I realized my goal of teaching a class on the Java programming language. I’m pretty sure that was the only class we’ll have, lol. At least I gave it a shot. They’ve decided that building websites would be more interesting, so I guess that’s next. I will admit, I had to totally rethink how much [...]
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So Natty is pretty damn cool, but some things are broken. I grabbed VMplayer from the website and it installed fine. Using EasyVMX (http://easyvmx.com/) I got a Windows XP vmx. Sadly, vmplayer crashed as soon as I tried to open the machine. I found the fix at ddd. Overview is basically To fix this, you [...]
I've been working with my English club on numbers. One of the activities is the students work in pairs reciting large numbers (1 million+) to one another. After a few numbers, I listen to them to make sure everything is going fine. In a surreal moment, a student read a number to me. I faithfully [...]
I tried skiing out for the 4th time this weekend to celebrate Jocelyn's birthday. She and some of the other volunteers were already at a Peace Corps conference in the ski resort town of Tsaghkadzor (Armenian: Ծաղկաձոր) so it was easy for everyone to meet up there for a ski trip and to rent a [...]
Well, I now live in Talin, Aragatsotn (Armenian: Թալին, Արագածոտն). I have a really great and wonderful family here. The house here is very nice and quite warm. I've gained all my weight back (to the point that I need to start running or exercising in some way) and I've not been sick a single [...]
I just got to take a wonderful vacation up to Georgia. I went to Tblisi, Batumi and Gori. Tblisi was a wonderful city. It is amazing how clean it looked to me! There seems to be a general consensus not to litter and they also use street sweepers. I also went to a not very [...]
I broke down a bought the internet yesterday. It’s amazing how quickly the internet as a utility has become a staple of modern living…
Armenia is a country that is struggling to build basic infrastructure. In the old soviet days of the country, water access was not a problem. In Soviet times, electricity was free so [...]
So I’ve officially got that English conversation club that I’ve always wanted going. It’s not so much Goal 1, but it is great for goals 2 and 3. It is in the neighboring village of Koghb. There are 3 teachers, young women of around my age, who asked me to do an english club for [...]
Question:
Uncle David – Madeline would like to know what kind of traditional food the Armenian people eat for Christmas. We are busy making X-mas candy and she was wondering what apecial things you will have.
Response:
Armenians celebrate Christmas very differently. They were a Soviet Republic so while they may have been the first Christian nation, [...]
Things overseas are different. For example, in America 99.9% of the time if you have a door that locks, the inside can be unlocked without a key. This is not true in Armenia. 99.9% of the doors lock from both ways, with the key only. In America, 100% of the time if you had a [...]
Another week in the life of a Peace Corps volunteer in Noyemberyan, Armenia! The schools decided that this would be a good time to close the schools for two weeks as a preventative measure against the flu. While this might actually be very effective at preventing the spread of the annual flu, I think it’s [...]
I think the biggest news this week is that the internet has been working! I’ve gotten to chat with several people over Skype and it’s been amazing. I think I’m going to buy the internet from a cell provider here and spend more than a quarter of my income on it. It is very interesting [...]
You can! It’s a bit of a pain in the ass, but it can be done (thank God!).
Here’s how:
I’m assuming you have a contact group set up already. Navigate to the contact group. Use the checkboxes to select the entire group, then click “Email”.
Copy and paste the “TO:” field into the box on this page: [...]
It’s pretty amazing to me that I’ve been here for six months already! The time is going by pretty quickly. Seems like a pretty good time to reflect on what I’ve accomplished here. The language is going so-so. I thought I would speak better than I do by now, but I’ve honestly not been putting [...]
Over the last two weeks I’ve been traveling around the country visiting people, learning a ton, and teaching a bit. I first went up to Gyrumi for Haykakan (it’s a pun) the SciFi convention for Armenian volunteers. Lots of people showed up but the first day wasn’t very scifi-ish. That night though we got our [...]
I’ve noticed something interesting in my time here in Armenia: it is NEVER rude to answer your phone here. After watching someone on the TV answer their phone right behind the person speaking at a podium, I began to ask myself how a system like this ever got in place. I’ve thought [...]
Well, I got to come to Yerevan for a second weekend. We had the initiatives meeting this weekend. There are several secondary areas that Peace Corps Armenia is working in. There are the main sectors; Business (IT is a specialty with it this), Teaching English, Heath, Environment. The secondary areas are HIV/AIDS, the environment, public [...]
I had a very successful day today. I was able to meet with the school director, fix some computers there, I have an invite for tomorrow, AND we drank and ate tons together. Integration for the WIN!
Interesting article about the lack of cursive in the educational system. I’m not sure my handwriting would be ledgible to anyone and my spelling is awful!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090919/ap_on_re_us/us_cursive_angst
I thought I might say a little about what I’ve been working on here in Noyemberyan Armenia.
I am assigned to work with Yerevak NGO. They are the internet provider for my region of the country. They buy a connection from Armentel and use wireless technology to beam it from station to station. Some of these [...]
I guess I’ve been at my permanent site now for almost a month! That is pretty hard to believe, the time is really flying. I’m sure the winter will slow it down plenty though.
I’m working with the internet NGO here to improve their services. That’s going ok. I’m learning SO much about WISP management. I [...]
I made it to my permanent site in Tavush Marz. I’m at the extreme northeast of the country in a small (by American thinking) town. The town is beautiful and nestled in the mountains, basically on the side of a mountain. This means that I will become superman if I really can get myself motivated [...]
Swearing in was a nice ceremony. The ambassador came to do the honors, it was a pretty formal oath. It’s the one about protecting the constitution. There were two speeches, a skit, and a musical performance. The US Embassy website has my picture up shaking the Ambassadors hand if you’d like [...]
Well, as it turns out Peace Corps keeps you pretty busy. Anytime I did have to myself, I chose not to spend writing a blog entry. Sorry, but it’s the way it is. I occupied myself finding amazingly beautiful places and hanging out with really cool people. If we’re facebook friends I’m sure you’ve seen [...]
I’m moving to my new site in a few days. I’m going to try to blog once a week from there.
Well a ton has happened since I last wrote.
I’m loving my host family so much and I’m learning more and more armenian. I’m falling behind and need to do something to catch up with everyone else, but i’ll get there. I know where I’m going for the next two years and will tell you if [...]
I got water and the internet. I’m busy writing back to everyone, but I’m feeling great and I thought I’d let you know.
Well, I think I’m beginning to settle in. This is currently day 3 without water moving into day 4. I really smell pretty aweful at this point. No water tomorrow means that I’ll be taking a wetwipe bath. I’m moving along in the language. Picking up nouns and verbs where I can. We’re getting into [...]
I live in a tiny village up in the mountains near Charensavan. I’ve been with my host family a week now and it’s a very interesting experience. I’ve come to believe that Marat may not be the father’s name. I know it’s the name of the sun, but I believe that the father’s name is [...]
The flight to Yerevan was pretty uncomfortable. There is really no good way to sleep in those seats. They didn’t seem to recline as far as the Air France seats did on the way to Paris. We arrived at Yerevan at 5ish local time. You could see the villages around the water as we came [...]
I just got to spend an really cool day in Vienna. We had a 12 hour layover after Philly so we got out into the wide world. I did a walking tour with a few other PC trainees and got lunch at a pretty authentic feeling restaurant. I forgot the leave the [...]
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