It wasn’t until I was on the phone with my parents this past week (and subsequent messages from Sarah and Mrs. Z) that I realized it’s been a year here in Armenia! It’s been a year of fond memories, some not-so-fond memories, and more squat toilets than I can shake a stick at. But I’m already half-way done… which, as many of you may have guessed, was demarcated by the arrival of the new group of volunteers to Armenia!
They arrived at 6am on the morning of June 1st, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and over-dressed for such an occasion. Last year I only have vague memories of the arrival; we were all running on so little sleep it all seems like just a blur. Essentially, Peace Corps tells the new trainees they must put on their finest suits and dresses for the arrival to make a good impression when entering the country. This all turns out to be a little ridiculous when they meet up with the old volunteers, who are not at all dressed up, and moreover have also slept very little the night before (although probably for different reasons). Nevertheless, it was very interesting to meet them (we have old vols introduce the new ones – I had Michael from Maine) and I wish them the best of luck over the next two years! Plus the donuts and coffee were fantastic 😉
When not waking up at odd hours of the morning, I’ve actually been pretty busy since Sara left. It was hard getting back into the grind of Peace Corps life, but now things are back on track. I ended up going to Georgia again with Kathy, a volunteer from Vanadzor whose two children were in town. We had a really great time, and trekked up to Stalin’s birthplace in Gori, Georgia. It was very interesting – they had the home he was born in, his bullet-proof train car, and an interesting with museum and everything presented in Russian. More interestingly, however, was the fact that there were no lights or electricity in the entire building! The town also has the largest (and probably only) standing Stalin statue in the world:
I also had the privilege of my first bath and massage at the Tbilisi sulfur baths. While unfortunately I don’t have any pictures, I would agree with Mr. Dumas that it was in fact the best bath I’d ever had. Any time a 300-pound man can scrub your body with a cheese-grater-esque-sponge whilst not being able to communicate, it’s a good bath. It actually turned out he was from Azerbaijan and he knew Armenian, which was very interesting (he’s never allowed to go to Armenia because of the political situation).
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