Dear Readers,
lets hope that ill manage to type all this up and post it today, since today is Sunday and I really don’t have a lot of time haha.
So this week! It started pretty well, school is going pretty alright, except for the fact that im loosing motivation to like do the reading club. It started with me knowing that i have the 5th graders club on Monday, and well I just never came around to track them down in school and tell them that they have the club with me because I wasn’t there during my holiday and that’s why I think they thought that i stopped offering it.You always have to remind them because their growing little minds are always packed with something else. So well , I fucked up Monday. And well then, because I already fucked up monday, i kinda just didnt t feel the motivation or really care about Tuesday either haha. So yeah,the Reading club had a little break this week.
Oh and well since i promised that I would take pictures of animals when i could, i did. I think it was even Monday, when a family of cows crossed my path on my way home so here they are :
(not the best picture quality I know, but well , you and I have to live with it 😉 )
So what did I do during the week? Well besides the discouragement of the Reading club, I was really busy with my Projects, like really. before I go into what im doing in my Armenian lessons. So as i mentioned, last week i finished with the alphabet and that my future lessons would be with a more practical. And well, I started with things like talking about myself and introductions. Then we passed on to talking about one’s family and basic things like hobby. I also started catching up with my Armenian vocabulary, Elen gave me quite a number of verbs to learn. So ill be working on that again but it’s just very difficult to concentrate and sustain the constant learning and motivation feed to learn all those vocabulary cards.
Other wise I was very busy with the “ Deutsh lernen mit König Artus “ or “ Learn German with King Arthur “ project. A page will be made for that once it has been completed, or maybe a bit earlier. That way u can actually update on the progress and milestones I hit on the way. Additionally I also have the “ Bauhaus“ project which will also get a site of its own once I manage to plan out the basics and outline of that event. It really just is very tiring and stress haha because im pretty sure that I won’t be able to complete the “ Deutsch lernen mit König Arthus“ Projekt untill the end of my Service here so I’ll probably finish it in Germany and send over 2 copies, one for the Goethe Centrum And one for the school. But none of that now! That l all get elaborated on its own side haha. Alright well during the week I also tried to meet up with the German teacher from the secondary school to talk with her about what I could do with the students who would be interested in having a weekly lesson with me. It didn’t work out haha yeah so I’ll try to fit that into next week! Oh and well I really started liking herbs here and well I always eat them with scrambled eggs and while I was shopping, I paid quite a low price for my purchase. In the picture are two bushels of mixed herbs, 6 pieces of red beetroot, 3 apples, 2 Kiwis, and that for 800 dram or well 1.30€ . A ridiculously cheap price.Below is a picture of my successful “ raid“:
Another thing i did for the first time was that i developed quite a craving for fried potatoes, and that’s why, I needed potatoes. And we had just run out potatoes in the Apartment, and that’s why I decided to venture alone into the basement, where i knew they had their stash of potatoes. So i asked emma for the key, flashlight and the direction to which door i had to go to. It was the second last door on the night. And so I went downstairs and found the place, although it was a bit scary at the beginning. Here is a picture of the Hallway and the Storage unit:
And well when i arrived in Yerevan on Thursday evening, we had a visitor, Johanna. She is a friend of Elisas, from her little community in rural Germany. And well she was visiting her since she just got done with her Abi and well she already met up with Elisa in Georgia and made her way down to Yerevan. She got here on Thursday. Friday Elisa, her friend and I started of the day by finally going to the Matenadaran, the Armenian language museum. We where thinking about getting a tour guide , but I generally don’t like following people who explain things to me so i manged to convince them to just go in by our own and so we did. We did however occasionally latch on to one or the other travel group where we could understand what they where saying. We walked around fora bit and well kinda got bored haha, and since Elisa already was there once, she quickly showed us to the important things and explained a bit so we could dip out of there.
Next thing on our plan was to have some lunch and at the same time meet a friend which Johanna and Elisa made in Tbilisi. I called him Fiat because the name sounded quite similar. We ate at Jengalovhaz, and we came there earlier and ordered 3 Jengalovhaz and a nice mint tea. We talked a bit and after 30 minutes or so Fiat arrived. While we where waiting we (Elisa and Johanna) where gossiping about him. He arrived, and he was this probably like 30-year-old energy bundle and we just sat a bit and talked. He was this like alright dude, who through his kinda shady business, can afford to travel around how he is doing. But overall he was despite his energy like a wacky person. And well, we all just kinda wanted to move on and continue with our day plan, and every time we where like moving towards the end of the conversation, Elisa would always say something critical to keep it going or like “ You can join us later“ so haha me and Johanna always exchanged dreadful looks.
After that we basically just went home and chilled until 19:00 came around. 19:00 was when the Ballet was starting and we had tickets to that Ballet. The Ballet was „Cippolino„. and here are two pictures from the performance and Elisas lovely face right when the performance was starting.
Im pretty sure you can tell yourself which picture is which.
But well, in summary,while the actual ballet was not that interesting, but it was quite amusing trying to find out and the whole plot and the meaning of the acts and characters, since we didn’t read a Ballet summary before. So yeah, and after that while we where getting our coats and getting ready to leave to home, we decided to really throw a party at our place. I ordered 5 Pizzas from a new Pizza place and we all wrote people who we knew. We rushed home and started cleaning up and going shopping for alcohol and such. And as we where standing in line and i was ready to pay, I reached for my wallet and realized that it was gone. II panicked quite strongly because I had quite a lot of things in there. My identity cards, my insurance and credit card and about 100€ in AMD. So Elisa payed and Martin and me walked down the way we came to see if I maybe dropped it somewhere on the way. Sadly we didn’t find it there and when we came back to the supermarket, the rest had left for home already and so we head there as well. Me in a quite shitty and wacky mood. And well, after I had made it up to the stairs to the apartment, I was told that i had never taken my Wallet to the Ballet and that it was lying right there on the table the whole time, so that was a quite positive turn of the evening and i was very relieved.
So we cleaned up, Martin invited a student of his and his friend, both of which showed up and Annajan also came around and we all started drinking. Anna jan is also the person i introduced Johanna as the „Besuch“ or Visitor as, hence the title of this Blog entry.Soon after the Pizzas arrived and we started eating. And well after a while of alcohol and food we where quite drunk already and headed out. In conclusion to the evening, we got denied at one club and just basically got very shit faced at the Stoyka before just coming home. Nothing memorable and not the best experience.
And well, the next Morning all of us just woke up totally hung over and dead. We just sat around at home since we where literally wasted and that was the reason why the day was also wasted.
Sunday, we went to the vernissage where i bought a quite an old german book about Armenia , Martin bought a Book in Russian which talked about history to help his russian skills. Johanna was looking for a ring which she didn’t find sadly, but we did see a whole new side of the vernissage. WE walked around to the end of the market and around the far sides and saw really cool and weird things like old postcards, medical equipment, chemical equipment, military equipment and all kinds of other jazz. Other than that we just headed to crumbs to eat some lovely food and after that, we just headed home and chilled there like always haha.
Monday was the start of the normal working week again which meant that Martin and Kira had to head to their jobs. Well only martin, because Kira was hella sick. Elisa had taken off for Johanna and I was well, just being lazy and decided to allow myself another free day because Tuesday and Wednesday where Work off days. So we three sat down in the morning and decided to take a look at the Church on the Sevan Peninsula , Sevanavank , so Johanna could see some other part of Armenia as well, not only Yerevan. We hopped into a GG and got to the northern Bustation to hop onto the Matrschroutka to Sevan. Sadly, the men there told us that the bus was already fool and I improved and asked when the Bus to Chambarack would be leaving. They said that it would leave in around 5 minutes, so I decided that we would just hop onto that one, because it also passes the Sevan Peninsula, and we would just hop off there. And thats what we did. We drove there and I don’t quite ask how our guest likes the trip haha but lets continue! The moment we hopped of at the road leading into the Peninsula we were hit with the Wind. I had warned everyone to put on some extra clothes because it would be cold and the wind would be strong, but I wasn’t ready for this haha. We walked for 15 minutes through the icy wind to the steps of the Hill and climbed them. That part was even worse, i was afraid to get some ear infection or a cold because of the strong wind. Once up, we huddled into the sides of the old monastery and hid in the chapel, where we enjoyed the idyllic silence and light smell of candles for a few minutes before making our way down again. It was kinda wack because normally the view from the chapel over the land/seascape is quite stunning. ( If you have been with me from the start of this blog and know the couple of first pictures, you’ll know) and on that day, it was just quite murky, haily and cloudy.
Here are some Pictures of the bad weather and view:
We got ourselves a Khachapuri and a gata from the small bakery below where the baker could surprisingly speak German before we hopped into a Taxi back to Yerevan. At home we just hunkered down and drank some Hot chocolate and marshmallows and Johanna got a hair cut and well, the evening was quite interesting in many ways because of a few medical issues xD No further Comment. And that was Monday.
Tuesday was a pretty simple day. We headed out to the national Gallery of Yerevan to look at the permanent exhibition there and it was quite cool. I didn’t know that they had ancient Roman or Egyptian artifacts there. But looking at the history, it makes sense haha. Otherwise we all admired the works of Aivazovsky and Saryan for example. I dont include pictures of the Artworks because first of all it would ruin the „Yerevan experience“ for you and ill maybe even make or post into an „Art“ Page ill make here where ill post pictures ill draw based on things ive seen in the Museums! So well see.We did sadly leave too early because we all skipped out on breakfast kinda, me and Johanna had Instant noodles haha, and well just wanted to eat. Which we did of course, at Tashir Pizza. After that we went and looked at the Church of St.Gregor the Illuminator, which is right at the Metro Station Zoravar Andronik , which we then used to get home haha. The evening was quite interesting too! That evening was the „March against Turkey“ Protest, which aimed at getting attention towards the fact that Turkey hasn’t really accepted the fact that they committed genocide. We joined them around 8 pm. , and joined Martin and two of his students who were already in the march. There we also got DIY torches and just walked the Kievyan street down to the Genocide memorial Park. We chilled there for a bit before just heading back home because we where cold, hungry and tired. `We managed to Order sushi and other Asian delivery food at 23:30 and well, waited until around 0:30 until it came. I swear, i was so fucking happy once the delivery guy called haha. We enjoyed our Asian cuisine with a small cup of 10 year old Ararat and after the dinner, Johanna , Elisa and Me still had one Cha Cha shot, where i almost threw up, but lets forget that. We talked for a bit more before going to sleep and ending that final full day.
Genocide day, or this Wednesday was very relaxed. We just basically sat around. Julian, a Volunteer from Georgia who had only had a half-year service had come around to visit so we joined out little party aswell. Around lunch time we headed out to the city to eat some traditional for Elisa Guest and after that, with an Ice cream, headed back home where we also had to leave immediately so that Johanna could catch her connection to Tbilisi , where she would be flying home from. So 30 minutes later and standing at the Kilikia Bustation, we waved the minibus good-bye where Johanna was in.
And that basically summed up the „Visitor week“ i was planning on reporting on.
Oh and another two facts during the week:
I had quite the problem with sleeping, always waking up between 5 and 7 mostly, which had its personal and emotional reasons, but that always was a bit frustrating haha.
Oh and I started learning “ Time in a Bottle“ on the Ukelele. Ukelele is quite easy and fun instrument to learn with which you can do quite a lot. And with the help of the Internet, Johanna and Elisa, I did quite well, Apparently i learn it very fast so I guess good on me 😉
I dont know with Johanna there it really was a change of pace. Maybe because it was another „new“ German, maybe not. Who knows 😉 haha. Anyways, here are some of the memorable jokes which were made while she was there:
- Killing Martin by simply placing a pillow onto his face while he sleeps. because he sleeps like an Egyptian mummy and doesn’t move.
- Complimenting with “ Inkompitent„
- Learning Jenisch, and mostly using „fesch„
- Having lovely people like Murat around Johanna
- Generally patriotic Armenian jokes like the toast “ Auf Hayastan und Tod den Türken“ and being admitted as an Armenian citizen when you have seen, drank and taken a drag of Ararat.
- „Stell dich nicht so an“
- „Hier wird nichts verziehen“
But there’s quite a number of many other things , but those are too much to mention. Besides, its best kept in oneself. Anyways, the general visit was really another highlight of this FSJ so i hope ill be able to see Elisa and Johanna next year again after this service during my „Transgerman Bike tour“ But that’s maybe a post for itself.
Illl be having another pretty stressy and busy end of the week and Weekend with the Goethe Institut and maybe even Elisa so thatls be coming up next!
I cant wait to see the sea of comments haha, hope you enjoyed reading, I apologize for the bad grammer ,spelling and ill see you soon!