the entire holiday season in 1 blog entry

If you want to know what the holiday season was like for me living in Armenia, then this long post is just for you... :)

Literally the day after my last post I took a week long trip around Armenia to get some work done with friends. My first visit was to Vanadzor and Stepanavan. In Vanadzor I went to a weaving with plastic bags event at a local childrens' center. Upcycling! The children at the event were very motivated to learn and problem solve about the problems plastic waste causes in the ocean and in landfills. I regret I could only stay one day of the week-long event! I definitely brought that project back to the Bridge of Hope with me, the first picture above of a girl crocheting plastic yarn- is my friend Gohar! If you are interested in a similar event, I have contact information for the lady who travels the world teaching environmentally sound lessons. And if you look at the pictures of the products made out of plastic bags above, I made the snake puppet! Haha.

A day spent at a WorldVision office then an entire season of Glee in two nights with my friend, my first trip back to Charentsavan since training to visit a friend and have a glass of wine with our old translator from Practicum, a trip to Sisian for a birthday, a night of making a football cake and then a visit to a friend's new apartment in Goris... the week was great! I learned a lot, saw friends, and got a lot of new ideas!

Thanksgiving Day consisted of a whole roasted chicken and some delicious garlic mashed potatoes at my sitemates' house, the Lindens! Sadly, another event was soon on my mind. My host father's contract ended with the military and he decided to immediately move to Russia for work. A lively going away party was thrown for him, as you can see my sitemate above flinging his shirt over his head, haha. It was wild. Nodar's last day in country I had to leave for Yerevan. I hope that he decides to return within the 19 months I have left...

December was a month of celebration here! To start off the month, I was in Yerevan for the All-Vol conference. All-Vol is a yearly event for all volunteers where we get together for training and a big Thanksgiving dinner. The dinner is where traditional Thanksgiving food, which is a bit hard to get together from the Armenian marketplaces, is made by the best cooks and bakers in the PC. It was really really good! I was supposed to be the one who stood up to say thanks for everyone's work from those who didn't help cook.. but it turned out to be more like a one minute maroon-colored rambling squeak with one of those "i'm rooting for you, son" arm gestures. (if you know what i mean HAHA)

My birthday was on the weekend following All-Vol, but before I even got to it- The sweetest thing ever. My friends threw me a surprise party on the last night of All-Vol! It was yet another instance of pure maroon panic attacked awkward Nelle... couldn't have appreciated it more though! It was one of the best nights ever. I received some interesting presents like a hollow cow-horn thing that I had to drink out of all night... We did some dancing, some cookie and peanut butter eating, and the few of us who made it through ended up karaoking. It was almost exactly what I would have ended up doing at home. maybe. HAHA.

Turned out 5 birthday celebrations were in store for my 26th. I have 2 workplaces whom each threw a little party in my honor, my host cousin and I had a joint party and I had a separate one. It was all sorts of crazy. I'm thinking people were itching to start holiday celebrations early! I think I am birthday-ed out for the next 10 years!

A birthday celebration for my host nephew then a very interesting and fun Marz Party with all the PCVs from my area, going away parties for my host uncles who also decided to head to Russia for work... later... began the parties for the closing of my workplaces until after the Armenian New Year. Unfortunately the Kindergarten and Bridge of Hope had to close for the entire month of January, so my last day with the kids was December 23rd and 24th. That is when they had their seasonal recital where they danced, sang songs, and recited skits for their parents. It was incredibly cute! Even Santa decided to show up. However fun, I remember the exact moment when I thought "I am sick", as the teachers sprayed the tree-snow aerosol cans into the stuffy room.

That is how I remained, sick with a heck of a cold/infection type thing.. until just a couple days ago. I took a trip to Tbilisi Georgia and had a wonderful time with my friend Maggie. All while scaring people at the hostel with the ferociousness of my snoring at night. It's funny to me now that I literally carried around VapoRub and just kept putting it on like it would cure me. I love that stuff. Anyway, in Tbilisi, what else but McDonalds and sulphur baths, beautiful Christmas lights, great botanical gardens, and delicious food. I pretty much ate a burger every night and an iced coffee drink everyday! Maggie and I caught up with my sitemates randomly on a street and then a day later we were joined by more PC Armenia volunteers at our hostel, so it was a good group! Somehow we ended up playing Jenga while we were out??!! Very random. Even a few were at the hostel from Azerbaijan- one living very close to me, but across the border.

Things didn't calm down after my Georgian vacation, but I sure did. I barely could stay awake to celebrate the New Year, which had a lot of fireworks and tons of food. I blame the Benadryl. The Armenians prepare a huge table, then celebrate for 13 DAYS.! The first of which, I took part in and had a great time! The rest I stayed in bed and slept for almost a week straight. During this time I missed a wedding, the Armenian Christmas (Jan 6th), and most everything that happens on the social calendar here. I'm just starting to come back to normal and I have had a lot of catching up to do with my Armenian friends! That, exactly, is what I've been doing this week while also travelling to a couple villages over to visit my bud Lisa. We started an arts and crafts club at her school and are getting local schools to participate in the upcoming English poetry contest!

As soon as I get my new camera, I'll make sure to post more! Regretfully, I don't have many good pictures of the Armenian celebrations, but I hope you get a good idea of the craziness that happened from what I have here:) "And that, is what you missed last season on Me."

Haghpat & Sanahin, my "Slumdog Millionaire"

In celebration of the warm weather sticking around this November, my closest sitemates and I rent out our buddy's taxi and head on a day roadtrip...

Haghpat

Haghpat is one of the most famous temples in Armenia, located in Lori Marz near Alaverdi. The area has produced artifacts from as old as the Paleolithic Era.

If you look hard, you can see what's left of the huge fresco painting of what I would consider a depiction of God on the topmost part under the arch.

We luckily came on a Sunday- heard and saw a bit of a mass!

These holes held all the precious items at the Temple.

At one time there was a concealing fake floor laid on top of them.

It is now a tradition to drop dram into the small safes, like wishing wells.

Sanahin

Sanahin is easy to miss, though you would not want to.

Lisa, Armen (the taxi driver who seems to know every past volunteer), and I lit candles next to eachother!

The flooring of Sanahin, or many monasteries and temples, must be made of gravestone markers. I don't know much about it, but these pictures show some very primitive depictions of humans. I've seen a lot of similar gravestone-like stones in many of the other places I've visited, but none like this. Maybe they were made later on, they are a little too well preserved to be as old as that style of drawing. Right?

Artifacts! Listening into a tour guide's speech (but in Armenian), I heard that the room held a great deal of precious cultural materials from various places (I caught Greek and Latin) as well as Armenian. They studied and preserved the artifacts at Sanahin.

My "slumdog millionaire"

If I really have to explain what happened, then you probably also don't get the movie reference. It hurt, but atleast the hole wasn't full of waste. I took the door and the whole floor a couple feet under with me, from trying to skip over the boards in front that looked weak. (The inside looked strong!! Kind of) Haha. It hadn't been used in a long, long time and a butterfly could have caused this. I don't know what I was thinking, I will have to remember to lay off the honey and that I don't weigh 10 pounds! :)

By the way, this kind of thing could probably only happen to me....

Kindergarten #1 goes to a Bridge of Hope Event

November 10th is "Action Day".

Today the Bridge of Hope used all those paper hands I've been cutting out for the last two weeks! Between the schools and community members of Noyemberyan, and by the help of an ambitious group of volunteering pre-teens, hundreds of these paper hands were hung on a banner in support of the handicapped. Wishes were written on the hands by all who came except those not old enough to write. The event took place in all the surrounding villages as well as in front of the park here, in Noyemberyan. A successful event, beautiful weather, music in the park... today was a good day.

Kindergarten #1 showed their support by participating! (How interesting it was to help move a group of 2-6 year olds down a path and across a street- it was terrifying actually.) Afterwards, our kindergarteners had a bit of time to relax in the park! At lunch, with our lentil soup, we were treated to some candy by the Bridge of Hope!

Today is one of those days I couldn't be happier to be where I am.

ww2 memorial hike

Change is... well... Change is change.

We could talk about change all day-

Our brains and voices pattering away.

Beautiful things like forested mountains are ignored

When our mouths are busier than our eyes and legs.

pictures!

The Bridge of Hope

My Paper Crafts counterpart & my buddy Gohar

Nodar & Gohar helping gut the pumpkin

Nodar cutting the pumpkin

All the kindergarteners and teachers with "Mookey" and Donald Duck for a birthday party celebration at the Kindergarten.

I was forced to dance with Donald... HAHA. They actually took a video of it too...

The birthday boy, Nrek, 2 years old! His mother, a teacher at the kindergarten and his fantastic friends!