Recently in Armenia Category
June 22 - I am still behind on journal entries! That just tells you how busy we have been here. It's been getting better and better every day and the time is going pretty quickly. We have 7 more weeks left of PST. I've come to feeling much more comfortable here and happy to be able to communicate better and better each day. Plus, I've been watching the fruit ripen in my yard. The cherries are getting darker and darker, though bright red, they are still pretty sour.
Yesterday I went to another BBQ. It was my little cousin's first birthday. What a celebration! About 35 people partied by the river on my family's picnic property. We had the standard vegetables (eggplant, cucumber, tomatoes, potatoes) with grilled pig, and the most delicious fruits (cherries, apricots, apples, peaches!). Mane was dressed like a little princess in a pink dress and hat, and her sparkly birthday cakes (two!) had crazy fireworks-type of candles on them! One of them opened up once lit, so that the candles spread out in a circle sideways around this centerpiece that played the happy birthday song, and the other was basically a sedentary roman candle. There were several toasts. At one point, there is a tradition where the family sits the baby down on a central location and sets out different objects in front of her, and whichever one she chooses represents what she'll be good at in the future - a 1,000 dram note for a businesswoman, a spoon for a good chef, a hairbrush for a hairdresser, etc... - and they pour oats over her head to represent nature's bounty. She picked up the dram. This was a huge festivity, and I met a lot of nice Armenians.
Today I helped the family gather "tut..toot?" (white/purple mulberries) out of the tut tree. What a process!...Eight of us were involved. 7 of us had a 15 by 15 foot tarp spread out underneath the tree while Karren climbed to the top and shook it real hard in different spots...so they fell right onto the tarp...this was a great scene... We had about two gallons worth. Then all of the Americans had dinner at the mayor's house and played Go Fish and Spoons with his whole family. Mickey broke it down with the mayor too, that was great. Our current PCV buddy joined us and he was able to translate a few things... such as that the town might like for us to do a real project for them in the future if we have such a chance to do so before we leave. However, I don't know how possible this could be - I think they are saying something about a road repair which would cost about $500,000 USD. But who knows, maybe by that time I will be an expert at this. After that we were supposed to play a football game with the Armenians in my village, but it started pouring rain and got cold and muddy, so after dinner we appreciated an awesome view of Ararat from Elliott's balcony. Ararat is always breathtakingly beautiful.
When I got home I taught my family how to give high fives and pound fists. Hilarious.
The toasts are fun, and the romantic sides of the Armenians come out every time. They say the most beautiful pieces when they toast and they love having Americans at the dinner table. Next time I'll bring a pen and paper so I can write down what they are saying and share.
I'm making some really awesome friends. The greatest part is how different all of us are, what very different backgrounds we have, what different locations we come from, but we can always find something to share and laugh about with each other.
Tomorrow night I'm trying Mom's spaghetti recipe for the family.
Transcript below. Location info has been cut out.
Received at 1:26 PM
Hey Dad! This is Nicole calling from _____ Armenia. I just got to my host family today, and they are very, very wonderful. I have a new friend, Mariah, she is 13 years old, and she speaks English very, very well. So she is my translator for the family. There are 10 people in the family, and we live in a very, very beautiful, beautiful house on the river. (What's the name of the river?) River _____. Tomorrow I will be starting my language classes. They are feeding me very well. It's really been an amazing experience so far.
There are eight people from the Peace Corps in my village, and they all live very close. All the kids in the village put on an amazing concert today. They played violin, cello, tuba, piano. They are so talented. We saw a gorgeous dance. It's been just so awesome so far.
I tried calling Mom, too, but couldn't get in touch with her. I'm going to call the house. I have these phone cards I got that cost 10 cents a minute. I just wanted to call you guys and say "Hello, I love you." Everyone is taking care of each other. I'm in a very safe place. It's really wonderful. I'm going to be involved in some really awesome business... I'll tell you more about it. I haven't been around the internet, but I've been writing a blog on my computer, so I will definitely mail that to you as soon as I can. Alright? Take care. Bye Dad!
[Note: The dog barking is Stout.]
Hello Family!
Nicole here checking in from Armenia, at an internet cafe. Got in at midnight June 1. I wish I could check my e-mails right now but nobody can get into G-mail. Dad, can you please send the U/N and pass for my log in to Mac5?
Everything is fabulous so far. The country is gorgeous. There is a joke that this is "posh core." This may be accurate. The fashionable women are wearing a lot of bling, and high heels on the uneven sidewalks.
Until June 4 we are all staying together at a "resort" up in the mountains in this town we are in. It's a sight to see. Woke up this morning to the sounds of beautiful bird voices echoing all around the mountains. There is a pool. It was cold last night when we got in, but warmed up to probably about 70 today. Oh yeah, and we have toilets and warm running water but it doesn't work all the way (and who knows whether or not we will have these amenities with our host families). food is good, we had beet soup for lunch and cream of wheat for breakfast. there are a lot of pomegranates here.
When we got in, the van carrying our baggage broke down (the shift stopped working), and we waited until about 3 AM to get our bags. No big deal though.
Yerevan was interesting too, there are a lot of English signs all over the city. It's huge.
Not very many trees where we are staying, but a lot of pretty little flowers. The architecture is cool.
So far this is interesting, I think it is going to be very easy to communicate. Everybody apparently has cell phones in PC. We are able to text message to the states for the same cost as within Armenia, which may not be much at all. And may also be able to make calls for 10 cents a minute.
This is far different from what I expected, but I'm sure it is going to be great. probably way easier now than for a PC member serving here say, five years ago even.
I love you guys, hope you are all well, and I will be in touch.
xoxo
