lake Sevan.

Lake Sevan:

On Saturday, we went on an excursion to Lake Sevan.  Our first stop was Sevanavank, a monastery built on an island (now a peninsula, due to the draining of the lake in Soviet times in a failed attempt to increase farmable land.  Gosh, freaking idiots!).   While in Yerevan the snow has mostly melted away (hopefully no more snow in Yerevan until next summer), this is not the case throughout much of the rest of Armenia.  There are steps leading up the hill to get up to the monastery, which I have hiked up twice before (once on a previous excursion with Birthright, and the time before was with LCO).  However, you may have guessed why this was more difficult than before.  Yep, snow was covering the steps up to the monastery, making it more dangerous to climb up there.  I went inside briefly, lit a candle, prayed, and left the building.

the way up to Sevanavank

the view from the top of the monastery

 
While some of our other friends were throwing snowballs outside the monastery, my friend Arpine and I went past the monastery, through some areas which were in some places about 2 feet deep with snow to go to the end of the peninsula.  This was her first time taking that trail along the ridge, so I led the way since I had been there before.  On both sides of us was the lake, and if we were to slip, we would probably either die of the sudden break at the end of the fall, or freeze to death from the lake.  At the end of the peninsula is some kind of abandoned house where part of the roof is missing.  We then proceeded to climb onto the roof and take pictures from there, and then trudged back through the deep snow to meet back up with the rest of the group.

snowball fight outside Sevanavank

me on the roof of the building at the top of the peninsula

my friend Arpine also at the top of the peninsula.  

Later on the excursion, we visited the Noraduz cemetery, the Hayravank monastery (which also overlooks the lake) and a nearby hospital, and then had lunch at the house of a family that our coordinator Sevan (who has the same name as the lake)  had only 48 hours earlier asked if we could crash at their place and eat there.  After eating and plenty of drinking (in my case, juice), the family led us to start dancing inside of their dining room with only about two meters of space between the wall and the chairs at the table.  We later got on the bus and rode back to Yerevan, and (this is kind of a Birthright tradition) we were dancing in place in the aisle of the bus while it's moving on the highway.

Some khatchkars at Hayravank

the Noraduz cemetery

Traditional dancing of Armenia

On wednesday night, Birthright held a forum where we learned about the history of Armenian traditional dances, and then got to learn how to do some of these dance moves.  Unlike in America where people dance to have fun, celebrate, or to entertain others, the dancing in Armenia traditionally has very ritualistic and symbolic purposes to it.  There are dances for many types of occasions, some of which may sound unusual to one who is not brought up in that culture.  There are dances that are done for weddings, as well as ones for funerals, dances done by soldiers to prepare for battle, dances done after battle, as well as dances for the whole community to participate in.
Also, there are several taboos on who is allowed to dance certain dances.  Only soldiers are allowed to dance military dances; while at weddings, the guests who are divorced or widowed are not allowed to dance.  Only the "community" dances are everyone allowed to dance.

Also, according to the guy giving the lecture, there has been a historic correlation between dancing before battles, and victories at the battles.   The Roman and Greek empires declined when music and dance lost their meaning and turned towards entertainment purposes.  The soviet union introduced ballet into the Armenian repetoir to break the fighting spirit of the fighting dances.

Completely ignoring the taboos of the dances that he had just given us about who was allowed to dance what sorts of dances, the instructor taught us how to do a military dance, a wedding dance, and a community dance.  Let's see, I don't think there were any soldier among us, so I don't think any of us were supposed to be allowed to dance that dance, but he had us learn it anyways. I don't think there were any among us who are divorced or widowed in our group (this group consists of people who are mostly in our early to mid 20's), so nobody that I know of would have been excluded from that dance. ANd the community dance, of course, everyone was allowed to dance that anyways.

the move

Yesterday at work, my boss Suren told me that he and his family had agreed to let me move in with them, and that they had talked to birthright about this, and all they needed now was my approval.  So I said yes.  Internet at the house + allowed to borrow his son's guitar (I didnt bring my own) + I had met Suren's family before and they are nice.  And so, this morning I moved in to their house, located 15 km from where I was staying at before (I think this is how far it was; if I remember correctly, it's 100 dram per km via taxi).  Ok, yes, it's not close to anything, but I can hopefully carpool with Suren to/from work, and use a marshutka (very cheap mini-bus) to go to the birthright office and other places.  Or I could buy a bike, if I can find somewhere that sells bikes.  

Also, Gevork (Suren's son) told me that I should post pictures inside my blog, so I'm doing that right now.  

my new room

the view from the back porch

 On a clear day, you may be able to see mt Ararat more clearly than you can see it here.  (it is easier to see with the naked eye than with the camera today.  You may have to use a few filters on photoshop to make it more visible)