datev, dilijan, ejmiatsin, the past three weekend excursions

Ok, so I've been procrastinating on writing another blog entry.  I've been busy with work for the physics institute, work for my job at Jefferson Lab in the states (especially with the software review coming up), my Armenian language lessons, US federal income taxes, my thesis, very informal French lessons with my friend Allegra, and of course facebook.  So, I'll tell a little about each of the excursions that happened these past few weekends:

three weekends ago:
We went to the castle monastery Datev, which is located next to the edge of a cliff.   I had been there once before (look through my blog history; i think it was on the way back from Karabagh last summer), but it was very foggy last time and I couldn't see the view of the valley below.  The world's longest tramway leads to Datev from the other side of the valley, but we didnt use it because it was out of order, so we just drove there via bus instead.  We stayed overnight at a village, where we cooked khorovats  (barbecue) and ate it with the locals for dinner.

the fortress monastery of Datev

khorovats (barbecue)

sheep on the side of a hill near the city of Goris,

which we visited on the way back from Datev.

A cave near Goris

two weekends ago:

We visited the city/town of Dilijan, saw a museum there, and went to a potters shop.  I made a mug there which I am later going to sinter using one of the furnaces at the lab.  We also stopped by a pond, where we rented paddle boats.  

my friends Natalie and Alex

i forgot the name of this monastery

Because  I messed up while using the wheel and made

a hole in the side of the mug, I continued the rest of it

free-form, and thus it looks more like a sculpture than

pottery.  

this past weekend:
We rode bikes from Yerevan to the city of Ejmiatsin, which is kind of like the equivalent in the Armenian church to the Vatican, and we visited three of the churches there.  (since I didnt have my camera with me, I'm unapologetically posting the ones from the time I did this same trip last summer)

the vestuble of St.  Gayane's church

a painting of St. Hripsime in the church named after her.

my friends who were on the ejmiatsin trip last summer.  None of them were on this trip last weekend.

Now back to work on other stuff.  

Gyumri and Marmashen

This blog entry is kind of late, but I will post the one about this weekend... later this week.

Last summer, I and a few other volunteers lived in the 58th district of the city of Gyumri.  Most of us have gone back home, to the US, Argentina, etc.  There were only 3 of us remaining of our Gyumri group who were still in Birthright two weekends ago, when we revisited this city two weekends ago.

a market area

Our friend Shoghik (who was the coordinator of Birthright in Gyumri last summer) joined us to help give us the tour.   We saw some of the familiar parts of the city, such as the Yot Verk (Seven Wounds) Church, Vardanants Hraparak, etc.  However, there were some places in Gyumri that I had never seen before this trip there. For instance, there is one park in Gyumri where they have two caged lions, a male and a female, living with barely any space to move around inside their cages.  A very unfortunate lifestyle for these creatures.   We decided to take matters into our own hands.  No, we didnt take a hack saw and cut open the cage to free them (although I had suggested it).  Instead, we pasted posters all over the wall around the park (the words on there translate to "Is this life that I'm living?  shameful!")

inside the church of the Seven Wounds (Yot Verk)

Is this life that I'm living?  

one of the lions

After lunch we went to the nearby Marmashen monastery, and relaxed by the frozen-over river just past the monastery.  As is usual on birthright excursions, we threw snowballs at one another.   I also threw some large rocks into the river to see if they would break the ice.  The ice didn't crack, but, Asqanaz, one of our coordinators told me I shouldn't attempt to walk across because he still didn't think it would be safe for me to do so.

part of the ruins at Marmashen

the remaining church at Marmashen

the river (covered in ice and snow)

Even though there were three of us on the excursion who were in last summer's "Gyumretsi group", I was the only one who stayed behind to visit my former host family from last summer in the 58th district.  It was nice to see them again.  I also visited some of my former coworkers at GITC where I had been assigned a volunteer position last summer.  A careful reader who has read my blog entries from last summer will note my careful choice of words in the previous sentence.

On sunday morning,  I attended the church service at the church, and then headed towards the bus station, and then walked the rest of the way.  As much as it felt happy to be  "home" as I walked around Gyumri, the way towards the bus station to leave the town felt sorrowful as I passed through the market area where many things were sold:  fresh fruits and vegetables, souvenirs some appliances, a few bikes built for children, etc.  Finally, I reached the bus station and took the bus to Yerevan.  Don't get me wrong.  Yerevan is a nice city, but it doesn't feel like home to me like Gyumri does.  

The sun setting at the end of the 58th district.

Oh, and on another note, some of you might be wondering about my changed relationship status on facebook.  I had first met my now-girlfriend Kiana while I was back in the US, 4 months ago, which was only two months before I left for Armenia.  Prior to my departure, she and I had talked about the idea of dating, but I told her I'd rather wait until I get back to the states (partly because I didn't want to start off the relationship long distance and 9 time zones away from one another).  We have kept up with one another, talking to each other on skype twice every week, and it became apparent to me that a long distance relationship wouldn't be nearly as bad as I had imagined it would be.  A month ago, I mentioned this to her, and she said she wasn't ready to decide.  About a week ago, she and I were talking again, and she said, if she didn't take me up on my offer now, she would regret it later, and so we decided together that to make it official and public on facebook.  It will still be 2 months till I see her in person though.