In five hours, I will begin my traveling adventures of 2011! The trip to Yerevan, Armenia, will take 17 hours total and I will be all by myself so I bought two movies for the plane ride (The Time Traveler's Wife & Semi-Pro: I know, such classics!) and I also have two books on hand (Little Bee & The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest). I also have a Spanish grammar book with me so that I can review all the Spanish I have forgotten in the past 6 months since I passed the proficiency test at Georgetown, but we all know I probably won't even open that book... sigh.
I will be stopping in Moscow for only an hour and a half which is nice because really, who likes long layovers, but I do wish I had some time to tour around Moscow. That's for another time and another blog I guess! Then, after a quick three hour plane ride, I will arrive in Yerevan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As you may have guessed, I am very very excited to be spending six whole weeks in the motherland! Most Armenian students get a chance to visit Armenia during junior year in high school (my brother who is a junior actually left for his Armenia trip yesterday!), but I was never able to visit because I went to Poly (for those who don't know- not an Armenian school). So, this will be my first time in Armenia and I have been told that it is truly an incredible experience for returning diaspora members! I have been to a few Latin American countries before (namely Costa Rica, Uruguay, and Argentina) and I never really experienced major culture shock. However, I am worried that I will have tremendous culture shock in Armenia which may seem weird because I am Armenian!
Just to quickly highlight the reason for this without delving too deep into Armenian history and politics, during the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman government at the turn of the century, Armenian people living in Armenia were forced to flee and relocate in other countries. Many Armenians (like my family) went to Lebanon. Others went to Iran, Russia, Iraq, the United States, and South America. Long story short, my great grandparents on both my mother's and father's side moved to Lebanon and so my parents and grandparents speak French and Arabic as well as Armenian, we eat hummus and tabouleh with kebab for Thanksgiving dinner, and I am a duel American-Lebanese citizen. After World War I, Armenia (what was left of it) became part of the Soviet Union. Until 1991, the Soviet Union had a lot of influence in Armenian politics and culture; thus, many Armenians in Armenia today speak Russian as well as Armenian and share in some Russian traditions.
The point of that historical side note is that I have grown up in a very different environment than the Armenians living in Armenia today. In many ways, I have more in common with Lebanese people than Armenians even though I am ethnically Armenian. One may say: but you speak Armenian and not Arabic! This is true, but because of the split after the Genocide, Armenians from around the world speak many different dialects of Armenian. It is embarrassing for me to admit this, but I actually don't understand most people who are from Armenia (this became very clear when I went to the consulate to get my visa). I will keep you all updated on the culture shock aspect of my trip to Armenia throughout the next few weeks as I adjust to the lifestyle, the language, and the sheer fact that I will be living in a country with a GDP per capita of about $5000 (compared to $47,000 in the United States).
Anyways, I have yet to finish packing and I am leaving for the airport in about an hour and a half so I must leave this blog post without discussing the internship program I am participating in and the trips we have planned. However, I promise I will update as soon as I have internet FROM YEREVAN!
Thanks for reading!
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