Lessons in Water, Haircuts, and Cake

Yesterday, I was in Yerevan. I locked up all of my things (especially electronics) at a local hostel and ventured outside with some friends. It took about a five minute walk before a random teenage boy ran up behind me and dumped a bucket of water over my head. Shortly after, I was being ambushed by small children with squirt guns. Just in case there were any dry parts of me left, I was subsequently pushed into a public fountain where I continued to be dunked and splashed.

This is the glorious and sometimes hated holiday of Vardavar. Vardavar began as a pagan holiday and has morphed into a free-for-all, no one and nothing safe, day long, water war. It felt amazing for the most part as it was burning hot all day, but I started to sense some of the frustration from others when I daringly changed into dry clothes for the bus ride back, wrapped my phone and other electronics in about 20 plastic bags, and shortly after was ambushed by another squirt gun-toting teenager.

I don't have pictures because I knew my chances of keeping electronics dry were slim, but here's a picture from an Armenian news source that feels very representative of my experience. Feel free to look up Vardavar for more. It's as cool and maybe horrifying as it sounds.

When I got back to my site, my adult English Club was happy to see me. The meeting started at 6:30, but at 6:45, some members were still trickling in. We had 4 layer chocolate homemade cake at club because it was one of the student's birthdays over the weekend. I am so used to hearing, "You have to eat the cake. I made it, and it's tasty. Eat." Sometimes we have cake for their spouses' or children's or cousins' or acquaintances' birthdays too. I still can't figure out how I'm losing weight.

After club, it was a group effort to describe the haircut I had gotten over the weekend in English. One student started, "It's very special and very beautiful." A second student added, "It is interesting and nice." The first chimed in again, "It is not standard and interesting and beautiful." A third student contributed, "We like it a lot. We have not seen before." I congratulated the third student on using the present perfect tense correctly. That had been our lesson for the day.

My "not standard" haircut seemed pretty basic to me. I just guessed they weren't used to women with short hair and moved on with the conversation.

I went home and hugged my host family. "Where were you? Did you pass your time well? Our relatives came and we wished you were here. You got a haircut. Was Yerevan nice? It was probably too hot. Are you okay?" The flurry of questions and comments without allowing time for responses was their way of communicating love. The most loving statement for me came from Inga. After the gamut of questions and some mandatory eating came her simple statement of, "You are probably tired. You can have a rest." Her understanding the exhaustion I feel after a full day of being social and traveling is the most loving thing I can imagine.

Most people are honest here. They say exactly what they think of your haircut and if you missed some guests they wanted you to meet. They splash grandmas and foreigners and people carrying phones alike because Vardavar has always meant that everyone gets wet. They tell you when they think you need to eat and when you should just go to bed. My counterpart told me during my first week at site that Armenians weren't complicated people because they always said exactly what they were thinking and there wasn't ever any more to it. I'm still not sure I agree with that, but I'm definitely beginning to understand what she meant by it.

I only had a simple post for you all this time.

Լավ մնացեք։ (Stay well.)

Էմիլի

The Beauty Around Us

Life as a Peace Corps Volunteers is, at times, hectic. For my first three months, it felt like every moment was scheduled with training. Then I got to site, and it seems as if every moment has been dedicated to language learning, purposeful integration, or taking on any English club I can. It doesn't really feel like I've been in this new country, having this inimitable experience, for 109 days and counting.

A couple days ago, one of my fellow Volunteers pointed out that we are already an eighth of the way done with our service. While it's true there are times when I really miss things at home, that number shocked me. How could we possible be that far in already? Didn't I fly here just a couple weeks ago?

With these feelings of things going by way too fast and things simultaneously feeling incredibly slow sometimes, I decided to figuratively, and maybe a little literally, stop and smell the roses. I started looking around me for the simple beauty. Included in that is looking back at what I've already seen and done here. Maybe I can't describe precisely to you all what that's looked like, but I at least want to show you some of what I've seen. I am living in a stunning country, with breath-taking views around every corner and indescribable nature never more than a few minutes away. The pictures still don't do this amazing place justice, but here are some of my favorites. I invite you all to take a minute out of your busy lives and share this moment with me of enjoying some of the beauty this world has to offer.





If you want to enjoy the pictures in full size, click the middle of the pictures. Otherwise, you can just scroll through using the arrows on the sides.