Christmas Time is Here!

I only have one more week of school and plan on turning it into a huge Christmas music dance party.  I’ve officially turned into the American Holiday girl.  During Thanksgiving I went to most classes and talked about the history of Thanksgiving and showed pictures of our Thanksgiving dinner in Armenia.  Now I’ve been recruited to teach about Christmas.  I know I’m going to have a blast teaching the children Christmas songs and ‘trying’ to translate the songs together into Armenian.  I hope that after New Year’s I can start teaching more actual English lessons because learning about American holidays won’t really help the children in the long run.  The Spelling Bee was a great success so I want my students to join in two other competitions in the coming months focused on writing and poetry. 

In other news, I finally have a visa and my passport back! I’ve been stressing out the past weeks because our visas had expired and we had to send out passports to Yerevan to get the situation fixed.  Many of us are going out of the country in the next few weeks so we were anxiously awaiting our visas.  Another volunteer is bringing back my passport today because I have no time to go there before I begin my Christmas adventures. Over the next few weeks I will be traveling to Tbilisi, Istanbul and all over Armenia with my boyfriend.  I’m looking forward to Christmas parties, New Year’s celebrations, an engagement party and a visit back to my old host family.  I probably won’t write again until January J

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving: To Give Thanks

I had a great Thanksgiving with other volunteers.  Ten of us met at a volunteer's house nearby and cooked a HUGE meal. Seriously, don't feel bad that I was spending Thanksgiving in another country, we certainly celebrated well here.  I loved all of the people I was with and consider them my family away from home. Below are some pictures of our day:

Today I was at Trent's house to visit for the weekend.  He lives about 30 minutes away so I called our normal taxi driver to come and get me.  A few minutes later his landlord came over and said we had to go to a birthday party for his wife. My taxi driver showed up with his wife during the middle of dinner.  I tried to leave, but the landlords invited (forced) my taxi driver and his wife inside to eat!

Trent and I sat through a very strange dinner before my taxi driver and I were allowed to leave.

My clubs have been amazing lately. We have done everything from watching the Lion King, translating Beatles songs and learning American slang.  I only have three more weeks of school before winter break :)



My First Armenian Wedding

This weekend I went to my first Armenian wedding.  It was quite different than any wedding I had gone to in the states.  A young girl I work with was marrying a man from a nearby village.  Our village only has one wedding hall, so the couple had one reception in our village and another reception in the other village.  Hundreds of people were at our reception if that gives you any idea of how big a combined party would have been! First, the couple married at a church, but as so many people were invited to the wedding most of us just waited at the reception hall.  I sat with a few other girls who work at school and we spent the afternoon eating, drinking and dancing.  I was yet again forced to dance, but this time I managed to get off easy with only one song.  People were constantly toasting and dancing.  There is even a special song/dance when the servers bring out the khorovats (Armenian barbeque)!  

One of my 12^th grade students was at the wedding and managed to morph our class discussion into the differences between Armenian and American weddings.  They think Armenian weddings are better because there is more tradition involved.  I think American weddings have a lot of traditions too, just more superficial than Armenian ones.  For example, after the wedding the mother-in-law gives the couple honey and fruit to help their marriage become ‘sweet.’  I tried to explain different American wedding traditions, but the classroom favorite was the honeymoon. Honeymoons are not common in Armenia because the bride usually moves in with the husband’s family the night of the wedding. Sounds awful right? Chances are a couple will never get to live alone, especially in a village.

P.S. I went into the kitchen last night to get a glass of water and heard scratching.  I turned on the light and saw a poor little mouse stuck in a trap.  I called my host father to the kitchen because I didn’t know what to do.  He picked up the mouse with tongs and for a horrible moment I thought he was going to throw the mouse into the wood burning stove.  Thankfully he took it outside, but who knows what happened outside.  I think this the first of many mice to come into the house this winter and I will be living in my oblivious world where the mice go free in our garden J

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Spelling Bees and Pumpkin Pies

Phew, what a crazy 2 weeks.  Between Spelling Bees and conferences I have been busier than I have been in country so far. We had a spelling bee at our school to determine which students would continue on to the regional Noyemberyan Spelling Bee.  I had about 15 students participate from grades 7, 8 and 9.  The students had never heard of a spelling bee before so it was actually a pretty good turnout.  I gave the winners (1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place) prizes of English books and magazines so thank you to everyone who sent some things over!  The winners were thrilled, but I felt so bad for the students who did not place.  They studied so hard and were heartbroken. 

Today was the regional competition in Noyemberyan.  I learned that one of my 8^th grade students got the chicken pox and would not be allowed outside her house for 2 weeks (I think the chicken pox is a little stigmatized here, but I’ll get back to you on that).   There were tons of children from all the village schools at the Spelling Bee.  One of my 9^th grade students came in 1^st so that was a huge accomplishment for our school.  Take a look below for some pictures from my village Spelling Bee and the regional Spelling Bee in Noyemberyan. Now that the Spelling Bee is over I will hopefully be able to use my clubs to practice the student’s conversational English skills.

I spent the past week at a conference in Dilijan with all of the volunteers.  I got a hot water shower every day and a flushing toilet, I was totally living the high life for those few days.  It snowed in Dilijan and back in Noyemberyan while I was gone.  I already hate the cold and it’s not even that cold yet, though -10 degrees Celsius sounds pretty darn awful when you have to walk to school.  The conference included more language and TEFL training.  The best part was being able to see other volunteers again, some of whom I hadn’t seen since swearing in. 

With Thanksgiving approaching a lot of us volunteers have been on the lookout for pumpkins.  They don’t sell them in stores, but some villagers have pumpkin patches in their garden.  I spread the word around my school that I was looking for a pumpkin and my counterpart gave me a small pumpkin from her garden.  I made a pumpkin pie from scratch that was delicious!! There is some debate as to whether or not it was a winter squash or an actual pumpkin, but regardless it was good.  If anyone has an easy pie crust recipe to share I would love to have it!

7th Form

8th Form

9th Form

The Winners! With our awesome judges Danelle and Manik :)

Our fantastic students at the Noyemberyan Competition

PC Volunteers

Nervous Students

Last Minute Studying

No competition in Armenia is complete without a certificate :)

 

Halloween

Halloween invaded Armenia this weekend and it was great!  I was lucky enough to go to 2 parties and teach several of my classes about Halloween.

On Friday I traveled to another town to celebrate Halloween with a bunch of other volunteers.  The weather was awful, but we had still had a lot of fun.  I explored the town and stayed with another volunteer at her host family’s house. On Friday we watched Rocky Horror and Hocus Pocus on a projector and make-shift movie screen.  On Saturday we all dressed up in ridiculous costumes and had a good time.  The time changed in Armenia on Sunday morning so we gained a much needed hour of sleep.  Monday night I spent several hours at the Halloween party at my village’s art school.  The children were all wearing scary make-up and the adults even dressed up.  We did everything from carving pumpkins, toilet paper mummies to painting pumpkins only using your nose.  Of course it wouldn’t have been a real party without the musical chairs, limbo or Armenian dancing.  Take a look at the pictures below, they can explain my weekend much better than I can J

This week I have already taught 3 classes about Halloween and hopefully will teach 2 more tomorrow.  Thanks to everyone who sent Halloween items, everything from the candy corn to the stickers have been a great hit! The students really liked the idea of Halloween because nothing like that exists in Armenia.   

Settling

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while.  I have a pretty good routine at school now and my days are starting to run together.  I wake up, go to school, teach, have lunch with a few teachers, teach more and sometimes go to the art school for tutoring or just to hang out.  This week is Fall Break in Armenia.  Students are free and teachers are supposed to go to school.  My school uses this week to put wood heaters in every classroom. Since there is no school I will just help out at the art school and then travel to another volunteer’s house for Halloween.

Here are some highlights from the past 2 weeks:

I got together with some other volunteers in my area to have a potluck and it was great.  It’s always excited to visit a new village and see the differences and similarities. We go together again for Chinese food, we even made egg rolls from scratch!

I watched Super 8 and it was surprisingly great.

My TEFL boss came to my village to check in with me.  She spoke with my principal and counterpart and they both said great things about me.  Then we went to the other school in my village to give them an application for if they want a volunteer next year.  I hope we get more volunteers next year, there isn’t much to do in our area so we don’t have many visitors. 

I made tacos. My host mother loved them, but my host father wouldn’t even try them.

Listened to my host parents get into a fight with the census lady who came to our house at 10 pm.

Planning a Halloween party with the art school.

Finally showered after 7 days…..

Used a PowerPoint presentation in my 10^th grade class.  Most teachers don’t know how to use a computer so I think my students really enjoyed it.  They think I am the resident expert on London and all things UK since our textbooks are British.  This presentation was about London, but in November I want to have a presentation on the US in all of my classes.

What a boring blog post.  I promise I will have more to talk about next week!

I love Armenia when....

What a crazy awesome week. 

October 5^th was Teacher’s Day in Armenia. We had school for half a day and then went to a ceremony at the cultural center.  Everyone in the community was invited to celebrate Teacher’s Day which involved numerous speeches, dances and songs.  After the ceremony we went to the only restaurant in our area which is in the next town.  I was forced to dance by all of the teachers, but I actually had a lot of fun.  At the restaurant it was decided that school would be canceled the next day because the weather was ‘perfect’.  I was of course confused until I learned they canceled school so the teachers could take the students on a hike to Mshakavank.  Mshakavank is an ancient church hidden in the mountains around my village.  We all met at school and spent two hours hiking up to Mshakavank.  The weather was perfect and we spent the entire afternoon eating and playing games.  At first I was shocked that school could be canceled with no notice at all, but after that great hike I think the teachers definitely have the right idea. 

On Friday I travelled to Yerevan to watch the Armenia vs. Macedonia soccer game.  A bunch of volunteers went to the game and we cheered for Armenia along with about 15,000 other people (They won 4-1).  We spent the night in Yerevan and then traveled to Areni, about 1 ½ hours south of Yerevan.  We went to a wine festival and spent time catching up.  I’m finally back in my village after spending hours on marshutnis yesterday. My host mother told me I’m not allowed to travel anymore because when I come back I forget all of my Armenian...  

It was so nice being busy for a change.  Hopefully the next few weeks will be busy as well. Here are some pictures of the hike to Mshakavank and the soccer game:

English Clubs

I had SUCH a productive week at school. I think clubs will be my way of introducing conversational English to the students, but for now we are just focusing on the Spelling Bee.  I have one club for 9-12 grade and only four 9^th grade girls showed up.  However, my other club for 7^th and 8^th graders had fourteen students show up J I was told that a lot of students didn’t know about the clubs last week and that more will come this week.  It’s so much easier to teach to a small group so I’m hoping the class size stays manageable.  I teach the clubs by myself and somehow the kids understand or at least pretend to understand what I say in English.  They seem very excited about the Spelling Bee!

I’ve started getting more involved in some of my classes.  I created a board with paperclips to use visual aids in the classroom and it actually worked.  I had students fix scrambled sentences and change tenses.  I created a few games for the older children and even managed to work hangman into a lesson plan.  I’m still not teaching as much as I would like to… small steps right?

It is freezing here and I have gotten my first cold in country.  My host family was convinced that I got my cold because my room was chilly.  The next day my host father brought the wood heater down from the attic and spent all day installing it in our house.  My host parents are pretty awesome. So while you enjoy the perfect weather in Florida, I’ll be buried under a sheep wool comforter and three layers of clothing =)

This unnamed fruit is from Tbilisi: any ideas?

Post Office Woes

Sorry this blog post is going to be boring- not much has happened lately.  Things that used to surprise or shock me now seem normal, like young kids driving cars or cattle blocking traffic on the street. I found out where to buy cell phone/internet minutes in my village so that was a big discovery. Last week at school went better than I was expecting.  I met the mayor and talked with students and teachers about a spelling bee my region is having. We even sent the spelling lists to the other school in my village.  Two winners from each grade will go to a big regional competition in November.  This week I will start clubs to practice for the spelling bee, hopefully students show up!

Random story: I had quite a fiasco trying to mail a letter last week.  I was walked home by a young student who showed me where the post office was.  I walked in and asked where I could send a letter.  I was escorted upstairs and everyone was thoroughly confused as to what I wanted.  I called my tutor to translate and it turns out I had ended up in the mayor’s office.  One of the ladies walked me to the post office, but because I was trying to send Armenian coins to the U.S. the postal worker didn’t know what to do. So, my letter was not sent, but at least I got to meet more people in my community and introduce myself as the American volunteer who doesn’t speak Armenian well.  My host mother tells everyone that I speak Armenian fluently while the teachers at my school think I don’t speak Armenian at all. My host mom finally started knitting my sweater so be on the lookout for a picture of a sweet green sweater. The other day she even surprised me with cauliflower- score! Then it was deep fried…. Delicious but still, the health gods are against me. 

I spent the past weekend relaxing at Lake Sevan with a bunch of other volunteers.  For one month we were under “Site Lock” and unable to travel outside of our extended sites.  We celebrated by renting cabins on the lake and hanging out for the weekend.  It was nice to see everyone again, but now I’m back to school.  How will I handle the stress of watching my counterpart teach 2 classes a day AND actually teach 3 English clubs this week? Tune in next week to find out if I survived the madness…

One Month at Site

I've been in my new village for exactly one month now.  The first month at site we are suppose to integrate into our communities and observe our counterpart. My teaching schedule keeps changing every day because I’ll show up for work and my counterpart will have already taught our classes for the day without telling me.  Now that I have been at site for a month I am hoping to really start teaching. While things at school aren’t going so well, everything else is great. I just started an English club with another volunteer at the art school.  The people who work at the art school have been so welcoming to me. A dancing troupe came to my village last weekend to teach traditional Armenian dances to anyone who wanted to learn.  At least 100 people, mainly children, showed up to dance.  I even won a cd of Armenian music for my great dancing skills (more like they were amazed the American was even attempting to dance haha). Afterwards, I went with the dancers and art school employees to the forest and went on a beautiful hike.  We picked fruit off the trees, stopped at a pond to feed fish, and of course danced into the night. Thank goodness I have the art school!

Me and Manik, my Armenian tutor, at the art school. Ignore the hat please =)

In other news, I’ve decided to live with my host family for the winter.  When I first came here I was convinced that I would want to live alone as soon as possible, but I’ve slowly changed my mind.  I’ve never lived alone before and I have NO idea how to heat a house in winter.  My family is excited that I’m staying so who knows if/when I will live on my own...

I'll speak Armenian if you speak English

I just finished the first week of school.  Our 12^th grade does not have a textbook or curriculum at all.  From what I can understand we will get to teach whatever we want.  We spent a good chunk of the first class just talking about America. The kids were asking me questions in Armenian.  The only question I was asked in English was if I had a Facebook profile. Sigh.  It’s nice to know that the students have access to a computer and internet, but it has not helped them improve their English.  They understand most of what I say, they just have can’t form their own sentences in English. Much like me with Armenian.  Outside of school, some of the children stop me on the street just to practice their English.  We have conversations in broken English and Armenian and quickly get to the point where we have exhausted all of our words. I like speaking with children the best because they don't care about my awful pronunciation or grammar.

In other news, my school has a projector! The teachers never use it, though probably because many of them do not how to use a computer. This is a great resource that I hope to use in the classroom.  Teachers here rarely use visual aids when teaching...  Right now I only teach 2 hours per day so the highlight of my week was definitely receiving a package from mom yesterday (it took about 3 weeks).   The postal system is strange here because there are no street names or house numbers.  My host mother told me to look in my room and the package was waiting for me on the table.  I have no idea if the post office called my host mom, but somehow my package arrived! Volunteers say if you send anything after November 1 it will take several months to arrive here because the postal service basically shuts down during the holidays.  If you feel like sending me an early Christmas present, I’m creating a wish list on a new tab in my blog =)

I had my first tutoring session and it went great.  Another teacher my age is tutoring me at the art school nearby.  The people who work at the art school are awesome so I’m hoping to make friends with all of them.  And they have one of the few indoor toilets in the entire village. We will be best friends by winter.  In a few hours I’m going back to the art school to learn traditional Armenian dances!

Remember how I said the President came to my area? Well here is an article about his visit if you are interested:

http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/24318852.html

First Day of School

Sorry to everyone in Florida who has been suffering in the heat, but it has been so cold and rainy here! I had to use my sleeping bag as a comforter for a few nights.  The weather has finally gotten back to normal and is about high 70s in the afternoon.  As I walked along the river that was once the road to my house, I realized that I got lucky with my host family.  My host mother made us brave a thunderstorm on foot to go to the store so I would have oatmeal in the morning.  I’m still struggling with how much oil is in the food, but that is unlikely to change until I move out on my own. 

I finally made it to my school after a week of doing nothing at my site.  I met with my counterpart and a few other teachers.  It’s quite odd to sit in on a teacher’s meeting when you can’t understand what they are arguing about.  Turns out, the teachers were competing for the best class times and classrooms.  The class schedule wasn’t even finished until the day before school.  When I first went to my school I was told that the President of Armenia was coming.  The teacher’s didn’t know if he would really show up or not.  I went to school that day, but my counterpart said that there was no work for me to do and sent me home.  Guess who showed up at our school an hour later? That’s right, Mr. President himself.  I should have stayed... I need to work on being more direct with people.

September 1st, the first day of school, is a national holiday in Armenia.  I brought my camera to take pictures, but no one else had a camera and I didn’t want to be known as a tourist for the next 2 years.  The little boys were dressed in suits and the little girls wore adorable dresses.  Almost all students wore black and white outfits except for an older boy who defied conformity and wore an awesome pink shirt.  There are actually no classes on the first day of school.  After several speeches outside with accompanying pop/techno music and balloons, students went inside with their ‘homeroom’ teacher.   My counterpart introduced me to her class, and then sent me home for the rest of the day. Again.  I’m already a bit frustrated and classes haven’t even started yet.  It can only get better right?

The only good thing that happened on the first day of school was going blueberry picking with my host parents.  We took an ancient soviet-style dump truck up into the forest and braved the thorns for a solid 2 hours.  Great experience except that the thorns cut through clothing and now I have splinters in unusual places. I will have fun time explaining my purple hands tomorrow at school :)

I’ll give you an update next week about how English is really taught in an Armenian classroom, I’m anxious to find out!

P.S. Almost every day my host family eats sunflower seeds, right off of the sunflower itself:

The Slow Life

Update: I finally showered!! I worked up the courage to ask how to heat the water for a bath.  My host brother showed me, but I still don’t understand how to heat the water. When the water was heated I got in the tub and discovered a hidden, ancient-looking showerhead.  I actually took a semi-shower and it was wonderful. 

The highlight of my week was definitely on Saturday. The PC director traveled to my region and visited a few volunteers at our sites.  We went to my school, the art school and my house.  It was great showing him around my village.  Then we ate dinner at a married couple’s house in town and it was delicious. They have been volunteers for the past year and showed us around town. Even though no other volunteers live in my village, I’m lucky to be so close to a few other volunteers!   

Some random things about my host family:

My host brother listens to the same cd on repeat, a mix of Kelly Clarkson, Enya and Celine Dion.  I had a great time listening to My Heart Will Go On.  I can speak some Armenian with my host mom, but for some reason I just don’t understand my host father or host brother. I think he leaves for school in October in another city.

My host father works in a village about 30 minutes away where another volunteer lives.  I’m hoping to hitch rides with him to visit the other volunteer. He loves listening to music and his ringtone in Lady Gaga’s Edge of Glory.

My host mother said she would teach me how to knit, but she totally took over and it now knitting me a scarf. Then we went into town together yesterday to buy yarn for her to make me a sweater.  I paid 4000 dram for a possible green homemade sweater that I didn’t even ask for. Sigh.

Cultural differences aside, I actually really like my host family so far. Thank goodness because I don’t know anyone else in the village yet.  I've spent most days reading, eating and sleeping. Life is pretty slow here until school starts…   

Swearing-In and the Big Move

Wow, what a past few days.  I am now an official Peace Corps volunteer!  The ceremony was great and all of our families and current volunteers came.  Later that night my family invited about 20 people over and had a goodbye khorovats for me.  I stayed up past midnight just hanging out with my family for the last time. On Thursday we left early in the morning to gather in Nor Hajn to move to our new sites.  The families started crying first, closely followed by the volunteers and language teachers.  I held it together for a while, but there was no stopping the tears once they started.

 I rode on a marshrutni with 3 other volunteers to the north.  I had to tell the driver where my house was and thank goodness I remembered.   My host mother was waiting for me and we moved in my many, many bags.  Last time I was here I told her that I would speak much better Armenian in August.  Well, she called me out on that statement because she says I still don’t understand anything she says.  After a 15 minute talk I realized that she wanted me to pack a bag and spend the night at her mother’s house.  I called PC because I didn’t know if that was allowed or not.  They said the village she wanted to take me to was too close to the Azerbaijan border so I couldn’t go. Ever. Oh well.  I took a long nap and then ate dinner outside with my new host family.  Afterwards I stayed out talking with my host mother and eating sunflower seeds off of an actual sunflower. 

My room is nice, though I can hear the chickens and roosters 24/7 (whoever said they only make noise at dawn lied).  The light to my outhouse is in my parent’s bedroom so that will be interesting if I have to go in the middle of the night.  I have yet to conquer the bucket bath. Options: Ask my already busy mother to show me how to light the intimidating fire, wait a few more days until she asks me if I want a bath, or just forgo bathing altogether.  Yesterday I did absolutely nothing and I know I will be bored until school starts.  My schedule seems to be sleep in, read a book, take a nap, and watch a movie on my computer.  Today my family is going to a wedding and leaving me behind L On Saturday I get to go into a bigger town and have dinner with a few volunteers so at least I have something to look forward too….

Soo close

I passed my language interview! I honestly thought I had failed so passing is such a relief.  It took me quite some time and sign language to remember what the verb for “to travel” was: you would think I would remember that one… Anyways, I’m almost an official volunteer now.  We are done with language classes, technical trainings and cultural sessions.  Time has flown by. I can’t believe it has been 2 ½ months already.  I’ve been hanging out with the other volunteers in my village a lot this week.  The hardest thing has been trying to divide my time between my family and friends.  I’m sure Wednesday will be an awfully sad day, but I know that I will grow to love my new village as much as I love this one.  On Tuesday the 16^th at 6:00 am east coast time will be our Swearing-In Ceremony.  Message me if you want the web address! Now back to the impossible task of packing L I’ll leave you with a list of all the new, for better or worse, experiences I have had in Armenia:

Killed 18 huge spiders in my bedroom

Used (and will continue to use) an outhouse

Gone without bathing for 4 days

Climbed to the top of Mt. Hadis, twice!

Crammed 23 people on a marshutni

Spent an entire day throwing buckets of water on people

Learned how to knit

Ate lamb, liver, gizzards, walnut shells, fish (with bones and skin!)and more oil than I ever want to see again

Slept without a door for 3 weeks

Learned basic Armenian (I can slowly read the alphabet and know enough to get by, hopefully?)

Dried my underwear outside for my whole village to see

Taught English in a classroom

Learned traditional Armenian dances in Yerevan

Made great friends with the other A-19ers!

Closing Time

In just over a week PST will end and I will move to my new site. I’m ready to start teaching, but I’m nervous about leaving my community.  I’ve had my ups and downs here, but I have definitely had more positive experiences than negative ones.   I will miss my host family and how comfortable I have become with them.  Yesterday they gave me perfume and shower gel just because they thought I would like it!  I will also definitely miss the other volunteers.  I’ve taken for granted how easy it is to walk over to another volunteer’s house just to hang out.  No volunteers live in my new village, but thankfully there are some nearby.

Last Saturday all of the volunteers went to visit Lake Sevan and Goshavank Monastery in Dilijan.  It was a great day with perfect weather. On Sunday a bunch of us went back up to Mt. Hadis.  It took over 3 hours to climb and the way down was awful because I kept slipping on rocks.  The view is beautiful and you can see as far as Yerevan.  It's hard trying to split my time between my host family and the other volunteers...

Today was my last day of model school!  I taught the little ones for my last lesson and we sang Old Mcdonald had a farm… they really liked singing, even if they didn’t understand all of the words haha.  I really do feel like model school helped prepare me for the Armenian classroom, hopefully I will be as confident at my new school.

This upcoming week is going to be crazy.  We have our final language interview, TEFL portfolio presentation, and Swearing-In Ceremony.  They are going to webcast our ceremony so I will keep you posted (get ready to wake up at 6:00 am on August 16 if you really want to see).  I will be singing an Armenian song and American compilation with half of the other volunteers. 

P.S. I know the address for my new site, so let me know if you want it J    

Water Water Everywhere

I finally have a working computer =) Thanks PCT Adam for fixing it! We have a lot to catch up on.  Model school has been going very well.  My favorite lesson so far has been one on Abraham Lincoln AND past tense verbs- the kids were really into it and we actually had a discussion about slavery at the end of class.  I have to teach four more times, and the last two times will be with the little ones who only know colors haha.  I’m enjoying teaching and model school is actually making me excited to teach in my permanent site.  After lessons all the teachers share what they taught so we can get new ideas for our own classes. 

This weekend was probably the best weekend I have had in Armenia.  On Friday it was another volunteer’s birthday so we went to her house for a khorovats.  Then we all took a marshrutni to Yerevan to dance again.  It was great because we actually remembered some of the dances.  After we wore ourselves out dancing, we went back to the volunteer’s house for her birthday party part 2.  The families here consider us part of their families so they go all out for birthdays.  I walked back to my house with another volunteer at about 11:30 at night because we were exhausted and wanted to go to bed.  Well, sometime during the birthday festivities our families had decided that we were going to Lake Sevan the next day.  Problem: We had model school until 5:00 pm.  Things got tense when they insisted on us skipping model school even though we were teaching that day.  After a long discussion, we decided to take a taxi from model school to Lake Sevan and meet them there.  The next day we had language class and our families were trying to make us leave early for model school so they could lock their houses and go to Sevan. It was quite the chaotic morning and by the time we got to model school we were plain worn out. At 5pm We rushed to change into our bathing suits and meet the taxi driver outside, but he never showed up.  Somehow miscommunication led to us going in stranger’s taxi to a place we didn’t know; the volunteer’s father told the taxi driver over the phone where to take us.

Once we got to Lake Sevan it was all worth it.  It was a beautiful day and all of our relatives were there. We ate khorovats (definitely my favorite meal) and took some great pictures that I’ll post below.  My family knows that I use to teach swim lessons so they were very excited to see me swim.  The water was a bit chilly, but we dove right in and accidentally swam past the barrier in a few strokes.  Most Armenians can’t swim so the barrier begins where the water becomes too deep to stand. Of course our families yelled for us to come back because the water was so ‘dangerous,’ but secretly I think they were proud of us for swimming the farthest.  We splashed around in the water and then had our second khorovats of the night.  We relaxed by the water and then played cards the rest of the night.  We cleaned up and played musical chairs to fit into people into cars.  I definitely lost.  I was in the back middle seat of my brother’s 2 door car, with his wife and their infant one side and a huge baby stroller on the other.  Please email me if you would like the details of my ride home, it turned into quite the adventure, but we finally made it home at midnight. 

Today is a holiday in Armenia called Vartavar.  Basically it is an excuse to pour water over people all day.  The great thing about Vartavar is that you are not allowed to get mad if you wet.  I woke up and went over to a volunteer’s house so we could join in on the water festivities.  On my way over I was ambushed by the other volunteers in my village and local kids with freezing cold water.  Some highlights of today: Surprising our language teacher with multiple buckets of water, throwing water on cars driving by with open windows, chasing a volunteer’s dad until he jumped a fence to escape and tracking mud threw a stranger’s house to throw water off the balcony.  By noon, there were at least 40 of us armed with water buckets roaming the main street.  I wish the US had a holiday like this one, it was so much fun!

My brand new door :)

Best envelope ever, thanks Mrs. Koehler!

Lake Sevan

Maybe I should have gotten a Mac after all?

Sorry I haven't posted in so long! My computer got a virus 3 weeks ago and no one has been able to fix it yet.....  Hopefully I can get it fixed before I move to my new site.  I check my internet once a week at another volunteer's house so please feel free to keep emailing me. 

I finally have a door again!! A few days ago a beautiful new door appeared in my room: it has done wonders for my sanity here.  Things are great with my family and village.  Two weeks ago each village had to create a communtiy project and ours turned out great.  We decided to have a Sports/Clean-Up day for the children.  We got the mayor to donate 2 new soccer nets, trashcans and trashbags.  We played multiple team building games with the children and then had them help us clean up the soccer field.  The field is now in great condition and there are trashcans at the scool and mayor's office. 

Today we started model school and basically taught an English summer camp.  It went well!  The students spoke great English and were eager to learn more.  I will team teach a few more times with different age groups to prepare for my new site.  As soon as my computer gets fixed I promise to post more pictures!

And my new site is......

So much has happened in the past week that I don’t even know where to begin!  Last week I found out that my placement is in the Tavush Region and my village is in the north by Georgia and Azerbaijan.  At first I was a bit bummed to be sooo far north, by after meeting my supervisor and visiting my town and I excited to move to my permanent site.  My supervisor is my new school’s principal.  He seems pretty chill and drove me and another volunteer to our new sites.  It took about 3 hours by car or taxi to get to my site, but it will take longer when I have to use a marshrutni.   We went straight to the school, which will be my workplace for the next two years.  It is an old, 3 story building in dire need of repairs.  Surprising it has a computer lab so hopefully I will be able to integrate technology into my lessons.  I also met my counterpart, a 60 year old women who has been teaching English at the school for over 30 years.  I’m intimidated, but hopefully she is excited to have me in the school.  I will be team teaching with the 4 English teachers in the school.  I hope to form several after school English clubs and tutor at a nearby art school.  My village hasn’t had a volunteer in 10 years so I am excited about the potential projects I can do!

My new host family is very nice.  My mother is a nurse, my father is an engineer and my brother just returned from the military.  They have a big house with a wraparound balcony that overlooks the entire village.  It would be perfect except for the bathroom and shower situation.  In the backyard I have an outhouse which is basically a very, very small hole in the ground.  The washroom is separate from the house and is the only room to get running water (even the kitchen doesn’t have running water…) My family pays for water to come to the house at 5 pm every day.  To shower you have to heat the water in a medieval looking wood stove and then use a bucket as a shower head.  I was never home at 5 pm and when I got home it was pitch black outside so I went without a shower for the past 4 days.  Good to know that during winter I can survive for quite a few days without a shower, but oh goodness how my hygiene standards have already decreased.  My new bedroom is similar to my current bedroom: 1 twin bed that is too short for me, 1 desk, 1 chair and 1 dresser.  We have fruit trees in our backyard that should be ripe when I come back in August.

The battery on my camera was dead so I don’t have any pictures of Tavush.  No worries though, I will have the next two years to post as many pictures as you want J My counterpart took me to a khorovats in the forest for her grandson’s birthday.  We were there for 10 hours and I actually had a great time doing absolutely nothing.  That night it was host brother’s birthday and 20 relatives had dinner at our house.  Highlight of the evening: My host brother never even showed up to his own birthday dinner! I was forced to sing happy birthday in English while my host brother turned 21 at a café (and turning 21 is not a big deal here in Armenia).  I’m excited to live with them for two months while I get to know my village, but in October I know I will be ready to move out into my own house.  The next day a few current volunteers who live in a town close by came to visit my site.  They are all so nice and I am thankful to have other volunteers who live a short taxi ride away from my village.

By the way did I mention how I haven’t had a door to my current bedroom for the past 2 weeks?  One day my host father asked to take down my door to paint it.  They said it would only take one day so I said yes.  Little did I know that they took off every door in the house and sent them to another city to have the design on the window glass replaced.  I’ve had a clear curtain hanging from my door frame for the past week.  I came back from my site visiting expecting a new door, but unfortunately even my curtain was missing.  They say I will have my door back tomorrow so we shall see.  On the upside, while I was gone they put a screen in my window! Window screens are rare in Armenia and I am so thankful they surprised me with a brand new screen.  This way when it is 90 degrees at night I can leave my window open without a thousand flies buzzing around. 

Sorry for such a long post, I will try to post more often instead!