Cheer Cheer Cheer for Armenia... wait a sec...

Friday morning, I went over to Vardan’s house, again, to fix his computer, again. I guess there is really nothing to report as far as that goes. I will say though that now Vardan and I wait for each other after school and walk back together. Its one of those things like you see in a movie. Maybe not, but at least one of those things I won’t forget. We usually just talk about village news... so basically we talk about nothing.

Saturday morning I left for Yerevan. It was much warmer in Yerevan that the last time I was there and much warmer than it was in Martuni. After an easy ride in, I got some errands done and then prepared for my AIDS meeting. It went really well. We started to really iron out preparations for the AIDS ToT. Afterwards, I met up with Jason. We took out time. That night we were to see the Russia/Armenia soccer game. Well it took a bit longer than I thought to get everyone together. We got to the game at 7:10. Mike thought the game started at 8:00, I thought it started at 7:30, but the game started at 7:00. Woops. Anyway, we walked around to the front of the Stadium and they had closed the gates, not letting anyone come in. So we were told to go to the other entrance where there, they also would not let us in. Arpine, one of my Armenian friends told me that they had oversold 300 tickets. Now, I have two problems with that.

1) Why would you oversell tickets to a game you know will be sold out. I mean really. Armenia vs. the motherland. Who wouldn’t not want to go to that game. Im an American and I wanted to go to that game. Really?
2) Several years ago, they built a nice stadium which holds about 4 times as many people as the stadium was played in. If you did want to sell more tickets, then why not play in the bigger stadium?

I mean that only makes sense right?

Needless to say, we were all bummed that we weren’t able to get in. Some of the volunteers that got there at 6:30 or earlier didn’t get into the actual game until 7:30 because they thought some of them were Russian. The Russian got a caged section together and they laid a fire hose in front of them just in case things got out of hand. I thought that was a bit ridiculous. And by “a bit” I mean, really ridiculous.

I was glad I didn't paint myself. That would have just been awkward...

So, heads hanging low, we walked to a hookah bar and just hung out. While there, I felt like calling home. Laura didn’t answer... no surprise, but Amanda did. Amanda, if you read this, don’t look into it too much, but I doubt that you still read my blogs so I am going to say whatever I want. Before I joined Peace Corps, I always thought there was something different about PCVs, or Returned PCVs. A bit more reserved. Don’t know. I wondered how they viewed the world after their service. During my trip to Spain when I met some of my friends from the States, I realized that a lot of my priorities changed, that to be in a usually uncomfortable situation, could be a blessing, that I had changed. I called Amanda on Saturday and she picked up the phone.

There was nothing to talk about. I didn’t want to talk about my experiences and basically just wanted to hear how life was going for her. Nope. Didn’t pan out. It was like a stranger talking to another stranger only though a letter. I don’t know how to better put it into words. In my mind when I don’t have connection to my friends back home, I feel like nothing has changed, but recently, in the last month, I am realizing that is not true. Things have changed. At the same time, I feel no regret, no sadness, no nothing really, just the realization that things have changed and I guess that’s just the way it is. So, I guess I need to prepare myself for some reverse culture shock.

The following day, I didn’t really do anything but sit at the office and see various volunteers coming in and out. It was actually pretty fun.

Later on in the evening, Mike and I went with Jason over to our Country Director’s house. I am working with his wife, Tiffany, because she got her PhD in behavioral change related to AIDS. We went over what she would be presenting at the ToT. Better yet, she and our CD made tacos, and chocolate chip cookies. Real ones. It was amazing. It was nice to get to know their backgrounds in a less professional setting. Really had a good time though.
Today, I had another meeting with Armenian Red Cross. This thing is taking shape and I think by our deadline of a month from now, we will actually be finished with everything. Im really excited to see how things turn out.

Driving to and from Yerevan I drive next to Lake Sevan which is decently big. On the other side of the lake lies a backbone of mountains. Its really pretty to drive down the road, look to the left or the right and see blue water, with snow-capped mountains in the background. It seems now that I get nostalgic driving down the road looking around. Time is slipping away. It seems like yesterday I was getting ready to go to Spain. It seems like last week that we were getting ready for the new group to come. Time really is an interesting thing. Regardless, its going by too quickly.

The weather is changing and the landscape is melting. Hector still has a white mountain next to his village but if you look closely a brown cap sits at the top. This is the beginning of the end of our last winter.

Mike is at the house until Thursday and then my friend Katherine, a PCV from Moldova is visiting this Thursday. Exciting.

Until next time...

Eva

The weather is changing. The second I thought that the weather was changing for the better, it snowed 7 inches or so in an afternoon. However, now the snow is melting and the sun is out without a cloud in the sky. Its still cold as all get out but the feeling of the sun hitting your face walking to school is a feeling welcomed. As the sun comes out, it is only appropriate to listen to the everlasting lyrics of the one and only Jimi Hendrix.

I forgot if I mentioned that we did get our PEPFAR grant. I have been going into Yerevan quite a bit for meetings. Meetings with the Armenian Red Cross. Planning thus far as been going well and I am excited to see the turn out. We are planning to have a three day training for Armenians on the topic of AIDS. With the 9000 that we got, we are going to bring ten teams of three to Yerevan and teach them everything needed to have a successful training for other Armenians in the regions.

Other than that, I have been going to school. I can proudly say, after three months of constantly nagging my director where the hand driers are, we finally got them. I saw then in the box. We got them out and tried them. I understand that this may seem ridiculous that I am writing about hand driers but if you only knew how hard I had to work to get those things in the school, you would understand that it was no easy task.
I am that much closer to closing my SPA grant. Only have to get one door or window installed and I will be able to finish the final paperwork. Words cannot explain how excited I am to close a project opened at the end of September; a project I have been working on since its opening last March.

Teaching English has been entertaining. This week the kids had a dictation exam where the English teacher Arpine reads a story and the kids have to write it out, in English. Since it is easier for me to grade the papers, I do it. Usually by the time I get through it, the paper is bleeding red. To me that makes sense because the kids know what they got wrong and it is up to them to learn from their mistakes; a sentiment that is not shared by all teachers. Going through the exams, sometimes the teachers will correct the mistakes in the exams which to me, makes no sense. Another thing that is interesting is when I had the exams back, one by one, Arpine looks at the name and then gives the grade. Some of the exams will be perfect, but she will still give a 9/10. Some of the exams will be absolutely atrocious and she will look at the name and give a 6/10.

I got in an argument (friendly) with Vardan about this because he said that it is bad to correct absolutely everything because it is discouraging to the students. Discouraging to the students or to the teachers? I don’t know if it is just the way we are taught in the States, but there, you learn from your mistakes. Interesting. I still continue red-ding up the papers because that is the only way the kids will know of their mistakes. Still some things here I will never understand, but maybe Im not meant to.

In the third form, there is a little girl. A cute little girl who sits in the front row and listens attentively. Eva. She is mentally disabled. Not completely, but it is easy to discern that she is slower than the other children. She is probably my favorite, because she will listen to every word and she has a permanent smile on her face. She always tries to come up to the board and write her sentences like every other student. She does pretty well, it just takes her a little longer. Its amazing some of the things you can learn from those you perceive to have a deficiency. Maybe in some things. You can see the passion of learning, of wanting to get somewhere. I don’t know every kids name, but I will remember hers and her willingness to try to get a grasp of something that may seem so intangible to someone looking from another perspective.

Peace Corps recently sent out a survey asking what motivates us. Eva was my answer. (with some explanation).

It is not always so easy though. I caught two students cheating today. It was actually pretty funny, because Arpine does a good job pronouncing not just the word, but each letter in every word, phonetically. A boy had already written out the story, or maybe got the story from another class, and was writing what was on the other sheet while Arpine was dictating. I went over and grabbed it from him. I looked at it and gave it back to him telling him that he could use the sheet he already had because he would get a worse grade than if he had been listening to Arpine. He looked discouraged... probably because I was laughing at his failed attempt at looking off a paper that would leave him in a worse state than when he started.

Tomorrow is the Armenia/Russia game. Our plans of painting ourselves are still on, but it may be a bit too cold. So, be sure to watch TV if it is showing on ESPN 2 since it is a Euro qualifier and see if you see some morons painted in the red, blue and orange.

So is life. I guess that’s about it.

Until next time...

hello no brother, goodbye all our furniture...

When coming back from Spain, I was wondering what Armenia would feel like. Everytime the plane makes its final decent, that recurring question sticks in my mind. This time, there was no problem.

In the Peace Corps office I slept from about 5:30am to 10:30am and then went to the doctors because my ear still felt like there was a lot of pressure. Apparently, I had some kind of infection in my ear (thanks Will) and the pressure didn’t help it at all. I got back to the village and things have been going pretty well.

At school, we finished all the health lessons so I have been teaching English. It has been fun doing that. Why is it that when you get the hang of things, that’s when you have to leave? The bathroom and the cafeteria are both finished now, but I am not finished with my project. I need receipts for everything. The way this project works is that 25% of the money has to be supplied from the community or the organization. All the receipts from my end of the project have been collected, but there is still about 40,000 dram or 110 dollars that I need to collect from the school in form or an “in-kind” contribution. The school director signed an agreement that by March 17th, everything would be finished. Its still not finished. I threatened him by saying that the next time a grant is written for the school it will be nearly impossible to get one approved, which may in fact be the case.

In other news, I wrote a PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief) grant. Last year, we went to three Universities in Yerevan and gave presentations on AIDS and its transmission and prevention. We also went to an LGBTQ organization and gave a presentation there. They were a wild success as the rooms were packed with students, some even willing to stand. Peace Corps is all about sustainability, so I had an idea to do a Training of Trainers, or a ToT, to train Armenians on how to give presentations on the subject of AIDS. This is tricky for Armenians because AIDS is still a taboo subject. One that is not talked about. The grant was written with the help of my PTO, Nick, to get 30 participants, 20 Armenians and 10 PCVs, to come to Yerevan for a 2 day training course on AIDS, presenting, maybe behavior changes, and some other things. Last week I learned we got the money. 9000 dollars will be used for the materials and trainings and hopefully this information will directly meet at least 1600 Armenians in the Regions. From there, hopefully information will spread more by mouth. I am very excited about this project for many reasons. First, its probably going to be my last project because we are going to have this ToT by late April, early May. Secondly, because this project will give me something to do as I only have applications, french, and English classes to teach in the village. Lastly, because I can see something that I started become more sustainable and hopefully this will continue into the future.

We are working with the Armenian Red Cross and American Councils in this and we already had our first meeting. It went really well and we have a second one planned this upcoming tuesday to get into the meat of things.

In other news, nothing much is happening. The weather is finally starting to change which is great in one regard but awful in another. It is good because the warm weather is coming and I don’t have to freeze anymore. The bad news is that I sent my boots home already and now that everything is melting, my village is basically a really huge mud pit. Sweet. I don’t know how many times Grandma has told me that she is so happy because she is not going to be planting potatoes this year. Im pretty happy about that too. She said that she will be leaving sometime in early April. We will see how things go, but at the rate things are going, I think she may actually leave.

To pay off the outstanding debt of about 4000 dollars to send my host brother to Belgium, parts of the house are being sold. People came over to buy our kitchen table and stools, and then all the cabinets off the walls. So, there is nothing in the kitchen. Also, we no longer have our space-aged shower. That was sold. Everything in the living room is going to stay because the host father bought it and they want to keep it for sentimental reasons, even though the family will probably never come back to Armenia. I don’t understand, but ok. They said that I could continue to live there for the remaining 4 months that I have.

Other than that, that is all the news I have. My mom is in Korea visiting family and Dad is at home watching all the NCAA games. However, one of my good friends from Moldova is coming to visit me in 10 days. Im really excited. We met in Kiev last March and she is a PCV there in Moldova. More to come.

Until next time...

Picture additions

oh the excitement - flight from Barcelona to Madrid



Us in Madrid



The Boardwalk in Barcelona



Some church



Alex's lack of a tooth...

I don’t think my heartrate has gone below 100 since we’ve been here

Summation of our trip...



Everyone in Marrakech



The Marrakech sunset



Kamran tried pouring tea like the Moraccans and it got everywhere because they pour from about a foot above the cup. Kamran needed more practice...



At the Barcelona Soccer game

I headed to Yerevan on Thursday Feb. 24th because I had some meetings on Friday. Again, Elvira and Jason graciously let me stay at their place. It was a huge pain to carry all my stuff to Yerevan. I packed up my sleeping bag, some jackets, and other winter clothes I knew I wouldn’t need. Also some souvenirs that I wanted carried home. So Thursday, I just hung out and friday I had an AIDS meeting and afterwards went to Jason’s park to see what he was up to and get my rug. I also got Hector and Marissa’s rug. Around 6pm, we went back to Jason’s and he helped me pack my bags. We had to get all my winter gear, a -20F sleeping bag, a large carpet, some wooden items, and other miscellaneous things into a 6500 cubic inch bag and a smaller 35 liter bag.

Before I left the village, Varton’s wife wanted to send some jam home to my parents. I said that was fine as long as it was small. When I went over to their house to pick those things up, she had prepared 2 half gallon jars, and a bottle of pomegranate wine. I said there was no way that I could get that stuff home. She saw my bag, without the big winter jacket, and carpet, and wooden things in it and said there was plenty of room. One thing that I have learned to do here is just not argue with an Armenian. So I took the stuff and just gave it to Jason and Elvira. Sorry Mom and Dad, too many other things to bring home. You can enjoy the carpet.

So, Jason had a scale and we weighed everything. The bag came out to be about 28kg and the smaller bag came out to be 16kg. My checked baggage allowance was 23kg and carry on was 10kg. Each kg over was supposed to be 20euro each. Elvira said to just charm the lady to letting the weight limit pass.

That night was fun. Jason decided not to go out, so Chris and some of our other friends went out. My flight was at 5:20am and I needed to leave for the airport at 3:30am. I decided that it would be better for me to stay awake. I decided this when I saw the clock and it was already 1:30am. I hung out with my friends until about 2:30 am when we went back to Jason and Elvira’s house. All my things were packed and I made a bet that I could leave the house again at 3:25am without them knowing. I slept for about 30 minutes. I woke up and felt awful and just wanted to go back to bed. But, I put on all 44kg or 98 pounds on me and headed down the stairs to the cab. We got to the airport and I waited in line.

Because I didn’t have that much room, I had to wear a button-up, a sweater, a fleece, and my Antarctic jacket (the one with the fur lining). I looked ridiculous. Actually, in Armenia I didn’t look that bad because it was still cold, and in Vienna, where my layover was, it wasn’t weird there either. I got to the ticket counter and I put the 28kg bag on the scale. I pretended like my carry on was really light even though it was about 35 pounds. The lady asked me if I knew what the weight limit was and I said 23kg. She then asked me if I knew how heavy the bag was, and I said 28kg. Then I started speaking in Armenian and told her I was a volunteer in Armenia and I was trying to get my stuff back to the US. She looked at me but didn’t say anything, but then one of her colleagues came over and she asked him some questions. Basically, she didn’t know how to charge me, so she said not to worry about it. Sweet.

I made a B-line to security so she wouldn’t have time to change her mind. I got through and started taking off the layers of clothing I had. I slept the whole way to Vienna. In Vienna, I just walked around and looked at the planes and then continued onward to Barcelona.

I quickly went through Barcelona, got my bag and followed Kamran’s directions to the bus stop. It was easy enough. If you can imagine 50 degree weather, with a girl wearing an Antarctic jacket, with sweaters and stuff under that, sweating profusely, carrying an overly large backpack on the back and a smaller backpack on the front, trying to carry a camera case, that was me. It was awesome. I got to the bus station where Kamran said he would meet me at 1:45pm. As usual, he was late, and he met me at 2:15. Not too bad actually. In India, Mike and I ended up waiting for 90 minutes. I told Kamran, that when he comes to Armenia, don’t be surprised to wait 2 hours for lost time.

We went to Kamran’s flat and I unpacked some things. I heard the other guys walking from a mile away. Very loud. It was really nice seeing them. Actually it was weird because it didn’t seem like 2 years had passed by. After our greetings, they sat down and immediately fumbled with their smart phones. I started to laugh at this, now. I wanted McDonald’s, so we went there and grabbed something quick to eat. We then walked about Barcelona. It was a really nice day. I think we just ended up just walking around. We went back to the house and took naps since things don’t really start happening until 11:00 or so. Derek and TJ were really tired so they stayed at home and we went to a club.

We made a little snack and Alex bit into a hard piece of bread and broke off one of his teeth. His left front tooth was diminished into a little nub. He broke it before when we was 12 so it wasn't a huge deal, but we had to walk around with him. Made for good stories...

Kamran had a friend that had a coupon or something for VIP seating and cheaper drinks or something, so we went to this bar. As we were walking there, there was a huge line of guys waiting outside. Alex made note of this. We talked to the bouncer and apparently there was a mess-up. Tonight was gay-night. The bouncer laughed and said “it is in your best interest to not go in there”. We laughed... at Kamran... and then walked back after stopping to eat at a shwarma place. The shwarma was good, but Alex got sick from it and threw up everywhere. Armenia has kept my stomach bullet-proof so there were no problems for me.

The next morning, I woke up early and walked around Barcelona. I got a subway sandwich and bought some razors since the ones in Armenia aren’t that great. After aimlessly walking in the streets, I went back to the flat. It was 11:30 or so and they were still asleep. So I woke them up and we continued walking around. We went to a nice payaya place and enjoyed the street performers playing. It was pretty cool. We continued walking around and did some shopping. Barcelona is beautiful. We walked on the boardwalk for quite a ways and took some pictures. That night we ate at a tapas bar. Really good. My favorite was bread, with brie, with honey drizzled over it. You should try to make some. I think I will try to make some when I get back to the States. They also have this drink “grapa” I don’t think that’s right, but its half light beer and half lemon fanta. If you have crappy beer, its a good way to make it better.

The next morning, we woke up decently early, got some breakfast and took the train to the airport. The flight was an easy hour to Madrid. Once there, we took the train to the city center. Kamran had rented out an apartment building for us, so it came out to be about 40 euro for three nights, each. Not too bad. Even better, we all had places to sleep, like on a bed. We went to see Kamran’s friend play at her violin recital. She had apparently studied at the music school at UNCG. Interesting.

The next morning, I woke up early again and walked around a bit. I went to starbucks, found some postcards and wrote them. Then I went back to the apartment and everyone was still sleeping, so I woke them up. We planned an itinerary. Kamran, TJ, and I walked to the Palace, then went to a mexican restaurant for lunch, and then went to some museums. Mainly just walking around in the city. At 3:30, we met up with the other guys at a metro stop and went into the Prado Museum. It was free at 6 so we got in line at 5:30 and were one of the first ones inside. It was pretty nice. Lots of focus on Christianity. We ate dinner at a restaurant called “Ginger Restaurant” and then went back to the apartment and just took it easy.

The next morning was a bit more inspiring. The guys got up a bit earlier. We all walked around for a bit and then went to the other side of the city to meet up with one of Kamran’s other fulbright friends. We went to a small, hole in the wall restaurant, and then the other guys wanted to go back by metro but Kamran, TJ, and I wanted to walk. So we walked back enjoying the sites. We went into some bars and cafes on the way and talked a bit. Eventually we made it back. We then went to meet some of Kamran’s other friends at a sandwich shop. Basically every sandwich was 1 euro. So we got lots and lots of sandwiches. We then went to a club to hang out. At 2:30am, Kamran and I walked back one of this female friends. After we dropped her off, we walked the 30 minutes back to the apartment. It was nice catching up with Kamran. We got back around 3:45 or 4am and then went to bed. We woke up the next morning and went to find some food. We cleaned up the apartment and checked out at 12. We then went way out of our way to find one of 4 taco bells in Spain. Im guessing you think I went to Spain just to eat American food. That is exactly what I did. I did have some of the Spanish cuisine, but most of that stuff is expensive and I needed a little taste of him. Taco Bell didn’t taste like Taco Bell at home. Disappointed, we left and got to the airport.

We booked on Ryan Air. This was the first time for me to fly Ryan Air and it was an experience. Basically, the tickets were only 27 euro each, but it is no frills at all. We all had carry-ons. There are no seat assignments so we had to run to get to the front of the stairway. Some people were elbowing. I was the first one on, and made my way to the exit row and blew up all my stuff over the seats. No really since Kamran was right behind me. We saved the entire exit row because it has a lot more leg room. Every 20 minutes or so, they make some kind of advertisement, so if you don’t have earphones it gets very irritating. I just put my earphones in and passed out all the way to Morocco.

Morocco was really cool. As soon as we landed, I just got this sense of magic or romance. I don’t know how to explain it. We got there at 6 right when the sun was going down and the orange and pinks of the sun on the architecture was really nice. I followed the directions Andrea gave me and went from the Airport to Jal eem Fna. I don’t think I spelled that right but it was a the square in the middle of Marrakech. There Andrea and Felice met up with us.

I am an A-17 volunteer and Andrea was an A-15 volunteer in Armenia and is doing 6 months in Morocco as a Peace Corps Response Volunteer. Its weird to think that I could have met her on top of the mountain the first day my group was in Armenia. The first day I was in Armenia, we met all the A-15 and A-16 volunteers on top of a mountain. It blows my mind a little bit. She was really cool and she immediately started speaking Armenian to me. That was cool. Felice was also cool. She spent her first term in Benin and then wanted to do a second term in Morocco. She just finished her first year in Morocco. They showed us to a place to eat dinner and then we went to a hookah bar to hang out.

The hotel/hostel we were staying at was really cool. I wish I took pictures of that place. Anyway, it had a really nice terrace on the roof looking out over the whole city. I didn’t realize this until much later. The next morning, we met up with Andrea and Kamran and I went to eat breakfast with her. We had crepes with peach and peach cream inside. It was amazingly good, but too rich for me to get another one. Afterwards, Andrea went back home but met up with us later on. Kamran and I walked around a bit. That was really fun getting lost in the back alleys of the markets. We found a small food vendor off the beaten path and ate a beef sandwich of sorts. He went to prayer and I met up with the other guys. I bought some postcards and went back to the hotel to write them. At 2pm, Kamran was finished and we all met back at the hotel and then headed over to the post office. Afterwards, we went to a ruined palace and the spice market before going down an alley. The tea in Morocco is amazing. So good, so we wanted a tea fix. It was there where TJ said, “I don’t think my heartrate has gone below 100 since we’ve been here.” He was just a bit out of his comfort zone. The other funny part was seeing how many times those guys would try to see if they could find a wi-fi hot spot to get internet. Usually to no avail.

We found our way back and had some traditional Moroccan food on a rooftop restaurant. Alex knew french, or knew enough to get around and since the menus were in french, Derek asked Alex to translate. So Alex would read “salade traditionnelle” in a french accent and would translate this in an American accent as “traditional salad.” This actually went on for 5 different items, before I told Derek to just read what was written in reverse order in an American accent. We got a good laugh out of that one.

Around 7, we met with Andrea and her host sister and we walked around the market. She took us to some pretty cool places that we probably wouldn’t have found if we tried to go there alone. We to buy some last minute things and then went to the square to have something to eat. We sat next to the owners and they gave us a bunch of stuff which was really nice of them. We finished up with some tea and then walked Andrea and her host sister to the taxi stop. So, Andrea, if you ever read this, thank you so much for meeting us and showing us around. We had a really great time with you. She was wonderful.

We walked back to the hotel. I bought 6 cokes and we went to the terrace and just talked under the Moroccan night sky. It was really beautiful up there. Our flight was the following morning at 9:50. TJ was so paranoid, we got on the 6:15am bus and got to the airport at 6:45. I found a chair and went back to sleep until 8ish when we were able to check in. We checked in and went through security. We got on our flight and I again passed out the whole way back to Barcelona. We got on the train and rode back to Kamran’s house where we each took showers and relaxed a bit. While I was packing for the guys to take my things back, Kamran found us tickets to the Barcelona soccer game. One of the best soccer clubs in the world. We got something to eat and then left at 6:00 for the 8:00 game. We picked up our tickets from the window and went inside. The seats were scattered around, but I ended up sitting with TJ for the first half and with TJ and Kamran for the second half. The stadium holds 90,000 people and we were right behind one of the goals in what I thought were really good seats. It was surreal. Im not a huge soccer fan, but to be there was really cool.

After the game, we went back to the same Tapas bar to finish out the trip with a spanish meal. After eating, we went back to the house where I quickly fell asleep. The other guys stayed up to watch the UNC/Duke basketball game. They were up until about 4am. Their flight was at 10:30am. They woke up late, still had to pack, the Barcelona Marathon was going on, so the airport bus was relocated. Needless to say, they missed their flight. I didn’t know this until I got to Vienna and checked my email.

I hung out with Kamran for a while, got some lunch and then took the train to the airport. There I checked in. My luck wasn’t that great this time. I had my backpack on and the guy wanted to weigh my bag. This time the limit was 8kg and my bag was 12kg, but it had a computer in it and my jacket. I told the guy that I could take things out to make the weight under 8kg like my computer and my jacket. He said if I took everything out, then I would put everything back in. Then I told him that I get a carry on and a personal item such as my computer and since I am going to Vienna, I needed to carry my jacket with me. The argument was fruitless and he basically said if I wanted to get on the plane, I needed to check my bag. So, I carried my camera, jacket, computer, money, and sandwich with me through security. That was great. I strongly dislike that guy.

I got to Vienna and I was supposed to meet one of my friends there but she had an emergency to attend to so it was just me. I took the train into Vienna and found a place to eat. I watched another soccer game and then made it back to the airport. My flight left at 10:20 and got to Yerevan at 4:30am. I took my time getting through passport control and then I picked up my bags and went outside.

It was good to be back in Armenia. Its a good feeling when the taxi drivers haggle at you and try and charge you 6000 dram and you say “no, I live here. Ill give you 2000” in Armenian. So, I got a ride to the Peace Corps office and passed out on the couch for 6 hours before making my way back home. When I got home, Grandma came in right after me. Apparently my brother left two days previous, so its just back to me and Grandma. Thank God.

So, now that I took all my winter stuff home, it decided to snow, which is totally sweet.

Until next time...