I have to hurry up and post about the rest of my trip before I get home, otherwise I will be really behind...

So from Laos, after the worst bus ride of the trip, we made it to Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. It is a beautiful city, beautiful people, and really good food! It is way different than southern Thailand because northern Thailand is all hilly and lusher. Southern Thailand, at least the part that I saw, was beach and tropical. Both are beautiful and have so much to offer. I loved Chiang Mai and would go back in a heart beat!

We didnt have a lot of time there because we were chasing the moon to make it to Koh Pah-Ngan for the Full Moon Party. It wasnt something I was particularly interested in going but my travel partners were. So with only a few days in Chiang Mai, we spent one day walking around at night, one day walking around during the day and taking a taxi out to see the temple on a hill for sunset. Then the last day before our evening train ride, I took a cooking class and the others went ziplining. I would have liked to do zip lining but I needed to learn Thai cooking and this was about the last time I would have the chance.

It was delicious and a lot of fun! Learned 6 dishes but got the recipes for about 18. Full day course, including a tour through the market, and a grand total of 20 dollars! Ridiculously cheap for the amount of food we had! It was a lot of fun and I made a few friends. Some of them were at the beginning of their trip and were asking me questions about what I have done and seen. It surprised myself how much I knew and how much I have done! Whew, I have seen a lot in this short time!

After the cooking and zipping, we met at the hostel, packed up and took the train to Bangkok. Once there we figured out how to get a bus to the harbor, spent the night in the harbor, took the morning ferry to the island and took a truck to Haad Rin. We jumped out of there, found a wonderful guesthouse behind a delicious restaurant and dropped our stuff off. It was about 24 hours of traveling for a party... the most I have ever done! But it was fun, a bit ridiculous but pretty fun. I am not sure it was worth the 24 hours and maybe we hyped it up too much, but it was good. I also went to bed too soon and apparently missed a lot but oh well.

The island of Koh Pah-Ngan gets a lot of crap because of the full moon party but it actually is a beautiful island if you go away from Haad Rin. ze German convinced us to go on a death defying day of scootering around the island. I was terrified but after about the first three mountains I went up and down over, it actually was fun. We went around to the waterfalls and a few other beaches on the island. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed myself. I didnt die, didnt crash, and enjoyed the mountains on the way back. I am glad I did it and glad that ze German talked me into it.

From there, we went to Krabi town to get a ferry to Ton Sai, little sister to Hat Rai Lea. Beautiful, beautiful! It is a place for rock climbers so it wasnt completely my scene, but we went kayaking and swimming and got really really tan! Hehe. Its already fading, so dont get too mad at me. We had some delicious food and ate at Mama's Fried Chicken more times than I want to say. But the green curry for breakfast canceled out the chicken burgers we were eating at night. It was such a laid back time and a really nice way to part ways with all of our friends. ze German and Tobye left us to fly out of Bangkok and Parksie and I went south to Malaysia. We took our last ferry/van/train to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 6 in the morning! Taking the train, I realized this was my last one for a while. Whereas Parksie will continually galavanting the world for a while, I will be flying home in 5 days to America land. Wow!

About 161 days we have spent together and it all comes to an end tonight.

I am not so sure how much I will blog after this or until maybe my next adventure. I still have some earlier adventures through Europe and Central America that I want to blog about so we will see...

See you when you see me! :)

So it is ending. About 20 days left on this wonderfuladventure of mine and then it will be on to America to start a newadventure. Getting settled back home,moving in with the parents, adjusting to America, living out of a house insteadof a suitcase, options on menus, driving, everyone understanding what I amsaying, using English all the time… all the small things that I will have toreadjust to while getting a job and starting to make some of that money! Whew.As overwhelming as that seems and will be, I am ready for it. Well, half of me is ready, the other half isreally, REALLY sad that I have to leave this lifestyle. And yes, traveling is a lifestyle. Wearing the same three shirts over and over,smelling, sharing bathrooms with 20 other strangers, learning to try and sleepon buses, planning your next few days, crossing borders, meeting new peopleconstantly, being in situations where you don’t know what is going on but youneed to understand. It is a lifestyle. It is a crazy and wonderful lifestyle that Iwill miss sincerely.

But enough of that, more of what I have planned and what Ihave seen and done. That is what thisblog is all about: updating on my adventures. Last I left you, I finished touring Siam Reap and the Angkor Wattemples, which are still amazing and one of the coolest things I haveseen. We headed from there toBattambang, Cambodia. It is supposed tobe the second largest city in Cambodia and I am not sure how. It was completelydead at night, not to say it wasn’t interesting or worthwhile, just not whatyou expect the second largest city in a country to be like. We arrived fairly early in the day, droppedour stuff off, and walked around the city. We basically saw everything there was to see within the city thatafternoon. The next day we booked a tuktuk to take us around the city to the temples that were about 40 or sokilometers outside. They were reallyinteresting. We went to the KillingCaves, which has a horrible background story from the Khmer Rouge. It is such juxtaposition because the caveitself is beautiful but the history of what happened there is brutal. We also saw a few temples around the areawhich were really pretty and one of them is supposedly what the main temple atAngkor Wat is modeled after. We alsodrove through some rice fields and got to see a little of village life. The kids are so friendly and they alwayssmile and wave at you. It is a lot offun and really shows the happiness and simplicity in children all over theworld. Children are children no matterwhere you are and they all want the same things in life: to play andlaugh.

The next stop on our trip was supposed to be a fishingvillage outside of Phnom Penh and on the way to the border with Laos but ourbus just kind of flew right by our stop and we ended up in Phnom Penh AGAIN!Ah. While the city is great and I reallydo enjoy it, we have been there three times and only have planned to go thereonce! But it turned out for the better because we were able to book bus ticketsto Don Det and the 4000 Islands in southern Laos and also arranged our visasahead of time. We probably should havejust gotten our visas at the border but with so much conflicting informationabout the border crossing and visa on arrival availability, we just got it inadvance. The first night in Phnom Penh,I checked out couchsurfing.org and saw that they had a CS weekly meet up so weheaded to there to meet some fellow travelers and also some people who live inPhnom Penh. It was pretty cool and wemet some interesting people who were doing short volunteer stints in Cambodiathrough various programs and organizations. They had some interesting viewpoints about the city and I think it is wonderful to meet ‘expats’ because youare able to get an outsiders view of the inside.

The next day we walked around Phnom Penh and saw more of thetemples and museums in the area. Southeast Asia is such a small area and there is such a backpackerstrail that people we saw in Battambang, we met randomly again in a museum thatafternoon. This has happened repeatedlyand is always fun because we are able to give and receive pointers and tipsabout the places we are traveling to. It’s a great community (and another reason why I will be sad toleave).

With our last night in Cambodia, we went out and ate dinneralong the river and enjoyed the people watching that came along with it. There really is a strange mix within PhnomPenh of locals, expats, wealthy, poor, ladyboy, and tourists culture that allworks together to create a really good mix and vibe. I did really enjoy the city, even if we onlyplanned to go there once.

The next morning at the ungodly hour of 7, we were up andready for our bus ride. We were told thebus would leave at 7:30 but didn’t actually end up leaving until 9. But it wasn’t too bad of a bus ride and wewere stopping a little on the way to pick up more people. Our first stop in Laos was Don Det which is apart of the 4000 Islands (Si Pan Don) in the very southern part. It is part of the Mekong River and there areall of these little islands throughout. A few of them are inhabited and some are too small to really beconsidered an island. We went in lowseason so there were plenty of rooms available and we found a pretty affordablebungalow close to the main street. Wehad to take a small boat over to the island and arrived pretty late atnight. One of the things we didn’treally take in to consideration was that Laos has an 11:00 curfew for business,including bars and restaurants. Wearrived at 9 and figured we would have time to organize ourselves. But we ended up rushing through and found anIndian restaurant along the river that was pretty decent.

The next day we rented bikes and rode around the island,through the local area of the island and to the bridge that connected toanother island. It was a pretty decentride. We made plans to meet up with oneof ze Germans in central Laos so we weren’t able to stay long on theisland. The next day we were on a bus upto Tha Kheak for two evenings before we met the German at the border. The whole time the plan was to meet at theborder and then go to Kong Lor Cave, which has been described as the creepiestcave you have ever seen. German wascoming from Vietnam and so we met up earlier than planned and headed to Ban NaHin, the small city that you can base your cave adventure out of. We spent the night there and the next morningwoke up to head out to the cave. Well ourtiming was HORRIBLE and we showed up in the middle of a village celebrationthat essentially shut down the cave. Itwas really our only chance to go there and we had booked our tickets and tripfor the next town already! So after all of that planning and traveling, wedidn’t end up seeing the cave. Weexplored the outside of it but never made it in! Ah! So this just means that I will need tocome back to Laos in the future, which I fully intend on doing because it is awonderful country!

So night bus up to the capital, Vientiane, spent a few dayssight-seeing around there, before heading to Vang Vieng, our Christmasdestination! And oh my, what a Christmas it was! Vang Vieng is an interestingarea. It is basically a co-op offamilies that have decided by making money off of tourists and really boostingtheir economy and education system. Pretty damn cool if you ask me. We went to the tubing area for Christmas and mainly just hung around thefirst bar area and had a wonderful time and met lots of super cool people. The area is a great place to meet others andjust hang out and dance a bit. We spentthe next few days relaxing, tubing, people watching, and meeting people. It was also Mr. Lee’s birthday during thattime and we had a good time just tubing and relaxing. Relaxing from what, I don’t know, but it wasfun nonetheless.

From Vang Vieng, we headed up to Luang Prabang where wewould spend New Year. We stayed at SpicyLaos Backpackers which is another hostel we have been recommended throughoutour travels. And I completely understandwhy, it was a great place to meet others. We went to a waterfall on the day of New Years Eve and it was beautiful.I was a little skeptical of it at first but it turned out to be totally worthit. So beautiful and a little bit of ahike up to the top but great view of the area. Laos is a beautiful country andI would love to come back and explore a lot more. It just looks like a placethat is authentic and true to itself. The people are so incredibly friendly and welcoming. Beautiful people, beautiful country.

We have been hearing about how amazing Laos is sinceArmenia. We met a few backpackers thathave done our trip in the opposite direction and all of them talk about theamazingness of Laos and I see why. It’snot so much what you see or what you do but it is about the atmosphere and thepeople firstly and then secondly what you do and see. I don’t know how else to describe it besidesthe fact that it is more of a feeling than an experience. Hopefully that makes a little sense?

Well that is all from Laos. Except the bus ride from Luang Prabang to the border of Thailand was byfar the WORST bus I have ever taken in my entire life. It was about 17 hours ofpure hell and NEVER again will I take that bus route. And yes, I do plan on visiting Laos again. Itwas amazing!

Merry Christmas! I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday! I hope that no matter where you are, who you are with, or what you are doing, that you have an amazing time! Much love! :)

"Same same but different" is a saying that both Thai and Khmer (Cambodian) people say. Not sure why but it is interesting and expresses exactly what it means, this is similar but different. Thailand and Cambodia are not same same though.

We spent our last few days in Koh Chang and had a beautiful time! I love that little island and could see myself going there many, many more times. Lonely Beach is where we stayed and it was just so relaxing with a nice mix of culture. Although I didnt end up diving or taking a cooking class, I still really enjoyed my time there. We met a LOT of people that we have planned to meet up with along the way.

When the day came to say goodbye to Koh Chang and Thailand, we woke up and took a taxi bus to the ferry, the ferry across to the mainland, another taxi to the bus station, and then a mini bus to the border.

*Here it is important to mention that I forgot my Lonely Planet on Ko Samui. Southeast Asia on a Shoestring has been like my Bible on this trip. I have taken notes, highlighted passages, drawn maps, wrote cross references, post-it noted the heck out of it, basically anything you can do to make your trip easier, I had in that book. And I forgot it. But the Germans were there to save the day and they saw it and saved it to return to me at a later date.*

So we are at the border and without the book, we have been relying on other travelers and the internet for advice. We saw online that crossing the border is kind of a hassle and on the Cambodian side, people will try and scam you. So we were semi-prepared for it. But we assumed it just meant for the visa, we didnt realize it was the entire process and everything after that. Through being rushed through, being told that the last bus leaves in 15 minutes, exchanging money at a really bad rate, and a taxi driver driving off with some of our money, we were scammed and scammed a LOT! Very not cool and not a good way to say goodbye to Thailand and hello to Cambodia.

*The reason the book is important to this part of the story is because in the Lonely Planet, there is an ENTIRE section on border crossing scams and just about every one they list in the book happened to us... if I had my book, maybe we would still have all of our money. Grr.... *

We finally arrive at our destination of Phnom Penh at the Mad Monkey hostel after hearing a lot of recommendations for it. It was a really nice hostel, quieter than expected but their neighbors arent too understanding of the 'party' hostel atmosphere. Understandable too because of the neighborhood the hostel is in... very close to embassy houses and extravagantly rich complexes. I cant imagine they want to hear backpackers on a rooftop bar. Anyhow, we arrived at the hostel tired and ready to sleep and forget about our day of scams. We went to a restaurant very close to the hostel and ate some good noodle soup. That was about all we could do and headed up to bed.

The next day we were meeting Parksie's friend, Mr. Lee, at the hostel and so we took a day to kind of get our bearings and look up where we would head to next. During the day we met a few people who were also hanging around the hostel. When Mr. Lee arrived, he met three other guys that were staying at the hostel as well, so we all decided to go to dinner. We met some other randoms in the hostel as we were rounding up all of our new friends and had 11 people in total: 6 Americans, 2 Swedes, 1 Swiss, and 2 Kiwis. Oh and myself and another American were the only girls in this group. Weird ratios. :) This was the most Americans I have seen in a while. While traveling through, we have met more Germans and Aussies than anyone else.

We all went to this street stall where we overwhelmed this woman who was stir frying noodles. But she loved us and told us to sit. Her grand-daughter was translating for her and making sure that everyone was happy and had enough food. It was a simple noodle dish but really, really good! I LOVE the noodle dishes from this area! From there we went to a few bars and had a generally wonderful night! This is what I mean about meeting people in hostels. One of the people that we met that night, we ended up following to the beach. Two others, we keep in contact and might meet up in Laos with. I love this kind of traveling.

The next day, we had a sobering day at the Killing Fields. Cambodia's past is one of turmoil and war and their history is pretty intense. The current state of the country though is interesting in a weird way. They have borrowed money and help from their neighbors and to pay the debts back they have sold a lot of their temples, land, and important historical sites. This website has an interesting debate about what this implies for the sites. It is an adaption from an article but I think it is a good short summary of a memorial vs. profit. The money from visiting Choeung Ek goes to Vietnam and not to the victims of the genocide. That to me, is unacceptable and I didnt realize this before I went there. However, the money from the National Museum goes to Cambodia.

Nevertheless, the memorial was done in a way of respect and memory. The site had an audio guide that was really good and informative. I must admit I did not know a lot about the history of Cambodia but after going there, I have gotten a few books that I have started reading along the way. I dont like being ignorant about the place I am in.

From the fields we headed to the prison that has been turned into a museum of sorts. This was hard to see because it had so many pictures of the prisoners on display and gave some more of the history of the site. This was a really hard day emotionally because it was so recent. I have been to some concentration camps in Germany but this seemed harder because it isnt well known. I would say most Americans do not know a lot about the genocide that happened between 1975 and 1979 where 20 percent of the population was killed. It was so recent and anyone we meet that is over 30 was affected. Walking around the cities and meeting people, you always wonder how they were effected, how they are coping, and how they survived. It is hard.

To kind of move away from that topic and in to what else I have been doing in Cambodia, I will continue with after Phnom Penh. As I mentioned, we met an American girl that was heading south to the beach. We had some more time to burn through before we met up with ze Germans to get my book back. We planned on meeting them in Siem Reap and had a few days. So of course, being us, we headed to the beach! We went to Otres Beach which is this incredibly relaxing, relatively quiet, and undisturbed beach. It was really nice to get some reading done. We spent a few nights there and then decided to head up to Siem Reap to meet up with our Germans. Not only were we meeting ze Germans, but we also met my new best friend who is also a German. Suzie Q! We met her in Koh Chang on the infamous Thanksgiving night and convinced her to come to Cambodia.

Leaving Otres Beach, we were supposed to make it all the way to Siem Reap but that didnt end up happening. Between the night bus being sold out, the bus breaking down, waiting for a new bus for two hours, and a bunch of other stuff, we ended up having to stay in Phnom Penh for a night before taking the earliest bus up to Siem Reap. Even that bus was late and drove really slow while honking at people the entire time. The transportation in this country leaves a LOT to be desired and we have been constantly having to add two hours to our journeys. Frustrating.

FINALLY, we made it to Siem Reap and to the Garden Village Guesthouse where we have 1 dollar dorm beds. They are actually pretty good, albeit noisy at night. The Sunset bar is a great place to come up and relax (actually where I am writing this now). Walking up the stairs to the bar area where we had planned to meet everyone, Suzie comes running down the stairs! It was so good to see her and sad that it was only for a few nights!

That night we were also meeting up with the other Germans. So we were catching up with Suzie while we waited for them to show up. They stupidly bought tickets for 12 that night but I was able to persuade them to stay the night and leave the next morning. It wasnt hard to convince them, I basically just changed their ticket for them. They very nicely brought my book and handed it over. It was beautiful and just as I remembered it. It was like I felt complete again! We went out and had a great night dancing and checking out the night scene in Siem Reap. Ze German's bus was leaving at 7 and they had to be at the station around 6, so we all decided just to stay up to see them off and also go see the sunrise at the main temple of Angkor Wat.

It was beautiful and a wonderful way to welcome ourselves to Siem Reap. After sunrise we went back to the dorms and slept. Then later that night we went to watch the sunset on a different temple and that was beautiful as well. Cambodia has a beautiful country and a beautiful country side. We took a lot of great pictures. Then we had a pretty relaxing night, went to a good dinner and walked around the night market.

The next day we toured some of the farther temples and also met up with two other Americans (one from the beach and her friend that came out to visit). We took a van and spent the day touring the temples. On the way back we went to Angkor Thom and checked out the temple with all of the faces on it. That was a really cool temple and I wish that we had a guide to explain all of the carvings on it.

Angkor Wat and all of the temples are relatively young, if you compare them to other temples. They are about the same age as Notre Dame. Most of the temples were built between the 9th and 11th century. I had it in my head that they were a lot older, like Mayan aged temples, but they are a lot newer. Dont let that diminish how awesome they are though. They were structurally fantastic and their history is pretty great. Changing from Hindu to Buddhist temples and then the unification of the two from the 7th Angkorian king where he wanted an acceptance of both religions. It was really interesting. The day when we went to a majority of the temples, we had a guide with us so we were able to learn a lot more about the temples and its history.

Our guide, Brother Sava, was great and I highly recommend him if you come to Angkor Wat and need a guide for the day. He was great and really friendly. His email address is: sunsava2007@yahoo.com.

Also, in Siem Reap, I took a cooking class that I highly recommend! It is through the Le Tigre de Papier and is amazing! We had Savoeun and she was amazing! If you are in Siem Reap and interested in cooking at all, take this course. You get to go to the market, pick the dishes you want to prepare, have someone explain the recipes while you cook them... all for 12 dollars. That is it, just 12 dollars. By far the cheapest cooking class I have seen. And quite possibly, the best.

Before the day of the cooking class, we had another German send off. Suzie was leaving us to go back to Bangkok. We had to send her off in a fancy way so we kind of did the same stuff, went out and danced the night away until almost the morning. Her bus left a little later so she was able to get a bit of sleep before her 10 hour bus to Bangkok. It was still sad to say goodbye but we have plans to meet up again in Berlin, her hometown. And we all know, I love Germany so I am excited for that. Berlin is a place I havent been yet and have heard a lot of great things about it.

That is about it for Siem Reap. The temples were amazing! The people that we have met along the way have been fantastic and now it is time to say goodbye to Siem Reap and head out. Not too sure where or for how long, but its back on the road again!

I miss Thanksgiving and family. Preparing with my mom for a week in advance, looking through recipes for hours before deciding on some of the same things. Shopping and then cooking for hours and hours. And then spending the whole day with family, playing cards, catching up, watching the parade, all of it. I miss it. I dont know the next time I will be spending Thanksgiving with family. I wish I could be there next year, but with plans to work abroad again, who knows. I want it though.

With that being said, we did have a good Thanksgiving. Parks and I met two Americans that we first encountered in Ko Phi Phi in a very random way. We met them and they had a great idea to eat a whole chicken on the beach and spend the whole day talking about Thanksgiving with anyone who would listen. So we bought some food and drinks and went to the beach and invited anyone who would walk by to come and join in our celebration. By the end of the night, we had an Israeli, a few Germans (new ones), a few English ladies, and a few Thais. It was awesome! Exactly what Thanksgiving is supposed to be, meeting new people and coming together under the idea of being thankful for what you have.

So I will write a few things that I am thankful for...

All of the beautiful people in my life, I am so thankful to have family and friends that are so incredibly loving and supportive. From the friends I dont talk to anymore to the future friends and family members I have yet to meet, you all mean a lot to me and I hope you know how much you all mean to me.

The ability to travel and experience this world, whatever small portion I am able to see along the way.

The ability to make connections, meet people, interact with them, and make new friends.

And while this list isnt by any means complete, I think the most important thing is the people and connections I have in my life.

It might be a day or two late, but Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope you had a wonderful day and that you realize what a special gift life is and celebrate all of the people in your life!

And then there were two. We parted ways in KL with our Danya as she ventured off to see family in Australia. Parks and I continued our trek north to the islands. We took an overnight train to Penang. Well actually it stopped in Butterworth and then we had to take a ferry to Georgetown, Penang. Arriving at 7:30 in the morning, nothing really was open. We picked a hostel, dropped our bags off and set out for breakfast. Found a place after walking around for a bit and saw some pretty interesting things along the way: a temple, a few food stalls, older English buildings, a ladyboy, prostitutes and men leaving them… Just to name a few things! I heard that Penang has prostitution but I didn't expect it to be so in the open. We eventually had our breakfast and then headed back to the hostel to check in and lay down for a bit. We took a short nap and then went out exploring some more. We saw all of the buildings and places of interests within walking distance of Georgetown, which turned out to be about 90 percent of the map. We also checked out a museum where we found out that Armenians had an influence over Penang! So of course we checked out Armenian Street and took our picture in front of it! It was pretty interesting, two brothers opened the Oriental Hotel that was quite famous for a while but eventually it went under. Georgetown was pretty good.

We went to a night food court area and of course had so many options and tried a bunch of things. We really did Penang correctly; we saw all of the sights and then tasted a lot of the local foods. We went back to the hostel, took another nap before heading out to dinner and to check out the night scene of Penang. The next morning we awoke to two Germans and a small Filipino barging into our room. Although later we found out ze Germans and the Filipino were not traveling together as originally thought. The two Germans turned out to be Martin and Joe and were heading in the same direction as we were. After being woken up, we dressed and took a bus to Batu Feringi and spent a day at the beach. We went to a night market there and ate more street/stall food. We got back later than expected to Georgetown and met up with ze Germans.

After that night, we solidified our new friendships with "pops" and began traveling together: the Germaricans. We headed to Langkawi, Malaysia for two nights. Our taxi driver from the ferry to the hostel was awesome and incredibly helpful about pricing, where to go and what to do, although we just ended being beach bums and not doing much of anything. Langkawi is a BEAUTIFUL place with gorgeous, fine, white sand. Some of the best sunsets and most relaxing days we have had. We wanted to go around the island on scooters but decided to just stay at the beach and enjoy the sun. We met some really cool people at the Bungalow Restaurant and Bar… great place to spend a night dancing, smoking sheesha, and having a fun night.

On a Saturday, we took a boat and crossed into Thailand. This is my life right now: taking boats and crossing borders. I feel guilty at the time we are having, everything is so laid back and fun. I know that I am completely fortunate to have this time to travel and explore. Thailand and Malaysia have been so easy to travel around and get to places. It is nothing like India where everything is about bargaining and fighting for a fair price. For the most part, things are listed as prices that everyone pays, although I know there is a tourist price and a local price. But I am okay for paying that difference because a lot of the places we are going, their economy is dependent on tourists and everything is still relatively inexpensive.

Ko Phi Phi is where we started our Thailand adventure and an adventure it was. Ko Phi Phi is not Thailand; it is a beautiful tourist inhabited island with nothing but foreigners. While it has beautiful beaches and even prettier islands surrounding it, it was good for only a few nights. We took a longboat and went to a few other islands; the main attraction was Maya Beach. It was where The Beach with Leonardo DiCrapio was filmed and based out of it. We just sopped there and stayed for an hour or so. We were supposed to go snorkeling but it was really overcast so it wasn't the best weather for it.

After Phi Phi for a few nights, we headed up to Phuket to decide where we would go next. We were still traveling with the crazy Germans at this point and I don't think we were ready to separate from our new best friends. So we spent two nights in Phuket before heading to Koh Samui on the other side of Thailand. Phi Phi and Phuket were on the west coast of southern Thailand and Koh Samui was on the east side. It did not have that pretty of beaches but it was a nice place to hang out. We met a few other travelers in our hostel that gave us all kinds of ideas and advice about where to go and what to do. Possible people to meet up with later… who knows.

That is the greatest thing about traveling and staying at hostels, you get to meet so many people traveling and sharing stories and everything. All of the places we have been recently have been mostly tourists that we are meeting. It is good because I like making connections and new friends. It isnt always the best because sometimes it means we aren't getting the culture of Thailand or its peoples. After island life, it will be better.

Right now I am in Koh Chang and loving it! After Samui, we took a train through Bangkok and then caught a bus to Trat and then a ferry to Koh Chang. It was a long day of traveling but it got us to where we want to be, which is close to Cambodia. We weren't completely done with Thailand and beaches so we are spending a few more days here. But it meant that we had to separate from our beloved Germans. It was a really sad farewell that kind of broke all of our hearts. Eh, such is life.

 

 

 

 

What more could a person ask for? My family has welcomed me with open and loving arms. The friends I have met here, while new in the friendship stage seem to be the kind that will last a while. And the food, oh… my… God. THE FOOD! People have written books, upon books of Malaysian cuisine and I totally see why. It is delicious. I don't think I have had one thing that hasn't tasted Amazing! While all of the other countries I have visited have been great, there has been no comparison to the food in Malaysia.

But I am getting ahead of myself here, first the family business. Arriving late at night, we took a taxi up to my grandmother's house. I was nervous, excited, anxious, all the emotions you feel when you are about to meet family for basically the first time. The last time I saw her, I was seven and scarcely remember the trip. Although I have been able to pick up more memories as we have continued this trip. I am remembering smells and areas.

Re-meeting my grandmother was great and I will be coming back to Malaysia in January to spend even more time with her. I really have an interest to learn more about my family and just learn the stories and history. It is very interesting. I am taking notes along the way and although I am not sure what I will do with them, I have a feeling I need to write down our history. I am not a history buff and never have really been that interested in it, I am developing this need to know where my family came from. Both sides too, not just my fathers. It is just I am here in Malaysia with my father's family and not a lot of people talk about the history.

We spent a few days in Seremban with grandma and then on Deepavali, we went over to an Auntie's house. Even though she isn't blood related, she might as well be. Our families have grown up together and the older generation is quite connected.

One of the stories I have heard and this is where the connection comes in, is my great-grandfather mysteriously disappeared during the war. My grandmother was about 13 at the time when one day her father went to work and just didn't come back. There were 8 kids in the family. Basically Auntie's family helped out a lot during that time and the two families have been connected ever since.

So for Deepavali, we went over to her house for the afternoon and had our first course of food. Really good too! All kinds of curries and different dishes, so many sweets too! It was good. From there was the real test of family… we went to my Auntie Sheila's house for another party/celebration. Side note on my Auntie Sheila: She is amazing! She is basically a walking angel. My parents have always talked so highly of her and I totally understand why. She has made this visit for me and is so incredibly helpful. You know on television shows or in movies where there is that flawless character that helps in some way? That is her. She is beautiful, inside and out!

She arranged to have a Deepavali celebration so that I could meet even MORE family! I have so many cousins, second cousins, third cousins, and cousins eight times removed, but in Malaysia it doesn't matter. Family means family. If there is a drop in your blood that has a 100th of the similarity as the drop in my blood, even if it came from some ancient grandparent, it counts. It was great! I met a few cousins that are around my age and we all have a weird memory of the night we met in Malaysia way back in the day. The last time I was here, we had a get together, much like the one on Deepavali, where the parents met up and had the kids meet up and play with each other. We all have some odd memory of that time. Mine is that someone cried, I am not sure who. We spent the night and the girls watched Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th, whichever Freddie Krueger is and it scared the crap out of me. Although I tried not to show it, I stayed up and was freaked out by the whole thing. Although looking back, I think that is where my love of horror movies began because you get so caught up in it and you are scared but if you think about it, it is just a movie and a story line.

I met so many people that night; I can barely keep any of the names straight though. I mean, even quizzed today, I wouldn't do so well. My family is big. There are lots and lots of them. But all wonderful and all so incredibly welcoming! It has really convinced me that I need to come back to Malaysia and spend more time with everyone. I am planning on getting a job in July of 2012 and coming back here to work, live, and connect with family.

With meeting family, of course you meet family friends. They have all been wonderful as well! There is such an expat community here in KL that is so interesting. I don't know anywhere else in the world that has this big of an expat community. But it is also so integrated into Malaysia that you never know if you are talking to a Malaysian or an expat. KL has really interesting dynamics and where I have only seen one side of KL, it seems pretty great.

To continue back to food:

My mom will talk about Malaysian food and every once in a while, her, my father, my aunt and my uncle will get in these long discussions about Malaysian food and I have always found them funny. Who can talk about food for that long? Well, I have learned in Peace Corps that you can. Example 1: Two friends and myself staying up until 4 in the morning having hour long conversations about burgers. Example 2: Drooling over wedding pictures of food that someone's friend posted on facebook. Not the wedding or the people, but the food. Example 3: Watching and re-watching Top Chef seasons. I could continue on with so many more examples, but I will leave it at that. And then to come here, the capital of food, I don't know how my parents don't talk about Malaysian food more!

Much like the Malaysian community, the food here has integrated quite well while still maintaining its distinctions. For example, in America, it is a fusion culture. When you are eating Italian food, you are eating American-Italian; same for Mexican, German, Chinese, and lots of others. You can go to the authentic restaurants and eat authentic food but those are few and far between. And even they have a lot more fusion flavors. And it is hard not to, the ingredients are different, the palate of your customer is different. However here, while everyone eats all different foods, the Indian food is authentic Indian food, the Malay food is authentic, and the Chinese food is authentic. Each culture has brought its own flavors and its own cooking style and kept it traditional. Then the best part about it, they have food courts where you can get all of it sent to your table in one spot!

My Uncle Hardev is great! He also likes to go out and has a few places where he is a regular and I know why. We went to a food court and just walked around and everyone ordered a few dishes. Then we all came back and shared, it was delicious! That is also the night I got my satay! I, sadly, haven't had a lot of satay while being here but it is mainly because we have been eating so much other amazing food!

One of my favorite experiences so far has been sitting at the table at my great-aunt's house with my grandma, my Aunt Sheila, my Uncle Hardev and my great-aunt. They got into a discussion about curry. While that may seem trite, let me explain. I love to cook as most of you already know. I have a section dedicated to recipes, so obviously I like to cook. I asked them about possibly teaching me how to cook. I have made curry and I think mine taste pretty good but the curry they make outshines my curry like no one's business. It is mainly the fact that they have been cooking and eating curry since they were born but there is a small part that also has to do with the ingredients they have. They are way fresher!

Anyhow, back to the discussion. They began by having a 20 minute discussion on when to put in the curry powder. Some say mix with water and put in before the chicken, some say put in after the chicken; some say sprinkle on the onions and then add the chicken straight away. The one thing they all agreed upon is to never, under any circumstance, put the curry powder in the oil. This makes sense because you don't usually put any powdered spice in the oil, but it was funny that they agreed upon that point so quickly. Then they began talking about the spices they add and how you can never really know how much of anything because all spices are different. Some cloves are stronger than other cloves and it is all about the smell and fragrance of the cooking.

The smell of the food here has been wonderful too, except for the durian. Durian is a type of fruit that smells really bad. I am not a big fan of it mainly because of the aftertaste that just never leaves but the smell gets to me as well. We had durian ice cream on Deepavali and I swear I was tasting and smelling it a day later!

That is it for now on Malaysia. I have done and seen more than this blog shares but this is what was important to me. I am having a wonderful time with family and can't wait to spend more time with them! Now the three of us are heading up to Penang and then on to Thailand, maybe. We don't really have a concrete plan but it is working itself out as we go along.

JAIPUR! Sung as though I am singing Jai Ho! :)

I really liked Jaipur! It was a larger city but not so big that I felt like I would get too lost in it. It was not smoggy and did not have that in your face difference between wealthy and poor like Mumbai. I may have liked it so much because of how I felt about Mumbai, but I had a great time in Jaipur. It also helped that our guest house that we stayed at was AWESOME! We stayed at the Krishna Palace Guest House and if you are every going to Jaipur, you MUST stay there! The room is perfect, A/C, internets, hot and cold water, and a wonderful and delicious restaurant. The hotel staff has been some of the most helpful and kind staff we have interacted with.

We saw quite a few things while in Jaipur- Jantar Mantar (my favorite), City Palace, and Amber Fort. We just missed the Jaigher Fort but it was okay because we were spending a lot of money on entrance fees anyhow. They were very cool and different from what we had been seeing.

Jantar Mantar is one of my favorite places so far because of its astronomical significance. I saw a minute. There were two sundials, one that is the world's largest but you could not get too close to and a smaller one where you could get really close to it and see the minute pass based on the sun shadow pass. Pretty amazing if I say so myself. Our guide was pretty interesting and kept making us stand awkwardly close to him before he would tell us about the instrument. He would also say general facts, such as this is a sundial or this is the king of all the instruments without telling us exactly why it was so important... not quite worth the money for a guide but we did learn some things.

City Palace and Amber Fort were interesting but there wasnt a lot of sinage to inform us of what we were looking at. We kept taking the cheap tours, i.e. following other English speaking tours and awkwardly standing close to them while we pick up small facts. This isnt the most effective way and a lot of times we end up making up comments based on a few words that we picked up but it does make some of the sites more interesting. At least more fantastical stories come out that way.

So this portion of the blog is being written on Air Asia X.Not quite sure what the X is for but it’s on there. All I know is they nickeland dime you for everything in the hopes that it will make the ticket cheaperbut it seems that once everything is all said and done, it is just an averageprice just like other airlines and other tickets. Let’s just say it is not Jet Airways.

However, I am sure it will do the job and really all we needto do is get to Malaysia! On that note, so plans have changed. Originally I wasn’t planning on being inMalaysia until after January 4th but as a group we decided to pushup our tickets and head to Malaysia first. This change is not a reflection of India or my feelings towards it. Although I did not speak too highly of Mumbaior Anjuna, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time. There is way too much to see in the short amount of time we have beenhere. It also is a little overwhelmingof a country to travel in. It seems thatalthough it is fairly easy to travel within and between places, with planes,trains, buses, and all kinds of automobiles, everything is a constantrush. You have to buy your train ticketsa few days in advance and then wait in a line where people are skipping youbecause people don’t wait in lines. Ifyou want to pay twice as much as the ticket is worth you can have someone elsereserve it for you but then they are trying to get you for the most money thatthey can. Once your ticket is bought, you have to negotiate to get to the trainstation and then be hassled while you are there. This doesn’t just happen to tourists but itis definitely elevated. It can be exhaustingand overwhelming if you are not in the mindset to deal with it.

Again, it is all part of the experience and for the mostpart I LOVED it and it can be exhilarating and exhausting! I love buying thetickets and figuring out the train schedule. I love bargaining for a tuk tuk and getting what is a good touristprice. I love finding a driver whosemeter isn’t mysteriously broken. I likethe thrill of the crowds even though at times I can get a littleclaustrophobic.

Speaking of train debacles, on our way to Agra what shouldhave been a pleasant and easy 4 hour train journey turned in to a two hourjourney going the wrong way from Jaipur, getting a unreserved ticket andkeeping up a family as they so nicely shared their bunks on a two hour train journeyback to Jaipur, then trying to figure out a train schedule that would work toget to Agra, not finding one and then figuring out a bus schedule. Once we bought our bus tickets, we had a 10minute wait before we took a nice A/C bus that was either freezing or hot andwhere we were knocked out of our seats at least three times while being gropedby a drunk guy. Arriving at 6:00 in themorning would have been a good thing because we could have gone straight to theTaj Mahal but we decided it probably would cloud the experience seeing as howwe were tired and annoyed. What shouldhave been a 4 hour train ride turned in a 4 hour corrective train ride and a 6hour annoying bus ride.

But on the train with the nice family was an older gentlemanthat asked for my autograph. I am notsure why but I wrote out my name for him and upon seeing the Singh part wasreally excited. He kept telling me thatI have Indian and Sikh in my family. I explained that my father is and helaughed and asked why I didn’t mention something sooner. I wasn’t aware that I was supposed tointroduce myself as Indian descent, but now I know. A lot of my fun stories from India havestemmed from sharing that I have Indian background. I have gotten a free tuk tuk ride, the actual“Indian” price of items (although I still have doubts on that one), to amarriage proposal.

The marriage proposal came from a tuk tuk driver in Agra aswe were leaving the fort and heading back to the hotel. I was a little flustered with the thoughts ofnegotiating for a fair price and just walked up to this driver, demanded a 40rupee price for the ride in a very take-it or leave-it fashion. Startled by my boldness and with competitionhonking at us all around him he immediately accepted and ushered us in the tuktuk. He was extremely friendly in a veryrespectful way and kept saying how that price is better than even Indians ormeters would have given. Who knows the truth but it was fun to hear. He tells us all sorts of things and tells ushow Indians don’t really care about the Taj Mahal and it is onlyforeigners. His English wasn’t theclearest but it worked and was pretty funny. He had us laughing on the 20 minute ride home. He asked if I was Indian and almost had topull over in astonishment. Because hewas so good, we booked him to take us to the train station the next day for ourfinal train trip- Agra to Delhi.

The next day, he showed up a little late but immediatelythrew all our bags in the back and ushered us in. We paid 60 rupees which was better than anyof the hawking tuk tuks that were disbelieving that we already booked aguy. On the way to the train station, heproposed to me. The day before he askedhow old I was and guessed that I was 37! I asked him how old he was and Iguessed around 87 (joking of course) but he turned out to be 28. He was shocked I wasn’t married already soinsisted that I marry him. He promisedto take care of me. Oh, he also has awife and two sons, 11 and 8, and has been married since he was 16, his wife14. But in India: no problem… ;) So we left Agra, seeing the Taj Mahal was amazing. It was everything it was supposed to be and Idefinitely want to return and see it again. It was beautiful and awe inspiring. That is really all I can say about it. We kind of hibernated in Delhi and stayed in our hotelroom. None of us wanted to spend moremoney shopping or going out so we stayed in and soaked up the internet. I have begun my applications for that threeletter word that scares me (j-o-b) and thinking about the future. While I love contemplating where I might bein 7 to 8 months, it is a little scary. The world is so big and so small with so much to offer. My teaching career can take me literally allover the world so it all depends on where I want to end up and which schoolaccepts me. Huh.

India has been great. I will travel here again, taking mytime through the states and spending more time in areas. Thank you for all of those who have beenreading my blog and I hope you have enjoyed my stories. Now we head to Malaysia to visit with family Ihaven’t seen in 15 plus years…Happy Diwali! Happy Deepavali!

Anjuna is in Northern Goa and has A LOT of tourists, both locals and, from what we could tell, hippies that just never left. Back in the day it was where the party was at and was really the beginning of all that is Goa... but now... let's just say it wasn't my cup of tea. Between the people coming up to us on the beach and street with all kinds of offers, from jewelery to sarongs to hash, it was quite overwhelming!

Apparently the thing to do in Anjuna is go to a rave. So we found out about one and showed up. 1. We showed up around 9pm (it started at 5), so either we were early or we missed the whole thing. 2. There were two groups of people there: Indians on vacation drinking Bacardi Breezers and sitting around the 'dance' floor or the Hippies I told you about dancing like they were worshiping extraterrestrials. 3. No. Never is that ok. 4. Outside of this 'rave' was a stairway to the beach where there were about 15 food stalls set up, ALL of them only serving omelets.

In all honesty, that is the impression that will stick with me about Anjuna. It might not be fair, it definitely isnt an accurate representation of that area but it is my experience.

From there we headed up to Mumbai/Bombay. We couldnt book a train ticket so we booked a sleeper bus. Seriously, a bus with beds in it took us from Anjuna to Mumbai. It was 8 or so hours and it originally looked REALLY comfortable. They had curtains drawn to cover between your bed and the aisle. It was like sitting/laying in a pillow and blanket fort that we all made when we were kids. It was so cool! But then you lie down to sleep and as the bus is winding around the hills and over the mountains, you kind of feel like you are going to fall off at any moment. You cant really sleep because you have to keep bracing yourself. Not the easiest way to travel but if I was sitting up the whole time and not sleeping, it would have been good.

Mumbai. Known for its Bollywood films, its industry, the glitz and glamor, the large Taj Mahal Hotel, the terrorist attack a few years back, Slumdog Millionaire, there are a lot of things that people associate with Mumbai. This isnt the most accurate representation of it though. Things I have come to know Mumbai for... its incredible amount of smog, the huge disparity between the wealthy and the poor, the weird tourist traps, the delicious Laxmi Vilas restaurant, the helpful hotel people, and the worst recommended trip- Elephanta Island.

The smog. I have realized I have never been in a city that has a smog problem. I have driven through, I have seen it, I have experienced a little bit of it but I have never stayed in a city that feels as though it is hard to breathe solely because of the amount of pollution in the air. When you are riding in to the city or taking the train out, you can see and feel the difference in the air. Wow. And some people still dont think our actions have any consequence on the environment...

The huge disparity. You have the Taj Mahal Hotel and Tower, this giant beautiful hotel that apparently is even better on the inside and then not even a block behind it you have people (lots of children included) sleeping in the streets. You have wealthy tourists and businessmen (not just Westerners but people from all over the world) coming to stay in Mumbai and experience the glitz and glamor of the city and there are people that are starving and dying in the streets.

One thing I have realized while traveling through India is that India is a lot more honest about its poverty. They dont try and hide them from the general public, they dont have laws saying you cant sleep on the streets or beg in front of restaurants like they do in America. I am still not sure how I feel about this. On one hand I think it is honesty and isnt that the best policy. It makes it real and in your face and doesnt try to hide the fact that there are millions of people living way below the poverty line. But on the other hand, it also means that there arent enough social programs to help this and that people and kids are sleeping on the streets and are subject to all sorts of degradation, humiliation and unsafe ways of living. To be a child, on the streets, begging/stealing/selling for small change just to survive, that isnt the way kids should grow up. These kids have experiences no one should ever have. It breaks my heart to see them on the street but at the same time I cant really do anything about it, such a helpless feeling.

The last thing I will gripe about Mumbai: Elephanta Island. I am going to be brutally honest right now, but it was a waste of time and money for me. While there were interesting caves and carvings, I wouldnt really recommend it to anyone. The hour long boat ride through thick smog was disgusting and then once there, the island was so dirty from pollution. The caves were interesting and would have probably been more interesting if we hired a guide but we were there too late to get the free guide that came with the ticket (late by like 10 minutes). We were hassled the whole time and just was not an enjoyable experience.

It sounds like Mumbai is the worst city and I dont wholely disagree with that. It has been the worst city I have traveled to in my limited experience. Maybe I did it wrong, maybe I didnt see it for its history and charm, maybe I didnt spend enough time there or go to the right places at the right time, there are a lot of factors that influence the experience but for me, I can say I have seen Mumbai and now I do not have to come back.

As I am writing this, I am sitting in Delhi on the night before I fly out. There are a lot of wonderful experiences between this post and today so I will try and write those now. Everything is good and even though Mumbai and Anjuna werent the best places we have seen, I wouldnt change it. I am glad I went there and experienced those places. That is what traveling is about: experiencing all places, the good and bad.

Goa! It does not disappoint, lives up to your expectations, and is every bitwhat you see and hear about it. It doesnt exaggerate and it does not exceedexpectations, just simply lives up to the tropical-esque paradise it claims tobe.

Our first stop was in Palolem. We are in Anjuna right now and forfirst impressions, I think we did Goa backwards. I say this becausePalolem was completely laid back and a genuine paradise. Beautiful,BEAUTIFUL sand beaches, palm trees, bamboo huts, rocky edges, everything youwant a beach to be and then some. Although it had to grow on me for a minute.

We arrived around 530 in the morning after a long and weird trainride. Weird because the seat assignments did not make sense to usreally. People would get on with the same seat numbers on their ticketsand did not seem to have a problem with it... odd. But I guess because itwas during the day, no one really minded? Who knows. Anyhow, wearrived in Palolem early in the morning and met some pretty oddcharacters. There was only one place that was open and we hadnt booked aroom yet so we had a little bit of time to kill. While sitting there wesaw what a bar/party area looks like in the wee hours of the morning where youstill have some of the leftover partiers from the night before... not a goodsight.

The first impression I had about Palolem was not a pleasant one but once wesettled in to our guesthouse, took a short nap, and got back to the beach, myimpression changed. There were lots of different people from all overthere. They werent all coupled up so we actually were able to meet andchat with some others. It was kind of refreshing to be able to meet new andexciting people.

The beach was amazing, perfect water and the first time we have really beenable to swim without fear of a rip tide or a strong current. I feel alittle guilty on posting just how much I havent been doing, I keep feeling asthough I should be volunteering or working or something while I amtraveling. Something should be nagging me... homework, research, workprojects, grants... something but honestly I think this is good for me.

Our last night in Palolem was great! We met so many people and had such agood time that I was really sad to have to say goodbye. But thats the wayit is when you travel, meet people for a short time and hope those quick bondslast for a while.

It's looking like each part will be an area or place we stay but who knows how I will continue about India.

Varkala, oh, Varkala. You are beautiful, you will be missed, and I definitely recommend it to people wanting to get away to somewhere quiet. We are going up the Arabian coast towards the end of its off-season so that may explain the quietness of Varkala but whatever the explanation; it is laid-back and quiet in this area. We arrived early, jumped in a taxi, and arrived at our bamboo hut. It had the usual, two twin beds with an extra bed thrown in for the third person, a nice bathroom, mosquito netting, small porch outside, and a fan. Simple and exactly what we wanted.

Varkala is a smaller town that has a cliff-side sea side. It has small patches of beach down from the cliffs and, while we were there, perfect beach weather. It was nice in the morning, warmer in the afternoon, and warm with the whisper of coolness at night. We ate more western style food while we were there but did sample quite a bit of their seafood. Freshly caught fish and delicious prawns picked and prepared with local spices, all for the price of 4-6 dollars, including chips and a salad. The last night we had a brain fart and decided to go with pizza instead of the seafood but it was good enough. I also splurged a little and had a BLT, oh America, I miss you sometimes!

I am not sure what it is though, but it seems every place we have visited has been a couple's paradise. Every place in Sri Lanka, the foreigners were all paired up. This would be fine if they were social couples but for the most part everyone kept to themselves. A part of traveling is meeting other travelers but we have not had that much luck on that front. Oh well, hopefully Goa will be better in the foreign relations part.

While in Varkala, I did make a friend though. Aisha. She sold clothes, jewelry, blankets, sheets, basically everything a tourist would like to buy. And buy I did. She introduced herself one night as we were walking by and I started a conversation with her. She made me promise to come back the next day to 'just look' at her stuff. Of course I went back the next day and walked out with two new shirts and a desire for a LOT more. She is a wonderful saleswoman. She was incredibly nice and helpful though and was honest with us. If you visit Varkala, look her up, and tell her I say hi.

This led to somewhat of a 'shopping spree' and later bought anklets and a bad henna experience. I kept seeing people with henna on their hands and really wanted it as well. But being gullible and not the most confrontational person, I was suckered in to a henna situation that fortunately, mostly washed off that evening. Oh well, you live and learn. I do need to stand up for myself a little more when it comes to hustlers. I think that people are good and genuine, and I still think that is true in most situations, but I should probably be more careful.

We also went on a canoe trip outside of Varkala on the backwaters of Kerala, mainly around a small village where people either worked in the cashew factory or digging up sand. Our canoe guide was incredibly nice and kept repeating my name when he would ask a question or make a statement. It was SO peaceful and quiet. I don't think I could live in that village because every once in a while I like to blast my music while dancing/cooking/cleaning/homework… and if you were to play anything louder than a whisper all of your neighbors would hear! It was amazing how quiet it was!

We kept seeing children walking around in their school uniforms in the middle of the day. We asked about it and he said there was a strike going on. Apparently it was a students' strike with something involving bus fares. We never got the full story but he said that if the teachers strike there would be a big problem but since it is just the students, there is not a problem. Interesting, I have never heard of primary or secondary (elementary, middle, or high school) striking. It would be interesting to see in a students' strike in America.

This morning was our exit from Varkala and now we are on a 20 hour train ride up to Goa. We don't really have a plan for Goa and tried calling around to find a place but to no avail. Apparently with it still being in monsoon season for this region, most places (especially the bamboo huts on the beach) won't be built up until the end of October. So, we are about a month early but it should be good.

I must put this part in there; otherwise Parks would more than likely never stop bugging me about it. So if you are going to fly anywhere around India or Sri Lanka, you should take Jet Airways. They are incredibly courteous, AWESOME in-flight entertainment and free beer. Their food was delicious and still included in the price. Wow. We were able to watch some back episodes of The Big Bang Theory, a television show I have fallen in love while in the Peace Corps. It is amazing how I watched way more television shows in the Peace Corps than ever before. Big Bang, How I Met Your Mother, House (although I did watch this occasionally before with my old roommates… seems like a lifetime ago), Grey's Anatomy, Community, Glee… But even when I do eventually get back to America, I don't know if I will watch television. We will see.

Back to India. So Jet Airways was amazing and made our entrance into India very enjoyable even though the visa people and passport control was atrocious. How is it that three people with the exact information on their customs form each have different experiences? Mine was, to say the least, a frustrating experience I wouldn't want for anyone.

Almost in tears after finally getting in to India, we meet our taxi driver who my Aunty Gindu has arranged to meet us at the airport and then take her to her house, about 4 hours away. Oh, and we arrived around 11 at night… Around 3:30 in the morning the three of us arrived at the gates of the house to lots and lots of barking dogs and a sleepy aunty. We said our hellos and then quickly said our goodnights. We slept in the next day for quite some time, more than planned on.

The next few days were wonderful! It was great to see my Aunt and begin my journey to meet family, the whole point of the traveling. She was kind, welcoming, embracing, and we had wonderful conversations about everything under the sun. She has quite a few view points on life and a few of them struck me. One of the things she said was, "I am too old to tell stories anymore." She was referring to telling made up stories about her life or made up answers to questions that might be incriminating. It was fun to hear stories about family and makes me feel a little more connected to this side.

We also met some amazing characters while staying at Aunty Gindu's in Thiruvannamalai. The day after we settled in, we decided to climb the mountain to go see the ashram and the caves where a guru lived for first 16 years and then moved to a cave higher up and lived there for 7 years. We met Aunty's friend Veejay who walks up the mountain every morning and waters the plants on the way. He has been doing this for the last few years and does it because he wants to. He doesn't really give a reason more than that. He is a funny, quick-witted man that told us a lot of jokes and one-liners. He said that meditation was for greedy people because 6-8 hours of sleep a night should be good enough. He also said that he doesn't pray because if God doesn't already know what he needs than he doesn't want to pray to Him anymore.

After coming down, we have a delicious breakfast made up of idlis, dosai, coconut sambhar, tomato sambhar and potato curry. Idli-s are these delicious steamed, soft, spongey type cakes. I don't know how to describe it other than that. We then go for our coffee or tea at the tea shop where people gather to read the paper, meet up, or just to grab a quick cup. Every tea shop is about the same but people definitely have their favorites. We go to Veejay's chosen spot and run into a friend of Veejay's and Gindu's. His name is Dev and he later posted on his blog about us… pretty cool. He is extremely interesting and quick-witted as well. He is a photographer and a proud doer of nothing (his words, not mine). Although he does not have pictures available to show us, he snaps a few of us and Danya takes a few with his camera.

The whole day was such a cool interaction because everyone knew everyone and the ashram had this whole outside community of locals and ex-pats. I know that most ex-pats form their own community but this, from what I saw, was intertwined with locals and foreigners alike. I liked it. While staying at Gindu's, I met a lot of interesting people and I had a wonderful time. Gindu is also a wonderful cook and although she did not trust me to make the chipatis, I picked up a few tips and tricks from her. We ate very well while in her care. I might even become a vegetarian, there was such a variety in her diet. It was delicious and so healthy.

Other things we did while there: went to the temple where I was booped on the head by an elephant. We took a day trip to Pondicherry/Puducherry/Pondi. It was a good day although we went on a Sunday and therefore a lot of the shops were closed. We also went to a really, really weird place that is an international community outside of Pondi. Auroville. It was weird. In the middle of its community is a structure that apparently houses a crystal, the third or fourth largest or something. But it looks like a golf ball/Epcot ball. Visitors can't go closer than an assigned viewing area. Very bizarre. During our lunch, we also saw a foreign woman who was crazy and being really horrible to a miniature dog that she had chained up and kept dragging around. No one really seemed to know what was going on with her either… very strange.

After spending four wonderful days at Gindu's we decided, on advice from another ex-pat we met there, we bought tickets to Varkala in Kerala. We took a 14 hour train ride from outside of Thrivandrumahal and on to Varkala. We arrived around 9:30 in the morning and jumped in a taxi to our new 'home' for the next 4/5 days. It was sad to say goodbye to Aunty but it was wonderful to see her and to spend time with her. I have a few new thoughts on life and a few new ideas to ponder over these next few months. It was a great time!

Until next time…

It has been wonderful and I will definitely be back here. Hopefully the next time I will be able to bird or take more cooking classes, snorkel or dive, but it has been a blast and I have enjoyed just about every minute of it! Sri Lankans are wonderfully nice and smile all of the time!

We should all smile more, it is good for the soul. In this TED Talks, it talks about smiling and how good it is for you. I wonder if they have done studies on Sri Lankans and how much the smile... it would be interesting!

Now we are on to India and I am excited/anxious/nervous/apprehensive... just about all of the emotions you could feel about a place. I am excited because it will be a wonderful place and I have heard how people simply fall in love with India. I am nervous, anxious, apprehensive and many other emotions because I am meeting up with family I have not seen in many years. The last time I saw most of my family, I was 8 or 9. Now I am 27 and visiting them as an adult. Things have changed. Its nerve wracking to meet people that you know and have met before but it has been so long. Well, its nerve wracking to me, whether it should be or not. I am excited though to see family, learn about my history, learn stories about my father that I have not heard, and a lot more!

I have also heard a lot about India and the crowds! I am not a big fan of crowds and having to push through crowds to get through places. Even in Sri Lanka, I have a bit difficulty with the crowds but I have heard India is way more crowded... so we shall see.

As we say a final farewell to Sri Lanka, I want to make note that this country was not originally on my list of places to visit and I am sad to have said that. It should be on everyone's list... it has it all! Beautiful scenery, picture-perfect beaches, wonderful and welcoming people, a rich culture, a hard past that still is being overcome and worked through, delicious food and lots to do!

Places we have stayed:

Dehiwala, outside of Colombo- Hornbill Holiday Homes

Kandy, couchsurfing- Benjamin Arumugam

Galle, south Sri Lanka- Mrs Wijenayake's Guest House

Mirissa, small beach town in the south- Amarasinghe Guest House

Outside of Tissa- Mihisara Lake View Guesthouse

All of these are places I would definitely recommend. They are perfect for budget traveling and offer everything you need!

Now... on to INDIA!!!

There is something so calming about riding on a train. Ilove it. There is the rush of stress tobuy the tickets, get the seats (especially because here most of them are notassigned), get your luggage up and out of the way (because we have a LOT), andsettle in to the journey. Once thattrain moves, all of your stress is gone and all you can do is daydream, lookout the window, maybe strike up a conversation with your neighbor, and enjoythe ride. Trains relax me more than any other style of transportation. Maybe it is because I have had a lot of greatmemories on trains but there is something about the slow motion of the trainsand the scenic way of traveling that relaxes me. Every time I have ridden a train, I have beengoing somewhere good that I want to go. Even in Armenia, it was either toGyumri, to Yerevan, or back to my house and each time it was good. We took the train to and from Kandy and down to the south. Theentire time I am on a train, I am daydreaming. I don’t even think about things,I just let my mind wander and see where it takes me. A lot of the times itdreams about the future and the possibility of things. Who knows where I willbe in five years, this is the first time in my life I have not had a plan but Ithink that is ok. I don’t like that I don’t have a life goal I am workingtowards, but by the end of this trip I will. Ok, no more deep thoughts; more of the now.The beaches here are beautiful. A lot of people told us togo east because the weather would be nicer but we didn’t listen. But it hasworked out. We have had rain but we have also had sunshine and blue skies. Thewater has been a little rough but it has been good enough to swim and catchwaves. We are staying at a place that is3 dollars a night and has some of the best food! Tomorrow I will be taking acooking class and will be learning a few of the curry dishes as well as a dishcalled devil chicken. I had it the first night we were here and it is Spicy!But it has that sweet spice that is so good and the chicken is cooked toperfection! Hopefully I can learn it well enough to cook back in America butagain we will see if I can get all the spices in America.For the past two days we have woken up to monkeys and birds,ate delicious breakfasts, walked to the beach, laid around until we weresufficiently burnt. Then we would walkhome, usually in a light rain, shower and nap or read, then have a deliciousdinner while laughing about something silly before retiring to bed early. It has been incredibly relaxing and if anyonedoes read this, don’t hate me too much, but it is wonderful. I promise I willcook you some delicious food to make up for the fact that this is my life rightnow.

After a ridiculous day in Dubai and being awake for 2 plusdays, we flew into Sri Lanka exhausted and just wanting to be lying down withour legs straight. But once we landedand got off of the plane, we knew we were no longer in Middle Eastern/Mediterranean countries. We were inSouth Asia! Between the colors, sights and smells, there was a mixed emotion ofhome and overwhelmness (I know it isn’t a word but it’s the only one that canworks). I can’t really describe it. Ifelt like this trip had really started for me. I had visited Turkey before, even though some places were new, and I hada sense of the country. I did not have asense of Sri Lanka before coming here, although it did feel familiar tome. It reminded me a little of Malaysiawith the smells mainly. A lot of their food has similar influences and spicesand a lot of the fruit is the same. After taking a free bus to the bus station, then another businto Colombo, to get yet another bus to the neighborhood we were staying in,and then walking around for a few minutes to get our bearings and head theguesthouse, we finally made it. Check intook a total of three minutes before we were in our air-conditioned and fan,beautiful room. We took turns takingshowers and sleeping. We had grandioseplans to go sleep on the beach but that did NOT happen, we passed out in thosebeds for a few hours. When we woke up wethought we should do something so we walked to the beach. We definitely took a path different than whatour guesthouse guy told us because we were walking through a train station andpeople’s backyards to get to the beach. But once we were there, the water waswarm and the view was pretty. From therewe headed towards our first meal. All ofus are pretty adventurous so we picked the place with the most locals and adisplay of the food. Our first adventure with Sri Lankan cuisine was a hugesuccess! For the low, low price of 3 dollars a person, we feasted on 3different types of curry, rice, chicken pieces, roti- egg and plain, vegetables,and a few other smaller dishes. Wedidn’t know that if they put it on the table and you don’t eat it, they don’tcharge you. So even though our meal waspretty cheap, if we stuck with the rice and curry dish, it would have been evencheaper! It is good to eat local! We even bought breakfast that consisted ofroti and a mixture of the curry gravies. It was amazing both times!!!The funny part about our first experience with curry is theentire hand-washing/eating process. Having a father that ate curry and rice with his hands, I had picked upthe technique. Eating with my hands isno problem, granted I might not have it completely down, but I am okay. However, the process leading up to the eatingis not something I am familiar with. Iknew they would offer you something to wash your hands but was not surewhat. On the table is a bigger bowl thathas water in it that looks like it was already used. But before we sat down at the table, therewere already cups of water on the table. And once we were seated, the waiter brought three more cups and apitcher. We thought they were drinkingwater. Then he brought us three bowlsthat were stacked and the top dish had hot water and spoons in it. We figured we would wash our hands in the hotwater and then dump it into the big bowl. What we now know is the cups of water are what we use originally to washour hands over the big bowl. And the hot water in the serving bowls is just toshow they washed them. No matter howstupid we looked, it definitely was a wonderful eating experience!The next two days, we had to deal with our Indian visastuff. It is a pain to get a visa tothat country! And we still don’t have it in our hands yet! Oh man, oh man! We ate at another local place but this hadtake-away only. It was pretty good andspicy.Once we finished with our visa stuff, we headed inland toKandy. We arranged to couchsurf in Kandyand that was a wonderful arrangement! It was not just one host but it was witha family. Our hosts were wonderful andwe were about the 220 plus guests! Their first surfer was on December 26, 2009and for the past two years they have hosted 220 people. They have had a person there at least once aweek. They keep a journal of the guestsand each one has to write in it. Thereare four kids, all older than us and doing well for themselves. The mother, father, and the sister that livesat home were the main hosts. They tookcare of us and helped arrange for us to go to the touristy places. One of those arrangements included setting us up with atuk-tuk driver. The whole time we werein Colombo, we were taking buses everywhere we went because they areridiculously cheap. However, in Kandy thebus system isn’t quite as easy so for most of our transportation needs, we walkedor took our tuk-tuk. He was great! He laughed at us a few times and there was abit of a language barrier but he got us around in a very fast manner. He seemedto know everyone and always was smiling at us. Every time we would ask him something, he would shake his head and sayok-ok-ok. We never figured out if thatmeant yes or no… but our cross culture skills worked and we saw and dideverything we planned on and more!The best part of the couchsurfing experience for me was thatthe mother taught me a few Sri Lankan dishes! I now know how to make hoppers-egg and plain, coconut sambal, chicken curry, an eggplant curry that is to diefor, banana flower curry, and dahl- although I wasn’t able to write down therecipe. Now all I need is to learn how tocook rice without over or under cooking it and I would be good to go! Ha ha! Itwas a wonderful experience being able to watch her in her kitchen. The first night I learned the curry and dahl. The second night she wanted me to cooksomething for her while she taught me a few more dishes. I decided I would cook a lemon chicken dishthat my mom taught me. It is reallydelicious but because we weren’t using an oven, I had to tweak the recipe touse it on the stovetop. I was verynervous about the way it would turn out because she kept asking me if I wantedto put other spices in there. She keptoffering curry, curry leaves, red pepper, and a few others. I felt bad having to say no because I am sureshe knows better than I do but I stuck to the recipe pretty well. She said she really liked my dish and wouldmake it again for her family!!! Probably one of the highest compliments I havegotten about cooking. We went and saw elephants the next day but I will save thatfor my next blog! Such a great time and a wonderful couchsurfing experience!

We saw ELEPHANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!There is an orphanage that is very famous called PinwallaElephant Orphanage. It originallystarted out as an orphanage but has since expanded to a tourist hotspot andLonely Planet doesn’t give them the highest compliment. But we went anyways because it was a must seeand I really wanted to see elephants. We arrived a little later than expected due to unforeseenevents but we were there in time to walk the elephants down to the river. To get there, they must cross a street, godown a block through tourist shops that have sprung up from the amount offoreigners there, and down to the river. It was really cool to watch them, especially the babies. Once at the river, they go in and startbathing themselves. Because it was notthat hot and it was going to rain soon, they did not splash as much. The trainers and keepers were going aroundsplashing them with buckets and rinsing them off. The cutest part was the kid elephants! They kept rollingover each other and Parksie and I were pretty sure they were going to drown oneanother. One would be underwater beingrolled on by a second one when a third would come running in and jump on theother two. At one point, we thought theywere trying to make a pyramid but it didn’t work out so well for them. Needless to say, it was adorable to watch.As you can guess there were a lot of foreigners (ourselvesincluded) that came to watch them. Therewere also school groups and local tourists that came to watch them aswell. At one point, we are standing onrocks by the river and there is a group of school children sitting on somerocks watching the elephants. I couldn’thear what they were saying, but in my made up scenario they were doing the samething Parksie and I were doing- giving the elephants voices and laughing attheir movements. They were wrapped up inwatching the elephants that much was for sure because there was this foreignerwhite woman that kept standing in front of them trying to take their picture.It was one of the more annoying things I have seen foreigners do. They were obviously there on a field trip andshe had nothing to do with them. Shejust wanted a picture of a local school child… Side note: I have taken pictures of school children fromforeign countries. HOWEVER, and this isa big however, they either have been students I have interacted with orstudents I have taught in some form. It was so frustrating to watch this and to see how obnoxiousthis woman was being. The children were nice enough about it but then she wouldtake their picture, show them the picture, and say (while miming) that is you!What the hell?!?! Who does that?After we made fun of her for a while, we walked back to ourtuk-tuk driver and headed on to other temples. It was a fun day, minus the annoying foreigner.While I am on the subject- I am jumping ahead in my blog alittle bit but it fits the title. While we are on a beach in the south, we arelaying near a fancier hotel/resort. There are a lot of foreigner couples lying on the chairs. We were hoping to steal some wifi, but thatdidn’t work out but we ended up lying near them. One of the days we were there,we saw a guy cleaning around the chairs and the general area. All of a sudden, one of the foreigners takesout his camera and takes a picture of the guy cleaning. Maybe there is a back story to this, maybe itwasn’t the guy he was taking a picture of and it was a butterfly or something,or who knows. I sincerely hope he wasn’t taking a picture of a member of thehotel staff cleaning. Can you imagine the slide show later? Here is the beach wewere at… here is the hotel… here is our room, notice the mosquito netting… hereis the food we ate… here is the tuk-tuk that took us places… oh and here is theguy that cleans the beach… I mean, seriously?!?It was such a sneak attack picture of a guy not doinganything special. He wasn’t cleaning it a special way, he wasn’t doing anythingthat doesn’t happen at a resort in America, Australia, or wherever he was from.I don’t understand why he would have jumped up to take that picture, it doesn’tmake sense to me.I have taken pictures of locals working at their jobs, likeat a market or fishing or driving their tuk-tuk but I have either asked forpermission or it was more of the fruit stand or the car that I was taking apicture of. I also feel that intentionsare everything. If you are trying to take a picture that will capture a memoryfor you, then taking a picture of a fruit stand or of a guy fishing is moreunderstandable. It is also something that is specific to the country you arein, it may show daily living, or it may show a commonality between yourcountries… either way, it is more respectful. Again, this is my opinion and something (as you can tell) I feelstrongly about. Don’t go to a country and take pictures of the locals if youaren’t interacting in some way with them. Don’t be that guy.To end this blog on a better note and to return to theelephant topic, it was a lot of fun to watch them. On the way back to the tuk-tuk and throughthe tourist shops, we saw a shop that was called Elephant Dung. Intrigued, I continued reading the sign.Basically it is a shop that takes elephant dung, cleanes and starilizes it,presses it, and makes paper. Becauseelephants mostly eat grass and straw, it is just like making recycled paper. So guess who bought elephant dung paper?Hehe. And if you picked up some of thedung and brought it in, you would save a dollar. So guess who saved a dollar on the paper? Notthis girl, we are not there yet with our finances!

Istanbul! Oh, Istanbul. I love you! Your charm, your hustle, your sights, your people, your tourists, everything. I love how crowded it is and everyone is saying Yes, please, come in. Yes, please, taxi. Yes, please, carpets. I love it! I am not sure why and I am not sure if it was just the mood I was in but I love it.

In Istanbul, we stayed with Parksie but since it was his baj-illionth time in Istanbul he opted out of the touristy sites. Even though I went to them all last year, I couldnt let Dee go in alone. So we went to Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque, and the Aya Sofia. All beautiful, all amazing.

Good memory-

We decided to go to Topkapi Palace and knowing our timing, instead of getting there at 9 or 10 when we wanted to, we rolled up around 100. Really good timing... not hot at all! The line to get the ticket was ridiculously long and no one really knew why it was taking so long. Some people were having to show ID and some werent. It wasnt a tourist vs. local thing either and we never really got the answer. Anyhow, while we are waiting in the sun, Dee and I start losing our mind. I am pretty sure we were dehydrated beyond the point of making sense. A woman behind us was patiently waiting and not really talking with us or anything. Half way through the line and about ten minutes out of the shade, her husband came and swapped out of line with her. We didnt really pay attention because Dee and I were both doing that as well. She would stand in the shade for two minutes and then I would. One time when Danya was coming out of the sun and I was going in to the shade, the husband put his foot in front and said, no, no, out. Then he cracked a smile. From there until we bought our tickets, we laughed the entire time. Laughing so much our sides hurt and we were crying. The three of us kept making jokes about what they were doing and the other people who were getting annoyed in the line. People around us were laughing as well. It was a great memory and makes the statement, misery loves company that truer in a great way. I love that memory and still laugh at it.

I am so proud of myself though, I didnt buy one scarf while in Istanbul. I did, however, buy a Turkish towel because I needed a towel, so why not. Plus I love them!

That was basically Istanbul. It was every bit as wonderful as it was last year! We flew from Istanbul to Sri Lanka with a day layover in Dubai... not really my style. While we were in Istanbul, I met a guy that works at an International School there. We talked about working overseas and if he enjoyed his job. He taught for a few years in the Carolinas and said he never would go back to teaching in America. He sort of solidified my desire to work at an International School. He talked about working in the UAE and said he made pretty good money there. Not that I am in it for the money, but it would be nice to pay down school loans. However, after being in Dubai for a day, I know I will not be working there. Not my cup of tea, mainly because everything seemed so fake. Yuck.

Now on to Sri Lanka...

First off, Ephesus is amazing! As is Selcuk. We arrived in Selcuk after leaving our beautiful Fethiye, very sad, but on to the next place. Last year in Turkey I did not make it to Ephesus which was a shame because that means that neither did my mom or aunt. And boy did we miss out! It was wonderful!

Danya and I have really good timing skills, we MEANT to go at 12 without water... hehe. *sarcasm* We are still in some other time zone that makes us two hours behind anything we plan on doing. Every guide book and website will say to arrive early in the morning so that you can beat the heat and the crowds. While our intentions were good, our timing is not. We arrived at noon and walked around in the middle of the heat. It was hot and sweaty with very little shade or breeze but it was worth it!Ephesus is an ancient city that for many years was the second largest city in the Roman empire. (Thanks wikipedia!) It was huge and ancient and breathtaking! Every where you would turn would be something more astounding then the next. The Library of Celsus is beautiful!

While we stayed in Selcuk, we couchsurfed there. It was a good experience and a great way to see Selcuk. We stayed with a guy who ran a carpet shop and we got to hang out there and watch them talk to foreigners and help them buy carpets. It was fun just drinking tea and people watching. We also walked around a little bit and saw a little bit of Selcuk.

The neatest part of couchsurfing was the other 'surfer' that was staying there. She is a Canadian that is trying to find work and eventually move to Turkey. I totally understand why too, while you are in Turkey, you fall in love with it. The saying is if you drink the apple tea, you will end your days in Turkey. Well the apple tea is amazing and Turkey isnt a bad place to live. It has wonderful people, an interesting culture and feel of where the west meets the east. It was a good time talking to her because you cant always have the conversations that we were having with people who arent into traveling. We were sharing stories and she was asking us all about our PC service. We also might be meeting her camel while we are in India! :)

The morning we were heading out from Selcuk, we stopped by St. John's Church. It was really nice because we had the whole place to ourselves so of course we took photo shoots! There werent a lot of signs so we made up stories for the different rooms and areas, it was fun!

We headed up to Bergama after a slightly expensive breakfast and once in Bergama crashed from the heat. Our really nice hostel had air conditioning and internet so we kind of zoned out for a while. That night we walked around and went to the store but didnt really do or see anything. The next day we made it a beach day and just about all of the transportation errors that could go wrong, did. We got on the wrong bus going the wrong way only to get off at the wrong place. People could not give us directions and we got so turned around... frustrating and annoying. We finally got on the right bus where a guy helped us get directions and made it to where we needed to be. It wasnt the relaxing day we had planned it to be but it worked out.

The next day we walked around the city more and saw the Red Basilica and took even more photo shoots. This time playing with the color options... fun times.

After Bergama, we went up to Istanbul and took an overnight bus to get there. Uncomfortable and long but we made it!

We arrived on the 20th with all of our stuff and officially out of the Caucasus region. It was a fairly smooth transition for us. It wasnt so smooth for the French guys that thought they lost each other at the airport only to be reunited on the bus to the plane, but that is neither here nor there. We were picked up at the airport by our hostel and driven to our place of residence for the next four, exhausting, luxurious days. Yildirim Guesthouse is where its at in terms of hostels in Fethiye, it was pretty great. Very close to everything we wanted to do, people were very friendly and helpful, and the breakfast did not disappoint.

The first day we arrived, we gorged ourselves on doner kebabs and later fish sandwiches. Cheap and delicious, street food is the heart of any country and Turkey does it pretty well. For about 4 dollars, you can get a chicken sandwich about as big as your head with all of the fixings and pickled peppers to boot. Later on, Ms. Dee and I found some for about 2 dollars that was even better than the first. And the woman that made it was super nice and friendly. Always smiling.

One thing I love about Turkey is the vendors. They are flirtatious and funny and play off of each other in hilarious ways. I think that at some point in my life I want to be a street vendor so I can harass strangers as they walk by. You may pick up sarcasm but let me assure you I am being completely serious. I already have a few lines to use on people. Although, I hate to say this and I dont mean to sound sexist but I am not sure a female could be as effective in the vendor department as these guys are. I also would need a team member that I could play off of... so many options for my future.

I am writing this blog as I drive along the coast. Well, I am not driving, the bus driver is driving, and it is beautiful! The green, brown and rocky hills with the dramatic blue sea coast is wonderful! Im not on the correct side of the bus to take pictures so I cant quite share with you the scenery, but trust me when I say it is beautiful.

Back to Fethiye. We had one day of relaxation and a beach day before we began our training. Our SCUBA training!!! On a Sunday stroll along the boardwalk, we met up with our boat crew- Maria, Can, and Michael from Dolphin Diving. They gave us a quick tour of the boat and our course and then gave us homework. A video and the manual, which we all watched and read without a single hesitation. I promise (now you can pick up the sarcasm). Monday our training started. Ms. Dee, Vin and myself were all going to start our certification course. None of us had been diving but we all snorkeled before. The first dive was pretty amazing! I had been having sooo many dreams about diving that I dont think it actually hit me that I was diving. It almost seemed natural to me, not saying I was the best at it, just saying it was exactly what I expected it to be.

I love diving already and after three days of studying and hard work, I am officially certified and once I fill out the paperwork and send it in, I get a card to prove it. Dont worry though, although we were on the boat from 9 am until 5-6 pm, it wasnt all hard work. In case you were concerned I was over-doing it with the stress and homework, there was plenty of time for swimming and laying out. Along with a delicious lunch, cooked by Maria, this was more of a cruise with a few minutes of instruction thrown in.

Between the sun and the diving/swimming, we were exhausted every night. We would take a stroll along the boardwalk and people watch and then tuck in for an early night. Every night when my head hit the pillow (around 11), it was lights out and no waking me up until the morning. I slept hard and I think it is finally catching up to me to relax. It has taken a while to realize that I am not working, I am just enjoying this adventure. Although within every adventure is a certain amount of stress and traveling is not a walk in the park. It can be exhausting but I enjoy this kind of exhaustion. I enjoy this kind of "work." I really should be a planner of some sort.

Well those are my random thoughts of Fethiye. I really enjoyed the town, the people and the experiences there! I had a wonderful time diving and even though it was a few dollars I didnt quite need to spend, I am glad I did. This is a lifetime certification and I know there will be many more dives after this!

Next up is Selcuk and Ephesus and after that who knows, possibly Istanbul. Hope you are all well!

Tbilisi was a lot of fun! This was my fourth time going there and each time has been with completely different people and we have done completely different things. The first time was for a very short time and a few of my ladies and I went to a Turkish bath and drank good coffee while sitting in an old street car. The second time was for a night with my mom and aunt but I was sick so we went out and had delicious khajapuri and khingali but slept for most of it. The third time was with one of my ladies and we pampered ourselves and relaxed. This time I was with my girl and the two guys I traveled to Karabagh with. And it was wonderful!

We saw the fort, walked around a lot more, saw a lot more, and had experiences I wont ever forget. We tried to do couchsurfing and that didnt work out as well as planned. Our host was otherwise occupied and didnt quite inform us ahead of time. So we found a hostel that let us sleep on the floor for the first night. The second night we were able to move to a bed and on the third night we flew out. It was another quick trip but I accomplished everything on my to-do list. I saw the fort, took a bunch of photos, and ate plenty of delicious khachapuri! :) The Ajarian khachapuri is my favorite and I had a few really delicious ones (although that kind is better in Batumi).

Now on to Turkey!

From Yerevan and back was a total of about 15 hours of taxi, hitchhiking, and marshutni rides, but was completely worth it. It wasnt incredibly different from Armenia but it was different. There was a different feel to the area. It seemed less chaotic which is a weird feeling considering its recent history. I will not go in to its history or the current conflict because that is not the point of this blog. You can read a basic overview here. This blog is just to update my friends and family and those that happen upon it about my whereabouts and experiences along the way.

Before going to Karabagh, I headed down on Saturday to Goris to spend time with a friend before I left. The two guys I was traveling with and myself spent the night with our PCV friend that is a part of our group but has courageously decided to continue for a little longer. It was a very nice night of interesting conversation and good food. Thanks to him for his wonderful and gracious hospitality, even though he had his father visiting and very little notice!

The next morning, we packed up our few things and headed out to go to Stepanakert. We hitch-hiked there and it was my first experience with that and I loved it! Hopefully I will be able to do it again. It is just nice to experience people's trust and openness. It took us about 3 cars before we got to Stepanakert but each person we met was interesting and interested in us!

Stepanakert was a good town to walk around in and check out different areas. It was really hot and humid there so we were kinda slow doing things. We walked to the Tatik and Papik statue that is on a lot of the brochures or Armenia information. It was interesting to visit Karabagh because I have heard so much about it these last two years and it is such an important part of their foreign policy.

The next day we visited Shushi and saw more of the effects of the war. There were many bombed buildings throughout the city and while walking on the back roads, we saw a lot of the destruction. It was also interesting to see a few mosques and the old fort around the city. Also on a few buildings we would see Farsi writing. Farsi is a beautiful script and one I would love to learn.

While walking through the streets of Shushi, we met a few diaspora that were building a hotel there. I have very mixed feelings about diaspora. There have been a few that I have met that have realistic ideas of what Armenia needs and how to implement those needs efficiently and then there are some that throw money at the problem without actually fixing anything. I think this is a problem with international development in general and not just with diaspora, so please do not confuse my message. Building schools to say you built X amount of schools does not change anything for the children if you are not simultaneously teaching the instructors better classroom techniques. Its like giving resources to people without training them on how to use them. It might look good on paper and to donors but it doesnt actually change anything. Granted, there are lots of places that just need schools built, but Armenia has some infrastructure. True, it could be updated, but I think the focus should be on educator training. Again, this is just one opinion.

To move on from my soap box about international development... We only had two days in Karabagh and on the third we took the earliest marshutni they had back to Yerevan. That night we saw the newest volunteer group swear in and it was weird and satisfying to see a new group join the ranks of volunteer status. They were just like us two years ago, eager to get to work and nervous to leave their comfort nest. I felt like a weirdo being the only 17 that was not extending. It was like the high school graduate that still goes to the high school parties, creepy and incredibly out of place. Thank goodness I had friends in the 18 group!

This was my real last night in Armenia and I did it up right! I visited all of the people that I wanted to visit. I said my goodbyes to the remaining friends in country. The next morning, I packed and repacked my life and donated about half of my stuff to lighten my bag, repacked again, and jumped in a taxi with D and headed out for the train. We made it with 5 minutes to spare and said our final hajos to Hayastan.

It was a mixed feeling train ride and we were able to speak Armenian to an older couple who were pretty impressed about what we have tried to accomplish here. Writing this blog (now a week after the fact), I still dont feel as though I am done with Armenia. I guess that is how all Peace Corps volunteers feel. You can finish your service and say your goodbyes but it never really leaves you. A piece of my heart will always be in Armenia and I am okay with that.

WoW! I have felt loved by my friends and family before, but this was overwhelming. My birthday was the exact definition of bittersweet (pleasant but including or marked by elements of suffering or regret). I had a wonderful khorovats with my students and director as my going-away/ birthday celebration! I would say it was so much better than simply pleasant and there wasnt suffering in the sense of what most people think of suffering, but there was definite heart break.

My last day:

I frantically cleaned my apartment and tried to finish that so that I could enjoy the afternoon. The 11th I was leaving my village around 930 am so I needed to finish everything up before I went out to say my goodbyes and have the party. I hadnt really planned details of the khorovats, just the idea of what we would do.

For those who dont know--- khorovats is the Armenian word for barbeque. It is usually chicken or pork meat but my director was insistent on fish. Usually I dont eat fish, especially in a land-locked country, but they assured me it was going to be delicious, so I went with it.

Back to the story- The day before (the 9th) my director told me about a church opening that was happening in my village. This is a typical experience of PC Armenia, you find things out last minute about projects that you didnt even know were going to happen. It worked out perfectly within my schedule. I walked around before the opening to say goodbye to people, met up with my students, and then went to the church. A lot of people were out to watch the church be blessed. The head hancho from Echmiadzin came to do the blessing of the church. It was a beautiful ceremony although it was incredibly hot! Oh my!

From there, my director and I ran around the village buying the materials for the khorovats- vegetables, bread, fish and dishware. It was a fun experience. Doing that also allowed me to say goodbye to other people I hadnt been able to say goodbye to. Buying the fish was a fun experience because I have always seen those guys but never really talked to them before. They were hilarious and kept trying to hide my eyes from when they would kill the fish... Mind you too, the fish is sold at the gas station/car wash. Great combination!

Once we were materialistically prepared for the khorovats, it was on to setting the table, preparing the food (which took quite some time ~4 hours), dancing, and all around good times. My director, his son and a fellow PCV went to start the fire to cook the fish on while my students and I danced around.

My girls gave me a surprise and all pitched in to buy a cake. On the cake it said "Rani, we love you." and I about cried when I saw it. (Actually tearing up now thinking about it.) The night went on similar to that, laughing and getting sad and then laughing again. My director gave some of the nicest toasts I have heard and made me feel indescribable. My students were amazing, as usual. They slowly trickled out because it was getting late. The last was my director, my PCV friend, and two of my students. It was a beautiful night!

That was my goodbye portion of the day. The other portion of the day was all the love from all over the world. I received so many sweet messages through facebook, email, and phone calls. It made me feel so loved beyond words. I have been so fortunate to be able to have this experience and then to have all of the support on top of that is really breathtaking. There isnt much more to say then (than?- my English is awesome right now.) THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

The next morning was really hard. I finished packing up my apartment, doing dishes and other random cleaning/rearranging. I ordered a taxi to take ALL of my stuff and myself in to Yerevan for the last time as a Peace Corps volunteer. A few of my students came over and helped me with all of my stuff and then to see me off.

I didnt cry and I dont know if I will be able to. I definitely have gotten teary eyed but have not been able to cry. It is a dream that I am still in. It feels like I blinked and the whole thing has passed through. There have been incredible highs and lows and there were some things I would have done differently and definitely things I wouldnt change for the world but it doesnt feel real.

Thursday, the 11th, was another fabulous/frantic day. Once I left my village I was nodding off in the taxi and I had like a flash visual of being in India. It made me panic a bit because I am going on this trip of a lifetime and it, too, doesnt feel real yet. I am closing one chapter so quickly to open another without really breathing time between the two. I am super, super excited, dont mistake that, its just a LOT to take in right now.

Thursday, though, was a bit of a hurricane. I was in the office signing my life away, AGAIN! There is about as much, if not more, paperwork to get OUT of Peace Corps than there is to get IN! I had to get signatures from multiple people, drop this paper off there while this paper had to go here... But I finished it, got the certificate, and was an official (on paper anyway) Returned Peace Corps Volunteer! (It isnt official until Friday, the 12th, at midnight.) After that, I helped organize a staff get together/ send off or as a staff member called it, a swearing-out. :) Then we had a going away/birthday dinner at a Georgian restaurant that I also helped organize. They were wonderfully accommodating and had really good wine! I know- me and wine, who am I? After that it was a night on the town, at my new favorite place- Eden! Fun times were had by all and it was so nice to see everyone get together.

I have realized how much I like organizing events. I think my favorite part is to take a step back and just see everyone interacting and laughing. It was another heart warming experience!

So as you can see, Wednesday and Thursday were super, super busy and it was like I was on for a week. Then Friday came. I was like a sad, pathetic lost puppy. It was the first time I didnt have a to-do list for Yerevan, I didnt have anything to plan, I didnt have any work on the back of my mind. Most people would find this feeling relaxing or take it in but I am not most people. I was walking around Yerevan a little lost. This place that I have called home for two years will no longer be my home. This work that I have been doing is no longer my own. My to-do lists were all checked off and I am a little freaked out.

Although- there is a place that I can call home in Yerevan. The Envoy Hostel has become my home and the staff have become wonderful friends that I can add to the list of "To Be Missed." This list just continues to grow and while it is good because it means I have made friends and connections, my heart hurts a little every time I say goodbye.

Well that is it for now. Mom, I hope you are happy with the detail of my last few days. Hehe! I took about 200 pictures and will be posting soon (hopefully) on facebook. One thing I can add to my nonexistent to-do list!

Again- thank you all for the birthday wishes! Bittersweet! Much love to all!

The first group of volunteers have completed their service and have headed out on their journeys. It was a sad day for me to say goodbye to friends that have become my family in this country but at the same time it is incredible to look back on the last two years and see how much we have gone through and grown. To look at how we have integrated, how we speak the language, we wouldn't be able to recognize ourselves from the scared trainees that landed more than 2 years ago. Nor, I think, could we even imagine these day, the final days.

On one hand there is this sense of accomplishment and reward and on the other hand, there is a very sad feeling of the goodbyes and the closing of the two years. I have written about this topic before and dont want to beat it to death.

The sense of accomplishment is something I want to focus on in this blog post. Learning the language, community integration, successful and unsuccessful projects and learning from them, group projects, initiatives, and many other aspects of our service contribute to the sense of accomplishment volunteers usually feel. However, one aspect of the sense of accomplishment is a personal success. The amount of personal growth we go through during our PC service is surprising and different for every volunteer. Some people say they dont change, while others change so drastically that they are unrecognizable. Most people fall in the middle of this spectrum and everyone changes whether they want to or not. You can not go through an intense (as it feels at times) two year experience and not have been impacted.

The other night, I went on a TED talks bender. TED talks is according to wikipedia, 'a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate 'ideas worth spreading.'' Basically on their website, they have a list of different videos about all different topics. I was introduced to this website from a professor back in my college days and every once in a while I will watch about 2 hours worth of different videos. They range in all kinds of topics and the other night I went on the topic of happiness. I came across a few videos.

This video from TED talks really spoke to me and about my service: Brene Brown: The Power of Vulnerability.

The idea of opening up and allowing experiences is pretty impacting. Also when she spoke about courage being from the original Latin word, is to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart.

There were a few ideas that came from this video that I want to post about. The first is the fact that all human interaction comes down to connection. Making connections with people is vital to our survival and ultimately the way towards happiness. Making connections to ourselves (to continue with the quote 'I am enough'), making connections to others, and making connections to our surroundings. I connected this portion of the talk with another video: Thandie Newton's talk about making connections and losing your sense of 'self' to become a part of the whole. (I told you I went on a bender.)

I think an important part of PC and traveling to extend it is to make connections. The more connections you make, the smaller the world becomes. The more connections you make to people, the more commonalities you find between people. I think this is vital as our world becomes more globally focused. If people realized the humanity found within everyone maybe there would be less war? The less 'otherness' people had means people could not as easily justify wars. Just a thought.

This also goes into what Ms. Brown talked about in her talk. She talked about people making connections and the fear of disconnect. In order for connection, according to her and which I agree with, is the ability to be vulnerable. To be vulnerable we have to be seen, really seen.

She makes other points along the way that I find really interesting. They are:

1. Her study came down to those who felt worthy of love and connections and those who felt they weren't good enough.

2. The people who had a strong sense of love and belonging felt they were worth of love and belonging. It was that simple.

3. She also found that those people had a strong sense of courage. As I mentioned before, courage is the ability to tell your story with your whole heart. They had the courage to be imperfect.

4. They had compassion to be kind to themselves first and then to others.

5. "And the last was they had connection, and -- this was the hard part -- as a result of authenticity, they were willing to let go of who they thought they should be in order to be who they were, which you have to absolutely do that for connection."

This all leads to the fact that they were vulnerable and felt vulnerability was necessary for connections.

She continues the talk with the way we, as a society, have become afraid of vulnerability and have thus have become to numb our vulnerability. She gives examples and could not be more on point. The danger in numbing vulnerability and fear means that we numb all emotions. We cannot selectively numb. We cant say we dont want to feel pain but we will feel joy. We either dont feel either or we feel them all.

She ends the talk with this:

"But there's another way, and I leave you with this. This is what I have found: to let ourselves be seen, deeply seen, vulnerably seen; to love with our whole hearts, even though there's no guarantee, to practice gratitude and joy in those moments of terror, when we're wondering, "Can I love you this much? Can I believe in this this passionately? Can I be this fierce about this?" just to be able to stop and, instead of catastrophizing what might happen, to say, "I'm just so grateful, because to feel this vulnerable means I'm alive."

And the last, which I think is probably the most important, is to believe that we're enough. Because when we work from a place I believe that says, "I'm enough," then we stop screaming and start listening, we're kinder and gentler to the people around us, and we're kinder and gentler to ourselves."

Wow. I keep reading this over and over. This part of the talk impacted me the most.

To bring this back to growing in the PC, I viewed this video with a few other volunteers and we had an interesting discussion about the PC service and making you more vulnerable. PC puts a mirror in front of you and if you are open to it, it will show you a lot. You learn a lot of things that you need to work on as well as hidden talents you didnt know you had. For me, that mirror did both and I am better because of it.

PC also makes you more firm in your beliefs. As one friend said, you come here with an idea of who you want to be and PC makes your more confident in being that person. PC kind of fills you out in the idea of who you want to be. For most people, PC doesnt change you completely and turn your world upside down, but it does allow you to grow.

The "I am enough" quote was the most important from the talk and something I am learning how to say, while also learning how to be vulnerable and to tell my story with my whole heart. That is one thing I am trying with this blog and once I am done with PC, I hope to be able to tell more of my story.

Leave a comment if you watched the video, I would love to know what you thought of it.

My mama came two weeks ago and just left yesterday... sniff, sniff. But it was a wonderful visit. These last few months I have been checking things off of my Armenia bucket list and with my mom here, I had another excuse to check off more items from my list!

She flew in on a Monday night and Tuesday we were in my village, meeting my counterpart and her family! She was wonderful, as always, and had a whole spread of khorovats (Armenian bbq), salads, dolma, and lots and lots of food! It was wonderful and we were stuffed! We took a walk around the village and saw my schools, the canal, my culture house, and lots of other stuff. It was great!

The next day we went to the culture house again and my mom met my girls! It was a lot of fun to see my students interact with my mom.

My mom's visit last year was so different than her visit this year. This year we spent more time in my village (granted I had to be in Yerevan for my mom's visit last year because I was sick). Last year, we went to all the places in and around Yerevan. This year, we were in my village, camped out on a mountain, and traveled ALL over the country.

Outside of my village there is a mountain that I have been looking at for 2 years. I have always wanted to camp outside in Armenia and always thought that mountain would be great to camp at, especially because it is so remote and we would be able to see all of the stars. So I got a group together to camp on the mountain while my mama was here.

We coordinated to have a marshutni take us to the bottom of the mountain and we would hike up from there. If we started from my village, it would have taken longer and we didnt have that much time. Thursday morning we started the hike and made it to the tower that is right by the peak by 1 or 2. We met a guy that works there and he invited us to leave our stuff at the building and climb the peak. We figured we would camp outside of the tower and if it rained, we could move inside of the building.

After dropping our stuff off, we hiked the last portion. It was beautiful, there were so many great smells from all the herbs growing on the side of the mountain. There were SOOOO many beautiful mountain flowers too, small and bright colors. The hike wasnt that hard and we took our time up the side. We had a few photo shoots on the mountain. Then we hiked back to the tower and some of us took a nap, others played durak, while others just hang out. After a bit, we set up dinner and all ate together. The guy that worked at the tower, David, joined us and shared his tea with us. It was tea that was made from the herbs that were on the mountain. It was DELICIOUS and sweet, just the way I like my tea!

It was a great day and to end it we shared life stories. I love hearing people's stories and it is interesting to see what they decide to put in their life story and what they choose to leave out. We all gradually fell asleep.

The one thing about camping was it was the night after the eclipse (which we saw from my balcony the night before). This meant that it was a full, bright moon. It was so bright, we barely saw any stars and the whole night I kept thinking the sun was coming up. The mountain is also very rocky and none of us had sleeping pads, so we didnt get that much sleep. But it was still a wonderful experience and I would totally do it again!

The next day we went in to Yerevan after packing up my apartment a little more. I took down all of my pictures and it is slowly hitting me that I will not be in this country in less than two months. We packed up things that I wanted my mom to take back and went in on the bus. 7 Americans and a LOT of stuff, I think my bus driver thinks I'm weird. In Yerevan I had some running around to do and my mom was not accustomed to the once-a-week showers... so the Hostel was wonderful!

My mom made me a promise a year and a half before I came into PC. She has always said she wanted a tattoo but never had a reason to get one. So we made a bargain, I fulfilled my half and while she was here, she fulfilled her half!!! She got a cute little turtle tattoo on her foot and I got four flowers on my foot. They both are beautiful and it was such a fun experience to get tattoos together. Two other volunteers got tattoos while we got ours. It was a great experience and pictures will be posted!

The tattoo parlor that we go to is called Body Art and it is awesome! About 7 volunteers have gotten tattoos there and they all are awesome! The tattoo artist, Siro, is an awesome guy that I met at That Place, one of my favorite places in Yerevan. He now has opened an cafe, called Eden, which is quickly becoming another one of my favorite places! So many people and places I will miss in Armenia, but so glad that I have made so many memories that I will be able to look back on and giggle about!

The next day we shopped and spent a LOT of money on souvenirs and gifts. I was able to buy Armenian memorabilia and send it home with my Mama so I wouldn't have to carry it forever. We shopped until we dropped. It was great.

About two weeks before my mom came I met a taxi driver named Apo. He drove me and some other volunteers to our friend's village. The entire way he joked and laughed with us. He was great and I told him about my mom coming. He told me to call him and that he would take us anywhere. A few days before I arranged for him to take us that afternoon down to Meghri. So we shopped at the Varnisage in the morning and then had an afternoon taxi ride down to the border of Iran and Armenia. He was so much fun! He is from Goris and we had lunch outside of there. He took us to this really good kebab place and ordered for us. It was cheap and delicious! He also would stop and allow us to take pictures along the way. Most taxi drivers I have met are not that accommodating, but he was understanding and wanted to show off His Armenia to us and my mama.

We made it to my friend's village outside of Meghri around 8 that night after a 6 hour taxi ride. She showed us around the village and then we all went back and zoned out for a bit. The next morning we woke up and went to her school so that my mom could see an Armenian school and meet some teachers. This was the first time I had been this far south and it was beautiful. I had never been in the south in the summer either and it has gorgeous scenery.

We also arranged for a taxi to take us to the border town. It was crazy to be able to see Iran but know that we are not allowed to visit. We could see the border town in Iran and saw the spires from the mosque. It is such an amazement how a country can be surrounded by countries that are so closed off to them. They are so similar in so many ways but because of their past and the differences, they are completely closed off. It is different with Iran because Armenia and Iran have a working relationship, but I wonder if they didnt depend on each other what kind of relationship they would have.

After Meghri we traveled to Kapan for two nights. We walked around town at night and it was cool to see how many people were out just walking the streets. We were followed by a creeper for a little bit who offered to buy us ice cream. The vendor was not happy about this and shooed the guy away. It was a weird interaction but I was grateful to the vendor for sending him away. Other than that, our first night in Kapan was really relaxing. The next day we walked up to the WW2 memorial and saw all of Kapan!

That night we took a marshutni up to a village outside of Kapan where another volunteer lives. We walked out to another point in her village that overlooks the gorge. Absolutely beautiful scenery. We had dinner, chatted, and laughed. We talked all about COS and what we would be doing after service. It is a good thing my mom has had the PC experience otherwise I think she would have been bored during some of our conversations! She met this volunteer last summer in Turkey and they got along great so I promised I would bring her back so they could meet up again. It was a really good night of just hanging out in a village. My mom, who is a lover of flat lands, was impressed by this volunteers steep village.

It was nice for my mom to see smaller villages because even though my village is classified as a village, it is large. Both places we visited in the south (besides Kapan) were less than 1000 people. One school only had 106 students while the other school had 36 total... small villages. She thoroughly enjoyed seeing the volunteers and their villages.

The next morning we took a different taxi driver (not Apo) back to Yerevan. We asked the driver to stop by Tatev so that we could ride the Longest Aerial Tramway in the world! He was really nice and a cool driver too. He went on the tram with us as well and we spent an hour exploring around the monastery. It was beautiful and another thing on my Armenia bucket list.

Back in Yerevan we hung out and took an evening to ourselves. My mom and I were both exhausted and were able to relax. My mom was invited to Gavar to give a presentation about how she teaches to an NGO that works with children with disabilities. She planned out her presentation and the next day in true PC fashion, things did not turn out the way they were planned. Also in true PC fashion, it turned out wonderful! My mom was able to pass on a little bit of knowledge while also learning about the children with disabilities in Armenia. It was interesting to see and I was there to help translate, although another volunteer did that completely. It was impressive to see her Armenian skills and watch her translate back and forth between my mom and the NGO workers.

That night we went back to Yerevan and that is the night I got my tattoo. It is beautiful, hurt like hell, but I love it!!!

The last day my mom was in country, my mom, three friends, and I went to the UNESCO World Heritage sites. Apo, my favorite taxi driver, took us on a wonderful 8-hour trip! We stopped in the Aparan bakery on the way for their famous baked goods. Apo is hilarious and joked with us the whole time. He also said it was his first time to all of these sites so he was excited to see them as well. He didnt know the north as well as the south, but he was perfect in his navigation!

This whole time my mom has been OBSESSED with goats! She has loved goats since she was younger and just about freaked out every time we saw them here. We told Apo this and asked if he saw goats, could we stop so my crazy mom can take a picture of them. He joked that if we wanted to take a picture of a goat, we could go to his mother-in-laws house!

This day was probably my favorite because it was a full day and we experienced Armenian hospitality through our wonderful Apo. It was a great way to end my mom's vacation. That night we went to the opening of Eden cafe and had a great time with a few other volunteers!

Taking my mom to the airport was weird. It was almost like my experience had come full circle. She drove me to the airport and said a short goodbye when I first boarded the plane to Philly. She said when her mom dropped her off at the airport for her PC service, it was a quick kiss on the cheek, I love you, and good luck. When my mom and dad dropped me off, it was the same thing. Goodbyes are hard. I did the same thing to my mom too, knowing I wont be seeing her for another 7-8 months.

Saying goodbye to her is the first of many goodbyes that I will be making. But I keep reminding myself that tears mean that it mattered. Its okay to cry because of it means I made lasting friendships and memories.

Check out my pictures! There is a link at the bottom of the General Pictures or you can just click here.

I had a week long English summer camp in my village last week. There were about 50 students that were involved, a great group of PCVs, my awesome director, and a few onlookers that completely supported the camp. It was a ton of fun and now I want to have another one for my younger students. I had a smaller group of older girls (mainly from my older English club, 10-11th form) that were there in the morning. I split the day up into morning and afternoon camps, with my older girls becoming junior counselors in the afternoon for the 7th, 8th, and 9th form students.

One day was rained out but the 6 others had perfect weather! On Sunday we took a hike out to the small church/religious spot that is about an hour walk outside of town. It was really fun because we had a picnic while we were there. In typical Armenian fashion, each student brought one item to share with the rest of the group. We had hotdogs, hard boiled eggs, sausage, fried potatoes, greens, tomatoes, cucumber, bread and cheese. We sat under the sun at the top of a hill and I just soaked it all in.

This camp really made me feel a part of my community more so than anything else. Having about 15 volunteers come through at different times and introducing them to my director, students, and CP was a lot of fun because it brought both of my PC worlds together. I am pretty sure some of my girls were smitten with a few of the counselors which was fun to see. I remember having a crush on one of my counselors when I was their age. Fun to see.

One final point about my camp was that it was cheap. With the help of other volunteers, my director, and my students, the total cost for this 7 day camp was about 10,000 dram (roughly 30 dollars). That was mostly for the paper supplies. And now we will have another one at the end of July. After that is a English teacher workshop and then I am done... (panic, panic, panic)

I will try and upload some pictures soon.

One thing that I love about Armenia is how much the men in families are involved in the lives of the children. From what I have seen, they are actively involved in raising the children. Armenian villages definitely have the "it takes a village" mentality and it is something that I feel America has moved away from. Children in my village play freely and without fear of their neighbors or of strangers. Everyone knows everyone so there really arent strangers here besides the weird Americans that live or come through. :)

Getting back to fathers, in all of my Armenian friend's families, the fathers are so proud and active in their children's lives, it is nice to see. For example, my CP's husband is always playing with his daughter, rough housing with her, playing computer games with her, etc. And the greatest part about it is that it is not out of the ordinary. I dont know why this surprises me or inspired me to write a blog post about it, but I just think it is nice to see. My host dad is also really involved. My host sister is definitely a daddy's girl as most Armenian daughters are. It takes one to be able to spot them out. Hi Dad!

Another inspiration for this blog was when I was in Yerevan a few weeks ago. I was walking down the street and saw two young men (maybe 20 or so) pushing baby strollers. It struck me as odd because I dont know if they were both the fathers of the babies in their strollers or uncles pushing their niece or nephew or babysitters? Who knows. It is something I have seen quite a bit though.

The last anecdote that I wanted to share was when I see grandfathers. I was in a store and this elderly man was playing with a baby while waiting in line to check-out. It definitely was not his granddaughter or in any relation to him. But the mother did not look worried or defensive and no one around us thought it was abnormal.

Armenians are so trusting of each other. I dont know if America could ever be that way because of how inhomogeneous we are as a culture. Armenians are Armenian, there is not too much diversity within their culture. I assume that is how they can be so trusting, they all have a shared past, shared language, shared culture, shared norms, etc... Just interesting to think about.

PC volunteers from Armenia have had quite a obsessive relationship with Georgia. Most volunteers that go there have an amazing time and fall instantly in love with Tbilisi. Last summer I was there but never really got a feel for the city as I was only passing through. Oh man, I was missing out!

After the COS conference, another volunteer and I planned a trip to Georgia! We decided to head straight to Batumi then end in Tbilisi before coming back to Armenia. It was a great plan, we arrived in Batumi on a Friday afternoon, exhausted after a night train to Tbilisi and then day marshutni to Batumi. We figured because it wasn't tourist season yet that we could just show up, use our Lonely Planet guide and find a place to put our heads. Wrong assumption but thanks to our wonderful (and cute) taxi driver, he found us a place to stay that was moderately priced and very centrally located.

Even though we were exhausted and the must see Royal Wedding was playing, we headed out for some food and walking around to try and get a sense of Batumi. The feeling: NOT tourist season. I thought that since Batumi was the destination spot for tourists in the Caucasus region but apparently ONLY in July and August. We definitely were looked at for being out of place and obvious foreigners. But it didn't detract from our time, we have been dealing with the stares and looks for two years, and in my case will probably be dealing with that for another two at the least.

We had some food, khachapuri, and sat by the water. I saw palm trees on the way in and dolphins while sitting by the water. It was great! We walked around and scoped out the night life but were too exhausted to take part in.

< Khachapuri (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khachapuri) is a delicious Georgian dish that you can find everywhere and they are all slightly different. >

The next day we woke up and went to breakfast, khachapuri again (wasnt the first and wont be the last), and were going to walk around the city and see more sites. Right as we are walking to the beach, we run in to two other PCVs from Armenia! They were on their way to Turkey and had a couple days in Batumi. It was wonderful, we went site seeing with them for the rest of the day. We walked along the beach, tried to find the Stalin museum (it was closed though), ate some delicious cake and had some coffee. (I dont usually drink coffee, but wait for the rest of the trip.)

That night we went to a bar that had English speakers or so we were told. Not really processing the fact that English speakers meant Americans or English people. Not exactly what we wanted so we went to a different cafe before calling it a night.

Next day we went to the Gonio fortress, Botanical Gardens and tried to buy tickets on the night train. Bad planning on my part, we were too late in getting the tickets so we decided to get a night marshutni back to Tbilisi. This was a marshutni from HELL! Oh my, drunk people, crying babies, way too many pointless stops along the way, music and lights on the whole way... needless to say we were not the happiest of campers when we arrived in Tbilisi.

Oh and when we got into Tbilisi the hostel we booked online didnt exist yet... How that is possible, I am not sure but it wasnt there. At 6am we were walking around near the Marriott just walking in frustrated circles. Finally found a different hostel that helped us get a room so we could go to sleep.

Tbilisi is pretty interesting because of how Western it looks and feels. I think Georgia is very similar to Armenia in terms of their capitals. They are pretty developed, offer a lot of Western brands, and seem to represent a country that is developed. But traveling from Tbilisi to Batumi, I saw the same style of housing and villages that you see in Armenia. The countryside might be a bit greener with more trees but the feel seemed to be the same. It shows the stark contrast of the capital and the village life. It gives a fake representation of its country. Just like in Armenia, you cant really say that Yerevan is representative of ALL of Armenia. When you come to the villages, you see a completely different lifestyle. You can say that about America, too- compare Washington, DC to the outskirt cities, the difference in income, opportunity, education, healthcare... For some reason, it seems to be more of a false front in Georgia and Armenia, almost hiding the village life. Just some thoughts I had about it...

Back to the trip:

After unpacking at our homestay, we took 3 hour naps, showers, and woke up hungry and ready to see Tbilisi. Walking down Rustaveli, I felt as though I was in a European city with small cafes, bookshops, clothing stores, and internet cafes. I had to stop in to one and while there we met this incredibly cool Georgian-American. His friend and him reminded me of Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau in The Break-Up when they tease each other, talk fast, and are subtly really funny. It was a lot of fun hanging out with them for a bit in the internet cafe.

Later that night we went out to some pubs. We met some fun people out and listened to a band that we saw the next night again. They were really good and sang fun songs.

The next morning we woke up and it was overcast. We decided that instead of doing all of the touristy things- like the fortress, churches, Stalin sights, and all that jazz, we ended up just pampering ourselves. I bought a pair of sandals and had my hair done. We picked a random salon that is actually incredibly famous. The women there were awesome and it just happened that there was a women that spoke really good English and was willing to help me translate. They did my hair up and curled the ends, it was crazy. I kind of looked like a different person. It was a relaxed day and we really pampered ourselves.

The next day we met up with another volunteer that came up to Tbilisi to meet up with his cousin. While his cousin worked, we again tried to get up the energy to run around town touring the sites but ended up at a hookah cafe. We smoked some hookah, drank some delicious green tea, and talked about deep and meaningful things for about 3 hours. After that we went to a wine shop to taste different wines. Georgia is known for its wine and I now know why. I dont drink wine much because I do not really like dry wines and that is what most people drink. But while we were there, we tasted some semi-sweet and sweet wines. Bingo! Found a couple of wines that I like. So we bought some to drink that night and bring back to Armenia.

We took our wine back to the Marriott where the volunteer and cousin were staying (talk about nice!) and met them for dinner. We went to a really good dinner that had traditional Georgian food and some more delicious wine! Decided to go out to play billiards, hop to some other pubs, and listen to the band we heard the night before. We danced and sang along with the band. We saw a group of older Americans and one of them had a Florida shirt on!

ITS THE GATOR NATION!!! It is always fun to meet with other Gators! I got the group of guys to take a picture doing the chomp!

I am slightly ashamed to admit this but the night ended with McDonalds... sorry.

Our last day in Tbilisi we walked around the city a little more and tried to see the museums, although a lot of them were closed for renovations. We left Tbilisi on the night train. It was incredibly nice to hear Armenian on the train and be able to speak to people again. I was surprised that we didnt hear more English while we were traveling, I thought with all of the initiatives that Georgia was doing to get people speaking English we would have heard it more...

There were a lot of things that went wrong in terms of housing and transportation but a lot worked out and it was an incredibly fun and relaxing time! I drank lots of coffee (I am not hooked yet but I do enjoy a nice cup of joe now), lots of good (too sweet for my travel companions) wine, and had WONDERFUL company along the way! We met some really cool people and attempted to see some of the sights!

I have officially been converted, I LOVE TBILISI!!! On my way out of Armenia I will be visiting Tbilisi again and I WILL make it to that damn fortress if it kills me!

It has come and gone. The COS conference is the Close of Service conference that talks about ALL of the paper work and meetings that you have to do to complete your service.

It has really made me think about my last couple months of service and really started to bring a finality to this... scary. I dont know if I want it to end just yet. I have made some amazing friends, both volunteers and community peeps. How do you say goodbye? How do you finish something that you feel you just started?

Man, oh man. Peace Corps is such an up and down roller coaster of emotion sometimes. I dont know what it was but last week I was just in a bad mood. For about the last month I have had a string of visitors to my site, which has been awesome!

Starting with the Poetry Contest, which you can read about two posts back, I have played host to quite a few people. It has been wonderful to be able to share my village with so many different people. Some have come to experience the 'real' Armenia and check out the village life while others have come to help me plan/dream about the trip after COS (close of service) with others coming for a girls weekend.

I had a wonderful time, it really showed me how integrated I was in the community by having visitors come to my village. It made me realize how much I have learned about Armenia and Armenians and also how much I still dont know!

And then last week happened. When I talk to people about my service, the one thing I can say is that it is an adventure. And for some reason last week was not the good kind of adventure- I was completely homesick and down. I didnt want to quit but I definitely had that feeling of wanting to be anywhere but here. I dont know if it was the weather (rainy, cold, overcast, gross) or just my mood (sad, overwhelmed, stressed) but I was not having it. So I decided to go in to Yerevan for the day, mainly to take a shower (it had been about 2 weeks).

It is amazing what a shower can do for your morale. It was like I washed away all of the negativity and sadness I was feeling and was reborn a positive and happy person! The Saturday I went on a hike to an old fort by Talin. Apparently, it was part of the silk road. It was so much fun to walk to the fort and play around on the fort. Then I hung out with another volunteer and their host family, good times!

So, back to being on the high end of service and ready for this next week. It is crazy but after next week, I have my COS conference... where has the time gone?!?

This is why I love being a girl and a foreigner, sometimes.

We bought tickets to a football match, the Euro Cup Qualifier. Armenia versus Russia. The place to be on March 26th at 7:00. Actually, the place we needed to be at 6:00 or earlier to ensure we were able to get our seats...

My friend and I bought our tickets off of another volunteer that arranged it through another guy and so on. Thanks to said volunteer for organizing it, that was great of you! To continue, so we had our tickets and like the two previous football matches I had attended, we just had to show up. Little did we hear or know that we needed to be there an hour or more before the game's kickoff to ensure our tickets would be valid. Apparently the ticket sellers sold about 300 extra tickets and the only way to ensure your seat was to show up way before the game started. Having been to two previous games where this was never an issue, I did not think the stadium would be sold out and then some.

As we walk up to the gate and see the crowd (at this point we still dont know we would be refused), we walk up to the police officers and show them our tickets, expecting them to point us to the entrance. They said we were too late and that our tickets were no longer good. They sympathized with us as much as to say, sorry we can't help. As the story unfolded about the number of seats vs number of tickets sold, the Russians who pushed their way through and the fact that other volunteers who were there an hour early were still having trouble getting to their seats, my determination grew.

Watching the guards like a hawk, surveying the entrances and where it was we needed to go, we made our move. I grabbed my friends hand, pulled out our tickets and did what any foreign girl has done at one point in their lives: acted stupid and entitled. I waited until a guard looked a certain way, ducked my head and walked. We kept pointing to our tickets, pretending we didnt understand the 'excuse me girls, wait, come back', and continued walking. We walked past about 5 different heavily guarded areas where we could have been stopped and eventually made it into the stadium.

We recruited another guard who wasnt even sure we should be allowed in to show us our seats. We made it right before halftime and joined with the other volunteers. We had a great time, I lost my voice slightly, and Armenia ended up tying with Russia, 0-0. All in all, good times were had. But I definitely abused my foreign status by pretending I didnt know the language or rules. I also think I only got away with this behavior because I am a girl and could play the lost girl card. And you know what, I am okay with what happened.

This week starts on a Wednesday but really started a couple of months before that. If I can allow myself to take a side step before I really get on with this blog.

Winter is hard for me, as I am sure it is for many other volunteers all over the world in cold, cold places. Things shut down, the produce becomes limited to potatoes, people do not go outside for the most part, your house and workplace become too cold to move, its just a darker period. Seasonal depression is real and the lack of sun or sunny days and the ability to go outside and enjoy them is not really fun. Although (as you can see in other blogs) I have started to appreciate winter. The ability of snow to make everything look clean, snow fights and snowmen. As with everything, there are good and bad sides to winter.

But as the end of February and March started to come around, the sun started to come out more and warm things up. Everyday felt like it was getting warmer. I was able to change my heater to the medium setting and not needing to blast it throughout the night. People started to perk up. It felt as though we were all coming out of hibernation.

Then with March, my director and I decided to write a SPA grant. Sadly, it was not funded due to multiple reasons. And that still hurts. But the process of writing it has been a highlight in my service.

The best week ever begins on Wednesday, March 8th, Women's Day. At my clubs, all of my students came in and after combining their money bought me gifts. They all came in, shyly kissed my check and wished me Happy Women's Day and presented me with some of the most interesting gifts. I loved it and was so blessed. It just showed me how much has changed within a year and how much more my community knows and loves me. All throughout town people wished me a Happy Women's Day! It was great.

Thursday was just an awesome club. We had a poetry contest coming up that some of my students were participating in. My students were preparing for it and working together to make sure their dictation, interpretation and memorization were all up to par. Thursday I also worked on the SPA grant some more with my director. It was wonderful to see him learn and grow as we worked through the project.

Friday, my director and I ran around the village collecting price quotes for the grant application. I drank so much coffee (even though I am not a big fan- that brought me up to 10 cups drank so far in country...) and I worry that it is starting to grow on me a little. I dont want to be addicted to coffee... It was a lot of fun though- we met with so many different people. My favorite part of the day was when my director and I went to the bigger store in my village to get quotes for remodeling materials (think paint, brushes, etc.). It was almost like a comedy show between an American attempting Armenian, a director attempting to translate from my Armenian to actual Armenian, a store owner who completely understood me before translation, another store worker who did not understand me or the translated Armenian, and two onlookers who did not think I spoke English or Armenian and were trying to help in Russian. It was a great experience and one that I will continue to look back on and laugh about. Although it is bittersweet because we didnt end up getting the grant. Also on Friday, my director and I somehow ended up in the store owner's office with two bottles of cognac, pictures of his family vacation in Jermuk, and talking about his daughter who spoke really good English. Great night, one of the best in village life so far...

Saturday, my director and I had to go in to Yerevan for even more price quotes. Sunday was the poetry contest and our contest was to include Fulbrights as judges. My director offered to pick them up from Yerevan, they would come to my site the night before and we would all go up together the next morning to Talin. The two hour car ride from Yerevan to my site with the two Fulbrights and a sister was awesome. My director is a really awesome guy and very open about his ideas and opinions. I can ask him just about anything and he will try to give an unbiased answer. He is incredibly passionate about Armenia and the future of Armenians. It is really fun hanging out and talking with him because we talk a combination of Armenian, English, and Arabic (of which, I know none). But somehow we completely understand each other and are able to have deep and meaningful conversations. So, on the way back we talked about so much stuff. We were driving at night and then right outside of my village, we stopped the car, got out and turned off the car lights and stared into the open space. Even though it was a little dusty, we could see soooo many stars! Stars take my breath away just about every time I look at them, it was a wonderful ending to a great night.

Sunday, we woke up and arrived at School No. 1. I must give a LOT of kudos to my counterpart, the lovely Ms. Tamara, and the three other English teachers both in School No. 1 and 2. They did awesome! Basically, I handed over the information about the Poetry Recitation Contest and let them handle and organize the rest. We had a wonderful group of students who showed that they practiced a lot, were dedicated and prepared! My CP set up the marshutni ride to Talin (a town about 45 mins away, on the other side of the mountain) and we all jumped in and headed off.

The contest was wonderful! So many students showed up and were so prepared. You could tell they were a little bit nervous but they did a great job! The students from Aragats did incredible. My village placed in the top 3 for each grade and were the most represented out of all of the schools that participated. So proud!!!

And that isnt even the end of the day, we ended the contest around 1 or so. On the marshutni ride back, a neighboring PCV suggested we go to look at Ani. He had heard you can see it from the border, although we werent able to. You can do it from Gyumri and apparently there is a tour agency that lets you go to Ani... Anyhow. We hire a marshutni, grab my CP and her family- mother, daughter, and husband, and head out with the Fulbrights, other PCVs, and myself. We go out to the border, see an older church that was once a part of Ani, and drink Arteni white wine as we make toasts to friendships that will last forever. On the way back, the marshutni stops at the bottom of a hill/mountain that has a holy site near the top. We climb up to the holy site, which is kind of a shack memorial where people tie ribbons, cloth, and string to make a wish. We all tie our strings and make a wish. We then walk to the side of the mountain to watch the sun set over the mountains in Turkey. It was a beautiful day! We hike back down, head in to town, spend a little more time with my CP and then eventually head back to my apartment. It was such a wonderful day!

Monday was back to the work week and finishing up stuff for the grant. I continued work with my CP, met with the Mayor (who actually talked to me), and continued with clubs.

And that was my best week ever, but really it has continued over for a while now. I feel as though these last few months, mainly since January, I have really hit my stride. Even though not getting the grant was a blow, it will be okay. I feel as though I have let down my community and all that were involved in it, but its just the way things happen. We are looking in to other grant opportunities now and focusing on upcoming projects.

It is such a bittersweet feeling. I finally hit my stride in my village, granted I still have up and down days, but my community is really getting me. More and more people are coming up and talking to me, more and more students know me and show respect, I have more people that smile at me. It is wonderful! And this all started before the grant writing or anything- so it is purely as though they realize that I am here to help and not some crazy American lost girl. I just wish I hit my stride sooner, say August 2009, and could have done a lot more for my village. I have heard this reiterated by PCVs worldwide, but you really get more out of the experience than you give and it is somewhat heartbreaking. I already have so much, I dont need more.

My students are continually improving their English skills and continually improving their independence and leadership! We are planning a camp right now that is going to test their English skills and teaching abilities! It will be great! I am also thinking of doing a workshop for the English teachers of my village just to give them tools and resources for the classroom. We have a lot planned for these next coming months.

I wrote out a calendar of my last 5 months and really scared myself. I am not counting down or awaiting the day, I simply needed to schedule things out so I dont forget to do anything or over-schedule things. Oh my! Between our COS conference, my camps, my mom's trip, green camps, 4th of July, COS and things I want to do at site, I have no time! On one hand, it is incredibly exciting to be this busy with so many different projects but on the other hand, I am really scared about how fast time will go. This experience has really changed my life and has opened my eyes to ideas I had never thought about before.

I know I promised an update like forever ago, so I apologize for the tardiness of these postings. I also do not have a lot of details about November and December because my calendar for those months are in America.

November:

Thanksgiving party, All-Vol Conference, and the ticket home. As you can see, the Thanksgiving party was a lot of fun. All-Vol was good as usual. And my mom decided to fly me home for Christmas!!!

December:

Finished up clubs before I went home for 2 weeks. Planned going home (or more like had my mom plan my schedule.. hehe.). Went home. I had a wonderful time at home and it was great to see most of my family.

My mom, like a pro, scheduled my weeks out so that I spent about a day with each of my family members. It was great because I was able to have quality time with each person. Before I went home, I received advice from other volunteers to write a to-do list. My to-do list was getting to the point of ridiculousness but I am happy to report that just about everything was accomplished (eat a great burger- thanks Nancy!, have delicious home cooked food- thanks Mom!, have shrimp- thanks Kamal! have some good mixed drinks- thanks and sorry Heather!, have delicious breakfast items- thanks Anita, see a bald eagle- thanks nature!, see the coast, buy a bunch of crap- Febre and so many other things...). There was a hiccup in the unlocking iPhone department, but I resolved that issue in Armenia.

One of the greatest things about going home was the realization that I miss home, I miss my family but I am really happy living abroad. And my family gave their blessing for my living decision. And they all gave it independently without coercion. They all said they understand what I want out of life and as long as I come home for Christmas or summers they will fully support what I decide. It is always nice to know that you have the support and love of your family and that is exactly what I received while I was home.

With that knowledge, the decision about where I would go, what I would do, and how I would live after PC has been overwhelming. If you know me at all, you know I like to have a direction of some sort. (I have had my life planned out since I was 8- go to college, get a degree, join PC- but it ended there and now I am left without a direction.) It does not have to be a concrete, non-negotiable decision, but a general direction was nice. I didnt have that before going home and I am still struggling to develop that after being back for two months. I know, ideally, where I would like my life to go but planning out a direction to go in that has soooo many unknowns is hard. And this is where January and February come in...

January:

Rang in the New Years with a great friend in Kapan, celebrated a little more all over the country, started back with clubs, had the winter sickness (nice cough, slight temp, stuffiness... all that jazz), canceled clubs due to cold weather and inability to feel my fingers, had the country director visit my site, and started up a new club for younger students.

February:

Went to a friend's site to celebrate Chinese New Year (read: made way too much delicious Chinese food and shared in the dragon dance), watched the Super Bowl at 3:30 in the morning and was subjected to the Black Eyed Peas horrid halftime show, had a girls weekend in the north with some of my favorite people, and continued my clubs when we could feel our fingers (still working on that though).

These last couple of months have dragged on and sped by at the same time. August is getting closer and closer and I keep having to focus myself in the present. After PC I know I will be traveling but every time I look at a map the direction changes. I know I will be going to India and Malaysia but how I get to India is another decision completely... Turkey (again), Bulgaria-Romania-Greece, the Stans, Turkey-Syria-Iran-the Stans??? Who knows and it doesnt help when I meet people who have just visited/lived/worked in those places and they tell me how awesome/beautiful/interesting/unique it is.

I do have some interesting upcoming events these next months. I will be writing a grant for the culture house, hopefully upgrading the culture house so that it is more functional, having my students participate in a couple national and global competitions, going to see an Armenia vs Russia football match, and continue to stare at a map until a direction becomes clear.

So keep tuned to see how this grant works out and who will qualify for the Euro 2012.

So 2010 was awesome! Lots of amazing and unforgettable memories made this last year. This post will be short and I wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year! I stole the quote below from somewhere else because I thought it summed up my wishes for all of my friends, family, and friends-to-be who read this blog...

"I wish you Health...

So you may enjoy each day in comfort.

I wish you the Love of friends and family...

And Peace within your heart.

I wish you the Beauty of nature...

That you may enjoy the work of God.

I wish you Wisdom to choose priorities...

For those things that really matter in life.

I wish you Generosity so you may share...

All good things that come to you.

I wish you Happiness and Joy...

And Blessings for the New Year.

I wish you the best of everything...

That you so well deserve.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FRIEND!"

Hope everyone had a wonderful celebration and I will be updating soon on all of my recent adventures!

Miss you all and love you all!

2011 is going to rock!

On the Friday before Thanksgiving, my students and I had a small party to celebrate giving thanks. It was a wonderful time! We all brought food to share and said what we were thankful for. It was a lot of fun and I cant wait to have another party! These are some pictures from the party.

I am so thankful for all of my family and friends all over the world! Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays everyone!!! Love you all!

October has flown by! It seemed like I was just excited about it coming here and now it has already passed. It has been an up and down month. While things are continuing at site, there have been a few out of site activities that have made this month a lot of fun.

The first was initiatives meeting in Yerevan. A lot of PCVs get together in Yerevan and talk about their secondary projects that are connected to the various initiatives. It is really interesting to hear what others have done in their site and what they are looking to do in the coming months. There are a few really cool ideas coming up and I am excited to be a part of it.

It is also a good time to meet up with other PCVs and relax and enjoy Yerevan. It was perfect outdoor weather and the outdoor cafes of Yerevan were still open! It was also a good time to meet and interact with the new group. Even though I worked with the EEs during the summer, I really didnt get to interact with them in a non-work environment. It is nice to get to know the group that will be here when we leave, holding the PC fort down! They are a good group, different from the 17s, but fun!

The last week of October is usually Fall Break, which means one week off from school. Since I work at the culture house, technically clubs would still happen. However, a lot of my students use this time to travel to other regions and spend time with family. So clubs were canceled for the week and I had the opportunity to work at a short Green Camp in a friend's village. We had a camp there during the summer but this camp was for the younger kids, around 8,9, and 10 years old. They were adorable and a lot of fun, although slightly crazy! We stayed at his house with his host family during the camp. His host family is amazing and so warm and welcoming! The host kids there are great and full of energy. I will never forget those kids because they are so understanding and enthusiastic about PC volunteers.

Other exciting October news:

The seasons, it is a-changing! Fall is here and winter will quickly come! On the way to green camps I had some of the prettiest views of the color change! The trees were beautiful and incredibly bright! It was amazing and one of the things I will miss! That was about the third week of October when I saw the trees. However, Halloween had snow storms in some areas of Armenia. My site, of course, is free from snow still but that might not last long. They are predicting a colder winter than last year. Who exactly 'they' are, I am not sure of, but that is what they say!

After the green camp, I went walking with two other volunteers outside of Stepanavan and to Lori Berd, an old fortress. It was a beautiful day to walk and a really pretty site!

A good friends birthday! We celebrated in Yerevan and ended up having a cake fight! Always a good time!

My phone broke... :( So I have been using my counterpart's extra phone and my host sister is helping fix my phone, hopefully that will turn out good! I miss my phone.

That is it really, October, although great moments, was mostly relaxing and getting into the flow at site! I have taken to walking around my site a little bit. My village is pretty spread out and I have yet to visit all parts of it. It is something I look forward to doing over this next year.

November is going to be an exciting month! People are heading to my site to work on some EAI by-laws. EAI is the environmental initiative and it needs new by-laws! While this might not be the MOST exciting thing I have ever taken part in, having visitors on the moon will be a lot of fun! I hope to go hiking around one of those days, hopefully the weather will keep.

All Vol, which is the all volunteer conference, will be coming up! This is a great time to re-energize us for winter! I am looking forward to it! Also, during all-vol is the Thanksgiving Dinner, where I will be helping to cook!

Also, at site I might be having a Thanksgiving dinner with my students from the Culture House! Not sure about all of the details yet, but it should be a lot of fun!

And lastly, although I was not able to go south during October, I will be heading south after All Vol! I cant wait to get down there and visit other PCVs! Not sure how long I will be able to take, but I cant wait!

That is it! I have been missing family and America a lot this month! It is hard being away from home and so far from everything that I know and love. I miss you all and hope all is well with everyone!

Love you!

Well another month has came and has almost passed. Still have a few days though. This month has been great! Clubs have started and I love my students! They are so full of energy and enthusiasm! They have such a willingness to learn and deal with my struggling Armenian. My tenth form girls are so entertaining. They are so funny and I am so lucky to be working with them. This next year will be a lot of fun and it will be great to see how much they grow and learn!

The weather is changing now and it is weird that I am happy about it. Summer was great and I did not think it was that hot. But I am happy it is cooling down. Last winter, I realized that I am not the biggest fan of snow and cold. But I have come to realize that I really like fall. The leaves will begin to change color, although I really only get to see that when I visit other volunteer's sites. The weather is not so stifling. People are outside more and a bit more active than during the summer. They are also busy with canning and preparing for the winter ahead. These are some of the reasons I like fall. Although to be honest, I think the main reason may be because I get to wear scarves! Especially now that I have like 5 new scarves (from my vacation), with the changing weather I finally get to wear them! Exciting!

Although this last month has been quite entertaining: a new nephew, climbing Aragats, the start of clubs, and more, I am ready for October. October will be initiatives meeting, another green camp, Halloween, Fall Break, and hopefully a visit to the south. I have a feeling October will fly by, similar to my total time here.

I climbed Aragats! All the way to the top! Of the Southern Point anyway. Almost 4000 meters high. We started at the lake and that is about half way up there, I think. Haven't really been able to find info on it.

Another volunteer's NGO, the YIC, organized the trip. We started in Gyumri and then drove to the lake. It is a Youth Organization that is Awesome! They are a great group of people; full of energy and fun! It started early and we got there around 11:00. We ate a little snack, played a get-to-know-you game and then headed up. There were a couple of groups climbing that day, September 21st, which is also Armenian Independence Day! It was really cool, there was a Scout group that climbed as well.

We started the hike at 11:30 and stopped periodically to catch our breath, allow people to catch up, and take pictures of the view. It is kind of funny, I was NOT prepared for this hike at all. It was a last minute decision and I didnt really understand the concept of higher altitude= cooler weather. And I only had flip-flops with me, so the other volunteer allowed me to borrow a pair of shoes. I also did not bring my camera, so no pictures. Sad. But it was a memory I will not forget.

It was such a fun day! It took a while to get up there, about 4 hours or so. A little longer than most people, but we were a slower group. It starts off pretty level with a slight incline. Then it turns kind of rocky but still is a slight incline. The closer to the top the steeper the incline, but it was never like we had to climb, we didnt need any special gear. Although, I could have used a jacket at some point. It gets cold up there! I guess you can leave Florida but Florida mentality can never leave you...

Climbing down was almost harder than going up. Its not that easy climbing down rocks that move. But we made it. Because I was wearing Amanda's shoes, which were a little small, I now have blisters on my feet. But it was so worth it. The view at the top was spectacular. The panorama was really cool, although it was a little hazy. The crater was nothing like I expected it and there wasnt that much ice/snow at the top but it was really cool.

All in all, an amazing day! One thing checked off of the Armenia Bucket List. I can now say that I have climbed the highest mountain in Armenia... Pretty, pretty, pretty cool. Here are 2 pictures that I stole from another volunteer:

Good date.

He is adorable and I am ecstatic. And that is all I can say!

I miss home and I miss my family. C'est la vie.

(This article is from the Gainesville Sun. This type of thing can happen anywhere, abroad and in America. My heart and thoughts are with his family, friends, and other volunteers in Lesotho.)

By Kimberly C. Moore

Staff writer

Published: Sunday, September 5, 2010 at 8:37 p.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, September 5, 2010 at 8:37 p.m.

The United States Peace Corps announced over the weekend that University of Florida graduate and Peace Corps volunteer Tom Maresco was shot and killed in an apparent robbery attempt in the small African nation of Lesotho on Friday night.

“Tom was an exceptional volunteer, leader, teacher and coach — he was an integral part of his host community where he shared his passion for teaching, music and sports,” said Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams. “We are deeply saddened by this tragic event, and I ask that you keep Tom’s family and our volunteers and staff in Lesotho in your thoughts and prayers.”

According to the Peace Corps, Maresco was from Port St. Lucie. He was a secondary education teacher in the village of Katse. He arrived in Lesotho for Peace Corps service in November 2009 and served as a science teacher in the nation that is entirely surrounded by South Africa. He was an active member of his local community of Katse and coached youth in a number of sports, including basketball and swimming. Maresco became his district’s representative on the Peace Corps Lesotho HIV/AIDS committee and was committed to developing innovative ways to address HIV awareness and prevention among young people. He was scheduled to complete his Peace Corps service in January 2012.

According to CNN, Maresco was attending a farewell function at the Maseru Sun Cabanas Hotel in the nation’s capital. He and a female friend had left the hotel and decided to return on foot, even though their vehicles were waiting outside the hotel.

“We think they were observed leaving the hotel on foot and when they were returning, (an) assailant was waiting outside the hotel,” Inspector Lekhotla Mojete, of the Lesotho police, told CNN. “The stranger started making demands of them, which they didn’t fully understand and (the assailant) then shot the deceased.”

He said the woman accompanying Maresco rushed back into the hotel to get help, but police were unable to find the gunman when they arrived on scene.

CNN also reported that a description of the attacker was provided to law enforcement officials by the woman. No arrests have been made yet and an autopsy was scheduled.

University of Florida spokesman Steve Orlando said Maresco graduated in May 2008 with a Bachelor of Science degree in integrated biology and a minor in classical studies.

“It’s always awful when something like this happens, but it’s especially sad when it happens to someone who’s trying to do something good in the world and clearly Thomas was,” Orlando said.

On his blog, http://tmaresco.blogspot.com/, Maresco talked about his excitement at seeing South African President Jacob Zuma in his village last month and eating lunch within 3 feet of him.

“It was a surreal feeling because I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to get within 10 city blocks of President Obama,” Maresco wrote.

And in May, he wrote about coaching the kids in basketball.

“Playing with the kids is great and the exercise is an added bonus I suppose,” he wrote. “We make the most out of our practice facility, which is essentially a netball court. Think basketball without the dribbling and no backboards on the hoops. So my new pilgrimage has been to construct some new hoops for my Ballers, woot! I’ve made friends with the local welder who does work for the school and he has been great. ... He reminds me of my dad.”

Maresco added: “Everyday I feel more confident in the work I am achieving and the direction that my life is going in.”

Contact Moore at 374-5036 or Kimberly.moore@nytrng.com.

This article was found at:

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20100905/ARTICLES/100909709/-1/entertainment?p=1&tc=pg

GLOW girls leadership and empowerment project

www.globalgiving.org

Girls Leading Our World is a leadership program for young Armenian girls, ages 12-16 which includes residential summer school for 50 girls and a number of following up activities throughout the year.

If you are interested in donating, please go to the website above for more information.

Just had an incredibly interesting conversation with my counterpart about Armenian cultures and traditions. I think I wrote on this blog before that I will be an aunt soon! I am so excited and cant believe it... it's almost unreal!

We were talking about what happens when a baby is born and the way that it is celebrated. She was telling me that Armenians tend to be superstitious and don't celebrate until after the baby is born. After the baby is born they have a party to celebrate. I didn't get all of the details, but I thought it was interesting. I was telling her about how we have baby showers before the baby is born, usually a month or so before they come along. I also mentioned that it usually is just women who attend this shower. She thought that it was a little odd that men don't participate in the celebration.

It got me thinking about gender and culture. It is interesting that at the Armenian baby 'shower,' families show up and it would kind of be the equivalent to a birthday party for the new baby. Where as in America, we celebrate before the baby is even born and then it is mostly the women... hmmm... I think we should transfer over to the Armenian way of celebrating the birth of a baby!

Just a random thought...

So… it has been a while and I promised I would write, so here it is.

 Green Camps

Green camp is an environmental leadership camp that allows children from different Armenian villages an opportunity to learn about the environment and develop their leadership skills. There were four day camps this summer in four different villages. I worked at two of the camps. They were awesome! The kids that attended the camps were from the village or surrounding villages. It is such a wonderful experience for them. There are not a lot of camp type programs for Armenian children to attend and summers are spent at their house or with relatives. In America, we are really fortunate to have so many different programs that kids can attend. Whether it is Scout camps, sports camps, music camps, summer school or other, our kids can stay pretty busy. Here it is not really the case, there are a limited number of camps. It was awesome being able to participate in some of them.

I also worked at an overnight camp and was able to bring 4 kids from my village to the camp. I also was fortunate enough to have my counterpart, Tamara, agree to help out at some of the camps with me! They would not have worked without her and I really appreciated her spirit and enthusiasm! We had a great time, even though some aspects of the camp were unnecessarily stressful, we had a great time! It will be something I never forget!

To learn more about this camp or to donate to the camps you can click on this link:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=305-063

This is through a Peace Corps Partnership Program and depends on people like you to donate and support various projects.

 New People, New People, New People!

A new group of about 55 people arrived in Armenia at the end of May, went through PST, and now are at their respective sites. It was such a weird experience going from the new kids to old kids. Right after my family left Armenia, I went to the A-18s site announcement ceremony. This is where they learn where they will be living for the next 2 years. Up to that point they have just been studying the language, learning sector specific information, and sitting through meetings about security, health, and PC policies. It was such a fun day because as 17s, we get to find out who our neighbors are and who will live near us for our next year. I, luckily now, have two neighbors! They live in the town east of me and I am excited!

 Family! Friends! Turkey! And it's not Thanksgiving?!?

The best part of my summer was being able to take a vacation, travel around, but most importantly see my family!!! My mom and aunt met me in Turkey and spent two weeks traveling around! They came back to Armenia and spent almost a week seeing the different sites! It was such a wonderful experience being able to share a piece of my new life with them!

A few other volunteers and I went to Georgia to fly out of Tbilisi. We arrived in the morning and the flight was in the afternoon so we had a few hours to explore Tbilisi. We didn't do much exploring as much as we just went to a bath house, a few cafes, and a park to people watch. We took the afternoon flight to Istanbul, hectically met my friend Jake who flew in from Spain, and then hopped an overnight bus to Fethiye.

Before I met my mom and aunt in Istanbul, I went on a boat cruise through the Mediterranean… four days, three nights, sleeping on the dock under a blanket of stars. The cruise started in Fethiye and ended in Olympos. For the next two days, I kept feeling as though I was on a boat and rocking constantly… weird feeling. We spent the night in Olympos and then headed to Antalya the next day. Olympos was beautiful and a relaxed beach community. I really wish we could have stayed there longer; it was nice just hanging out. This vacation came at the best possible point during my service. It was the first time I had been out of Armenia and it had been a little more than a year.

After Olympos, we spent one night in Antalya. Antalya reminded me a lot of a Florida beach town, a relaxed atmosphere, interesting night life, and expansive. It was a lot more built up than I thought it would be but it was nice. We watched the US vs. England football match and met a couple of characters while we were out. The next day we had most of the morning to walk around before we had to catch our flight to Istanbul where I would be meeting my mom and aunt.

Because we flew in domestic and my mom and aunt flew in International, we had to meet them at the International arrival section. It was just like in the movies, or in Love Actually, where they show that montage of people meetings friends or families at the airport. We had to go through security to get into the international arrival section and I was worried we would miss them or it would take forever to locate them. One friend sat with the bags, another went to check the arrival schedule and I camped out with all of the people holding name cards. My plan was to remain calm and just walk up and hug them when I saw them. Or I was going to play a practical joke and walk up, say hi, and just shake hands. Then I saw them… I, embarrassingly, could not contain my excitement. I squealed and ran up to them, gave them a big hug, and may or may not have had tears in my eyes…

After making the introductions, we all headed to the hostel. The hostel was gorgeous and I would definitely recommend it for anyone. It is in a pretty sweet location, relaxing, and has really interesting people that work there. It is called Cheers Hostel and their website is: http://www.cheershostel.com/

For the next couple of days, we explored Istanbul, met up with other PCVs that were also on vacation, and shopped, ate baklava, shopped, ate baklava and shopped. PS I love scarves and Turkey is a horrible place to have that kind of addiction. I also did something horrible… I ate at McDonald's, Little Caesars' and drank at Starbucks. Please don't judge, but all of it was delicious. And now that I have had my McDonald's fix I can go another year or more…

After Istanbul, we took an overnight bus to Cappadocia and spent two days seeing the sights there. I usually am not a big fan of tour groups and buses but it was necessary to see all of the places we wanted to see in the area. We only had two full days there and one night. We stayed in an awesome cave hostel that was also really nice. While there we had some of the best food I have had in a while. They make this stew type dish in ceramic pots. It is incredibly flavorful and unique tasting! We had a great time there and relaxed a little after the hectic-ness of Istanbul.

We took the night bus back to Istanbul, had one more night in the hostel before flying back to Tbilisi. I was going to stay a couple of nights in Tbilisi with my family but it turned out to be better if I went back to Yerevan right away. I took my family to some of the sights in and around Yerevan, including the Cascades, Garni, Geghart, Khor Virap, Noravank, and Ichmiadzin (sp?). I took my mom to my village and introduced her to my wonderful counterpart Tamara and Tamara's family! It was really cool that my mom was able to spend time in my village, even though it was short and we weren't able to see everyone I wanted to…

During my mom and aunt's stay in Yerevan, the World Cup was playing. We developed a schedule that worked out well. Run around during the day, come back and watch a game, eat dinner during the 2 hour break, watch the last game until 1-2 in the am and then call it a night. Repeat on the next day! It was awesome! It was hard to say good-bye to my mom and aunt but it was amazing having them here! I had such a wonderful time and can't wait to see them again!

 Mid-Service, that's right, HALF way mark…

Yeah, so I have been here a year, officially. And I, officially, have one year left. Yeah, so pretty much, I don't know where this last year went… Wait, what?!?! A YEAR! Oh my, this time thing is flying by… Our mid-service conference was pretty good. We were put up at a sweet hotel with sweet showers and nice, hard, beds. It was awesome. As tradition, we also played kickball and, of course, being 17s we kicked butt! Those poor 18s had no clue what happened or who we are. Last year, playing the 16s was fun but not really challenging. (Sorry guys, but it wasn't.) The 18s presented a slight challenge towards the end but we were never really scared. The 18s say we cheated and called a game too early, but all of those factors were beyond our control… we won, fair and square. But not to gloat too much, the purpose was to have fun… I know the 17s did! Ha!

But in all seriousness, it has been a year and it feels weird. People say that your 2nd year is totally different than your 1st and I know that will be the case. There are so many different factors going into my second year… no site mate, working at the culture house instead of school, projects, and grants set up… It definitely will be much busier this next year than it was last year. I feel I will blink and I will be writing about COS (close of service) conference. I can guarantee a freak-out session because then I will have to figure out my life for the next year anyways…

 Job Description

This school year will be a lot different than it was last year. I will be starting working full time at the Cultural House in my village. I will be doing about 4-5 after school clubs. Most of them will be English teaching with EE topics woven in. I hope to have a creative writing club, an eco club, a volunteer club, and possibly 2 others. I really want to expand and have an adult English class but I am not sure how that will work. I also hope to write a grant to help renovate the cultural house.

 After Peace Corps

With less than a year left, I am starting to think about what will happen next year. Who knows is the only answer I have for it… It is kind of stressful to think about the future and I am trying to live in the present. It is hard when all of your peers are applying to grad schools/ looking at jobs and I am just staring off into space. I know what I want to do: teach. I know where I want to teach: somewhere not in the US. I know when I want to start teaching: 2012/2013 school year. But between August 2011 and June-ish 2012, not a clue… I know I want to travel around: Turkey (again), India, Malaysia, Australia, Philippines, Thailand… For how long: longer than a month, less than a year. Ah! Growing up and making decisions is a lot harder than you would think… but at least I am fortunate enough to have these options open and family and friends that are supportive. Right?

 So stay tuned to new posts… They should be coming a lot more often now that I have the internets!

Three camps, all Armenian, and all fun! There are a total of five camps this summer, but I am only able to participate in three of them. So far, one has been completed and it was awesome! The kids were adorable and fun! I did a lot of the background work, kitchen work, prep work, and other organization stuff. But it was fun! I got to spend a week with other great volunteers!

I have two more camps in August and cant wait. I will be blogging more about it later. And now that I have a new computer (THANKS MAMA AND DAD!!!), and internet (THANKS E-LO!), I will be able to blog and email more, so look forward to that!

Love you all!

Summer is awesome! I have had such a great time these last few months!

In June, I went to Turkey with some of my fellow volunteers and then while I was there, I met up with my mama and aunt! I had such a great time, it was so relaxing. My mom and aunt came back to Armenia with me and we spent a week together traveling to different areas around Armenia.

I will be writing more, but just wanted to put up a short blog to let you know I am still alive.

October 2009- February 2010

Editors Note: This is a compilation of different posts that I have written over the last couple of months. Because of the holidays and the different times that I have written this, the post might jump around a bit. Sorry.

November 11, 2009 Note: Wow, I can’t believe it is already November, it seems as though time is flying by! These two years are going to fly by! Then again, it isn’t winter yet. But let me tell you, I am already colder than I have ever been. In my host family’s house, the only room that gets good sun is the kitchen and is on the exact opposite of my room. So my room never heats up with the sun and will not retain the warmth from the electric heaters… so it will be a cold winter for me.

But in other news, I looked at my new apartment! It belongs to my host uncle’s parents-in-law’s parents. Whew! They are in Russia and have been for the last ten years, I think. They won’t be coming back to Aragats any time soon, so they are allowing me to rent it, which I think is great! It is a huge apartment on the fifth floor. It is close to my site mate too, which will be nice when it gets darker earlier. I won’t have to walk home in the dark with the big scary dogs here.

Other Notes:

Lake Sevan

A group of us went to Lake Sevan as our first weekend out of site. When we first move to site, we are unable to leave our site for a month. This is to get us used to site and to get us involved in the community. Looking back (I am writing this about 3 months after the fact), it was smart of them to not allow us out of site for a month because it forces us to work on our language and adapting into the community. To be honest though because school is not in session, it was kind of boring just hanging out. When you enter PC, you can’t help it but you do have grandiose ideas about what you will be doing. Then you get to site and basically hang out for a month… not always what you thought.

Anyway, Sevan was really fun and a lot colder than I thought it would be. We rented a couple of cabins through another volunteer’s host family. We had a barbeque (horovats) and made delicious food. We had dance parties, played cards, laughed a LOT and generally enjoyed the lake. We went to an old monastery that was close to the cabins. It was really beautiful and we took some fun band photos! It was really cold though and gave us a small glimpse of what winter will be.

The cabins were nice and another PCV set it up but they weren’t what I was thinking when they said cabin. They are basically tin boxes with beds and a bathroom. But it was cheap enough and worked for what we wanted. I would totally go there again, but now I have to wait for warm weather…

Initiatives and Soccer Games

There are a couple of initiatives in PC. There is GAD, gender and development, EAI, environmental action initiative, PR, public relations and HIV/AIDS awareness. I am apart of the GAD and EAI initiative. We had our first meeting towards the end of September and got together to talk about projects that would be continuing and projects that they wanted to start on. There are some exciting things that may be happening and I am excited to be apart of it. It was also nice because I was able to see a bunch of volunteers that I had not seen in a while.

We also are only allowed 2 nights a month in Yerevan so I used my two nights for that weekend. It was nice being Yerevan because it is a big city that has a lot of European influences. It has outdoor cafes, during the summer, and lots of shops. It also has an outdoor market, the varnasage, where you can go and get some really cool souvenirs and household items. It is kind of like you leave Armenia and go into an up-and-coming European city.

The soccer game was a few weeks after the initiatives weekend but it was in Yerevan. Armenia versus Spain was the game and Armenia ended up losing 2-1 but it was a better game than expected. A few volunteers met up at an outdoor café before the game and just caught up on life. It is really nice and relaxing to hang out in the capital. There are also some places that remind me of places back in Gainesville.

Bird Week

Anyone who knows me knows how much I like to bird. Armenia is a great place to do bird watching because we have a lot of migratory birds. There are also a lot of different climates here so there are many different types of birds in a relatively small area. There are also a couple of different bird watching/protection programs that are happening in Armenia. One of them is an organization that sponsors annual bird watches.

For one of the annual bird watching events, I met up with my mentor PCV and another PCV and we went out at my mentor’s site to look for birds. She lives close to Gyumri and therefore there were a lot of raptor birds that we could see. Now, it has been debated whether or not I saw the bird, but I am pretty sure we saw an Imperial Eagle. This is very exciting for me but about two weeks after this sighting I went to a bird watching class.

At this bird watching class it was debated whether I really saw an Imperial Eagle or not. This saddens me a lot. The coolest bird I have seen in this country has a shadow of doubt cast over it. Therefore, I will continue looking for it and will see it again with someone who will identify it beyond doubt.

But the bird watching class was awesome! It was a week long and at the American University in Yerevan. It was 9 to 5 everyday and was all about birds and how to identify them. That Saturday we had a trip out to the lake to see the different birds that we learned about. We saw a lot of cool water birds! It was an awesome week because I learned so much. I can now train my students about birding skills. Next year, there is an advanced bird watching training that I can attend!

List of what I have seen so far:

Great Crested Grebe

Squacco Heron

White Stork!!! (There are nests in my mentor’s site!)

Lammergeier (such a cool bird- saw it from a marshutney while driving from an EAI meeting to YVN)

Common Buzzard

Imperial Eagle (?!?!?)

Common Kestrel

Ruddy Shelduck

Armenian Gull

European Bee-eater (such a pretty bird)

European Roller

Eurasian Hoopoe

White Wagtail

Red-backed Shrike

Sedge Warbler

Blue Tit

European Goldfinch

Eurasian Jay

Magpies (ugh, pretty but my gosh they are everywhere)

Eurasian Jackdaw

Carrion Crow

This is a list of the species that I know for sure. I have probably seen twice as many but either haven’t gotten a for sure identification or have forgotten to write them down.

Halloween and Green Camps!

School had a break the week before Halloween, called the Fall Break. I did not find out about it until the 24th, the Saturday before the break but I was able to go to Artsvaberd, which is in the north by Berd. Other PCVs were having a Green Camp and I decided to go up and help out. So I took a 2-hour marshutney to Yerevan and then took a 4-hour taxi ride north. It was a long day of travel and driving through the mountains took forever. It was really foggy too and it was a lot of back and forth up and down the mountain! But we made it safely!

Green Camp was a lot of fun! We played games, hiked around, almost lost kids (we found them, they went to their house before everyone else), and generally had a lot of fun. I love camp and had so much fun playing with the kids. We sang Boom Chick A Boom in Armenian, which isn’t much different than in English. Other PCVs came up and we all stayed at a 16s house. It was really cold there because of how north it is, but it was gorgeous! That part of the country is mountainous and has a lot of trees. On one of the hikes you can see Azerbaijan, which was cool.

The kids were also awesome! They were excited to be there and seemed to enjoy the Americans. There was also this kid that I had a lot of fun playing around with. One time at snack, we had wafers. Here they are called wafflies. I thought the name was funny so I did a dance and sang “wafflies, wafflies,” basically just being silly. Well he thought it was hilarious and him and I would do the wafflies dance. The next day another kid came up to me and introduced himself. Then he said he is so-and-so’s little brother. But I didn’t know wafflies’ name so I didn’t know who he was talking about. Then he told me he is poker wafflies. Poker means little, so he was saying he was wafflies little brother. It was probably the most adorable thing I have ever witnessed! So for the rest of the camp, I called the older brother wafflies and the little brother poker wafflies. It was so funny; we would all do the wafflies dance.

Also during the camp, we got to go hiking. There is a statue close to Artsvabed that we had to climb a giant hill to get to. It was really cool and once we made it to the top, we got to see all around. It is beautiful in that part of the country. There are tall trees and green hills/mountains. It is the complete opposite of my site.

The camp was great because it reminded me why I am here, and that is to work with the kids of Armenia. This is a memory I will have forever!

While there, we also celebrated Halloween with other volunteers. This was fun and very American. We all dressed up and had a dance party. Good times!

The Dogs!

I am surprised I have not mentioned this in earlier posts, but there are lots and lots of dogs here. Some are domesticated (mostly in Yerevan or Gyumri), some belong to a family and are tied up outside of the house or left outside but fenced in, and then there are wild dogs that just roam around. And because there isn’t a trash system in place, there are dump sites where these dogs can be found. It is sad to see because they are so ragged and some looked like they had homes at some point.

Now, both the outside dogs that belong to a family and the wild dogs during winter get hungry. When they are hungry they can get kind of scary because they are more likely to charge you. I have yet to be attacked, but I have been charged. Especially at night, if you are walking through town, it is smart to carry a rock. I am not really scared but it is something that you have to think about. I am not sure what kind of dogs they are but they are huge. Also, a lot of times they have their ears clipped. I am not sure why. A lot of the dogs that are owned by someone work as herding dogs, they go out with the cows and sheep. I don’t know if there is really a threat of cows or sheep being attacked by anything. Armenia does have wolves, but there aren’t that many to be a threat, at least I don’t think… Something I should look up.

My Apartment

Anyways, to get back to my new apartment… it is huge! It is three bedrooms, a giant living room, a long kitchen with a gas stove (that is really all they have here), bathroom, balcony, electricity, no water, and no gas heat or heating system. Yay! It will be interesting to live in. It is on the fifth floor and when I want water, more than likely, I will have to get it from the well outside, which means trips up and down! Think of this, I have an indoor toilet but no water. So I have to pour water down the toilet to flush it. So I will have storage bins of water, which means even more trips up and down the stairs. Yay for exercise!

All-Vol!

All-Vol is the All Volunteer Conference that happens towards the end of November. It is a time to come together and kind of refresh with everything. The new group goes for a couple of days more so they can talk about how things are going and have a couple of classes of language. It is fun time because everyone is together. We are put up in a nice hotel in Yerevan with hot water all of the time!

The conference is one of the times that all of the volunteers are together. It was nice because I met some PCVs that I had never met before, most of the people that I had never met before live way up north or in the south. I wish there were more opportunities that we could meet up though because it is good to hear from other volunteers what they are doing and success stories they have had.

Also the conference is scheduled around Thanksgiving and we always have a Thanksgiving dinner together. A group of volunteers work on cooking the dinner and then most of the staff and volunteers eat together. It was a really good time. We stood around the food, said a blessing, and gave thanks. The food was delicious; the cooks did an awesome job! It was wonderful because I was around so many people that were going through the same thing. It was funny too because during dinner my table shared stories of funny Thanksgiving moments or traditions that you do on Thanksgiving.

The conference was great because it was re-energizing. I was able to get ideas for teaching English and able to talk to other EEs about things they are doing in their classes. It was also good because we were able to talk about frustrations we might be having and it was good to know that others had similar frustrations. It felt good to be around so many people that were going through similar things and for the most part, it was really positive.

Side Note: Peace Corps Friend Groups

There are a couple of different groups in PC:

First, during staging in Philadelphia, you make a friend group. This usually consists of people you either met on the plane, at the airport, the first person you saw at the hotel, or the people you are rooming with.

Then you go to the hotel in Armenia. This is your second group of friends; again usually people who you happen to sit next to on the plane, traveled around in Vienna, or are rooming with. They usually consist of those in the first group and a few more. You are beginning to learn more about people’s personalities and are beginning to find similarities.

Next, you are assigned to your PST village. These, usually, become your closest friends because you live in the same site for 11 weeks. My village consisted of all EEs, so not only did we have language class but also we had sector classes together on central days. Also, those in your sector are in your friend group because you work on projects and go on field trips together.

Lastly, you say goodbye and go to your new sites. If you have a site mate or live close to other volunteers, these become your next group of friends. This group of friends also consists of the volunteers that are in your warden group. A warden group consists of those that live close and during an emergency will consolidate together.

There is also the difference between the north and south. The people in the south become closer because traveling north takes forever so they do not do it much. The same goes for those in the north.

These different groups are great and I am not complaining at all, I am just explaining how your friend group changes throughout your service. For sure, you will stay friends with everyone you have developed a relationship with throughout your service, you just get closer to the people that are close to you. It is interesting how your friend group changes and the dynamics in those groups.

My Boots

I always thought boots were stupid and more of a fashion statement than a practical type of shoe. I also lived in Florida where people would wear Uggs with mini skirts, so I have a slight bias against boots. But being here in Armenia, everyone has boots. And for a while, I resisted having a pair, insisting my Florida shoes would be fine… Um, no!

So I broke down and bought a pair of boots that I have yet to take off of my feet. They are a suede material that comes up mid calf. They are really warm because they are insulated. Right now, two months later, they aren’t the black color they were when I bought them, but they still do the trick. Next year, I assume I will have to buy a new pair because these wont last past this winter. I still wear two pair of socks under them but they are warm! My feet still freeze on the marshutneys but there is no stopping that.

UPDATE: As of February 6, 2010 my boots are out of commission. After the PDM conference, I was walking through Yerevan. It had snowed a LOT and it was melting on the roads. So I had to walk through some water, and while my boots are awesome, they are NOT waterproof. Basically the bottom of my boots came off and I can no longer wear them. Hopefully the weather warms up soon because I have been wearing tennis shoe-type shoes. Shoes and clothes do not last long here!

Pizza and a Movie in America

So for PST, we earned what was called Lee Cash. This was given out when we would do some things for PC, such as reflection journals or answer questions during central days. At the end of PST there is an auction where we use our Cash to bid on various items. They ranged from sleeping bags, cooking wear, trips with the director, movie nights, and other various things. Well, I won baking things and a pizza & movie night with Amy, the second in command.

So after All-Vol week, another PCV and I went to Amy and her husband’s house to have pizza and watch a movie! It was like a night in America! Their house is amazing and very similar to America. They were kind enough to let us spend the night and use their shower… oh my! The pizza was delicious and we had Italian sausage!

It was really fun to hang out with them because they served in PC Africa. They allowed us to look through their photo album from their service. It was interesting because some of their pictures look exactly like mine, in terms of times with other PCVs and what you take pictures of. It is interesting because even though we were in totally different countries, we have similar experiences.

I also had a conversation through Skype with a PCV in Cape Verde around January. We were talking about how we have felt during service and the different emotions you go through. Especially with going through PST, moving to site, living at site for a couple of months, working, speaking another language, missing home, talking to home, and everything else. Although our site and placements are very different, the emotions are the same. You are frustrated at some of the same things; you laugh at the same jokes… its crazy. There really is such a thing as the PC family.

*Holidays*

It was kind of bitter sweet because Thanksgiving and Christmas are times that I go home (except for the one Thanksgiving I was in Germany) and spend time with family. This holiday season was very different because it didn’t really feel like the holidays. Right now I feel that Thanksgiving and Christmas won’t happen for a couple of years. It is a weird feeling.

But one really cool thing that happened to me is it snowed on Thanksgiving!

For Christmas, I made the long trip south to Kapan. A lot of people went to one of two places for Christmas. One of those places was Kapan and so there were a lot of volunteers there to celebrate the holidays. We did a gift exchange where people bought 5000-dram worth of household items and we had a grab bag type exchange. We were going to do a white elephant type of gift exchange but we ran out of time. We went to another volunteer’s house that lives right outside of Kapan. It was big enough to fit about 20ish people. We all brought dishes to pass and I made dip!

We had lots of good food and good times. I was able to call home which was nice because I was put on speakerphone and got to talk to family! I missed family a lot during the holidays but since if didn’t really feel like Christmas, I was okay.

-Move In Day-

Wow, I have a lot of crap. This is about the only thing I realized when I moved in. I also have been thinking a lot about the after-service trip that I will be taking. I plan on traveling through India and Southeast Asia. But I only want to take a backpack to travel through. So whatever I want to take from PC will have to fit in that backpack. And looking around my apartment, there is not much that I will be taking with me after my service. A lot of stuff I am hoping I will either pass on to the next group or will be leaving in country. I will probably send some stuff back to the states, but I don’t think I will have that much that I will need to send back. Interesting.

PCV Apartments

Ugh, talk about mini-America and jealousy. So there are two apartments that I have stayed in that I am extremely jealous of. My apartment doesn’t have running water or heat (besides my PC electric heaters), so any place that has water and heat will make me jealous. But there are really only two places that I am extremely jealous of. And as it happens, those are two people that I am extremely close to. So on one hand it is good because when I visit them, I basically go back to America. On the other hand though, it has the potential to cause a lot of jealousy problems… hehe. Both apartments are like mini-American apartments with running hot water and a nice form of heating. Both of those apartments are in larger cities though so it makes sense that they would have nicer apartments.

8 Months in Country

Wow, I cannot believe I have been here for that long… on one hand it feels as though time is flying by and it has only been a few months but then I feel as though I have been here for years. I think that is the general statement about PC: the days are long but the time is short. Some days can drag on but if you look back over the past week, it flew by. I think time has gone by so fast though because of the holidays, All-Vol, conferences, and school being out.

PDM

Project Design and Management conference is a requirement for A-17 PCVs that want to write a SPA grant. But beyond that it is a conference where you bring your counterpart to talk about how to design and manage projects. It is a great conference that teaches you start to finish how to create a project. It is five days long and in Tsaghadzor, which is a resort town.

It was a fun conference because I was able to spend time with my counterpart and really get to know her! She is awesome and I am excited to implement some of what we talked about during the conference into out town!

In Other News…

In other news, I am going to be an aunt! As exciting as this news is, I am a little sad I will miss a lot. I knew entering Peace Corps that this might happen so I mentally tried to prepare for it. But you can’t really prepare for this kind of news. I am so excited and I keep going back and forth between being scared of what type of aunt I will be to panicking that I now have to become responsible! Ah! And I cant wait because I know how awesome my brother and sis-in-law will be as parents, that this is such a blessing!

Bucket List:

Because I have so much time devoted to thinking, I have decided to create a bucket list of things that I want to do in my life. I added things that I knew I wanted out of life and have already accomplished, just because I wanted it to be a complete list. Some of these are borrowed from other people. It is something cool to do because it shows all of life’s possibilities!

Also, with this time, I have created my five-year plan. Hopefully, after PC I will travel through India and Southeast Asia, go home for a couple of months, and then take a job teaching in an international school or with the Department of Defense School System! Who knows!

• Get Masters Degree

• Peace Corps

• Backpack Europe

• Spend every birthday in new country (probably not possible every year- but something to strive towards)

• Swim in every ocean, yes even the Arctic, I am thinking off the north coast of Alaska?

• Visit every continent

• Visit Hawaii and Alaska

• Take an Alaskan cruise

• Sky dive and if I like it, get certified

• Get certified in diving

• Dive the Great Barrier Reef

• See a World Cup Football Match

• Go to an Olympic sport

• Learn Spanish fluently

• Travel to every country in Central America

• Write out a life Bird List

• Take a road trip from Florida to Alaska

• Macchu Picchu in Peru

• Ayers Rock

• Backpack India

• Teach in another country, not including PC

• Learn to appreciate wine

• Run with the bulls in Spain

• Participate in the tomato fight (Spain?)

• Go on an African safari

• Route 66

• Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, and Mt Rushmore

• Get more tattoos!

• Whale watching

• Spend a month in the United Kingdom

• Travel around Greece

• Swim with Sharks off the coast of South Africa

• See Silverback Gorillas in the wild

• World Wildlife Fund trip

• Go to a Super Bowl game

• Be involved in Girl Scouts

• Never have regrets!

Hey All!

Happy Thanksgiving! I miss you all! I have been writing but have not been able to upload. I just wanted to write a quick note that I appreciate and am thankful for all of you! I hope you had a wonderful holiday and are getting ready for the upcoming season and New Year!

September 14, 2009

Site:

I have now been at my site for at least a month and so far it has been slow. I feel like I am hitting a language plateau, which is frustrating because this is when I need an explosion in language because I have begun teaching. I will describe my site, host family, and assignment later in this post. Right now I have some stories that I want to get down.

Spiders in the Outhouse

If you are friends with me on facebook, you have seen this story but I thought I would share it here in my blog. So for those of you who don’t know or haven’t heard, I am the owner of an outhouse*. My house in Aragats is a two-story house with all of the living happening on the second floor. So to get to my outhouse, you have to go down the stairs outside, down a path past the building where cows used to be, past the chicken coup, and you arrive at my outhouse. It is basically in the garden in the back yard. If any of you are familiar with my parent’s house in Bradenton, it would be like walking from the living room to the back gate where the park is but all outside! Not too bad, but still a walk that will be interesting in the winter with snow. I have a feeling I wont be using the bathroom much during the winter… he he.

So anyways, in one of my morning rushes to go to the bathroom, I walk out do my business and as I am standing up my head goes into a carefully crafted spider’s web. All I know is thank goodness I went to the bathroom before this happened, because it scared me. I run out of the house and leave the door open so I can look back at what exactly happened. In the corner is a spider obviously upset that I messed up its web. Understandably so, I know that it must have taken it a long time to make it. But the spider is black and white and its body is as fat as a nickel. And that was just its body; it was huge!

Now, I am stupidly scared of spiders. I have been scared of spiders probably my whole life, but it was heightened when in 7th grade I saw a movie about deadly spiders. The movie highlighted the lethalness of black widow spiders, which give me nightmares to this day. But to try and overcome my fears, I have compromised with the spider world. I will not kill spiders if they are outside unless they are threatening my life, and even then they have to be about to bite me while saying “I am going to kill you now.” Also, I try not to kill spiders and the only exceptions I have made are those that are found in my room. Even these can sometimes be lucky if it is during the day and I can capture and release them outside. And when I do relocate, I have horrible nightmares and fears that they will grow into giant man-eating spiders and avenge their relocation. Or if I do end up killing them, their family members will plan an attack while I sleep. It is very unrealistic, I understand, but still scares the crap out of me. Daddy long legs and sometimes tarantulas are the only spiders that I can handle and actually can say I don’t mind.

Keeping this compromise in mind, I was placed in a moral dilemma. This spider was technically outside, I can’t in any way claim that my outhouse is a building and therefore indoors. So technically, according to the compromise, I can’t kill this spider. And I really shouldn’t relocate it because it does help with the fly population that can be found in the outhouse. But it was so big and scary that I could potentially see it getting angry with me for messing up its web every time I stood up and then killing me. It was plausible. So I made a decision to get my host sister involved. She claims she is not that scared of spiders and can handle the situation. Next to my outhouse is a pile of sticks (wonder where the spiders came from?). She grabs one, wraps the web and spider around the stick and throws it down the hole!

Great, now this spider is not only upset that I ruined its web but also is now NOT dead in a pile of crap at the bottom of an outhouse hole. And now I can’t go to the bathroom at all because there is a spider just sitting, waiting, and planning revenge. I’m pretty sure it didn’t realize it was my host sister that actually did the relocation. But to be honest, I can understand why it would place the blame solely on me.

That day I went to school, taught, went to my neighbor’s house, and hung out. I went to the bathroom one other time that day and checked each corner and crevice before doing my business. Next day, I rushed out of the house and was out until the afternoon. But then it came time to face my fears. I walked to the shack and swung open the door. I had a feeling I was about to face death when I opened the door. And I did. But now instead of one set of eyes on me, there were two. Just like I knew would happen, it brought a friend. And in that single day, they procreated. They had an egg sack, which I can only assume to be the army they were raising up against me. They expanded their web to cover the entire top of the outhouse and seemed prepared to fight.

I had to. I had no other choice. I couldn’t relocate them again; they might have come back with other friends, bigger friends. I didn’t know what would have happened. I still feel bad about it but I had to. I went back to the stick pile, picked a sturdy stick and fought. I stood up for the right to use my outhouse without fear of death. I had to. I couldn’t involve anyone else in this decision; I had to fight this battle on my own. When it’s family members decide to avenge their deaths, I couldn’t have them attacking my host family members and friends. I had to do it alone.

Needless to say, the spiders are no longer with us. It was quick and hopefully painless. They did put up a fight and one died defending the nest, they were brave and I am sorry for what I have done.

Now it is a slow wait process to see what their family members decide to do…

*The term outhouse is used to describe an actual shack style outhouse with the moon on the door. It is a squatty-potty with a hole in the ground for you to do your business.

UNO

This game is great. It gets people of all ages to gather around a table and play a simple card game. It can bring out a range of emotions, from cutthroat competition to sidesplitting laughter to deadly silence. It can be played while having a deep conversation about family members to dancing and listening to Armenian/Russian pop music. It is completely versatile and allows a beginning Armenian speaker to teach a game to her family members.

This was the first time my brother actually played a game with me too! Very exciting! My brother is very shy around me and doesn’t talk to me much. I totally understand it and am very happy that I have a somewhat similar soul. But he is slowly opening up to me and talking to me sometimes. I really want to know the language more because I know he is funny. He likes to tell stories and always has good one-liners, I just don’t understand them.

Sad Pancake Story

So, I attempted to make pancakes and failed miserably. They had to be the worst pancakes I have ever made in my entire life. You know the first pancake that always fails; the entire batch was like that but worse. I think I used baking soda instead of baking powder, which might explain it. I also couldn’t use milk so they weren’t that rich. It was really sad. I wanted to cry. And those who know me well, know how much I love pancakes…

That is one of the frustrating things. I think I mentioned this in another post, but it is exactly like what my professor said: there is no middle ground of emotions. You either have an amazing day where you are on top of the world or it is one of the worst days of your life. Ok, so maybe that is an extreme dramatization but it is pretty accurate. It is like once you are in PC, you become bi-polar with your emotions. When I have a good day, I am on top of the world. My language is amazing, I am picking up words I didn’t even know I knew, I can have in-depth conversations with people, people understand me (!), and I am culturally appropriate at all times! But when I am having a not-so-good day, it is like nothing can go right. And you might be thinking, oh my maybe she is bi-polar, but a lot of others feel this way too. In America, I had average days, where things were just good or okay. But here, there are more extreme days than just average days. Weird. I bet PC volunteers would be good people to do psychological studies on.

Teaching

So my assignment is to work with my counterpart in school or after school and teach about environmental education. But for now, I am working in the English class with 3rd and 8th form. We shall see how this goes…

A Small Community

My first invitation to coffee was when I was just walking down the street. I was sad that I had to turn it down but my family was waiting for me. It was super exciting though because I was stopped and someone knew me! This really is a small town. I am finding out that people are still unsure of why I am here or what I am doing. I know that integration is a slow process so I am being patient. But it was still exciting that I was invited in for coffee!!! Although I don’t drink coffee, they usually will serve me tea.

The Best Shower Ever!

When I was here for site visit, they were putting in a shower. I think baths before the existence of this shower room were outside showers in the tub in my backyard or bucket baths in the kitchen. When I arrived at site, the shower room was still not complete. But they would work on it every couple of days at night. I wanted to help out but would probably have been in the way more than I would have been of use.

It was fun though while it was being built. My host mom, sister, and I would go down and sit outside, sometimes listening to music, while my host father, brother, sometimes uncle, and sometimes grandfather would work away installing the shower. It was fun especially when we would play music. We would dance around and my host father would sing away. They really like Akon’s song, Right Now (Na Na Na) and love singing it at the top of their lungs. My iPhone has that song on it, so we would all dance and sing to it over and over again. My dad would even dance around to it. Fun times.

These are some of the memories I will have for the rest of my life because it was so carefree and fun. Even though I can’t speak fluently or even enough to have an entirely deep conversation, my family and I connected to each other through music. Music is such a universal thing and can be so powerful. It makes me realize how important music is and how important it is to me. Music helps me escape when I am having a bad day, it can put me to sleep, and one song can have a million different memories tied to it (think Newsies soundtrack or N’SYNC). And now Akon’s music has a whole different meaning to me.

About a week and half after I had been at site, I had my first shower! Oh my, it felt good. Just like in the states, I set up my music and danced around. It was one of the best showers because it felt so good to shower after about 2 weeks without one! This shower is one of the few luxuries I have at my site, and with the almost constant water, I could have a shower every day if I wanted one.

Watching Football (Soccer)

My papik (grandfather) who lives across the street comes over and watches football with my dad. My uncle will sometimes come over and watch it as well. My grandfather used to play soccer for 15 years, I don’t know if it was professionally or when he played but he loves watching it. I love watching it with him because it is another way we can connect. He usually goes for Manchester United but I am not sure if he always supports that team or just when they play. And right now, I don’t really have a team that I specifically support so I am going along with Manchester United. Although, I saw the Arsenal (I think?) game where the coach was kicked off of the pitch. That was fun because my grandfather was really upset and yelling at the television. Funny!

It is also fun because it is the guy thing to do in the house. In the States, I watch football and am really missing my Gators play! And I have been keeping up somewhat with my boys through the internet but I haven’t been able to see any games. I have the option of listening to the games through this service that costs about 5000 dram, which roughly equals about 15 dollars a game. But I might only do that with more important games later in the season. So, for now I am replacing my football watching with watching soccer. And it is good because I love soccer. Not to mention, but soccer boys are so cute! He he! Maybe I will begin to pick a team and begin following them!

September 15, 2009

It is kind of funny right now; I am watching the men in my family cut limbs off a nut tree. It is my grandfather, my father, my brother, and my 4-year-old nephew. Just like American men and stereotypes of men working, they will work hard for about 5 minutes and then take a break and talk about what they accomplished. Actually, I just realized they are cutting down the whole thing. Why? I am not sure but he is going for the trunk. This is pretty sad. My father is cutting it with a chain saw while my brother, grandfather and nephew hold on to a rope that is wrapped around the tree. Success (I guess), it just came down. Apparently, it was getting too big and

Behind my house I have a garden that is full of vegetables right now. In the garden there is eggplant, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, lots and lots of peppers (I think they either are poblano or very similar to poblano peppers), herbs (basil, cilantro, parsley, and others), garlic, and onion. We also have a couple of small apple trees, a nut tree, apricot (still, even though one was cut down), a cherry tree, and some other things. We have a stalk of corn and I think my tatik said something about melons. Then behind my house there is a field that is connected to School Number One. A lot of the times there are soccer games being held there.

September 17, 2009

Right now, I am staring out at my mountain. I think I have found my thinking spot in my new site. I like this spot in my kitchen. It is close enough to hear what everyone is doing and feel apart of the family and it is has a great view. This is my new health spa spot, it is my new place to think and write. I never really realized how much I like to write. Getting my thoughts out and rereading them help me focus on what is important.

I wrote this after a conversation with another volunteer. I was telling him about what was happening and how I didn’t like not knowing something. He told me that I needed to live in the grey. So I wrote this paragraph, I thought it was funny and figured I would share. Enjoy my musings.

I like black and white. I do not like grey. Grey and I are not friends and might never be. I don’t like him and I am pretty sure he is not fond of me. Black and white make sense. They have reasons for what they do and explanations for why they are doing it. One is just bad and the other is just good, there aren’t any spaces in between. Both are clear-cut and one is opposite of the other. Again, both make sense. I like these areas. Grey leaves spaces for questions, with a lot of them being unanswered. I don’t like this. I don’t like my questions being unanswered. I want answers: I need answers. I like knowing. I don’t mind figuring things out but when I know they don’t have an answer or lead to a place of reality and grey area, I am unhappy. But I think living in reality and in the human world you have to live in the grey. While some people flourish here, I need to learn how to flourish in a world full of grey. So far I think I have done okay, but I can do better.

September 24, 2009

Yum! Yum! Food…

So I am assuming that some of you are wondering about what I eat. Well they aren’t starving me, that is for sure! Right now, there are a lot of fruit and vegetables available because it is the end of summer. I already said what we have in our garden, so that is about what we eat.

I will describe some of the food I have been served, as that is an accurate representation of what you would be served if you visited. These items are usually for guests and parties.

Dolma- mmmm… it is delicious! It can be either grape leaves or cabbage leaves stuffed with ground meat that is mixed with spices and rice. They are rolled and then boiled. They can be served with matsun, which is similar to yogurt. Sometimes they mix the matsun with garlic and oh goodness, that is delicious!

Horovats- Some of you may have heard me talk of this. Basically it is a barbeque in the sense that the meat is grilled. They make a fire out of sticks, let them burn to coal and then roast chicken or pork over it. They also skewer tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes, peppers, and other veggies and roast them. They then put it all on lavash and you dig in. It is absolutely wonderful. The most seasoning they do for chicken is salt it. And for the pork, it all depends but mostly oil, salt, pepper, herbs, and onions.

Lavash- similar to tortillas or chapattis, just a flat bread that is served with every meal.

Soups- There is a soup that looks kinda orange and usually has cabbage in it. I forget what it is called now, but that is good and usually has some meat in it.

These are the more traditional foods.

For the rest of the time, there are different things. A lot of fried potatoes, sometimes rice, these Georgian ravioli type things, fried potatoes, salad (which just consists of sliced tomatoes and cucumber), soup, fried eggplant (which is delicious!), eggs, eggs fried with hotdogs, and other similar type meals. Food has been really good, no complaints so far. Bread is served with every meal and it is really good.

For the past couple of weeks we have had honey from my family’s orchard. That is exciting because I love honey! Yum Yum!

Gyumri!

This amazing place hosts some of my new best friends! And it is in my extended community so I can go there, not too often, but enough. Gyumri is host to a Russian military base so there are a bunch of military men running around. However, they all look to be at least 16 years old. But anyways, Gyumri is the second largest city in Armenia. It is big enough to get semi-lost if you don’t know the place but not big enough that you feel overwhelmed.

There is a great group of volunteers around there so I get to hang out with other Americans on weekends if I wanted to. To get there I can take an old soviet train, a marshutney (which is like a 12 passenger van that they will squeeze anywhere from 20-28 people), or a taxi. The train, which goes from Yerevan to Gyumri and through my town is 500 dram and takes a slow but relaxing 2 hours. The marshutney is packed and takes 1200 dram and is about 1 hour and 45 minutes. The taxi is quicker but probably costs around 5000 dram. So my cheap option, obviously, is the train and I love taking it. I hope to get pictures of it but I don’t want to look like a tourist or more out of place than I already do.

About two weeks ago, I made my first solo ride to do some banking and Internet. I met up with another volunteer and had lunch. We went around and did some shopping. I bought shampoo and conditioner (I know, big spender) and then we went to an internet café to skype! This was nice and I hope to skype more! It is weird to talk and see people that are all the way around the country… Madness, I say, madness!

The second time I skyped, I went to a different internet café. That was interesting because half way through my conversation, they started building a swinging door in the internet place. Then a group of guys behind me kept staring at my conversation. Talk about not having privacy! But it was still wonderful to hear from my brother, sister-in-law, mom, and dad! Thanks for talking guys!!!

Even Sadder Pancake Story

So I asked my mom to send me maple syrup because you can’t get that here and because it is delicious. I wanted to retry my pancake abilities and impress my family with delicious maple syrup. But when the package came, apparently the bottle busted and cut the plastic bag that contained it. So needless to say impressively besides the book, DVDs, and recipe book, everything was covered in sticky goo. I wanted to cry because nothing was salvageable. (I say I wanted to cry, but I actually did. There were a couple of tears. You people know how much I love maple syrup…)

But anyways, picking up the package was interesting because they had no clue what the ooze coming out of it was. They thought it was muraba, which is a sweet sauce that they preserve with nuts. It is good, NOT MAPLE SYRUP good, but still good. Then they thought it was honey but that didn’t make sense because my host father is a beekeeper so why would someone send me honey. And since they don’t have maple syrup here, it was kind of hard to explain. I just said it was like honey.

October 5, 2009

Happy Pancake Story

So I made chocolate chip pancakes the other day with fake maple syrup that I bought at the SAS Supermarket (which is a market that has a lot of international food products, like Kraft Mac-N-Cheese and maple syrup). They were delicious and perfectly made. Yum! Yum!

Shout Outs:

Thanks to all of those who have sent packages, letters, and cards! I really appreciate getting mail. It is really fun to read about what you guys are up to! It is also a nice connection to home!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

August 21, 2009

So right now I am watching Pride and Prejudice, the A&E series with Colin Firth. Yay! I know it has been a while since I have written in my blog, and I apologize for that. Up until this last week, I have been super busy! As part of our stay in our PST villages, we had to complete a community project. And as part of our EE training, we had to teach environmental classes. We had a total of 9 classes with 6 being team teaching in English, 1 being independent teaching in English, and the last 2 were individual teaching in Armenian. That was fun!

EE Classes:

Teaching was a lot of fun. It made me realize again how much I enjoy teaching! The first six classes we rotated partners, so I taught with three other people. Because we will be co-teaching for the most part with our counterparts, it was good practice to plan and teach with someone else. Although it was a lot easier than it will be in the fall when school starts. For one thing, those classes were in English and we had translators. Another reason, the classes were only 45-minutes each. The individual English class went well, again because it was in English. The next two Armenian classes were very stressful because it was like scripting out 45 minutes of a lesson. I figured since the students had been learning about environmental problems for the past three weeks, that they would then take their knowledge and make environmental posters.

August 29, 2009

The loss of our little brother. Although I am writing about this about a month after it happened, it still saddens me. In our training village, there were eight trainees. One of them, who was the other half of Team Awesome, made the hard decision that PC and Armenia was not for him. I totally respect his decision and know that it was extremely tough on him. His decision affected me more than I thought it would. He was also the first from our group to make that decision and I think it surprised us all that it was him. I was very sad to see him go and you realize what a support network you create in this PC community. I know that whatever he is doing now, he is a rock star in it and I wish him nothing but the best. Miss you A Doo!!!

I think also affected me because you begin to think about your own service. The fact that someone was able to leave, opens the door for questioning why you are here and if this is really for you. This is a lot harder than people think. It also doesn’t help that we are in the second (and sometimes first) most depressing country in the world. That kind of statistic and feeling in the country can weigh on you. Especially where I am at right now in my service, I can feel that weighing down. I was talking to another volunteer yesterday about how PC Armenia might compare to other PC countries. And the point that they made was that a lot of the struggles that volunteers go through, perhaps more so than other places is mental. We don’t have the struggles (for the most part) of finding water, food, or shelter. For most of us, we have indoor plumbing, sanitary conditions, we don’t have the threat of crazy diseases. Besides the diarrhea disease that most people get, we don’t have malaria, crazy insects, worms, or other health hazards. We eat pretty well, we have water filters with access to water on a constant basis. So for the most part, the obstacles we have to overcome are mental. And that thought is kind of hard to deal with. It is something I know that I will think about and have to deal with as my time here progresses.

Trash “Clean- Up”

So as part of PST, we have to develop and implement a community project that focuses on the needs of the community. So our group decided to do a trash clean up. After talking with the mayor of the town, we decided to clean up around the gazebo, that we use as our mental health retreat and paint another gazebo in the town. There is a family that owns the one we use as our mental health retreat, so we decided to paint the other. What we found out was that gazebos are usually put up as a memorial. Our mental health one is a memorial for a couple that missed the turn on the road and their car went over the cliff. I think the one we painted has a similar story but we didn’t get that story. So mind you the gazebo that we were cleaning the trash up from is on a steep slope. This is where most of the village throws their trash. That is one big problem in Armenia; there is no trash collection. So most villagers either burn their trash or throw it in a central location. Some bigger cities have a USAID funded trash collection system.

Well to continue, we cleaned most of the gazebo area. About half way through we realized that this was incredibly dangerous because not only did we not have enough gloves for everyone to clean up, but we were also on an incredibly deep slope. So we cleaned up as much as we could and then packed it all into a truck the mayor hired to dispose of the trash. Later we found out the disposal place is just another piece of land down the road. It was kind of sad to see our hard work just thrown in another area. We were under the impression that it was going to go to a landfill that the USAID has made.

My Birthday!

So I turned 25 this year! The big quarter-of-the-century! Wow! My birthday happened the same time that we were ending PST. We were having a lot of different things going on, including our final language interviews. Our language interviews were on the 11th and I didn’t want to celebrate on the 10th because we wanted to study somewhat. We decided on celebrating on the 9th, our last Sunday in town. We had been telling our life stories and wanted to finish them before we left site. And I got funfetti cake from my mom and made it for my birthday. It was a gorgeous day, with a slight threat of rain. We went to a mountain/giant hill and spread out a blanket. All of the trainees from my village came out and we shared our stories. That was wonderful, and the cake was delicious. Then others from different villages came over to celebrate. We lounged out on top of the mountain and hung out the rest of the afternoon. Afterwards, we headed into Charentsevan for dinner and had a fun time there. The owner of the restaurant heard it was my birthday and gave me a free shot of vodka. It was a lot of fun and a very memorable birthday.

Graduation/ “Swearing In”/ The Death of Kekos- August 13, 2009

This was a ridiculously fun day!!! As part of the ceremony, we were asked to present something in a sort of appreciation to our host families who were present at the ceremony. Our village group “decided”/ were asked in a rhetorical type question to present a skit. Our skit was called the Death of Kekos.

Basically the skit is about a daughter that goes to get water. At the well, she takes a rest under a tree and dreams up having a husband and a child. But in the dream, the child, Kekos, likes to climb trees but falls and dies. She is so upset that all she kind of do is cry. The mother is waiting and decides to send the second eldest daughter. She goes and sees her sister crying and asks what happens. The eldest sister tells her about her son Kekos that died and the two sisters begin to cry. This happens with the third sister and the mother. Finally, the father wonders where his family is and goes to find them. He sees his family crying and asks what happened. They explain and he tells them that they will all go back to the house and have a funeral for the loss of her son. They will make bread and invite people over. That is the end of the play.

So, I was the eldest daughter that got to say a bunch of lines all in Armenian! Exciting. I can still remember my lines and probably will remember them for the rest of my life. It was super exhilarating and I only messed up on one line. Tateak and Papeak are very similar but one means grandma and the other is grandpa. I accidentally called the “papeak” a grandmother. Oops… But it turned out great and people really liked it.

But as for the ceremony, the host families were invited and most showed up. All of PC staff was there and the US Ambassador. The Country Director and the Ambassador gave a speech. Two of the trainees gave speeches in Armenian on behalf of the other trainees. That was crazy impressive! It was a really neat ceremony. We walked across stage like we were graduating and I got the official PC volunteer pin!

After the Swearing In ceremony, a bunch of other PCV came to the ceremony and we all went out to Bella Café to celebrate. It was a lot of fun and a last hurrah with everyone before we left our villages and moved to our permanent sites. It was really nice to celebrate with everyone and have a good time before we went to our houses to celebrate the last night with our families.

After the celebration, we hung out at my host family’s house and spent the last night hanging out.

Move Day!

Talk about a whirlwind of emotions! I was excited to be out and moving to my new site where I will spend the rest of my two years. At the same time, I was ridiculously sad to leave the bubble of PST and my friends. I was anxious because I was moving into the unknown. And I was anticipating boredom because that is what everyone says happens. After PST, things slow way down and you have to figure out how to keep yourself busy…

So after tears and farewells I made it to site. It was about a three hour taxi ride with all of my stuff, all of my site mate’s stuff and a dog. Fun trip! Once I got there, my family welcomed me with open arms and big smiles.

PS I absolutely LOVE my host family!

I will write more later about how site has been. Right now I am at an internet café and don’t have much time… So site has been okay. Everyone was right and things have slowed WAAAAAAY down… But school has just begun to start so hopefully things will pick up soon…

Love you ALL!!! Thanks for the comments and the birthday wishes! They have been much appreciated!