Excursions, excursions, excursions...

I have no excuse for my lack of blog posts other than that I have been having an incredible time here in Armenia and don’t get the chance to sit down and reflect on my experiences very much. I won’t make blog post promises anymore but I will try my best to update as often as I can for the rest of my trip! It is absolutely mind-blowing that I have been in Armenia for over three weeks now and that more than half of the experience is over. Everyday I think to myself, “this has been the best day yet” and am overwhelmed when the next day I am saying the same thing again. While daily life here in Yerevan is always exciting (except for my internship which has been underwhelming), some of my best experiences thus far in Armenia have come from weekend excursions around the country. I won’t write too much about each location but I will post pictures with quick descriptions so that you all can see all the amazing places I have visited!

The first weekend in Armenia we visited four different famous locations. On Saturday morning, we drove to Geghard – an ancient monastery that was carved first into a cave in the fourth century by Saint Gregory the Illuminator.

After Geghard, we visited Garni- a Parthenon-like temple that was originally built in the first century A.D. by an Armenian king.

On Sunday morning, we went to Etchmiadzin Cathedral which is considered to be the most famous church in Armenia. We arrived just in time for church service and spent a few hours on the church grounds. 

After church, we went to the Sardarabad Battle Monument which commemorates the defeat of the Turkish army by Armenian troops in May of 1918. The memorial is guarded by two lion statues which I originally thought were bulls and since I am a Taurus I really wanted to get a picture between them. We probably ended up taking over 50 photos of me trying to "hold back" the two bulls... here is the best attempt!

On Monday, July 4th, we had a day off from our internships because it is Armenian Constitution Day on July 5th. Our coordinators decided to take us to the city of Dilijan to a lake called "Barz Lidj" which is about two hours from Yerevan. We had lunch at the lake and some of use decided to rent canoes for 2000 dram (approximately $5) for 30 minutes. Thankfully, Jano did all the rowing and the girls got to relax and enjoy the scenery.

After a normal work week, it was weekend yet again and the second weekend in Armenia proved to be one of my favorite weekends so far. One of the reasons for this was the Birthright sponsored scavenger hunt that we participated in on Saturday. We were all split up into teams and dropped off in a random city on the outskirts of Yerevan and were told to complete tasks before finding our way back to the starting point. One of our tasks was to take a picture with 10 locals and I think our team found the cutest 10 locals (picture below). We also had to be invited into the home of a local that we met on the street... sketchy for the United States but totally acceptable here. We met a nice older woman in a supermarket and she quickly (and without questions) invited us into her home. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience that I wouldn't exchange for the world. 

To finish off this incredible weekend, we all took a bus to Lake Sevan which is the largest lake in Armenia and a vacation spot for many city dwellers. Since Armenia is a landlocked country, this is the only place where one can find beaches full of swimsuit clad women, jet-skiers, wind-surfers, and bbqing families. Again, I have no complaints. The resort we went to is part of a really nice hotel and we spent all day lounging, eating, and sliding down the water park slides. Here is a picture of me from atop a mountain overlooking the lake (we visited a church at this location- absolutely picturesque):

That is a quick summary of all the exciting things I am doing in Armenia so far! We just returned from an INCREDIBLE four day trip to Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) which I will write about in my next blog post so check back soon! 

Thanks for reading!

A Quick Recap of Week One

Hello everyone! Sorry it has been so long since I posted last. As many of you who have kept blogs before know, it is very hard to make time to write, especially if you want to write in detail. I will try to update the frequency of my posts to twice a week, but I won’t promise it will happen!

It is incredible how quickly one gets to know and love people if they are forced to live with them for a week. Just one week ago for today I was writing my first blog post and feeling a bit like I was living in a house with strangers. Now, after just seven days, I can truly say that I am living in a house full of friends. This can be attributed mostly to the amount of time I am spending with these awesome people! For example, we are free to split up into groups and do different things after work, but each one of us always wants to stay in one big group so we are always walking around Yerevan in a group of 21. This isn’t always the easiest thing because 21 different people don’t often want to do the same thing, but (at least so far) we have all just wanted to be with each other. We have been alternating going out clubbing nights with café nights and stay at home nights, having a great time no matter what we are doing.

Just to go back in some sort of chronological order, last Sunday night we had an awesome Welcome Dinner at Arma Restaurant with the interns, our coordinators, and guests affiliated with AGBU including the director of AGBU in Armenia, Ashod Ghazarian. We all had a very good time eating, drinking, and dancing! Below is a picture of Nora, Nairi, and I at the welcome dinner:

On Monday morning, I started my internship at the UNDP in Armenia! If anyone reading this is Armenian or knows any Armenians, you all know that the ethnicity is often stereotyped as being late, unorganized, and a little bit lazy (interesting enough I don’t fit into any of these stereotypes which is why I find Yerevan life a bit frustrating at times). Well, my first day of work (and second and third actually, if I am being honest) was a little bit of all three of those characteristics. Aline and Anna (our internship coordinator and activities coordinator) accompanied each of the interns to work just in case there were any problems. I was the first on the list for my taxi (with Haig and Sara after me), and so Aline, Sara, Haig, and I arrived at the UNDP at 10:30. I was actually more nervous then I typically am for this sort of thing because I have trouble understanding Eastern Armenian and I didn’t know what to expect. As it turns out, my supervisor Armen Baibourtian (who happens to be the Senior Advisor to the UN Resident Coordinator of Armenia) hadn’t yet arrived at work so we waited about 30 minutes for someone to be sent down to get me. At this point, while I was entering through the gates, an Armenian woman who had been standing in line to side of the gate pushed me and said in Armenian to the guard “but I was in line first.” Later, I found out that the line of people that were waiting outside the gates were Armenian refugees who were trying to speak to representatives at the UNHCR. Yes, I was pushed aside by a refugee woman who thought I was taking her spot in my black formal dress and 4 inch heels… Anyways, for now, I will just let you all know that I spent the first three days of my internship on Facebook, email, and chatting it up with the awesome native Armenian girls that are also interning at the UNDP. I have some projects coming up so hopefully I will have more to say about my internship in the future but for now here are some pictures! 

On another note, we went out a few times during the week to different types of places. Our first full-out night on the town was on Thursday night to a small bar called “That Place.” Since we are 21 interns plus friends we pretty much filled the place up and the people that were there before us literally just got up and left when we came in. On Friday night, we decided to try a pub called “The Beatles Pub” and after waiting for our taxi for over an hour and a half, we arrived to find the place wasn’t really happening. We left the pub and wandered aimlessly for a while until we found a club called “Giza Club”. It was completely empty on a Saturday night at 1 AM but they still made us pay a 3,000 dram cover charge for each of our boys (thankfully there are only six of them!). We have found that most Armenians that live in Yerevan don’t go out very much (especially the girls who hold a very traditional role here- more about that later). We had a really, really great time at Giza dancing to typical American club music and enjoying the relatively cheap drink prices. Here is a picture from that night: 

Each weekend, we are touring different historical sites around Armenia with the group. On Saturday, we went to Garni and Geghard (a church and a pagan temple) and today we went to Etchmiadzin and Sardarabad (a church and a monument). I will tell you all about these trips in the next few days- promise!

Stay tuned for more posts and let me know if you have any questions about my travels!

Landed: Yerevan

Thanks to everyone who read my first post! I will keep trying to entertain you! So, as you all may have guessed by the title- I AM IN YEREVAN!! I arrived last night at about 10 PM after nearly a 20 hour journey. On my first flight to Moscow (which is 13 hours long in case anyone was wondering), my video console WAS BROKEN so I couldn't watch any movies or listen to music... totally frustrating because I did not speak Russia and thus could not communicate with the flight attendant. However, like a blessing in disguise, I found out about two hours into the flight that I was sitting next to a wonderful Russian girl (hello Dasha!) who had just finished a month of holiday in the United States. We found that we had a never-ending list of topics to talk about such as the difference between the US and British school systems (she lived there for ten years) and our younger brothers (hi Mark!). Overall, my flight went really well even though I wasn't able to sleep very much!

When I finally walked into the Arrivals Hall at Zvartnots Airport, I nearly had a heart attack because I couldn't find Anna, our internship coordinator, for about 20 minutes and I was getting lots of weird stares. However, I found her eventually and we came to the BEAUTIFUL home all the interns are staying in right outside of the city center of Yerevan. The house has four floors, too many bedrooms to count, a huge outdoor terrace, and a backyard with a pool that is being filled today! I was immediately welcomed by all the interns who had arrived before me and we spent a few hours getting to know each other before I went to bed. 

This morning I woke up around 10 AM and went outside to the balcony where our lovely housekeeper Gohar had prepared us breakfast. After breakfast, some of the girls and I decided to go to the statue of Mayr Hayasdan which is a war memorial, museum, and amusement park all at once... one of the many weird things I have seen here so far and it has only been a day!  

We then went to lunch near the Armenian Opera House in an area that has many nice cafes. We ate at Grammy Cafe (yes, the theme is the American Grammy Awards... go figure) and then went to the supermarket. We got back home at around 5:00 and had an intern orientation. Almost all the interns are here now (we're missing one person which will make our group 21 interns: 6 boys, 15 girls) and we are each working at different places around Yerevan. I am so so so excited about my internship that starts tomorrow at the UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME!!! I will keep you guys posted on all the responsibilities I am going to have and how everything is going as soon as I start. 

Sorry to keep this post short again but I have to go get ready because we are all going out to the cafe area in 30 minutes to have dinner and smoke hookah. I will write again soon!

Heading off to the Motherland!

Hey everyone! First post! Warning: I am not the most creative of writers and may have grammar mistakes- forgive me! I do hope to make this blog enjoyable to all who are reading and update frequently.

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!