Yerevan Travels

So I spent a fair amount of time in the capital last week as I was attending a workshop on mentoring, and just in general during January and this first half of February I've had various meetings that have required me going to Yerevan for a day here and there.

Yerevan is the closest thing volunteers can access that is remotely normal. There are restaurants, cafes, bars (in the American or Western sense), and anonymity. That last one is key for many volunteers as at our sites reputation matters, especially in villages of 300-1,000 people (and you'd be surprised how much it matters in towns of 20 or even 30 thousand). It's a place where we can relax, drink or smoke in public (not possible for women) in an atmosphere that can't be found anywhere else in Armenia.

A fair amount of people I know complain about the architecture, the smallness of it, or other such things, and really it's not pretty. There are abandoned buildings the farther you get from the center, and even in the center you'll find a few tucked away on side streets.

The soviet architecture is ever-present, but it gives it a charming, post-apocalypse, feel to it. (Yeah, that's right, I just said the apocalypse, well the aftermath, can look charming.) I really enjoy it. I think part of it has to be growing up in the Rust Belt of the US. (Erie, and later University in Pittsburgh). Yerevan certainly has some of that feel to it, and perhaps that what I find delightful, even nostalgic. It's hard to describe it, but once I get a camera I will try to get lots of pictures of the capital (and Vanadzor!) for everyone.

While in Yerevan these past few weeks I got to visit the Yerevan Zoo. (I will have pictures in the next post, I promise!) I got to see a hyena, that ran back and forth in a tiny little cage, which was freaky, because hyenas scare me. And then I got to see a lion play with a tire, and some bears attacking each other. A bunch of different types of wolf or fox-like things (I will get there Latin name translated from the pictures). I then got to see a cat get chased off a fence by a camel, which then proceeded to stare the cat down until it slinked off. Saw some porcupines, and deer. I'll post a bunch of pictures, it's a lot better than me just listing off a bunch of things I saw.

Bam! Whap! Pow! Whack! Crash! Wham!

Seeya