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What could a foreigner not like about Georgia?

Thursday, July 31
“A foreigner would not like the women in Georgia. Not because they are ugly. No, on the contrary, they are beautiful, but not in shape. They don’t take care of themselves. Most of them stand on the street selling things.”
Marina, kindergarten teacher, 57

“A foreigner wouldn’t like all the restaurants in the city center, overcrowded with paunchy people wasting money on unnecessary food, singing loudly and out of tune.”
Luba, philologist, 24

“A foreigner wouldn’t like the outsides of the buildings in the suburbs of big cities. Of course they would like Sighnaghi and Batumi, but you know, Georgia isn’t only two or three newly-renovated fashionable cities, or rather special city areas, not even whole cities.”
Magda, seamstress, 37

“I think they wouldn’t like the fact that everyone wants to take advantage of them. If the foreigner is male this means bargaining for money, and if female this means trying to take her to bed—because the Georgian attitude is ‘all foreign women are easy.’”
Giorgi, sociologist, 28

“There are many things. They probably wouldn’t like the lack of infrastructure and all the litter on the streets, because our street cleaning services aren’t really up to international standards.”
Tatia, journalist, 32

“They probably would not like the fact that everyone talks Georgian with each other in the presence of foreigners, even when they can speak English.”
Ana, student, 22

“I think foreigners wouldn’t like the fact that we are very lazy, probably the laziest people in the world.”
Gaga, lawyer, 30

“I don’t think that there’s anything in particular in Georgia that could be disliked by foreigners, except perhaps the infrastructure—it’s not prepared for foreign tourists, but this problem is not unique to Georgia.”
Gabriel, musician, 28

“The fact that we drink too much. Our supra may seem strange to the unprepared eye.”
avit, student, 21