Elizabeth's Armenia journal: Saturday, June 16

update – first trip by myself – Saturday, June 16

two firsts today – first ride on a marshutni by myself and first visit to a neighbor

After class today, a fellow volunteer and I went to Vanadzor – me for internet café and him for a variety of reasons. I wanted to stay a shorter time so I took the marshutni home by myself. Its not too hard as long as I stay on the two streets I know. Fortunately, there is a lot on those two streets including the internet café, the shooka an equivalent of a small grocery store, a stationery store, bank, etc.

The experience today was similar to getting a bus in the US. Wait at the bus stop. Look for a vehicle with your bus number. Get on. Unlike the

, you pay the driver when you get out. I live right across from the last marshutni stop in Shahumyan, so as long as I get on the #13 bus, I can't get lost.

The second first experience was a visit to a neighbor with Sveta. We visited a woman who works with Grigor and lives fairly close to our house. This apparently was a request by Yelena to Sveta to bring the Amerikatsi over. I say apparently as my Armenian is not strong enough to be certain of any conversation even with dictionaries.

We walked over to her house about 6:30 pm and were seated at the table in the combo living/dining/bedroom. As with the few houses I have seen so far, rugs everywhere, on the floors, on the walls, on all the furniture.

Yelena went into the kitchen and brought out one thing at a time – a platter of pastries, a plate with some kind of sweet cake baked in a roll, a dish of chocolates, plates, knives and forks, and finally, that wonderful Armenian coffee. Sveta and I complimented her on each item. My contribution was mainly "shat lav" (very good), gheretseek (beautiful) and hamov (delicious). She showed us her clothwork, needlepoint and crocheted items. She obviously is very proud of them and the work is very nice. Grigor came over for awhile, had a cup of coffee. He then went outside, took a scythe and cut down a two foot high swath of grass and wild greens in her yard. Good neighboring at work. He then took home a bundle of the remains (food for some of his animals.

Today, Sunday, Sveta and I are going into town (Vanadzor) to visit another friend. I think this will be more elaborate – jhash, eaten midday, is the main meal in most houses. Supper is called antrek and is generally a more modest meal. Then we will go to the shooka, get some vegetables and come home.

Small annoyance – I left my wonderful tilly hat somewhere yesterday – either the internet café or the marshutni. It is such a terrific hat, I will order a new one if it doesn't turn up in one of the marshutnis. I'm hoping Sveta can ask for me as my language is still too primitive.

I study 2 to 4 hours every day after class and more on Sunday. The memorization of the vocabulary is what is killing me. Once I get that, I'll have to work on word order and endings (grammatical issues). But you have to have words first.

Things I don't miss: tv, ice, diet pepsis, newspapers, daily news stories, movies, lots of stuff around.

Things I miss: my friends and family, Asheville, my house, my garden, my spices and condiments, wearing different shoes every day, my Hawaiian shirts.

Things I really like here: beautiful location in the mountains, my room with its mountain view, my Armenian family, language class, village life (cows have right of way, the goose family with papa, two mamas and 10 goslings), virtually no vehicle noise, Armenian vegetables and fruit, my fellow kamovars and this whole adventure.

I will try to send this on Wednesday when I am in town for the group class. However, Wednesday is find out permanent location day and it may be packed too full for me to get to the café.

Still having problems w/ the blog and aol. Anyone who wants to write me should use my gmail address: elizpou@gmail.com. Thanks for your patience. Emails appreciated and read tho responses may take awhile.

TUESDAY update. Had a chance to get to Vanadzor today and my tilly hat was hanging on a hook. They saved it for me.

The Sunday dinner: A very nice family - mother, father, daughter. The daughter is an English teacher so communication was not an issue. I am the first foreigner she has ever spoken with in English so she appreciated the opportunity to practice.

Dinner was huge - chicken croquettes, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, yoghurt, cherries, strawberries, cake and ice cream. I kept saying koost (full!) and they kept putting more things on my plate. As typical with first meeting with an Armenian family, there were lots of questions about my family. I brought a few pictures along and looked through their family album. We also watched a video of their granddaughter who lives in Russia with her parents. Many Armenians work in Russia because of unavailability of jobs here. The daughter and father sang beautifully and gave us two songs, with the daughter accompanying on the piano. It was a treat.

After we waddled out of the apartment - 4th floor walkup - we went to the shooka and bought vegetables. I actually spotted a head of romain lettuce. So last night I made tossed salad for the family which was new to them (lettuce w/ lots of veggies and a vinegrette dressing).

I'm going to try to put some pics in this email. I hope it makes it to the blog.