Fourth of July - Armenia Style

The trainees in our village (now down to 7) cooked up a barbeque for our host families to celebrate the 4th of July. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, cole slaw, roasted potatoes, etc. We also had a water baloon fight (need to bring more next year), pin the tail on the donkey, soccer, and sparklers. Our host families all brought yummy desserts, and we were treated with the sight of a really big snake as we ate our dinner. Then there was dancing! The last guests left just before midnight!

Today we are back to school and getting ready to visit our new host families and villages/towns this coming weekend. We will be living in a town of about 6,500 people--Noyemberyan--near the Georgia/Azerbaijan border. We understand that we can get to Tblisi in about an hour by taxi, or a few hours by bus (or marshrutka, which is like a mini van). We are looking forward to finding out more about our new site, meeting the English teachers we will work with, and meeting our new host family. The town is supposed to have warmer winters, but we shall see. That also means hot summers--like over 100 degrees. The heat will be a bit of a challenge, and we are wondering what we will do with our zero degree sleeping bags.

Today (Monday) it is back to school--language classes in the morning and technical sessions in the afternoon. Fred and I will be teaching a class to teachers this Thursday on "interactive grammar techniques" (grammar games, except that we have to disguise it). We are busy trying to learn something about the topic so we can teach two 45-minute classes.

Peace Corps training continues to be challenging. Different personalities, different needs, different language, different everything! This week was the first time I felt like it just wasn't manageable. Luckily neither of us feels that way at the same time. Having another person to share this all with is really, really good. So I am very grateful for that.

Will update the blog after (or maybe during) our site visit. We are supposed to have 3G coverage, and we hear rumors that wireless may even be an option. As we now struggle with very low upload/download speeds, THAT would be a real miracle.

We miss our home, our families, our friends, and much of what we so took for granted about life in America. But we are adjusting . . . one day at a time. We are loving Armenia, the people we meet, and especially the children, all of whom are magical. So far, we seem to be handling all the various challenges we are given. Hard to believe we have just over 4 weeks left of training. Our scheduled swearing-in day is August 5! Just 30 days away . . .