Wolves and Bears
March 26 - March has been a month of off-and-on good weather/bad weather - and this weather is quite affecting. I will not lie, many things have put me in a funk for a while (maybe part explains the lack of writing)... This hasn't been so easy and I do not like winter. But I'm coming out of it.
Such is March: for a whole week it will be cloudy with about 2 hours of sun, and then let loose a crazy blizzard that lasts 24 hours and dumps over 2 feet of snow on the whole town. Then that melts all week long, every thing is ugly brown, the streets are just rivers until the layer of snow melts off. This has happened a couple of times this month, but this week has been very promising, every thing is nicely drying up, and yesterday I even spent the afternoon on my tiny kitchen balcony that overlooks the street.
You can always tell when a snow storm is on the way or just beginning because for some reason every body in town does their laundry and hangs it out. It doesn't make any sense, but I have noticed such a pattern.
I keep the laundry in doors, strung up in my living room. Today was the first time I did the laundry and put it outside to dry, and it didn't freeze.
Last week I got water one day out of six. I don't know why. I ran out and had to purchase five liter jugs so now I keep those filled too. As soon as we get paychecks in April, time to buy a couple of huge water buckets. My co-worker, Astrik, said that a wolf fell into the water basin that supplies my town up in the mountains so they had to shut off and renew the water supply. I consulted with another volunteer about this, and he suggested this may be a myth and that many such problems are often blamed on wolves and bears. Funny.
Work.
I got a terrible virus from one of the computers at work. My laptop will not open i-Tunes or my anti-virus software. It disabled safe mode. So I can't even get this durn thing off my computer without reformatting it maybe.
Perhaps work is a third part of the funk I've been in a bit (the other third being no water, and then also the last third being that I really... feel a little homesick for the south... but am overcoming this last part by the on-set of spring - and the other two parts I just have to deal with). Mostly I work on or check English translations at work. That's really all they seem to want me there for. I don't feel like I'm making any difference, honestly. But the cool part about it is that I am learning a lot about the mechanics of local economic development and it's actually really fascinating, and I feel like a bit of an expert all ready (but currently an expert who doesn't do any thing with this knowledge - yet). I don't think we know what to do with each other. Maybe I'm just making a difference as a friend to my co-workers.
So I have been fed up and am working with a woman at the university to begin an active career center. I am giving a seminar to twenty students tomorrow on how to prepare a resume. Then I'll have one-on-one meetings with them about their resumes in April, and will give a seminar on how to search for jobs and study abroad programs on-line, and in May will give a seminar on interviewing for jobs, including tips on dress/potential questions/self-presentation. We are going to make a resourceful website in both Armenian and in English, that is in the works right now and probably won't be launched until the summer, and then in September we will have hopefully very good, consistent activities up and running.
Still doing the English clubs.
And this week I visited a woman, Monush, who works at the unemployment center. In the fall, I went knocking on her door to see if she had pumpkins for sale (normally she puts them in the window if she does). She was so excited I visited this week, though, that she gave me a pumpkin (this is about a $5 value) and refused payment.
Two of her friends were there, one of them actually tried to sell me her apartment last fall but wanted 10K dram above the limit we are allotted for apartments here. So I didn't move into her place, and it was our first meeting since then. I was telling the ladies I will make pumpkin bread and pumpkin soup. They only make pumpkin jam (haven't tried it). So the apartment lady was very interested and asked me to bring the pumpkin bread to her house, and then she left.
After the apartment lady left, Monush got all crazy and upset that this lady asked me to bring her pumpkin bread. It was a funny scene. She kept throwing her thumb and forefinger up in the air, like an L shape, which is something that mostly I've only seen men do and I believe might be kind of like flipping a bird. Town politics. My language is finally getting better enough to start quietly listening to and understanding this funny drama that goes on between everybody.
Visited Alita today too and she gave me about three kilos of potatoes. So I shouldn't have to spend much money on food the upcoming week and a half!
Finished Winter's Tale, absolutely beautiful book, started Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance which I am also thoroughly digging. Idea by way of UT, I've been keeping a list of all books I'm reading in the back of my journal and about 75% of them are starred for their sheer goodness!
So glad you made a post! You always write such interesting and informative emails and we can all ready them again and again. The weather here has not been great, either. We've had 7 or 8 inches of rain this month, and it's been pretty cold for March. The fruit trees have bloomed and now the azaleas and dogwood are coming out. We're due more rain this week. Maybe next week will be more sunshine! I miss you, sweetie.
Love,
Gramalie
That's a good idea. I'm going to use delicious.com to keep a list of the books I read.
And I'm glad winter's ending now. It sounds like it has been pretty tough. But you're getting your character building in, that's for sure. :)