It was so nice getting being at home. I got home late from Yerevan after my trip. Grandma hugged me and held me for a while. I was so happy to see her and I suppose her, me. I just told her and my sister, who was staying at her house for a while, about my trip (not the full version). Basically I said I went from Italy to Greece and saw some friends along the way, and I told Grandma that we got on the wrong train. That’s about it.
That night I slept a solid 12 hours. I guess when you are alway for over three weeks sleeping in different beds almost every night and waking up early to catch buses/trains, you don’t get the best quality of sleep. It was a great feeling to finally lay down in my bed here and just pass out with no worries. I woke up around 10 the next morning to my Grandma saying “you slept a lot”. (She’s so cute). I didn’t do anything. However, I did talk to Sean on the phone, my friend who was going to get married. Sean sometimes thinks he does something, but if fact he never has. I was honored by his request to be his best man, but up until 3 days before the wedding, he hadn’t told me anything that needed to be done. I thought I had from Wednesday till Friday free. Sean made it very obvious that this was not the case. He said that I had to be in Yerevan Thursday (the next day) for wedding stuff. So my short lived retreat back to the village was short lived.
My site mates are great, for the most part. Hector and Kyle both called me the day I got back. It was good to hear their voices because it had been a while. They asked when I would be in the village. We decided that we would meet on Thursday, so before I had to go back into Yerevan, we met in Martuni to catch up a bit. Everyone seemed to have had a nice summer. Hector and a couple others still had one more camp to do. I left the guys early to take the bus back into Yerevan. It was good to be back in the country.
I got to Yerevan. Sean had booked us rooms in the hotel, so I went there. I checked in. Sean said that he had booked us a triple room and I would be sharing with Pat and Meagan but when I checked in, I was put into a single. I called Sean. He said it was wrong. So I repacked and was moved to another room. In the triple room, I found out the toilet didn’t work. So, I moved to another room. I was running out of time because I had to meet Sean for dinner at Aghavni’s house. (later I as told by Pat that the shower didn’t work, but the next day, they got that fixed).
So I went to Aghavni’s house for the second time and met her father who works in Russia. Really cool guy. Same goes for her granddad. Sean’s parents and sister flew over from the States as well as Aghavni’s host mother. It was a very interesting situation. There were several times when Sean and Aghavni had to leave to get stuff done and I was left there by myself to translate everything. That was fun. A very interesting cultural experience. The interesting part was being an American who understood Armenian culture, always knowing what to do in situations like that, whereas Sean’s parents and Aghavni’s host mom didn’t really know what to do. In Armenia, you don’t really ever drink unless its after a toast. Well, as soon as the glasses were poured, they started drinking. It was weird, because I felt a bit insulted by this after 15 months of this custom. I gave signals that it wasn’t the best idea to drink before a toast. The funniest part was Grandpa talking to Aghavni’s host mom the whole time.
The next day I had some work I needed to do so I went to the office and got some things taken care of. Again that night, we went to a restaurant, this time it was the groom’s parents hosting. This night wasn’t nearly as fun because the table was split. Americans and Armenians. When the Americans were finished, they paid and left. I don’t know, it was a little awkward for me.
The wedding...
I was ready at 10:30 to go over to the other hotel from mine. At 11 I was at the other hotel already ready. Sean and his sister had awoken maybe twenty minutes before i got there. I realized that I was overdressed, so I took off my suit jacket and my shirt and tie. ( I was wearing an undershirt). We went to eat breakfast. People in the hotel knew who Sean was. Weddings are a huge deal here so everyone, EVERYONE gets excited for them. A waitress came up to take our order, when an older waiter came over and said “no no, we will make something for you. You are getting married today”, so we just waited. That was funny. We ate and then went to get our hair trimmed.
Yeah, well my hair was pretty long after my trip and my energy level was low and I didn’t have time to go to the guy I usually go to. The guy in Martuni knows me well enough now that he knows how I want my haircut. Anyway, this lady trimmed my hair and then she washed it. Then she got out the blowdryer which I repeated said “I don’t like that, don’t use it” which her response was a giggle and a “ok,” oh and she kept doing it anyway. She put product in my hair. PRODUCT. I have never used product before. Needless to say, for the first time in my life, I had a pompadour. I looked ridiculous. Sean liked it. Oh Sean...
After we left the hair-cutting area, I went to the bathroom in Sean’s room and rinsed out my hair three different times. She must have used some kind of superglue serum because my hair still had quite a bit of volume to it.
I helped Sean get ready. We had a man moment (I don’t know what a man moment is, so I just made something up) and took some pictures. At 2:15, we all got into the stretch limo which looked cool from the outside, however this particular model didn’t come with very strong A/C. You could feel the sweat through an undershirt, a shirt, and a jacket. Seriously. Now for a bit of Armenian wedding tradition.
We got to Aghavni’s apartment. Everyone from the block was out to see this. So, in Armenia, the groom has to come with gifts, if the family likes the gifts then the family is allowed to go upstairs. (How funny would it have been if Sean’s family flew all the way over from the US and her family wouldn’t take the gifts... I guess not that funny). Anyway, as soon as I got out of the limo, I had to hold his treasure chest looking thing and dance around. Other people were dancing too, not just me. The treasure chest weighed about as much as a real treasure chest. I was about to either drop the chest or never have use of my arms again. Finally Brian took the chest from me, but then gave it back to me when we went upstairs.
Ok, so now that the gifts were accepted, we were invited into the house. The men go to one room, and the girl goes to the other. Things here get a little fuzzy because toasts were being made and I was trying not to die of heat exhaustion (again no A/C). So, I was drinking and eating as many of the hors d'oeuvres available. Anyway, at one point, Sean was called into the other room and do something with Aghavni. Kiss her on the cheek or something. They, together, came into the room where I was along with everyone else. (I was dripping sweat by this point). We did some more toasts and then we were ready to get the hell out of there. Before we left there, there is a young boy who stands at the door and won’t let the bride and groom leave until he is bribed. Brian gave the little kid about 25 dollars. Ha.
We all got back into the limo and off we went to the church which was right up the hill from Aghavni’s house. You know in America how we have rehearsal. Yeah, well, they don’t have that here. Sean basically just threw me to the wolves on that front. I probably have bruises on my ribs from where the bride made kept elbowing me because I didn’t know what was going on. The wedding is a little different there. Ashen (the bridesmaid) and I were standing next to each other while the God parents were on the other side. We stood there standing in front of the priest’s. After the ceremony, we had to shake everyone’s hands. After that, we got back in the car where we went to the cascade to take wedding pictures. Brian and I were thirsty so he took his wife and I took Ashen and we went to a restaurant to get a beverage and then went back.
Afterwards,we went to the reception which was pretty cool. We waited outside and we were called in. Brian and Zhanna, Me and Ashen, and then Sean and Aghavni. It was cool. We sat at the head table. After some opening toasts which were really nice, it was Ashen’s and my job to get everyone dancing. Oh Geez. So, we were out there dancing. It was fun. Some of the volunteers were there and it was good to see them since I hadn’t seen them since Mid-Service. So there were toasts, dancing, lots and lots of eating, even though I didn’t have much time to eat, but overall really fun. At ten, for the toast about friendship, I played my classical piece that I played at my recital in college, “across the universe” by John Lennon since it seemed fitting.
Afterwards, the party died down. Sean and Aghavni left around 11. Actually a lot of people left and it seemed like it was just dwindling down to me as far as the wedding party was concerned.
It was an interesting experience and I felt very honored to be Sean’s best man. I wish them all the best in their lives together. They are moving to Florida where Sean is from, August 28th.
I got home from the wedding around 8, pretty tired. The next morning Grandma went to Madina, her village where she lived for 50 years, where Hector lives. Basically I had a day to just unwind. It was great. After all this frantic-ness it was just nice to be here. The next day, I started getting to work on stuff. I think this time the bathroom grant is going to go through. Im really excited about it now. I don’t know what I said, but I met with the mayor and a weeks worth of stuff got taken care of in one day. That was great.
Tomorrow morning, I have to do some percolation tests. Then I will write up my budget and then that is that. I think we will be in good shape.
Other than that, I have just been visiting people in the village. Hanging out with Grandma and just enjoying the last couple days of summer.
Whoa, this summer is almost over.
The weather is already starting to cool. Its not uncomfortable to wear a fleece in the morning or the evening. Uh oh, the start of winter... looking forward to it this year.
Until next time...
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