tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167268522024-03-08T09:09:43.955-05:00Pursued by a BearI try to live an interesting life. Judge for yourself.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.comBlogger110125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-34925374709127249542011-05-05T14:49:00.002-04:002011-05-05T15:21:12.747-04:00Derek on a bike, the media sensation!I don't really know much about the news industry, but I have noticed that whenever I meet foreign journalists in Tbilisi, they always seem to be working on multiple articles, usually on totally unrelated topics. Example: today two Swedes stopped by the office to interview my colleague Mathias about some of the work that TI Georgia is doing (for those not in the know already, we're an Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-8072005330055202142011-04-15T13:44:00.005-04:002011-04-15T15:18:33.879-04:00Beggars as cultural psychologistsThe north end of Rustaveli Avenue, Tbilisi's most famous street, is fraught with danger for the groups of young Georgians who like to stroll, arm in arm, past its glitzy shops on warm Tbilisi evenings. The danger is a group of beggars, all children, who harass passersby. Some locals tell me that the beggars are Roma, but I don't know where they come from; the point is that they are beggars, and Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-7144462673606373792011-03-29T13:48:00.007-04:002011-03-30T14:13:50.041-04:00Trip to IstanbulI just got back from an amazing trip to Istanbul, and as you might expect, I took a LOT of pictures (about 500). They're all up on Flickr if you want to see them, but since I know most of you (except my parents) will click through only a page or two before getting bored, here's a short selection of my favorite photos that I took. These aren't necessarily the best ones, but I tried to select shotsDerekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-73419272040584846372011-03-14T14:37:00.003-04:002011-03-14T15:48:38.700-04:00Bicycle commuting in GeorgiaI'm not going to spend a whole lot of time talking about my bicycling background; if you know me, you know that I cycle practically everywhere, and Tbilisi is not an exception. However, the reaction by Georgians and expats alike when they see me using a bike as transportation is usually something along the lines of "Wow, you're brave! It must be pretty dangerous out there, huh?"
This is a commonDerekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-59800756867944043132010-10-24T10:39:00.003-04:002010-10-24T16:20:03.447-04:00Lovely cheese!Georgian food sometimes reminds me of The Loch Ness Monster -- everyone has heard of it, but practically no one outside Georgia has ever actually seen or tasted it. In the case of Georgian cheese, that doesn't change even once you get to Georgia, where the most popular type of cheese by far is this:
This cheese dominates every supermarket, hole-in-the-wall food shop, and farmers market that Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-70555487776362942882010-10-12T12:11:00.004-04:002010-10-12T12:41:40.135-04:00Camels and needlesGeorgian traffic is not exactly lawless, but Georgian drivers give far more expression to their desire to dominate the road than the average American, who settles for buying a pickup truck or SUV with spiked wheels. This is not limited to cars; most bus drivers are loathe to admit that their bus is any different from the BMW 3-series driving next to them.
Case in point: many bus stops are locatedDerekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-78342826065986672272010-09-25T11:28:00.002-04:002010-09-25T11:45:54.503-04:00The Georgian Museum of Fine ArtsAnyone who is reading this blog probably knows by now that I'm living in the country of Georgia. I have some ideas for longer posts, but right now I'm busy with work and learning a rather difficult new language, so I want to get things started by mentioning that I went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Tbilisi today, and viewed their wonderful treasury, which is mostly Christian iconography. They Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-63176836854706401112010-04-11T21:16:00.005-04:002010-04-11T22:27:00.333-04:00Treacle!Have you ever had treacle? Treacle has been a mystery to me for years--it seems to exist as a part of everyday life in practically every British book ever written, and yet I'd never once seen treacle for sale here in the States. That changed today when I spotted a can of Heinz-brand treacle sponge pudding on the shelves of my local Treasure Island grocery store. I immediately bought a can, and Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-31555697262199504152010-02-24T18:32:00.005-05:002010-02-24T18:43:13.254-05:00A completely hypothetical situationLet's say you're walking down the street, and at the corner of a busy intersection, you see a young woman attempting to hand out candy from a big metal bowl perched on top of a wooden box with the words "The It's Okay Box" hand-painted on it. She's not having much luck--most people just walk on by, and the bowl has plenty of candy, mostly Jolly Ranchers and toffee, left in it.
"Free candy, no Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-74482763175507129482009-12-10T22:56:00.003-05:002009-12-10T22:58:39.879-05:00LCDS Is awesomeA HUGE thank you to the staff at Lou Conte Dance Studio for letting me keep my bike in their lobby after my bike lock froze (!!) shut.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-90212359847848071652009-10-03T00:54:00.004-04:002009-10-03T15:26:52.149-04:00Carl SaganI started streaming Carl Sagan's Cosmos from Netflix today, and his voice immediately sounded incredibly familiar, even though I've only heard it once before, when my middle school science teacher showed my class a Cosmos episode. After finishing the first episode (which features a modern introduction by Ann Druyan that is comedic GOLD), I did some googling, and discovered the shocking truth.
Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-5950143466904202832009-08-21T10:12:00.002-04:002009-08-21T10:17:23.353-04:00Customer serviceI'm nearing the end of a five-hour layover in Bangkok Airport, en route to Osaka, Japan. Living in India, you don't really notice how rarely people in customer service positions (like wait staff and sales people) smile at you. It's not until someone does it that you think "Wow, that was really friendly," before realizing that back home, it's expected, and anyone who doesn't smile is perceived as Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-9066773126791342832009-08-17T11:14:00.003-04:002009-08-18T13:12:39.936-04:00Fighting the man (UPDATED)I had an unusually difficult time flagging down an auto rickshaw this morning; there seemed to be very few of them passing by, and those that did were all full. I spent fifteen minutes flapping my arms on the side of the road to no avail, and I finally just gave up and took a taxi. When I got to work, I discovered that most of the Delhi auto unions have declared a two-day strike.
The reason for Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-75246404342882488232009-08-08T06:58:00.009-04:002009-08-23T22:33:18.341-04:00A typical shopping experiencePalika Bazaar is advertised as an "Air-Conditioned Underground Mall," but the term "bazaar" is much more accurate--once you step inside, you're immediately lost in the maze of narrow, crowded passageways that is the defining characteristic of every market I've visited in India. I was told that Palika Bazaar was a good place to find DVDs, so I went there in search of an old Indian movie for Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-33937692100563735712009-07-31T13:35:00.003-04:002009-07-31T14:10:07.057-04:00The Garden of Five SensesThe Garden of Five Senses is a well-maintained garden and sculpture park on the far south side of Delhi, with a name that makes it sound a lot more exciting than it actually is. Here's how well I thought it titillated each of the five senses:
Sight: The Garden is full of beautiful flowers and interesting sculptures, and there is a hill with a great view of South Delhi and the Qutb Minar to enjoy.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-43545870385122634852009-07-25T14:05:00.003-04:002009-07-25T14:14:17.321-04:00Enjoying DelhiI spent the day at various attractions around Delhi, and I am currently in the middle of uploading all my photos. In the meantime, however, here's a panorama from the Lodhi Gardens that I stitched together. For those of you who know Ann Arbor, the Lodhi Gardens are kind of like the Arb, except with ancient tombs splattered all over the place. In fact, that's a decent way to describe a lot of Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-19793249187002555092009-07-25T13:29:00.002-04:002009-07-25T14:02:37.399-04:00Mr. KumarMr. Kumar is our landlord. He's an older Indian gentlemen with rapidly thinning hair and a bit of a gut. His blocky features are set in a constant scowl, as if he is always worried about something. The one time I've seen him attempt to smile, he presented Brian and me with a lopsided rictus that lasted for only a split second before he self-consciously reverted to his familiar glower. His Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-86704429875119786212009-07-24T13:42:00.002-04:002009-07-24T13:47:15.030-04:00Far out, man!I don't know what my rickshaw driver was smoking today, but it must have been some pretty potent stuff. First he started flapping his arms like a chicken and saying unintelligible things to me in Hindi. Then he began singing "lo lo lo lo lo lo" to himself right before almost running into two teens who were trying to cross the street. Good times.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-58578545942227980702009-07-23T11:13:00.004-04:002009-07-23T12:06:37.617-04:00MoolahI really love Indian cash; it's so well designed that I'm going to be a little sad to switch back to American money at the end of the summer. Here's a picture of some common denominations:
From top to bottom, the denominations are Rs. 500, 100, 50, 10. The coins, from left to right, are 1, 2, and 5 rupees. There are also notes with values of Rs. 1000, 20 and 5. In the US, we use different Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-34712246682048922682009-07-15T11:14:00.003-04:002009-07-15T11:20:59.887-04:00India: 1, Camera: 0If any of you have gone through the hundreds of photos I've taken here in detail (no shame if you haven't), you probably noticed one of the Baha'i Temple that was all purple-tinged. That was my camera's way of telling me that it didn't like the heat. The problem has progressively gotten worse since then, and today, two days before our trip to the Taj Mahal, it crapped out completely. I'll try andDerekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-64241860791442797842009-07-14T12:44:00.005-04:002009-07-23T12:11:49.932-04:00Critters!Here's a chronicle of all the animals I've seen in India so far (not including insects, of which there are plenty. The cockroaches, thank goodness, are actually smaller than in Chicago). I'll update this post as I see more animals or take pictures of them.
BirdsIndian Crow. Acts and sounds exactly like a North American crow, but has a brownish-grey neck and chest.
Pigeon: Look exactly like NorthDerekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-44421406480901465862009-07-13T12:46:00.008-04:002009-07-13T14:19:26.085-04:00Spit, meet baling wireSorry for the lack of posts lately; I've had a busy couple of weeks.
Also, I want to note that a lot of this blog will be generalizations (i.e. stereotypes) about Indian culture. It's not my intent to be racist or to make baseless generalizations. Rather, I am adjusting to a new culture, and the way to adjust to a new culture is to learn the rules of that culture--that is, how most people of Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-32561254250544556212009-06-22T12:31:00.001-04:002009-06-22T12:33:15.875-04:00TrafficTraffic
Many of you have probably seen this video or something like it.
That video definitely wasn't shot in Delhi--the rickshaws here are green with yellow canopies, not the other way around. Traffic in Delhi (at least, in south Delhi) never gets quite as crazy as in that video, for a couple reasons. First, there's a lot more traffic here, so there isn't enough space to do the kind of Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-56863370626910302082009-06-20T01:49:00.002-04:002009-06-20T02:19:16.344-04:00First Post from IndiaYep, I'm in India! I'm spending the summer in New Delhi, India, interning with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. I've been here a little over a week, and now that I have internet access and a functioning computer, I'm going to be blogging about my adjustment to a new and different society.
I'm not really going to chronicle what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis, because for the most part, Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-35960447474937276652009-05-29T11:28:00.003-04:002009-05-29T11:33:49.073-04:00Breaking: Car hits 7-Eleven at Clybourn and SouthportI made a quick run to the grocery store this morning, and got a little entertainment on the way back.
I'm pretty sure I passed that car on the way to the grocery store. I'm assuming everyone was okay because there were no ambulances and the police were just standing around.
Also, from the bike rack outside the grocery store, bike lock FAIL:
Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0