And because I want to, one more ...

Well. Obviously I used the internet today for the first time in a week or so. I missed it, but was being thrifty. I apologize. In the time since I wrote that last blog a few mentionable things have happened.

I went to my first Armenian party. It was a pretty good time. There was dancing, some kareoke, of course food, and even some games. I danced a couple of times, played some games in Armenian (There was a nice man there translating for me) and even carried on some conversations strictly in Armenian. I was proud. Overall, It was a good night.

My host brother and sister left yesterday for University in Yerevan, I am going to miss them. The house is going to be much quieter, and I have lost my partner for my nightly strolls through the park. They said they are coming back for my birthday though, which makes me happy!

Went for a hike with Jack and 2 of the volunteers from Edjivan yesterday. That was pretty great. As we walked, a young man yelled out in English, inviting us in for coffee. We went in and ended up spending a couple of hours there, talking about a wide range of subjects. Turns out the man was a Vascular Surgeon in Yerevan, and had some great views on everything from the Genocide, to medical care, and current politics. It was very interesting. We also walked to a little cafe called LChop and hung out for awhile. It was nice to see the other volunteers again. We were all very used to seeing one another all the time during PST, and are feeling the seperation.

OH, and got an email from the PC today. Finally got the package that mum sent to me about a month ago. To bad I can't go into Yerevan for another 3 weeks to get it.

You're probably sick of reading by now, so I will leave you with some pictures I am stealing from my site mate. More to come next time I post. Love and miss you all...counting down till Christmas!

pt 5: Simply, The Red Hat

In closing, I would like to discuss a very important controversy in my life right now, one that has caused me many sleepless nights and anxiety ridden days (OK, not really, but I am trying to make a point here). In fact, this is probably the most important piece of this blog, the part about the red hat. I am not talking about any old red hat of course, but a very specific one that happens to belong to my father. This red hat is probably the warmest hat that exists on the face of the earth, no exaggeration, and (without beating around the bush) I WANT IT. During several of our Girl Scout ‘Snowflake’ experiences over the years, I have had the good fortune to be allowed to wear this hat, and every time it has played an integral role in keeping me both warm and unfrostbitten. Now, I am about to experience a very, very cold winter here in Armenia (everyone is saying it’s going to be a cold one) and as a matter of warmth, I will even go so far as to say survival, I have requested (on several occasions) that the red hat in question be included in my shipment of winter clothes and assorted gear. At this point you are probably thinking, ok, what is the problem? Well, the problem is my usually loving fathers’ reluctance to give up the above mentioned hat to his poor, lonely daughter who is halfway across the world. One would think that it would be a very small sacrifice on his part, considering his FAVORITE daughter is far, far away from everyone she knows and loves, giving up 2 years of her life to help people and save the very environment that he himself taught her to love. Who knows, maybe without his encouragement to go backpacking, hiking, and camping during my formative years, I would not even be here, buckling down and getting ready for a very long and very freezing winter. What can you do? I am sure you are wondering. I have tried rational discussion with him and even the irrational reasoning that usually works so well in our family. I am pretty sure I even tried to use his favorite phrase (I have spoken and the conversation has ended) on him to no avail. All I can ask is that if you are fellow winter campers, namely Mr. and Mrs. G, Paula, Sarah, and the remainder of my fellow GS, please implore my amazing father and help him to see how by loaning (see loaning, I will be bringing it back) me the red hat, he is in fact doing his part to, as they say in Armenia, Save the Nature and more importantly, ensure his eldest daughter’s safety and wellbeing in the brutal winter to come. Thank-you.

Ok, I know that last part was bit dramatic, but I really, really want the red hat! I understand that it is from Alaska Dad, but when I give it back (which I will), just imagine being able to say: ‘This is the hat I bought in Alaska, it is great. My daughter even used it for 2 years in Armenia while she was in the Peace Corps. You really can’t find better.’ It will be great bragging rights!

**NOTE: Since writing this blog, I believe my father and I have come to some type of agreement about the red hat. He has proposed that he will find and send me another hat equal or better to the red one. I suppose that will do.

Well, I miss you and love you all tons and tons! I cannot wait to see everyone at Christmas and thank you for all the birthday wishes!

Pt 4: Swimming pools, 'Agitators', and Tutoring Fun

Since I am already talking about family at home, mine as well continue. I would like to open by saying that I recently lost a popularity contest with a swimming pool. And it wasn’t a close lose either, the pool took it by a landslide. Now, I am not going to go into specifics, but certain small children should know that the swimming pool is not going to bring them sweet Christmas presents from Armenia, and should keep that in mind next time the time comes to choose. Oh, OK- just kidding, I love all you guys and will bring you Christmas presents anyway. I miss you and love you lots, and honestly probably would’ve chosen the pool over myself if given the chance. I love you!!!


For all of you who haven’t had the opportunity to use one of these awful machines, I will explain to you what an agitator is. An agitator is an old fashioned washing machine, one that is very, very popular in Armenia. Now, I was very lucky in Karenis, and since my family was so large they had a modern style washing machine. 3 months of being completely spoiled left me very unprepared for using the agitator. 4 days ago, the time came that I could no longer deny the fact that I had to do my laundry. My plastic bag that serves as a hamper was getting full, and I was running out of clothes to wear. So, I gathered my clothes and asked my host mother if I could do laundry, and explained to her that I had no idea how to use the agitator (I am not sure if it is actually called an agitator, but the name fits). Let me be completely honest when I say within the first 2 minutes I had messed up. She had filled the agitator, added soap, and told me to add some clothes. She turned her back (to fill the rinse tub), and when she turned around a minute later was yelling “che, che, che” (no, no, no) and began to pull my clothes hurriedly out. Not only had I overfilled the washer, but I had also mixed darks and lights (a BIG no no). Well. We got things together and started the machine. 7ish minutes later that load was finished. It was explained that now I had to pull the clothes out one by one, wring all the soap back out into the agitator, and then put them into the rinse tub. When the first load was out, I added a second load (then 3rd, 4th, and 5th) and turned to the clothes in the rinse tub. I then swirled around those clothes to remove more soap, and proceeded to wring those clothes out and put them in another tub. When all 5 loads were washed and rinsed, my host mother emptied the now soapy rinse tub, and filled it again. It then dawned on me that I had to rinse and wring out all my clothes again. Near the end, I believe she took pity on me (or just thought I was taking to long) and did my last few pieces of clothes for me while I went to hang everything else. Not only were my hands crazy sore for the next few days, but I also had blisters. Now not only do I have an even greater respect for Armenian women, I also know why Armenian people wear the same clothes for a few days in a row, and let me tell you, that practice is looking better and better.

In important news, I had my first session with my Armenian tutor yesterday. She is extremely nice, and for the first hour that I was there we ate watermelon and got to know one another. It was a good time. The lesson itself was good as well, we reviewed the first 3 units (which I needed) and decided that we are going to meet for 1 ½ hours on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. A pretty good schedule, plus with school starting in September, I don’t want to be too overloaded with stuff. She lives on the other side of town though, and I am going to take the bus to get to her apartment. Her apartment, by the way, is the most beautiful apartment I have seen in a long time (including in the US). It is not at all the typical Armenian ‘shank’ and I love it! I can certainly see us becoming friends, which will be fun. Let’s talk about the bus ride to her apartment though. It is quite a harrowing experience sometimes. Last time, I got stuck standing on the stairs with this big, hairy man leaning up against the pole I was using to stay upright. It is not fair that I am too short to reach the poles on the ceiling, not fair at all. It is not very expensive though, it is only 70 dram one way (1000 dram = 3 USD, figure it out). In fact, one day the only spot I could find is up near the driver, where the people pay. At one point, I ended up making change for about 15 people as they got of the bus. It was good practice, but not something I would like to do again. What is good though is that nobody recognized that I wasn’t Armenian. They just assumed that I was and handed me their 100 dram pieces. In fact, that happens on a fairly regular basis. I have been told many times that I have an ‘Armenian’ face, and can usually fool people, until, of course, I open my mouth.

Pt 3: Manicures, Tennis Shoes, and Nap Times

It is PC policy that all new volunteers meet with the Mayor and the Police Chief in their community. I’ll just come out and say it, my Director is amazing, and had arranged for these meetings within the first week of me being in Dilijan. Not too much to say about them, except for the extraordinary speed at which they happened, how nice both officials were, oh, and what shoes I wore on my feet. As you know now, when I first arrived in Dilijan I had in my possession only a pair of flip flops. Clearly these were not quite up to par for my first few days of work. So on one of my first forays into ‘the center’ I purchased a pair of 3 USD black tennis shoes. And yes, I met both the mayor and the police chief in them. Be proud Mum, be proud.

Another significant Armenia first happened for me this week as well; I got my first ‘manicure’. The previously mentioned house guests were amazing. They were all very kind and did their best to help me understand what they were saying. Plus, it was great to have lots of people in the house. It made the transition from a family of 12 to a family of 5 a bit easier for me. One morning, I decided that my nails looked absolutely atrocious, and decided that I was going to take the polish off them once and for all (It had been a number of weeks). Well, they saw me with the bottle of polish remover and quickly conveyed through hand motions and simple Armenian words that they had lots of nail polish (I believe that the words ‘oh my’ came out of my mouth when I saw the bag with all the colors) and on top of it, they were more then willing to paint my nails for me. I quickly agreed, who wouldn’t, and it was collectively decided that I would get a French manicure. There was some disagreement over the colors (in Armenian), but eventually it was decided to go with the classic white tips, a gold (sparkly) outline, and 2 small orange flowers on each hand. It was pretty great, and everyone noticed. I’ve decided that with my next pay day I need to invest in some new colors, because the one hot pink I had will no longer cut it. Oh, and it should also be noted that I taught the entire family to play spoons, and we all stayed up to 12:30 one night playing. It was great, and the games got super competitive. It is still one of my goals to bring that game to all of Armenia; you don’t need to understand one another to play.

Now we come to the point where I want to give a shout out to my Gramp (also known to some of you as boomba, bombee, or a number of other variations). It has become my practice in the last few months to nap. Not just every once in a while either, every day. Every single day. It is amazing. I nap anywhere from 1 to 3 hours a day, depending on the time I have or how much sleep I had the night before. It is incredibly refreshing, and helps to pass the time, especially on days when I have absolutely nothing to do. So Gramp, don’t let them tease you for napping. I get it, I love it, and I think everyone in the world would be much happier if the practice of naptime wasn’t squelched after kindergarten, but was continued through one’s entire life.

Pt 2: Fruit Loop/Cheeto Hybrid Deliciousness

Fruit Loop/Cheeto Hybrid Deliciousness is, surprisingly, not that name on the package that these amazing little tasties are bought in. In fact, I am almost positive I will never learn the proper name of these snacks since it is printed in Russian or some other language all Armenians can understand. But vochinch (it’s OK), because the name can continue to elude me as long as I am allowed to indulge in their greatness every once in a while. What exactly is a Fruit Loop/Cheeto Hybrid Deliciousness? I am sure you are wondering. Well, it is just as my assigned name implies. It is essentially a pale Cheeto (the fat ones, not the skinny ones- and without the fake cheesy taste) saturated with the incomparable fruit infusion taste of the popular Fruit Loops cereal. In a word: childhood. I have honestly come to expect very little from the snack foods in Armenia, with a few exceptions. While they own the world of delicious fruit, hands down, sometimes their snacks leave one unsatisfied. The story of how I came across the Fruit Loop/Cheeto Hybrid Deliciousness is not great in itself. We had house guests for a couple of days, and on one of the last nights of their stay they went shopping. They came back with some bologna hotdogs (yup, again just as the name implies) and these big, puffy, pale Cheetos. As customary, after dinner everyone sat around the table drinking coffee, snacking, and on this night speaking in a particularly rapid Armenian. I tried to follow the conversation for quite some time, but my brain got tired, and I decided to test out one of these deceivingly plain looking puffs. I am pretty sure I broke out into a smile. It was amazing. I wanted to run to the store, buy some milk, pour it in an oversized bowl, and dump a large quantity of the puffs into it. Of course, I did not. I already have a number of strange habits (like walking around barefoot), why add to add to the strangeness, especially in front of guests. This may seem like a very large paragraph dedicated to a single snack, and while it makes me sad a little bit, I have been assured by longer serving volunteers that the significance that food has in my life is going to increase 100-fold in the next 2 years. What I mean to say, is you should expect more tangents like this one in the future.

**NOTE: I found out recently that the Fruit Loop Cheeto Hybrid Deliciousness has a barbecue flavoured cousin, that is also tasty, but nowhere near as good as the original puff

Onto the shoes/medication fiasco, which are really 2 separate events, but since the resolution was the same I have decided to combine them into one story. Many of you may not know this (unless I decided to write it in my last blog, but pretty sure I was trying to keep my stupidity to myself) but upon my arrival at my house in Dilijan, I quickly realized that I had left 2 boxes of shoes on the marshootney that delivered me here. And no, not 2 big boxes, relatively small ones. But what was I left with, a pair of cheap, bright orange, PINK flip flops. Uh huh, orange rubber flip flops. Upon realizing what a predicament I was in, I jumped into action and called a fellow volunteer, who happened to be on the same marshootney, and asked her what to do. She said she would hold onto the shoes for me until we met again, but also suggested that I make a call to PC and try to work something out. Relishing in her cool headedness and genius, I placed a call to PC and found out that the marshootney would be coming back through Dilijan and would stop by. Well, to shorten this already long story, that did not happen, and my shoes ended up in the PC office in Yerevan. Now, this may not seem like a problem, but what you are not aware of is the PC rule that new volunteers can not leave site for a month after arriving. Yes, I thought I would have to go a month with only a pair of PINK flip flops. I was not ok. In a stroke of luck though, I found out that my site mate was in fact going to Yerevan the next week, and would be happy to pick up my shoes for me, I was very happy. During this week of waiting, I had the unfortunate experience of a migraine, my first in quite some time. I called the PC, and asked if my site mate could pick up my migraine meds for me at the same time that he was getting my shoes. The plan was OK’d and the wheels were in motion, or so I thought. Well. The big day finally came and when my site mate returned, I was handed a small paper bag. Just a small paper bag. Turns out, the shoes were unattainable because I had failed to authorize my site mate picking up my shoes. Fine. I at least had my meds. I opened the paper bag and to my dismay found, instead of migraine meds, four months of birth control. Lets be honest now, birth control is not on the top of my priority list while in Armenia, and I was quite depressed by the mix up. My site mate came to my rescue though, and placed a call to the Doctor, who assured me that they would get my migraine meds. The problem, I couldn’t go into Yerevan to get them for a month. Apparently though, I did something right and Karma was with me. The very next week, after I had given up all hope, I found out that a PCV due to travel through Dilijan was in fact going to the PC office first. I quickly made the call and guess what arrived 4 hours later…MY SHOES AND MEDS!! As happy as I was (and am) of course I need to include the kicker…I only got one dose of the migraine meds. Welcome to my life.

Blog that I wrote on 8/26...part one.

Things to talk about in my blog (in no particular order):

Fruit loop/cheeto hybrid deliciousness
Shoes and medication fiasco with eventual resolution
Meeting the mayor and police chief, in tennis shoes
Our house guests, resulting in my first Armenian manicure
My daily 1 to 3 hour naps
Late night phone calls and how I lost the popularity contest to a swimming pool
The ‘agitator’ and how agitated I am with the machine
First meeting with my new tutor, complete with coffee and watermelon
The red hat and how it will ensure my winter survival

Well, I decided to share my list of subjects that I thought important enough to be in my blog so you could see how truly all over the place my life here in Armenia is. It has been my experience in the last 3 months (unbelievable, I know, it freaks me out to) that when you are halfway across the world, immersed in an entirely different culture, seemingly trivial and unimportant things seem to get bumped up a few notches on the significance ladder. A prime example: If I were to write this blog about life in the United States would the recently discovered Fruit Loop/Cheeto hybrid deliciousness have made the cut for inclusion? Absolutely not. But, since I am in Armenia and experiencing new and different foods on a pretty daily basis, the serving of the Fruit Loop/Cheeto hybrid deliciousness had a disproportionately large impact on my outlook on life that day. Not sure if that makes sense to anyone else but me, so moving on, in no particular order some things of importance that have occurred over the last week:

Fruit Loop/Cheeto Hybrid Deliciousness is, surprisingly, not that name on the package that these amazing little tasties are bought in. In fact, I am almost positive I will never learn the proper name of these snacks since it is printed in Russian or some other language all Armenians can understand. But vochinch (it’s OK), because the name can continue to elude me as long as I am allowed to indulge in their greatness every once in a while. What exactly is a Fruit Loop/Cheeto Hybrid Deliciousness? I am sure you are wondering. Well, it is just as my assigned name implies. It is essentially a pale Cheeto (the fat ones, not the skinny ones- and without the fake cheesy taste) saturated with the incomparable fruit infusion taste of the popular Fruit Loops cereal. In a word: childhood. I have honestly come to expect very little from the snack foods in Armenia, with a few exceptions. While they own the world of delicious fruit, hands down, sometimes their snacks leave one unsatisfied. The story of how I came across the Fruit Loop/Cheeto Hybrid Deliciousness is not great in itself. We had house guests for a couple of days, and on one of the last nights of their stay they went shopping. They came back with some bologna hotdogs (yup, again just as the name implies) and these big, puffy, pale Cheetos. As customary, after dinner everyone sat around the table drinking coffee, snacking, and on this night speaking in a particularly rapid Armenian. I tried to follow the conversation for quite some time, but my brain got tired, and I decided to test out one of these deceivingly plain looking puffs. I am pretty sure I broke out into a smile. It was amazing. I wanted to run to the store, buy some milk, pour it in an oversized bowl, and dump a large quantity of the puffs into it. Of course, I did not. I already have a number of strange habits (like walking around barefoot), why add to add to the strangeness, especially in front of guests. This may seem like a very large paragraph dedicated to a single snack, and while it makes me sad a little bit, I have been assured by longer serving volunteers that the significance that food has in my life is going to increase 100-fold in the next 2 years. What I mean to say, is you should expect more tangents like this one in the future.

This blog is very long, so I have to post it as a bunch of seperate blogs, sorry.

Comments

oh, and just a gentle nudge...I like when people leave me comments, it makes me happy!

Settling In...

Well, things here are going fairly well. My host family is great, and I have been enjoying sleeping in and not being totally busy all the time. The down side, I am bored pretty often...a sentiment shared by many of my PC friends. I will start really having work to do in September, when school actually starts, but right now I feel pretty useless. It's good though, I have time to walk around town, I will start meeting my tutor on Monday (yay!!!), and have been catching up on my reading.

Yesterday I had my official 'first day' of work. It was pretty interesting. I met most of the teachers that I would be working with, and gave the people there some idea of how much Armenian I actually know. Not sure if it was above or below their expectations. When I got home from work there were some family visitors over who will be staying for a few days, it was kind of nice to experience a full house again. After dinner with them, we went to my host mother's uncle's house and had a big dinner that was delicious. Then there was fruit, some amazing Armenian fruit, that was by far some of the best fruit I have ever had. Plus side of Armenia, the fruit is unbeatable. Another added bonus, most of it is 'natural' grown with no pesticides or spraying. I love it!

Well, I am going to head home, I miss you all and have some money, so be expecting a phone call in the next few days! I love you all and miss you lots!

Dilijan, Home Sweet Home...

Well, I am finally in Dilijan. It is my second day here and things are going pretty well! Yesterday was a rough day though. It was very hard to leave Karenis and my amazing family there. I cried more than I did when I left America, not ok. I had a nice ride to calm back down though, and I was excited to see my host family here in Dilijan. It was a big pain lugging all my stuff up the hill to the house, but organizing and unpacking was pretty soothing. I ended up taking a 3 hour nap (very nice), and then after dinner we all made a cake. Ok, so my host mum pretty much did it and I looked on, but whatever, I was there. After making the cake, a few of my host sister's friends came by, and 2 of them spoke English very well. That was nice, and it was also nice to hear the translations and check my own understanding of what was being said. I have a feeling that my Armenian is going to pick up a lot in the next couple of weeks! Oh, and I should mention that I pulled a typical Katie, and left 2 boxes of shoes on the marshootka that drove me to Dilijan. Fortunatly, I contacted the Peace Corps and my boxes are waiting for me in Yerevan. Thankfully, another volunteer is headed there on Thursday and is going to pick them up for me or else I would have had to wait a month.

Today I woke up early (probably because of that 3 hour nap) and caught up on some phone calls that had to be made, which was nice. Now, Jack (The A 16 volunteer in Dilijan) is showing me around, which I definatly need. We all know about my sense of direction, or lack there of. During our journey I made a few purchases. I got a package of Pringles (they were cheap and I needed change), a package of oatmeal (yummy breakfast!), and a pair of shoes (Due to the self-caused shortage). Not too bad though, all in all about 6 American dollars.

I am excited to say that I am now an official Peace Corps Volunteer!! Swearing in happened 2 days ago (on Thursday) and it was an amazing day! I got my Peace Corps pin, certificate (which I will be mailing home), and then sang and performed in a skit. I should probably mention that the last 2 were done entirely in Armenian. It went very well if I do say so myself. After the ceremony I spent some time with my family, and then all of the A 16s and A 17s went over to
Bella Cafe for one last hurrah. That was a great time. When I got home I spent the night hanging out with my family, and played a great game of Armenian hide and seek (a very good time!). I ended up shocking my host sister by crawling under the big yellow bus to hide, I explained to her that getting a little dirty is totally worth it to win!

OH! Not sure if I mentioned this already, probably briefly, but my last day of PST was pretty great. We had the Peace Corps auction and I totally lucked out. One of the items that I really wanted was the 'Yoga Package', which included a yoga mat, yoga book, relaxing CD, and incense. Thankfully, I won it and have used the yoga mat several times. It is absolutly amazing. I then pooled the rest of my money with 3 other ladies and we won a hike in Tzackadzor with the Country Director. That should be a good time. There was also an ice cream party after, an added bonus to a great day.

Well...as usual, a few brief announcements:

Carolyn-mailed out a letter to your house today, be looking for it and please distribute the letters (and surprises!) accordingly. I miss you and appreciate you stepping up to the role as my personal post woman!

Gramp- HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY! I hope you and your liver have many more happy years together! I miss you and love you lots!

Mum- still no package, but people are on the lookout so hopefully I will get it soon! I miss you and you should really start picking up your phone at work.

I miss you all and love you lots!!!

quick and dirty...

Out of money and out of time, so I will give you the quick and dirty of what's happening in my world this week:

Had my last language class the other day, it went well, and I will not miss them...even though there were some very amusing times such as cross gender role play and outrageous acting

Last central day today! woot woot! It ended on a good note when we got out pretty early as well!

Swearing in is on Thursday, I become an official volunteer. Note: I will be singing in Armenian, as well as performing a skit in Armenian...It will be hilarious if not gramatically correct.

I move to Dilijan in less then 3 days, I am going to miss my family like crazy...and will be visiting them often. They will always be my Armenian family. I am pretty intimidated by the fact that I will be officially working in just 3 days...while I feel prepared, I only hope that I will meet everyone's expectations.

OH! And some stupid little girl hacked my myspace, so if you have an account make sure you go on and shame her. If I am not your friend already you can search my by ktp08@aol.com. I am halfway around the world and have now lost contact with many friends. NOT IMPRESSED!

Mem: Thank you for the letter, I really appreciate it, and your spelling is impeccable! Miss you and am looking forward to my visit at christmas!

Brit: The pictures absolutly made my day, keep it up lady, I miss you. And you are right, I really don't need to hear about her life, just don't mention that to anyone else, it makes me feel like a mean person! Miss you!



I love you all and miss you tons!!

A Very Busy Week

So, lets start with the highlight! The A 16 v A 17 kickball game. I put it mildly when I say that we absolutely dominated, but lets start with the beginning and work our way to the actual game. Despite the fact that I had to teach an Environmental lesson in ARMENIAN the very next day, I decided that the kickball game was in fact, an absolute must. I was aching to play some type of organized sport...and kickball is an amazing game. Everyone else was pretty pumped up as well...despite a fairly long marshootney ride there, we were all very ready to get out on the field and play. We pulled up to the field and found the gate to the field was locked, so we had to jump the gate...which the group did very agilely if I do say so myself. The A 16s were already there, but had failed to bring a kickball, thankfully one of us had brought one, or else there would have been very many disappointed volunteers. While waiting for everyone to arrive, I got to play a little frisbee (not my favorite), and a little football (before I jammed my finger : ( ) . Finally, it was time to play! After a very rousing team huddle, or 2 or 3, we sent our amazing captain out and won the coin toss. We started out in the outfield first, and shortly after it began to rain. One of our staff was serving as ump (to be fair) and I am proud to say that despite some shady distraction tatics (like water balloons and men in speedos) we pulled through winning 5 to 1. That is right, 5 to 1. We were all having an amazing time, but unfortunately after 3 short innings, we were forced to call it quits because it was pouring. A very good day, there was no bringing it down after that.

Oh, I guess even more importantly we started, and will finish, our Community Project this week. There are 2 gazebos in our village, and we set out to beautify them. One is our 'mental health' spot in the village, but was surrounded by peoples trash (There is no garbage collection system). We went to the Mayor with the idea, and were shocked to learn that these gazebos are actually memorials of people who have died when their cars have gone off the road and into the gorge there. It made us pretty upset that people would still throw their trash there, and the Mayor explained that it is only a few families who have been asked to stop and haven't. Shame on them. The second gazebo was in serious need of painting and a little bush trimming. We ended up cleaning up about 15 bags of trash at the first gazebo (which was picked up by a big truck), and cleaned up the erosion around the steps a bit. The second gazebo was much more fun for me, with the consensus of the Mayor, I painted big white clouds on the ceiling of the gazebo, and the rest will be painted blue and white. It is pretty awesome looking, I will try to upload some pictures soon. We are also making a presentation to the community tomorrow about reusing and recycling things, and the Mayor is doing his best to implement some type of trash collection/consolidation system. Hopefully I will see that come to play in the next 2 years.

My earlier mentioned class in Armenian went well. I taught about the 5 senses and focused on how animals may depend on different senses other then sight. We started out by reviewing the senses and then went outside and played a 'marco polo'-esq echolocation game about bats which went very well. After, we returned to the classroom and used our sense of smell to guess what types of food was in different cups. I used some really good ones, and the kids seemed to get the idea. The best part of the class, hands down though, was the review. It was at this point that my Armenian was exhausted and instead of saying the word zguyaran (sense), I instead muttered zookaran. Zookaran, my friends, means toilet. My sentence went something like this, "Today we learned about the toilet". Even my teacher was laughing in the back of the classroom, I must admit I was laughing as well...what else can you do? I am sure there will be many more of those mistakes in the next 2 years, and I am pretty used to laughing at myself anyway. The class I taught the week before (also in Armenian) went well enough. It was about the water cycle and the kids got the concept. We played a game called the Incredible Journey, which required them to be 'water drops' and travel all around the water cycle, collecting beads for a bracelet. The bracelets are always a big hit. Also, in the process of deconstructing necklaces for their beads, I acquired a clasp that works amazingly for my megalodon tooth necklace. I was pretty excited!

A big first happened this week as well. I had heard mutterings and rumors of this happening to other people, but had been lucky up to this point to avoid it myself. I was just sitting on my bed, minding my own business and watching a movie when I felt a little tickle on my ankle. I had my journal on my lap, so I figured it was just that. Then it started to move, crawl in fact, up my leg. I must admit...I freaked out! Jumped up, smacking at my leg (this is a great visual if you can get it in your head) and proceeded to jump up and down - throwing a small fit as I made my way to the light switch on the other side of my room. What was it? I am sure you are all wondering... it was an ENORMOUS WHITE SPIDER!!!! Not ok. I like bugs, they don't bother me, but spiders. agh..gross...eww. I found the offending spider crawling back towards my bed, and despite my pahpahhanootsjoon (environmental) inclinations, I couldn't let him live knowing his audacity and tendency to be in the area of my bed. You can also be sure that I shook the crap out of my sheets that night before I got into bad. Thankfully, it hasn't happened again (knock on wood).

Due to the stress of the last few weeks, I have also started exercising before bed, which is something I did in the states, but haven't really been doing here. It works out pretty well, there is this nice little spot at the end of my bed where I can work out and watch a movie at the same time. It has been going rather well, my family hasn't said anything about me being crazy yet (exercising is kind of a foreign concept here). I am really missing my yoga mat though, the blanket I put down is really cutting it. I guess you can find them in Yerevan though, but they are few and far between.

Yesterday was one of our last central days (We leave for our permanent sites in next Thursday) and it was pretty normal, except for the session on 'healthy cooking' which consisted on eating all of this amazing food that some A 16s had made for us. There was lavash chips (tortilla chips ish), low main, mexican rice, watermelon, and some great desserts. It was pretty amazing, especially since the few days before that had involved "American" food as well. One day, for language class, we prepared food (learning recipes...it was justified!). Then, the day before this amazing food extravaganza, all of the volunteers in my village had gotten together and made eggplant Parmesan. Well...it was really eggplant mozzarella (no parm cheese except in Yerevan), but it was still very delicious.

Well...off to grab a quick bite at Bella, then heading home. I miss you all very, very much. And I will be making some phone calls in the next few days...so make sure to pick up your phone if a weird number calls. Also, I haven't been able to send texts lately, but can still get them. sorry.

Much love!