Freestyling and High Dives

My mother always claimed I could be an Olympic swimmer and perhaps that could or could have been true, just not really an aim of mine, but I feel the men of Georgia would probably have to agree with. I am a pretty strong swimmer for US standards, having raced but with the trademark of swimming usually 1000 meters or 1Km without stopping which usually blows most people away in the US and here, well quite unheard of. I am actually beginning to think that most girls work out on the machines to watch television and I am not over-exaggerating. Half the women barely break a sweat and the men seem to want to sweat up a storm wearing track suits and as much clothes as they can muster to wiggle off their khachapuri (Georgian cheese bread) and beer filled tummies. The women, on the other hand could almost qualify for needing humanitarian assistance in a lot of cases as they are so very thin. Even in the classic, Ali and Nino, the Azerbaijani, Ali complained about how thin the Georgian women are.

With all of this in mind, Enter Center-Stage: American girl, definitely not super thin, dressed in an unusual attire of racing swimsuit, swim cap (why heavens, what for?) and goggles (even more unusual for women here). The normal swim outfit would be bikini or perhaps one-piece that is fashionable but could possibly not be indecent while swimming, definitely no goggles and perhaps a swim cap, but then again, what for? The normal custom is to do breaststroke with head above water, slowly for relaxing after exercise. If it hasn't been made evident, I swim with the specific purpose of exercising which seems to surprise and amuse a lot of the men here. As I begin swimming freestyle quickly one day. I notice that a man pushes off the wall around the same time as me trying to race me, I presume. Within a couple of strokes, I have passed him. Several of his friends attempt as well, which begins to be a source of entertainment in my swimming meditation. 10 minutes pass and more men seem to be congregating in the lane where I am swimming, blocking the passage for me to do flipturns, which was a big mistake on their behalf as I go pretty fast to the wall then flutter some water as my feet hit the wall. I was beginning to think they were amused by the fact someone, be it more so a woman, is going fast and doing flip turns in the pool. I am surprised they didn't take photos. Although some men started passing comments according to a friend who apparently viewed the incident, complaining about women going faster than the men.

They are quite reckless at the pool with the high dives allowing kids and adults to go off the platforms up to at least 10 meters while the lane dividers are in the pool as well as people swimming below. I've developed a slight complex thinking about some man plummeting on top of me while doing one of my sprints. This is not to mention what would happen to the poor soul that lands between his legs on the lane lines. This is only one of the many examples of serious recklessness in Georgia.