First Night in Yerevan

So I just spent my first night in Yerevan.

This weekend were initiatives meeting, so probably at least three fourths of the volunteers were all in Yerevan this weekend. Most came up Friday, though I decided to come in early Saturday morning for the meetings and only stay Saturday night. It was sort of last minute, I've been getting more interested in the IT side of things here and so thought I would go to an IT initiative meeting. And return a cell phone charger I had packed with my stuff in Tsaghkadzor.

Because it was last minute, and so many volunteers were in town all of the hostels were booked, but when calling one hostel the lady helped set up a home-stay for me with a women named Gayaneh.

So in order to find this place I have to first go to the hostel and talk to the receptionist and she points me in the right direction, and shows me on a map and says that Gayaneh will meet me out in front of a supermarket.

So I start my walk, it's longer than I thought it would be, but I'm passing the landmarks so I know I'm going the right way, and then I see this chubby kid with aviators and a mullet and he says "you're American?" I respond and eventually we work out that I am in fact the American he is looking for, and he'll take me up to the room.

I go up to my room, I come in and I say hello, I speak a little in Armenian, explain who I am, go over being a PCV, where I will be living for the next two years and all that. I see there are two French girls that are also staying so that makes me feel better, like this is more legit than before. So I set my stuff down and tell her I have to meet my friends. I ask what time I need to be back and she says whenever you want, the door will be open. I wasn't sure how the etiquette of these home-stays worked and was told it depends on a case-by-case basis. I go to leave and the lady tells me her name is "Susana." Why this was Susana and not Gayaneh was never explained to me and I didn't even bother to ask, and everything worked out well. And then when I wake up the next day the two French women are now 6 Georgians and a French guy.

Only in Armenia.

I'd have to say my first night in Yerevan was a success. I really only had one goal, which was to sing karaoke somewhere. I was excited but I was anticipating not ever getting to the karaoke bar, just because it's crazy when you have so many people all wanting to do something or other. But we did eventually make it to karaoke. First we relaxed at an outdoor cafe where we saw some other volunteers.

It was here when I realized that Yerevan, really isn't that big. Every 50 feet or so our group of volunteers would run into another group of volunteers. This happened at least 6 or 7 times in what was maybe 3 or 4 blocks worth of walking. After this cafe we went to this fabled bar somewhere that had dark beer on tap. We eventually made it there and they did indeed have some sort of dark beer on tap, for 1000 dram, where normally you'd pay 300-500 dram for a beer at a bar. But it was worth it, and reminded me of Pittsburgh, I almost felt like I could have been drinking at Sharp Edge. I will definitely go to this bar again, though I won't be surprised if when we go there again they no longer have that beer on tap.

Then after a little while at this bar we got a group together to go to a karaoke bar. I had been the original organizer, with a few enthusiastic friends, but this group left on their own (almost without me!) but another friend pointed it out and said you better leave now, so I left real quick and caught up with the karaoke group. They didn't have any of my go-to songs, so I had to settle for some back-ups and sang "Come Sail Away" and "Bicycle Race." There were no mic stands so I couldn't play air piano though I had another friend back me up so I could air-piano for a little bit. There wasn't really a stage either so I was singing in the middle of a group of people, which was strange but also kindof fun and maybe more, intimate, in a way.

I think I've rambled on enough about my first night in Yerevan.

Oh I had some amazing khachapuri, with mushrooms! It's a Georgian dish, but anyways, the important thing is that it had mushrooms, which I haven't had in country, and I'm not even a big fan of mushrooms, but they were always my go-to vegetable to saute with onions when making pasta, and eating them again, having been without for 4 months, was amazing.