10 Months To Go

Here are some highlights from the summer.

I recently discovered an amazing hike really close to Ijevan. The hike takes you to the Lastivir Caves and a place called Anapat. At the start of the hike, we walked along a ridge of a gorge.

Eventually we started hiking down into the gorge.

My friends, Andy and Nicole, exploring one of the many caves.

Towards the bottom of the gorge we found a series of waterfalls.

I think these caves are the coolest historical thing that I have seen in Armenia. These are pagan carvings that could predate the arrival of Christianity or this area could have been one of the last pagan holdouts after the conversion of Armenia in 301 C.E.

Face hidden on the path.

At the bottom of the gorge is a small river. It is the cleanest river that I have seen in Armenia because there are no towns or villages along it. The water was freezing.

My friend Darryn invited a few people to his town for a birthday BBQ.

There was mandatory dancing after 4 or 5 bottles of vodka.

I was so excited to see my first boxing match ever. However, I was disappointed immensely because the matches were either heavily lopsided or maybe even rigged in favor of the Armenian boxers.

Serj Tankian played a free concert to commemorate the opening of the TUMO Center. The TUMO Center is a non-profit technology school in Yerevan. In order to get in the front row, we had to get to the concert a few hours early.

Or else we would've been stuck in the back. There were close to 10,000 people at this concert.

The band Dorians opened for Serj Tankian. They were surprisingly awesome. They sang songs in English and Armenian. Here is a link to one of their Armenian songs. The old guy in the video is a famous Armenian cellist. Here is a link to one of their English songs.

The man himself, Serj Tankian. He played an awesome show. So far, going to this concert is the most amazing thing that I have done in Armenia. Here is a link to a video of another live show Serj did with an orchestra.

Border 2 Border

Last June, I participated in a project called Border 2 Border. Two groups of six walked the entire length of Armenia. One group started at the Georgian border and my group started at the Iranian border. We met in the middle of the country. Along the way we taught health classes in various villages and towns. Each group walked about 275 kilometers (171 miles) in 17 days. Here are some highlights.

We had to carry everything, so we had to get the most out of the food we carried. Homemade granola was a must.

We usually started walking as early as possible. We would walk about 7-8 hours a day.

The best part of the walk for me was getting to see the beautiful landscape of the southern part of the country.

This is Tatev Monastery. It is the most impressive monastery that I have seen in Armenia. The world's longest tramway leads Tatev from a village located 5.7 kilometers (3.5 miles) away.

Tatev dates back to the 9th century. It was destroyed many times, once during an earthquake and a few times by invading armies. It is still undergoing reconstruction.

Joel and Mike were in my group and were constantly singing or playing guitar. Hippies.

During the physical fitness portion of our health classes, I would demonstrate various exercises. For some reason the kids really liked running in place.

The kids that attended our classes in Tatev.

We didn't always walk on paved roads.

Sometimes we didn't walk on roads at all.

We found these two puppies at the top of a mountain that we had to hike over. They had rope leashes attached to them. Somebody brought them to there to die. We cut the ropes off and they followed us/we carried them to the next village. We found 2 kids who were wanted them. A Peace Corps volunteer lives there and checks up on them.

Back on paved roads and avoiding cars.

This is Vorotnavank. Another amazing monastery that we passed along the way.

A goat path that we had to walk to get to our next stop.

A small lake.

The Southern Team after we passed the border into the Vayots Dzor region.

Almost everybody had some sort of foot problem. Blisters were most common. I lost 2 toenails.

Vayots Dzor was beautiful, but by far the hottest place that I have been in Armenia. Walking here sucked.

The Peace Corps region manager for the south joined us for a day on our walk to Vayk.

The southern team at our final destination. For those of you who can't read Armenian or Russian, the town is called Yeghegnadzor.

We had one final health presentation. For this one we were able to make a lot of posters. This one says "Run!" and "Don't Smoke!"

An anti-smoking poster.

Both of the groups together. That is a big jug of homemade wine in my hand.

365 and Counting

I've been in Armenia for over a year now. Here are some more pics of Ijevan and the surrounding area.

This is Goshavank Monestary. It is located just south of Ijevan. It was built in the 12th century. It is home to one of the finest, if not the finest, Khachkar in the world.

This is the famous Khachkar of Goshavank. It was carved in 1291 by the artist Poghos. It is commonly referred to as the "Needle" Khachkar because of how fine the carvings are.

This is Aghavnavank Church. It is located deep inside of one of Armenia's few forest reserves. It was built in the 11th century. It is in major need of revovations if it is to be preserved.

This is a tomb that was discovered in a school yard when the principal decided to do some illegal renovations. The tomb is over 3,000 years old and contained many intact pots, bones, jewelry, and a beautiful sword.

This is Mkaravank. It is a church complex. The first church (small one in the back) was built in the 11th century. The larger church (in the foreground) was built in the 13th century.

These are just a few of the khachkars at Mkaravank.

I was in Ijevan to celebrate Victory Day. Victory Day is the holiday that celebrates the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. All of these guys fought for the Soviet Army during WWII.

As part of the Victory Day celebration, almost everyone in Ijevan marched to the WWII Memorial to place flowers and listen to speeches.

My sitemates, Andy and Nicole, and I on a hike. The abandoned ferris wheel is behind us.

Elodie (a French volunteer in Ijevan), Andy, and me sitting by the part of our river that is not filled with garbage.

This is my friend David at his birthday celebration. If it wasn't for David, I would not have seen as many of the cool ruins/churches/excavations around Ijevan.

This is Armen. He has tutored me in Armenian a lot, but most importantly he invites me over to his house to watch NFL and NBA games all the time. He is moving to New Mexico in August to get his master's degree. Those of you in New Mexico will for sure meet him when I come back.

The Ijevan crew making a hybrid Armenian/American meal, barbecue chicken and grilled vegetables.

As American as I could get. Jack Daniels, a cigar, and apple pie with vanilla ice cream. Seal Team 6 did something on this day.