As I sit in the Peace Corps office listening to Kelly Clarkson, it is overwhelming what I have to do in the upcoming weeks.
First, my apologizes for not writing in about a month. I uploaded some photos, but then tried to upload more, unsuccessful. But like I said in the last posting, I was just down in Kapan, trying to stay alive from the heat.
Staying down in Kapan with Lizzie was a lot of fun. We played a lot of Banana-grams, walked some, hung out with her sitemates, made burritos about 15 times, baked a cake for my Dad’s 70th Birthday (pictures to come) and many other things. I was so bored when she left to go to her mid-service conference that I went to the hardware store and tried to repair her bed and door, which I did successfully. The sink looked a bit more complicated, didn’t have the tools, and seemed to be more disgusting than I care to deal with. She is planning on moving out anyway and said that her sink was always like that. Boredom almost led me to eradicate all my reservations and fix it anyway. I didn’t read nearly as much as I did. Still haven’t finished the book I started a while back. It is the Jon Krakauer book “Under the banner of heaven” about Morman fundamentalism and fundamentalists; strange book giving a warped view into the psyche of some who misconstrue the God’s word. I also got time to finish four secondary applications, currently working on one.
I was never that close with Jay or Matt down in Kapan but hanging out with them over the course of three-four weeks, it was sad to say goodbye to them. They were the first of many goodbyes I will have to encounter.
So, thank you Lizzie for letting me spend time down in Kapan. See you in Israel.
Returning to Yerevan drowning in sweat, I headed to Khashi’s house to take a shower and sleep for a little bit before meeting Gayane for dinner. (Refresher: Gayane was my first PDO teaching assistant and has proven to be a great friend). Anyway, her birthday was August 3rd so I took her to dinner and then went to her birthday party. I brought Khashi along. It was a lot of fun. Everyone there spoke English. Alas, it was time to say goodbye to Gayane. Not the easiest thing, but the influences of the vodka dimmed what could have been an embarrassing portrayal of emotion.
Friday was great. I just got a lot of work taken care of. I got my medical check taken care of, did more preparations for our trip and my return home, and met Ani, the piano playing girl who lives and studies in Germany. We hung out for the evening going to dinner, talking, going to see the fountain show in Republic Square and then meeting with Chris and his father who came to visit from the US.
Saturday, we went to a waterpark. Now I know what you’re thinking, “you are in Peace Corps, what are you doing at a waterpark?” Yes, well, so many people have berated me for nearly 15 months to go to this waterpark so I went and it was awesome. We were out in the sun for 8 hours or so riding the same 4 slides and wading in the urine filled wave pool that did not actually provide any waves. It was the last day to see Nick, one of my friends from the Embassy, so it was a nice way to spend that time together. Jason, Khashi, myself, Nick, his wife RaeJean, and their friend Julia came. Lots of fun. Too bad I went when I had less than a week left.
Next week will be a bit hectic trying to get everything finished. I have to go and cancel my bank account, mail some letters, have interviews with Peace Corps about my service, go out to both my training villages and my permanent village to say goodbye, and then more or less, get ready for our trip.
Now that I have no job or really anything to do except to say my goodbyes, the end doesn’t seem so daunting. I have done enough here to leave with no regrets and am looking forward to the next phase in my life.
Like I said before, I will try my hardest to figure out how to load pictures correctly. I must be doing something wrong.
I will continue my blog after I leave Armenia keeping everyone updated on our trip around Europe.
Until next time…
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