|
May 16, 2011 Hello Ellie,It hasn't been a long time, since I last wrote you, but I just want to tell you about the lifestyle here and about my near future plans. As you know, the school semester is ending soon, final exams are approaching, and for me and most of my friends, life here really gets busy now. Even on weekends it's hard to take someone out because after a busy working week, weekends are basically the best time to do all your home assignments from school. But another two weeks and the long-awaited summer holydays are coming. I have big plans for this summer. Most of this time I am planning to spend traveling. As I told you before, I was planning to visit Georgia in the summer, but after you left it I reconsidered my plans and decided to spend my vacation seeing some new places. I haven't decided yet where exactly I'll go, but I am aiming for Europe, and specifically starting with Italy. There are several reasons why I made this choice. First of all, there are some big countries situated close to Italy and I need only one Schengen visa to visit any of this countries. Also, Italy, and particularly Venice, became the city of my dreams after I had already visited New York City. Basically, travelling and exploring new places is my lifestyle. Even when I am not able to travel and have a long trip, on weekends, I am usually trying to organize some short hiking trips to various places. Every time I try to go to new places where I have never been before. This is how I chose Russian River, where I went with my friends last week for 3 days. It's one of the most beautiful places I've seen in the United States so far. We had an amazing time there. The first day we just enjoyed the beauty of nature in that area and took lots of wonderful pictures. At the end of the day we had a barbeque dinner and stayed overnight in tents. (It was my first tent experience). On the second day we took a canoe trip down the Russian River. It was an exciting experience. We rented two canoes and while drifting down the river we had some kind of competition to prevent each other from going forward. Even though it was a sunny day, the water was still cold and any splash of it prevented us from rowing forward. So we had an unforgettable experience there. Later I will send you photos of the trip. My friend took it and he has yet to send me them. In the United States people usually have busy lifestyle and are not able to travel a lot unless it's a job-related business trip. I am telling you this based on my experience. If I had a choice, I wouldn't stay in the same place more than a month. I would travel all around the world. But without working, I cannot afford to travel at all, and my work schedule doesn't allow me to have long trips. So it's going like a circle. I think this kind of lifestyle is the main reason why most Americans' lives are so stressful, and many of them seek psychological help. I don't know why, but people here are so job-oriented. I could say it's not even about the job, it's more about money. Most of them are just trying so hard all their lives to earn enough money and then enjoy their retirement. But at the same time they don't understand that they are wasting their youth to have a secure seniority. That's another thing I like about the Georgian people. They are mostly living in the present, not for the future, and enjoying everything that they have today. I like the saying "Enjoy the life today; you never know what might happen tomorrow." So I am living according this proverb and living with today's life, enjoying every moment of it, especially if the prediction about 2012 is true, we don't have much time left. 
So back to my trip to Italy, I know that at the end of the summer you are planning to visit your sister in France, so it would be really great if you could find a couple of days and we can meet somewhere; I know the trains run from Italy to France, and it wouldn't be problem for me to visit France or maybe you can come to Italy. Anyway, there is still a long summer to go till that time, so I hope we can arrange something. Till my next letter, With love, Irakli  May 16, 2011 Hello Ellie,Writing you a letter helps me to overcome the distance that is between us and the time till our next meeting. Also, by these letters I am trying to tell you more about the American lifestyle, that I know you are so interested in. So one day, if you finally decide to move to the United States, knowing a little bit about this country will also be helpful for your adaptation here. This country and its culture is so different from the country we are from, I can tell you endless stories about it. But expectations that I had of this country didn't get fulfilled. Before I came here, I thought America was the country with highest standards of quality of everything, starting from education and ending with clothing and food. After living here more than 6 years now, I realize that not everything is as perfect here as it seems from overseas. Even though Americans are so demanding about top quality in every aspect of their environment, the reality is not that perfect. As I told you before, food and products here taste completely different from our country. Even though we try to prepare a dish with the same ingredients and recipe that we use in our country, the outcome of our work tastes absolutely different. If you take any sealed product from the store and read the label, you will find that this product passed lots of tests and it's approved by several organizations, but after bringing it home and trying it, you realize that it doesn't have any taste or tastes different than it should. Law and order in the United States have very a high priority. Although rules and regulations here are very strict and violators of the law are prosecuted and punished severely, I think the most serial killings, rapes and murders are still happening here in America. Also, some of the rules are made not only to keep the country in order, but just to penalize violators and contribute a huge amount of money to the country's budget. Parking violations are one of the most common violations in the US. There are so many silly rules and restrictions about where you can and cannot park, that at the end you consider just leaving your car in the garage and taking the bus. In the last five years that I have been driving a car, I have paid more than $2000 just for parking violations. Once my car was even towed because I had parked it at a sign that said "no parking after 4," but the sign was behind a tree and didn't notice it. So I ended up paying $575 to return my car. To become an electrician here, you have to go to the college, get a license, and then also pass some coding exams. In addition, every couple of years you have to retake these exams because some codes change from time to time. Two years ago my landlord called electricians to fix the outage we had at our apartment. It took almost two days for them to identify the cause of the problem and another day to fix it. The funniest thing is that problem returned less than a month later, and I called my uncle, a person without any special electrical education, to fix this problem. He fixed it in around an hour and after that we never had a problem with electricity. Nature here in California is very beautiful. We have lots of national parks spread all over the state. The parks are really gorgeous, but at the same they're all artificially created by man. In contrast, in Georgia, all the greenery around is natural without any human influence or intervention. I can tell you lots of other examples about how artificial and fake lots of thing are here. Even relationships between people here, like friendships, are based mostly on sharing parties and spending good times together, but when you face hard times and need some support, you realize that nobody is around. This is the time when I miss my friends the most. I know that they would always stay by me; in good and the bad times. Till my next letter, With love, Irakli May 8, 2011 Hello Ellie,Hello Ellie, Today is mother`s day in the United States, so even though you are not a mother yet, I wish you and your mom a happy mother’s day. There are lots of holidays here which we do not celebrate or have it on another date. In America, they never celebrate Women’s Day or the Day of Love. Of course, they have Valentine’s Day, which I believe is celebrated in the whole world, but in Georgia we have another day to celebrate, the day of love. I think it’s a good holiday; also it’s another reason to present your love with flowers and some gifts. But here are some holidays that I really love: Independence Day and Halloween are my favorites, which we don’t celebrate back in Georgia. Independence Day is exciting mostly because of the beautiful fireworks at the end of the day. In the city many people hang the American flag outside their houses and apartments. Everyone goes on a picnic or has a party at home. At the end of the day, everyone heads to fisherman’s Wharf, the place where the biggest fireworks in the city usually happens. At the last celebration they were shooting fireworks from Alcatraz Island for almost half an hour. It was a very spectacular and memorable sight. Halloween is the most entertaining and joyful holiday in the United States for me. This is the day when almost everyone is dressed up in different costumes and goes to the parade, and most children go door to door shouting “trick or treat!” which basically means that they are carrying bags and asking people for candies or other treats. The first time I saw a Halloween parade, I was amazed at how many various costumes were out there. I`ve seen cute nurses in the shortest dresses, Romans on chariots, and funny guys in Adam’s costume (which basically means completely naked). The Symbol of this day is the pumpkin, so almost every house has a pumpkin with cut out eyes and mouth. Usually they are lighted up from inside. People believe that it repels evil spirits. I love this holiday and always enjoy it. Unfortunately a couple of years ago some accident happened in San Francisco; some guys got really drunk and shot each other in the middle of the parade, so after that the government banned parading in the city on Halloween. There are lots of other interesting holidays and celebrations in the United States but even though they banned the Halloween parade, it remains my favorite holiday here. I hope one day the city government will reinstate this parade because it is so much fun. Hopefully you will visit me one day and will see all this yourself. Till my next letter, With love, Irakli April 26, 2011 Hello Ellie,Happy Easter from San Francisco. I hope you had joyful holidays there. I myself spent this holiday mostly at home with my family. My mom baked an Easter cake, dyed eggs and prepared a special dinner for this day. On Sunday my friends came over to my house and we had an egg-breaking competition. I don't know if Americans know about this tradition. When two people bump hard-boiled eggs, the winner (the one whose egg stays intact) takes the other's broken egg. I remember one Easter day back in Georgia. I won more than 15 eggs and ate all of them; the next day I had an allergic reaction from them. On this kind of holiday, when the celebration completely differs from what we have back in Georgia, I start to feel really homesick. I really appreciate what America gave me already and is still giving me. For the past 5 years I earned and achieved what I might need decades to get in my country. But the thing is that our mentality, the way we see the things and life itself, completely differs from the American point of view, and that prevents me from feeling like I am at home. I know that this is immigrant`s biggest problem. Basically adaptation and enculturation to American culture shouldn`t be so hard. With so many nationalities and freedom of choice of everything, a person can say that this country is a haven for immigrants. I know that in other countries, especially in Europe, immigrants are treated differently. My friend, who has been living in Germany for more than 15 years and speaks German with almost no accent, told me how hard it is to be an immigrant in Germany. He said, "No matter how long you live in Germany, if you do not speak exactly as they do, you will be a foreigner to them forever." As he explained, this affects people not only in everyday life, but it's also very hard to get a good, high-salary job when you are from another country. What makes life in America easier for me is also the fact that here in my state and especially in my city, there are lots of people from the former Soviet Union, who are closer to our mentality and have same interests and traditions. That's why my most friends are Russians and Georgians. We understand each other better, our emotions, interests, jokes that for Americans might not sound funny at all. Once I told a joke to one of my American friends, and he stared at me for a couple of minutes really angrily before I said that it was joke. I am not saying that Americans don't have a sense of humor, but because of the fact that for incorrect wording you might be punished here, people are careful about telling jokes without the warning in advance that it is joke; otherwise they might be accused of being insulting. With all its advantages and disadvantages I love this country because it gave me opportunities that I didn't have back in my country. But no matter how long I live here, I will always miss my country – the only place that I can call home. Till the next letter, With love, Irakli April 11, 2011 Hello Ellie,Another letter from San Francisco is on its way. The last couple of days have been really busy for me, so I wasn't able to write to you earlier. My job, school, running errands, plus a couple of interviews made this week really stressful for me. As you know, I'm still trying to find new job as a quality assurance engineer. Nowadays, because of the tough economic situation it's really hard to get any job, and especially tough in the computer field. All this started around two years ago when a significant recession happened in the United States and in the whole world as well. I was laid off with another 120 employees from my company. It happened so unexpectedly. We were working on a regular schedule and at the end of the day, we were warned to stay at the office because the director of the company had to made some announcement. After an hour, director came to our office and announced that because of a hard economic situation in the company, they couldn't afford us anymore. So basically, we were given one hour's notice to clear out our cubicles. As I found out later, it was violation of workers' rights and I could sue them, but at that time I was shocked, and signed all the papers I was asked to sign. I think it was the worst day in my life in the United States. You know, it hurts twice more when you realizing that you didn't deserve it, and when all your hard work and effort to keep your position, and hope that one day you would be promoted disappears in a blink. At that time, during the economic crises over 50 million people were laid off from different positions all over the United States, and it was pointless to look for another job. The best option was to go back to school to enhance your knowledge or even to get a degree in a new field. The best part is, that during this recession the government has really helped people who`ve been laid off to stay alive and to cover their bills. They provided unemployment insurance benefits to all people who were eligible for it. Originally this insurance lasted only 6 month, but because of this hard economic situation, government extended it up to 2 years. So I was happy that during this recession I was in the United States because if I had been in Georgia, nobody would give me even a penny after being laid off. So right now I'm back in the school, trying to improve my knowledge and skills. At the same time I'm working in a restaurant as a waiter and I'm also I am seeking a new job among the computer companies. As you know, I also finished bartending courses and hope to find a bartender job as well. I really enjoy bartending; it's like a hobby for me, so even if I find a good job in some computer company, I want to tend bar occasionally somewhere in a nightclub just for fun. Till my next letter, With love, Irakli March 22, 2011 Hello Ellie,It's me again, your friend from America. First of all I want to tell you Happy Birthday, wish you all the happiness and that all your wishes come true. I hope you had a really good time and got nice gifts. I myself am sitting at home for a second day. I got the stomach flu and can't leave my place. Actually this is the first time I heard about this disease in America. In United States there are several diseases that that I didn't know about before and don't think there are too many cases in our country. Anyway, I don't want to talk about bad things in my letter. In the last few weeks nothing special has been happening in my life: just work, school and back home, sometimes going to movies and shopping of course. Shopping takes big part of American life. People go shopping not only because they need something, but sometimes just to spend some money on stuff they do not even need, but when they purchase it, it makes them happy for that moment. It doesn't matter if a person is rich, or just middle class, I've noticed that in America almost everyone enjoys shopping. People upgrade old stuff, buy unnecessary things and then throw them away in a couple of months. Even my mom, who hated shopping back in Georgia, has almost become a shopaholic. She is buying lots of "garbage items" from the journals, even though she knows that most of the stuff there is low quality and lasts for just a couple of days. Our fridge is overloaded; I am scared to open it because every time I do, something falls out of it. I myself have changed too. I like shopping now, even when I am going just for regular groceries, or for some treats for myself, (as long as I am single now, the closest person to treat is myself) I feel happy when I get new stuff. Seeing me as a consumer is really funny. I don't like long shopping, especially when I am not alone, I want to find stuff I need really quick. When I am shopping alone, it's a different story. By the horoscope I am a Libra, which means making decisions is my major problem. When I am shopping alone, I can go all day for one item. Even though I know what I am looking for, I will go to all the stores around to look for the best quality available for the best available price. So I think you would love this place. I remember a time when I was forced to go shopping with you a couple of times, and I remember that the whole day wasn't enough for you to find just shoes. If you ever visit America, I suspect you will be overloaded on your way back home. Till my next letter, Best wishes and Happy Birthday again. With love, Irakli March 8, 2011 Hello Ellie,First of all I want to tell you happy Women's Day. I remember that in our country people respect this day, especially guys. This day for them is another reason to say beautiful things to women, give them flowers and just appreciate their existence. Here in United States most people don't know that this holiday exists and they are surprised when I tell them about it. As for news, I can tell you that I bought new car. It's sporty and really nice. I don't remember if I told you about the importance of the car in the United States, but I want to tell you that here a car is not only a beautiful accessory to show yourself off, but it's very necessary to accommodate to the busy American lifestyle. Here in the United States, almost everyone can afford some kind of car (some of them new, some just used ones) and almost everyone over the age 16 drives a car. I cannot say that I am really satisfied with it. On the streets you can see lots of people over the age 75 who are still driving. In my opinion it's really dangerous for the society because they can't always respond adequately to certain situations on the streets that put other drivers at risk because you don't know what to expect from them. A couple of times, I've seen an old lady with shaky hands (I suspect she had Parkinson disease) approach her car and sit on the driver seat. I never want to meet this woman on the highway. I think drivers should be more under control here. After a certain age, people should be required to pass an examination again and do it every year, to check their driving ability. The good side of having a car in United States is its freeways. This is the place where you can really test your car, especially if it is sporty car. This is the place where the speed limit is 65mph, (I am running up to 80mph with no citation). Even though freeways are very dangerous because of the high speed limit, this is my favorite place to drive. Especially at night, when there is no traffic and just a couple of cops on street, it's really a joy to drive and test your car. Because my car is sporty and I know it can compete with other cars, I have already had couple of races on the freeway. It was an indescribable experience. After the race my body was overflowing with adrenalin. I knew that I was violating the law and punishment for it is really rough (around $1500 or even jail, depending on the speed), but it is so tempting when you see an empty road, that nothing can stop you. I know how you like speed. That's why I'm describing this in detail, but I think for a person from a country with no highways or freeways, it's hard to imagine it until you drive yourself. So I hope someday you will visit me and you will see this yourself. Till my next letter, With love, Irakli February 22, 2011 Hello Ellie,A couple of weeks ago I wrote from Hawaii, how good it was spending time there, and here I am again, back in San Francisco, sitting alone somewhere in a coffee shop and realizing how much I miss you. Living in the United States I realize one thing; relationships between people here, especially friendship, is completely different from those we have back in our country, Georgia. People are colder here, more indifferent and more locked in themselves. The reason I am saying this is that when I need a friend, not just to have fun somewhere in a club or just to spend a good time together, but need someone to talk with, someone to give me some advice or maybe support, I am realizing that I don't have that kind of person around and that my only escape from this situation is my letters back to my old friends. People here are so busy with their own lives, work and all other things that they have on their schedules, that when they have free time they prefer to spend it alone or with their family, leaving no time for friends. I don't know if this is the problem of American individualism or just a lack of time because of their busy lifestyle, but anyway, I feel like I will never make real American friends here. In Georgia I was used to different relationships with friends and people I knew. Compared to American individualism, in my country people are really social and help each other with advice and even solving problems. In my country there is saying: "My friend's problem is my problem." Sometimes a friend there is even closer to you than your own sister or brother. I recently read an article by a Mexican girl, about her experience immigrating to US and I found so many similarities to my life that I reached the conclusion that this is the problem of most immigrants who arrive in the United States as adults. So I am little jealous that you are there with all our friends enjoying real, true friendship and have people around that you can always trust. I hope I will be with you guys soon, and I miss you very much. With Love, Irakli February 15, 2011 Hello Ellie,It's been a long time since I last wrote to you. Lots of things have happened in my life; I don't think I could fit everything in one letter so I'll do it one at a time. First of all, I made my dream come true and finally visited Hawaii and spend ten wonderful days there. As you might know, Hawaii is the 50th state of US, but I can tell you that it's completely different from the rest of the country. From my first step onto Hawaiian land, I felt that I had come to another world. "Aloha" (which I later found out means not only hello, but also goodbye, love and kindness) was the first word I heard from people in funny dresses. After spending just three days here, I came to the opinion, that Hawaii is the most beautiful and exotic place I've ever been. There are 6 main islands in Hawaii, and I chose to travel to one of the wildest islands, Kauai. There are white sandy beaches, refreshing waterfalls, exciting volcanoes, wonderful scenery, and warm eccentric air. This place makes me feel that I am in heaven. After a stressful year in San Francisco, only after a couple of days spent here, I feel energized as I soak up the sun. You know, it was my dream that someday I would have my wedding on one of the Hawaiian Islands, the wildest one, and now, I am standing in the middle of the island of my dreams and writing you a letter. If you want to get away from civilization and be alone, the Hawaiian Islands are a perfect place for it. In Kauai I stayed in a very nice bungalow, isolated from the city`s busy life and located somewhere in the jungle with a fascinating ocean view. My tour guide told me about some cultural values and traditions of Hawaiians. I even took part in one of the customs called the flower lei. When I first stepped on Hawaiian land, a beautiful woman approached me and hung a garland made of flowers on my neck. I had to wear it until I was alone because by tradition, I wasn't allowed to remove it in public. I can tell you so much more about this wonderful place, but as people in my country say "it is better to see the place once, than to hear a hundred stories about it" so one day you should definitely visit Hawaii and you will find out that my letter doesn't describe even half of the greatness of Hawaii. Till my next letter, With love, Irakli  February 8, 2011 Hello Ellie,It seems like only a few weeks ago that I sat down and wrote my 2010 Christmas Letter to you, and here it is, already 2011 shining on my new calendar. Last year I didn't know much about Christmas and New Year in the United States, so this time I want to tell you little bit about it. In 2009, I spent my Christmas holidays in San Francisco and was little bit disappointed because the New Year atmosphere here was way below my expectations. The city itself was really decorated nicely, especially at night -- it was beautiful to watch, but when it came time to count down the seconds to the New Year, nothing was happening in the city that would point that New Year was knocking on the door. No fireworks, no noise on the streets, most people had already thrown out their Christmas trees, and the city was as quiet as it was on a regular day of the year. I wasn't even able to find any fireworks for sale in the stores; as I found out later, this is for safety and the sale of fireworks is prohibited in regular stores. The only sign that it wasn't just a regular evening was the smell coming from our kitchen. Following Georgian tradition, my mom was preparing lots of delicious stuff which we usually make especially for the New Year. This was the only thing that reminded me of the New Year in my hometown. So to cheer ourselves up a little bit, when the clock struck twelve, we opened a bottle of champagne and said a couple of toasts. Usually on this day I stay up all night or at least till 5 or 6 am. It was first New Years Day in my life that I went to bed so early, at around 2 am. Last year I decided to spend Christmas and New Year holidays in New York, the city of my dreams. I want to tell you, that everything over there is completely different from the state and city I live. From the first minute when I arrived at New York's main JFK airport, I already felt a different atmosphere and the Christmas spirit. On Christmas, New York City is transformed into a winter wonderland. Beautifully decorated department stores, street lights, Christmas trees with a thin layer of snow on them and of course Santa Claus, whom you can meet everywhere in the city, truly represents the definition of an ideal Christmas atmosphere for me. Even with the cold wind blowing, I was happy walking down the Manhattan streets, enjoying the beautiful view of a lit-up up city and hearing crunchy sound of the snow under my feet. I was taking pictures of every building and trees which were uniquely decorated for this day. Around 2 am, at a time when everything was going to close in San Francisco, I, with a couple of my friends, entered one of the huge night clubs and spent the rest of the night dancing and having fun. It was around 4:30am when I finally got home, exhausted, but full of impressions. New Year in New York City is completely different than elsewhere in the world. As the New Year approaches, New York City gets ready for its annual Times Square celebration. The famous ball drop atop Times Square is tradition for New Yorkers. From the early morning people go to hold their places in Times Square because after 5 pm it becomes a barricaded area, where people can't go in or out and have to stay till the actual event. I also got promised fireworks there, which was a very spectacular performance lasting 15-20 minutes. In my 5 years in the United States I have only seen fireworks once, on July 4, America's Independence Day. I hope you also had a joyful time this New Year. Tell me how my home town celebrated it and how the city was decorated. But you know, no matter how it was, I wish I had been there and spent my favorite holiday with my closest friends. Miss you very much With Love, Irakli |