First Field Visit - Marneuli and the Thousand Staring Eyes

Over the last two days, I ventured out to one of my field work sites for the first time - the town of Marneuli!

Marneuli is interesting because it is the capital of the Marneuli District, about an hour south of Tbilisi in the Kvemo Kartli region, and it is about 80% ethnic Azerbaijani.

Signs are alternately in Georgian, Russian and Azeri. I theorize (without evidence) that when a sign is in Georgian and Russian, it's a Georgian-owned business attempting to bride to Azeris, and when a sign is in Georgian and Azeri, it's an Azeri-owned business. There are also sometimes signs only in Azeri, so I guess those business either aren't making an effort to attract Georgian clientele, or figure that their business is obviously pharmacy/vegetable stand/flower shop and multilingual signage isn't really needed. 

Azeris are generally Muslims, but on my hour and half stroll of the town center, I only saw about 10 women wearing the hijab (I actually didn't see that many women...maybe 20% of the people on the street were women). There were many older women wearing kerchiefs and sort of standard Caucasian Muslim clothing, but, interestingly, there were also a handful of younger women, maybe high school age, wearing more Arab or Turkish style Islamic clothing (basically abayas). 

As I walked around, I was stared at like an alien. I haven't been solo traveling in a small town in Georgia in a long time and had forgotten the mix of apprehension, confusion, and celebrity you feel when everyone gawks at you. Even little kids somehow noticed my foreignness and leapt back when I passed them on the sidewalk, and grabbed their friends' arms and pointed, open mouthed. I have no clue what they were whispering, though, because it was in Azeri.

On the first day, I ended up with a massive headache because I forgot my contacts/glasses and because I didn't have time to grab coffee as I had planned. On the second day, I left my house an hour before I had to be at the meeting point (without traffic, it takes 8 mins by car/24 mins by bus, and there wasn't much traffic at this point) so I could stop by Dunkin Donuts to grab a latte. This plan was quite successful, but pretty much as soon as I got in the driver's fancy new Prius with a no-smoking sign, I spilled the coffee all over my seat. The thing is, no one seemed to notice...so I frantically tried to use the 2.5 tissues I had in my backpack to hide the evidence of the spill, as the scalding hot coffee seeped into the seat and into my pants...and my butt, let's be real. I had coffee everywhere. As the pain from the burning subsided, I continued to sit in a pool of hazelnut scented embarrassment. No matter how I shifted, I couldn't escape it. Thank goodness I was wearing black pants! But the seat did not escape a stain, and the whole car smelled like the coffee. I was sweating bullets throughout the hour long ride, waiting for someone to say "WOW that coffee smells SO intense! Did you spill it or something?" but no one said anything...I am terrified to get back into the car because the driver will definitely have discovered it by then. I can't decide if it would be more embarrassing for him to have cleaned it up, or not...I know this smell is going to follow me around the rest of the day. I hope people just think I'm wearing hazelnut perfume. On my butt.

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Since I was in Marneuli as part of a different project that I was observing, I didn't have that much time in the town, but I did manage to take a few pictures. This is a short post - I don't have much to say yet about Marneuli, I just wanted to share these photos, Hopefully more to come from Kvemo Kartli in the near future!

huge lemons? young grapefruit? bumpy apples?

Town mosque

Monument to Persian/Azeri poet

It wasn't raining but water was overflowing from the
cistern on this roof and falling on the street

Pomegranates

Sign in Russian

Typical Caucasian Muslim head covering

Marneuli Judo Academy

Signs say something like 'keep the grass green - stay off'

One of many shops selling elaborate party/wedding gowns
(Azeri brides typically wear white and red)

Kids putting up posters of the ruling party
candidate for mayor in this months' elections

A row of ruling party election posters torn down

"Men's Paradise"

A big poster of an opposition candidate for mayor
(whom I met - the first Azeri woman to ever run for mayor of Marneuli!),
above rows of smaller ruling party posters

Something in Arabic script on a residential side street
(if anyone can translate, let me know!)

Poster in Azeri on a lamp post. I think it said something
about a credit bank or an agricultural collective...

Adjusting to Tbilisi: What I Miss, What I Don't

Last week, this week. Nothing but rain, rain, rain. 
I guess the nonstop deluge makes up for a bone dry September of temperatures in the low 30s (high 80s/low 90s). Finally fall is here, but we skipped through that crispy, crunchy, light jacket weather and went straight to a wet, grey fog that I pray is not indicative of the next 4 months of my life in Tbilisi.

So how is my life in Tbilisi, anyway?

Everything is going well: 10 hours of language classes a week (6 Geo, 4 Rus) is exhausting, especially given the additional 1.5-2 hours it takes each day to get to and from the location of my classes on the other side of town. My research is kind of sluggishly progressing. There are lots of moving pieces right now and I'm still establishing contacts and laying some ground work. 

I am adjusting pretty well, I think, and since this is my 5th time in Georgia and 3rd time for an extended period, I'm not that surprised. However, there are still many things that frustrate me, confuse me, and make me uncomfortable. I could complain about them for hours, but for now, here is a short listicle of my most salient adjustments coming from a summer of suburban leisure to big(ish) city sort-of-leisure-sort-of-supposed-to-be-working life...

courtesy: Lonely Planet

There is no HGTV in Georgia, which I binged regularly in Yorktown. I don't miss having so much free time, but I do miss the opportunity to watch mindless TV sometimes - and learn about interior design and construction! Although the interior design knowledge has come in handy decorating my new apartment!

Hello, old friends

I miss listening to Morning Edition and 1A in the morning, instead of while cooking dinner.

my NPR app is what keeps me going

I miss flavored creamer. Now I just put cinnamon in my coffee grounds. I also miss having a coffee maker that I didn't accidentally crack by putting cold water in the burning hot glass carafe...  
In Georgia, there are no deals at bars/restaurants like happy hour or half priced wine Wednesdays, and no coupons. Some grocery stores do have sort of loyalty cards but the benefits are unclear.
 
In Georgia there are fewer chains - restaurants and stores. At non-chain places I've never been, there is no predictability in quality and it's hard to know where to go to get stuff - where is the go-to place to buy towels? Poster board? Pillowcases? Okay, maybe I just miss Target.
It is SO hard to find good to-go coffee here! Most to-go places are just little newspaper/cigarette stands that will dump a tube of instant coffee in hot water. Some actually have espresso machines and for a premium, they will add a splash of milk. There ARE a couple "fancy" coffee places, but they are few and far between, and expensive. No Starbucks (RIP pumpkin spice latte this fall), although there is a place in the small industrial city of Zestaponi called Legends of Starbucks which tries pretty hard. 

I miss good ethnic food (Mexican, Thai, Chinese, Indian, Lebanese). There are some okay Chinese places, but not American style Chinese, and the quality of other places is questionable, although with more immigrants in the city, more Indian and Persian restaurants are popping up, so I have hope! There is straight up no Mexican food in Tbilisi - just one horrible attempt in Sighnaghi, a couple hours to the east. The closest thing we have here are the copious shawarma places around Saakadze Square.
There are some things you just can't get in Georgia - frozen yogurt, good milkshakes,  custard, cheap take out sushi, cupcakes, pumpkin spice lattes (yeah, coming back around to this again, it's really painful), fall scented candles, index cards, 3-prong folders, English trash magazines, Milky Way Midnight, Texas Pete - the list goes on.
I can't find out as much with a quick Google - partly because a lot of stuff isn't online (opening hours for a family owned restaurant, prices for small appliances at the store on the corner) and if it is online, it might not be in English.
I miss driving! I miss running errands quickly - shout out to parking lots! I know this is largely a city thing, not a Georgia thing. The craziness of drivers here is also quite off-putting, along with limited parking, and bad roads. I miss rocking out to music in my car on the long drives from Charlottesville to Yorktown or DC, I miss state inspection laws ensuring cars have their bumpers and lights and catalytic converters (that part that filters out the most toxic of the fumes a car produces). 

I miss being able to easily talk on the phone. After many painful middle and high school years of serious phone-phobia, I finally realized how simple a quick phone call can be, and how much time it can save you - especially if some information isn't on the Internet, or isn't in English. Here, however, I have to go through the whole spiel - do you speak English? No? Russian? Not really? Does this 3-word broken Georgian sentence make sense to you? Making appointments is the worst.
I miss healthy(ish) flavored yogurt, and Greek yogurt. In Georgia all they really have is matsoni (unflavored tart, thin - delicious in its own way) and yogurt-based, artificial-ingredient-filled desserts that masquerade as yogurt in the dairy aisle. Yogurt is actually my favorite food so this one is particularly painful for me... 

Stuffed crust pizza. My last meal in Yorktown. I still remember the melt in your mouth taste...I will always cherish you, Pizza Hut.
I miss quick-prepare food - instant rice, easy mac, shake n bake, hamburger helper, biscuits in a can, etc. There is some of that here, but it's not easy to find. I was actually shocked and awed the other day to find microwaveable single serve pouches of traditional Georgian dishes. Such a great idea!! I wanted to buy out the whole supply just to support the business, but unfortunately I have no microwave...

I miss American phone etiquette: writing texts when possible rather than calling, ringer generally on silent/vibrate, not answering the phone when you're in a meeting, teaching a class, taking a class, on public transportation, in a movie theater, in a play, etc. Of course, in America it's also okay to not answer your phone. In Georgia, if someone doesn't answer their phone, you don't just assume they're busy and will call back when they can, you call them again, and again, and again until they answer. It is nice, however, how in Georgia people call just to say hi, just to check in, just for 2-3 minutes. 

I miss fashion being predictable and understandable...here I can't really tell if someone is dressed fashionably and I just don't like it (because Georgian fashion seems to mirror some of the worst trends of the past 3-4 decades), or if they aren't fashionable.

I captured a couple of memorable fashion looks here

And then there are the things I certainly don't miss from the states...

The dominance of chain restaurants and stores

The artificial flavors and sugars in everything, how expensive local, natural (whatever that means), wholesome foods generally are

How it's impossible to walk anywhere in most places other than big cities

Yorktown, VA: no sidewalks, no public transportation - lots of parking lots

Gun violence. Gun violence. Gun violence. Gun violence.

I'm sure there are more to add to this list, I'll add as time goes on...