I haven’t spent much time writing about Georgians and Georgia. In my last entry I mentioned that most Georgians in Tbilisi live in high rise apartment buildings. Some of these complexes are gigantic. Many dry their clothes on a balcony or a clothes line that is suspended from a window. Today I saw a very clever way to keep your clothes from getting wet when it rains. Some creative person had placed a sheet of plastic over their clothes that were on the line. The apartment complex across from us is very tired: the concrete skin over the bricks is flaking off. It seems to me that would make the apartment colder without the proper protection. Many of the older buildings from the Soviet era are in poor repair. Unfortunately they were ugly to begin with and then to have them look so run down only adds to their ugliness. Georgians seem to like wearing black clothes. Gia wears black pants, a black hat and a black jacket. All older women seem to wear black. And many young people do also. I’m not sure if it is because it is so practical (you could wear the same outfit daily and who’s to know), because it is a conservative culture or for some other reason. I fit right in as I wear a lot of black because it is so practical, particularly for travel. I noticed even store windows are filled with mannequins wearing black and oh my one had on gray.!
Georgian drivers are nuts, just plain nuts. As an example, when we are going down a busy city street, four to six lanes, impatient drivers will cross the solid double line in mid road in order to pass the car in front of them, even when there is no place to slot back in and even when there is on coming traffic. It is common to see this. About ten days ago I saw someone do this when the on coming car was a police car. And the police car moved over to allow the car to continue in the wrong lane! Go figure. The Embassy and tour books say the greatest danger in Georgia is not thugs, gangsters or malaria but drivers. I think I mentioned the wreck we saw in a small village where the obviously was driving very fast and lost control of his car and went up the side of the bridge. Fortunately there were Jersey barriers that prevented the car from falling into the river below. Georgians do not wear seat belts. The law requires you to wear them once you leave the city (really, why I ask?) If this guy didn’t have on his belt he probably did go for a swim. We arrived after the accident so I can’t report on where that driver ended up. They definitely disregard the lines painted on the road. Lane markings are completely ignored. Dick Parker, are you paying attention?
I applied for a job here and was told the job would involve travel but the interviewer told me the roads weren’t safe. I asked was that because of infrastructure problems or bandits. She said it was due to Georgian drivers and they had one employee who they convinced to take the train rather than drive. I was offered the job (part-time consultant) but declined as it is too early to start work when I am still trying to find towels for the house! The Georgians drive very fast all the time: in the city, on the highway and in neighborhoods. As a pedestrian you take your life into your hands any time you are crossing a road as the drivers do not yield to pedestrians. So try to imagine this: a Georgian dressed in black at night crossing a street mid block. I do wonder what the stats are on pedestrian deaths. We have an unusual intersection quite close to our house with five streets intersecting. It is fascinating to watch drivers (did I say they are all aggressive?) maneuver this intersection. At times there is grid lock because no one wants to yield.
Physically Georgians mostly have black or auburn hair. They are a few blondes, some of whom are bottle blondes. I would bet the few light brown headed folks are of Russian decent. Some Georgians are quite short, under five feet, men and women. Mostly Georgians are not obese like Americans. There are a few. Some of the young women are thin as a rail. They eat a heavy diet but there are hardly any fast food chains here. McDonald’s is the only US chain we have seen.
Nov 7 2009
Man oh man, where does the time go? I have no idea. Today is Saturday and we went to a flea market. It was mostly used cars, literally 100’s if not a 1,000 of them with almost as many men selling them. Ron bought a used drill so he is as happy as a clam. When he sealed the deal with the seller, the seller kissed the money Ron had handed him then bent over to where his other power tools were on the ground and touched each of them with the money. I thought it was so cool and according to Gia it is a common practice to ensure more sales. It was one of those special moments when we are in a foreign country that makes us appreciate a culture and how it is different from our own. We saw the coolest 1952 BMW for sale for $6,000 USD. It would only take another $15,000-$20,000 to get it restored. But it was a beauty in its day.
On Friday I went to a welcome coffee for new members of IWA (International Women’s Assoc). I could only stay a short time as we had to pick up Ron and head out to the Embassy for our language lesson. We had to cancel Monday and Thursday’s lessons as Ron was doing a training all week. Then he had meetings at the Embassy for the rest of the day so Gia and I headed to Goodwill to do more grocery shopping and to look for drill bits. Score!
Ron and I had our first movie/diner date here last night. We went to an Indian restaurant, one of our favorite cuisines. It wasn’t as good as some but worth repeating. Then we went to a theater to see Departures, a lovely Japanese film. There were about 15 of us there and the seats were the hardest I have ever sat in. They felt like a piece of wood covered with a thin fabric.
I saw two more car accidents yesterday at a round about. The two accidents were side by side. If you drive here you really needed to be a very defensive driver because everyone is in such a hurry and willing to take crazy risks to get ahead of the other drivers.
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