Karabagh:
The passageway to Stepanakert in Karabagh is a very difficult drive. Fortunately, we have a driver named Mayis who knows what he's doing. First it goes up through mountains, along many switchbacks. Then through the plateau of mist, where you cannot see more than about 7 meters ahead of you. (I only assume its a plateau because the road stays straight and doesn't go up nor down very much in this area). Then, past the high village of Shushi, down another mountain, and there in the valley is the city of Stepanakert.
On the second day we were there, we visited the battle field where the Karabagh war was fought about 20 years ago. The Azeris were attempting to attack the city of Stepanakert from up on the high ground, and they didn't watch their backs, because behind them was a steep cliff. The villagers in a nearby village, however, used to take their goats and cattle up there all of the time through shortcuts. So, the villagers taught the Armenian soldiers how to get up to the top of the cliff and surprise attack the Azeris. Kicked their rear ends!
On the third day, on the way back to Yerevan, we crossed through the fog again in the van. We stopped while we were still in the fog at cable-car station, where we rode a cable car leading to a monastery called Tatev. The cable is so long you cannot see the end of it from the start. Well, I don't know if you can on a clear day, but through that fog, we were often unable to see the ground from the cable car.
When we got back to Yerevan, we went to a restaurant, and ate, and then we met up with my friend Rafayel and some of the other participants who were at the other worksite. (my cousin Vahan was not there unfortunately, since he was still in the village). I tried to call Ani to see if she would be able to meet up with us, but her phone was not working. (I told Rafayel about this, and he said that she was out of town, back in her home village of Stepanavan, which is actually closer to Gyumri than it is to Yerevan.
That night was my last night with the LCO group, and so I said good bye to everyone. The next morning, I went to the Birthright Armenia office for them to introduce me to the program and stuff like that. Afterwards, they gave me a ride to Gyumri, the second largest city in Armenia, where I will be staying and doing an internship with the Gyumri Information Technologies center. A Birthright representative named Hovhannes showed me around the city, and then took me over to my homestead place, with the Tigranyan family. They speak less English than I speak Armenian, so I'm sure I'll be learning a lot of Armenian while I am there.
And this morning, i started my internship with GITC. I'm not sure what I'm actually supposed to be doing here, but whatever. Since I am planning on waiting until tomorrow @ 1:30 PM to use Facebook (that's when 28 days will be up), I've just been writing this blog entry and some emails to a few friends for now while I'm here. Tsdesutyun!
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