Goodbye Vacation High

The past month has gone by so fast that I can’t believe its January already.  I spent a fun 24 hours in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, and almost a week in Istanbul (my new favorite city).  The weather in Istanbul was perfect and the food was amazing.  Even the street food was some of the best food I have had in months: chicken kebabs, fresh squeezed pomegranate juice and roasted chestnuts.  I was in a nice hotel with people who spoke English.  Then, I came back to Armenia.  Within one day I was freezing, asked 3 times if I was married and I was forced to talk with my host family’s house guest even though I was exhausted.  Honestly, it was so hard to return to Armenia.  To the land of the sunless days and foggy nights, filled with mud, ice, and snow.  I’m still having a hard time readjusting, and I can only imagine it will be worse when I come home this summer.  Yep, I decided to come home around June/July because I would go crazy waiting until Christmas.  Some volunteers go home three times throughout their service while others never go home during their two years.  Knowing that I’m going home in 6 months will definitely help me get through my first white winter. 

Since this week of school was canceled there was no reason for me to stay at my site.  I traveled to Noyemberyan to help Danelle teach her kindergarten class about hygiene. We mixed glitter with lotion and shook hands with each child so they could see how germs spread. Then I traveled to Dilijan with a few volunteers to help introduce boxing at the school.  Basically, we watched children box each other and played random games with them at the end of the day. The next day all of us volunteers went on a hike, my first hike through snow. Now I’m back in my village about to begin the second semester of school with no break until school finishes in June. A few months ago I would have said ‘bring it on,’ but at this moment I’m thinking ‘just survive until summer.’ Sigh.