Istanbul and Tbilisi, May 16th and 17th.

May 15th
My cousin's fiance and I had breakfast together and drove around Munich. The flight to Istanbul was pretty for the parts that I was awake for. The smaller Istanbul airport has a lot of alcohol and tobacco, this is a very liberal nation by Muslim standards. There are people here from around the world. I looked for Turkish food (I can have Burger King whenever I want at home, and I never want it anyways) and had a simit, and instantly fell in love with Turkish culture at the first bite. It had a delicious cheese and the bread was great. A simit is like a bagel, but with a larger hole in the middle and has a different texture to the bread.

I flew then to Tbilisi and slept on the overnight flight, I got to my friend's house around 3 in the morning and after a snack fell asleep immediately. I woke up about half an hour before I arrived in Tbilisi and watched the lights of the city of over a million people as I woke up. Customs was easy, and I went home with my friend and his father. We drove home and had some really good bread and cheese. The bread was baked with the cheese inside it. Georgian cheese (at least the one I tried) is salty and tasty.

May 16th
The next day (waking up around 12:30 in the afternoon, as opposed to 2:30 my overnight in München) we drove around the city. It is CRAZY! Georgian driving has people doing basically whatever they want.

May 17th
I just got home and had some dinner and it was a partially wonderful and partially eye opening day. I went with my friend's aunt and his brother (who is 8 and has just started to learn English, so he isn't comfortable with it yet) to a Georgian arts in the old city which is both beautiful and somewhat sad. There was some Armenian food, a wrap with what I think was beef inside and some bread very similar to what is made in Western European culture, wonderful people, and beautiful Georgian music. We walked to the top of the mountain on the south side of Tbilisi where there is a large statue that is less than 100 years old made of steel (coordinates: ) which gave Ilia some much needed exercise.When we were done we went to get some food, and then some ice cream. As we were there a small boy came up and asked me for change, I politely said no and he went away. It shook me a bit because I have never had a small child (maybe 8, the same age as Ilia) come up to me and ask for money, we don't have that in the United States. We took a taxi home (there are taxis and buses which are usually vans everywhere in Tbilisi, which is really convenient) and I had some dinner while talking to my friend's grandmother about my day. She explained what I heard a while back, but I didn't realize when the child came to me, that the 2008 war in Abkhazia and South Ossetia has displaced tens of thousands of people of all ages which is a huge crisis right here in Tbilisi. The Georgian government is doing everything they can, giving them 28 Lari (about $4) a month as a stipend, With over 280,000 refugees, this becomes a large price tag for such a small country. That is over 4% of Georgia's population. I see people of all ages on the streets. It's downright heartbreaking. I wish there was something I could do. I feel like this is truly life changing and that once I have got my life together this is one issue I would be willing to take on a part of, maybe a monthly donation of $100 or something like that to a charity to help these people. All in all, it was a very educational day with great music, great food, and a depressing realization.

I try not to publish politics on this blog, but this is not just a political issue, this is a moral issue.

Predictions for the next Decade.

Most of these I have heard, and these are the ones that I think are going to probably happen.
In Technology:
Hard Drives are going to stop being used and Flash memory is going to become the only current form of data storage used because of its capacity and size.
The internet is going to become even more available in our every day lives.
All video game systems are going to be wireless in the next generation because of ease and lack of cords.
Mice and keyboards produced will all be wireless.
Computers will be able to attach to newer mice and keyboards from hardware inside of them.
Skype will be used by more people. I'm not sure if it will continue to be free.
All major cell phones will be smart phones by 2015.
Cell phone service will be expanded to include all of America and Canada where people live.

In Politics:
The PATRIOT ACT will be repealed.
The European Union will become more economically balanced East to West.
The Republican Party will die out if they don't change their platform the way they did in 1908 and will be replaced by the more moderate Blue Dog Democrats.
Gay people will have the same rights as Blacks and Women.
The Stimulus package will work faster than the New Deal because the fear of communism in the country is less and we will be recovered by 2012. I base this on the fact that during Hoover's presidency the economy continued to fail and GDP slowed, and after the passage of the New Deal in 1933 the GDP increased. We will not need a large war because of the Socialist propaganda in the 1930s.
People will start learning how the economy works in High School to prevent future economic meltdowns.
China and Cuba will become more moderate economically.
Muslims around the world will unite and decide to worship all 5 pillars of Islam. Not Jihad.
The War on Terror will be won. If every free nation pitches in the time will be decreased and lives will be saved.
The best way to defeat the terrorists is to teach Muslims in the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa how to read in their native tongues and make sure they have a Koran they can refer to when the Terrorist recruiters/Preachers come to their village.
The Far Right

In Transportation:
Buses will become more convenient in America.
Fuel efficiency will become higher to popular demand no matter what fuel source we use.
We will see Plug-in stations for cars pop up all around the world. Electric cars will become more efficient, available, and reliable. They will all eventually be able to be plugged in.
Global Warming will not happen if we limit the amount of gases we put in the atmosphere from transportation, and this will make the conservatives happy, but they will forget all of the change in their arguments.
We might see Hydrogen Fuel Cells used by the end, but that will take a long time or impressive leadership like this world has never seen.