June 11, 2012

My one brother went to wash the car at the football field, because water from home is apparently really expensive, and he came home with about 20 bug bites all over his back! Eeeks! My other brother came back from working and had a swollen hand from a bee sting! They both acted like it was no big deal and I offered ointment but neither wanted any haha these boys, I swear! He said bee stings are good and that it doesn’t hurt at all, and that in fact they’re actually good for your body cause it helps the blood circulation. Really? I mean, either way, his hand was SWOLLEN, but he could care less haha

I got one bug bite so far and it’s basically by my butt, WHAT THE HECK?! Haha I wear long pants all the time, how in the world does that happen…

June 10, 2012

Thank God It’s Sunday! My only day off of the week! Woke-up late, did my first batch of laundry (which it was super awkward to have to hang-dry my undies >< haha), did homework in the garden, and got ready for my first day out of the village with my family!

Went to a church named Hor Virap that looks over the Turkey-Armenia border today! ANDDDDD sort of/kind of saw NOAH’S ARK LANDING! Although technically it’s now in Turkey (bad Turkey!), Armenian’s still consider it their own and it was so good to see their pride in it. The church was BEAUTIFUL and I got to see a wonderful view of Ararat Mountains.

My mom and sister packed a picnic for our family and we met-up with another Peace Corps volunteer’s family, Marisa’s family. It took us about 40 minutes to go through Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, and go all the way to the Ararat Mountains. My dad loves his loud music haha it was even better when a Selena Gomez song came up and I got to sing along to it and explain that Justin Bieber was her boyfriend (because apparently he’s quite famous here too haha) his name was carved in the walls at my school with a heart next to it HAHA.

As you can see in the pictures, the view was just breath-taking and the Ararat Mountains are super high! 5165 meters high! (Sorry, can’t calculate that for you, but it’s HIGH! You can see the snow at the top).

We went down into this tiny little underground cave(?) Not really sure how to describe it, but anyways, the story about this deep down tomb type of thing is that this man, whom they consider a Saint, was the first man to bring Christianity to Armenia. At the time, he was not allowed to be Christian or say he was, but he did anyway so they put him in this deep hole for 8 years as punishment and only gave him this tiny peephole of sunlight way at the top. The only way he survived was because this woman would drop down water and food down the little peephole for him, and of course, he had God watching over him. After 8 years, the King or someone (?) released him and realized that he survived and that maybe God was real, and then VOILA! Christianity became Armenia’s religion and Armenia was basically THE FIRST country to adopt Christianity AGES ago. COOL, RIGHT?!

Afterwards, we went to this real pretty fish restaurant and had a picnic in one of their outdoor rooms. I had a beer with my dad and had to “cheers” every time I took a sip from it cause the Armenian’s really like their cheers.

Had a perfect Sunday. Came home. Skyped with my parents and friends! Then went to bed happy J

June 9, 2012

Welcome my new baby boy “pbo-pbo”! (‘Kiss’ in Korean). He’s only about 12 days old now and I watched him grow from Day 1. His eyes only started opening about a day or two ago and he is just THE most darling thing keeping me sane from all the studying. He sleeps in my hands and when my brothers try to touch him he hates it ^^ YESSSS. Womanly power.

Took the Marshutini for the first time today! They have this “van” system you can take from town to town for less than 25 cents and people just love to squish all up in them haha in a van for maybe 12 people they fit about 20 HAHA can you imagine?! It felt like Mongolia all over again J Anyways, my friends and I took the Marshutini to a couple towns over and got to buy a bunch of items today. I got to finally buy some toothpaste, shampoo, and art supplies! I planned to make dinner for my family tonight so I bought a cake as well and was super excited to go home and make Curry Rice J

Making curry was no easy task with my lack of cooking skills as well as the lack of good quality cooking materials, I guess you could say. Peeling potatoes and carrots never took me so long and getting a gas stove on was never so frustrating! I even called Ester this morning to make sure I knew how to cook curry correctly haha that was the only reason I made a call to the US … to make sure I knew how to make something as simple as curry haha L

I hate watching people eat anything I make … it’s just a “thing” of mine. I can only enjoy my cooking when it’s just for me ONLY haha anyways, I finished the curry and fed my mom, dad, sister, 2 brothers, 2 cousins, and 2 friends! I really REALLY hope they enjoyed it. Other than my 2 friends no one else ever had curry before and curry is a very “one-way-or-the-other” kind of food. They kept saying “shaut hau-mauv, après” meaning “it’s really good, good job,” but I just got shy and my ears turned red, like usual
-___-  haha. Then we had the cake and my mom & sister asked me why I bought it and I said “inchoo-vouche?” They laughed and were surprised I knew how to say something like “why not?” (I was proud of myself hehe) “Yes siroomem eem euntaneek” ~ “I like my family” <3

Anyways, tomorrow is my one-day of the week off and I can’t wait to wake-up later than 7am, finally do my first batch of laundry, and have a picnic with my family in the mountains later.

June 5, 2012

My brother took us rollerblading today! I had the impression he was going to take us somewhere where they have a roller rink or some sort of flat area, but no, we started driving out and he just stopped on the side of the road where it was sort of better paved and had us skate there! Haha. It was fun nonetheless. I don’t think I’ve rollerbladed since I was like 10 years old. The skates were a bit big, but I can’t complain cause we got to skate next to cows and sheep! Haha when can you ever say you rollerbladed with cows and sheep?!

Afterwards, my friend Trevor happened to see us and invited us to his family’s new restaurant right around the corner. We got there and were offered a beer and ice cream haha great combo. I had a sip of beer and gave the rest to my brother. Then we saw more cows and a lonely donkey pass by. I got to pet the donkey. They all kept telling me to sit on it and I wasn’t sure why, but later I found that sitting on a donkey is good luck and it says you will get married soon or something… haha apparently I should be getting married soon ><

All in all, it was a great ending to a long day of school!

June 1, 2012

I had the previous volunteer who lived in my home stay family come visit today. Her name is Ashley and she’s been in Armenia for about a year now. A couple funny things I realized when she was over was that

1. She really helped me out in a sense that she showed my family a lot of “American ways” and how we like our space, our showers, and that we don’t like a gallon of oil or salt on our food. Also she really helped soften them in the area of letting me help them in the house like putting my own dishes away or helping with dinner and doing my own laundry, etc. Armenia is a very “let me do everything for you cause you’re the guest” culture and they go to extremes to make sure you have it ALL.

2. It was funny to see that she was able to wash-up in like two seconds and jumped right into bed with the same clothes she came here with! Haha no need to change pants or shirt and just comfortably slept in what she had. She laughed and said I would get used to it and would have to sooner or later especially if I want to travel light haha she wore basically the same things the next day except with a flannel shirt on top haha love it.

3. Lastly, I was really encouraged because she said my Armenian was really coming along and that when she first started learning it was such a pain and that she could only speak a few words here and there for the first couple weeks. I guess I’m not as terrible as I think I am in language! It’s just a lot to take in for a short period of time and classes almost every single day is such a drag! BUT the teachers are really great and again, like I said, I can’t believe I can speak as much as I can, read and write a little, etc… it really is amazing.