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…