Graduation and house hopping

So I wrote on birthday morning. That was before Graduation. Graduation started at 1:00 and so I did some work in the morning, and at around 12:30 I got ready and headed out the door. My next door neighbor, Arpine, is the English teacher at my school and my tutor. At 12:45 when I was walking by her yard, she was in the potato field working. I called out to her and asked her what she was doing. She said that she was working in the field and would come to the graduation. In my head I was wondering how someone would stop working in the field, clean up, get dressed, and make it to the school by 1:00. I soon figured out the answer.

I got to the graduation. It had already started. I wasn’t late because I got there with ten minutes to spare. So the one time in Armenian history, something started early. Weird. Anyway, the way I came in, I actually ended up behind the graduating students, and so I just stood there. Then eventually I made my way to the front and sat with some teachers.

The Actually graduation was interesting. There are two eleventh grade classes. So grade 11A went first. The teachers don’t do anything, they just sit there and listen. The ideology of this is that the students have to listen all year and they finally get their chance to talk. This was a bit curious because there wasn’t much talking. The students would get in a shoulder-to-shoulder line and they would say stuff. So, they would talk for 3 minutes, and then dance for 12 minutes, talk for 3 minutes, dance for 12 minutes, and it went on like this for an hour and a half. They would talk about their school year, make fun of the teachers (in a strictly comical way), and talk about their classmates. So, after the first hour and a half, my butt was completely numb and I was ready to leave, but then it was time for the 11B class to go. Crap. So, after that, I had a really bad headache because I had pretty much been sitting on a hard seat, meant for an eight year old, for 3 hours. After I walked around a bit, I felt a lot better. My neighbor finally arrived halfway through the first class presentation.

Anyway, when that was finished, I walked home, but with some of my classmates. The six girls that I did the poetry competition with and who are in my English class came over to my house. They baked me a birthday cake. Holy Cow that thing was huge. A picture is attached. Anyway, we talked for a while, took some pictures, and we danced a little. It was a little awkward in the dancing part. Then, some of the girls went into the kitchen and did all the dishwashing which was great because Grandma didn’t have to do it, and more importantly, I didn’t have to do it. There were a lot of dishes.

Afterwards, I went house-hopping to different neighbors houses. I had barbeque at home house, with some more cake, then went to Varton’s house, but then my counterpart came over to my house so I had to run home to sit with her, but then Varton called and said that Mike had come over to his house, so I had to run over there and get him. I brought him back to the house for some cake and to drop things off at my house. When I got back, Huseek, my tutor’s husband came over and was sitting with my Grandma and my counterpart. We sat there and talked for a while. It was really nice. I had a really good time. Then my counterpart left and then Terri came over. At this point it was 9:30 ish but we still needed to go over to Varton’s house again. So, Mike and I went over there and we hung out for another two hours or so. It was fun because pretty much Varton’s whole family was there. I met his eldest daughter who is married and lives in Yerevan. She was really cool and had a really good sense of humor.

So overall, it was a great way to spend a birthday overseas. Last years was pretty good, and this one came in a close second.

Mike is certainly a character. I have never met someone quite like him before. He knows a lot about politics and history and this area, things that only interest me if someone tells me these things in brevity. He is just one of those guys you can always count on and will do what he can for anyone. I guess I should say that I am really fortunate to have such a friend. But sometimes he can do some really dumb things. For example, coming to my village from Arteek usually costs about 2500 dram, or about 6 dollars. He missed the last bus from Arteek and decided to get a taxi. A shared taxi is about 5000 dram or about 12 dollars. Mike rented a taxi for himself and spent 20,000 dram or 50 dollars on a taxi to my village. It was a nice gesture. It was really nice actually, but then he realized what he had done... He likes chocolate cake a lot too.

So Sunday, I had some work to do, so we went to the school and started digging some percolation holes for my bathroom. These are all tests I need to do to put in a bathroom. So, we carried shovels across the village and of course everyone came out to see why the Americans were walking around with shovels. That was interesting.

That afternoon, we met up with Terri because we were going to go to the beach. The weather turned and we ended up getting to Martuni with the weather changing for the worse. So we just sat around and talked and then headed back. That night, Mike and I went over to Arpine’s house and made some American style pizza.

There were several times when she would try to correct what I was doing and it was funny because I would keep saying that we were making the pizza the “American way”. They turned out really good. My neighbors, I think, said they liked it because they would say “ oh this is so good, we are going to eat it tomorrow for breakfast” and they would be halfway through their first slice. Ha. The little boy flat out said he didn’t like it and took one bite and spit it out, but honestly, it was really good. I ate probably half of a whole pizza by myself. Anyway, a nice experience.

Then Monday, early in the morning, we got to the bus stop and there was no bus. Usually there are at least two waiting, but there wasn’t any. So we waited a long time. When it finally came, there was a mad rush of people pushing people out of the way. It was pretty crazy. Mike and I tried one time but we just got thrown to the side. The best part was when another bus came, the same thing happened, this time Mike and I stood on the sidelines. Funny enough, another bus came half full of people, we got on and that was that. We even left before the other bus. We had a nice ride in and it was really pretty in Yerevan.

We got to Yerevan and went to the office. We waited there for about 30 minutes. There is an animated film that was made in Armenia and they wanted some native English speakers to dub over the voice. So, Mike and I volunteered for it because it would be an interesting experience. I went first. I went into a soundproof room with a computer screen and a really really sensitive mic and dubbed over the Armenian. It’s really hard to do that. You have to match up the English with the Armenian. You have to act in the studio to get “into character”. This part had two problems. One, everyone is staring at you so it took me a while to get “into character”. Second is if you move too much the mic picks up the rustling of your clothes. I took off my button up shirt so I could move a little freely and they freaked out because they thought I would be cold in the studio.

They fed us. It was really cool. Our names are going to be on a film going to a film festival. How cool. I never thought this would happen during my Peace Corps experience. Weird.

After that, we went back to the office to do some work and then took a taxi to our favorite mexican restaurant, Taco Maco. I got in an argument with the taxi driver and I honestly thought we were going to get in a fight. The man wanted 1000 dram (2.50) to take us what we usually pay 600 dram (1.50) for. Now, I know that you are like, oh a dollar, but remember that I am working with a Peace Corps salary and I don’t like it when taxi drivers, or anyone for that matter, tries to take advantage of me. So, when I tried to give him the 600 minimum fare, he asked how much it was, which I told him. He said it wasn’t enough. This is how the rest of the conversation went:

Me: How do you know how much it is, you didn’t turn on the meter
Taxi: I don’t need to, I know how much it should cost
Me: I know how much it is, I take this route every time I come to Yerevan
Taxi: this is my taxi
Me: Yeah, well you should have turned on your meter then
Taxi: Well you also got my seats dirty
(Mike slid his feet across the seat and got some dust on the seat which just wiped away)
Me: You show me where the dirt is and I will happily pay
Taxi: The next person that comes and sits down is going to get dirt on them
Me: I slid over, now the dirt will be on me, take the money
Taxi: (while freaking out, almost jumping in the back seat) You will pay me the money
Me: Ill tell you what, Ill call the cops and they will sort all this out
Taxi: There is no need to call the cops
Me: Listen, take the money or we will wait until the cops come
At this point, Oscar the owner of Taco Maco came out and his business partner took care of the problem. The business partner said the taxi driver was trying to intimidate us into paying more. So, that was that. We left the 600 dram in the taxi and walked away.

Good experience? I would say YES...

So that was my exciting weekend. The weather is really nice now. No more school so I have plenty of time to plan all my stuff out now. Great. AHHH.

Anyway, hope everyone at home is doing well.

Here is a description of the pictures:
What we do in Peace Corps
Me and my students
The amazing cake
Monuk, a really cool guy and the Healthy living counterpart at school after graduation

Until next time...