So funny story, two nights after I had my bout of sickness, my host mom said that she was leaving to go to see her daughter in a city two hours away. My host brother went with her. She left me at home all alone. Oh sweet. So, they left around 2 o’clock and gave me a chance to just totally relax. First thing I did was I turned on my music and played them through my speakers compliments of Mr. Dickerson. I called my site mate, Terri, and told her that I was alone and the first thing she said was, “you should dance around your living room naked.” Interesting. Pat called me and told me he was walking to my village to get something from Terri and asked if I could bring over his harddrive, so while I was out that way, I went to get some tomato sauce to make some spaghetti. I got home and realized I didn’t know how to open the top to this jar. It is a cap for a jar that I have never seen before, so the first thing I did was call Terri, but she didn’t answer, so I called Cassie who is about 6 hours away from me. She has been here for a year, and I offered my query. This is how the conversation went:
Me: I can’t get the lid of this jar
Cassie: You should just get your Mom to do it
Me: Actually, my mom and brother left for two days
Cassie: You should totally dance around your house naked...
Anyway, I figured out how to open the jar and made myself the most awful plate of spaghetti I have ever made. Brandon knows that I cook pretty good spaghetti. I think it was the Russian tomato paste. Anyway, after I pondered for a while, I figured out that I had a really good opportunity here. I decided that I was going to take a shower and while the house was empty and I was naked already, why not turn up the music. Thats right, I danced around in the nude while listening to the pure and brilliant voice of none other than Sheryl Crow. Honestly though, I don’t really understand what all the hype was about. Really wasn’t that great.
So I went to school on Friday and did what I could. My stomach still hurt but figured I could make it to school. I got home around 2 and between the time of 2 and 9 I got no less than 8 visitors. All the neighbors knew that I was home alone and when you live in a village, you don’t leave a man down. I had people coming over cooking for me, telling me what I should be wearing, telling me that spaghetti isn’t good because it has tomatoes in it (which is true, my stomach did not feel very good after eating that crap), and making sure everything was all right. At first, I got really irritated by this because I just couldn’t enjoy my alone time and people kept coming over telling me (someone successfully lived alone-or with roommates-for 5 years, and alone for 6 months in Korea) that I needed to do things another way. Then the more I thought about it, I didn’t really know why I was getting irritated. My neighbors were coming over to help me. They were coming over to make sure their American hadn’t died of starvation. After my mindset changed, I really appreciated what they were doing for me. I mean, they would come over and have awkward conversation with me because they thought I was bored. This was fantastic. It is a great feeling to know that you are being looked after. So I want to say thank you to my neighbors who will probably not ever read this (which is good because they might never come and help me if they saw some guy jumping around naked in the living room).
This morning I decided that I needed to go into Martuni and get some stuff done. I took the 10:30 bus in and knocked out a good amount of stuff and made the 12:00 bus back. This was the first time I have gone and come from Martuni, so I felt a sense of accomplishment. I talked with this guy on the bus there and back (same guy). He is one of my aunt’s friends or something like that. He was really friendly. I always feel bad because everyone knows me and calls me by my name, but I have no clue who they are. I’ll work on that. After I got back, I didn’t do anything. I mean I didn’t do a single thing. I just sat around, took a nap, watched some shows, read, and that’s about it.
Tomorrow, I am going back to my first village to see my host family there. Im really excited about it. Im nervous too because its been over a month now. Nah, i’ll be fine. This upcoming week should go by pretty quickly. We have Monday off again because its Independence Day. Don’t really know what that means. I certainly don’t think its going to be beer, hotdogs, hamburgers, and fireworks... Ill get back to you on that.
On last note, it snowed on the mountains behind our house. Now we have snow capped mountains. Its pretty cool. Also, since I wrote the blog “Its always sunny in...Armenia” it has rained about every day which makes for walking around wonderful because all the water creates a nice cow poop/mud paste. Great.
Oh, I attempted to cut my own hair. I got this 2 foot by 1 1/2 foot mirror off the wall and put it across from another wall mirror and cut my hair. Oh man is the back of my head really uneven. I have been wearing a toboggan...
Until next time...
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Oh, what a night... dun dun dun dun...
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...
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...
Friday, September 11, 2009
its always sunny in... Armenia
So, funny I should name my blog that because in fact it has been sunny and just sunny for the past month I have been here. This has been nice because the roads are not paved and they are just dirt so due to the dryness they are not muddy. Obviously. however, since they are just dirt, they are also very dusty so everyday I get back from school, my dark brown loafers are a nice beige color and everyday I have to go out to the little well and get enough water to wipe off my shoes. Fantastic. Oh, and speaking of being sunny in Armenia, it rained the last two days. Its been great. Today I didn’t have to wipe off my shoes. (this was a waste of a paragraph).
Anyway, the first full week of school has been good. Like I mentioned before I am a PE teacher. This is how the classes go. Every class too. The girls change out of their dresses in their classrooms and meet the boys outside (the root of my beige shoe problem) and then stand in a line, shoulder to shoulder. Then they practice different army drills and then they start marching. Honestly, you would see the same thing in an army movie. Then they do a couple laps around this little area and then get in different marching patterns and do some more marching. After all this, they will do some kind of relay race and that is the end of class. Two days ago they did the whole marching thing and then decided to see how far they could hurl this metal bar. PE class has been interesting to say the least. I really want to introduce some other games to them, with maybe... a ball. Also, when they did play volleyball, they weren’t really playing volleyball. Some of the kids would catch the ball and then throw it over and the teacher would praise them for doing it right. Maybe they weren’t playing volleyball. Maybe the joke’s on me. But they called it volleyball but they were certainly not playing volleyball. Goal #2 (after playing more sports with balls), teach the real game of volleyball. You know what, the kids are having fun so why mess with things.
I think it was Tuesday or Wednesday, I got to school and the PE teacher wasn’t there so guess what I had to do. I had to teach the PE class. First thing I told the class: “I don’t know Armenian.” Actually that strategy worked because when I spoke to them in Armenian they helped me out a lot. I taught them how to play kickball. Like in my last village, this was not an easy task. I asked them “do you know baseball” and all of them would say “yes, of course” and then I would say, “well, kickball is like baseball but without bats and tight pants”. They didn’t get the tight pants reference. And you want to know what else they didn’t get... the concept of baseball. They had no clue how to play. Which was fine. I got to teach them. After all the explaining and making myself look like an idiot they just started to understand how to play and they were actually really into it. Even when the bell rang, they didn’t leave, they kept playing. That was a really good day. What I learned that day: Persistence pays off...
Things at the polyclinic have been good too. On Wednesday and Thursday, the first graders had to go there to get a check up. Blood work, eye test, everything that’s in a physical. I got to help out. It was pretty fun. Not as fun as watching the babies get shots in their tush but pretty close. When they got their blood tests there was a lot of crying. I don’t know why I laugh so much when little kids cry. I think its their faces right before the flow of tears. Cracks me up everytime. And just as fast as it starts, it stops. Amazing. I am creating a good repoire with the nurses and doctor and look forward to going there. I feel very welcomed there. I have moved up to the coffee maker which they get a huge kick out of because that is just simply something that men do not do in this country. I have translated all the forms they have. They didn’t ask me to do it or anything, it was just something for me to do there and so now I have a clue what their doing, or more precisely what they are filling out. Overall really good.
Language class is coming along too. Im starting to understand the tenses and am actually using them. Its just weird because this is the first language where I have actually had to think about tenses. There are a lot of them out there too. Just like English, Korean I just picked up because Mom’s Korean, so just like English, I didn’t have to actively think about tenses. Its hard though. There are about 8 tenses or something like that. Think about it. Anyway, its starting to come along and i know that these classes are helping me because I understand a lot of what my colleagues cannot when we are at a bar or restaurant in town and the owner or other patrons come and talk to us. Can’t complain.
Things with the family are going really well too. With the mom here, I try and help her out as much as I can. We went out into the garden which is pretty big here. I would say about the size of two average property sizes in the states. We are now pulling out all the dead plants and weeds. Its not really that easy because its all done by hand. She really appreciates it because I cut her work in half. My mom here works really really hard. She can barely keep her eyes open at night because it is non-stop physical labor from sun-up till sun-down. But as you all are saying “awww” and “geez” you work really hard when its warm and then when its cold, all you do is try to stay warm. Also, I still help my brother with his math homework. There is another little boy that comes over and gets English help from me. I don’t know how old he is but he must be about 7 or 8. Really nice kid.
The weather here is getting cooler. I can’t just wear a T-shirt or just a button-down anymore. I have to wear a jacket and sometimes that’s not enough. I think it will be time to break out those long-johns. They say this year I should expect about 6 feet of snow on the ground at a time. This is going to be awesome. (Im going to totally eat my words).
So apparently Terri, my site-mate, is going to share my address to some of her friends because she never updates hers so... I hope you like reading it? I will try and give some general updates too.
Tomorrow I am going up Aghmaran, the extinct volcano, again with the other volunteers in the area. We are going to attempt to make some horovats (Armenian bbq). Should be interesting. Then for the first time in a month, I am going to go into Yerevan to get some work done and meet some Armenian friends. Should be a good and tiresome weekend.
Until next time...
Anyway, the first full week of school has been good. Like I mentioned before I am a PE teacher. This is how the classes go. Every class too. The girls change out of their dresses in their classrooms and meet the boys outside (the root of my beige shoe problem) and then stand in a line, shoulder to shoulder. Then they practice different army drills and then they start marching. Honestly, you would see the same thing in an army movie. Then they do a couple laps around this little area and then get in different marching patterns and do some more marching. After all this, they will do some kind of relay race and that is the end of class. Two days ago they did the whole marching thing and then decided to see how far they could hurl this metal bar. PE class has been interesting to say the least. I really want to introduce some other games to them, with maybe... a ball. Also, when they did play volleyball, they weren’t really playing volleyball. Some of the kids would catch the ball and then throw it over and the teacher would praise them for doing it right. Maybe they weren’t playing volleyball. Maybe the joke’s on me. But they called it volleyball but they were certainly not playing volleyball. Goal #2 (after playing more sports with balls), teach the real game of volleyball. You know what, the kids are having fun so why mess with things.
I think it was Tuesday or Wednesday, I got to school and the PE teacher wasn’t there so guess what I had to do. I had to teach the PE class. First thing I told the class: “I don’t know Armenian.” Actually that strategy worked because when I spoke to them in Armenian they helped me out a lot. I taught them how to play kickball. Like in my last village, this was not an easy task. I asked them “do you know baseball” and all of them would say “yes, of course” and then I would say, “well, kickball is like baseball but without bats and tight pants”. They didn’t get the tight pants reference. And you want to know what else they didn’t get... the concept of baseball. They had no clue how to play. Which was fine. I got to teach them. After all the explaining and making myself look like an idiot they just started to understand how to play and they were actually really into it. Even when the bell rang, they didn’t leave, they kept playing. That was a really good day. What I learned that day: Persistence pays off...
Things at the polyclinic have been good too. On Wednesday and Thursday, the first graders had to go there to get a check up. Blood work, eye test, everything that’s in a physical. I got to help out. It was pretty fun. Not as fun as watching the babies get shots in their tush but pretty close. When they got their blood tests there was a lot of crying. I don’t know why I laugh so much when little kids cry. I think its their faces right before the flow of tears. Cracks me up everytime. And just as fast as it starts, it stops. Amazing. I am creating a good repoire with the nurses and doctor and look forward to going there. I feel very welcomed there. I have moved up to the coffee maker which they get a huge kick out of because that is just simply something that men do not do in this country. I have translated all the forms they have. They didn’t ask me to do it or anything, it was just something for me to do there and so now I have a clue what their doing, or more precisely what they are filling out. Overall really good.
Language class is coming along too. Im starting to understand the tenses and am actually using them. Its just weird because this is the first language where I have actually had to think about tenses. There are a lot of them out there too. Just like English, Korean I just picked up because Mom’s Korean, so just like English, I didn’t have to actively think about tenses. Its hard though. There are about 8 tenses or something like that. Think about it. Anyway, its starting to come along and i know that these classes are helping me because I understand a lot of what my colleagues cannot when we are at a bar or restaurant in town and the owner or other patrons come and talk to us. Can’t complain.
Things with the family are going really well too. With the mom here, I try and help her out as much as I can. We went out into the garden which is pretty big here. I would say about the size of two average property sizes in the states. We are now pulling out all the dead plants and weeds. Its not really that easy because its all done by hand. She really appreciates it because I cut her work in half. My mom here works really really hard. She can barely keep her eyes open at night because it is non-stop physical labor from sun-up till sun-down. But as you all are saying “awww” and “geez” you work really hard when its warm and then when its cold, all you do is try to stay warm. Also, I still help my brother with his math homework. There is another little boy that comes over and gets English help from me. I don’t know how old he is but he must be about 7 or 8. Really nice kid.
The weather here is getting cooler. I can’t just wear a T-shirt or just a button-down anymore. I have to wear a jacket and sometimes that’s not enough. I think it will be time to break out those long-johns. They say this year I should expect about 6 feet of snow on the ground at a time. This is going to be awesome. (Im going to totally eat my words).
So apparently Terri, my site-mate, is going to share my address to some of her friends because she never updates hers so... I hope you like reading it? I will try and give some general updates too.
Tomorrow I am going up Aghmaran, the extinct volcano, again with the other volunteers in the area. We are going to attempt to make some horovats (Armenian bbq). Should be interesting. Then for the first time in a month, I am going to go into Yerevan to get some work done and meet some Armenian friends. Should be a good and tiresome weekend.
Until next time...
Saturday, September 5, 2009
like father... like son
Being in a family where its just a Mom and a 13 year old son, you can imagine I have to balance the role of friend, brother, father, and weird American at the same time. The funniest things I have noticed being here are the things that I do similarly to my father. Somehow when the Mother can’t get my brother to eat, I just stare at him and keep asking him to eat and then he finally does without all the fuss. I also help him with his math homework every night. It has been a long time since the days of Algebra. It is really racking my brain. I think the most important thing that I have taught my younger brother that I learned from my Dad is how to put the toilet seat up when you pee and how to put it back down after you’re done. I noticed there were little yellow spots on the toilet seat and decided that I needed to have a little Man to Man with my brother. I’m starting to do quite nicely in Armenian but I don’t really know the vocabulary for toilet seat, raise, pee, etc. So there was a lot of pointing and me saying “yellow water.” Then I had to explain why you have to put the toilet seat back down... All in a days work of a Peace Corps Volunteer.
Things are picking up quite nicely here. I go to school in the morning and help with the PE class. (that’s right, Im a PE teacher while I learn Armenian and get to know the kids). I then observe some of the other classes and then I go to the Polyclinic still for a couple hours. I explained I wanted to create a healthy living class to the Doctor there and she said it was a really good idea. One of the nurses that works at the Polyclinic, her Dad is the mayor so I got a red carpet entrance to see him. It was pretty easy. Terri and I went in and talked to the Mayor (as I write this I think I have already addressed this in the other email) and now we have an English class and a healthy living class for the village to come to if they want to. Its pretty exciting. I still have my language classes but only three days a week. So I am staying pretty busy. This is in addition to teaching my little brother to not pee all over the toilet seat.
I getting more and more privileges given to me. Well everyone in my PC class. This weekend I am aloud to leave the village/area. We can travel anywhere in the country now. Im excited now. This upcoming weekend I am going to the Capital and meeting a new friend for them to show me around. Only two more months till I am aloud to leave the country. Then i will have all the privileges. I guess not too much more to write about now... But things are better everyday Im here as I get integrated into my community. All the men wear suits. I wore a suit the first day but I don’t want to wear it out. Weird.
I talked to my cousin, Rosyln, from Austalia today on Skype. It somehow worked. I hadn't talked to her in about 2 months. That was probably the highlight of my day.
Until next time.
Things are picking up quite nicely here. I go to school in the morning and help with the PE class. (that’s right, Im a PE teacher while I learn Armenian and get to know the kids). I then observe some of the other classes and then I go to the Polyclinic still for a couple hours. I explained I wanted to create a healthy living class to the Doctor there and she said it was a really good idea. One of the nurses that works at the Polyclinic, her Dad is the mayor so I got a red carpet entrance to see him. It was pretty easy. Terri and I went in and talked to the Mayor (as I write this I think I have already addressed this in the other email) and now we have an English class and a healthy living class for the village to come to if they want to. Its pretty exciting. I still have my language classes but only three days a week. So I am staying pretty busy. This is in addition to teaching my little brother to not pee all over the toilet seat.
I getting more and more privileges given to me. Well everyone in my PC class. This weekend I am aloud to leave the village/area. We can travel anywhere in the country now. Im excited now. This upcoming weekend I am going to the Capital and meeting a new friend for them to show me around. Only two more months till I am aloud to leave the country. Then i will have all the privileges. I guess not too much more to write about now... But things are better everyday Im here as I get integrated into my community. All the men wear suits. I wore a suit the first day but I don’t want to wear it out. Weird.
I talked to my cousin, Rosyln, from Austalia today on Skype. It somehow worked. I hadn't talked to her in about 2 months. That was probably the highlight of my day.
Until next time.
like father... like son
Being in a family where its just a Mom and a 13 year old son, you can imagine I have to balance the role of friend, brother, father, and weird American at the same time. The funniest things I have noticed being here are the things that I do similarly to my father. Somehow when the Mother can’t get my brother to eat, I just stare at him and keep asking him to eat and then he finally does without all the fuss. I also help him with his math homework every night. It has been a long time since the days of Algebra. It is really racking my brain. I think the most important thing that I have taught my younger brother that I learned from my Dad is how to put the toilet seat up when you pee and how to put it back down after you’re done. I noticed there were little yellow spots on the toilet seat and decided that I needed to have a little Man to Man with my brother. I’m starting to do quite nicely in Armenian but I don’t really know the vocabulary for toilet seat, raise, pee, etc. So there was a lot of pointing and me saying “yellow water.” Then I had to explain why you have to put the toilet seat back down... All in a days work of a Peace Corps Volunteer.
Things are picking up quite nicely here. I go to school in the morning and help with the PE class. (that’s right, Im a PE teacher while I learn Armenian and get to know the kids). I then observe some of the other classes and then I go to the Polyclinic still for a couple hours. I explained I wanted to create a healthy living class to the Doctor there and she said it was a really good idea. One of the nurses that works at the Polyclinic, her Dad is the mayor so I got a red carpet entrance to see him. It was pretty easy. Terri and I went in and talked to the Mayor (as I write this I think I have already addressed this in the other email) and now we have an English class and a healthy living class for the village to come to if they want to. Its pretty exciting. I still have my language classes but only three days a week. So I am staying pretty busy. This is in addition to teaching my little brother to not pee all over the toilet seat.
I getting more and more privileges given to me. Well everyone in my PC class. This weekend I am aloud to leave the village/area. We can travel anywhere in the country now. Im excited now. This upcoming weekend I am going to the Capital and meeting a new friend for them to show me around. Only two more months till I am aloud to leave the country. Then i will have all the privileges. I guess not too much more to write about now... But things are better everyday Im here as I get integrated into my community. All the men wear suits. I wore a suit the first day but I don’t want to wear it out. Weird.
Until next time.
Things are picking up quite nicely here. I go to school in the morning and help with the PE class. (that’s right, Im a PE teacher while I learn Armenian and get to know the kids). I then observe some of the other classes and then I go to the Polyclinic still for a couple hours. I explained I wanted to create a healthy living class to the Doctor there and she said it was a really good idea. One of the nurses that works at the Polyclinic, her Dad is the mayor so I got a red carpet entrance to see him. It was pretty easy. Terri and I went in and talked to the Mayor (as I write this I think I have already addressed this in the other email) and now we have an English class and a healthy living class for the village to come to if they want to. Its pretty exciting. I still have my language classes but only three days a week. So I am staying pretty busy. This is in addition to teaching my little brother to not pee all over the toilet seat.
I getting more and more privileges given to me. Well everyone in my PC class. This weekend I am aloud to leave the village/area. We can travel anywhere in the country now. Im excited now. This upcoming weekend I am going to the Capital and meeting a new friend for them to show me around. Only two more months till I am aloud to leave the country. Then i will have all the privileges. I guess not too much more to write about now... But things are better everyday Im here as I get integrated into my community. All the men wear suits. I wore a suit the first day but I don’t want to wear it out. Weird.
Until next time.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Schools back from summer
So that was my lame attempt at a Pink Floyd reference because instead of the title I have for this blog, it should be “schools out for summer.” Anyway. Things have been good. School started on Tuesday. Actually school started, classes didn’t. I got to meet all the other teachers and introduce myself in the “awesome” Armenian that I know. Oh and by the way, my school director told me that I had to make a speech in front of the whole student body. Cool. So with my 5 minutes of prep, I stood in front of the student body, about 300 some odd kids and talked about what I was going to do there, who I was and who my counterpart was. So I think this is what it may have sounded like but translated:
Hello, how are you. I am Danny. (so far so good, but wait, there’s more). I work healthcare teacher in school. My hometown is here two years. I am happy.
That is the general gist. Had I had more time and not been speaking in front of a whole bunch of people in a language I have known for 3 months, im assuming I could do a bit better than that. Either way, its over and I got a good round of applause.
School is fine. I don’t really work that much. I just go to the classes and see how the teachers teach. They don’t really. They do but there is such a scarcity in the materials its really hard to do much of anything. I don’t know how the kids do it. Its just so boring. Maybe it was the same way in the states and I just can’t remember. Actually... no, Im pretty sure the classes were more engaged. Ill tell you what though, these kids can memorize stuff. Don’t really know about their critical thinking skills but they can remember stuff. I have already thought of some projects that I can do at the school so I am excited about that. I think I am going to better the physical education part as well as create some kind of new sports team. Anthony, you would be proud.
The kids here much like in Korea go to school for 6 days a week. However, unlike Korea, the kids here go from 9 to 2, if they even have classes for all those sessions. This is a contrast to Korea where they go to school for pretty much the whole day. And when I say whole day, I mean they leave at 7 or 8 in the morning and get back around 11 at night. Its brutal.
Still after school I go to the Polyclinic. It is actually a place of refuge for me. Even though the place is filled with a bunch of women, I have become accepted and I sit in there for 2 hours or so and chit chat and learn of the Armenian healthcare system. Some of the children had to get vaccinations and it was hilarious watching that needle go into their butts which was followed by a whole lot of crying. You just have to crack up at that. About ten seconds later, the kid has already forgotten what has happened. Hilarious. The ladies there have really helped me out with the language. They go way out of their way and I am in such gratitude toward them. Now multiply that by about 2 years and I will be in way over my head. I really look forward to going there and the 2 hours just really fly by.
Today Terri and I went to the Mayor’s office because we are going to have some “meetings” at the culture house. I am going to host some healthcare classes which will focus on hygiene, first aid, food nutrition, anatomy, and some other things. Things that the village needs to know. There are some incorrect ideas floating around that may need to be corrected. Also, Terri and I are going to open up some English classes for conversation. Maybe of these kids are really good at grammar and book stuff but the second you talk to them, they have no idea whats going on. So. Maybe we can be of some assistance. Anyway, the Mayor was really nice and told us that he would help in any way he could and that if we ran into any problems he would take care of it. Im pretty sure he is in the mafia. If I do have a problem, I worry that the person causing the problem might all together disappear. (the last two sentences are a joke, so don’t tell someone that my major is in the mafia)...
Nothing else really to report. Things are going really well and I have more than enough stuff to keep my busy. I am really excited about starting projects and seeing how they turn out. I am keeping in mind that everything I want to do will not work but I’ve got two years time so I have to keep finding stuff to fill it.
This weekend everyone is getting together should be a good time.
To my parents. Mom can you email me the address in Korea where you will be so that I can mail you some pictures. You can leave the pictures in Korea because I am going to send Dad the same ones. Internet is too slow to send pictures so...
Also, people reading this, please pray for my Mom as she is flying to Korea soon and pray for my Dad because he's going to have to cook his own food...
Until next time.
Hello, how are you. I am Danny. (so far so good, but wait, there’s more). I work healthcare teacher in school. My hometown is here two years. I am happy.
That is the general gist. Had I had more time and not been speaking in front of a whole bunch of people in a language I have known for 3 months, im assuming I could do a bit better than that. Either way, its over and I got a good round of applause.
School is fine. I don’t really work that much. I just go to the classes and see how the teachers teach. They don’t really. They do but there is such a scarcity in the materials its really hard to do much of anything. I don’t know how the kids do it. Its just so boring. Maybe it was the same way in the states and I just can’t remember. Actually... no, Im pretty sure the classes were more engaged. Ill tell you what though, these kids can memorize stuff. Don’t really know about their critical thinking skills but they can remember stuff. I have already thought of some projects that I can do at the school so I am excited about that. I think I am going to better the physical education part as well as create some kind of new sports team. Anthony, you would be proud.
The kids here much like in Korea go to school for 6 days a week. However, unlike Korea, the kids here go from 9 to 2, if they even have classes for all those sessions. This is a contrast to Korea where they go to school for pretty much the whole day. And when I say whole day, I mean they leave at 7 or 8 in the morning and get back around 11 at night. Its brutal.
Still after school I go to the Polyclinic. It is actually a place of refuge for me. Even though the place is filled with a bunch of women, I have become accepted and I sit in there for 2 hours or so and chit chat and learn of the Armenian healthcare system. Some of the children had to get vaccinations and it was hilarious watching that needle go into their butts which was followed by a whole lot of crying. You just have to crack up at that. About ten seconds later, the kid has already forgotten what has happened. Hilarious. The ladies there have really helped me out with the language. They go way out of their way and I am in such gratitude toward them. Now multiply that by about 2 years and I will be in way over my head. I really look forward to going there and the 2 hours just really fly by.
Today Terri and I went to the Mayor’s office because we are going to have some “meetings” at the culture house. I am going to host some healthcare classes which will focus on hygiene, first aid, food nutrition, anatomy, and some other things. Things that the village needs to know. There are some incorrect ideas floating around that may need to be corrected. Also, Terri and I are going to open up some English classes for conversation. Maybe of these kids are really good at grammar and book stuff but the second you talk to them, they have no idea whats going on. So. Maybe we can be of some assistance. Anyway, the Mayor was really nice and told us that he would help in any way he could and that if we ran into any problems he would take care of it. Im pretty sure he is in the mafia. If I do have a problem, I worry that the person causing the problem might all together disappear. (the last two sentences are a joke, so don’t tell someone that my major is in the mafia)...
Nothing else really to report. Things are going really well and I have more than enough stuff to keep my busy. I am really excited about starting projects and seeing how they turn out. I am keeping in mind that everything I want to do will not work but I’ve got two years time so I have to keep finding stuff to fill it.
This weekend everyone is getting together should be a good time.
To my parents. Mom can you email me the address in Korea where you will be so that I can mail you some pictures. You can leave the pictures in Korea because I am going to send Dad the same ones. Internet is too slow to send pictures so...
Also, people reading this, please pray for my Mom as she is flying to Korea soon and pray for my Dad because he's going to have to cook his own food...
Until next time.
Monday, August 31, 2009
New PCV's
By the time people read this, I will have started my first day of school. Exciting. To kick off the first day of school, I went to a small gathering, a party if you will. This is Sunday and Sunday is the day when the Shuka, or the market is open. My host mom insists that I need some house slippers so I went with them to the market. Also my host brother needed some new clothes to wear to school. Back to school shopping. I had forgotten all about that until now. Anyway, the market was crazy. I say this in about the most literal way I can. There were so many people there. It was pretty fun though, but exhausting. I found some shoes to wear. They actually fit me. This was a major problem for me in Korea. I wanted to buy some shoes there but they were all too small for me. So, I was pretty happy they had some house slippers in my size. They weren’t pink, uncomfortable, or have some kind of weird design on it. So, we came back. The bus was so crowded. Going there and coming back but it was an experience. To be honest, I think Im going to leave it at that one experience.
As I was on my way back, I called Hector who is in the next village and told him to start making his one hour journey to my house. By the time we got from the shuka (this is “market” Amanda) Hector had arrived. I also found a shortcut from Terri’s house to mine. My village is shaped like a “U”. Terri lives at one end of the “U” and I live at the other. Mine just happens to be a dead end. So instead of it taking 15-20 minutes to walk that distance, it now only takes about 5. That was great. Anyway, Hector came over to my house, he had lunch at my house and then Hector and I walked to the nearest city. About an hour walk. The buses don’t run on Sunday’s as my host mom pointed out so we just walked. About a mile into our walk, it started raining. Not until we were both pretty soaked with water did Hector realize he had a rain jacket, and at the same time, I realized that I had an umbrella. Funny how that happens. Anyway, we kept walking. My socks were soaked and they were pretty old so I went to a local store and bought some socks. They are the most comfortable socks I think I have ever worn (I even bought another pair the next day). They were 90% wool and 10% something else. Whoa. Anyway, we got to the city and hung out. It was pretty fun.
The best part was when we were at a cafe and we spotted some Americans. Actually I thought they were Australian. They turned out to be French. Because the waitress saw that they weren’t Armenian she just assumed that the Frenchies were with us. So the waitress led them to our room. It was pretty funny looking at their faces because they had no idea what was going on. Frankly, we didn’t know either. The best part was that there were six chairs and for some reason when the four of us (the volunteers) sat down, we left the middle chairs empty. Don’t know why, we just did. So when the Frenchies came in, they sat in the middle of both rows. That make things interesting. They were just visiting. Their names were Jacque and Claude. (Actually Im pretty sure that wasn’t their names but I didn’t understand really what they were saying with their thick accent and the aforementioned names are pretty good stereotypical French names. Anyway, we sat and talked with them for a while. They were just traveling though. It was a really interesting conversation. I felt bad for them because we weren’t very lively because we were really tired. But, it happens. To clear up the title of the blog, the Frenchies kept saying "maybe we will meet some more Peace Corps people... we are in the Peace Corps." It would be funnier if you could picture all this with an outrageously thick French accent.
Im really tired so I don’t know if this post is making much sense but things have been going really well. I think I have finally started to win over my host mom. She is a single mom and is having some problems with a single 24-year-old staying in her house. At first I just don’t think she knew what to do with me but things now are going well. I try to help her and try not to be a doofus as best I can. Language class is going well. The daughter of my teacher who helped me out a lot in the classes went back to Yerevan to study so it will now be myself, the teacher and the three high school girls who always laugh at me because I can’t pronounce all the words. Interesting. Things are going really well. One of the volunteers who finished up his service left a bunch of stuff and I got some of it. Im getting ready for the winter. It has been pretty chilly and rainy. I, as well as many of the others, believe it will be a very long and hard winter. Im excited.
Oh, I finally splurged and bought one of those USB internet card things so I have enough internet to read and send emails and upload my blog so please send emails if you are at work and feeling unproductive. Thank you. I will probably check the internet about every third day.
Until next time.
As I was on my way back, I called Hector who is in the next village and told him to start making his one hour journey to my house. By the time we got from the shuka (this is “market” Amanda) Hector had arrived. I also found a shortcut from Terri’s house to mine. My village is shaped like a “U”. Terri lives at one end of the “U” and I live at the other. Mine just happens to be a dead end. So instead of it taking 15-20 minutes to walk that distance, it now only takes about 5. That was great. Anyway, Hector came over to my house, he had lunch at my house and then Hector and I walked to the nearest city. About an hour walk. The buses don’t run on Sunday’s as my host mom pointed out so we just walked. About a mile into our walk, it started raining. Not until we were both pretty soaked with water did Hector realize he had a rain jacket, and at the same time, I realized that I had an umbrella. Funny how that happens. Anyway, we kept walking. My socks were soaked and they were pretty old so I went to a local store and bought some socks. They are the most comfortable socks I think I have ever worn (I even bought another pair the next day). They were 90% wool and 10% something else. Whoa. Anyway, we got to the city and hung out. It was pretty fun.
The best part was when we were at a cafe and we spotted some Americans. Actually I thought they were Australian. They turned out to be French. Because the waitress saw that they weren’t Armenian she just assumed that the Frenchies were with us. So the waitress led them to our room. It was pretty funny looking at their faces because they had no idea what was going on. Frankly, we didn’t know either. The best part was that there were six chairs and for some reason when the four of us (the volunteers) sat down, we left the middle chairs empty. Don’t know why, we just did. So when the Frenchies came in, they sat in the middle of both rows. That make things interesting. They were just visiting. Their names were Jacque and Claude. (Actually Im pretty sure that wasn’t their names but I didn’t understand really what they were saying with their thick accent and the aforementioned names are pretty good stereotypical French names. Anyway, we sat and talked with them for a while. They were just traveling though. It was a really interesting conversation. I felt bad for them because we weren’t very lively because we were really tired. But, it happens. To clear up the title of the blog, the Frenchies kept saying "maybe we will meet some more Peace Corps people... we are in the Peace Corps." It would be funnier if you could picture all this with an outrageously thick French accent.
Im really tired so I don’t know if this post is making much sense but things have been going really well. I think I have finally started to win over my host mom. She is a single mom and is having some problems with a single 24-year-old staying in her house. At first I just don’t think she knew what to do with me but things now are going well. I try to help her and try not to be a doofus as best I can. Language class is going well. The daughter of my teacher who helped me out a lot in the classes went back to Yerevan to study so it will now be myself, the teacher and the three high school girls who always laugh at me because I can’t pronounce all the words. Interesting. Things are going really well. One of the volunteers who finished up his service left a bunch of stuff and I got some of it. Im getting ready for the winter. It has been pretty chilly and rainy. I, as well as many of the others, believe it will be a very long and hard winter. Im excited.
Oh, I finally splurged and bought one of those USB internet card things so I have enough internet to read and send emails and upload my blog so please send emails if you are at work and feeling unproductive. Thank you. I will probably check the internet about every third day.
Until next time.
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