Back where to where it all began, kinda.

So as the titel already reads, its nice to return to the place from where i was once at the very start of my FSJ. Around 10 months ago I first joined the „German Mobile “ ( A self invented and patented name by the way )into the south in its little PR and educational journey. And well, now I was joining the GErman mobile for basically same mission just with a little diferrent content in the educational section. Last time we went to open and set up the new german corner in the Kapan library and this time we where doing a small educational Messe in the same building with the DAAD aswell as holding teacher fortbildungen. But before I spoil everything ( There still are a few cool things heh) Ill just get into the whole thing. Enjoy!

So just ass the last trip into the south, to get some atcual work done,we met as early as humanely legal ( I believe it was around (8:45) at the Goethe Centrum to help Dana pack the Bus with all the necessary materials. Oh! And the „we“ means Elisa and I. Im not sure if i mentioned that before but while Martin helped out with the Exams at Ayb, Dana came up to me and asked me who id like to bring with South and well, the decision fell onto Elisa. So she was also part of the team. We arrived adn i was happily surprised because the bus was uch bigge that the one almost a year ago. This one had arund 13 seats and was a trasporter while the lastone had around 6 and was more of a Van isch car. So while we packed more and more of the team slowly turned up. First the twoteachers who would do the fortbildungen Srbuhi from Ayb and.. another one whose name ive stpidly forgotten haha. Then Jakob from the Embassy and finally MEghri from the DAAD. Basically just a small extension from the previous team. The ar around 9 we started our drive down. I wont describe how the drve was haha but there are a few things id like tp say. After we passed the Pass , breaking away from the view from thr ararat, I must saythat i had the whole way remembred in a diferrent way.. maybe it was becuase when i had the first trip, i was barely in the country. But i justs didnt recognize the way at certain/ from certain points. Secondly we sadly passed the little restaurant where we where last year but we did find a very good alternative so I definetly didnt mind.There we en´ven met a german turist group whichw as pretty funnyy because we made fun of them haha, and there was a bit of stress since the entry code for Luisas German proficiency test for her camp in germany wasnt working , but we managed to get it all done on thw way. I just listned through a few albums on the drve and just enjoyed the view out of the window. The Ntaura had definetly changed form the last time and it was all just more green, helathy and virile since the last visit was more towards the end of the summer. Allin all the drive was around 6 hours and i was alrady getting waves of nstalgia ass we drove down the valley to Goris.But yeah we arrived nicely in out final destination in Kapan around early Noon. We quicklz loaded out things off at the hotel before meeting again and driving up to the Library to unpack and prepare evertzhing for the next day. And yet again,as wer where slaving the boxes filled with materual up to the big hall, there came a (If not the same one like 10 months ago) crazy old man following up and yeah haha. But we slaved it all uo and I was alrady sweating like a pig. It was so ho and humid in that big hall. Like sweat was dripping down my nose hot haha. But we started building up the individual stands, hanging up posters ont the wall, setting up the reception and more and around about an hour later, the place loooked bomb. The catering company also build up their things so it really looked pretty professional haha. I swear i took photos but whie looking throug the gallery i cant find any so yeah. wack.  But here are two others :

Jacob doing nothing on his lazy ass, Haha jk, this was during a break we took becuase it was too warm during building everything up.

Us leaving after the set up before the big day.

After the whole build up we walked back to our hotel and wher egiven just freetime until 6 where we would meet again to eat a collective dinner. Me and Elisa chilled in our room, drew and I think just relaxed after this long sweaty day haha. I dre the view from out balcony and it worked out better than I thought. When we met up, we walked to the same restaurant we ate dnner at last time, this time, taking a seat outside though. We ordered water, xorovats, a good ass brosch, braed, fried potates, vegetables, salad and probably a few other things that i missed haha and had a break dinner. This time though, the xorovats wasnt the best meat and it was primarely fat which was on the bones, but i also got afew pretty good pieces so nothing to complain. We just sat, ate, drank and talked about alot. Kapans rising rive, its history (Kapanskiye tapachki) , Danas and Meghris carrer here, the Ayb work load and much much more. IT was a funny evening. We went to bed satisfied, tired and lulled by the lvely sounds of a billion frogs in the river (which we allowed to reproduce because Arthur wasnt there;) (Too early joke haha (This format is so confusing issnt it?))).

NNow the next day was the big one! It started with a stale breakfast at the hotel and then with a final check of the tings we set up the day before. All was good and the German eductaion faire could start off. I was tasked with elisa to the reception . The people would be lead tp us thrpugh teh banners and we would greet them, check if the registered themselves before and iff so they would get like a welcome baggie. There wher etwwo baggies though, one for the german etachers and one fro the rest of the etacheing force and administration. That is connected to the big thema of the fair which is „Deutsch im Sytsem “ or „GErman in´the System“.

The big idea about „Deutsch im System“ is to introduce or strengthen the interest in german or the german lessons in the countrys region by trying to promote it in evey subject posssble and implement those subjekts and topics in the german lessons. Thats why notoly german teachers where invited.

But so yeah, there was a bit of chaos at the reception but due to my russina skills, Elisa germanness and the occasional help from danas familair and well knowsn face, did we manage to register all but 2 people ( who didnt arrive at all). There was even a camera team there from a local media source ! So after the registration they all went in and got to hear a talk from dana, meghri , jakob and a few others about the cooperation with germany and its language and the usual things. I was waiting for the last two people who never came haha but i didnt mind. After the little opening conference, there was a small bruch/snack break whichw as provided by the catering company and after that the german teachers got to take part in the included Teacher fortbildung.

Picture of after the receptionxD.

The opening events. Here you can see the whole set up kinda 😀

A Seminar group during work.

There was where Elisa and I got time off and we went home to have a lovely Nap, whcih Dana critisized haha. We headed back at around 4 becuase thats when the whole event would be coming to an end and we would have to build up the tech for the film screening of „Lotte an´m bauhaus“ an hour later. Another cool thing we two wheere looking forward too was Anna. Im pretty sure , if youre a consistant reader of this blog, that youve heard of her before. She is a german student and wever been out with her before and she also even won the big DAAD Stipend for three years in germany, which is retty fucking bomb haha. But she comes from Kapan and since its summer holidays she was coincidetally returning to Kapan on the day of the screening which emant we could still hang out with her a bit. Which was pretty dope. I had been spamming and annoying her though her Insta Dms ( the way of communication here) to come and watch the screening and she said that she will appear wih a friend so that was cool! And well of course while building the qhole beamer and things up, there where issues. We firsted switcehd the beamer and fater that worked there was an issue with the Sound. Though the like auditorium next tothe hall had the fattest audio system control panel id seen in my year, it didnt manage to play out the sound of a usb cable haha. After we all stalled a bit and waited, the „master“ came and fixedd it up in 5 minutes. But still, nerve wrecking,nerve wrecking. And so the movie started. I of course wont talk about the conetnts pf the film except for the fact that it deals with the „Bauhuas“ art school and the females associated with that movement. Around at the 10 minute mark, Anna and her friend joined quietly so it was all gooood. 😀

A picture of the fountain square i took after the movie ended ^^

After the movie we quickly dissasembled everything we happily started talking to Anna. We arrangde that we would go eat Dinner at her home village „Geghanush“ or Beautiful Village. So we met up later and had a small walk to the near bye supermarket (Of which there are 4 in Kapan according to Anna) and did some quick shopping. Some beer, juice, fruits and vegetables before hopping into her dads car after introducng ourselves to him and driving up into the mountains to their village. It was about a 20 minute drive where we talked with eachother as best as we could ( her dad cant soeak german and Elisa cant speak russian so it was confusing haha). We got a small lecture about the _____ pollution near the village which incerases daily due to the heavy industry. We arrived at her village and it was really a village. Like I dont know how to explain it but just take it as a fact. Her family house was a two story wooden house with a small „yard“ in the front. She showed us around the rooms, going into the history of her family through some „artifacts“ and explaining the houses histroy and the use of the rooms and etc..The history is quite crazy haha there alot to write so ill just.. dont ^^. But all while we where getting a small tour , her dad was preaparing and starting to cook the dinner, which was home marinated fish grilled with lavash and vegetables. So we sat down to eat and it was a great time. We talked about how she was happy that the germans she met wernt that „bpring“ and one thing that I remembered is that I have the „Armenian Energy“. We even managed to incorporate her dad pretty well and I think we all had a blast. At one point her dad just chilled onto the near couch not to disturb us and yeah, we brought up to topic of the „Maulbeeren“ Homemade vodka, and luckily they did have a bottle of it storied and where nice enough to give it to us. Which was great hahaha. At around 11 I think we drove back and where invited to a tea in ther apartment in Kapan but we where both pretty tired and still ahd work to do the next day plus the drive back so we nicely declined and said that we would catch up next time we would be down in Kapan. Picturs abut this will still be comign xD

And so , me and Elisa where dropped off at our hotel and elevatored up to our room, fell on the bed and and went right to sleeping^^.

Now the third and last day came around and we left the hotel with out things already stuffed into the Bus after the breakfast. This day turned out to be quite an interesting one! Since the seminar still continued in the morning of this last day, Dana let us off the hook and Jakob, asked us if we would be interested/ willing to join him on his errand here in the south. The embassy annually hosts a contest to select a few bussines models/ideas and Jakob was supposed to check out one of the few contestants left in the south. And well , he was told that there woudnt be translator and since he cant speak any russina, it would be a win win for us both if I would come with. And well, elisa just tagged along haha. we where supposed to meet the „owner“ (?) infront
of the municipalities govermental building, soething like a town hall. And soon enough a small sturdily build armenian drove up and jumped out of the car to greet us. We exchanged foraliets and after a small awkward silence about what we wuld do now, we decied that the owner would give us tour of the projekt/ compound while talking bussines. For that we hopped int
his car where we where met with the first cool thing. There was a woman in it who would act like a translator and she could speak pretty good geramn too. We where driven to the village.. the name is a cobination of the words river and village , and ive asked for the name three times again but ie always forgotten so thatls have to do for you readers haha. It was around 50 Minutes by car from Kapan and yeah, on the way we say the lovely southern landscape of armenia. We passed a dam and through dozen of small mountains/ valleys.

Quick snapshot of the Lake and mountains  during the drive.

On the drive i found out that the „owner“ had alreay once gotten financial suport from the german govermanet for his ideas. The first time was for a Honey produktion bussniess which seemed to be working well for him. NOw after the long hot drive we arrived at his prpertz where we first drove by the above mentioned honey production. It was a pretty iddylic little spot in nature with a few run down houses/cottages. We where led down near to the river bank where we where served a sample of the tea which would get produced if they would receive financial support, The „new“ Tea would be of course only made by naturally growing herbs since he said that its a shame thout any use. at they just die each year wich he said was a shame. And there was atleasrt 6 different kinds of herbs in that mixture. It was oretty dope. Oh and while drinking tea and talking we also had a taste of the homemade honey and damn. That shit was good haha. We found out that this village was once an aserbajanian but was abndoned due to obvious historical events and now with the help of a few of his friends he is trying to „revive“ the village and nearby areas, We also passed a few dogs on the way and the owner calmly explained that they are here to fight of bears, since it has happened before that a hungry and curious big bear had wanted to get a taste. Otherwise, that conclded out little „oficial“ visit and yeah, Jakob said that it was verve and that the idea would very probably get the financial help for the packaging maschine they are wishing for,

The Beehives on our way into the area.

 

Two of the rundown houses. Who knows, maybe ill even draw them ^^.

The view from where  we would be sitting and enjoying a nice chat.

Where we talked… „Bussniness“ haha.

Since we had to back at around lunch time to pack all the things in again and help with the end , we didnt stay too long and soon where on our way back. On the way we took a small detour to the city where the translator lived to drop her off at work and then we where off back to kapan.

Walking back with the dog, the nicer one haha.

Around an hour of silence, sleeping and sweating later we arrived and thanked the owner for time and headed to the library.In the next two hours we helped with the end of the Event and packed all the things back into the Sprinter. It was so fucking hot haha but I think we where all glad when when the drive back started at around 14:00. This time we had a few more assengers. Meghris mother, Arshaluis and the teachers from Goris joineed us to get a ride back home. In Goris we stopped at the, in the precious trp mentioned, german hotel to have a tea and pachlava with the owner and the head of the newly formed „german ckub“. They talked about strategies to build up relations and oartnerships with germany, companies and etc. while also educating the youth and incrasing interest. I also had the idea that maybe all the going volunteers, could do a small spot in Goris on their way down to Kapan. But we will see how that will turn out. As we where leaving we had to wait or meghri since she bought around 2 Kg of lavash haha and we wher off. On the drive back we also stopped at the little bisto place again and I had one of the biggest meals I had in a while hahah. I had like two plates of different food plus Pizza, but I was strong! And i ate that bitch up :D. Now we arrived at the Goethe centrum n the late evening hours and unpacked all the things we had stuffed into the sprinter. As I we carried it up to Danas office, we where surprise that NElly ) The geothe centrums Chef) Was still there and yeah haha. After all of that was done, Elisa, MEghri and me hopped into danas car. She drove us and dropped us off at barekamutyun which was a shame since the ride was hilarious since Me and meghri joked ariund well with „anmachsprüchen“) which i thought off/invented) connected to her name . We arrived at home tired and that was about it. The second and last journey into the south with the Giethe Institut. A nice time back into some of the first memorabe times I had in my year here.

And finally, a picture of the ride back.

The three week summer break start catch up

Soo… continuing from  the last sentence of mz lst post which read : My „Last “ day at „Work“. Id like to explain that a bit.  Now even though school is over and there are school holidays in the country. The Work in school is pretty far from being over haha, the teachers mostly still end up being a month or so longer in school to finish the years work or prepare the next year. And well, that aslo applies to me haha. So with the holidays, i still have work to do of course!

Sadly, my blogging motivation and prgress has definetly been lacking haha and wekk for the last three weeks i havnt really being doing anything for this site. But on the side i have been writing down small events/ occasions and notes for things i will write on here so you definetly will only be missing out minimally so you dont have to worry about anything hehe. But yeah, as i said, my blogging is currecntly taking a toll and Im pretty sure it wont recover but that doesnt mean ill stop. With the upcoming plans, the posts will cover a longer time span of a certain thing im doing. And seriosly , ive done some thinking why im so demotivated to write this. Partially i think its the weather. Its so fucking hot and humid and i dont really want to sit hous just typing away haha. There are many reasons i can think of but another one i think is just the amount od stress and travel I am having currently and will be in the future so yeah. Nevertheless, i just wanted to tell you if i go dark for amonth or so that in that case, im not just doing nothing haha. Im working mainly and on the side im trying to formulate, finish and polisch up my posts and blog as a whole ^^

Now i just want to apologiye for this post since its just one big chaos of events, and stuff so im not sure how well i will be able to document it all. Id also like to add that there will be alot and alot off pictures, so dont hate 😀 Now that you have been warned, enjoy the read.

Now so what have I been doing in school? I have mainly been planning the quite busy sommer plans ill be having with the Goethe Institut ( A post yall will be getting once that in in process/ has ended) , cleaning up my workspace and doing a few more organizational tasks,

  • – For the summer plans I started communications with the partys involved across the country and in georgie with whom i will be working closely together with. I made a financial plan and bla bla bla, youll get more of that in that specific post.
  • -Not only did i do orginasational things but I also had the chance to have a few lessons with the 3rd graders who have just started learning german. I used the A1 texts books and the proviced programm to have a´very simple, easy and laid back fun lessons. We did things like the “ ABC song “ or counting and working with numbers. And to be honest, those children are very fun and easy to work with. They are motivated enough to throw themselvs into the work and they are easy enogh to control becuase they are still youngg and have a bit of respect for me. But yeah, in the couple of dayswhere I had workshops with them, they really made me realize that “ This is what this year is work it“ Becuase i just listen to them singen happily and it kinds just .. makes me happy haha.
  • –  ALso in connection to the childreen and the newl beginners, I made sure that each child got a copy of the „digital“ learning material, the dvd and cs so they could also practise at home. To be honest, that task was a bit of a pain in the ass haha becuase the chidlren would forget their USb stick or forgot which one was theirs and yada yada. But after two days we had it all sorted out.
  • – Regarding my actual workplace,  I started stripping down and categoising the loose papers and materials lying around to put them into my fat Folder, ( which is probabaly around 7Kg by now ahha) But yeah my whoke desk and looks kind of despressiv and sad now. WEll not the desk really , i think it was more of my feelings becuase i realised that what ive worked on building upfor a year has come to an end . :/ Wack. The posters and programm information of my which ive hung up infront of the german room have also been taken down and rolled up for transport.
  • – One thing which is connected to work , which i made, is that I finished building my little „Oil painting box“ that I had planned for transporting wet painting during my travels. It took quite sometime and planning and after a few mistakes and some improvising, I managed to actually to make it work out quite well. Only using a hot glue gun and Pizzaboard cardboard, i would say that i did a pretty good job. Here is a picture of the end product :
  • So here are three views of it and yes it was made with Pizza delivery Boxes xD
  • Oh and during my time still at school they wher holding the final exams of the Students ( The armenian 9th and 13th garde exams are held in the holidays) So that was a big reason why the older kids from ym projects didnt have time to meet up and do things. ( Im trying to save my ass here haha) But here is a pic of the exam setup, quite interesting to be honest haha:
  • Now, to what i did besides my work! To be honest, I must say that i pretty much wasted the first three weeks which is kind of a shame. I had quite alot planned. Meeting with the kids and still watching the “ Emil and the Detektive“ Movie with the workshop participants hm but well time kind of just ran through my fingers haha. SO what did I do with t´my time? Well one good thing is that I did quite the number of Walks and little excursions with some students. Mostly to the two bigger hills/mountains behind our living complex. A few times with the little yard gang of mine to the one closer to home and once with Vagharshak and his friend Arthur to opposite one. I feel a bit stupid trying to explain this becuase Its horrible haha. The whole thing with cagharshak played out with him asking me if idlike to go and pick flowers with him one day, and well off course I said yes becuase im trying to establish a small personal herborium. So the final day came and we met up, bought a few snacks/drinks and headed up towards the other mountain. On the way there we walked over and along a few fields and hills and I must say that the view was quite spectacular. I definetly have that planned as a potential drawing/painting spot. The way wsnt that bad but the hardest part where the last 30% becuase it was just a steep rocky hill. And well after a good amount of huffing and puffing we collapsed on the side of the top. Now what was so special about that hill was that , according to vagharshak, the hidden side was completely covered in fields of big white flowers. And boy was he right. Once we crossed the edge, you ould see the pretty view of the entire back hillside being covered in them. It really was… calming and quite beatifull. We sat down and had those snacks we bought and talked about things like traveleling, other countries and pyramids  or “ ägytpische burgen“ as he called them haha quite cute. I also found out that Arthur made and sold his own bycicles , which wasa quite faschinating. After our small break we walked amoung the hill side and picked a god handfull. After having our littele collection we did a small photoshoot at the top, ofwhich i will of course post the pictures below and yeah, just had a pretty good time. Me and Vagho really bonded during that time. On the way back though, it started raining which wasnt that nice but we made it back in time.  We also discussed the „youth“ haha teaching me how to play „Blot“. A card  game which is simialr to „Scart“ or has a similar process/theorie. But that sadly never happened, though i would love to maybe learn it one day.

Here are a few pictures from that time:

David ethusiastically showing of my German-Armenian freindship Pin.

A walk we had one day through the park where there was a exhibition.

Pictures from the walk wth Vagho.

Me trying t be cool. But the picture is kinda dope.

Now on another time I met up with Vagho, went went for a quick walk in the centrum, enjoyed a ( well I did, vagho declined a few time) 3 Lajmajo before he showed me to his „IT / Programming class“ at the secondary school. I walked into a quite bland and broken room but what was in that room was crazy. They had some heaviý maschinery, pretty decent pc set ups, lots of cables and a 3d printer, which was efficiently working away during the moment of our arrival haha. I talked a bit with the teacher and then they already  started writing aprogramm for a robotor, his sensors and proccessor so that he would find his way/ explore a  labyrinth. I didnt stay for long enough though to see if the robot madeit or not because I was too tired and had another quick nap at home, but from what I heard, He made it quite well. Here are a few pictures from there aswell:

The 3rd Printer in the Corner. The shelf with the finished products was close by.

The Producton corner.

The teacher building up the robot with Vagho and the other dude.

Coding the Robot.

 

And since we are at the topic of walks , here is another picture of a quick picture I snapped with Gor, another very interesting 9th grader, while we had a quick walk through the city with some sunflower seeds. He showed me some back yards and gardens as we walked though the city, which was really gave me a rural/ small comunal feeling aswell.:

Gor and me on our little walk. Here we are making our way to drink some water.

Now on * i think( the first weeknd after the last school weekend, there was something alled the „Yerevan Art Fare“ Just 3 dazs of a art exhibition, talks and other things happened in Yerevan. On the sunday I went to the big exhibition at a expo &ehibition uilding very close to the apartment of the volunteers in Yerevan, just right up a side street of the Comitas Avenue. There where quite the interesting curators present at th event. Artists from sweden, Germanz, Iran , Spain and a few more and their art was definetlz quite interesting. Ill just let the pictures and their small descriptions do the talking so enjoz the „exhibition“ xD Pictures:

A pic of how the layout of the place was. Seen is the second floor.

And below are just a few pictures of art works 😀 Enjoy!

 

Now aside from the exhibition i went alone to on sunday, there was also a small „TedTalk“ isch event on Monday by a Spanish artists about the topic“ Art and Technology“ His artist group was called:     . And to be honets, i thought that the talk would be really boring but some thing he talked about and the projekts he did where quite fascinating. While there is enough time and space to explain everything, i just dont want to since im too lazy. Ill just throw out some topics and Ideas he mentioned and you can google their name if youd like too. So one Idea they tried doing where to find how much of an Impaact art has on people. Another quite interesting project they did was at the UN GA with all the leaders of the participating countrys where they presented a „Time MAschine“ Just check them out for your self hehe. The talk was really cool.

With the holidays and the finished „Oil box“ I definetlz had more time and motivation to start painting much more. I started going outside for two hours occasionallz to paint things, or quick 30 minute oils at home. Once , I even walked up the hill the forset behind our house to draw some nature and plants, oh but well, it wasnt such an enjoyable experience. I arrived in the forest, all cool , shady, peacfull and nice. And probabalz after twoo minutes, i notoced that I was going to get fucked by the mosquitos.and i was right. alreadz during just unpacking mz things thezwhere swirring around me like crayz and while ainting i probablz had to make erradic and strong movements so that the insects would flz away just to land on me a couple of moments later. Well I would saz that i had around 17 bites on one arm alone and around 35 in total on mz bodz. Marks where still present 2 weeks later, i dont know what kind of bull breed those things where haha. But yeah, what i dont go through for Art 😉 All the Art i will do over the summer will be available under the „Art“ section in the blog so no descriptions or pictures here. Go there and see for yourself!

Towards the end of the three first weeks, Vagharshak had his Birthday party. He had alreaz brought it up a month before but i was pretty sure that i woudn tbe able to come becuase of a Sommerplan element. That changed though and i was able, which really did make him happy. Now the day was friday and it was pissing outside. It was a week where it basicallz onlz rained and it was a strong strong rain. I had written him if we where gong to meet in to little basket where he had originally planned it out of a joke becuase of ther weather and he sad that we where going to have the „party“ at his place instead. Surprisingly, he wasstanding at my door 15 miutes later with sergey compeltely soaked. Naturally i was upset beucase i knew where he lived and didnt need him to pick me up , especially in this kind of weather. But well he was there so we all enjoyed running back through the rain to his place laughing with our umbrellas and even picking up a few other guests on his on the way. We entered his humble abode with around 9 oher friends of his and where greetde bz his family. I shortlz said hello, since they had just heard from the german and never seen me and after that we wherre ushered into the living room where th table was alreadz covered in drinks and appetizer.And well i wont go into too manz details, ill just mention things that stuck in my head. I of course got the only beer on the table becuase I was german.The kids always wanted to make me try armenian food becuase they thought i woudnt be able to eat it. They where wrong. Sergey asked me „Andrej, do you like lemons?“ and i was like „sure i do“ and he replied with “ why dont you eat a slice then“. I thought it was the usual thing where they would think i wont eat it becuase its too sour so i pick up a slice and bite the fruit clean of the outer yellow skin and look at him truimphantly and he goes “ It seems like i like lemons more than you“ , takes a slice and just eats it all haha. I laughed good with that one. Otherwise i tried to explain to them what a „bierchen“ is by using the armenian -ik form thus: Garre Jurik. They didnt really understand the concept i think haha. And I danced a bit with Vagharshak and some other boys. That day was the first time in the year where i gave into the requests to arm wreste me. I beat all of them haha. The whole thing was a pretty nice experience i would say and i definetly had some fun, I just have to remember to give vagharshak some birthday money aswell ^^.

The party!

Snapping a picture of Soghomon haha.

Oh and during the week the Haik, the direktor of the school calls me and asks me to bring in my passport to school. While im a bit confused im oretty sure i know what this is about so i jog over to school with my docuemnt adn go to his office. There he explains that tehe authorities want to deport me and thats why he has to send them the PAssport page with my valid immigrazion stampds so they know that Im still within my time to stay here. I offered to bring my reseddency card for him to scan but he was like „nah, fuck it, itl all be good anyways, this is just a formality“ and we left it at that. Lovely times haha.

The nexxt big thing which happend towards the end of the 3 weeks was the „Dirk Michaelis Koncert“ which Holga had organized. The whole reson whz it was that guz was because during the „deutsche itparade“ Holga had contacted each artist of the songs which where presented. Obviouslz some replied while others didnt and Dirk was so ethusiastic about the whole idea that Holga and him starting talking and planning a visit to armenia. And well this was his visit haha. I had been in Yerevan by then for a few days becuasse it was weekend or something and that was good forHolga becuase he asked the volunteers to cover the jobs like the bouncers, ticketcheckers, regiistration and all the other organizational things. So the day comes and we get a taxi to bring us to the concert hall since its quite far away. Good thing number one that day,the taxi driver had the hardest musik banging in the car and he cranked it up a bit more once he realiyed that we all liked it aswell. Those two sonfs where of course addded to the „Caucasian beats playlist“. Now we arrived about an hour earlz for the whole prep and we got to meet Dirk and his german side kick and just say hi for a bit before being assigned out positions.Martin and Florian would be the ticket checker while Elisa, Kira and I would be ahndleing entrz, ticket sale, money and registration. Soon enough the first people alreadz started to pour in. It was quite a crowd. Abround 300 hundred while seated by the slow start of the koncert. Now to why im mentioning this in the recap: The first time i heard his musik, it was already weird and since im not the biggest fan of german musik except for Hip hop, i immidiatly categorized it as wack and just weird. BUt boy was I wrong haha. The first few songs wherre more like meh, but as I concentrated on the lyrics, chords and overall performance i started jamming out to it. It was really beatiful. I was blown away by him , esecially becuase i had the lowest expectations someone could have going in hhaa.Towards the end he really had the whole crowd at their feet and the end act was a duet with him and the girl at the „Hit parade“ who sang his song. It was a really great evening haha. The german duduk player looked like he would press out his lungs though.But yeah, ive gotten the set list from Holga, so ill see if his songs are as good as they where live. If not i dont mind either, the best memories ar in ones mind ^^. Here are three pictures of that evening:

Martin looking as fine as ever.

The artist himelf on stage.

Oh and a small peak into the „Cash register“ haha which we where operating xD

After the concert I returned to Chmabrack for a few days for a final half week before coming back to Yerevan to start my meticoulous summerplan. What was important to mention about those few days was a particular little excursion i di with Emmi where Suren, Garush and Sipan joined. So the plan was actually to just walk across the city to the „Mountain with the Cross“ on it becuase it was basically covered in Thymian and the armeniaan just collect it from the natrure, dry it annd amke their own tea. It was quite a hot day and well to be hoest i didnt really want to go beucase i wasnt feeling my best mentally but they dragged me along haha. We walked down to the main street and on the way there the kids already stopped to gather some little round green fruits from a tree and eat it. It really astonished that like 30 percent of the flora here can just be eaten it haha. First „Trtenjuk“ and how this. Well we colleccted enough and followed the main road to the path wich lead uo the side of the mountain , which we then started climbing. Once we reached the top, the wind hit me in my face and BUM! I was just hit with the smell of Herbs, it was amazing.The whole mountain was lietreally overgrown with Thymian. Like you where stepping on it with every step. We first just chilled abit after out little „hike“ if zou could call it that, enjozed the scenery and talked/took pictures. Heres the view :

Now after that we got down onto our knees and got dirty. It took us about 25 minutes to fill plastic bags pretty welll with the herb and whol whole time Suren was nagging me about going over to Ttjur as a little side adventure. I asked him how far t was bbecuase according to my knowlege, it was two villages away (Which i find quite far) and he was like : no no, its close it all good. So we pack the packed bags into emmis backpack and head back down to the mainroad to follow it into the other direction to out new destination. While we head down it starts to rain a bit and i loose my footing a clouple of times , almost falling, while garush is beingg a gentle man and holds emmis hand to helop her down ( whcich we all teased him about. Oh the youth haha ) and the rain luckily ended just as we reach the bttom of the hill. Now we start walking alogg the road and now Suren is starting to suggest that we try and pitch a ride to ttjur because suddenly its „far away“ haha. That didnt wokr and we ended up walking 1 and a half hours to Ttujur. We did miss a good chance of saving 45 minutes of walking becuase Garushs dad drove by and missed us haha. But oh well, im alive aint i? We arrived at the natural spring and had our share of „Ttujur“ which quite remended me of KArlovivary. We walked up around th eboulder to the top where there was a monument and just layed and rested abit. After that we quickly stopped by the churhc which was located opposite od´f the spring andbought some cookies for the way back as a little stale „energizer“ haha. And luckily, just as we we passed the „ttjur“ village sign, garushed dad pulls up. I thinkwe where all so fuckign realieved. We hop in and his dad and I have a small conversation. He tells me that is children always talk about me and that they only want to meet and play with me, which i found very adorable. He was even nice enozgh to by us all an icecream as we entereded chambarack. He drove up to our yard, where we all split out ways after this exhghausting „little „detour haha. In the end we covered our 1.5 hour walk in 8 minutey . It was kind of sad and put things into perspetive haha. It even turns out that Emma specifically forbid Emmi to go t Ttujur since it was too late and she got a little lecture at home but i think that emma secretly found it a bit funny/interesting aswell. here are few pics of that:

On the way to Ttudjur.

 

 

The Ttudjur sign, fucking finally haha.

The actaul spring where you could drink the water. Its red becuase of th minerals and high iron percetage in the wwater

.A  picture of the close church where we also chilled just a bit before returning.

Oh and I fnally finished my armenian lessons on the day where i was supposed to leave for yerevan again. Me and Elen looked at the finishing piece, an essay that I wrote, and corrected it before letting me do a small „test“ to see how I stood with my armenian. I must say that writing this now and looking back, im very proud and kind of happy that i managed to elarn armenian at least kind of . The memories of my start, the alphabets and the exghasted mind are quite interesting and i think, how quickly time flies by. In janaury i coudnt even read a letter and now I can basically hold a conversation, write and understand surprisingly alot. She and Emma even gave me a little gift to take back to germany. A picture luisas mother took on the graduation day of the 9th hrasers in a frame and with a small message on the back. It really meant alot to me.

On the same day, i also said my goodbyes to the teachers and took pictures with them since it would be the last time where i would see most of them probably. We took a final big photo and Anoush came in to say bye. I must say it was a bit sad for me , i regret alot of things. Nit talking more with her, inetracting with the etachers more or like going with them on theri excursion to dilijan. It hits my soul. But me and anoush said that we will stay in contact and that we will! Of course a Picture with the direktor was made and well, i was given a bottle of wine from the teachers which was a nice gesture. I also managed to clean out most of my things on that day. It was sad to see my once so chaotic and messy and produuctive/healthy desk „life“ to see „extinct“ and bare. It made me a bit emotional to be honest haha but no tears had flown! Those come later haha.

And well so I left chambarck for the Summer! In yerevan I gradded MArtin to the Fit exams which to summarize, where pretty boring, tiring and chaotic but with the help of Danas clever plan and our attendacne ran smooth like clockwork. At home we had our last dinner together in the Wg with all 4 members there. We had a nice MEal and a Wine and to be honest, there wasnt such a sad vibe in the air. I also started inplementeing some „Netflix adn chill“ into the apartment more haha. Me and martin started going through „Servant of the people“ and „Black Mirror“ episodes where elisa would sometimes join. The evenign where filled with „Stadt land fluss, beleidigng, scheidungsgrund, marken“ and a few more categories gamess and there was even a evenening where we went out to the nely openend bar of the Embasyy club where we all payed a whopping 9 euros for a gin tonic. My wallet wanted to hang itself haha.

But yes, i would say that this would be a good summary of the last three weeks. Chaotic,Exhausting yet fun and hitting home. I hope you enjoyed the mindfuck of events and yeah as always, thank you for your patience and reading. Ill see you in the next one which brings back a bit of Nostalgia 😉

The last week of school

Finally… the last week of school rolled around.

Its really weird thinking about how fast time went. The other volunteers and I always have commented about it but well its the first time im writing about it on here I think. Its really fucked up. For me it feels like that I first came here a few months ago and well in reality, ive been here from the start to the end of a normal school year. Its really weird, but well they say that time flies when you are really living life. Lifes weird haha.

Now so, to be honest, the week was going to be as normal and usual as every other one. One thing though is that I sady woudnt be able tobe there on the last day of school. Which really sucked. I coudnt be there for the celebration of the 9th graders finishing their last day or celebrating in the teachers room for another succesfull school year. But well the day of the open door at the Embassy was calling, so I reallz coudnt say no. And so, the week happend.

Monday and tuesday the book club sadly didnt happen, but well thats life, maybe it was also meant to end that way since I started the reading club a month or two into my FSJ. But for that, I did other things with the children after school. On monday for example, David, Alik, Sipan and garush took me on a little Walk into the forest and mountain behind out house. While it looked much farther, we managed to get up there in around 30 minutes. We started off by passing some fields past out plaground and then just walking up plains and the grassy hill/ mountain side. As usual the conversation carried us as we went. On the way i saw a good amount of pretty flowers so I would definetly pick them and well, keep them as a little printing projekt of mine. The nature was really astounding. It really made me think about maybe living in such a small and hamonyious place enclosed by nature, like i litereally woudnt get tired of the view. It kinda puts things into perspektive. Now, so a after two small breaks and a dreadfull last steep part we managed to reach the top. Close to the top, we even encountered some snow which was really crazy since it was around 26 degrees but i guess armenian snow is just a bit stubborn haha. On the top, we walked amoung the remains of a destroyed military outpost, which was probably bombed down during the gritty period between armenia and Aserbajschan.  We walked around a bit more while i collceted flowers and they showed me the distant other sall rurual villages and areas as we lay down on a side of the side of the hill. On the way down , we where just talking as usual,and then Stipan asked me what my favorite number was and I was like “ I dunno, i dont really have one… whats yours?“ and he was like “ Mine is 7, becuase on the 7th day god created us humans“ and well i thought that id just share that small conversation with you all because i just found it adorable. Disclaimer, I dont care about religion haha. But now , here enjoy some pictures I took on our little walk:

Just before we set out on our little hike.

 

The view during the first 15 minutes.

David and Garusch both dying on the way up.

Another view a bit higher than the first landscape picture

Flowers I picked ^^

Thursday we had another one of those „Good bye alphabet book“ festivals, but this time from the other class and surprisingly, they had completely different contents and programs so it was interesting to see that they put so much effort into it. But even though they had differnt contents, it was dope as fuck haha. Heres a picture of Little Edwin during the event:

Edwin grinning and looking at me during his perfromance

Alright! So friday,the big day rolled around! I wokeup and put on some nice clothes ( Shirt and a tie) since it was the last day and the graduationof the 9th graders and headed off with my packed backpack to school. I came there pretty early around 9:30 isch because I still had to type up and print out the name and title cards of the “ Deutsch with stoff“ products which would get hanged up at the german embassy later that day. So i get the final things done and well at around 11, the „Last schoolbell“ Event happens for the 9th graders. They basically made a small thing out of looking back on their time at the school and thanking each and every teacher individually while their picture is beamed onto the wall. Of course and surprisingly,  I was also thanked and got a small role and card. But well, they also had a few little funny skits here and there which I aslo fun to see. But yeah, sadly when it slowly neared to 12 I had to get going becuse the ordered marschroutka for me and the group of kiddos was ready to leave at the Vivacell MTS. So i said goodbye quietly, shook Elens baby nieces hand a last  time haha and got going as fast as I could. After walking hurriedly to the centre, i was pleased to see that almost all kids where already in the van. I recounted and was updated that not one, but 3 childresn wernt coming so i crossed them off my list. I didnt complain becuase that mean less work for me haha but i did find it wack that they coudnt make it. And well after waiting 5 minutes, Ashot, the last not present member, arrived and we started driving into the direction of Yerevan. I must say that thge warm weather, tight clothes and heavy backpack plus the pressure and dread of the day really already hd an impact on me so i was already so exhausted on thee ride into yervan. The kids wernt behving too bad so ijust made sure to remind them when they talked too loud, but otherwise the ride was good!  So a break to fill up gas and 2 hours later, we drove direction Embassy after entering the city. The day plan was a bit chaotic so i had to explain to the driver that we where only first going to stop very quickly infront of th embassy before driving to another location. He managed to understand and after quickly attching the names and titles to the finished textile products and hopping out, explaining dana what was what and what she had to do, and hopping into the transporter again, we drove of to the next destination which was the Goethe centrum.

Why the goethe centrum you ask? Well since the things Me and ELisa would be presenting at the open day are based on the Goethe Institus „100 years Bauhau- Bauhauswomen“ celebration, dana thought that it would be good to also show the other kids what it was all about by leading them through the exhibtion created at the geothe centrum. And I agreed. So after a short ride down there, i decided that we would be walking back to the embassy since there was no parking space for the transporter, and coordinating the whole pickup/ transport would be too stressy so that was the go to option. So i told my little group to take everything they need for later with them, So like passports, wallets, phones ans such,bags had to be left in the van since we coudnt take them into the embassy. Everyone was done and hopped off the transport and walked the remaining 100 meters to the goethe centum. During the ride i noticed that the group would rather just walk around and enjoy Yerevan a bit and I did promise that if we did have time, we would do that, but during the ride into the city, I realised that we where already swamped time wise so it did suck a bit to have to tell them that. But well, i think they survived ^^.

I stopped at the entrance of the Goethe centre and well just held a small speech about where we are, what we will be seeing and why. So i led them into the big entrance hall where german and armenian texts where written on the wall with pictures of the artists and their works& Ideas. Nadia ( another person from the Centre) was nice enough to join us for a few minutes and say some words in Armenian , aswell as give out some „Merch“ haha. The Balloons, booklets and pens where quickly snached up by the children. After she left, the big group split up into smaller groups and started explorng the exhibition. I must say that i was pretty surprised at how big it actaully was. I thought that it would only limit itself to the entrance hall but the upper conference room as well as the library where equiped with reading and viewing material. Ultimatly, the collective came together again in the library again where, instead of reaading the Bauhaus things, they started reading other books haha. Soon after though we had to leave, so not too much time wasted doing nothing.

As mentioned before, we ( I) had decided that we all would walk to the embasyy becuase of practicality. 2 mintes into our walk, i could smell the rain in the air and the clouds did seem quite angry. The rain did come and well we managed to stay out the worst parts of it becuase we (I) commanded us under stratigically imporant areas like parks, trees and tunnels. Though we did have to stop once at the start because the rain was really hammering down. In that moment, all the kids hated me haha and where constatly complaining. But after getting lost once and 30 minutes, miracoulosly we managed to get to the embassy. After a pathetic „security check“ we all where inside and well, i told them that they were free to do anything they wanted as long as they stayed in the embassy. First they where quite confused and not sure what to do with their knew freedom but it didnt take long untill i coudnt spot any one of them anymore. So yeah, the embasy just hosted alot of stands from many organisations, ngos and german political parties/istitues.  The event was also in cooperation with the french embassy and the fernch embassador was promised to show up but well they lied. The german embassador also talked for a bit before having to attend an emergency diplomat meeting with pashinyan ( where the rench embassador also was ). So yeah, besides the stands there where also food sands offering beer and german sausages and Crumbs also was incharg for the food so it was interesting seeing some familiar faces. While all the stands where busteling and doing their thing, there also was a „stage“ where a actuall prgramm was being done. There where panel discussions, Q and as, and well also performances from various schools and events. For example a hand full of selected from the in a differnet post mentioned german Hit paradegot to perform their song again. Lianna being one of them and despite some technical probels, she really did kill it. I think she really waas  the best perfromance that day. BUt that was otherwise it. After the performance of Lianna i ecastaticallz congratuated her which amde her reallz happz and the DAna offered to paz for a round of food and drinks, which some kids actuallz declined, to their loss of course. After the quick feeding, we gathered all kids together and herded them and their massive goodie bags filled with calenders, notepads, piggz banks and all kinds of other interesting and weird things, some of which i dont even know how thez got a hold off ahha, and put them on the bus which send them back straight to chambarack. And yeah, then it was mz free time haha. I happilz enjozed a beer and a two sausages and just relaxed around the premisces. the other volunteers and I talked about our summer plans and just enjozed the lovelz day.After that we went home and quicklz had a quiet evening after the whole stress of the last official school daz.

Yeah. Well that was the final day of „work“ at the „school“ haha. See you in the next post!