From the Hard Drive - A Three-Day Weekend

Our first Friday here was Army Day, a national holiday. It was great to be able to sleep late and not to have to get into the mindset of going right to work. I think that all Peace Corps Response orientations should precede three-day weekends! Or at least weekends.

We four PCRVs had arranged to meet at the Cascade, a huge flight of stone steps in an elegant part of town. There’s some construction still to be done at the top, but other than that it’s in great shape – things here look old but they’re not crumbling. Central Yerevan has some straight streets on a grid, some diagonals that cut across, and some curved streets on the outside. I missed the turn onto the diagonal and went way out of my way on one of the curved streets! So I missed the homestay comparisons and everyone had to repeat their stories. We found a nice café, the Retro (pictures of the Beatles, Bee Gees and more on the walls), which has great lentil soup; my work will also be in this location so I see lots of lentil soup lunches to come! It was a beautiful, partly sunny day, so we climbed the steps. From the top you can see Mt. Ararat, which looms over the city. It’s in Turkey (though people here will say it’s in Western Armenia), but it looks very close. I’ll get there on a clear day and photograph it. Interesting to think about Noah landing there – this really is an ancient place.

Tim said that when he moved here he thought about climbing the Cascade every day, and he’s done it maybe six times in ten years. I’m going to try to climb it more often than not, and I look forward to the day when my legs don’t shake on the way down! We then went to another café that I had passed on the way over – the Marrakesh café. Small world… lots of teas and coffees (though nothing really Moroccan other than the name). That evening, my host sister prepared delicious chicken and fries; as a welcome she’s cooking dinner for me for three nights, and then we’ll see what happens – I can pay her and she can cook for me (which is tempting), or I may start eating simple things such as apples and cheese – maybe as I get more comfortable I will cook, but so far I don’t feel inspired to.

Our first Saturday it was rainy in the morning, though by the time I went out, the rain had tapered off. Still, it was nice that we had done our walking the day before and had indoor plans for this day. Brian and I met at Marrakesh for coffee, and then we joined the others and a couple of the Peace Corps staff at the National Gallery. Peace Corps paid for the tickets and a guide – that was nice! The museum has many paintings from the Hermitage, though we’ll have to go back to see the European paintings (and apparently many more are in storage than on display). We saw the Armenian art, which was very good. There were some vivid portraits and some stunning landscapes; my favorites were the marine pictures, with reflections of the sun or moon on stormy water. There were some more modern paintings too, but nothing Soviet or contemporary. There were also three big rooms full of reproductions of frescoes from churches around the country – it was what I expected Armenian art to be (I wish I could have taken pictures so that I could share them!). We found a café for lunch and then walked around a bit, finding the hostel where the PCVs usually stay when they are in Yerevan. We met up with a PCV who we’d met in the office earlier in the week and had a light dinner with her at the first non-smoking place we’ve yet seen – the food was good, but I’d go back even if it were just okay, to be in a non-smoking place!

(And that Sunday I had planned to go to another museum, but then I slipped and fell on my computer. So after a coffee at the Retro – which has since proved too smoky for more than take-out lentil soup - I went to the Peace Corps office to go through some email. I am still catching up! To think that I didn’t bring a laptop to Morocco and somehow made it from September until Thanksgiving without one!)