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Published: October 10th 2012
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Natura Gold tea house
The tea and crepes were simply amazing! Located on 11 Abovyan street. I am now nearing the end of week two. It felt like an extremely long week though. I hit some road bumps this week which finally frustrated me. I kept getting on the wrong marshrutkas to work, which would take me halfway around the city and then once I realized I was nowhere near where I needed to be, I’d get off and have to cab it quickly to make it on time. I made it a point to attempt to remember every major sign and store along the way to and from work and the city to decrease the chances of this continuing to happen. Another frustration was the language. I kept repeating and learning new words and had a really hard time remembering any of them. This was all at the beginning of the week. Towards the end, I have found my one true marshrutka which hasn’t let me down yet, the wonderful #76 and learned a few useful phrases so it seems like progress is being made. I can understand my host grandma whenever she tries to push a second dinner my way or if she asks if I’m still hungry, which is every half an hour 😉.
Drams
Finally learned the currency :) Lol, love it.
By the way, marshrutkas are old mini buses which run all day all over the city. They are fairly cheap, about $.40 per ride, however, always jam packed with people. It’s quite an experience riding one. There are cultural habits that are observed on a semi-regular basis. The guys will give up their seats for girls. Young adults will give up their seats to an older person or someone with a child. If it’s super jam packed and there’s just no more room for seats, people who are sitting will offer to hold any bag or big purse that the standing person is holding to make it easier for them to hold on while they endure the bumpy ride and sudden stops. Traffic is a bit chaotic here, and I still don’ quite see the purpose of lanes on the road. It’s one big mesh of cars lol. I was a little confused at first when one time a girl offered to hold my purse while I stood holding on for dear life. However, I was standing over her so any attempt to run off with my purse wouldn’t work. It’s just little things like that
which amaze me of how different cultures are. In the U.S. no one in their right mind would EVER let someone hold their purse. Heck, people wouldn’t even offer.
On Friday, the city celebrated its 21
st year of Independence. There was live music and celebrations all over the city, but the main one was in Republic Square (or Hraparak in Armenian). They built a huge stage and a musically ingenious band played their hearts out for Armenia. The name of the band is Forbidden Saints, the music was a mix of Armenian with Flamenco/Spanish guitar. It was the perfect blend of both sounds, so vibrant and invigorating. Everyone was either enthralled in the performance or formed their own little circles and danced. The concert wrapped up around 11 and then I met up with a friend and went for a beer and a hookah. Unfortunately, the place we chose blindly ended up making a very sad hooka and the service was just as heartbreaking, so that place is crossed off the list indefinitely. I used to smoke a LOT of hooka years ago, so I know how to make them to taste perfect hence am a harsh judge when
it’s made shitty. To continue our night, we ended up at “the best club in town” via another friend’s invite called Kami. All smoked out just like the others. It reminded me a bit of my Mercury Lounge days, when smoking was still permitted indoors in Cleveland and we would smoke just cuz we could. It was disgusting, as you would come out smelling like stale smoke from head to toe. This place was tiny and the music was good that night. As I have never been to a club in Yerevan, all I did was lean back and people watch. It’s interesting to me how club life among other things compare to what I know in the U.S. We dipped out around 3am, while people were still coming in. Apparently they didn’t close til 7am.
In one of my volunteer placements, the project I am working on required research of interesting touristic landscapes and so I learned quite a bit about each of Armenia’s provinces as well as the monasteries that belong to each this week. I simply cannot wait to visit some of these, there are no words to explain the feelings they evoke while simply looking at their pictures online. I can only fathom the magnitude of emotion and feelings one would experience standing face to face with these centuries’ old historical marvels.
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