Books and Vodka

I left off the story of my Georgian adventure at a point where statistics and graphs had taken center stage. At the end of the lecture on Tuesday, I was advised do dig into the pile of surveys on Georgian attitudes as a way of substantiating claims and adding flesh to the shaky bones of my research.

Instead, I did exactly the opposite. Diving right into the middle of the expat social scene, I proceeded to make friends, wander around city bars, restaurants and (overpriced) pool halls, and in the process imbibed with large quantities of Georgian beer, Georgian cognac and (Russian) vodka. Needless to say, my daily stint at the GFSIS office sharply shrunk to no more than 4-5 hours a day spent trying to churn through hundreds of pages of material while coming up with a list of people suitable to interview (and fighting the inevitable hangover).

In my defense, the last few days have been filled with non-stop interviews with expats and some locals, conducted in smoky bars with blaring techno music or in the quieter ambiance of outdoor cafes. People like Winston, Big John, William, Revi, George, Stephanie or Erekli were all happy to bombard me with priceless pieces of insight about Georgia, ranging from smoking habits to more serious depictions of the political scene.

So, what are the preliminary conclusions, you might ask? First, that books, scholarly articles and ICG reports are of limited use when trying to understand the complexity of real life and politics in Georgia. Even though I came here with a significant amount of facts, statistics and history bits about Georgia under my belt, I soon found myself as clueless about the real issues as if I had just been parachuted here from outer space.

Second, that my project is much tougher than I had initially thought. Providing an informed, realistic and comprehensive analysis of Georgian self-perception and its connection to frozen conflicts already seems like an arduous task. And while it is clear to me that by the end of my stay here I will have amassed enough data and knowledge to write a perfectly boring, allegedly insightful yet overly simplistic scholarly piece, I am not sure if the underlying question that drove me here will ever find a satisfying answer.