My Birthday
Trip Start
Jan 15, 2005
1
30
52
Trip End
Apr 27, 2006
Hello Everyone!! I made it to my first goal! I made it to my birthday!! Woohoo!! I very much wanted to be out of the country for this birthday. I figured being out of the country and doing nothing in the evening was much better than my birthday last year which just SUCKED!! Last year I received a phone call from PC just as I was going out to meet my friend Amy for lunch and then my friend Erika for ice cream. Well, PC was calling to say I was going to be delayed in being accepted because I had not passed medical yet and had to do two more tests. As you can imagine, I cried the whole rest of the day. I remember going home that night after a few other minor things had happened throughout the day and being told by one of my roommates that I should go to bed before the roof falls in on me. This year was quiet. I went into Vanadzor with all the other trainees and listened to the administrative babble. OH! My host Mom (Amma) gave me an egg shaped jewerly box in the morning. It was also her birthday so, during lunch, Kelsey and I went and found a present for Amma. She loved it. We had vodka with dinner and then sat and watched two evening soaps. During the first one, it looked so gloomy outside that I thought to myself, I wish it would be a thunderstorm if it is going to be sooo gloomy. And ten minutes later, there was a thunderstorm!! I went outside and sat on the porch with out cat. It was great!! That was pretty much my evening. I do have to tell you about a cow we have. We have the mama cow and the three month old baby cow. The calf is a whinner!! He is constantly mooing. He sounds just like the Fischer Price barn when you would open the barn door and there would be a moo? That is this cow. All the time. Sometimes, I see Hamlet (my host father) bringing him out of the barn and I swear the cow looks like a puppy bounding after my Hamlet!! It is the most bizarre thing! I take that back!! The donkey rolling around in the road today like a dog was the most bizarre thing I have seen. The funniest thing I have seen is the chickens lined up on the porch railing and freaking out when I walk by. Jennifer was over last week. We bought a bottle of vodka and invited Amma and another woman relative (I can't remember her name) to have some vodka with us. Well, you can't just drink here. This is a good thing. Food is brought out and you HAVE to say a toast everytime you do a shot of vodka. This slows things down considerably. Again, this is a good thing. Well, Amma didn't like our toasts because they are too short. We don't know enough armenian to do a proper armenian toast! Amma said that a proper armenian toast goes something along the lines of telling someone how much you value their friendship and what a good person they are and oh! look at that bird out the window and then lets drink up!! So, we did our best. During the evening, Jennifer asked what our cat's name is. Amma said it is Piso which means "kitty" in Armenian. I told her that I call the cat mooshook which is Uzbek for cat. She thought that was hysterical and so now the cat is named Mooshook. By the way, the men where in the other room playing backgammon. A little later in the evening, Amma pulled out a music video tape and we watched hip hop videos from the early 1990's. I have to mention that Amma is in her mid-50's. So, that is what has been happening here. OH! And Jennifer's dad now has a wolf as a pet. He had three dogs already and had been asked to go out and shot some wolves that were eating livestock (he is the village mayor) so he did and he brought it back. A request had been made from Jesse (who was medavaced to the US and will be returning to Armenia in two weeks) if the wolf could be named after him. OH! And we made fried rice at Jennifer's house and again, I got drunk with the mayor. Bad Laura!! But, I am doing well, in case you hadn't noticed. Take care everyone!! Laura
