Why don't you just come up here and read...

Snow covered Volcano that is Mt. Aghmaghan



My house covered in snow



The village



The day I made eggrolls over at Vartan's house. His wife would not leave me alone but it was fun regardless...



Me, Marissa, and Hermano (Hector)

I would say there are things to talk about, but honestly there isn’t. Two weekends ago I just stayed in the village just finishing up my work and relaxing. Last week was pretty run of the mill, but I will say that I do really enjoy going to school now. Maybe because I know its my last semester? Or maybe its because I feel that I finally got the hang of this. I teach like I am another teacher. Maybe not as fluently, but I compensate by teaching with a more “hands-on” approach. I don’t raise my voice at them or anything if they misbehave. Instead I have learned that embarrassment is a rather good tactic. No, nothing outright embarrassing either. The boys in the village can’t read very well, or really at all. So, when the boys keep talking when Im talking, I get one of them to come to the front of the room and read in front of the class. This is already embarrassing, but when you have a 25 year old teacher who is from another country correcting your Armenian, that can get pretty embarrassing. If that doesn’t work, I pinch their arm...

School is going well. Really well. And really fast. I can’t believe that next week is the last week of February already. I understand, you, as the reader, must be getting tired of me writing that every time. That the time is flying, but it really is. It seems as though I can’t close my eyes or else I will be back home in the States waking up from a 27 month fantasy. I know that is what’s going to happen.

This weekend I am heading into Yerevan for several reasons. First, I am going to meet the embassy doctor and pick her head on your thoughts on international medicine. Second, I am going to go and pick up a hand made Armenian carpet. There was a problem with it last time so they were taking it back to the loom to get it fixed. Third, I am going to pick up Lauren and some of the other Georgian Volunteers. Lauren was the girl who I stayed with when I was in Georgia last summer. She is bringing some other people down. She wants to see the “village life.” We are going to go on the Cognac factory tour and hang out. Sunday I return. Next week should be pretty quick to go by as well.

Things I have been working on. Well. The other semesters, school was something that I had to do and I put most of my efforts into writing grants, designing and implementing presentations, doing the AIDS Initiative, etc. This semester, my primary focus is the school. I did finish writing a PEPFAR grant, or helped write it, to get money to fund AIDS presentations not only in Yerevan but all around the country. Also, it won’t be on the volunteer, but instead will train Armenians to teach other Armenians about this disease. I am pretty excited about it. Ill let you know if it passes.

Two days ago, it snowed. There is about 2 feet of snow here which makes walking in the village a challenge and a marathon-like-event. I am staying warm but am now rethinking things about sending all my winter stuff home with some of the guys I am meeting in Spain. Nah, it will be worth it.

My brother has not yet left and he is driving me crazy. I keep thinking that I only have a couple more weeks left before he leaves. They didn’t know that there was no train from Italy straight to Belgium, so I wrote down directions on how to switch trains, ask for directions, basically anything you need to make it from point A to point B. You may think that I am doing this out of the kindness of my heart. Wrong. I don’t want him to get deported. Not because that would be sad for his family and they would lose 4500 dollars, but moreso because if he gets deported, he will come back here, and if he comes back here, I am going to stab a pencil in my eye...

So that is the news there. I really can’t complain about anything. Everything else is pretty normal. I guess I am really in the swing of things and that is why I can’t write about anything. You know, your everyday life back in the States probably does not fluctuate that much from day to day, so you can understand this.

I think this is all Im going to write now. The next blog will probably be better because I will have events to write about.

Until next time...