So far this week has been really good? Well for the ups there were some downs. Lets talk about the ups first. On Saturday the boys of the area (we call ourselves the “Martuni 6”) went up the extinct volcano. Before I left I had coffee with my host mom and one of her friends because they were making lavash, the national bread of Armenia. It is kind of like a tortilla. Anyway, last time I walked up the extinct volcano, named Aghmaran, Hector and I just went straight up the mountain. She didn’t find this out until Saturday morning and thought I was insane. It is about a 45% grade for most of it. So again this time, I had the same game plan. I met up with Pat from the next village and we walked to Hector’s village about an hour and a half away. The walk is really nice and really pretty. Flat the whole way. We were the last ones to get there and the others were just talking.
Now, if you knew Hector’s mom, you would agree that she is a food nazi. Not as in the sense of the “soup nazi” in Seinfeld. She does the opposite. Last time I walked up Aghmaran with Hector, his mom made me eat so much food and started yelling at me because I didn’t eat the food. It was actually a little frightening. Same thing happened this time around. She just kept bringing in plates of watermelon, pastries, and other foods. It was incredible. Let me clearify, she is a really sweet woman but you simply do not say “no” to her when she offers you food.
So, we finish eating and I am completely full. This time, since there were a bunch of us, we decided that we were going to make horovats at the top of the mountain. Horovats is the Armenian bbq. But what do you need to make any kind of food, besides the food. Yes, that’s right, wood. We carried all the wood, a crapload of chicken and potatoes, and some drinks up there. It was ridiculous. However, I must say it was totally worth it. It was nice to eat up there. Actually, the horovats we made wasn’t that spectacular but after a long hike up the mountain it was welcomed. We took some pictures and off we went back down the mountain. That was a good day.
Sunday, Hector, Kyle, and myself decided we would go into Yerevan to turn in some things and to see what we could see. We took the 2 hour marshutni (comparable to a 15 passenger van) to Yerevan and got to the city around 12:30. Sunday it is interesting to get around. First I had to take the autobus to the market because the regular buses don’t run on Sunday’s. When I got to the market, I waited about 40 minutes for Hector to get there from his village. That was an experience because here’s this American standing in the middle of the parking lot with an almost 30-foot parameter around him. Lots of very curious looks. Anyway, I finally met up with Hector and we walked to the other side of market. There we caught the bus into Martuni where we can get a bus to Yerevan. Being here i have learned punctuality does not exist. We asked the bus driver when he would leave. He said in five minutes. I told Hector that whenever they give me a number I just multiply it by three and that is probably when its going to actually happen. However, after 5 minutes, the driver turned on the bus, but not until another ten minutes had passed did he actually leave. I will continue to stick to my theory.
We met up with Kyle and off we went into Yerevan. First thing we did was take the metro to the other part of the city because we wanted to eat something. Now read this next sentence and let me know what you think about the place we ate. Near the market in Yerevan there is a restaurant called “Champions sports bar.” It has TVs and stuff like that playing sports, but it is a Thai restaurant. I guess this isn’t too odd, but think about if you went into a sports bar and all they had was Pad Thai and Ginger Sesame Chicken. Regardless, it was relatively cheap and it was delicious. DELICIOUS. We saw Sean there along with his Dad. His Dad was visiting for a week and the following day he was heading home. He said some really nice words about what we were doing there but mentioned it wouldn’t be for him and he was excited to get home to his wife. Either way, he was nice enough to pay for our lunch, so thank you.
Afterwards, we went to the office. I always feel so cool going to the office because it is like a fortress with a guard and everything. There are computers in the back that actually have super fast internet. Whether it actually is super fast or Im just used to my slow internet in my village, I don’t know, but it sure does feel fast. We hung out there for a while, got some books, and Hector and Kyle stayed there for a good three hours or so doing internet stuff. I went out to meet a friend and we walked around for a bit in the city. That was fun. When it was time for me to leave I took the taxi back.
Funny thing about taxi’s. The cab drivers always want to talk to you. They ask the basic questions like, where are you from, what are you doing here...are you married (that is a standard question here). Well, I had quite a lot of time with the taxi driver because we were driving around the whole city trying to find where Hector and Kyle were. They had left and had walked to the SAS supermarket. 1000 dram later, I found them. Kyle bought some cheese and off we were to the bus station to take the bus back. It had started raining so the 2 hour trip quickly became 3. We got back to Martuni and Hector and I got a taxi.
In Martuni, the taxi drivers think that they can take advantage of us so we have to do a good amount of finagling. The trip is usually 1500 or 2000 dram to take both hector and myself home. Well this joker decided he wanted to take the long way back and we knew about this. So Hector was dropped off and then he took me home. He said he was going to charge me 2500. This is the conversation that ensued:
driver: Im going to have to charge you more money, this taxi ride was cheap
Me: No, you took the long way back
driver: that is the regular way back
Me: No, its not, I live here and that is the long way
driver: well its still going to be 2500
Me: No, here’s 2000
And then I got out of the cab. (notice how I did not capitalize “driver”)
We got Monday off and I just did some work and laid around. School was fine on Tuesday, nothing new really and then...
All hell broke out Tuesday night. I think I got some food poisoning. I thought I was going to die. I am not going to go into the details but water was pouring out of every orifice of my body. I called my PC doctor and she called my host mom and my mom and my brother ran to the polyclinic and got me some medicine. I usually never have stomach problems but holy crap. However, I will say these are the times when you ask yourself, do I want to be here, when things are at the total pits. Not once was I thinking about going home and this morning, now that I feel much better, I can rest assure that even through all that pain, I still want to be here. I laid in bed today and had several visitors come by. One of them was my awesome aunt who just came to my bed, gave me a huge, and kissed me right below the eye. I feel like this was the breaking point because I got a lot closer to my host family here. My host mom really took care of me and kept checking up on me. It has been a great week and Im really looking forward to the next couple of weeks because there is a lot going on.
I wanted to thank Laura B. for finally letting me know she was still in existence. It was nice to finally hear from her.
I need to cut my hair.
Until next time...
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