The Aim of our Generation!

About a month ago, when I was sitting in the hall of Tbilisi airport-enjoying a cup of fresh coffee with cognac - waiting for a call to catch my flight to Riga, a young lady in her mid 20s wearing a green, black-spotted tie emphasizing, her belonging Airbaltic employee approached microphone and called for boarding . There would have been nothing worth mentioning in her action if she had not employed a weird way of fullfilling her duty . The young Georgian lady made her first notice in Russian, followed by English and only after in Georgian. It was a moment when I experienced a mixture of despise and hatred to that person, than I looked to those Georgians who without any objection , without any word to defend the primary rights of their language in their country, like sheep, rowed up in a queue to be get their long-waited plane. .. I approached the lady and asked why the reason of her such behavior- hoping that she will at least provide verbal acknowledgement of her mistake. The answer to my delicate manners was rather rude and impolite, with a street lingo she argued that it does not really matter in which language the announcement will be made at first. I tried to explain that in my country I expect to recieve service in my native language .... she was either too stubborn or to arrogant to accept my remark

Since I am in Geo I am trying to understand why after recent events , in Tv they still run Russian language programs, why in the Georgian restaurants people still dance under Russian vibes! Why are we accepting cultural goods from the country which some months ago wanted to capture Tbilisi and intends to swallow our historic regions ? Which killed several hundreds of our compatriots and forced tens of thousands to leave their home. ARE WE REALLY GOING TO FORGET THIS ALL? Yet , someone will stand up and argue back that culture and language should not be ''held responsible '' for the misdeeds of the politicians! and perhaps he will be right, however reason of my concern is more pragmatic and Long-term oriented.

The more we accept Russian language , Russian culture, it is more easier for them to re-conquer us . We have to derive appropriate lessons from the past and note that there will always be people who will betray their nation for warm chairs or simply for ideological purposes or cultural appeals. Society has to produce such people as less as possible. We have to generate generations who will have no cultural appeal to Russia, for whom Russian language will sound like Chinese and their culture as remote as Thai. Speaking practically, when the systems can not be accomodated, people will fight for their independence more fiercely and not surrender as some did1921.

The aim of our generation is to make sure that bitter lessons of the past are not repeated, we have to guarantee sovereignity through the centuries -not only for today and tommorow… For that we need a strong, multinational society unitied on the civic platform with a homogenous citizneship Identity. In past Georgian Identity was constructed on the fundaments of the orthodox church, however today the world is far different than it was during religious wars. If people do not believe in the same way - so what - let them pray for what they want to. Alternativly neither Georgian ethnicity can become a fundament for our new identity - since- it will lead to rise of nationalism and will further diversify our society- and we have experienced cases like that. But i think that georgian language carries a potential to become a Georgian a basis of the new identity... how ? this will be followed shortly



Time for saying a half an hour toasts and speeches on Tv are finished... The flame will cool tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow… but someone must see it already today, and speak heretically today about tomorrow. Heretics are the only (bitter) remedy against the entropy of the our romantistic thoughts

Gimju rice harvesting

hey guys sorry that i have not been writing regularly, overall i am lazy bastard and it needs a lot of effort to force myself to write something here ( especially when there are so beautiful girls around... but about the phenomena of Korean girls in private:)))

This weekend I went in the south of Seoul to participate in the rice harvesting festival. Three buses full or foreigners was welcomed by the city major and local traditional orchestra. Than we were given traditional Korean dresses and the equipment (tools) to symbolically harvest some rice... the city major gave us example . City which we were is called Gimji and is the agricultural region of the S. Korea, so that's why they organised a festival to celebrate the rice harvesting. The atmosphere was amazing , a lot of photo reporters ... i thought i was some kind of Hollywood star posing for at least 10 cameras at the same time ... ahahah People were astonished to see foreigners , those who knew English were approaching us to speak, especially small children were happy... of course i had a problem in explaining where Georgia was... then i changed the strategy and presented myself sometimes as Italian or Spanish( anyway they cant distinguish by appearance) ... helped a lot ... Apparently there was a Korean food preparation contest for the foreigners, i didn't manage to make anything worth mentioning ...

and than came the night .....

we had a choice to stay either in Buddhist temple with monks , in a traditional farm house or at Samsung hotel. i chose the second option.
I was picked up by a host and taken in a farm with one chinese guy. They didnt speak english and Chinese guy who spoke korean and english helped in establishing communication, and again i had a problem in explaining where i was from, with help of come maps and geographical books i managed this uneasy job :)))

The host family was really nice, traditional korean : they even didnt have any chair or table (european ) at home. so we were sitting on the floor which was heated trying to communicate. Family tried please guests at much at they could , they even let us to sleep in the family bed, themselves all sleeping in another room on what i cant even guess( who will do like this in europe?????)

the dinner was great, of course traditional korean, it seemed hosts really invested in preparation .. the rest of the night i spent in ''fight'' with chinese guy for the pillow as apparantly we had to sleep in one bed ...( do not think anything bad )

next morning we were supposed to stay at their house till 2 o clock and meanwhile we had to eat 3 times!!!! no refusal was tolerated ... they gave us a lot of presents and burdened us with a lot of good emotions...

Most remarkable in the second day events was theatralized legend of the Dragon and women, ( i will upload the video toghether with pictures a bit later ) here in Korea, like in China Dragon in a holy animal (not necessarily always kind) In Georgia we also have some Dragons but they are presented generally as mother -in-laws ahahahah ...

overall the trip was really nice, filling with positive emotions.... of course za darmo ...

check the pictures later

after the party

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FiPdyy9G94


me drunk in seoul with ukrainian , german and korean people ... a

opening party... drinking in korea .. so far

wherever you go, in every country, people are particularly proud of their drinking traditions. it was story in Estonia in Poland and even though Korea is an Asian culture it is not exclusion from the rule at all.

yesterday we had an opening party, that means that professors and students had dinner together and than went for further drinks in the bar.

Dinner was nearby our hasuk (the place i live here) but nevertheless i arrived there on Georgian time (merely known in Europe as Italian or Spanish time) :)))) students were already sitting around the table but professors haven't yet showed up by Korean traditions no one could have eaten before the professors arrived, so you could have imagined what i and my flatmates were thinking about them before they showed up after a half an hour :))))

than everything went smoothly, people started to drink soju ( kind of korean vodka made from rice , generally around20 %) one professor sat nearby us and was preparing mixes from soju and beer and at the same time organizing competitions between the nationalities.

generally there is big difference between drunk and sober Korean, because of Confucianism here people are really reserved in everyday life but when they get drunk alcohol makes them expressive and emotional. this rule appeals to everyone from normal student to head of the university.
another peculiarity is that generally they cant control how much to drink and consequently they throw up. yesterday there was a somekind of hystery (maybe competation)in throwing up ( ahahah) I even saw professors doing that .... ahahah was complete insane ...

party finished early around 12 pm , some of the students and professors went home , some were taken home ... i was standing in the street with bottle of beer still sober and thinking were should i have gone...

7 Hours in uzbekistan

In Uzbekistan i had to wait around 7 hours in the transit area for the next flight to Seoul.. So i decided to go out and to have a look around. My friend from Uzbekistan (yulduz )was supposed to meet me in the airport ...... But

The staff in Uzbekistan airport starting from the head of the transit area till the ordinary waiter were a bit different . They didn't have any ideas about simple regulations: about non viza treaty between CIS countries,about international status of the transit zone .... non responsible , stupid and careless people .... Staff was mainly formed from Russians (girls ) it was obvious that they were accepted rather for their body performances than of their intellectual capabilities. I am pretty sure that they had also some other ''responsibilities'' towards Boss than for seen by job

i started to persuade them that I had right to cross the border , but either they were sending me to superior or telling some lies such as the president is going to leave the country and the roads will be closed, or there are more tickets sold than there are actuall places in the plane, so you maybe denied boarding!!!!!!
.... meanwhile i tried to call my friend who was waiting for me outside ... she came at the window of tranzit zone so we could have exchanged with phrases
... I had some presents for her and decided to pass by someones hands but the guard, who was young guy nearly 22, when being asked for assistance somewhere disappeared. one Uzbek women, who was maid in the airport , who saw my disappointed face in fighting with bureaucracy took the presents, went out and passed them to my friend...

I even thought of bribing the guard for letting me out , but got afraid that they wont let me back, or will ask 5 times more than for letting out ... the risk was quite high .. so i didnt succeed to see tashkent at all

than i decided to go and eat something ... i had to pay 4 Us $ for some rice and soup and tea ... when i gave 50 $ banknote to barmen he looked at money and than on me sceptically and said :

- it is well painted
- what - i said -you have never seen 50 $ or what ( he had a stupid look )
he was checking money for 5 minutes and then returned change with food ...

In the restaurant i met another Azeri guy who was coming from Moscow to Seoul and he also wasn't let out ... we teamed up and again intelectually attacked administration but ...

we chatted for the rest of time ...

the flight to Seoul took us 6 hours ...

Azerbaijan

At the train station i was met by Azeri friend Nigar ( We study together in Poland). Though the country is not far from Georgia it is completely different from it where I come from : Azeris are more dark skinned and of different confession: Muslims

The family which was hosting me shares typical Caucasian values, it means that they love to be hosts and try to please the guest as they can ... paying there in the bar or taxi from your pocket means offence to the host .... so better not to try ..

Itself Baku is quite nice and big city (appr 3 mln) located at the shore of the Caspian sea, not that clean when compared to the western standards , especially polluted in the evenings . In the city there are a lot of new constructions, new houses offices are built. Only Baku is prospering was the answer of my host, mentioning that people in the regions sometimes dont even have 24 electricity. Those who dont know i will tell that azerbaijan economically is the most succesfull country in Caucasus, though biggest share of GDP comes on oil export

What immediately pops up in the eyes while walking in the city is that u hear Russian everywhere. As i was explained by the host later elite Azeris prefer to go in Russian schools and tend to speak Russian at home too !!! ( Georgian case is completely different) and another strange thing sharpening u eye was that people were covering their tooth with gold ... was it a trend or not i do not know , but meeting such goldteethed Azeris during the night wasn't relaxing at all

I saw the old residence of the Shah , it was quite impressive , Muslim style building with its all Muslim attributes. What i found really interesting was that on the walls there were still the prints of the bullets and blood , as i was explained this place served as death execution place during soviet invasion in Azerbaijan ( when azeris became part of Ussr in 192o).

People generally seem friendly , but for some who do not know their character they can seem a bit dangerous too .... who they dont like are Armenians because of Nagornis karabaghi problem


Azeris women are of darker skin and though they aren't that beautiful they got the really strong rare eyes, in that sense that when they have a '' special'' look on you blood circulates faster .... but as typical Asians they cant loose virginity before the marriage and thus they get married in their early 20 's.
because of the Muslim culture women aren't allowed to walk in the streets after 10 , though not everyone obeys eat but to meet a girls alone walking in the street after 10 is really rare.

Thanks to my host i had a good time is Azerbaijan , next morning I was taken by the host in the airport in spite of my objections that i could have taken taxi...

Newly built airport of Baku was quite impressive ( better than the new built Georgian one. doesn't matter how much does the president of the Georgian boasts that we have the best in CIS, fact states another) but with staff they definitely have problems : when i was passing border control the guard with his goldenteeth smiled face looked at me and with the left hand putting in my passport showed me that i should have put some money there for him

I behaved as if i didn't understand his gesture

he showed his golden tooth again and said: David eto xoroshaia imia! kak dela! ( David is a good name !how are u?! repeating his readiness for accepting bribe...


i told them that i was feeling great and that i was a student ... that was sign that they shouldn't have expected anything from me especially when all my documents were in order ...

i promised them that next time i wont leave them without ''present'' and passed the control ...


2 hour 20 min flight to Uzbekistan was waiting for me ...

but about my time there later...

En route to Seoul

It's already my second day in Seoul. For those who have recently joined me I will briefly explain that I arrived in the Hermit Kingdom as an exchange student for a semester ( who knows maybe even for more !!). In these 2 days I saw so much interesting and different things in the South Korean capital that I decided to blog it....


As a real student and a true traveller ( I am a self-declared Georgian Marco Polo overall) i chose long, tiresome but cheap way to get to Seoul. From Georgia I took train to neighboring Azerbaijan, stayed there for a day and than with Uzbekistan airlines flew to the capital of Uzbekistan- Tashkent, waited in the airport for several hours to take another flight to Seoul. Adventures started on the road so there I will start:

Azerbaijan

The place of a train, which took me from Tbilisi to Baku, is rather in the museum than on the railways.Even though I was travelling with the first class wagon, I thought that I was riding an unsaddled horse: shaking, leaning left and right - doing such aerodynamic maneuvres that only acrobats are allowed to do in cicrus and I am not exaggarating :)) Anyways taking into account where I was, I should be grateful that there was at least such connection.
It took train 14 hours to cover around 600 km. I was with a women (in her 30-40 ies) in a wagon , she ate all my Chachapuri ( ahahaaha) and bombed me with lies ... so the trip wasnt that boring at all .

The border control was really funny, typical Azeri border guard with mustache came to me and asked me several questions and checked my handbag. There he found a Polish translation of Paulo Coelio 's book '' czarownica z portobello'' and perhaps at the first sight he did not notice that it was written in Polish !!!! He forgot his duty and started to read the book!!!! .After a while he noticed that he was not understanding the book (for obvious reasons) and asked me in what language it was written :
- In polish - I answered
- Are u polish - he asked back
- No i am Georgian -I replied
For a while he stared at me (Perhaps wondering since when can Georgians speak Polish!) and asked the purpose of my journey. I explained him that I was going en route Azerbajzan to South Korea for studies. More confused he stared at me at for a while , than screaming to some other guards in Russian'' he is going in South Korea'' he disappeared in the dimmed kupe. I have not seen him since.
In the train station my friend Nigar Novruova met me, showed me around and hosted me that night ...