my last post

Right now, as I post this blog entry, I am already back in Vienna VA (not Austria). I have sort of procrastinated on posting it. I will post the remaining pictures on facebook sometime within the next week (if I am not continuing to procrastinate).

I'm just going to continue from where I left off:

On Wednesday night, for our havak, we went to the Vanatur restaurant, and were encouraged to invite our host families with us. My host parents came with my, but not the kids. Others invited their host brothers or sisters or parents to come with them. This dinner was a sort of fairwell party for the volunteers in Gyumri, since all of us except for Allegra were leaving to go back home in the next week or so.

Thursday night

One of our volunteers, James, invited the rest of us to come over to his house that evening for some coffee and tea. However, I told him I'd be a little bit late, because Allegra, one of the other volunteers, had asked if she can come over to my apartment and take pictures of me with my host family in my apartment. (this was part of her volunteer work, to take pictures of the other volunteers with their host families, and tonight was my turn for this). What ended up happening was that my family insisted on having her stay with us for dinner (which was not cooked yet), and then doing the photography. (I'm probably going to be tagged in a lot of pics on facebook soon). So, then we arrived late to the party at James' place. I played the duduk there, and James's host father asked me to play not only for them but also fo his relatives in moskow, who were on skype with him

Friday:

after my duduk lesson, Gagik took me to the museum, where we saw some artwork by various artists. Paintings of Gyumri, and of several monasteries and stuff.

Saturday:

We had an excursion, first, we did a train-ride, then we did bird watching and then we went to Khor Virap, (this was my third time in Khor Virap) and then we went to a village and talked to the locals there, and then we visited a tomato farm. One of the volunteers, Mona, had invited her Swedish coworkers to come with her on the excursion. Unfortunately, our normal tour-guide, Suren, wasn't with us this time, and so instead, I helped explain the story behind Khor Virap (which I had been to twice before this) to the others on the tour.

Monday, Tuesday.

after a debriefing in Gyumri on Monday, I took a taxi to Yerevan, and met up with my friend Rafayel there. I stayed at his house Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Tuesday morning I had another debrief in Yerevan.  I will not be surprised if I will have been the last Birthright volunteer to have been placed at GITC for the volunteer position.  After their problems with not assigning me work to do for 3 consecutive weeks, it is unlikely that any future birthright participants will be placed at GITC.  

Wednesday, September 21 = Independence Day

today marked the 20^th anniversary of the independence of the republic of Armenia. There was a parade on the street in the morning, which we watched from the balcony and from the roof of the Birthright office. There were military personelle marching in the streets and riding in various types of tanks, trucks, etc. In the sky, helicopters flew in formation, and there were planes releasing sky-writing clouds of red, blue and orange, (the colors of the Armenian flag).

After the parade was over, I met up with Rafayel again, and walked around the town for a while. One of the places we saw was the Komitas Conservatory, which is dedicated to the music of Komitas, a very famous Armenian ethnomusicologist/composer/priest who in the early 20^th century went through many villages in Armenia, studied the folk music therein, and wrote these songs onto paper. Much of our folk music in Armenia would not have been preserved after the genocide had it not been for Komitas. Several of the songs that Gagik had assigned me to learn on the duduk are Komitas's compositions. Another stop in Yerevan was the vernissage, where I bought some gifts for my family.

Since I had not eaten any pomegranates yet in Armenia, and they don't grow in Virginia (since they were not in season during the summer) I asked Rafayel where I could buy some. We went from market to market looking for them. Finally we found one market where they had them, in packages of 2 for 1500 dram (about $4.50). I decided to save them for the homeward journey the next day.

Later that night the streets were very crowded. People were cheering “Hayastan! Hayastan!” (the armenian name for Armenia is “Hayastan”), and others were carrying Armenian flags. I didnt stay for the concert in the republic square, since it was too crowded and I was getting tired already. I took a taxi back to Rafayel's apartment. From there, I could see that the radio tower in the distance (which is normally changing colors every few seconds) was a steady red at the top, blue in the middle, and orange at the bottom, (the colors of the Armenian flag, to celebrate the occasion. Also, we saw some fireworks out in the distance as well.

Thursday:

I only got three hours of sleep that night, before I went back to the states. I ate one of the pomegranates in the Yerevan airport for breakfast. Since I didn't want any complications with the US customs office, I decided to eat the other one at the Moskow airport for lunch. During the flight, they showed a world map, showing where there is daylight and where it is night. Because it was so close to the equinox, the separation between night and day was almost a straight line. (the 23^rd of september is the equinox, and I was flying on the 22^nd).