Well, I have been in Yerevan for five days now, God only knows how much I will have to budget for the next month to make up for the expenses, but man, it has been worth it.
The first couple of days I was here to participate with some other EE PCVs and all of the Health PCVs in a 'Team Teaching Conference". I came with a teacher from the art school, but it was a very interesting experience for me since I have not been team teaching at all. The facilitator's knew this, and did an amazing job including me and I am hoping that some of the practices and benefits of team teaching that she will bring back to the other teachers will encourage them to do some teaching with me later on. I would feel much better having a host country national in the classroom with me, even if it is just in the Art classrooms, and not with Sunchild. I also enjoyed being around a smaller group of PCVs. I got to hang around with some PCVs I didn't really know all that well, and that was a good time. Of course, we did go out dancing...which was one of the hilights!
Yesterday and today were a little rough, I am on my fourth day of 'conferencing' and hate sitting down all day long. All of the A-16s are participating in our Early Service Training...which is some resiliancy and language workshops. Everyone was a little bit spacey on that first day (we were out late the night before) and it didn't help that we all got our flu vaccinations that day. Since I am under the age of 24, I am considered in the 'high risk' group for Swine Flue, and had to get that vaccination along with the seasonal flu shot. Not pleasent. I am not a big fan of needles and the Swine Flu needle was HUGE. It made things hazy for a few hours, but everything is ok now. Today was our language camp. Some of our old language teachers came back and had different workshops running all day. We could pick the ones that we wanted to go to, and it was pretty helpful. Since I have been teaching English, I jumped in on a TEFL workshope and learned some new classroom commands (be quite, finish the sentence, etc) which I know will be incredibly helpful when I get back to site. I also learned some new EE words, and practiced my Armenian small talk.
Tonight a group of went over to our Country Director's house for some Tex Mex. There were some bomb enchiladas..and tacos..and nacho cheese..and brownies. It was great, and it was a fun time just relaxing with some other PCVs while eating such amazing (and missed..) food. Since we are on our own every night for dinner, I have also experienced some amazing Thai food, and after a lot of walking with sketchy directions to a new resturant...some Italian food that was for sure on par with Olive Garden. I am hopeing that these few meals here, and whatever I eat when I am home in 32 DAYS (let's pause for a second to take that in...WOW) will get me through a winter filled with potatoes, and lacking any type of fresh fruit or vegetable. That is going to be tough.
Well...I am going to go and have another bath, had one last night too, but tubs are tough to find in Armenia!
Looking forward to a variety show tommorrow, and Thanksgiving dinner the night after. Then off to site to cook my first ever turkey (wish me luck!). Oh, and FYI, you can't just go and buy a turkey at the store here...we are getting it from a neighbor, my tateak is cleaning it (I made it very clear I was not up for that) and then I will cook it in the oven that has no temperature control. Hopefully it will be good!
Miss you all and love you tons!!
and in case you missed it before 32 DAYS!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment