The European mind cannot conceptualize many things about the US, and the lack of robust public transportation systems and walkable infrastructure is one of the biggest mysteries to Europeans visiting the US and Americans returning from a trip abroad. It's puzzling that many of those Americans who are fortunate to have skipped across the pond, after their trip lauding about how they loved being able to walk everywhere, seemingly never have the thought cross their minds that we could have the same thing over here. We have centuries of city-building to draw upon from many different types of civilizations. Why do we as Americans seemingly not use any of it in our modern urban planning? Are cars the be-all end-all and that's how it will always be? America is laced with hideous mega highways plagued by a never-ending desire to "just add one more lane" to address the ongoing and persistent traffic congestions. Was there a time when American cities rivaled European citie...
As someone who could be described as a "Kartvelaboo", I love and have a deep respect for Georgian cuisine. Khachapuri, Georgian cheese bread, has become the trendier version of pizza in metropolitan areas despite predating it by centuries. That said, it is still largely unknown to the wider American public. My friends and I, all Americans who were a part of our university's Russian (Language) Club, lived in our university's Eastern European Cultures House (EECH) and have been to Georgia on either a short trip or study abroad, share this appreciation for its culture. I'm even planning with one of them to open a Georgian restaurant somewhere in the US after we graduate; we haven't gotten very far, but it's still on the table. Though I don't have a sense of nostalgia for it, Chashushuli has the same warm, hearty, tomato-y feeling of a Sunday gravy that an Italian-American family would put on early in the weekend morning. It's a beef and onion stew (tr...