Learning Abroad=Monster Georgian

Just recently church has spread the info that studying abroad is a bad thing to do. The reasons are plenty, for example " a 16-19 year-old young person is very sensitive towards the his/her environment, he/she is still unprepared. This is why it is dangerous to live abroad. There have been cases of psychological diseases" and " God has created you in Georgia and this is why you should live in Georgia"1.

I am not even going to refute this arguments, they are self- refutable in their essence. That was just the example of the logic why should Georgians stay where they are and never evolve professionally, psychologically, or culturally. I would like to address more tangible issue: one does not need to leave the country to study well. While I believe that this statement is partially true and that indeed, our country has many specialists that have never left their homes, this claim is not valid for the most of the students.

I have studied in two universities, Georgian and American. Both had flaws, but in the Georgian university, I felt more and more powerless with every semester. From inability to control what subjects I need to pass to get a diploma ( I had a B.A. from a university in America. Why the hell did I need to pass a test in English language in Georgia?!) to everyday classroom situations. For example, classes often started late. Or, we couldn't choose our classes. Or we did not have any textbooks in Georgian. So yes, I wanted to learn, and yes, I did all I could, and yes, I had great teachers, and but to this day I keep wondering, how much more would I have gotten out of it. Thus, when people try to feed me bullshit about how good our universities are, I just want to yell at them. Hello! Wake up! Isn't this all around us the result of our education?! Do we like what we see?! No?! Then why should we stay and keep repeating the same mistakes?! OR ARE WE JUST AFRAID TO GET EDUCATED, OPEN-MINDED AND CRITICALLY THINKING YOUTH? Is that it?! Then cut the crap about "cases of psychological diseases" and admit that we want a theocratic society! That would make us what, honest? At least, in that case, the likes of me will shut up and run far, far away from this country.

1. Tsitskishvili, D. Father. "Two Thoughts". Liberali. October 11-17th, 2010. pg. 8.

Fall Blues

I took my winter clothing out today. It is the beginning of that horrid time of the year, when you know what’s coming, and you know it ain’t pretty.

It’s officially here. The fall. The yellow leaves and last bits of sunshine. I never found it romantic, melancholic or whatever. Everyday you know that tomorrow is going to be colder, until it gets so cold that you need five blankets to stay warm at night. You turn on electric and gas devices. Your “Karma”, your “pechi” and your “radiatori” have as many people sticking to them, as moths to light bulbs in a summerhouse. You feel more comfortable outside, because you can wear a coat and you either move around or are heated up by the collective breathing of squeezed together marshrutka riders. You hang out your laundry only to discover that instead of drying up, the water has turned into ice-crystals; so you thaw your sweater by the radiator; and you put a “tazik” underneath, to save your floor. People constantly tell you that you got fat BECAUSE YOU ARE WEARING 5 LAYERS OF CLOTHING UNDERNEATH IT ALL! You hate it all and you want the sun back. That’s what’s coming. This is the preview of winter.

I took out my winter clothing today. It all looks grey and big. It’s 6 P.M. and dark as hell. My kitty lays curled up. Brown (yellow?) Tbilisi leaves get stomped into the mud by chilled pedestrians. The birds are flying away and taking summer with them. I’m cold, alone and jobless. Too bad I can’t play a guitar.

Give Us Our Daily Bread or Kali Kuxnashi

There are many pleasures in life and eating is one of them. Simply put, there are two approaches to eating, you either eat because you have to, or because you want to.

I was never the one who wanted to eat. When I was little, my mother had to remind me and even force me to eat. This attitude changed 2.5 years ago. I got married and my husband and I had to produce our own food. Otherwise we would starve.

The very first dinner that I cooked was fried chicken. I did not even know where to buy it (my friends told me that frozen chickens are sold in practically any store and I was very surprised, as I have never paid attention to any fridges but the ice-cream ones), I did not know how to defrost it (my microwave had a defrost button and I pushed it) or how to fry it (basically, if the fire does not consume it, it turns out edible). But I fried it anyway and my husband ate it. And he did not die.

Giga was very supportive, ate everything--whether he like it or not--and complimented my every meal. Soon, he got involved in cooking and we started coming up with dishes or re-creating hard-core, need-to-cook-for-two days kind of French-Chinese-Russian-Georgian-Italian dishes. All of the food in the pics were cooked by us ( except sushi pic, though I have made sushi too). And when we start missing food that we can't get here--we just cook it. Speaking of...when was the last time you had chocolate chip cookies? Maybe I will bake them when I am finished with this post.

Knowledge empowers. Even culinary knowledge.

P.S. the dishes are as follows: BEEF AND BEEN TACOS; SUSHI; TOMATO THAT I GREW ON MY BALCONY; CHICKEN SMOTHERED IN HERBS AND MAYONNAISE AND CORN BAKED IN CHICKEN JUICE; JULIA CHILD'S BEEF BOURGUIGNON ( TOOK ME A DAY AND HALF TO COOK).

Race, Gender and Sexuality--Who AM I?!

When people write that there was not enough time for discussion and in fact, we had more than an hour for it, this means that the discussion was good. Indeed, this time was not enough for the FLEX Alumni to express their opinion on race, gender and homophobia issues in Georgian reality during the two-day seminar that took place in New Art Café.

We watched three films and talked about three respective issues. I choose films that are not too artsy but not too Hollywood either. All three films have very high rating on IMDB, though some were better than others.

The event was held at the New Art Café because 1. It was moderately priced 2. It did not look like a classroom. Originally I wanted to rent a small screening room in one of the movie theaters, but their prices are just unreal, and their customer service…well, you get the idea.

My favorite discussion was about racism/ ethnocentrism. Alumni touched deep issues, knowledge of the official language was brought up, immigration seemed a problem to some and nationality and national identity were examined. One of the alumni asked why do we even need a sense of nationality, which definitely charged the air with controversy.

Gender discussion was not what I expected. None of the themes of the film were touched, though one of the guest speakers just recently worked with UN on a study about violence towards women in Georgia and she could have talked about how relevant the film was to Georgian reality. In the end, girls felt frustrated, boys felt outnumbered, and we concluded that pregnant women should move away to the village and stay there for 9 months J

And finally, we did not discuss, but asked guest speaker about homophobia, which was very informative, but not too controversial. I am still wondering what happened to the voice of the audience, since the last two discussions were so heated.

The goal of the seminar was to let the audience see that there are many opinions on the matter and make them question their beliefs. I hope that at least some of the alumni (and the guest speakers and organizers) will research these topics more to come to a solid conclusion. After all, critical thinking means re-examining the established truths and arriving at one of your own!

Homo: Phobia and Sexuality or How Do We React When Two Men Kiss?

This weekend I organised (with help of a team) seminar called Critical Thinking in Social Problems in Georgia. First of all, I am generally very pleased with seminar overall. The only thing I would change—replace “The Color Purple” with something more dynamic.

The last film is my favorite and the last issue—most controversial, so I will start discussing it first.

I was surprised that we did not have any discussion. Rather, it was a Q and A session with Paata Sabelashvili. And though I am very grateful for his informative, and I would say comfortably reassuring presentation, I expected more debates. What happened?

Was it that the audience did not know much about the matter and genuinely preferred to listen? Was it that the Alumni thought it would be rude to directly oppose homosexuality, when we had a gay guest speaker? Or were we all simply tired after two days of talking?

In the end, I think that “they are born that way” argument is bullshit. If I were anti-gay, I would say, so what, some people are born with a thyroid gland dysfunction, that does not mean it shouldn’t be cured!

I believe that this argument tries to validate homosexuality and that is wrong. It is like saying, well how is it their fault if they are born that way? This case automatically tries to find a cause that justifies wrongness.

I believe that we are born with an inherit free will. I believe that we have right to love, be in a relationship, marry and have sex with whoever—unless it hurts the other person. I don’t care what the cause is, because I do not consider that homosexuality needs explanation. How would you feel if a black person tried to justify her skin color by saying that she was born that way and there is nothing she can do about it?

When I was in college in the States, some of the kids on my campus wore shirts that said “Gay? Fine with me”. I thought that was atrocious! Can you imagine shirts that say “Woman? Fine with me” or “Black? Fine with me?”?! I think justification of any kind is humiliating and that human sexuality, whatever it is, should be taken as a fact. And yes—big surprise!--men do kiss men, and after you get used to it, you might even find it sexy.

Russia As I Saw It--Posolok Gorodskogo tipa

How Soviet is Post-Soviet?

My trip to Russia was fun overall and I certainly don't have enough time to write about it now--my tea is getting cold and I have a seminar to conduct in two days--but I wanted to share this picture of the local school located in a little town/village, or, as I was told in a " Posolok gorodskogo tipa".

Sex Education

I watched a stupid talk show on the 1st channel called "Auditoria" and got so mad! The theme was sex education and bunch of "sexologists", politicians and random famous people (a.k.a faces) discussed whether or not we should have one in the Georgian schools.

First of all, why those people? Some of them know less about the subject than even I do.

Secondly, the host sucks. She can't carry on a decent conversation.

However, that is not the worst part. The "sexperts" were the worse.

Instead of arguing about how good it is for a teenager to know what a condom is (you know, just in case one gets pregnant or unimportant stuff like that), those "sexologists" started talking about the role of media in a formation of a teenager's view of sex. They were like oh well, this TV is so horrible and gives bad messages and thus we have to step in and teach the poor kids correctly. And if we don't step in, they will continue watching TV and consequently, will start practicing deviant sexual activities like (and I am quoting now) HOMOSEXUALITY AND LESBIANISM. First of all, lesbians are homosexuals, you moron! Secondly, these are the sexologist who claim that they have the right knowledge to educate the kids at school. If those are our experts, what about non-experts?! Can you even imagine what goes on in their heads?

For example, the guest politician started endless propaganda about abstinence being the best policy. He was like, if kids don't have sex, they won't get STD s (Sexually Transmitted Diseases). No shit, Sherlock! Do you have any frontal lobe functions or is problem analysis an evolutionary stage yet unknown to your brain? Of course, if kids won't have sex, they won't get STD s. The problem is that they do have sex and you know why? It's called hormones and it's called horny teenagers. And that is true for every nation, Georgian being no exception. And please, with all the bullshit that man was giving us, he was like, my eight-year-old daughter is already fasting and I am trying to teach her abstinence in food and we are such a good Christian Orthodox family and I have six (!) kids and I am teaching them to be abstinent. If that worked, we would not have so many teen pregnancies today. Oh, and he also added that he married his wife when she was FIFTEEN and he was twenty-three. Do you know that having sex with minor is considered rape in many countries? And don't give me the-culture-is-diffrent crap, a fifteen-year -old's personality changeds 1000 times before she reaches, say, twenty, so she can absolutely hate the man she loved 5 years ago. Also, I feel sorry for that woman, she missed out on many teenage expereinces and probbaly won't ever catch up because 1. her husband's a moron 2. she has 6 kids already

Then the audience shared how they did not want to have sex ed in school because they can get info from someone else. That is exactly my argument for having sex ed. Who is that someone else and how much is she/he credible? If I were to post all of the stupid things people told me about sex, orgasm, vagina, penis, breasts, menstrual cycles, hygiene and such, my post would be two kilometers long!

I don't necessarily agree that there should be a separate sex ed class here, as it is in states. I don't think that it is suitable for the Georgian culture. But why can't we incorporate it in, say, biology classes or have an after-school discussion groups?

Kids need to know personal hygiene. They need to know where to buy a condom and how to use it. They need to know that it is far more embarrassing to get a girl pregnant than to buy a pack of condoms at the pharmacy. Girl need to know that there is medicine for the menstrual cramps and that there is absolutely no need to get paralyzed with pain for 5 days of a month ( if you guys only knew, how many girls I've seen in painful agony, refusing to take meds!)

So I am all for it. But God save us from the "sexperts", "politicians" and "talk show hosts" of this country. If they will get a say in this--then poor teens will all become impotent as a result of such trauma!