Back to the rhythm of things. This blog makes no sense

So after my month hiatus I hope to be regular again with my blog postings.

It was nice starting school. I had a lot of fun going to school, getting started with everything. I went to my English classes where the English teacher and I got things off to a really good start. Usually what I do is sit in the front and sit with the kids who don’t do too well with their English. I read passages and help to pronounce the words correctly. The best part about this is I get to speak in an outrageous British accent because they learn British English. The most enjoyable part is saying stuff under my breath about speaking in a British accent and not having anyone understand what Im saying. I do feel quite silly speaking in an accent which is not my own. Got to take it for the kids.

We also started our State mandated Healthy Living Curriculum this week. It went really well. I work with one of the two PE teachers, Silva. She is great because she really seeks out my input. One of the goals in Peace Corps is skills transfer. Finally, after a year being here, I can see the fruits of my labor. “Labor” is an understatement, but like I have mentioned in the past, how can you really expect to change the perceptions and ideas of people who have been thinking the same way their whole lives. However I have noticed two profound changes. One in each of the teachers I work with.

The English teacher doesn’t rush the kids anymore and goes over and helps the kids pronounce the words part by part. She also has started to ask the students more things in English. Before, everything was in Armenian. I told her that the more she talks in English, the more the kids will learn. So, she has started with that.

For my PE teacher, its the critical thinking that we have been working on. Last year I taught with Silva and she still remembered to always ask “why” the answer is correct. We had our first lesson and even after asking a question and getting the correct answer she always asks “why” the answer is the way it is. This was a great start to the week.

The cafeteria was not started because of some miscommunication but now everything is on track and in three weeks we should have a renovated cafeteria. The bathroom is still working well (thank God) and there have been no problems to this point.

Two weekends ago I came into Yerevan and went to Artbridge, a western style breakfast place. They have free internet and Mike likes eating there. I used the internet, he ate. Anyway, while we were there, we noticed a foreigner and much like Armenians starring at foreigners, we have started doing the same thing. Out of the blue, she asked if our internet was working, which at that point it was not. Anyway, we started talking. She is in microfinance and goes out into the regions to do her work. I don’t really understand what her work is, actually. Anyway, its always nice to have new people come through.

Saturday, I was in Yerevan because I am looking at carpets. After the carpet factory, we went to a coffee place and talked. It was Mike, myself, Jason, and our new friend. While we were there talking, another girl came into the coffee shop and just stood behind us. I think she was trying to figure out what language we were speaking. She stepped up and asked “Are you all Americans?” which we our reply was just a stare. We said yes, and she introduced herself. She has been here for about a month working for an NGO, doing things like teaching English and organizing exchange opportunities. You could see the relief on her face when she was explaining how great it was to finally meet Americans she could talk to. The best part was when she asked “if I give you all my cell phone number will you call me when you are in Yerevan?” So, we all talked to each other and spent about an hour getting to know different aspects of each others lives.

I think that’s the most interesting thing. Sometimes its just nice to know someone from your own country. We often joke about it here, about Peace Corps friends, and how you would never be friends with some of the people here but because there are only a limited amount of us, we are friends, genuine friends. This is what I look forward to the most, meeting a group of new people who don’t know each other. That’s all I have to say about that.

I wanted to talk about one of my other friends too. Lately, when I have been in Yerevan, I have tried to hang out with Khashi, my Iranian friend. He and Molsen are here studying Architecture, working to get their masters. Khashi may questionably be one of the most open-minded, most intelligent people I have ever met. He and Molsen were talking about politics. They were talking about the Persian Empire, the Roman Empire, Assyria, Mongols, Barbarians, Ahmadinejad, Obama, etc. Really interesting. Khashi has a really strong sentiment against Media. His sentiments which I agree with. He said that Media makes an effort to focus on the differences and negative aspects of groups, not ways that they are similar. These differences become exacerbated by these different groups and gives points of unrest. This and several other things he said made a lot of sense. Additionally, these debates were all done in English. Almost flawless English. Oh, he is also fluent in Armenian and Farsi. Always really interesting meeting with both Molsen and Khashi.

Snow has been falling, but its not too terribly cold. I love being at home now because its really warm and I feel comfortable walking around just wearing a T-shirt even though Grandma thinks Im nuts. Interestingly, I don’t know how she can live with so many layers on because I am usually sweating sitting next to the furnace.

In about 4 weeks I meet my friends Will, TJ, Derek, Alex, and Kamran in Spain. I am really excited about that since it has been almost 2 years since I have seen the first four. I will be packing some of my things and taking it to them to take back to the US. Some of my winter things. Its surreal really. One of my sitemates is leaving mid-May to start grad school and another one may leave mid-June. Its starting to happen and I don’t know how I feel about it. Its already the end of January. This spring is going to fly by.

I feel like this blog is probably the worst written. Don’t know.

Until next time...

Ukraine, Christmas, New Years, Volunteers

Yerevan at night. The cascade in front of the Opera. I wish I knew more history on it, but I don't.



Jason, the gardner (Stingray), Khashi (Iranian Awesome-ness), and myself.



Me, Marissa (Hector's fiance), and Hermano. They.Are.Awesome.



Jason (again), Gevorg (Hostel Man), and me.



Normal...

Its been a long time since I have written and I realize that. Several people to my amazement have asked where my blog went, if I stopped writing, etc. There have been some things that have happened lately that warranted me to wait until I figured out what I was going to say. Strangely enough, I wrote two separate blogs, one about Ukraine and then one after Ukraine.

Ukraine:
My original blog stated much more but when I thought about it more, there was no need to expel endless pages of details that you probably wouldn’t want to read, nor me, really want to explain. But here is a brief summary.

Well, I met a girl last March in Kiev. I saw her and knew I had to get to know her. I did the lame-o middle school thing and got ten people to write on a piece of paper their contact details so it wouldn’t look so obvious I was already infatuated with an absurd idea. We kept in touch for 8 months through countless emails and the use of video skype. When Iryna got a job with Peace Corps as a language teacher, we moved to writing hand written letters and talking Thursday on the phone. The next step... to meet again.

I flew to Ukraine.

It was a fairytale. It was perfect. I loved every minute of it. I honestly felt like I was living a dream. We went to a museum, the Ukrainian Philharmonic, talked hours in cafes, took at 4 hour train ride, I met her awesome parents, her sister, many of her childhood friends, had Christmas dinner at her sister’s house with her family, exchanged presents, rode on a shortbus back to Kiev which lasted 6 hours, ate a nice dinner, went ice-skating, held hands, and then got on a dreaded plane back to Armenia with no real answers. I got home and she didn’t want to talk to me and requested I not contact her until I got a handwritten letter from her, explaining “everything.”

It was a disaster coming home. Mike is an amazing guy and sometimes he really surprises me with what lengths he will go to make sure I am ok. He picked up the pieces at the airport. He was there at my lowest hour. He even made me a sign that read “WELCOME BACK! I’ll still love you even if Iryna doesn’t (you know, in a friend sorta way) Don’t vote for Sarah Palin!”

We took a taxi into Yerevan and stayed at Jason and Elvira’s. Elvira was an A-13 volunteer and Jason is her husband who is the head gardener at a park in Yerevan. Really interesting guy. He owned a church until just recently. I mean, how many people do you know who have owned a church. Really... Anyway, he helped with the damage control. Jason was ready. He had my favorite beer in the fridge and we ordered American Style Pizza. It was amazing. After that Mike came back to the village with me. We had a good time here hanging out.

We walked to Hector’s village. Marissa is here spending time with Hector. Marissa is Hector’s Fiance and just finished her service in Turkmenistan. She is really cool. Perfect for Hector. We went out there and hung out with them and Hector’s host Dad. We played a lot of dominos. It was good.

Mike and I came back for New Years. New Years was great. We did the normal New Years thing. This year wasn’t as nuts as last year. Last year, everyone wanted to have the American at their house. My 13-year old brother took me everywhere and we got back at 4am. Memorable. This year, Mike and I walked around and came back around 2am. It was fun though. We went over to Vartan’s house. There his sons were trying to get me to dance, and some of the Armenian dance moves are a bit tricky so I just ran in place. Mari-ne, Vartan’s wife, I think, may have shot some juice out of her nose she was laughing so hard. I mean, what else was I supposed to do. It was fun.

We then went over to Arpine’s house. No one was home except for the Granddad and Grandma. They were in their PJs. Awkward. They got out of bed and I very awkwardly stood there while Granddad was putting on his pants. I don’t know where Mike. He was probably watching Grandma put on her clothes. Anyway, I kept saying that I would come back later, but Granddad would have none of that and had three glasses of vodka ready to go. Down the hatch. So, around 2pm, we came back home and just fell asleep.

The next morning, we didn’t do much. Just hung out around the house. Mike and I watched some movies. We decided that we would watch “Marley and Me”. Horrible idea. Basically the movie is about the life of a white labrador and how it is a menace but the family really does love the dog. Its about how the dog transforms a family. Anyway, Mike and I were watching this movie. I live in a village, more specifically in a concrete house that holds the cold better than Whirlpool’s top of the line refrigerator. So, Mike and I were on my bed. I was in my sleeping bag and he was under a lot of blankets. Remember this is a twin sized bed. The timing could not have been better. At the end of the movie, Marley is put down. A real tear jerker if you have ever had a pet. So, Mike and I were sobbing in my bed, huddled together, when Grandma walks in, stares at us for a moment, and then just starts laughing the most hearty laugh I think I have heard coming from her. She didn’t have the breathe to ask any questions. She laughed and turned around and left. Picture perfect moment.

Well, I wasn’t about to wait around for this letter. That would be dumb. Mike and I went on an epic journey, starting in Madina. There we again hung out with Hector and Marissa before embarking onward to other places. It was great. Its times like these when you know who your friends are. They were trying to figure things out, willing to listen, they supported me, they were just great. Mike, Hector, Marissa, Pat Findler, his wife Meaghan, Alex, Beckie, Emily. They were all great. I don’t really know how to explain it, its a different world here. I know that I had mentioned this before but I guess other volunteers here and my close Armenian friends are my family here. How to repay them for their awesome-ness is beyond me.

I went to Yerevan last week. I needed to be out of my village; just for a change of pace. I went to Yerevan and met with Gayane. Gayane is the smartest, coolest, most beautiful (Gayane, what else did you want me to say?) person I know. HA. No, but in all seriousness she has been awesome in all this. She and I worked together for PDO when we were teaching students preparing to go to America for ten months. We met at a tea house and hung out for a while before she had to go and learn how to drive. Disaster. When I talk to her it always sounds like she is either in a really large hall or in the bathroom. Weird. After that, Jason came to the tea house and we hung out for a while, before going to another place, and then eventually over to Gevorg’s house. Gevorg is another one of my friends who lives in Yerevan. He runs the hostel that volunteers sometimes stay at. There we hung out and talked. Gevorg recently got married and has several great ideas of starting businesses in Armenia. It was fun talking about business to him with Jason. Another one of those friends that you are fortunate to run across in life.

The following day,I just laid around their house. That night was fun. There was a new shipment of Embassy people that came from the States and they wanted to go to a real barbeque place in Armenia. So, they contacted Elvira and she told Jason to take them to a barbeque place. Jason asked me to go with him. I was a bit concerned, because I wasn’t in the mood to hang out with older people and not be able to relax. I mean, these are Embassy people right? Well, they were wicked awesome. At first I was still a little hesitant but after a while, they were really cool. They were in their early thirties and did Peace Corps in Ukraine. They talked about their Peace Corps experience and asked me about mine and it was great.

After an awesome meal, we were getting ready to pay. I started getting out my wallet when they told me to put it away, stating that they remember what it was like being a volunteer and when they ran into RPCVs the RPCVs would pay, so they wanted to do the same. It was a bit awkward, but they wouldn’t take no for an answer. They also said anytime I was in Yerevan and needed a place to stay, to let them know. They went way out of their way that night. On top of that, they were all really cool. So we hung out for a couple more hours and that was it.

The weird thing is, people think of Peace Corps as one thing, and generally it is. You have Americans living in random places all over the world. But one of the things I will take away from this are all the amazing people I have met during my adventure here. People from my village who would do anything for me, to people I just meet who are willing to open up their door to let me stay at their home. Im excited to be able to do the same after several years... many many years...

I got back to the village. I basically went straight home and went to bed for a while. The following day I went to the post office because I knew that Dad had sent me a Christmas card. Also, that letter from Iryna came. The Christmas card was nice. It had a lot of pictures in it. There was one picture of Snow, Raven, and Heidel (Dad, how do you spell her name?) Snow passed away on January 14th at the age of 14, so it was a bit hard to see that picture as it was probably one of the most recent ones. I smiled though. I remember the Sunday, 14 years ago when I saw puppies over at our neighbors house. I wandered over there talked with the lady and then carried one of the puppies back for my parents to see. And... we got a dog. Snow was a great dog. Although I reneged on walking the dog all the time, and basically taking care of it, I loved the dog. My Dad was the closest to it and more than anything, I was sad for my parents. I had already said my goodbyes to Snow when I left for Armenia. She was definitely one of a kind. Fortunately the other two dogs at home will keep my parents occupied... until I come home.

Then I opened the letter from Iryna. It was exactly what I was expecting so it was no shock to me that she couldn’t handle a long distance relationship... and there was another guy. Ouch. Although it would have been nice to know that before I went to Ukraine, I will always have that experience. I really learned a lot from this. This was the first time where I was completely honest and didn’t hold anything back. It was a very strange feeling because after I read this letter, I had this amazing feeling coming over me. I was finally at peace with everything and honestly, I was happy for her. Yeah, it sucks that it didn’t work out, but as my Dad said, I have a really long road ahead of me and it just wasn’t in the cards. It just wasn’t in God’s plan.

Its all over. I was at home and just hung out with Grandma and my host brother. Nothing new really. Just relaxing. I went back into Yerevan on Friday night because I wanted to get some things for home. I went with Jason and Mike to the Vernisage, which is an open market. We figured that now would be a good time to go because Armenians tend to spend a good portion of their money on New Years and its cold so tourists aren’t here. It worked out well. We looked at some handmade rugs, chess sets, and some other hand goods. Its amazing how cheap things are here, that are hand made. I bought a handmade chess set for about 80 dollars, and a hand carved “khachkar” which means stone cross. It wasn’t made out of stone but it was a hand carved piece of walnut that had a cross on it. Really hard to describe, but I bought it for about 35 dollars. The rugs were a bit more expensive. Obviously. I might have to go back and do some more shopping. It was fun though.

I hung out with Mane and Gayane too. The two girls I went to Ukraine with last March. Mike came with me and Megan met up with us later. We just all walked around the city, took pictures, went to cafes. Just took it easy. Mike and I went back to Jason’s around ten. Jason and I stayed up and watched “Horsemen”. Horrible ending, but now Jason has now been dubbed “stingray”. Nicknames are fun.

Anyway, I have attached some pictures. I hope you enjoy and again my apologize for not writing sooner but things have been a little rough here. I want to thank everyone who was there to support me. My parents, and my really good friends here in Peace Corps. Really. Especially Mike for basically picking up all the pieces. Its been great. Six more months. Its going to be wild.

Until next time...