Poti Anecdotes

Here is a series of anecdotes from my visit to Poti, Georgia at the beginning of March. First of all, Poti is a port city along the Black Sea not far from the border of the semi-autonomous Republic of Abkhazia. This may account for one anecdote:

1.  Fulbrighters, Destinee, Shawn, and I, plus an English Language Fellow from Ukraine were walking through the forest. We came across a random door in the middle of the path, nested between two brambly bushes. We found this odd. Just a few short yards later, we stumbled upon some sort of military outpost.

The not very well secured door.

A military watchtower?

What I thought at first was a tractor, turned out to be
some sort of artillery equipment.

2. We had come to Poti with the express purpose of visiting Kolkheti National Park, a place noted for its variety of birds who supposedly winter there during this time of year. We were dropped off by the entrance of the park, but immediately I found the location dubious. The lettering on the park sign was falling off and there was construction equipment laying around. We never did quite find this national park and instead chose to randomly walk through the forest.

Dilapidated park sign

3. We explored an abandoned building.

4. We were walking along a forest path for awhile when Destinee mused: "I'm surprised we haven't seen any dogs." Seconds later, we heard barking and a dog stumbled onto the path. Shawn waved a stick at it and it ran away. Then another dog started barking. We decided to turn around.

5. Upon arrival in Poti, we asked a taxi driver to take us to a good hotel by the beach. He told us he knew a hotel that was in a "perfect" location "by everything". The hotel ended up resting outside the city a ways in the forest by nothing except a lonesome restaurant. The good news was that it was not far from a desolate Black Sea beach.

The Black Sea

We finally saw our birds: seagulls.

Fulbright Sakartvelo "Georgia"

6. In the restaurant on one particular evening as we were having dinner, at a table nearby were a group of boisterous Georgian men. They were trying to sing and harmonize but were doing both rather poorly. After noticing our arrival, they started saying "no problem" several times in English, I think, to gauge our reaction. After enough alcohol was consumed, one man sauntered over to us to propose a toast to our mothers. He then told us he was single and asked for Destinee's hand in marriage. We Fulbrighters hightailed out of there pretty quickly.

7. And lastly, we explored a little bit of Poti itself.

A residential street in Poti

A typical Georgian house.

This church, in the center of town, was modeled after the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

Georgian New Year, Georgian Birthday

This post has been a long time coming, but here it goes.

I made a 30+ hour journey back to Georgia from the USA so that I could spend New Year's Eve in Georgia. By the time I had gone to bed on New Year's at around 1 am on January 1st, I had been up for a solid fifty hours or more. Dedication. Well, by the time I did show up on the doorstep of my host family's house on New Year's Eve, I was met by my a smiling Giorgi, my host brother, who always has a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. He had been waiting for my return so we could assemble and decorate the Christmas tree. For those of you who do not know, Georgia and many other post-Soviet states, do not celebrate Christmas on December 25th, but on New Year's Eve instead. That is when Santa/Grandfather Frost and the Snow Maiden visit the homes of children and give them gifts while they all ring in the New Year. I gave Giorgi a Chicago Bulls winter cap and he was instantly smitten. He is a big fan and constantly tells me that he is Michael Jordan (Giorgi is tiny, by the way).

My lovable, mischievous host brother, Giorgi.

New Year's Eve in Keda was all that I could have hoped for it to be - a gigantic feast ensued after midnight that I just had to stay up for. I also watched from my bedroom window families shooting off fireworks all across town. On television, which is always blazing in my host family's house, a group of Georgians danced to a cover version of "Gangnam Style" - that song is incredibly popular here, for whatever reason. But that was the first song of choice to bring in 2014.

My neighbors at a New Year's Day feast (my host mom is in the red and white shirt)

A fifteen day feast ensued where the Georgians ate and drank wine all day. I escaped by going to Turkey for a week, only for everything to be amped up when I returned.

I celebrated my birthday (January 10th) Georgian-style by engaging in an all-day marathon of feasting and, yes, drinking. Those who know me know that I am not the biggest fan of drinking, but I have had more alcohol here in Georgia than I have had since turning 21. I kid you not. By the end of the night, I had vertigo and went to bed early. It was quite the adventure and quite the party.

Birthday feast

Tsitso with my homemade birthday cake. 

Russian Experts Needed

Russia is an area that has been near to my heart for close to a decade now. Also for close to a decade, I have known that I have wanted to become an expert on the region. There were many people who dismissed my interests, but I have always pushed back. I am frequently frustrated with American portrayals and coverage, especially in the media but also in the government, of Russia. Part of this issue stems from the fact that most of the people who are in media and government now grew up during the Cold War and thus have an embedded anti-Russian stance that pervades in the post-Soviet eta. I hope to be part of a new generation of Russian experts, a new generation that tries to understand before immediately condemning, and who tries to address concerns productively before immediately dismissing them. I started my journey roughly ten years ago with an encyclopedia and a piece of paper where I copied down the Russian alphabet, and I do not intend to stop any time soon. 

Here is an article from the New York Times that highlights the deficit of Russian scholars and experts in America : American Experts on Russia Say There Are Not Enough of Them


One of my friends here in Georgia linked me to a newsletter from Harvard University's Russian and Eurasian Studies program that talks about: The Crisis of US Funding for Area Studies It is an issue close to me because I am working to advance my research in graduate school. For those of you who do not know, I was accepted into the University of Kansas and the University of Washington to pursue a Master's in Russian and Eurasian Studies. Right now, I am waiting to hear a decision on funding, which is of critical importance as it will be key to furthering my studies and deciding where I will go next year. I am hoping that the crisis in Ukraine will convince US policy makers that funding for area studies is still vital for US national interests and NOT to cut out federal programs that help to advance expertise for people like me.

If you are interested in furthering your own knowledge of this region, or are curious about the events unfolding in the Ukraine, I encourage you to check out the "Caucasus Info" page on my blog. It has links to a lot of news sites and informational sites on the Russian and Caucasus region.

This picture is NOT my own. Taken in northern Georgia with the stunning Caucasus
Mountain Range as a backdrop.