I went to do research for my college and decided to visit Sakatvelo, Republic of Georgia, where Stalin was born. It was part of Former Union. Georgia is located in south of Russia, north east of Turkey, north of Armenian and Azerbaijan, and next to black sea. It used to be richest republic among Soviet Union. It produced different types of fruits, tea, delicious wines, etc. Now, Georgia was left behind by the wave of capitalism but I learn and see more interesting things and important thing from their lives and culture.

When I got out from the airport, every single person was staring at me. The reason was that they hardly ever see people from Asia. I did not feel comfortable with the way they looked at me in the beginning, but I realized that they were just curious about me like I was curious about them. Well, this was my second trip to Georgia, so I was kind of prepared for it. My friend, Nino Gogiberize picked me up from the air port. She has very typical Georgian looks. She has black hair, black eyes, and a round face.

Here is picture of Nino:

I heard that Georgians used to have looks more like Ukrainians who have blonde hair and blue eyes. But Georgia has been occupied under different empires such as, Byzantine, Russian, Mongolian, etc. That's why Georgian started to carry black hair, and black eyes.

The way to city from airport was a horrible trip. I thought that I might puke inside the car. It's impossible to drive straight because there are holes in the middle of road. Georgian roads were lighted up only by car light, which makes it worse. Drivers don't see holes until car lights hit them, so the driver has to swerve car at last moment.

When I got to the apartment of my Georgian friend Nino, there was no electricity, so she brought me a little candle in my room. Nino and I talked endlessly in the softly illuminated room, but then sunlight slowly came in from the window, telling us it was time to sleep. We slept for three hours and woke up.

Nino prepared breakfast for me. It was with Georgian bread, which was like an Arabic bread but much thicker, and Georgian cheese. I was really tired from my trip but warm Georgian Bread and salty cheese gave me energy. As well, this Georgian cheese was interesting. It was not like cheese we are used to eating but more like thick yogurt with salt.

Here is picture of the cheese in market.

There are piles of the same cheese in the market. Honestly, I did not like the taste of the cheese very much but it made me realize something important. Georgian life does not have too many choices. It reminds me of a story during the early 90s of someone from Croatia. Well, this is good chance to share the story with you.

"One day I had a chance to dance in Paris for a performance. It was after afternoon practice, I was hungry, so I went to supermarket to buy one yogurt. However, I could not buy any because I did not know what to buy. I saw different varieties of yogurts on the shelf. I tried to pick one yogurt but I could not distinguish difference among those all those yogurts."

We are used to picking one thing from piles of goods. We have hundreds of kind of different yogurts. In Georgia, there is no such selection for people. My first day in Georgia was a lesson for my life. I just want to share this story with you guys to make you realize how we live with material goods. Not all of the people in the world have the same choices we have; we should appreciate our situation and try to share with people in other countries like Georgia, Myanmar, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, countries in Africa, countries in Latin America, etc.