Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all who are reading our blog. The "Nor Tari" holiday is now almost over as we all go back to work tomorrow. We have been away from school since December 24, and I'm afraid it may be a bit of a shock going back to work. No more of this staying up til 3 a.m. and sleeping til noon, and then staying in PJs for the rest of the day! But our laundry is done, books are all lined up, and we're ready to go.

So many of you are wondering what all the Nor Tari fuss is about. Essentially, the entire country shuts down from December 30 until January 10. Completely. Fire and police still work, but the post office, schools, and most government offices do not. We started our celebration on December 31 with dinner at Fred's counterpart's house. We arrived around 11:30 p.m. and started with drinks and appetizers. Then a full meal, after appropriate toasts, at midnight. And fireworks, of course. Lots of them. Not the big kind you'd get in the U.S., but still pretty good by my standards. It also was really nice being with a family to celebrate the new year. Mother, father, children and grandchildren. We really felt we were part of the family too.

As for the food, the dinner table was loaded with two different kinds of dolma (one cabbage, one grapeleaf, both stuffed with yummy rice and meat), a roast of some kind of pig, several different salads, bread, cheese, tomato and cucumber. After we couldn't eat any more, we had dessert (home made pastry and cake) and coffee/tea. THEN we danced! I love dancing to Armenian music. Wish I had a video to post, but it seems very exotic. The music has a wonderful flute-type instrument and the singers match the notes of the flute. So it was fun.

At around 2:30 a.m., we left because we still had other places to visit. Everyone seems to stay up most of the night visiting friends and relatives, so that's what we did. Apparently, our apartment building is quieter than most as we only found one family still up. But even then, we were invited to sit and eat and drink, which of course we did. The next day, January 1, we continued visiting friends, our host family, and neighbors. Again, at each stop we continued to eat, until around 4 p.m. that afternoon. By this time, we're pretty full and went home to rest up for the next day.

The week continued with pretty much the same pattern--go and visit, eat, drink, dance, go home and rest. January 6 is the traditional Christmas here, and the parties have been winding down since then. It was wonderful to be in our small town and experience this holiday as it is the most celebrated time in the entire country. Next year, we may travel as we always have 2 weeks off. But that's another year from now, so who knows.

Tomorrow it's back to reality and our daily routines of getting up early, heading to school, going to class, meeting with our English clubs, etc. This week we will start an evening conversational English club for adults, so that will be a lot of fun. And hopefully another one or two English clubs for the kids. The kids don't get enough opportunity to practice speaking English, so that's what we can provide for them. And we absolutely love the kids here. We are often asked why we don't have children of our own, and my response now is "so we can have all the children here in Armenia." It makes people happy that we love the kids, and we definitely do. So Monday morning I expect we will be greeted with choruses of "Hello Mr. Linden" and "Hello Miss Susan". Definitely looking forward to that part.

We have been spared a cold and snowy winter so far. Other volunteers have been getting all the snow, and I know ours will come. Perhaps not until February, but it will come. Until then, we will enjoy not having to turn on our heat all the time.

We send you every good wish for 2011. Keep those e-mails and Facebook posts coming. It makes our time here go so much faster, and also makes you seem closer. And hopefully the packages that we know have been sent will start arriving, now that the mail is starting to flow again. Until the next post . . .