My 10 Favorite Georgian Words

Here are my 10 favorite Georgian words.

Warning: There are probably mistakes in both English and Georgian. 

1. მეზარება (mezareba)—This one word means, essentially, “I don’t feel like doing (something), out of laziness.”

Example:

A: Where’s the remote?

B: On the table. Go get it.

A: Urgh…მეზარებაააა.

Which is awesome, because honestly, how often do you want to say that? Probably a lot.

2. ჯობია (jobia)—“is better than (something else)”

Example:

A: ჭამე სუპი. (Eat soup)

B: არ მინდა. ხინკალი ჯობია. (I don’t want it. Khinkali (meat dumplings) is better.)

It’s just a great way to succinctly express your opinion.

3. ჯიგარი (jigari)—This word is literally a special stew made with various organs. But in slang it means, as far as I can tell, something like “really cool” or “awesome.”

Example: ჯიგარი ხარ. (You are jigari.)

4. უცნაურია (utsnauria)—“Weird!” or “That’s weird”

Self-explanatory.

5. გენაცვალე (genatsvale)—“My dear.”

Just a very sweet word you can say to the people who are dear to you.

6. არ შეიძლება (ar sheidzleba)—“not allowed” or “not possible”

Example:

A: (Tries to leave the house with wet hair)

B: You’ll catch a cold! არ შეიძლება!

This phrase is just fun to say and something we Americans will often say to each other even when we are speaking English (Example: “That’s totally არ შეიდლება.”)

7. ობობა (oboba)—“Spider”

Just a great sounding word. Also, in the plural address form, it’s ობობებო (obobebo), for example: “ობობებო. გამოდი“ (Spiders! Come out), which probably sounds pretty უცნაური (see above) out of context, but I’ve heard a woman saying this when she was cleaning the cobwebs in a room, so it can be said.

8. ზეგ (zeg)--“The day after tomorrow”

Just way more simple to say than “the day after tomorrow.” Really useful.  

9. პახმელია (pakhmelia)--“Hangover.”

I guess this is technically a Russian word, but it's commonly used in Georgia. I just like how it sounds.

Example: “პახმელიაზე ხარ?” (Are you hungover?)

10. წარმატაბები (tsarmatabebi)—“Good luck.”

Another nice sounding word, and nice to say to people as a parting phrase.

Okay, that’s all folks.

Being the Other

These days, most people who plan to live in another country expect there to be some degree of culture shock—moments when the differences of a new culture become overwhelming and cause the person to eventually either withdraw or adapt. This expectation was certainly true for me. But what I didn’t really consider before coming to Georgia was the reverse, that I as an individual from a different culture would so often do things that would be surprising to Georgians.

Being here has made taught me a lot more about my own culture, about values and practices that I didn’t even realize were distinctly American until coming here. There are so many things I do routinely that I never before considered strange, but I have now become very conscious of.

Here is a list of things (small and large, abstract and concrete) that I’ve always seen as normal, but could possibly be considered strange in a culture other than America: 

      1. Bake sales

I was discussing with my partner teacher how to raise money and I mentioned that in America people will often bake cakes etc. and sell them to raise money. She laughed and told me this would seem really strange in Georgia. Interestingly, several other volunteers have thought of this idea and gotten similar reactions.

Bake sales…they always seemed so mundane and normal. But now that I think about it, they really are such an American thing to do (combining our loves of both fundraising and cookies), and it’s not really too surprising that it would seem strange here.

2. Impatience

Americans like everything to be on time, and when this expectation isn’t met, it’s a major cause of stress. But things work differently here. Things just take longer. Or more the point, deadlines and schedules aren’t set in stone the way they are in America. Marshutkhas and taxies leave when they’re full. People can guess at the times if you ask, but it’s just that—a guess. If I were to get bent out of shape when a driver tells me we’re leaving in 20 minutes and an hour later we’re still in the station, my impatience would appear very strange and uncalled for, whereas in America this reaction would be the norm.

One day in class we were explaining adjectives to describe people. While the class readily understood words like “talented” and “lazy,” “impatience” was much more difficult. It’s not that there isn’t a word for it in Georgian, it’s just that that concept is altogether pretty strange here.

3. Spending an afternoon reading

In America, reading is seen as a leisure activity, almost purely for pleasure. I’m not sure exactly how reading is seen here, but if I read for more than an hour straight, I am usually told that I need to rest and that I shouldn’t work so hard. But for most Americans, reading is a form of rest and relaxation.

4. Apologizing

Americans apologize for everything and I am very guilty of this. If someone bumps into me on the street, I will apologize. When speaking to Georgians, I think it’s definitely considered a little odd to apologize as much as Americans do. In fact whenever I apologize for something that an American would typically apologize for, I am usually met with the response, “Why are you sorry?” I am now very conscious of how often I still find myself reflexively apologizing in Georgian.

Anyway, I had a 5^th thing, but a voice inside my head is saying “Gogo, daisvine!” (“Girl, rest!”) so I guess that’s that.

Just FYI, I do not know beekeeping terminology

When you’ve been living in a new culture for a few months, I think you get to a point where the novelty starts to wear off. You think, you’re not a tourist anymore. This is just your day to day life. This feeling, of course, is a complete illusion, especially in a country where every season brings new foods, holidays, and traditions, all of which can be very confusing, but also very exciting.

Anyway, I was feeling this sort of sense of complacency, when one day I noticed that A) my host father and brother were bringing many random boxes from the garden into the living room, and B) there were A LOT of bees around.

It took me about half an hour of watching to actually figure out what was going on. They were harvesting the honey, which involved, very bravely, carrying the honey comb boxes in with their bare hands. I was not so brave and spent the rest of the day hiding in my room.

In the evening, my host family finally coaxed me out telling me not to be afraid and that, more importantly, that I needed to eat. There were less bees now, but still a lot to me, and although I yelped every time one came near me, I managed to be fairly calm.

But I’m glad I stayed because it was great to watch and even help in the honey extracting process. For those interested, this is what it basically entails:

1. Manually slice the extra protruding parts off of the honey combs. These are put by the fire to soften. (I could not be trusted to help with this step. Seemed complicated.)

2.  Line all the honey comb trays up in this barrel thing with a handle on top that spins the honey out. (This I was allowed to do.)

3. When the barrel is full, open a hole at the bottom so all the honey comes out.

Meanwhile, you can snack on pieces straight from the honey comb—super fresh honey and then you chew on the wax left behind. Nature’s chewing gum, as they say…as maybe a couple people have once said. 

Dracula vs. The Best Friends' Club

One of my greatest interests is friendship, and I love to analyze the differences in how friendship is viewed in different times and cultures. Bram Stoker's novel Dracula is great for many reasons, one of which is that it inc;udes a surprising portrayal of all the facets of late 19th century English friendship. When Jonathan and Mina join forces with their new found friends they truly gain all the special powers of a Best Friends' Club, and only through the awesome powers of friendship do they manage to defeat Dracula. Here's what I learned:

1. True friendship can cross gender and generational boundaries.

The Best Friends' Club includes people of varying ages from the young Jonathan and Mina to the wise old Dr. Van Helsing who has been around the block a few times, and both men and women. At first they try to exclude the gentle Mina from some of the gorier aspects of their pursuit of Dracula, but they soon learn their lesson--that they must all work together to defeat their foe!

2. Spurned loves can make the best of friends.

Towards the beginning of the novel we are introduced to the beautiful and charming Lucy Westenra who tells Mina through letter that she has received three marriage proposals in one day--one from Dr. John Seward, one from Quincy Morris, and one from her true love Arthur Holmwood. Although she rejects the first two men, her suitors are not angry, but rather promise that she has earned their friendship for life. Cool.

3. True friends always hold hands.

These people are constantly holding hands. Any emotional moment. The drop of a hat. You'll be as shocked by this as you will by the fate of card carrying Best Friend Lucy Westenra.

4. Diversity is key.

Just when you think this Best Friends' Club is bunch of stuffy white British people, we are introduced to Quincy Morris, a gunslinging Texan from Texas, USA. Basically, every Best Friends' Club needs some sort of token friend to show that the club isn't discriminating. I think it might be in the rule book.

5. Friends stay friends through thick and thin.

Need multiple, intense blood transfusions because a vampire is sucking you dry every night? The Best Friends' Club is on it. Need to have your corpse decapitated to save your immortal soul? Yeah, they can do that too.

But of course, all this friendship has its costs. Jonathan and Mina are lucky they got married before joining the club. Otherwise their wedding party would have been unwieldy with 4 best men (and possibly an undead maid of honor). The couple did not escape, however, the cost of the first born son, which according to the rule book must be named long-windedly after every member of the cost. A small price to pay, I guess.

The 5 Unhealthiest Things I Did in July

Well...this is a blog post about health and also about how I spent July. It also shows that I love making lists and I think the best blog posts are lists.

So, a little background before I start listing all the unhealthy things I did in July. Through my work, I had this one 20 day long assignment pulling buckthorn, a disgusting invasive species that grows in New Hampshire. So this was basically how I spent most of July and I can say with some certainty that it was an extremely unhealthy experience in almost anyway you might look at it. Here's why:

1. Ticks and other pests--We were working in this hell hole field that was absolutely infested with ticks. The first time we walked through the field our pants and sleeves were just absolutely crawling with ticks. I think we counted 60 that first day. I ended up with 7 ticks embedded throughout the course of the 20 days, and one of my co-workers ended up with like 13 including one, freakishly, on his face! As if that wasn't enough, there were many other creatures crawling throughout that field, and in addition to the tick bites, we also endured being occasionally stung by wasps (surprise, surprise) and bitten by ants. The mosquitoes were also bad at times, and let me tell you, New Hampshire mosquitoes are monstrous. To combat all these pests, I wore a giant mosquito head net that made me look like a widow and duct taped every gap in my clothing. Clearly, I was the height of cool.

2. Environmental hazards--Rain, lightening, 90 degree humid weather in an open field. That was nothing. The main hazard was actually the buckthorn itself, although the effects on our health were slow and cumulative. Hopefully, oh my brothers, you have never experienced pulling buckthorn, but it has roots that choke out everything around them, that weave their way and entangle themselves into the ground, that come away in layers as you pull on them so you never quite get a solid grip. ("I hate buckthorn.") The effect of pulling up buckthorn day after day for 20 days is that you wake up with claw like hands and spend the day dropping things because your knuckles are swollen and your fingers are numb.

3. Junk food--The people we worked for, who were actually awesome, felt pretty bad for us, so they constantly brought us junk food--ice cream, fried chicken, soda--whenever they visited us. We also went out for ice cream about 7 times during those 20 days and would consistently order things like double chocolate chocolate ice cream with brownies and flurries with butterfinger, Reese's and health bar.

5. Mental health--We all went a little insane. Probably on a daily basis.

*I do, however, have to say that some things somehow strangely grew on me. The wetland we were working in had a subtle beauty with black moss, translucent flowers, and crickets that hopped around at your feet. Despite the ticks, it was kind of an amazing place. And I can never forget, the first dreadful night we spent there, I saw fireflies. I'd never seen them before, and when I realized what they were, I jumped out of our car and chased them, futilely trying to catch them in my grasping palms.

Multiple Intelligences: A Brief Report

So, I think I'm a pretty smart person, but like most pretty smart people, I can be so stupid. Of course, I demanded an explanation for this. So I decided to look into the theory of multiple intelligences. However I may feel about the theory itself, I can say I found myself to be lacking in three of the types of intelligence, namely spatial intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, and even though I love nature, naturalistic intelligence.

To sum this up--

1. Spatial intelligence involves the ability to conceptualize three dimensional images or areas. So if you had high spatial intelligence you would likely be good at puzzles, designing, and making a mental map of where you want to go. None of these things hold too much of an interest for me (i.e. I suck at all of the above).

2. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence involves having proficient fine and/or gross motor skills. To sum up my abilities in this department, I'll say that my printing looks like a 12 year old boy's and when I played basketball in middle school, the only basket I made was in the opponent's net. (I am, however, a great hula hooper.)

3. I don't really understand naturalistic intelligence and I don't really want to look into it, but it has something to do with being in touch with nature and understanding the natural world around you. I'm also going to pretend it has something to do with having a heightened awareness of your natural surroundings, but don't quote me on that.

Anyway, I'm discussing all these forms of intelligence as an excuse to tell a funny story about what happened to me one day at work.

One of my co-workers was running a chainsaw and I was just standing around prepared to help I guess, when suddenly, through an inability to visualize the area around me (maybe), an inability to keep my balance (definitely), and a lack of awareness of my natural surroundings (for sure), I stepped on a wasps' nest.

They immediately started stinging me so of course I ran. Then I realized that I had left a friend running a chainsaw about five feet away from an angry wasps' nest, so I turned around and started screaming at her.

Then I didn't know what to do, so I just started running again and all at the same time popping benadryll (which I always carry with me in case of this exact situation) and also ripping off all my clothes. My other co-worker, the infamous Dmart, had no idea what was going on and just started chasing me.

In the meantime, I kept screaming these high-pitched horror movie actress screams and then I would find the situation so ridiculous that I would just collapse in laughter. Then I would see another wasp on me and scream and the cycle would continue. (And let's not forget that I've already stripped down to my bra and underwear with my clothing strewn everywhere.) I felt like an insane.

My other co-worker just kept telling me to take a shower which then made sense, but is now confusing. I ended up just lying down and made Dmart perform a head to toe exam on me to find the stings.

There weren't all that many, but my boss took me to the hospital just in case, and I was forbidden from splitting wood for the rest of the day. Meanwhile, my co-workers were left to find the scattered clothing I had flung from my body--work gloves, pants, shirt. I was tired out from Benadryl for the rest of the day, so I just kind of wandered around and picked up random pieces of wood, helping I guess.

Love you, love you not

The thing about hobbies is that I absolutely love them. I'm like one of those people in your life that always has a flavor of the week and claims that it's their life calling. I love falling in love with some random activity and pledging that I will devote my free time to it obsessively. At least until something else seems more fun. And something better usually comes along within about a week. That combined with my unique combination of fickleness and biting off more than I can chew means that most of my hobbies end with me screaming "I can do it all" and then actually not doing anything. So, unfortunately my hobby graveyard is at capacity. Here are just a few of my many failed hobbies:

1. Juggling--I have a long history with juggling. It's in my blood. My father was so good at juggling that he actually taught classes. Unfortunately I did not inherit his abilities. I tried to learn juggling no less than 5 times. I probably try it out once a year for a few months. I always delude myself into thinking it will be different, and it always ends with dejection and probably some sort of sprained body part. In fact, my own father tried for months to teach me. Typically a mild-mannered and extremely patient man, he ultimately claimed in a fit that I was "the only person [he] had failed to teach how to juggle." A sad state of affairs.

2. Online Surveys--This was a weird one. For about two years I was obsessed with taking online surveys in basically every moment of free time, at work, at home, late into the night, taking millions of online surveys. I think it combined two of my favorite things in the whole world, which are giving my opinion about everything and anything, and making very small amounts of money for a lot of work. I think the height of this obsession was when I was traveling through Europe and I would use all my allotted time on the hostel computers to fill out online surveys, rather than, I don't know, keeping in touch with my friends and family?

3. Bridge--I played bridge competitively for about 4 years. My reasonable goal? To be the top female bridge player in the country! Well...sadly, I haven't played bridge in like a year. This is a hobby I actually sort of miss.

4. Electronic Literature--Another strange one. Electronic literature is basically just any type of literature that uses electronics or technology as a medium or major theme. When I learned about this genre, I thought it was my life's calling. My love for this style of writing culminated in this choose-your-own-adventure online tome that I completed in one night for a class final. It's called The Ghost in the Machine. It starts off great, but VERY quickly turns insane and nonsensical. I still have a soft spot for this style of writing though and I need more creativity in my life so I will never regret this strange detour in my writing career.

5. Sadly, blogging--I have had several, several short-lived blogs about a variety of topics that I considered myself an expert on: adventure, money management, being a teenager (my livejournal when I was in high school, which I will still stand by as being completely great), writing (possibly the shortest-lived blog of all time), oh and of course electronic literature. But of course, this blog will be different, right?

I'll Take /You/ to the Bank

This is a post about careers, or actually my current job.

I remember about a year ago I was doing promotions which is when you stand around and give out samples and information about a product. You meet a lot of fun, great people doing it, but sometimes a promotions company gets really desperate and hires literally anyone they can get, which means you also meet a lot of strange people.

I remember one man would always just laugh hysterically and uncontrollably whenever a customer would talk to him. I remember a woman who would make random allusions, with no explanation, to "that time [she] was poisoned." I remember a man who would start talking to you as if you were mid-conversation, and just talk and talk breathlessly about his paranormal encounters. You learn to just smile and nod, and you wonder if people realize how they come across.

But now, with my current job, I kind of feel like I am one of those people.

So, for a brief background, I live in a state park in what is basically a commune of young people and I go out and do month-long stints of trail work. Oh, and it's basically volunteer work.

So, that's all well and good, but I called the bank today and I realized it's impossible for me to succinctly and sanely explain my lifestyle. Here was the conversation.

Bank Woman: Okay you're going to need a minimum balance without incurring a monthly charge.
Me: Yeah, I understand. It's just hard because the card my company gives me doesn't have any actual banks in that state, so I can't go to the bank and make deposits or anything. It's just annoying.
BW: Uh-huh, okay.
Me: But if I keep the monthly balance up I'll be okay? I won't get charged?
BW: I'm sorry. I can't really understand what you're saying. I can only hear every couple words.
Me: Oh, sorry. It's because I live in the woods.
BW: Excuse me?
Me: I LIVE IN THE WOODS.
BW: Oh. Okay.
Me: Also, my phone's dying and I can't charge it because I live in a tent.
BW: Excuse me?
Me: I LIVE IN A TENT.
BW: Oh. Okay.
Me: Actually it doesn't even matter because I lost my charger and dropped my phone in a river. I put it in a bag of rice but it still doesn't work very well.
BW: That's nice. Is there anything else I can help you with today?

And through my staticky, awful phone, I could just hear her smiling and nodding and rolling her eyes.

Dear Abby

Five things about myself:

1) I don't like to talk on cell phones because I am afraid of cancer.

2) I don't like to text because I'm cheap (see my other blog, which is about this very subject)

3) I like to talk about myself verbosely and without any interruption or acknowledgment of any other communication partner

4) Due to the fact that my last two work places have been 1) the woods and 2) a ghost town, I am not used to having reliable access to email

5)I like to subject people to seeing my awful penmanship.

All of this leaves only one for medium to communicate: Letters.

Yes, I write letters--pages and pages and notebooks and notebooks of letters. It can get pretty friggin stressful, one of the many things in life that sends me into a feverish fit during which I pull at my hair and repeatedly yell "I CAN DO IT ALL! I CAN DO IT ALL!"

So...a healthy hobby.

I will also say that my letters are also always a mess. If I had a camera, I would take a picture of all the insane assemblages I've managed to come up with. Here is where my picture would be if I had a camera:















But I don't have a camera, so I'm going to have to describe it to you. About a month ago I ran out of envelopes so I've been making my own which is basically just a recycled piece of paper taped together with the bulkiest and most unattractive tape I can possibly find. Namely duct tape or sometimes masking tape. Today, on the other end of the crazy spectrum, I had ONLY envelopes but no paper, so I actually disassembled an envelope and wrote on it and then just stuff it into another envelope. Also, a masterpiece.

So why do I subject myself to this? Why do I subject others to this? Well...if that's your question, then have I got the question for you....

Have you ever gotten a letter? Opened up a handwritten letter by someone you really care about or from an acquaintance that may have intrigued you but you never got to know? Getting letters is an incredible feeling, something completely lost in emails and (do I even need to say it?) text messages. Writing something by hand allows you to express the nuances of language rather than stripping it bare. It's just a wonderful feeling and to imagine a friend's excitement about receiving a letter, opening it up like a present, makes it totally worth it.

...and did I mention you get to talk about yourself uninterrupted for, like, a page?

How to Be a Rich and Famous Blogger

This blog will not tell you how to be a rich and famous blogger. If that is what you are interested in learning, this is not the blog for you.

Let me tell what this blog will be about.

It will be about the topic most interesting to me and least interesting to the average human. That topic is me.

If you are interested in stumbling around life in an effort to find truth and meaning, this is the blog for you.

If you are interested in, not necessary doing that, but are interested in reading, this is the blog for you.

If you are interested in making fun of existential crises and the endless search for self-actualization, this is the blog for you.

If you are interested in going to bars and talking about talking to people but actually not talking to people, this is the blog for you.

If you are a hypochondriac, this is the blog for you.

O.K. down to business. I have 10 things that I want to work on to make life more meaningful:
1. Friendship
2. Love
3. Career
4. Hobbies
5. Health
6. Solving a mystery
7. Writing (usually not humorous)
8. Fun and misc.
9. Intelligence
10. Self-actualization (whatever that means)

I'm going to try to work on and write about each of these. Welp...I guess that's all for now. I'm sure I was going to write something else, but I can't remember.