Exploring the South

Armenia is about the size of Maryland, small enough that you would think getting from one end of the country to the other would be a breeze.  I live near the Georgian border and I set out with a few friends to visit a town on the Iranian border.  It is impossible to make it from one point to the other using public transportation.  It takes me anywhere from 4 hours to 7 hours to get to Yerevan by marshutni, and another 7-8 hours to get from Yerevan to the Iranian border by a shared taxi.  So over the course of two days with multiple forms of transportation and a fun group of volunteers we made our way down south.  We went on an epic two day hike to a beautiful lake high in the mountains.  A volunteer invited his two Armenian friends to go with us and they were essentially our guides. We used a horse to carry our supplies, camped at the halfway point, and woke up early the next morning to reach the lake.  Below are pictures of the hike (the pretty lake ones taken by my friend Kelsey, thanks!).

 

 

 

 

After our hike down south, we traveled to a town called Goris to camp in ancient caves with about 15 other volunteers.  It was a very laid back camping experience, filled with dizzy bat kickball and blackberry picking.  

 

 

Say Cheese



Out with the mosquitos and in with the mice. I have a family of mice living in my house, specifically my kitchen and bedroom.  I went into several stores in my village to learn that I had to go into town to buy any sort of trap.  I went to Noyemberyan and bought a glue trap that the owner assured me would catch the mice.  Well, the mice were able to escape from the trap and for the past week they have had the run of my house.  I’ve even been sleeping in the living room on a wooden bench because I am so afraid one will crawl on me at night.  I’m going to Yerevan tomorrow and I will be stocking up on real mouse traps.  Get ready for a showdown. Thankfully my new sitemates are sympathetic and put up with my crazy mouse talk.  This second year is going to fly by since I have more people to hang out with after school and on weekends. Here are some pictures of us on a hike from my village to Noyemberyan:

 

 

Summertime in Armenia

I’ll pick up this blog where my last one ended.  I left Washington DC for Armenia and arrived at the airport 24 hours later.  The airport taxis tried to charge me double the normal price, so I hopped in a random taxi that charged me the correct price.  I talked a little with the taxi driver and 30 minutes later I was dropped off at the hostel.  I checked into my room and realized that I had left a bag in the taxi, the one carrying my computer, ipod and kindle.  I had no way of contacting the taxi driver I took, so the hostel worker called another taxi for me so I could try and find him at the airport again.  For the next hour my taxi driver and I looked at the cars near the airport searching for my previous taxi driver.  Then I got a call from the hostel worker saying that the taxi with my bag had driven back to the hostel once he realized I had left my bag.  Only in Armenia would the driver have come back.  I don’t mention enough how kind most Armenians are, especially to foreigners.  I ended up having to pay both taxi drivers again, but it was totally worth it to have my electronics back.

I finally went to bed at 3 am and then got up the next morning to travel to another village in Armenia to be a counselor at an English Camp.  A bunch of pcvs got together and had a really fun week that culminated in a talent show.  Then I went to back to Yerevan for a volunteer’s birthday and celebrated with some of the new volunteers.

I went back to my village in a great mood and was ready to enjoy summer in hayastan. I soon realized that mosquitos had overtaken my house and there was no stopping them.  I covered myself in bug spray for the next 5 days and took a chance every time I opened a window to take a break from the heat.  I had a pretty bad allergic reaction to something that bit me and had to have a volunteer bring me medicine from our doctors in Yerevan.  It’s getting better now, but here’s a look if you want to see how swollen it was L 

For the past 2 weeks I’ve helped with a few training sessions in Yerevan for the new volunteers and visited my good friend in another town for her birthday.  I also spent a day in the forest at a fun camp held my village’s art school (pictures below). In a few days the new volunteers will Swear-In as official volunteers and move to their sites.  I’m lucky to be getting a volunteer in my village and another volunteer in Noyemberyan, I’ll write more about them next time!

Also, I updated my wish list and book list.