Back to the rhythm of things. This blog makes no sense

So after my month hiatus I hope to be regular again with my blog postings.

It was nice starting school. I had a lot of fun going to school, getting started with everything. I went to my English classes where the English teacher and I got things off to a really good start. Usually what I do is sit in the front and sit with the kids who don’t do too well with their English. I read passages and help to pronounce the words correctly. The best part about this is I get to speak in an outrageous British accent because they learn British English. The most enjoyable part is saying stuff under my breath about speaking in a British accent and not having anyone understand what Im saying. I do feel quite silly speaking in an accent which is not my own. Got to take it for the kids.

We also started our State mandated Healthy Living Curriculum this week. It went really well. I work with one of the two PE teachers, Silva. She is great because she really seeks out my input. One of the goals in Peace Corps is skills transfer. Finally, after a year being here, I can see the fruits of my labor. “Labor” is an understatement, but like I have mentioned in the past, how can you really expect to change the perceptions and ideas of people who have been thinking the same way their whole lives. However I have noticed two profound changes. One in each of the teachers I work with.

The English teacher doesn’t rush the kids anymore and goes over and helps the kids pronounce the words part by part. She also has started to ask the students more things in English. Before, everything was in Armenian. I told her that the more she talks in English, the more the kids will learn. So, she has started with that.

For my PE teacher, its the critical thinking that we have been working on. Last year I taught with Silva and she still remembered to always ask “why” the answer is correct. We had our first lesson and even after asking a question and getting the correct answer she always asks “why” the answer is the way it is. This was a great start to the week.

The cafeteria was not started because of some miscommunication but now everything is on track and in three weeks we should have a renovated cafeteria. The bathroom is still working well (thank God) and there have been no problems to this point.

Two weekends ago I came into Yerevan and went to Artbridge, a western style breakfast place. They have free internet and Mike likes eating there. I used the internet, he ate. Anyway, while we were there, we noticed a foreigner and much like Armenians starring at foreigners, we have started doing the same thing. Out of the blue, she asked if our internet was working, which at that point it was not. Anyway, we started talking. She is in microfinance and goes out into the regions to do her work. I don’t really understand what her work is, actually. Anyway, its always nice to have new people come through.

Saturday, I was in Yerevan because I am looking at carpets. After the carpet factory, we went to a coffee place and talked. It was Mike, myself, Jason, and our new friend. While we were there talking, another girl came into the coffee shop and just stood behind us. I think she was trying to figure out what language we were speaking. She stepped up and asked “Are you all Americans?” which we our reply was just a stare. We said yes, and she introduced herself. She has been here for about a month working for an NGO, doing things like teaching English and organizing exchange opportunities. You could see the relief on her face when she was explaining how great it was to finally meet Americans she could talk to. The best part was when she asked “if I give you all my cell phone number will you call me when you are in Yerevan?” So, we all talked to each other and spent about an hour getting to know different aspects of each others lives.

I think that’s the most interesting thing. Sometimes its just nice to know someone from your own country. We often joke about it here, about Peace Corps friends, and how you would never be friends with some of the people here but because there are only a limited amount of us, we are friends, genuine friends. This is what I look forward to the most, meeting a group of new people who don’t know each other. That’s all I have to say about that.

I wanted to talk about one of my other friends too. Lately, when I have been in Yerevan, I have tried to hang out with Khashi, my Iranian friend. He and Molsen are here studying Architecture, working to get their masters. Khashi may questionably be one of the most open-minded, most intelligent people I have ever met. He and Molsen were talking about politics. They were talking about the Persian Empire, the Roman Empire, Assyria, Mongols, Barbarians, Ahmadinejad, Obama, etc. Really interesting. Khashi has a really strong sentiment against Media. His sentiments which I agree with. He said that Media makes an effort to focus on the differences and negative aspects of groups, not ways that they are similar. These differences become exacerbated by these different groups and gives points of unrest. This and several other things he said made a lot of sense. Additionally, these debates were all done in English. Almost flawless English. Oh, he is also fluent in Armenian and Farsi. Always really interesting meeting with both Molsen and Khashi.

Snow has been falling, but its not too terribly cold. I love being at home now because its really warm and I feel comfortable walking around just wearing a T-shirt even though Grandma thinks Im nuts. Interestingly, I don’t know how she can live with so many layers on because I am usually sweating sitting next to the furnace.

In about 4 weeks I meet my friends Will, TJ, Derek, Alex, and Kamran in Spain. I am really excited about that since it has been almost 2 years since I have seen the first four. I will be packing some of my things and taking it to them to take back to the US. Some of my winter things. Its surreal really. One of my sitemates is leaving mid-May to start grad school and another one may leave mid-June. Its starting to happen and I don’t know how I feel about it. Its already the end of January. This spring is going to fly by.

I feel like this blog is probably the worst written. Don’t know.

Until next time...

Ukraine, Christmas, New Years, Volunteers

Yerevan at night. The cascade in front of the Opera. I wish I knew more history on it, but I don't.



Jason, the gardner (Stingray), Khashi (Iranian Awesome-ness), and myself.



Me, Marissa (Hector's fiance), and Hermano. They.Are.Awesome.



Jason (again), Gevorg (Hostel Man), and me.



Normal...

Its been a long time since I have written and I realize that. Several people to my amazement have asked where my blog went, if I stopped writing, etc. There have been some things that have happened lately that warranted me to wait until I figured out what I was going to say. Strangely enough, I wrote two separate blogs, one about Ukraine and then one after Ukraine.

Ukraine:
My original blog stated much more but when I thought about it more, there was no need to expel endless pages of details that you probably wouldn’t want to read, nor me, really want to explain. But here is a brief summary.

Well, I met a girl last March in Kiev. I saw her and knew I had to get to know her. I did the lame-o middle school thing and got ten people to write on a piece of paper their contact details so it wouldn’t look so obvious I was already infatuated with an absurd idea. We kept in touch for 8 months through countless emails and the use of video skype. When Iryna got a job with Peace Corps as a language teacher, we moved to writing hand written letters and talking Thursday on the phone. The next step... to meet again.

I flew to Ukraine.

It was a fairytale. It was perfect. I loved every minute of it. I honestly felt like I was living a dream. We went to a museum, the Ukrainian Philharmonic, talked hours in cafes, took at 4 hour train ride, I met her awesome parents, her sister, many of her childhood friends, had Christmas dinner at her sister’s house with her family, exchanged presents, rode on a shortbus back to Kiev which lasted 6 hours, ate a nice dinner, went ice-skating, held hands, and then got on a dreaded plane back to Armenia with no real answers. I got home and she didn’t want to talk to me and requested I not contact her until I got a handwritten letter from her, explaining “everything.”

It was a disaster coming home. Mike is an amazing guy and sometimes he really surprises me with what lengths he will go to make sure I am ok. He picked up the pieces at the airport. He was there at my lowest hour. He even made me a sign that read “WELCOME BACK! I’ll still love you even if Iryna doesn’t (you know, in a friend sorta way) Don’t vote for Sarah Palin!”

We took a taxi into Yerevan and stayed at Jason and Elvira’s. Elvira was an A-13 volunteer and Jason is her husband who is the head gardener at a park in Yerevan. Really interesting guy. He owned a church until just recently. I mean, how many people do you know who have owned a church. Really... Anyway, he helped with the damage control. Jason was ready. He had my favorite beer in the fridge and we ordered American Style Pizza. It was amazing. After that Mike came back to the village with me. We had a good time here hanging out.

We walked to Hector’s village. Marissa is here spending time with Hector. Marissa is Hector’s Fiance and just finished her service in Turkmenistan. She is really cool. Perfect for Hector. We went out there and hung out with them and Hector’s host Dad. We played a lot of dominos. It was good.

Mike and I came back for New Years. New Years was great. We did the normal New Years thing. This year wasn’t as nuts as last year. Last year, everyone wanted to have the American at their house. My 13-year old brother took me everywhere and we got back at 4am. Memorable. This year, Mike and I walked around and came back around 2am. It was fun though. We went over to Vartan’s house. There his sons were trying to get me to dance, and some of the Armenian dance moves are a bit tricky so I just ran in place. Mari-ne, Vartan’s wife, I think, may have shot some juice out of her nose she was laughing so hard. I mean, what else was I supposed to do. It was fun.

We then went over to Arpine’s house. No one was home except for the Granddad and Grandma. They were in their PJs. Awkward. They got out of bed and I very awkwardly stood there while Granddad was putting on his pants. I don’t know where Mike. He was probably watching Grandma put on her clothes. Anyway, I kept saying that I would come back later, but Granddad would have none of that and had three glasses of vodka ready to go. Down the hatch. So, around 2pm, we came back home and just fell asleep.

The next morning, we didn’t do much. Just hung out around the house. Mike and I watched some movies. We decided that we would watch “Marley and Me”. Horrible idea. Basically the movie is about the life of a white labrador and how it is a menace but the family really does love the dog. Its about how the dog transforms a family. Anyway, Mike and I were watching this movie. I live in a village, more specifically in a concrete house that holds the cold better than Whirlpool’s top of the line refrigerator. So, Mike and I were on my bed. I was in my sleeping bag and he was under a lot of blankets. Remember this is a twin sized bed. The timing could not have been better. At the end of the movie, Marley is put down. A real tear jerker if you have ever had a pet. So, Mike and I were sobbing in my bed, huddled together, when Grandma walks in, stares at us for a moment, and then just starts laughing the most hearty laugh I think I have heard coming from her. She didn’t have the breathe to ask any questions. She laughed and turned around and left. Picture perfect moment.

Well, I wasn’t about to wait around for this letter. That would be dumb. Mike and I went on an epic journey, starting in Madina. There we again hung out with Hector and Marissa before embarking onward to other places. It was great. Its times like these when you know who your friends are. They were trying to figure things out, willing to listen, they supported me, they were just great. Mike, Hector, Marissa, Pat Findler, his wife Meaghan, Alex, Beckie, Emily. They were all great. I don’t really know how to explain it, its a different world here. I know that I had mentioned this before but I guess other volunteers here and my close Armenian friends are my family here. How to repay them for their awesome-ness is beyond me.

I went to Yerevan last week. I needed to be out of my village; just for a change of pace. I went to Yerevan and met with Gayane. Gayane is the smartest, coolest, most beautiful (Gayane, what else did you want me to say?) person I know. HA. No, but in all seriousness she has been awesome in all this. She and I worked together for PDO when we were teaching students preparing to go to America for ten months. We met at a tea house and hung out for a while before she had to go and learn how to drive. Disaster. When I talk to her it always sounds like she is either in a really large hall or in the bathroom. Weird. After that, Jason came to the tea house and we hung out for a while, before going to another place, and then eventually over to Gevorg’s house. Gevorg is another one of my friends who lives in Yerevan. He runs the hostel that volunteers sometimes stay at. There we hung out and talked. Gevorg recently got married and has several great ideas of starting businesses in Armenia. It was fun talking about business to him with Jason. Another one of those friends that you are fortunate to run across in life.

The following day,I just laid around their house. That night was fun. There was a new shipment of Embassy people that came from the States and they wanted to go to a real barbeque place in Armenia. So, they contacted Elvira and she told Jason to take them to a barbeque place. Jason asked me to go with him. I was a bit concerned, because I wasn’t in the mood to hang out with older people and not be able to relax. I mean, these are Embassy people right? Well, they were wicked awesome. At first I was still a little hesitant but after a while, they were really cool. They were in their early thirties and did Peace Corps in Ukraine. They talked about their Peace Corps experience and asked me about mine and it was great.

After an awesome meal, we were getting ready to pay. I started getting out my wallet when they told me to put it away, stating that they remember what it was like being a volunteer and when they ran into RPCVs the RPCVs would pay, so they wanted to do the same. It was a bit awkward, but they wouldn’t take no for an answer. They also said anytime I was in Yerevan and needed a place to stay, to let them know. They went way out of their way that night. On top of that, they were all really cool. So we hung out for a couple more hours and that was it.

The weird thing is, people think of Peace Corps as one thing, and generally it is. You have Americans living in random places all over the world. But one of the things I will take away from this are all the amazing people I have met during my adventure here. People from my village who would do anything for me, to people I just meet who are willing to open up their door to let me stay at their home. Im excited to be able to do the same after several years... many many years...

I got back to the village. I basically went straight home and went to bed for a while. The following day I went to the post office because I knew that Dad had sent me a Christmas card. Also, that letter from Iryna came. The Christmas card was nice. It had a lot of pictures in it. There was one picture of Snow, Raven, and Heidel (Dad, how do you spell her name?) Snow passed away on January 14th at the age of 14, so it was a bit hard to see that picture as it was probably one of the most recent ones. I smiled though. I remember the Sunday, 14 years ago when I saw puppies over at our neighbors house. I wandered over there talked with the lady and then carried one of the puppies back for my parents to see. And... we got a dog. Snow was a great dog. Although I reneged on walking the dog all the time, and basically taking care of it, I loved the dog. My Dad was the closest to it and more than anything, I was sad for my parents. I had already said my goodbyes to Snow when I left for Armenia. She was definitely one of a kind. Fortunately the other two dogs at home will keep my parents occupied... until I come home.

Then I opened the letter from Iryna. It was exactly what I was expecting so it was no shock to me that she couldn’t handle a long distance relationship... and there was another guy. Ouch. Although it would have been nice to know that before I went to Ukraine, I will always have that experience. I really learned a lot from this. This was the first time where I was completely honest and didn’t hold anything back. It was a very strange feeling because after I read this letter, I had this amazing feeling coming over me. I was finally at peace with everything and honestly, I was happy for her. Yeah, it sucks that it didn’t work out, but as my Dad said, I have a really long road ahead of me and it just wasn’t in the cards. It just wasn’t in God’s plan.

Its all over. I was at home and just hung out with Grandma and my host brother. Nothing new really. Just relaxing. I went back into Yerevan on Friday night because I wanted to get some things for home. I went with Jason and Mike to the Vernisage, which is an open market. We figured that now would be a good time to go because Armenians tend to spend a good portion of their money on New Years and its cold so tourists aren’t here. It worked out well. We looked at some handmade rugs, chess sets, and some other hand goods. Its amazing how cheap things are here, that are hand made. I bought a handmade chess set for about 80 dollars, and a hand carved “khachkar” which means stone cross. It wasn’t made out of stone but it was a hand carved piece of walnut that had a cross on it. Really hard to describe, but I bought it for about 35 dollars. The rugs were a bit more expensive. Obviously. I might have to go back and do some more shopping. It was fun though.

I hung out with Mane and Gayane too. The two girls I went to Ukraine with last March. Mike came with me and Megan met up with us later. We just all walked around the city, took pictures, went to cafes. Just took it easy. Mike and I went back to Jason’s around ten. Jason and I stayed up and watched “Horsemen”. Horrible ending, but now Jason has now been dubbed “stingray”. Nicknames are fun.

Anyway, I have attached some pictures. I hope you enjoy and again my apologize for not writing sooner but things have been a little rough here. I want to thank everyone who was there to support me. My parents, and my really good friends here in Peace Corps. Really. Especially Mike for basically picking up all the pieces. Its been great. Six more months. Its going to be wild.

Until next time...

For you Dad

This is Rubik. He is actually a teacher at the other school where Terri used to work. Im not exactly sure how we became friends but he is a really good guy. He always makes things awkward because when we are at the same party or something, he will make a toast to friendship. He will say “I am happy for friendship and my friendship with Danny. I want to have a friendship with him but I don’t know if he wants to have one with me, but that’s his business.” Never fails. We joke about it now but at first, a bit awkward. Now I just yell across the table at him and we get a good laugh.


Me and the illustrious Vardan. I can’t say enough good things about this guy. He cracks me up and is always willing to help me out.


Zaria is the Grandmother and Karine is the other lady in the picture, her daughter (in-law, maybe). If she is hanging out outside of her house, she always stops me on my way to school and always tries to convince me to come to her house for coffee. This time with Emily, I thought it would be an interesting experience if we went inside. Coffee turned into mounds of food...


Me and Grandma drinking coffee. Our ritual which starts everyday for us. I enjoy these sit down moments because if gives us some time to talk about stuff. Sometimes we just sit in silence.


This is the picture for the following blog. Read to find out more... These pictures were taken by Emily Haas. So Thank you Emily for coming to my village and capturing my life here. Or a part of my life here.

A computer, a goat, potatoes, and friends...

Last time I wrote I was just coming back from our All-Volunteer’s Conference. I had just gotten home and had less than one day to myself. On Saturday, Emily, another volunteer from my group who lives in Yeghegnadzor (the place I visited with Mike over Halloween), came to visit. She is in charge of the 50th Anniversary and wanted to film my life here. Or at least some aspects of it. It was pretty fun. The day she got here, we just laid low and just walked around a bit. Sunday was pretty awesome. We woke up and went to the Market. Like I said before, its just so draining to go there because you have to take the bus which is packed full of people, get to the market, where again it is packed full of people, and then ride back on a bus... again packed full of people. Its just a lot of things going on at the same time. Lots of noises, smells, sights, people staring. Yeah. Overwhelming.

Emily got some good shots there of the Market. She gave me money to buy some mandarines because she wanted some and needed some film of me having interaction with Armenians. We got back and rested for a short while. Then we went over to Vardan’s house. The proceedings are not made up. It is so wild I can’t make it up. Its really not that crazy.

So, in my area where there are a lot of potatoes, we have this thing called “poor.” The “r” is rolling and the “oo” is pronounced like you would the “oo” sound in “sue.” Anyway, to refresh your memory, you take dried cow feces which has been baked in the sun for weeks and burn them down to coals and then take potatoes and baked the potatoes under the cow feces coals. It may be a mental thing, but the taste is like no other. Its really good. Vardan wanted Emily to experience this, so we went over to his house. Then we went to an abandoned neighbors house which is all fenced in and made the fire. Interestingly enough, inside the gates, there was a goat. Livestock isn’t that dangerous, but when you have grown up in the city, anything bigger than a mouse can be intimidating. Especially things with horns.

As an aside, its always funny watching 7 year old kids with sticks herding cows that are measured in hundreds of pounds and how afraid the livestock are of these kids armed with sticks.

Back to the story. We were having our potatoes and Vardan wanted to play with the goat so he kept putting his foot up so that the goat could ram it. Obviously, the goat was playing too because it wasn’t charging. It would just up on its hind legs and just fall over. They had some kind of relationship... “relationship.” After eating, I told Vardan that I would be back in half and hour because I needed to talk to my parents. He said, bring your computer out here. I didn’t really think too much about it but he said that we could show my parents this “poor” experience... and the goat. What a great idea. So, Emily has all her cameras with her and she was filming me sitting on the ground talking with my parents via skype with Vardan and his wife crouching over behind me, with our other neighbor fighting the goat in the background. I will post a picture. But, this kind of event you can’t plan. Nope.

So, now that Emily had that experience, we went back home and hung out with Grandma. On Monday we went to school, and she filmed some stuff at school. My bathroom, the teachers, some classes we went to. It was fun. We didn’t do much after school. On Tuesday, we went back to school because I needed to take care of some business with the school director and then we came back to the house, rested a bit and walked around the village. I introduced her to some people in the village. Tuesday was interesting because I took her to one of my neighbor’s house down the street. A really sweet grandma who always yanks me into her house. Well, usually when an Armenian says coffee, it really means feast. So Emily and I went inside and sat with the Grandma. At 11:00am we had quite a bit of vodka, wine, and coffee along with too much food. So, that is why we needed to rest. Always an interesting cultural experience.

That evening, Emily and I were walking to the other side of the village because she wanted to take some village shots. Vardan saw us and gave us a ride. That was fun.

Wednesday, I went with Emily to Martuni to find her a ride down to her town. Then I came back and went to the last two classes on Wednesday. Wednesday is kind of a down day anyway, so no big deal.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. Nothing new really happened. On Saturday, I went to Vaghashen because there was supposed to be a meteor shower. Clouds came so I came back home.

Sunday, nothing really happened. I just laid low, did some reading, prepared for the upcoming week. This is my last week of school...already.

This evening I went to bed early because I had to get up at 2:45 for a phone interview with Dr. Hogarty. An Osteopathic Physician who agreed to write me a letter. So I prepared myself for our 3:00am phone conversation. It went really well. We spoke for 30 minutes. As I write this though, I am in a daze. This weekend’s sleep cycle was not conducive for productive behavior. Ill be back on track by tomorrow. I guess it’s already time to start thinking about the future. Only one more semester. Weird.

Overall, the weather here has been pretty good... until recently. I have a friend in Ukraine who I tell the weather to. I do it in such a way that seems instigating. Ill say “it’s really warm here”... the next day... freezing. This has happened pretty much on the button everytime I have said it. From this, I have learned to keep my mouth shut. My point is... its cold here now.

However, Peace Corps gives us two heaters. One that just blows hot air, also known as a space heater, and a radiator. A lot of the other volunteers always say that the radiator does not work, so I never tried plugging the thing up. However, within the last week, it has occurred to me that the volunteers who I talked to also have really large rooms. I plugged my radiator in, and in 15 minutes my room (which is the size of a moderately sized walk-in closet) heats up. Heats up to the point where I just need to wear a sweater. This would have made my life a lot easier if I thought about this last winter, but I guess its better late than never.

This week will be pretty regular.

I hope everyone is having a good time getting ready for Christmas and the New Year. I’m very much looking forward to Christmas in Ukraine. New Years Im still trying to figure out.

Until next time...

1. No explanation needed...

2. During Thanksgiving I decided to take some headshots of the guys in my area. I was inspired by reading a “New Yorker” which had headshots of many of the world’s presidents. A photographer stood outside the UN building and stopped as many of the presidents as he could and took pictures of them. The layout was nice too with a black and white of Obama on the opposing page of a color photo of Ahmadinejad.

3. Coming down from Artik, the driver took a weird way so we went by these stone carvings of the Armenian Alphabet.

Dad... again some explanations

1. One of the defaced cemetery stones. You may be able to see the crescent and star at the top of the stone.

2. A church up near Novemberyan, Lisa’s site, with the original structure dating back to the 4th century with a rebuild in the 12th century.

3. Arpine came to our Thanksgiving. She had some work in Tbilisi and asked if I she could bring something back for me. I said a coke. The bottling plants here and there are the same so it was meant as a joke. She brought me that can though...

4. Basketball Photo of both the A-17s (champions) and A-18s (non-champions). Bill, the guy holding up his finger wearing the blue shirt didn’t even play. I don’t know why he is in the picture...

5. Proof the flashmob did happen. It was epic

A Bittersweet Symphony

Whoa nelly it has been a long time since I have written but there is a lot to write. Lots of traveling, and lots of stories and opinions.

Since I last wrote, I have been going around the country for various reasons. This was well before Thanksgiving and as I write I realize how long it has been since I have been back to my site. I left on Friday, November 19th from my village and went to Kyle’s house in Vaghashen. Kyle is one of my site mates. I packed my huge bag full of clothes, a sleeping bag, etc. for two weeks and off I went. The six of us got together and started getting stuff for Thanksgiving. We were preparing for Thanksgiving Martuni style 2010 in Vaghashen. Since I was leaving for the upcoming week and some of the others wanted to go to other parts of Armenia for actual Thanksgiving, we had it on Saturday, November 20th. At Vincent’s house, Hector, Vincent, Pat, and Nick prepared sides and the turkeys, and at Kyle’s house, I made a bunch of apple pie (from scratch-yes, PC has taught me how to cook things and not reheat them...). Kyle made mashed potatoes and Rosa made biscuits.

We invited our whole Marz (state) and the Marz over. In total there were 13 people there but we had enough food to easily feed over 40. We got tables and chairs from neighbors and sat down and ate Thanksgiving together. Mom, I even gave a prayer of thanks and it wasn’t dumb. We ate, and ate, and ate and ate... and ate. There were a lot of people who overate. Hector looked like he had a really bad hangover, but in fact, just ate way too much. I was in the same boat. The bathroom was the most popular room. The food was good and cooked and everything, it was just the fact that people needed to create some space... After that, in true Thanksgiving form, Hector downloaded an American football game which was played on Halloween night and we sat down and watched football. This was Hector’s third time watching the game... This, in true Peace Corps Style. I loved it. After this, the guys and I made a “Martuni Christmas Card.” It is attached. For those of you who do not read my blog, I will be mailing some out. But since you don’t read my blog, you don’t know that so I don’t know why I just wrote it.

Thanksgiving was great. On Sunday, November 21st, I went to Yerevan and met Mike. I got some work done in Yerevan concerning the flashmob and that was that. Mike and I then went over to Kilikia bus stop and waited to head up to Novemberyan. A town in the Northeastern part of Armenia. I had never been up there before. It was a weird ride because pretty much everyone talked to us. I mean its cool and fun at first but after the first 20 minutes, it gets old. There is an unstated rule that when the vehicle is moving, there is no more talking. This was not the case. It was a 3 and a half hour ride. Not too bad for Armenian standards. The weird thing was, while we were riding, there is a tunnel. Before the tunnel, everything is flat, there are no trees, or really anything. We went through this tunnel and emerged on the other side to see a completely different scene of trees everywhere, hills, and rivers. Really nice. I felt like I was back in the mountains of NC. We got to Novemberyan and met up with Lisa. Lisa is a 40-something who looks like a 30 something. She is pretty cool and very interesting. We bought some supplies and then took a cab up to her village. She lives in a cottage looking house by herself. It was pretty nice. We were there for 3 nights. When we got there on Sunday, we just had dinner, talked and went to bed. Monday morning, we went into another town and went to a really nice art center. There were two girls there who run the art center. They were really nice and had some nice things to offer. Lisa usually takes stuff from the art center and brings them to some of the PC functions to sell them. Usually they sell pretty well. We got back to Lisa’s house and cooked dinner and then helped Lisa with her grant writing and some school preparations. Then we went for a walk around her village. She took us to an old Azerbaijani cemetery. Azeris inhabited this area until 1988 when they were driven out. Their graves were defaced. It was a sad sight. All of the stones except two were defaced. Most were pushed over and the whole area was not very well kept. Walking through was interesting though. The Azeri stones had the star and crescent and had their occupation on the side of the stone in the form of a picture. For example, if the person was a doctor, there was a picture of a syringe; if there was a sewing machine, a tailor. Like that.

The next day, we went finished up some more grant things and worked on the Health packets I have been working on for such a long time. Around 1, we called a taxi to take us to two old style churches. They were really pretty and far away. By this point, we were about 15 minutes, driving from the Georgian border. The churches were nice but I don’t remember the names and like I said before the churches are basically all the same, just the location is different. It was nice regardless.

We got back to the house and relaxed a bit. That night we made pizza. Actually that whole week was nice. We made egg rolls (from scratch), pizza, tuna melt (the tuna was in cans sent from the States. A commodity here... We also made brownies from the States. At this point, I had gained about 4.7 pounds between eating this food and eating at Kyle’s. Danelle came over just for dinner. She is a new volunteer. That night, we set mouse traps because Lisa was not having any luck catching mice. Mike and I set about 5 traps. It was funny because Lisa set the kind where you put glue on a piece of glass or something, and she got the glue all over the place. Great fun. The next morning, we had snapped the neck of two mice (you’re welcome Mom). We set more and off we were to Artik where Mike lives. We didn’t go through yerevan but found another way. We went to Vanadzor by marshutni or small bus and switched to a shared taxi. It was a really pretty ride and I wish I took pictures along the way. Anyway, we got to Gyumri and helped Lisa again with her grant. We went to a playground store and ordered some things for Lisa. Then we went to get lunch and Mike and I were on our way. We took the train from Gyumri to Artik and got to Artik around 7. I had to carry my bag from the train station to Mike’s house. Mike had moved... further away... from where he lived before. My bag was not light.

We got to Mike’s house. His house is really nice actually. His renter lives above him but he lives in a pretty cozy place. He is getting along really nicely there and is much happier now. Im happy for him. Nicole was there. She is the only married one in our group. She was there seeing her mentee who is Mike’s sitemate. It was fun. We got there on Wednesday night and hung out and then on Thursday, we got ready for Thanksgiving at Mike’s school. Mike’s church back home in Texas got money together and sent about 200 dollars over to provide for Thanksgiving dinner at Mike’s school. Some of the older volunteers from Gyumri came and helped cook everything. Mike works at a “special school for the mentally disabled”. I don’t understand that because when I am there, I seem to have trouble differentiating between the students there and any other kid. Maybe ADD is a mental disability here.

So you know back in the States, families spend hours making the Turkeys. Well, Michael went to the school and checked up on everything around 10am. The Thanksgiving meal was supposed to be around 2:30. Well, the Turkeys were just in a large pot still in water, uncooked. Mike was not pleased but came back laughing saying that we were going to be having chicken soup... We all went to the school and were pleasantly surprised. The turkeys were actually really nice and turned out well. Apparently they boiled the turkeys and the broiled them. 200 dollars was enough to cover the cost of 4 turkeys and pies and stuffing, drinks and some other things for 80-90 people. The dollar has the potential to go a long way here. It was a lot of fun and the kids seemed to be liking the food. Barbara was a bit concerned because apparently she has tried to do something like this before. She had brought the pumpkin pie and was certain that none of the kids would eat it. So, I went around to every kid and asked if they had tried the Pumpkin pie. They said no, so I asked them to try it. If they said no, I just stared at them until they tried a little piece. They would like it and eventually eat the whole thing. Some of the kids got more. I was pleased about that. The whole event went really well. I was really happy and proud of Mike. Afterwards we went to Mike’s and had a Thanksgiving of our own. One of my friends, Arpine who is from Armenia, came down from Gyumri and had Thanksgiving with us. She was a FLEX student and does a lot of international work and knows English really well. I get surprised when she speaks Armenian because I forget that she is Armenian. She is really cool though. It was a good group who was up there. Nicole, Ashley, Mike... I guess that was it. It was a good group. We just hung around Artik until Sunday when I came to Yerevan. This week was All-Vol of the All Volunteer’s conference that is held in Yerevan every year. I went on Sunday to help cook the Peace Corps Thanksgiving dinner. I helped make 25 pies of various tastes and cut up a garbage bag of stale bread for stuffing. That is hard.

The conference started on Tuesday. Monday was our travel day but Monday night we had our Thanksgiving dinner. This year was weird. It wasn’t as good as the previous year, maybe because the novelty of it had worn. Don’t know. But after dinner, we had our talent show. I played the song that Mike and I wrote on our trip to Greece called “the Peace Corps Type” modeled after the Lemonheads song called “the Outdoor Type”. It was supposed to be funny talking about failed projects and suffering from Giardia, but I realized as I was singing it that the song was a bit sad. I felt that I was going to start tearing up actually when I was singing it, especially our line that said “I can’t believe its been a year, with just a few months left...” I was looking around the room at all the other volunteers realizing that this was the last conference I was going to have like this.

The following night after the Tuesday Sessions, we had the A-17 vs. A-18 basketball game. It was really a lot of fun and it seemed like I was back in High School. It was a really good game and my group, the 17s came out on top. I don’t remember what the score was but regardless a lot of fun to play. But that night as well was a little hard because we played really well and the reason that happened was because we had played together before, but that we knew each other well. This would be the last time we will have the opportunity to play at an organized PC function. We took a nice picture though...

The final day of All-Vol was nice. We had minor sessions in the morning and then a development fair. A sort of Meet and Greet thing. Afterwards, the long awaited Flashmob. Everyone had their shirts and we walked as a group to the Opera to meet with other organizations. We were there at 5:30 and waited till 5:45. I gave the instructions and off we were to the top of Northern Avenue. We got camera crews to come out and as soon as the whistle was blown, everyone took off their jackets to strike a pose and show off their AIDS T-shirts we made for this event. The event lasted for one minute but got the point across. It was well received and a lot of people said how cool it was. And that it was. Afterwards, everyone went to “That Place” a bar who said they would sponsor the after party. I had ordered pizza the day before and went to a dessertary to buy some cakes. The pizza place forgot to put in my order so it was about an hour late coming to the bar. Nonetheless, it was awesome. I got up to say some Thank yous and it was something else to be standing on the stage looking at the 90+ volunteers and other participants in their grey and red shirts having a good time. I was touched that so many people participated. The event, I don’t think could have gone any better. The girl who I worked with when I was working with American Councils came over and interviewed me for their Youtube site. When I know where and when it will be posted, Ill let you know.

For these reasons, All-Vol was something else. There were three very direct and sentimental moments that I will probably remember for a really long time.

I got home. It was nice to be back. Grandma came over and gave me a huge hug and kiss on the cheek. I asked her when she was leaving. Her answer... not anytime soon. We will see how true that is.

Finishing up my third semester as a teacher and a volunteer is hard. Knowing that time is flying by and is always against you is a hard thing to swallow. Sure I have 8 months before I go back to the States, but 8 months ago was April which seems like yesterday. I finished up one major project and I just have to do some paperwork for my bathroom grant and I will be finished for this year. Its strange. In the Spring, of course I will have projects to work on, but nothing major. Now, I keep hearing of my colleagues planning for the next step, the same thing I am doing. Already.

I will attach some pictures either today or tomorrow. Ill give people a chance to read this first I suppose.

Until next time...