With the month of July behind me, I look forward to the upcoming events of August. First on the agenda is the Swearing In ceremony for the incoming group of volunteers in a few days. Most of the current volunteers will travel to capital for this event. It will definitely be interesting to be a part of the audience this time around. I look forward to officially welcoming our new site-mates to the Vayots Dzor Region. I am looking forward to some fresh faces in the area and the official start of Year 2.
A few days after Swearing In, I will travel to my friend Branwen's site to help out with the sports camp that she has organized for the kids in her community. I am so excited about this day because I get to share basketball with Armenian children! Though I quit after 9th grade, I still love this game with a passion. Give me a good, fresh Spalding and I'm a happy girl. The plan is to teach them some fun drills, so everyone is moving all at once. I don't know if we'll be able to play an actual game... but it will be funny if it ends up happening. It might be something like the softball game back in April with Armenian men who had never touched a glove in their lives. All I will say is that it was more entertaining than any MLB game (especially a Mets game).
Then, on the 19th of August my dear friend Ari will arrive in Yerevan. Quick story about my friendship with the one and only Arielle Schecter. We met three years ago in Seattle, Washington during an AmeriCorps VISTA training. Like with all other large social gatherings - I slowly ease my way into finding like minded folks. At first, I like to sit back and watch people pretend with one another. This social phenomenon never ceases to amaze, and I imagine that as I get older and this trend continues, I will still continued to be entertained. Anyway, there I was in a large conference room of other 20-somethings who weren't quite ready for big real world jobs and opted instead for AmeriCorps. I was keeping to myself and scanning the room for potential husbands as people flowed around me. One individual (gods bless their soul) struck up a conversation with me. Upon learning I was a New Yorker, they pointed at a young brunette across the room saying, "She's a New Yorker too." "Oh, really?" I responded, and promptly walked away to introduce myself.
From the moment we introduced ourselves, Ari and I spent the rest of the conference trading witty and sarcastic remarks about the shenanigans of events such as the one we were made to suffer through. Unfortunately, she was headed off for her year of service in New Orleans while my job was located in Boston. After three days we were both certain we would keep in touch, which has become a fact over the last three years. Since our time together in Seattle, Ari and I have only had two other opportunities to spend time together face to face. On both of those occasions, we were in New York. While I consider myself a New Yorker , in truth Ari is far more New York than I can ever claim to be. She grew up in the city, lives and breathes and knows the city. The two times that we've had a chance to meet up, she took me to low key places she's familiar with. We sit, talk and laugh and there never seems to be enough time. Well now - there's going to be plenty.
Ari will be in Armenia for 9 nights and 10 days. I have lots of things in store for her and she's compatible for me in that she's going to go ride the Carolyn wave. Hopefully, by the end of our 10 days together we will have discovered more common interests and grown closer than before.
p.s. Ari is an amazing talented and entertaining writer. Read about her life happenings down in New Orleans here: http://arielleschecter.blogspot.com/
Quote Of The Week:
Me: "I watched a bug come to life for 8 hours the other day."
Country Director: "Okay..."
Site Mate: "So he was too big to be killed by the electric fly swatter?"
Me: "Yup. Anyway- it was fascinating. I wrote a poem about it."
Site Mate: "HA- what did it say."
Me: "Nothing- I'm lying. I didn't write a poem. But I did think about writing a poem. HEY! Have you guys every watched a cat stalk and kill a butterfly?"
Country Director: "I think I'm going to require more secondary projects..."
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