Another week goes by

Right, so we are slowly nearing the end of the school year. The teachers had started dishing out the final exams and I started wrapping up projects I was having and still wanted to do. If you wondered what happened with the “ Deutsch Lernen mit König Arthur project“ , that project is temporarily being put on hold. But more on the projects sub page ;). Now but what did i do in the second last week of school? As usual i tried to do my usual plan This time, on monday, the 5th garde even came to the book club surprisingly and well i had a pretty nice lesson with them. It was nice doing that lesson with them, I missed them alot. Tuesdays though sadly didn’t happen haha, the 6th graders let me down ;). Wednesday I finally managed to make my last „Emil und die Detiktiven“  lecture lesson. Whilethe kids werent really into it and just really wanted to go home, eat, rest or just not be in school I pulled them through my prepared program. But as we finished the last words of the final chapter and I started to ask for feedback, impressions and opinions, I think they really did enjoy it sometimes ( It wasnt always good i agree) but that it was a nice constant to have throughout the school year. Now we just have to watch the movie sometime, but i doubt ill find anytime in the last two weeks of school so itl probably be in some holiday weeks :D.

On thursday, Syuzanna had her birthday and i was invited too so i decided to meet up with the other kids invited before going to her place. So mamikonanush, Luisa and i think someone else met up in front of school and started walking to Syuzannas place, We knew that it was going to be a long walk because i was at hers before and the last time we went there with car haha, But well, on the way there through the centre we bought some candy and little gifts for her and after walking for 45 minutes we arrived at her place. You could get to hers by walking down the road going out of chambarck but turning left onto another road before actually leaving chambarck up a hill and her house was on the very end of that road. While walking we talked a bit and i heard that their classteacher would also be present and well i found that very interesting since teachers would never be at a birthday celebration in germany for example. On the way we met a few animals aswell and i started taking pictures and videos of them delightedly since well, animals dont walk the streets of berlin haha while the others rolled their eyes at my non-local behavior haha. But well we arrived and we were served a good meal, lots of meat, salad and bread and while watching things on the big screen, we just enjoyed the time. Syuzannas cake was also quite a fancy fat piece of shit haha, ive never seen a better cake and sadly i do not have a picture of it so you’ll just have to have a good imagination 😉 Oh and before eating we had a nice walk outside since the horovatz wasnt done yet. Syuzannas Family owns and runs an agricultural bussines with a big barn and many animals. We wanted to go into the barn to see german cattle but it was closed so we just walked up the hill behind it while joking around before returning down the road  to the house where the food greeted us. But before I continue, here are some pictures:

A family a geese on the way to Syuzannas home.

A nice picture of a religious altar in the nature behind the Yeritsyan household. I was told that people kiss the „relics“ as a ritual.

The Hill behind the barn. It had a lovely outlook. A video i took captures it better.

A cow we passed on the way back from out walk.

So after the food, the party mood set in. The lights got dimmed down and the fat speaker got whipped out and armenian/russian and english bangers where blasted through the house. I really had a bit of sympathy for the rest of the family haha. Well all of them started dancing and well, personally it was a bit uncomfortable for me because these 15 year olds where all dancing like they where in a club so, i just chilled on a chair next to Megri, who also just didnt want to dance. Probably one and a half hours later, we were kicked out because it was nearing 10 and well i think everyone was just tired aswell so we complied and were driven back home. That day was quite a stressy and busy one so i just fell into bed after I came home.

Friday was a normal day but I did start the „Deutsch mit Stoff “ project after the usual school hours but well, as you know, you can read about my projects in their respective tab. The weekend was quite interesting though. The other grandchildren of hers where staying for the weekend. The one boy and his two older sisters where the children of Emma’s oldest daughter and child Tatevik. Once I came home I was greeted by Tigran, Elise and Mariam and well over the weekend I had quite a time with them. I played around with them, went on walks and just had meaningless conversations with them mostly because both sides could barely understand each other, but what counts is that we enjoyed the time!

Here a picture of Tigran „dancing“ On friday

That concludes this week! As i have probably said a couple of times but summer has really stepped its game up in the week. Everyday i wake up to the sun shining into my face while the sky is bright blue. On days I can also just go out in my T-Shirt. The pictures dont really portray the beauty and feeling of summer i have here in person but well.. its something! So have some as a little conclusion 😀

Quite alot of things actually

Alright so! As i said, this post will be including two weeks because im lazy as fuck but also because there was an imbalance of activities which happened in one of the weeks so I thought that i might aswell add them two together since that wouldnt amount to one huge post!

Alright so ill just start with the weekend of the first week since nothing really happened untill there. I just had usual School and organisatory work which is just well pretty stale and boring. It’s just.. normal! So anyways, Fridays rolls along and i decided to gone a day earlier because i really just needed a change of pace. Before i headed for the second last marschroytka there was a small event which I was invited too by a russian teacher (  By the way i feel pretty bad for not knowing the most names of the teachers team haha ) and the only thing she said was that it would be the second grade performing something about the russian alphabet. When i arrived there at 2p.m i was greeted with quite a cute surprise. The event was about the second grade saying good-bye to their russian „alphabet book“ since they knew all the letters and could go ahead without it . The story line was this:

  1. The class decided that they would throw a goodbye party for the alphabet book for all its help but when they try to invite him, they can’t find him. So they set out on a journey to find him
  2. After talking to the flowers, cats and grass who all don’t know where the alphabet book is, they meet the kolobok ( A character from russian children’s books who is like a round piece of bread). Kolobok tells them that he knows that the Baba Jaga ( basically the russian version of the childrensbook witch) has stolen the alphabet book and that he would bring the kids to her.
  3. After a bit of traveling, they arrive at her swamp and meet the Captor explaining heir situation to her. She thinks and agrees to come to their little party and if she enjoys it, she will return the alphabet book to them at the end so they can say farewell.
  4. So the party starts and they sing, dance and perform to songs, poems and etc.. lecturing the witch and reminiscing on all the memories they had with the alphabet book nd what it taught them
  5. At the end the witch is so pleased that she agrees to return the alphabet book and the children can finally say thanks and bid the book farewell
  6. The end.

And well, personally i just enjoyed it a lot because it was a performance where i could actually understand what was going on so yeah was definitely happy and impressed, definitely was a very pleasant surprise. I was also very impressed by the costume designs, choreography and the music, you could really see that they put a lot of time into their small performances and well, i think it’s a shame that they don’t have this kind of mentality in germany. But here are a few pictures so you can also visualize how and what it looked like:

The closed stage

The open stage with some weird dandelion dance with really  cool props

 

So after the great event  i packed my things and headed to the Bustation in the vicinity of Chambaracks centre. There , since i was a bit early, i sat down on a bench and while the wait, got quite a surprise. A family of quaking ducks was taking a little excursion and well, definitely improved  my mood a lot! So i figured that ill share a source of instant joy and positivity with you!

Weekend excursion for Family Goose

Oh and actually the day before was a quite stressy one! On thursday I as usual had the last official session of the German Exam preperation lesson with Emma since the next would be examination week. So after i did, I saw that Ofelya had written me on Facebook and asked if i could come in the same day so we could discuss further updates and what not about the whole WorldVision Projekt Idea. I agreed and so after the lesson i headed over there with mamikon to see what we could talk about. Once there we talked about basically the final selection of Streetart concepts I gave them and got to criticism about them which really did piss me off because i just pour a lot of annoying time into that , without getting any real expectation or prefrences&standarts , and then they complain about what I deliver haha. But its alright ;). So they said that ill just have to draw one more and update another of from the finalists and then we would try to do it on this and that date, so i said cool and after a long day  came home at around 6isch and basically just collapsed and didn’t do anything else. And well, the next day i just drew it up, scanned it , added colour and sent it off so that’s that.

So now to the first weekend! I was heading there mainly to buy material and products that I would need for the „Deutsch mit Stoff“ project that was a time sensitive issue since the Open day of the German embassy wasnt really a fluid date. At the same time, there was this alternativ musik festival called    URVAKAN happening in the city and well sadly i hadn’t made it in time to get a ticket for myself which was a pretty okay thing because it was mostly like techno isch music as far as i heard and it was really expensive . But that meant that i wouldnt get to be with the others during the evenings, which sucked but it just gave me some alone time which was going to nice again!

Well and basically the basic things happened. I arrived in Yerevan and after a small transition, heaved myself up the stairs to the apartment and chilled the rest of thee evening. On saturday we planned really what we had to buy since i wasnt the only one. Me and Elisa had to discuss and plan what we wanted , so we agreed that we had to go into one of the textile stores on the street. Elisa herself also had to do some shopping because she got thee cool idea of building her own Ukulele ( Oh and what i didn’t mention i think is that i can play that now and a bit of guitar). So she had to go for some strings which would be fishing lines since they are almost identical and other small things. Martin had his own project he was trying to realize which was to basically completely renovate his german class room in the college. For that he had to go to like hardware stores and see what kind of things he would need to repaint, refit and renovate the room to his liking. Since we all had to go shopping. We decided to go together 😀

First Elisa and I went into a textile shop a bit higher on the Kievyan street while MArtin walked up the comitas to see if there was a store he had found on the internet. As we entered the store we were greeted with like rolls of cloth and we where a bit overwhelmed. We looked around a bit but agreed that we had to discuss a bit more to see what we actually needed. On the way out we talked abit with the staff ( well i did ) on russian and they where really nice so we definitely wanted to come back to the same place the next day with a better idea. We walked up the street and met Martin who met us from the top and they decided to go to the city centre because there where more shop s there and i just tagged along because why not and i didn’t have anything better to do.

So we got out at republic and just across the street was things hardware isch store. We went in and where surprised when the owner could speak fluent english. He and Martin spoke a bit about what he wanted to do, what he needed and etc. From what i understood was that it would be hella expensive for martin to do the project because he first had to coat over the existing layer a few times plus paint whatever he wanted over it again and it would be around 500 Euros. We left with a bit more knowledge and reality pressed onto us as we walked to the 1001 things store, where Martin hoped to maybe even find a cheaper variant of the products he needed since he difinently didn’t have that money. Once there Elisa got some screws while i just accompanied then and Martin found a replacement for this putter/paint. But he didn’t buy it because he just wanted to see if there was a cheaper option than the first store ( which was like really high quality) and there was. We where in the downstairs section first but when we went up we found a few other things we wanted. I had always complained about how my friends made their rice here in Yerevan. It was always too soggy and wet and well i wanted to show them how real rice was supposed to made. And so i bought a pot haha.  We waked on to Elisa Shop, she had found a hunting store where she hoped to find the Fishing lines and it was quite close so yeah. We walked down this sketchy little set of stairs into this shop and the moment we stepped foot into it Martin was like “ This is where the Armenian military gets its equipment from“ as a joke haha. But seriously , the walled where racked up with all sorts of military looking equipment , guns, modifications , bullets and etc and while Elisa was talking to the clerks and buying her lines, we even found a „Azerbaijani trap“ or just a normal bear trap, which was already scary alone haha, but well we just dipped out of there as soon as we could. Here are a few pics of the shopping tour we did:

Martin looking quite annoyed at me after he made a second calculation of the project price after finding cheaper alternatives.

Only a part of the lovely merchandise of the hunting store Elisa brought us too.

 

And well, after we left the Hunting store, we just walked down the street to the vernisage to buy her friend Johanna, who came and visited before a like little elephant pin, which she didn’t buy and regretted because she is incompetent. We  found it relatively quickly and then walked down to the Goethe centrum to eat a lovely shuwarma from my favorite shuwarma store before hopping into the courfure at the closely by Russia Mall and then finally going home. The rest of the evening, as far as i remember was very chilled ^^. So they went onto their music festival and I just relaxed at home.

The next day wasnt as packed as the day before. Me and Elisa went back to the textile store and after quite some while, we bought around 6 pieces of 1.5m times 1.5 meters of cloth. All in different colours of course 😉 On the same day i tagged along with martin as he met up with a few students of his as they prepared to go to „Wine days“ a sort of Wine expo haha. We ended up in a small courtyard in a small summer „Basket“ (because it was raining hard) with two bottles of wine, a pack of card, loudspeakers and a broken wine opener. That was a little weird and frustrating experience haha, but well we didn’t stay long because we ended up really tired for some reason and just went home where again I spent the rest of the day relaxing and preparing the materials me and Elisa bought. BUt here is a picture of MArtin on his quest for a bottle opener after we struggled with the first bottle for 45 minutes!

A picture of Martin asking around for a wine opener.

 

Now so, the weekend just ended and I headed back to Chambarack as usual. And well the things that would be on my plan this week would be these :

  1. The usual workplanne ( Mon, tueswednes, thursday programm)
  2. Goethe Exminations on thursday
  3.  Start the „Deutsch mit Stoff “ Projekt

And while it doesn’t seem like a lot, it was quite a lot, so lets jump into it! So the reading clubs on monday and Tuesday didn’t happened yet again. After the holidays i took, the class never really rev´covered and always thought that i woundt be doing it again even though i tell them weekly but well, fuck it haha. On Wednesday i tried to do my last lesson of Emil and the detectives but well that didnt work out since Emma wanted to students for a final recap of the German things that would be valuable for the Goethe examinations so i wasnt really mad. Just frustrated because i just wanted to finally finish the damn thing haha. So thursday rolled around and well, that was a very big and important day for the whole school and emma really because it was the day where they could show that their whole year of work and learning was worth it. Funnily enough , the same day is seen as „Victory Day“ against the „germans“ in WW“´2 throughout the former Soviet countries and its a bit ironic that the german exams are held on that day. Anyways, dana and the examination team would be arriving at around 10 isch and so I went to school a bit earlier to make small A4 sized paper with „Good luck“ written on them. Oh and of course i stuck on the paper which said that we had visitors 😉 Soon after that they arrived just while i was organizing office folder and well we just went over the vague outline of today. This time they wouldnt need me for the actual examination but I had the task of buying a few things from stores for out lunch. They where water, Tomatoes, Cucumber, Fruits and a few other small things. So we split up. They got to work with the children and i went out of school to run the errands. While i passed the ground floor i saw that there was a table with exhibits and works from the students layed out, probably in connection with „Victory day“. They ranged from very impressive paintings and wood carvings to handmade models of tanks and other military equipment ( which isnt shown in the picture below haha)

While i walked through the school yard i was like “ you know what?Since we are having inner only in a few hours, why don’t i meet up with Arthur, spend some time with him , watch some of the events organized for „victory day“ and just be back in time for lunch with the needed things.“ And that’s exactly what i did, I called him and after him confusingly asking who he was talking too i was greeted warmly with his surprised voice and we arranged to meet up at the city centre.I walked down and after another call and looking along the outskirts of the gathering of people, found him waving  at me. I joined him and immediately felt 100 times more Armenian. The gathering had formed to look at the little performance the secondary school had organized. We chilled there for a bit before heading off in his car to get to the stores i needed to go to to buz the things i was instructed too and after that, he even invited me to have lunch with him, which I was very glad about. But before I go into more detail about that, here are some pictures from the organized performance on VIctory day:

Dance performance infront of the Secondary.

Dance performance in front of the secondary Part two.

 

Now as I said, Arthur invited me to a lunch and so, after splitting up with him at the stores and delivering the items to school, i rushed back to the meeting point , which was the butcher at the park in the center of the city. There he told me that he had bought some meat before everything started and that he had given it to the „Grillmaster“ (haha?) so he would make a lovely Horovatz out of it. While waiting, enjoying a lamajo and talking/ listening to the conversation Arthur had with thee other employees i found out that Arthur actually used to be a „Grillmaster“ himself a long time ago when he was young ;)Below is a picture of the Grillmaster at his finest.

The view of our (ArthursHorovatz being made.

 

Now so after the Horovatz was finished , walked back to the car where I saw that he had bought a lot of other things for our little lunch together like Pickels, bread, water, tomatoes and more. We drove a bit further than the bustation and parked under a hill which we climbed to reach quite a nice picnics spot. We sat down, settled and started preparing for our meal with a lovely view of Chambarack. We fashedthe vegetable and out hands before splitting up the bread and each ripping of nice and lovely pieces of the Meat. And lord it was a good horovatz, nice and seasoned with just the right amount of salt and meat to the bones: I would even go as far as to say that it rivaled to the one in Kapan😉 Time went by and we ate quite quickly because we had to be back in school in 40 minutes but as we where about to finish, we noticed that only 10 minutes had passed and so we layed back a bit after the meal and just enjoyed the peace, nature and great atmosphere. We talked about his past, about germany and other random topics but well after a while we did have tp leave, so we packed up all our things, gathered the meat leftover, bones and other things we didn’t eat and threw them to a dag that was barking at us on the way down from the Hill. Soon after we where back in school again for the.. “ official “ lunch xD

To our little „date“ with Arthur

The view from our „table“. Which was the nature.

Prepping our lunch.

“ Why dont you want to smile for the camera Arthur?“

Yes you heard correctly, the official lunch. Maybe ive mentioned it before, but each time Dana and Arthur come to Chambarack, Emma orders some really nice Kebab for us all to eat together and always, Arthur doesn’t join us. And well , ive always thought that it was because of the work relations and workplace hierarchy but Arthur explained tme why he acts that way while we ate together. He said that he’d rather know himself what meat someone was cooking and that’s why when he comes here, he always buys meat himself and gives it to someone he trusts to make his own good food. But well, that didn’t stop me from eating at the second lunch aswell haha. We had a guest from germany, a young reporter who had come to Armenia with her Journalism class for 2 weeks to report on the TOpic of well the unbalanced Male to Female Birth ratio ( quite a tricky and uncomfortable topic i know) and well she joined us for the lunch aswell. After lunch i basically just sat around, did organisatory things and just relaxed with at least a good few kilos of meat in my body. Dana and her team quickly finished up after that and after cleaning up with me, said their good byes and left.

The rest of the week was quite uneventful and well, i stayed in chambarack that week because i was too lazy to go to Yerevan. And well that sentence concludes the promised two-week recap with the most important or interesting things for me mentioned! I hope you enjoyed reading and seeing the pictures and Ill see you all…… next week!