the OPERA... not the MUSICAL...
Khashi. Sly sly Khashi
Do not get between Gevorg and his Soaps..
Thursday I went to school and I went with my school director to Martuni. We picked up the hand driers and got the receipts needed to close out my bathroom grant. It all went well. I came home, typed everything into the computer and then went back to school to take pictures of the project which I will post.
Friday, I went into Yerevan to take care of things here and there. I turned in all my papers for the project and so far, it looks good. I haven’t received official notice that everything is ok, but hopefully by tomorrow, my hands will be cleared from all this.
I went to the park and hung out with Jason for a while and then went to meet Ani, the piano player who lives in Germany. It was great talking to her since it had been about 8 months since I had last seen her. She told me about her experiences which was nice. She lives with an 89 year old German woman who apparently speaks 7? languages. I don’t remember exactly how many Ani said. Anyway, she told me what it was like to work in Germany. She said when she first got there, she found a job on the internet waiting tables and cleaning dishes, then someone asked her why she is doing those kinds of jobs when she could get paid playing at events. So she went down that venue and said she played at an event where they paid her 300 euro for a half hour. Although that sounds like a lot, those events aren’t every weekend, and she has to pay back all her loans. On the bright side, there is an organization that flies her all over the place to play. She went to LA for two weeks and has been around Europe.
It is one of those fairytale stories. Between her hard work and the people that she knew, she was able to study in Germany. It was obvious that a lot of her perspectives were different now having been in western Europe for 8 months already.
Following that meeting, I went over to Khashi’s to drop off my things. There I met one of his brother’s friends who had a huge bandage on his head. Apparently when he was walking down the street, a concrete block from a balcony came down and hit him on the head. It was insane. They put 4 stitches in, but I don’t think that was enough. There was still a good amount of blood on his head. He is lucky to be alive. The next morning I was talking to Khashi’s brother, Adalan, and he said the police came over after we left the previous night. They were there for 3 hours and didn’t believe what had happened and kept asking the guy if he had enemies. The police said it would be impossible for concrete to fall (from old soviet style balconies) and it must have been someone out to hurt him. A bit ridiculous.
Khashi and I went to Gevorg’s house and hung out there. Actually that is all we did. Just sat there and caught up since it had been a long time since we had seen each other. It was funny because one of the Armenian soaps was on its season finale and Gevorg was really into it. Khashi and I went back to his house and hung out.
The next morning, I went out to meet with Mike and get some work done at the office. Basically took the day pretty slowly. I went over to Jason’s house to change into my nice clothes because Khashi, Mike and I had bought tickets to go see AIDA.
Looking back it seems like I always get into situations which result in good stories when dealing with an instance associated with Mike’s planning. Two weeks ago, Mike said the Aida was coming to Armenia and that we should get tickets. The way he described it to me was that it was a broadway musical. I thought this was a great idea. I like musicals. I went on Wikipedia and saw “Aida (musical)” and read about it. Elton John wrote the music. I love Elton John so naturally I didn’t read anything else. I saw Elton John and that was good enough for me.
We got to the Opera and went inside. It was really nice. I had never been to the opera side of the Opera, just the Orchestra side. There we sat down and the curtains opened. An Egyptian theme. Interested. Lots of singing. Too much singing. The singing didn’t stop. This was not a musical. The language was not in Armenian, nor English. Italian. Great, so here is this non-stop Italian singing, Egyptian based show where I had no idea what was going on. The first act was over in 30 minutes. I looked at my watch and thought to myself, “at least it will be over soon”. Nope. 4 acts. It started at 7:15 and went on till 11 o’clock. It wasn’t until the second act started when I gave up hope thinking that I would hear someone Elton John-esque music. Sweet. I had to cancel all my plans to meet people that night because I thought the show would be over at 9:30. Like I said, it went on till 11. The best thing is, is that they have cell-signal-scramblers so that you can’t make a call or send a text. This made things very awkward.
Overall, the show was great. I really enjoyed it even though I had no idea what was going on. Apparently it was a 100% Armenian cast. The singers and instrument players were great. The ballet dancers were absolutely horrible. Fortunately, they were only on stage for a very small segment of the show. Really good time though.
I read about the play when I got up the next morning. The show makes sense now. From now on, I will read about the play before I go. I think I will enjoy it more.
The next morning, I got up and went to meet Caree. Mike, Caree, and I talked for about 3 hours about random things and then I came home. Coming home was great. There were signs of green along the roads and people preparing for the spring. They started to plow their fields. The weather is still a bit chilly but really windy. Hopefully the warm air will come soon.
Grandma just told me that she isn’t going to accept payment from me anymore and that April 30th she will probably leave. That bodes well for me since I have to be out of site for the first ten days of May.
Dad, I am probably going to mail some stuff back to the house. Ill let you know when I send it.
Until next time...
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