So, I know to those who regularly read my blog, you have been wondering where I went. I used to be a regular reader of Grahams blogs and remember getting irritated at him when he would spend more than 2 days coming up with another blog. Anyway. My family did indeed move to Germany. They left and now it is just me and my "tateek" (grandmother) in the house. It is kind of sweet. She cleans and cooks for me and we get along just fine. Its actually really nice now. When i got to my Armenian lessons during the evening, she goes over to a neighbors house and then after my lesson I have to go and get her and walk with her home because she is afraid of the dark. ha. I went up to see Michael at his town and see him in action teaching his health class. My "tateek" said call me when you get back to Yerevan so I know you made it back from Arteek alright, and then call me again when you get back from the Ukraine. You can tell the excitement and relief in her voice when i call.
So, I left my site on Friday. I went to help Pat with some of his classes and judge an art contest. After that, I went into Yerevan because I had a number of meetings to take care of including those with American Councils, the organization who sent me to Ukraine. I met the two young ladies that I will be working with. They were pretty cool and I was excited to start this thing.
The Iranian New Year. So, if you are a regular reader you will know that I talked very fondly of my first experience with them in early January. This time was better. I went out and met with Ani and talked with her for a while and then we had dinner with some other PCVs. Afterwards, Ani helped me and Brent find out where Khashi (my Iranian friend) lived. We went over there. About twelve of his friends came up to Yerevan to celebrate the Iranian New Year. It was awesome. Brent and I were obviously newbies but everyone was so nice. SOO SOO NICE. They talked to us a lot and gave us lots of food and drink. We danced... That was funny because we had to dance in silence because the music was coming from an iPhone. After a while we realized that wasn't going to work so they just started singing and we were just dancing to the singing. That was really an experience. Afterwards, around 11:30 we walked to a nightclub. It was an exclusively Iranian nightclub and you had to buy tickets. Tickets we didn't have. The bar man asked Brent and myself which nationality we were. We said American... After that they gave a huge smile and welcomed us in. It was awesome. I just can't get over how nice everyone was.
So many of you have seen me dance. I won't elaborate anymore than that. In the states, girls will dance with someone if they will try. Even if they are horrbile and leave it at that. I was dancing with an Iranian girl that apparently didn't like my style. After she stopped laughing, she grabbed my arms and hips and sat there teaching me what I needed to be doing. It was just an experience. We left kind of late and walked back to the hostel we were staying at. So thank you again Khashi, Moh, Maria for another unforgetable time.
The next day, Sunday, I went up to Arteek to spend some time with Michael. I got up there but wasn't that much fun because I was exhausted from the previous night. So I went to bed at... 9. We woke up the next morning and walked around Arteek before his classes at 1. We saw some old churches and his town. It seemed like he has integrated well into the community as people knew who he was and everyone there was really nice as well. We went to his school. He works at a "special" school. Try working at a school like that in another language. Kudos to Michael. I watched his lessons and helped out a little. Then we hung out for a bit with some other Peace Corps Volunteers.
On Tuesday, I left Arteek and came back to Yerevan. I went to stay at a Hostel before my flight the next morning. I had a lot of complaints about this place. It wasn't like the hostel I usually stay at. It wasn't that great.
What made things worse was the news I got that night. Ani, my piano playing friend, and one of my best friends here, told me that her father passed away the night of March 21st. He had had many strokes in the past and I believe he had his last one. Anyway, that was difficult to deal with because here is a really close friend who is going through this and there is nothing that I could have done since I had to leave to go to Ukraine the next day. If you are of the praying variety, please do so for her. It has been really hard on her because she doesn't know now if she wants to go and study in Germany which she needs to do... Anyway, as Mom always says "that's life". My blog about my trip to Ukraine will come shortly. I have to go and get a wart burned off of my hand. Ha.
Peace Corps is awesome. So...
Until Next time...
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