On to a new adventure

Well, after 4 weeks reeking havoc on the streets of Yerevan, my last 24 hours in this city have come. I'm sure our legacy as the crazy americans will outlive us, as half of Yerevan A) knows us by name, B) can hear us from our house, or C) has seen me fall out of a cab at least once. I will miss the lemenjun and the kebab, the smell of smog in the morning and feeling of bugs biting you at night. I'll miss the fact that in one week we were able to meet half of the city, the drunken nights out on the town, and the true attempt to watch the entirety of the light show at Republic Square. The bus rides to our destinations will forever haunt...i mean...stay with me in my mind, and the various nights at home talking about life by the barbecue on the back patio sitting under the grapevines will not be a scene i can so readily forget. Face it, Yerevan rocked, and mostly because we rocked it. Numerous facebook friends, numerous encounters, husbands, and burnt bridges later, i feel as though it is time for us to move on to our next and final location....Dilijan.



Watch out Dilijan, here we come!

aftershock

oh, my, god.

ok lets rewind a bit.

so everything is slightly blurry, but let me see if i can recap.

so i guess it all started with an attempt to go to the opera, and an epic fail as the show was canceled. because we were all dressed to kill, it was only necessary for us all to stay classy and take tequila shots. we made our way to rock bar and hung out with our new friend/ bar owner, Rudolph (he will factor in again later). thursday was relatively uneventful aside from a trip to the ruins of the ancient city of Erebuni, while friday was not. During the day, we went to the US embassy to meet with a foreign service officer which was very cool. After, we went to the genocide memorial. The genocide memorial was easily the most inspirational trip thus far, and the attrocities that were committed during the Armenian genocide were truly horrific. It was a very sombering event, and afterwards we went to zangou to grab food and hang out with the birds and monkeys tht were randomly there...including the, ahem, excited monkey...so strange. friday night consisted of a pregame trip to rock bar, then on to everyones favorite club ....aftershock. luckily there is only like 20 people in armenia so i spent the entire night dancing onstage and running into people i already knew...like steffan (keep that in mind it will factor in again later). Steffan wanted to practice english so we spent half the night bonding and attempting conversation. we also met a famous armenian singer slash talk show host. when we finally got home, and after about 4 hours had to wake up and go to the ruins at garni and the monastery at gegharv. gegharv is one of the coolest places i have ever been to, because it is carved into the side of a mountain.

now, it should be noted, that i was a wee bit hungover during saturdays festivities (sorry mom). after garni and on our way to gegharv i got the window seat on the bus. now, armenia has alot of stray dogs, and i was watching these dogs as the scenery passed by. at one point, i saw an animal lying down under a tent with a bunch of people, an thinking it was but a dog i looked over at it, however i was alarmed when i saw in twitching hysterically, until i noticed it was not a dog....

it was a lamb with its head cut off.....

needless to say i was a bit scarred by this, but i tried to block the image out of my mind and enjoy the monastery. it was a beautiful place and i finally was able to be distracted from the horrible scene i witnessed earlier. i crawled in and out of the mountains caves, climbed up the hills, and heard there was a waterfall out back. a waterfall! that sounded splendid indeed!

so i exited out the back of the monastery to witness the works of nature, when all of a sudden i noticed an odd smell..... i looked out...

AND THERE WERE PEOPLE SLAUGHTERING ANOTHER LAMB RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!!!!!!

between the witnessing of 2 lamb murders, and the remnince of alcohol still in my system, i promptly broke down and started crying....

and the day was not nearly over

after a recoop nap, it was about time to go out again. so Rupal and i went to our favorite 24 hour store to by alcohol and munchies. there we ran into Susie (a girl who works there) and we told her we would be back at 11 to come pick her up and she could come out with us (keep that in mind, it will factor in again later). We returned home and primped, when low and behold we noticed it was 5 of 11. Rupal and i went back to the store to see Susie, and were saddened because she had left early. as we were walking home defeated, we looked across the street and saw her! So naturally,....we sprinted across the street and legit kidnapped the poor girl. we brought her home and instantly traumatized her with our crazy american ways, unfortunately however she had to go home so we sent her on her way in a cab and proceeded again to aftershock.

now it all comes together

we walk into aftershock and notice that there is barely anyone there....except of course steffan, rudolph, and pretty much everyone else we've met along this journey. the dance floor was dead, so i promptly announced that it was time to start the party, and in 10 minutes the dancefloor was wild. i spent time bonding with rudolph over gin and tonics while the crew cut up the dance floor. then it was time to leave, and i wish i could tell you what happened, but lets just say i woke up the next day smelling like purell. luckily, the real world cast are the awesomest people ever and helped carry my embarrassing ass home last night, and filled me in on the details of the journey home this morning...

im never drinking again.

ever

sorry mom

peace

G

just another day in paradise

low key week- museums, classes, and random dance parties with the locals- work it rupal

New Pet

This is our new house pet Pookie. We found him on the street and I love him.

an action packed weekend...

my oh my where to begin? there has been alot that has happend this past weekend.

Friday, we met with the deputy minister of justice and went out to lunch. I forget the name of the food, but it resembled something like bread and salty grass..not bad tho. Alexis and I proceeded to spend the entire time adventuring around Yerevan, ending up in a hair salon with an armenian model, and getting our hair done (its amazing how well miming actually works!). After we got our makeovers, we met up with the others at a US embassy party at the mariott in republic square...

there we met up with armenian party planners and american marines, who proceeded to cart us all around in their suv's as we hit up some of the best clubs in yerevan. It was salsa night at club 12, and then we made our way to the diasporan favorite- aftershock. I made friends with the DJ, among others, and at around 4:30 in the morning we decided to call it a night.

Saturday rolls around and after a 3 hour nap we all wake up to go to the village and work on our professor, Vahan's vineyard. It was in the middle of nowhere, and we tied up the grapevines, bailed hay, pick cherries, and got to chill with the enthusiastic locals (americans are rare among these parts). the local boys took us all down to a river where they set up a horvatz, or barbecue, for us! they were local musicians and artists, and played traditional armenian music. The food was awesome, and the guys were hilarious...at least i think they were hilarious, i couldnt really understand what they were saying. In fact, I'm pretty sure i accidently got married to Gevorg...

So sunday comes around and it was a holiday called vardevar. This is a pagan holiday that Armenians still celebrate, and its purpose is sort of like a courting ritual. Traditionally, guys would give a rose to a girl they liked, and women would return the favor and give the men water to drink. however, today, everyone just runs around the street throwing water on everyone. We were invited to a celebration at a village resort called latar, and within 5 minutes of being there i was already soaked. we had water wars with the local guys (of course the american girls were a favorite target) and i ended up getting thrown in the pool/ slightly waterboarded frequently. the rest of the day was peppered with random splashes, and at night we went out to some cafes to get drinks and celebrate Mariam's 21st birthday!!!

sooo exhausted.

loves it.

peace

Oh look!

my oh my, another crazy day.

tuesday we all went to the manuscript museum and had a hardcore study sesh for the impending midterm...

wednesday we all packed up and made our way to echmiazin- the home of the Armenian Church. Following that, we all went to Sardanabad- one of the 3 major battles for 1918 Armenian independence. There was a museum of Armenian history at Sardanabad containing artifacts from thousands of years ago, and oddly enough the things were right out in the open and people could touch them- very different from American Museums. we had a hilarious encounter with a side-of-the-road watermelon salesman on the way back and after being out all day we finally got home.

A couple of us got a call from the bookie saying he wanted to meet at the park and hang out. We spent time with the bookie and my new love Nerses when all of a sudden the best thing in the world happend.

As we sat under the gazebo in the park, the bookie yells out and says "look an Armenian Gay!" and there, clear as day across the park i could see the hair gel sparkling in the distance. his name is Noy, and hes totally fabulous, and we quickly became best friends.

time to get ready for a rockin weekend.

-G

Always an adventure....

Saturday night was peppered with leopard print at opera bar, where we, of course, brought the party. Due to the wild night, sunday was naturally our day of rest. Sunday night however we had the romantic idea of going out to republic square to catch the sound and light show atop a roof cafe. Sounds great? well it was, especially after the impromptu thunderstorm that drenched us and our food- of course, being "americatsi" and all, we were too stubborn to leave the patio- chanting "USA" as we finally made our way inside...

Today was particularly educational as we met with former Minister of Foreign Affairs Vartan Oskanian at his think tank "civilitas foundation." We got a chance to pick the brain of him and his director, Salpi, about Armenian Foreign and Domestic policy.

Of course this endeavor was followed by Armenian Ice cream....some of the best in the world!

in other news- shout outs to Michael DeRamo for being my favorite number one, Rose Thornton for her looming 21st birthday, and Emma O'Leary, for keeping the fun alive in MA.

-G!