. I love being here, but I won’t be upset about going home either. I really hope to do some more travelling soon, but it is hard to say what that might be right now. At least I have friends in Ireland, England, Australia and South Africa that would all put me up and show me around. Hopefully I will be able to take them up on those offers sooner rather than later.

*Georgians cant pronounce village correctly, in case you hadn't picked that up.

Beautiful Churches, Mountains and Beards

Well working 8 hours in a week is even more luxurious than it sounds; however, boredom can definitely occur once you realize there are 160 other hours in your week. It was definitely the first week since I have been here that I have employed my “I will bring this in case I get bored” backups because I needed to. I watched the first season of lost, started reading the greatest literary work in Georgian history and actually took some pictures. I definitely feel blessed that I have not been really bored so far because I have heard horror stories of other teachers going crazy because they have nothing to do with their time. Being stationed in Tbilisi has been a blessing that I may never be able to fully appreciate.

The other huge advantage to being in Tbilisi is that I have loads of friends to spend time with. Twice during the week I met up with friends to grab coffee and talk. We Americans have certain hang out spots in Tbilisi as well, so it is always fun to meet up with some other teachers you didn’t expect to be there and catch up with them. Personally, I think we need to choose different locations, because Americans always seem to gravitate towards the expensive places that take advantage of their customers, but such is life. Regardless of my sentiments towards overpriced coffee, it is nice to have the option.

We are thinking about having a Thanksgiving party for ourselves because we are all sorely missing the holiday back home. We aren’t exactly sure how feasible it is to make all the seasonal foods, but I think we could throw together something pretty decent. I wish I was more of a real cook so I could actually manage something like this. I am hoping that we get something off the ground at least, because I could really go for some turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy. Shouldn’t be too hard right?

Three of us decided to go to Gazbegi, a mountain town that is close to the Russian border, for the weekend. It was an easy 3-hour ride up there that reminded me of scary mountain driving in the Rockies. Georgia is really quite scenic, however, and I find myself more enthralled in the beauty than fearful of it. We also met some other Americans on the marshutka ride up there that were teaching in Turkey, so that was cool. It was a little disheartening to hear that they are making 3x what we are; however, we are getting a 1-month holiday with our plane tickets paid for. It all works out in the end I guess, but I could use some extra money about now.

The coolest part of Gazbegi is this monastery on a mountain with an even bigger mountain behind it. The trek initially seemed pretty intimidating, but Lawrence and I were able to manage the 4-mile hike in about an hour and a half. This is the second overly-remote monastery I have visited, and the Georgian dedication to such things is absolutely intriguing. I have no idea how much work it must have been to get all the materials up to the mountain and then build this thing, but they did it. And these monasteries aren’t just old and abandoned; they are still used each and every day. Priests live on site and conduct daily services, one of which we got to see! Also, I must note that these guys spend their spare time growing amazing beards. Truly, only these beards can rival the beauty of the Gazbegi scenery, and every man in existence should be jealous of such ability.

We stayed in a really cool hostel/house place that was only $8 a person. Although there wasn’t hot water, the host’s amiable nature made up for it. We got really good local food, but, as I have said many times before, it is the exact same food we get everywhere we go in Georgia: cheesy bread, meat on a stick, meat dumplings, regular bread and sauce (I do love the sauce, haha). This town is so small that it doesn’t have a bar, so we grabbed a couple drinks and hung out in our hostel. I served as our tamada (which translates as king of the feast… I have probably already mentioned that, but it’s awesome to hear repeatedly), and we had great night. I especially loved the parts where Lawrence, a gay Irish man, explained Irish slang and the things he missed most: shopping, dressing up to go out and talking to his girlfriends. Maybe you had to be there, but, if you try really hard, I think you can conjure up a funny scene similar to the real thing.

In other cool news, we are planning a trip to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. I don’t know about you, but I think this sounds pretty exciting. I am thinking about paying for Levan to come as well because he is half Armenian, and he has never been to the bordering country. It might not work out, but I offered up the prospect to him and he seemed pretty excited about it. It’s a little frustrating because I am already paying the family money and I take Levan out with me (I have spent like 50 Lari for him at restaurants and bars), but this might be the only time he gets to see Armenia! Anyways, we have two weeks before that trip, so we will see how that goes.

I will be home in less than a month, which I am really excited about. I love being here, but as I was explaining to Lawrence and James, I have a lot I care about at home. I am excited for the suphra I am going to have after Christmas some time, and it will be good to see my siblings and my girlfriend for the first time in 4 months. Travelling and such is good, but I think that real life is even better – though I know that the former improves your ability to appreciate the latter. I am excited to be home and share the more intimate details of my trip with everyone, and I hope all is well on your end. I will try to have another update soon and a bunch of pictures are about to go up on facebook should you be interested.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2144715&id=36107941&page=2
*That is the link to some of the pictures I have so far, hopefully there aren't too many problems getting it to work.

A Weekend in Batumi

Let me be the first one to tell you that Batumi, the beach region of Georgia, is awesome. It is a shame that it is November and cold because Batumi is designed as a sweet summer hang out location. There are tons of huge parks, large stretches of beach, dancing water fountains, fancy hotels and restaurants all in a pretty small town. My experience was made extra special because I went with one of my co-teachers and got the inside scoop. I made the right decision to go with native Georgians because it is always the non-touristy things that end up being the most interesting. This last weekend was no different, and I got to cross a couple must-do things off my list.

The coolest thing I got to do was attend a Georgian wedding reception. I feel partly guilty because the more I think about it, the more I want to be born, get married, have children and die in Georgian custom… The passion for life here is incredible, and I think that weddings are likely the best microcosm of that zest for life. A lot of the reception was pretty standard and comparable to an American one, but there were really cool differences as well. Also, I think I was a little spoiled because whoever’s family was throwing this reception had a TON of money because it was quite lavish.

One of the weird differences is that we sat down and started eating right away. The bride and groom had not yet arrived, and there we were chowing down on delicious food! I felt a little weird about this, but no one else seemed to mind very much, and I don’t need to be told twice to eat. Once the happy couple arrived, the crowd was introduced to the Tamada (the king of the suphra who is in charge of all the toasting). This guy did an insane amount of talking throughout the suphra, and, even though I thought I would love to be the tamada with all the attention, I didn’t envy his job because it is a ton of work. Also, he used an ornate horn to drink out of which I think is super cool – more on that horn later.

Round upon round of amazing food was delivered to the table. When we got there, there was absolutely no space for additional food, but this is not a problem in Georgia. After the 10 (yes, I counted) courses were brought, there were two levels of food on the table stacked on top of each other. We had everything from kabobs to stuffed mushrooms to venison to beef hearts to caviar. Everything was superb! We washed everything down with the traditional white wine, and that brings me to the funny part of the wedding.

The father of the bride was making rounds and someone at our table told him I was an American. He was absolutely ecstatic to discover that I was there, and so he did what any good host would do and brought me his giant drinking horn to toast with. So there I was in front of 300 people with a huge horn full of wine, and I then did what any good American would do and downed it in style, after paying my respects to the bride and groom, of course. The crowd went wild and I loved it, no surprise there. It was a really cool experience, and I think I want a drinking horn at my wedding.

The other really cool part of the wedding was the dancing. The wedding party (excluding the bride and groom) prepared a special dance to perform, and it was intense. Now that I think about it, it was mostly guys doing the dancing, funny considering it is the other way around at American weddings. The groom also had a special solo dance prepared which he performed after a special toast. Oh, and all the music was played by a live ensemble in the balcony, and a nationally famous men’s choir, Batumi, did the singing. High quality stuff for sure.

I couldn’t speak English all weekend, but my Georgian allowed me to understand what was going on and have a great time. It is cool to be functional in three different languages, and I hope to add more over time. The family I stayed with was really cool, and I didn’t pay a single tetri (cent) for anything all weekend. Even though I have to subsidize my family with money, I find that Georgian hospitality makes up for whatever small amount I am dishing out elsewhere.

As if my weekend wasn’t good enough, my teachers told me that I didn’t have to go to class on Tuesday because they wanted me to rest and recover. So, I had a five-day weekend, and after seeing my schedule today, I realized that I will be working a whopping 8 hours this week. Why am I here!? Well, I came to have a great time in another country, so.. great success! Haha

Suphra, Drunken Americans and Cool Things in Georgia

Alright, well I am sorry I havent posted in like a week, but there hasn't really been a good time for it. My weekend turned out to be just as good as I thought it would be, and I find it exciting that I am not burning out or getting tired of this place. But, there are negative things as well like not having electricity or water all week. It's amazing how much one relies on those things.

I had a ton of suphra over the weekend, and it was great to feel full. I think I am going to start cooking for myself at my house because I can't go on with this hunger! At least I have good friends and other families to dine with. My favorite meal was suphra with my student, Tornike. He is in the 11th grade and he is one cool dude. His family basically prepared a feast in my honor, and we toasted and ate all night. His parents were super cool, and I am actually planning on going back to his house tonight because it is his birthday today. So much good food! Last Saturday we went to David Gareji which is this really cool monastery that also has a bunch of meditation caves really close by. This place was beautiful, and it is easily one of the coolest things I have ever seen. So much work went into making these caves holy places, and it boggles my mind how many different dwellings there were. The scenery was also gorgeous, and I got to step foot into Azerbaijan (it's funny actually because the Azerbaijan side was way more beautiful than the Georgian side). We have some cool pictures, so I will have those available on facebook soon. Finally, on Sunday I went to my friend Jess' house and part of her family offered to adopt me so I didnt have to live with poor Armenians. As cool of an offer as it was, I really can't take them up on it because I love my school, and the commute would be well over an hour if I switched homes. It is tempting though because her family is super loaded, and I wouldn't have to worry about food anymore. Also, the people who offered to take me in are doctors, so that is cool as well. Anyways, it is a cool option, and if I come back in the Spring some time, then maybe I will be able to make something happen with that.

School went well this week, and I have a pretty funny story actually. So there is one young, attractive teacher at my school... She maintains the computer lab, so I dont know if that is really considered teaching, but I see her a lot because she turns on the computer/internet for me and stuff. Well these government inspection dudes came to the school to see that everything was in working order, and it is a pretty stressful time for everyone I guess. Well it just so happened that the internet was not working this day, and that did not bode well for Nino, the teacher. Our principal basically told the following: "You have one job to do, and it is barely a job. And the one day it actually matters, you can't do it." So, she was in tears, and she even got another lecture from the principal later in the day. The internet thing was totally not her fault, and I felt so bad for her. It sucks because I wanted to console her or something, but I can't speak Georgian well enough to manage that. So, naturally, I dug a hole. I decided it would be a good idea to buy her flowers, becuse, surely, flowers are a universal language. I even asked my co-teachers if this was kosher, and they said it was all a great idea. Well I go buy the flowers and go to the computer room to deliver them and everything falls apart. There is only one class a day in the computer room, and I just happened to pick this one class period to make a scene. So, in front of a class of 8th graders I awkward go up to Nino and give her these flowers. I then realize I don't know how to say "I'm sorry you had a bad day, and it isn't your fault." Actually, nothing is coming to my mind at all, so I just give her the flowers, say I'm sorry and walk away completely red-faced. God, it was embarassing, and I wish people could have seen it because it was so, so, so awkward. I asked one of the teachers to explain everything to her, and nothing ended up being awkward the rest of the week. Everything is ok in that regard, but I get embarassed even talking about the story.

I had to deal with a drunken, American asshole last night. This dude is a total tool, and all he wants to do is get wasted drunk and have sex with anything that walks. He skips school all the time, and I think he is hoping he gets kicked out of the program. We went to a bar last night and he was completely drunk and making remarks like "women are weak, that is why I fuck them." I was livid and about to kick his ass right there, I really was. I hate this dude, and all of the other teachers knew I was about to lose it. He ended up getting way too drunk, and he couldn't even walk. As much as I hate the dude, I was worried about him getting home safe, and I knew he would be a complete embarassment to America if people saw him stumbling the streets like this. I decided to take him home even though it was way out of the way for me. I don't know what gave me the moral fortitude, but I did it, and he got home safely. I know he wont even remember the night, but, in the end, I didn't do it for him anyways, so what do I care. It's nice to feel like a good person, though, and I would do it again. I also paid for my friend's birthday dinner last night too, so everyone shoud be proud of me!

I am planning on going to Batumi, the beach region this weekend with one of my teachers (not Nino, haha). They are paying for me too which is really cool. No one will speak English, so we will see how that goes; however, I have faith in my basic Georgian, so all should be well. I will let everyone know how that goes as soon as possible. Hopefully I will have internet when I get back that way I can do all the things I need to do like the blog and my fantasy football teams. This week is my half-way mark... I hope the second half is even better than the first.

Thai Food and Manual Labor

More and more of my life is moving away from school itself which is sad because that is the reason I am here in the first place. I find myself making plans that take up all of my day every day, and this leaves little time for creative lesson planning. To be honest, I need to put a little more effort into that aspect of teaching, but it is difficult because I have been given such a background role in the classroom that it almost feels like it isn’t my place to do such things. I mean I think that my presence is beneficial, for sure, but it is a little disheartening to know that I could be doing more. On the plus side, I spend a lot of time with my students outside the classroom, and I know that this is great for their English. I know a lot of the other teachers do not do such things, so perhaps I am filling a little of the teaching void with extracurricular focus. Nevertheless, I love my school, my co-teachers and my students – I just want to give them my best.

I think part of the reason I feel slightly underused is that I am only working 12-15 hours a week. When I put that on paper it really sounds awful because thousands of dollars have been paid to bring me here and be in the classroom. This really isn’t my fault though because I just happen to be placed at a really small school, so there are simply fewer lessons to teach. Some of the other American teachers have to turn away classes and teachers altogether because they simply can’t satisfy everyone. I work with all the teachers and grade levels (that are learning English: 4-12), and it is rewarding to walk the halls and recognize everyone from class. The cool thing about working so little is that I am able to do more outside the classroom, and I planning on taking on a couple additional students to tutor (no charge) besides the ambassador’s son. I am excited about this, but I need to tread carefully because Georgian English teachers often rely on tutoring to supplement their income and I don’t want to hurt my co-teachers.

On top of school and tutoring, I have really been doing a lot. I went to get Thai food last night which was nice. I asked for the spiciest rendition of the dishes I ordered. I was expecting to be blown away because doing this at a Thai restaurant can be dangerous; however, it was only fairly spicy, but it satisfied my need for an exciting taste… Georgian food is getting a little bland. What sucked was that the portion sizes were way too small so I ended up getting another dish. Part of this is that I am not getting fed at home, so I am absolutely starving all the time, but, honestly, I don’t think I’ll go again because the small plate wasn’t worth the price. I also have been playing a lot of soccer and I am getting pretty good! The bad thing is that this dirties my clothes quickly, and I am only supposed to do a load every 2 weeks; also, I can only shower every 3 days, so I have to sponge bathe afterwards. But such is life in Georgia.

I have decided that America is, in fact, the best country in the world, albeit my sample size is only 3 countries (The Republic of Georgia and Peru). We supply much of the world with music, entertainment and hope. I know that I would not get the same sentiments if I were in a major country, but people here love America. Everyone wants to live in New York, learn English and live the dream. As much as I love travel and other cultures, there is no doubt in my mind that I want to have my life in America. We follow traffic laws, we have foods from around the world, we have beautiful women of all races, we have easy access to the arts and entertainment, and Americans love America – this optimism and confidence is beautiful because many people in the world simply do not like where they come from. I am not in a rush to get home or anything, but I am simply proud to be an American.

I hope you all have boring, awful weekend plans so it will be even more painful when you read how exciting mine are. I am having a suphra tonight at my friend James’ house, and then I am going to a student’s house to do the same (back to back baby!). On Saturday, I am going on a day-trip to Southern Georgia where there are these really old, cool monasteries. This is my first time travelling around the country, so I am stoked about that! I will take some pictures and post them asap. When we get back, I am going to meet up with Tata and her friends to go to a German bar and listen to live rock music. Then, on Sunday, I am going to get a haircut (exciting right?) and go to my friend Jessica’s house to Suphra with her entire family. I have really been playing up the fact that my family doesn’t feed me, so I plan on milking these invites for everything they are worth. So far, my plan has been effective, and I am excited to let everyone know how much fun I had eating, drinking and singing with Georgian families.

Oh yeah, a random rant about my family. I love them and they are great people, but I sort of got the shaft. Yesterday, my host mom told me in really bad English that she wanted to go “walk” and I was cool with that because I had a few hours before I was heading out. It turns out she wanted me to go “work” and do some yard work. If it was weeding or something, I really wouldn’t mind, but they are totally re-landscaping their shared yard area. She handed me a pick and set me to work on breaking up and removing an old concrete slab. That is seriously hard work man, and I couldn’t believe the family that I am paying 100 Lari a month for and receiving less than one meal a day from would have me do this. I don’t think I have ever said no to anyone if they asked me to do something, and I realize that I should probably refuse to do such manual labor; however, I did it, and I think I will be asked to do more in the future. I guess those free suphras with other families are coming at a price… haha