I'm in Armenia!

I know it's a cliche thing to say, but it's been a whirlwind few weeks. The weeks leading up to my departure were more full of love than I can ever express -- thank you a million times over to everyone for your kind, sweet messages of love and support, for the gifts, for the hugs, for the memories. It was truly the best send off I could have ever received; certainly warmer and more heartfelt than I could ever have dreamed!

On Sunday, August 24 I boarded a plane at the Santa Barbara airport with an overweight suitcase and a backpack headed for Washington, D.C. Monday was an all-day orientation with my new colleagues to acquaint us with Peace Corps expectations, policies, mission, and goals. There are 38 of us total: 25 TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and 13 CYD (Community and Youth Development). My assignment is CYD. Tuesday, we left from Dulles airport and arrived in Vienna, Austria nine hours later. We left the airport for our 14 hour layover just after the sun had come up. Some new friends and I explored the beautiful, old city -- complete with coffee in the city square near St. Peter's Cathedral -- before returning to the airport hotel for a nap and a shower. We boarded our final flight at around 10:30 p.m. and arrived excited, nervous, and exhausted in Yerevan about 3:30 a.m.

As we boarded the bus with Armenian Peace Corps staff, we groaned to hear that we had a full day ahead of us. But the bus took us to watch the sunrise as we ate cake, drank coffee, and explored the ruins of the Zvarnots temple. Wow! The 6th century ruins, the enthusiasm and kindness of the Peace Corps staff, and the realization that we were finally, actually, in Armenia energized us in an incredible way. The faint outline of Mt. Ararat to the west added to the excitement.

We spent the following few days at Park Resort in Aghveran, a vacation spot for people who live in Yerevan about 45 minutes outside of the city. We learned about Peace Corps expectations and policies for our service, health, safety and security. We got to know each other better, began language training, and learned a bit more about our assignments.

If it didn't feel quite real before, it became real on Sunday when we left Aghervan to move in with our PST (Pre-Service Training) host families, with whom we will live for the next eleven weeks. We are in eight different adjacent villages all close to the larger town of Artashat. We have begun and will continue to do language and technical training in these villages until we receive our permanent assignment and move to different host families elsewhere in the country in November.

The journey has been exhausting and I have been nervous throughout, but above all I am exhilarated and thrilled. The food is delicious -- different in some ways from what we eat in the U.S., but there are similarities and it is all good. So many fresh peaches and watermelon! It is hot and dusty right now, but we're told it will cool off in about two weeks. It reminds me a lot of the climate of the Central Valley of California, where there is a big Armenian population, so I suppose it's fitting. My host family is very nice. I have a host mom whose husband and son are both away in Russia working. Her son's wife lives here too, as does a cousin. Next door is a grandmother and sister, I think, with several young girls, who are all here at the house often. They are all very kind to me despite my lack of Armenian language skills and are helping me learn. In the meantime, we smile at each other a lot.

I like learning Armenian -- it's a huge challenge and I'm just trying to retain enough each day to build on. In Armenian, "Yes" means "I", so I have been trying to practice not exclaiming about myself when I finally understand what someone is trying to tell me. It will be a long process! The CYD assignment is still very broad. We will begin learning more about development in Armenia in the coming weeks, and then our actual assignments in October. The more I learn about it and the "entrepreneurial spirit" that's expected, the more excited I am.

Thanks for being part of the beginning of this journey -- I'll write more as I can. See you later! Tseytustun!

Vienna

St. Peter's Cathedral in Vienna

Vienna from the Cathedral Tower

Zvarnots Temple Ruins in the Early Morning

Mt. Ararat through the haze

Yerevan 

Our group with the American Ambassador to Armenia

The Agyepat Mayor's Office, where I have my lessons/training each day