Well...It snowed here two days ago. I was very, very sad. I am not ready for the winter yet, my warm clothes package has not yet arrived. Oh, and yesterday morning when I woke up I could see my breath in my room. It takes an act of God to get me out of bed in the morning anyway, never mind when I know that it is frigid on the other side of the blankets.
Speaking of blankets, when my host mother gave me my heavy winter blanket, she also gave me clean sheets to put on the bed. Guess what was on them....WHALES! That is right, it is destiny for me to be here. The landlocked Marine Biologist ends up in a house where they have whale sheets. I love it, hopefully I will have pictures of them (and the snowy mountains) put up on Facebook next week sometime.
Oh! I had my first visit back to Karenis last weekend. It was amazing, I missed my family sooo much, it was hard for me to leave again! I stayed there one Saturday night, and on Sunday there was a big church holiday (somthing about a disciple) and there was a big feast and a bunch of people over. We started the day by walking down into the old church in the gorge. The town had cleaned it up for the holiday, and they had found some old cross stones in the process. We lit candles in the church (I have some sweet pictures) and then walked back to the house. My family slaughtered a lamb for the event (I heard it baaing the night before, he knew it was coming), but I don't like lamb and thankfully they BBQ'd pork meat as well. The veggies were amazing too...and the pears that were tiny when I left a month ago were all big and huge and super tasty. My tateak gave me a big bag to take back to Dilijan with me! I ended up leaving on Sunday night and a friend of mine arranged for his shared taxi from Yerevan to pick me up on the highway. It was quite a process, and I will probably stick to marshootneys from now on, I just need to plan my times better.
Work is going well. My language skills are getting better, and we have thankfully moved on from paper mache. We are now working on the actual costumes for the festival in Yerevan at the end of October. We will be representing bats, eagles, butterflys, porcuepines, and frogs in the animal parade. It will be a good time and I am sure worth all the work we are putting into it. I am slipping in as much English and Environmental lessons as I can in the process. The children are very eager for both, so it has not been too hard. I am very much looking forward to November, when I can start teaching actual English and Environmental lessons. It is interesting, because the children know crazy amounts of English words, but cannot actually have conversations, at least I know what to focus on for the lessons. If any of you know any good 'teaching english' websites or materials, let me know..I am a rookie at this stuff.
A few more little things back on the subject of the quicly approaching winter. Canning here is at full swing. Yesterday I helped my host mum to put together jars of baby tomatos and cucumbers. That was a good time. The tomatos were red, yellow, and orange, so we spent most of the time arranging them to make them look 'pretty' in the jar with the cucumbers. Also, whenever I walk down the road people have apple, pepper, and assorted fruit slices hung out there window to dry for the winter. The strings are pretty, but unfortunaly also a sign that the window to eat fresh fruit and veggies is rapidly coming to a close. That, I am not at all excited for.
Oh, and last night a sore throat kept me up. I have what the people here refer to as 'the greep', basically a cold. It is no fun though, but upon hearing my voice this morning my host mother opened up a jar of raspberry muraba, and assured me that if I drank two cups of 'raspberry tea' (basically raspberries in hot water) a day, I would be fine in a few days. I know that my days of leaving the house with wet hair are over here now too...and wearing slippers without socks is going to be an absolute no no. At least I know my family cares...I am sure that eases the mind of my family at home.
Well, I want to take advantage of this beautiful day and walk home. I miss you all and love you lots! 85 days and counting...
oh, and a few final shoutouts:
Aunt Mary-thank you for the letter, I can't wait to see pics of Jonathanjan!
Sarah Z- I got your package today!!! yay!! hope your foot is getting better, miss you!
Mum- Thank you for everything, and I hate to be a pain, but if you could possibly include real tissues (puffs with lotion, specifically) in my package it would be great. I am wasting all the 'on the go' TP you sent me!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Pictures....
OH....and quick little blurb about pictures. They take an insanly long time to load onto the blog. And as most of you have met my father, you know that I inherited his amount of patience. Basically...I don't have it. If you have facebook, more will be posted there because it is quicker. And both mum and dad have it now, so you can ask them to show you. I will load them all when I am home for Christmas.
Sorry...
Sorry...
Quick update
Man, I am pretty bummed. I had a whole nice long blog written out, but this was an unplanned internet trip and I left my flash at home. Way to go Katie, way to go. I don't really have the time to type it now, so I guess I will post it later.
Things are still going well. Work is mostly paper mache, making masks and costumes and getting ready for the big film festival that is coming up in a month. The kids are fairly excited for it, and I am just ready for it to be here!
Things with the host family are going very well. They are amazing. Recently, my host brother discovered the amazingness of my Nintendo DS and has since completely kicked my behind in Mario. Whatever. Also taught most of my family some new card games, one of which resulted in me learning the Armenian word for 'Rat'. My sister did not like it when I won!
This Monday was a holiday here as well. Independence Day. Interestingly enough it was not celebrated nearly as much as the church holiday last weel. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions about that one.
Answered my host family's phone today when everyone was out. I normally don't, but it wouldn't stop ringing (They don't have answering machines here). It went surprisingly well. It was the Post Office calling to tell me that I had a couple of letters waiting. The crazy thunder storms had cleared up, so I decided to walk down there. Thank you Gramp and Phyllis and Aunt Jen and Uncle Henri for my birthday cards! I also found a new internet place on my walk, resulting in this very unplanned blog! I didn't ask about the price though, so I am hoping it is not too expensive!
Next weekend I go to Yerevan on Saturday, and then back to Karenis on Sunday!! I am very, very excited. I can't wait to see my old host family. I miss them very much. Actually, just thinking about it makes me super happy. It should be a very good time, there is some sort of village wide celebration.
Well, it is cold today, and the owner has the door open. My hands are kindof going numb, so I am going to cut this one short.
I miss you all and love you lots! 93 days and counting!
Things are still going well. Work is mostly paper mache, making masks and costumes and getting ready for the big film festival that is coming up in a month. The kids are fairly excited for it, and I am just ready for it to be here!
Things with the host family are going very well. They are amazing. Recently, my host brother discovered the amazingness of my Nintendo DS and has since completely kicked my behind in Mario. Whatever. Also taught most of my family some new card games, one of which resulted in me learning the Armenian word for 'Rat'. My sister did not like it when I won!
This Monday was a holiday here as well. Independence Day. Interestingly enough it was not celebrated nearly as much as the church holiday last weel. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions about that one.
Answered my host family's phone today when everyone was out. I normally don't, but it wouldn't stop ringing (They don't have answering machines here). It went surprisingly well. It was the Post Office calling to tell me that I had a couple of letters waiting. The crazy thunder storms had cleared up, so I decided to walk down there. Thank you Gramp and Phyllis and Aunt Jen and Uncle Henri for my birthday cards! I also found a new internet place on my walk, resulting in this very unplanned blog! I didn't ask about the price though, so I am hoping it is not too expensive!
Next weekend I go to Yerevan on Saturday, and then back to Karenis on Sunday!! I am very, very excited. I can't wait to see my old host family. I miss them very much. Actually, just thinking about it makes me super happy. It should be a very good time, there is some sort of village wide celebration.
Well, it is cold today, and the owner has the door open. My hands are kindof going numb, so I am going to cut this one short.
I miss you all and love you lots! 93 days and counting!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
VICTORY!!!
Ladies and Gentlemen, it has been confirmed. On Thursday my mother mailed out all of my winter clothes for me (yay!) and guess what was included??? THE RED HAT! That is right, I am getting the red hat! Very, very excited, and I would like to thank you all for your support during my long and strenuous campaign.
Other then that, not too much has gone down since the last time I wrote. Things are still going fairly well here. I have some semblance of a normal schedule. I go to my tutor 3 times a week, and work at 3 every day (except saturdays, when I work at 12). Other then that, my time is filled with strolling around, writing letters, and playing my DS. It is a good life, really. Also, my sister told me the other day that my Armenian is much better, which made me very happy! They told me that it would get better once I get to site and speak Armenian constantly, but I did not believe them. Excited that people have noticed a difference. Still a bit perturbed by what happened the other day though. As I have mentioned, I can usually pass for Armenian through introductions and greetings, and can definatly pass when I am just walking down the street. Well, the other day, I had barely walked into this woman's store when she pegged me for American. I still want to know how she did it!
Had yesterday off, which was exciting. It was some type of chuch holiday, where all of the Armenian people go to the cemetaries to visit their loved ones. My entire host family went to their grandmother's house for a bit of a feast. It was a good time. The food was good, and everyone was very nice. Funny story though, I saw them pulling meat out of a big pot, and because of the consistency figured it for lamb (which I really don't like) so I avoided it. Well, I guess they noticed, because they started discussing my avoidence of meat in Armenian. Thankfully, I understood, and quickly explained that I don't like lamb. Well...they started laughing, turns out it was just a really fatty beef. So I took a piece, which made them happy. I don't think they were so happy when I pulled all the fat off of it though! but oh well.
Well..a small child broke the chain on my locket yesterday, so off to find a new one before work. Today my tutor is coming to class with me to help me talk to the kids about expectations and plans, which will be nice. Essentially, it will turn into 20 questions for the new American.
I miss you all, and love you lots!
ps...ANSWER YOUR PHONES!
Other then that, not too much has gone down since the last time I wrote. Things are still going fairly well here. I have some semblance of a normal schedule. I go to my tutor 3 times a week, and work at 3 every day (except saturdays, when I work at 12). Other then that, my time is filled with strolling around, writing letters, and playing my DS. It is a good life, really. Also, my sister told me the other day that my Armenian is much better, which made me very happy! They told me that it would get better once I get to site and speak Armenian constantly, but I did not believe them. Excited that people have noticed a difference. Still a bit perturbed by what happened the other day though. As I have mentioned, I can usually pass for Armenian through introductions and greetings, and can definatly pass when I am just walking down the street. Well, the other day, I had barely walked into this woman's store when she pegged me for American. I still want to know how she did it!
Had yesterday off, which was exciting. It was some type of chuch holiday, where all of the Armenian people go to the cemetaries to visit their loved ones. My entire host family went to their grandmother's house for a bit of a feast. It was a good time. The food was good, and everyone was very nice. Funny story though, I saw them pulling meat out of a big pot, and because of the consistency figured it for lamb (which I really don't like) so I avoided it. Well, I guess they noticed, because they started discussing my avoidence of meat in Armenian. Thankfully, I understood, and quickly explained that I don't like lamb. Well...they started laughing, turns out it was just a really fatty beef. So I took a piece, which made them happy. I don't think they were so happy when I pulled all the fat off of it though! but oh well.
Well..a small child broke the chain on my locket yesterday, so off to find a new one before work. Today my tutor is coming to class with me to help me talk to the kids about expectations and plans, which will be nice. Essentially, it will turn into 20 questions for the new American.
I miss you all, and love you lots!
ps...ANSWER YOUR PHONES!
Friday, September 11, 2009
some more pictures
These are just a few pics, I am out of time, my friend's marshootney has just arrived. The pic of me is at Garni, and at Gerhard you throw rocks for luck. The moon pic was taken off my porch in Dilijan. OH, and the monks carved Gerhard out of caves, it is beautiful.
My excursion and beyond...
Huh, I had a whole bunch to talk about when I sit down and wrote this, and now I am having a hard time coming up with anything. Wait for it…
I feel like I have already talked about my birthday, so we are going to skip that and move on. I went on an ‘excursion’ Sunday with all of the teachers from my school. It was huge. We put 17 people in a marshootney and drove around from 9:30 in the morning till 12:15 the next morning. It started out well enough. We first stopped at Hirpsime Church. That was interesting because I had never been before, and was pretty beautiful. They keep the body of Hirpsime there (in a tomb, of course) and you can go and visit it and leave flowers and stuff. It was a busy place. Then we made our way to Edjmiatsine. It was the same as the other few times that I have been, with one exception. They were handing out a type of communion that day. It looked like the Catholic communion, but all broken up into little bits and pieces. The ceremony was also very different. It was short and performed by a priest (I am assuming) and then after he leaves an alter boy like person stands at the front of the church and people walk up to receive it. There is no order to it though, and anyone can walk up and ask for it. Something else that was interesting was that it could only be put on the back of your hand, and not in your palm like the Catholic communion. I asked the server why (that’s right, in Armenian) and he said that it was because you work with the palms of your hands, so they are dirty, while the backs of your hands are clean. Now granted, he also answered me in Armenian, but I am pretty positive that was what he said.
After Edjmiatsine we walked to another church (I don’t remember the name) and here we crashed a wedding. Yea, you read it right, we crashed a wedding. Apparently it is not a big deal in Armenia though, because other people walked in right along with us. That got kind of awkward for me though, especially when we had to walk out as all the wedding guests were lining up outside the doors to through rice and flowers as the newly married couple walked out. It was also at this church that my migraine started. Granted, it is partly my fault because I did not eat much for breakfast, but the heat and the bumpy rides were also contributing. The next place we went to was Garni. I had been before and so knew the background about it being the only Hellenistic temple left in Armenia. It was nice to look around again, but the group picture taking got a little out of hand and that combined with my migraine made me a bit cranky.
After Garni, we drove to Gerhard and parked the marshootney around 6 pm. We, after much deliberation, picked our picnic spot and sat to eat. Now, this was the first time we had anything real to eat all day, and I was starving. The problem…all of the food had been sitting in the sweltering marshootney all day. I settled on eating a couple of slices of potato and one piece of chicken. The salads and other food I just could not bring myself to eat, knowing I would regret it later. After eating, we went into Gerhard and walked around for a bit. As always, Gerhard was amazing, but by the time we left around 9:30 my head was pounding again and I was very excited to get home and crawl into bed.
I fell asleep 10 minutes after we pulled away from Gerhard, despite the bumpy ride. Unfortunately for me I woke up a little less then an hour later to the action of the driver pulling the marshootney over, why?, because it had run out of gas. I almost cried. After waiting about 20 minutes, a big construction truck came and towed us to the gas station. This is not like filling up your tank in America though. When you fill up tanks in Armenia, everyone needs to get out of the car and wait outside. Well, it was cold…very cold. After about 20 minutes we all piled back in, and I finally walked up to my doorstep around 12: 15. My head hit my pillow and I was out…the next day of work when anybody was asked ‘how are you?’, their response varied from ‘very tired’, to ‘sore’, and ‘sick’.
Despite all of the mishaps, I am very glad that I went. It gave me a chance to get to know the teachers that I will be working with and it was my first big outing where I was the only English speaker. I feel like that day alone helped bump up my Armenian skills.
I should also mention that since Monday I have also been ‘teaching’ the Sunchild children everyday from 3 to 5:30ish. We have been making paper mache masks to get ready for the big festival that is coming up in October (pretty sure I already mentioned it) and thankfully, working with paper mache doesn’t require too much Armenian. I think that the kids have been enjoying it, and have discovered that children all around the world behave the same, no matter what language they speak.
Hopefully I will be getting some pictures up today (I am working on sizing them) and as usual, I miss you all and can’t wait to see you at Christmas. 103 days and counting…
Oh, and to all my family…thank you very much for all your birthday cards and presents. I loved the cards and the presents are already coming in handy! I miss and love you tons!
And as a final note, no work today! We have a meeting where all the volunteers in my area get together and talk safety stuff. Very exciting. Myself and another volunteer are going to cook lunch. You can bet we are making somthing without salt or ghee!
Brit F- Thank you for the birthday box! The fish bracelet is great! Reading the letters made me laugh out loud. I love it!
Lor- We need to get better at this game.
Sarah Z- lady, you best email me in the next few days...I am going to try and give you a call to
Aunt Mary- not sure what happened because the address was right, if it happens again I will talk to the PC
I feel like I have already talked about my birthday, so we are going to skip that and move on. I went on an ‘excursion’ Sunday with all of the teachers from my school. It was huge. We put 17 people in a marshootney and drove around from 9:30 in the morning till 12:15 the next morning. It started out well enough. We first stopped at Hirpsime Church. That was interesting because I had never been before, and was pretty beautiful. They keep the body of Hirpsime there (in a tomb, of course) and you can go and visit it and leave flowers and stuff. It was a busy place. Then we made our way to Edjmiatsine. It was the same as the other few times that I have been, with one exception. They were handing out a type of communion that day. It looked like the Catholic communion, but all broken up into little bits and pieces. The ceremony was also very different. It was short and performed by a priest (I am assuming) and then after he leaves an alter boy like person stands at the front of the church and people walk up to receive it. There is no order to it though, and anyone can walk up and ask for it. Something else that was interesting was that it could only be put on the back of your hand, and not in your palm like the Catholic communion. I asked the server why (that’s right, in Armenian) and he said that it was because you work with the palms of your hands, so they are dirty, while the backs of your hands are clean. Now granted, he also answered me in Armenian, but I am pretty positive that was what he said.
After Edjmiatsine we walked to another church (I don’t remember the name) and here we crashed a wedding. Yea, you read it right, we crashed a wedding. Apparently it is not a big deal in Armenia though, because other people walked in right along with us. That got kind of awkward for me though, especially when we had to walk out as all the wedding guests were lining up outside the doors to through rice and flowers as the newly married couple walked out. It was also at this church that my migraine started. Granted, it is partly my fault because I did not eat much for breakfast, but the heat and the bumpy rides were also contributing. The next place we went to was Garni. I had been before and so knew the background about it being the only Hellenistic temple left in Armenia. It was nice to look around again, but the group picture taking got a little out of hand and that combined with my migraine made me a bit cranky.
After Garni, we drove to Gerhard and parked the marshootney around 6 pm. We, after much deliberation, picked our picnic spot and sat to eat. Now, this was the first time we had anything real to eat all day, and I was starving. The problem…all of the food had been sitting in the sweltering marshootney all day. I settled on eating a couple of slices of potato and one piece of chicken. The salads and other food I just could not bring myself to eat, knowing I would regret it later. After eating, we went into Gerhard and walked around for a bit. As always, Gerhard was amazing, but by the time we left around 9:30 my head was pounding again and I was very excited to get home and crawl into bed.
I fell asleep 10 minutes after we pulled away from Gerhard, despite the bumpy ride. Unfortunately for me I woke up a little less then an hour later to the action of the driver pulling the marshootney over, why?, because it had run out of gas. I almost cried. After waiting about 20 minutes, a big construction truck came and towed us to the gas station. This is not like filling up your tank in America though. When you fill up tanks in Armenia, everyone needs to get out of the car and wait outside. Well, it was cold…very cold. After about 20 minutes we all piled back in, and I finally walked up to my doorstep around 12: 15. My head hit my pillow and I was out…the next day of work when anybody was asked ‘how are you?’, their response varied from ‘very tired’, to ‘sore’, and ‘sick’.
Despite all of the mishaps, I am very glad that I went. It gave me a chance to get to know the teachers that I will be working with and it was my first big outing where I was the only English speaker. I feel like that day alone helped bump up my Armenian skills.
I should also mention that since Monday I have also been ‘teaching’ the Sunchild children everyday from 3 to 5:30ish. We have been making paper mache masks to get ready for the big festival that is coming up in October (pretty sure I already mentioned it) and thankfully, working with paper mache doesn’t require too much Armenian. I think that the kids have been enjoying it, and have discovered that children all around the world behave the same, no matter what language they speak.
Hopefully I will be getting some pictures up today (I am working on sizing them) and as usual, I miss you all and can’t wait to see you at Christmas. 103 days and counting…
Oh, and to all my family…thank you very much for all your birthday cards and presents. I loved the cards and the presents are already coming in handy! I miss and love you tons!
And as a final note, no work today! We have a meeting where all the volunteers in my area get together and talk safety stuff. Very exciting. Myself and another volunteer are going to cook lunch. You can bet we are making somthing without salt or ghee!
Brit F- Thank you for the birthday box! The fish bracelet is great! Reading the letters made me laugh out loud. I love it!
Lor- We need to get better at this game.
Sarah Z- lady, you best email me in the next few days...I am going to try and give you a call to
Aunt Mary- not sure what happened because the address was right, if it happens again I will talk to the PC
Saturday, September 5, 2009
An Amazing 23rd Birthday!
I am not going to lie, I was a little bit depressed in the days leading up to my birthday. I was homesick and not really looking forward to being a year older, but oh boy did my new friends and family in Armenia make me feel 100x better! I woke up late on my birthday, but still managed to make it to my Armenian lesson on time. My class went very, very well...and my tutor (who is amazing) gave me a pomegranite necklace! It is very cool. Pomegranites are a symbol of Armenia, and bring health and good fortune. Also fertility, but I have no use for that at this point in my life much to the dismay of many Armenian friends! After my session, I stayed at her house and we had coffee and talked for quite some time. It was very interesting, and we got on the topic of cultural money and gender differences. A very enlightening conversation. In Armenia if a new bride is found to not be a virgin, she is literally returned by her in laws. If that applied in America, the divorce rate would be even higher than it is now!
After my lesson I went home and helped my host mother and a friend prepare some of the food for my party. I helped to make the 'salad' before I got distracted. Around 2:30, my director called and asked me to come in to work. I walked there (it takes about 2 minutes) and she was in a meeting, so I sat and waited. Another teacher came into the teacher room (where I was waiting) and asked if I wanted to watch her class...of course I said yes! The class was a painting class with about 6 students, all who were very talented. After about 10 minutes another teacher came and told me that my director was ready for me, so I went back downstairs. As I walked into the teacher's room, all of the other teachers were there saying happy birthday, and there was a spread of wine, chocolate, watermelon, and one of the most beautiful cakes I have ever seen. I almost cried! It was gorgeous! They sang Happy Birthday (1/2 Armenian, 1/2 English) and then we all sat down to eat. There were toasts of course..to me, my parents, and my health..and it was a good time all around! They also surprised me with a few gifts. The last time I was at work, my sandal broke, so I wore my director's slippers for a few hours. Well, they gave me a pair of super soft slippers. Also, a beautiful cell phone pouch and a book about Dilijan in English. It was great!
When I got home, my brother was putting the finishing touches on another amazing cake! I helped to set up a little bit more, and when my sister got home she had eyeshadow and mascara for me. Somehow both of those things didn't make the cut to be brought from America, and they were both neccessary! They were amazing, so of course I stopped to get dressed and all made up! When I had finished everyone was there and we sat down to eat. My mother had made my favorite Armenian dish, dolma, and there was also fried eggplant, 'salad', tomato and cucumber, and of course bread and cheese! It was delicious and a good time. They had also prepared some raspberry vodka, which was flowing all night. More toasts were given, and after enough of the vodka, I even gave my first toast in Armenian. It wasn't bad, only one small mistake! It was a great night all around!
Stayed up late for some phone calls, and when I woke up this morning (around 11), my host mother told me that the post office had called, and one of my birthday packages came in! I was super excited. Walked to the office and back, the whole time rushing so I could get home and open it! Made my day when I finally did. I am not going to lie, all of the cards made me cry a little bit and I want to thank all the kids for making them for me! The jeans fit great, thank you Mem and Gramp, and my host mother has said she can hem them for me since they are still a bit long! The sewing kit is great and I am very excited for the crayons and markers! The calenders will also come in very, very handy. All of this stuff on top of my DS and the other box is pretty overwhelming. I feel like I hit the lottery! So, thank you again for everything!!!
The knitting book made me laugh! I love that it was my mum's so many years ago, I am going to hang onto it, but I am nowhere near skilled enough to make anything in it! I guess I will stick to my scarfs!! They will come in handy in the cold, Armenian winter!
Well..off to work. Today the kid's are deciding what kind of animal costumes they want to make for the big carnival coming up in Yerevan. Exciting stuff!
I miss you all and love you lots! Thank you for the birthday wishes!!
and p.s...I recently found out that I am in fact getting the red hat. Thank you for your support!!
After my lesson I went home and helped my host mother and a friend prepare some of the food for my party. I helped to make the 'salad' before I got distracted. Around 2:30, my director called and asked me to come in to work. I walked there (it takes about 2 minutes) and she was in a meeting, so I sat and waited. Another teacher came into the teacher room (where I was waiting) and asked if I wanted to watch her class...of course I said yes! The class was a painting class with about 6 students, all who were very talented. After about 10 minutes another teacher came and told me that my director was ready for me, so I went back downstairs. As I walked into the teacher's room, all of the other teachers were there saying happy birthday, and there was a spread of wine, chocolate, watermelon, and one of the most beautiful cakes I have ever seen. I almost cried! It was gorgeous! They sang Happy Birthday (1/2 Armenian, 1/2 English) and then we all sat down to eat. There were toasts of course..to me, my parents, and my health..and it was a good time all around! They also surprised me with a few gifts. The last time I was at work, my sandal broke, so I wore my director's slippers for a few hours. Well, they gave me a pair of super soft slippers. Also, a beautiful cell phone pouch and a book about Dilijan in English. It was great!
When I got home, my brother was putting the finishing touches on another amazing cake! I helped to set up a little bit more, and when my sister got home she had eyeshadow and mascara for me. Somehow both of those things didn't make the cut to be brought from America, and they were both neccessary! They were amazing, so of course I stopped to get dressed and all made up! When I had finished everyone was there and we sat down to eat. My mother had made my favorite Armenian dish, dolma, and there was also fried eggplant, 'salad', tomato and cucumber, and of course bread and cheese! It was delicious and a good time. They had also prepared some raspberry vodka, which was flowing all night. More toasts were given, and after enough of the vodka, I even gave my first toast in Armenian. It wasn't bad, only one small mistake! It was a great night all around!
Stayed up late for some phone calls, and when I woke up this morning (around 11), my host mother told me that the post office had called, and one of my birthday packages came in! I was super excited. Walked to the office and back, the whole time rushing so I could get home and open it! Made my day when I finally did. I am not going to lie, all of the cards made me cry a little bit and I want to thank all the kids for making them for me! The jeans fit great, thank you Mem and Gramp, and my host mother has said she can hem them for me since they are still a bit long! The sewing kit is great and I am very excited for the crayons and markers! The calenders will also come in very, very handy. All of this stuff on top of my DS and the other box is pretty overwhelming. I feel like I hit the lottery! So, thank you again for everything!!!
The knitting book made me laugh! I love that it was my mum's so many years ago, I am going to hang onto it, but I am nowhere near skilled enough to make anything in it! I guess I will stick to my scarfs!! They will come in handy in the cold, Armenian winter!
Well..off to work. Today the kid's are deciding what kind of animal costumes they want to make for the big carnival coming up in Yerevan. Exciting stuff!
I miss you all and love you lots! Thank you for the birthday wishes!!
and p.s...I recently found out that I am in fact getting the red hat. Thank you for your support!!
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