Last time I wrote I was just coming back from our All-Volunteer’s Conference. I had just gotten home and had less than one day to myself. On Saturday, Emily, another volunteer from my group who lives in Yeghegnadzor (the place I visited with Mike over Halloween), came to visit. She is in charge of the 50th Anniversary and wanted to film my life here. Or at least some aspects of it. It was pretty fun. The day she got here, we just laid low and just walked around a bit. Sunday was pretty awesome. We woke up and went to the Market. Like I said before, its just so draining to go there because you have to take the bus which is packed full of people, get to the market, where again it is packed full of people, and then ride back on a bus... again packed full of people. Its just a lot of things going on at the same time. Lots of noises, smells, sights, people staring. Yeah. Overwhelming.
Emily got some good shots there of the Market. She gave me money to buy some mandarines because she wanted some and needed some film of me having interaction with Armenians. We got back and rested for a short while. Then we went over to Vardan’s house. The proceedings are not made up. It is so wild I can’t make it up. Its really not that crazy.
So, in my area where there are a lot of potatoes, we have this thing called “poor.” The “r” is rolling and the “oo” is pronounced like you would the “oo” sound in “sue.” Anyway, to refresh your memory, you take dried cow feces which has been baked in the sun for weeks and burn them down to coals and then take potatoes and baked the potatoes under the cow feces coals. It may be a mental thing, but the taste is like no other. Its really good. Vardan wanted Emily to experience this, so we went over to his house. Then we went to an abandoned neighbors house which is all fenced in and made the fire. Interestingly enough, inside the gates, there was a goat. Livestock isn’t that dangerous, but when you have grown up in the city, anything bigger than a mouse can be intimidating. Especially things with horns.
As an aside, its always funny watching 7 year old kids with sticks herding cows that are measured in hundreds of pounds and how afraid the livestock are of these kids armed with sticks.
Back to the story. We were having our potatoes and Vardan wanted to play with the goat so he kept putting his foot up so that the goat could ram it. Obviously, the goat was playing too because it wasn’t charging. It would just up on its hind legs and just fall over. They had some kind of relationship... “relationship.” After eating, I told Vardan that I would be back in half and hour because I needed to talk to my parents. He said, bring your computer out here. I didn’t really think too much about it but he said that we could show my parents this “poor” experience... and the goat. What a great idea. So, Emily has all her cameras with her and she was filming me sitting on the ground talking with my parents via skype with Vardan and his wife crouching over behind me, with our other neighbor fighting the goat in the background. I will post a picture. But, this kind of event you can’t plan. Nope.
So, now that Emily had that experience, we went back home and hung out with Grandma. On Monday we went to school, and she filmed some stuff at school. My bathroom, the teachers, some classes we went to. It was fun. We didn’t do much after school. On Tuesday, we went back to school because I needed to take care of some business with the school director and then we came back to the house, rested a bit and walked around the village. I introduced her to some people in the village. Tuesday was interesting because I took her to one of my neighbor’s house down the street. A really sweet grandma who always yanks me into her house. Well, usually when an Armenian says coffee, it really means feast. So Emily and I went inside and sat with the Grandma. At 11:00am we had quite a bit of vodka, wine, and coffee along with too much food. So, that is why we needed to rest. Always an interesting cultural experience.
That evening, Emily and I were walking to the other side of the village because she wanted to take some village shots. Vardan saw us and gave us a ride. That was fun.
Wednesday, I went with Emily to Martuni to find her a ride down to her town. Then I came back and went to the last two classes on Wednesday. Wednesday is kind of a down day anyway, so no big deal.
The rest of the week was pretty normal. Nothing new really happened. On Saturday, I went to Vaghashen because there was supposed to be a meteor shower. Clouds came so I came back home.
Sunday, nothing really happened. I just laid low, did some reading, prepared for the upcoming week. This is my last week of school...already.
This evening I went to bed early because I had to get up at 2:45 for a phone interview with Dr. Hogarty. An Osteopathic Physician who agreed to write me a letter. So I prepared myself for our 3:00am phone conversation. It went really well. We spoke for 30 minutes. As I write this though, I am in a daze. This weekend’s sleep cycle was not conducive for productive behavior. Ill be back on track by tomorrow. I guess it’s already time to start thinking about the future. Only one more semester. Weird.
Overall, the weather here has been pretty good... until recently. I have a friend in Ukraine who I tell the weather to. I do it in such a way that seems instigating. Ill say “it’s really warm here”... the next day... freezing. This has happened pretty much on the button everytime I have said it. From this, I have learned to keep my mouth shut. My point is... its cold here now.
However, Peace Corps gives us two heaters. One that just blows hot air, also known as a space heater, and a radiator. A lot of the other volunteers always say that the radiator does not work, so I never tried plugging the thing up. However, within the last week, it has occurred to me that the volunteers who I talked to also have really large rooms. I plugged my radiator in, and in 15 minutes my room (which is the size of a moderately sized walk-in closet) heats up. Heats up to the point where I just need to wear a sweater. This would have made my life a lot easier if I thought about this last winter, but I guess its better late than never.
This week will be pretty regular.
I hope everyone is having a good time getting ready for Christmas and the New Year. I’m very much looking forward to Christmas in Ukraine. New Years Im still trying to figure out.
Until next time...
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