Yes, the title of this post is a bit ironic considering the extremely land-locked country in which I am living. But despite this fact, this weekend has been FULL of water from all directions! Read on!
Saturday, the 30th, I went to Lake Sevan for the first time. It was a surprising, spontaneous trip, but fun regardless. My entire host family went, plus a lot of their extended family. This includes Ashley, another PCT, which made things a bit more relaxing for me. Our families left for Sevan early in the afternoon, but since Ashley and I were scheduled to teach and have choir practice (updates on those two things later, I promise), we had to take a taxi and meet them later. This was quite the adventure in itself. As per usual in this country, things did not go to the original plan. Luckily, we were leaving from PC’s Central Office for Training, so one of the staff members helped us get an appropriate taxi and tell the driver where to go. We got to Sevan, which is a pretty big town/city, and easily found our family. The rest of the evening was spent eating khorovats, swimming, and just sitting around. It was exactly what I needed. The beach was public with lots of mini-pavillions and khorovats pits around. The beach itself was teensy-tiny and very rocky. A bit like the shores of the Chesapeake. The water, however, was much cleaner than that found at mid-Atlantic beaches. It was so nice to swim around a bit. I forgot how much fun it is! It was also fun to see our family test out the waters (literally, not metaphorically). Some of them could swim well, others not so much. Either way, all had fun!
Today, Sunday, has been another water-filled day. It’s a National Holiday in Armenia today, called Vartavar. The holiday itself dates back to pagan traditions. I’m not entirely clear on the real meaning behind it (although there is a Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vartavar). The sole custom of the day is quite clear though. Everyone throws water on one another. Friends, family, strangers, cars driving by, whomever. On the street, in a field, over balconies, anywhere. This morning, I got a call from another Trainee saying that the Americans were out on the prowl. Before I could even get out the door, I hear yelling and shouting out my window. Sure enough, it’s most of the Trainees in our village with a band of child followers. I manage to dump my water bottle out a 2nd floor window before stepping outside and getting drenched by a ton of buckets full of freezing cold water. No worries though, we start running around soon enough and it doesn’t feel as cold. We snuck over to our LCFs’ (Language & Culture Facilitators—PC staff) house and doused one of them. We have a battle in the soccer field with a bunch of local kids. The real battle, however, took place along the main street in our village. You see, there are these faucet/spouts along the street that are continuously running almost all day, every day. Very convenient for a few dozen people wanting to throw water around. Most of the people participating were kids ages 6-18, I think. However, when prompted, the adults got very involved. One Trainee’s host father ran through his garden and climbed over an eight foot fence to escape getting wet! I’d never seen him move so fast! All in all, it was a great morning. I did manage to take a few photos (thank you, waterproof camera) and will post them on Facebook later.
Along with the excitement of this weekend, things have been very busy. In one respect, this is nice because it takes one’s mind off of the fact that PST is almost over. On the other hand, however, it’s been a few stressful and tiring weeks.
TEFL Practicum is in full swing. Practicum is essentially mini-student teaching. All the TEFL Trainees are working in pairs, teaching local Armenian children English. Our schedule for teaching is busy, but also nicely planned out. We teach two days back-to-back with the same class, have 2-3 days off, and repeat. In all, we only teach six lessons. During every lesson, we are observed either by our Program Manager, Technical Trainer, a current TEFL PCV, or sometimes surprise other PC staff. I am working with Ashley, another Trainee living in my village. Our first three lessons have all gone well so far. She’s never taught in a classroom before, but you wouldn’t be able to tell. Conveniently, we have similar ideas for lessons; planning has been easy. The biggest difficulty with planning is just deciding what subject matter to cover. The only information we’re given about our classes is their ages and what the other PCTs taught in previous days. We can essentially teach whatever we want. While this is great, it’s also daunting. It’s like they say “OK pick anything in the English language. Teach it. Ready, set, GO.”
Speaking of Practicum, I should wrap this up now. Ashley is going to be over any minute now to plan out our next lesson!
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