Weekend Walks

I went to the orchestra again on Friday night – this time it was a concert of Armenian classical music. Two concertos featured traditional instruments – the kanun, which is like a zither, and the duduk – which, though I have been likening it to a flute, is actually probably akin to the oboe. Wonderful music. And then there was a Khatchurian symphony, full of drama. Went over to Republic Square afterwards to watch the fountains for a short while; it was drizzling and I decided there would be non-rainy evenings to come.

On Saturday I went to the slopes of Mt. Aragats with the hiking group, to see a fortress and a couple of churches, as usual in beautiful locations. First we stopped at an alphabet monument – fun with letters! And then it was up to Amberd, a fortress/palace built in the 1000s, uphill from a church overlooking a gorge at the confluence of two rivers. Fun to explore the ruins of the fortress, and the church architecture continues to impress. We started our hike from there, and as we did, a cold rain started to pelt us, and the wind picked up. We hiked down into and then along the gorge, wet and cold. I found myself in something of a zen state – not having fun per se, but not dwelling on how soaked I was – just hiking along and aware that I was surrounded by wonderful scenery. And just when I thought it would be like that all day, the sun came out! My shoes and socks never dried, but the rest of me did, and then it was a wonderful hike! We went to another church, this one overlooking a valley full of farms and villages. On the way back we stopped at a monument where the bones of a succession of kings were stored. The Persians stole the bones so as to steal the spirits of the kings; the bones were rescued and then the pagans were re-buried separately from the Christians. Eventually the bones of the Christian kings were moved to Etchmiadzin. Interesting little bit of history.

There are two A-14s in town – i.e. volunteers who served here from 2006-2008. One, Will, is staying at Zina’s for a month, though he will be in and out. He’s been mostly out, so I haven’t seen much of him yet, but he seems like a nice fellow and I know Zina is happy to have him here. Another, Betty, is also a friend of Zina’s and would probably have stayed with her if Will hadn’t shown up the day before. She’s the current PCV in Ain Leuh, Morocco! She came over for coffee yesterday, and she and I went to the Vernissage and to dinner. Interesting to compare notes on Armenia and Morocco – and the changes in the former since she’s been here and the latter since I left there. In between the Vernissage and dinner, I had lunch with Gordon and Jeanne and then we walked around town for hours. Jeanne had also been on the hike and we just wanted to keep on walking! We went to some parks at the south end of town, which had some big trees; the ones closer in have much smaller trees. By the evening I was exhausted, but I loved being outside and hiking and walking!

This coming weekend I have some ambitious travel planned, to put it mildly. I leave early on Friday morning, and about 24 hours later (including enough time in Vienna to take the train into the city, have coffee and take a stroll, as long as the flight leaves Yerevan on time) will find myself on the Princeton campus. About 38 hours after that, I leave Princeton for New York City – restocking my toiletries (and, to fill whatever room remains in my suitcase, buying goodies to bring back to fellow PCVs) and, if tentative plans don’t change, seeing the Mets and the Phillies at Citi Field. Then it’s back to JFK – a long layover in Frankfurt and a short one in Vienna (not the most efficient route, but I used miles) later, I’ll be back here in the wee, wee hours of Tuesday morning! I hope I can get by on adrenaline and the joy of seeing friends and not be in a jet-lag fog the entire time. My trips have neatly broken my (now-shortened) service into thirds – tomorrow marks four months to the day since my arrival, and there are only two months to go! Time is flying.