[I wrote this entry on Dec 29th, but we haven’t had Internet since Christmas, so I apologize if it’s dated. Part II will be posted shortly]
I hope everyone back in the States had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. It would have been very nice to be home with friends and family, but I had a wonderful time celebrating here in Armenia. The best part is, the funnest is yet to come! For those of you who haven’t seen it, here is my Christmas card for this year. I also made a donation to my local Salvation Army in lueu of presents to everyone this year.
Christmas Eve and Day were nice, as I got to talk with my Mom and Dad, brother, and some other special people on the phone, so it was a nice taste of home. Christmas day turned out to be very busy being the last work day here, so after running around a lot I went to our Art School Christmas Party! They baked us a turkey (!!) and the day was filled with singing Christmas songs, fun and games (including limbo), and LOTS of dancing! It was a great time.
The next day I left early for Vanadzor to visit some friends and relax for the holidays. I should have know the trip wouldn’t be relaxing the moment I stepped on the mini-bus. Most mini-bus trips are overcrowded with smelly people, but Tuesday’s was an interesting ride. It started with a crying baby, and when it annoyed the driver enough to turn the volume up FULL BLAST, it was enough to start the other babies on the mini-bus crying too. That’s normal, but what really took the cake was the passenger to my left. There was a big blue tarp taking up two seats next to me, and I just assumed they were a lot of cabbage being transported to the city for New Years. It wasn’t until after the screaming babies I noticed the blood stains on the tarp, only to realize I’d been reclining on a dead piggie the whole time. Ho hum.
I’d planned to visit Yerevan, the capital, early the next day, but about 2pm it started to snow, and after a very stern “no-travel-or-we’ll-send-you-to-America-hey-that-wouldn’t-be-so-bad-right-now” call from Peace Corps, I ended up stranded in Vanadzor until Thursday.
I finally made it back to Noyemberyan Thursday the 28th, exausted from sleeping on a couch and trekking through snow and ice. As I entered my house ready to relax, my host mom comes running in telling me there’s a work party RIGHT NOW (I thought it was Friday…) and to hurry down to the local hotel. After 5 more hours of dancing and Russian kareoke, I went to sleep happy but exausted.
And then I woke up the next day to realize this was only a preview of the debouchery of Nor Tari, Armenia’s week long Christmas and New Years celebration! The photos from the whole week are up in the Photo Gallery, so you can get a sneak preview that way. Otherwise, stay tuned for highlights from Armenian New Year, coming very soon…
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