Hola Mujeres y Hombres!
I find myself wanting to speak Spanish in my Armenian class
all the freaking time. It comes out in accident sometimes when I talk to my
host family. So annoying :P
Week three and I’m glad to say that my honeymoon phase isn’t
over yet. I’ve started to do P90x again…my core and legs are cray cray sore. I
haven’t even spent any of my spending money yet! I’ve stayed away from helados
y refrescos…there I go again ;) I need to release it somewhere! I’ve been
scheming as to where I want to travel in the near future. Since Armenia is
relatively close to Eastern Europe(Italy, Germany, or Greece), a plane ticket
wouldn’t be so bad. Flying to Asia isn’t bad either THAILAND! So many options! And
of course Turkey/Georgia/Azerbaijan. Let me know if anyone is interested in
joining me! My friend Courtney from Semester at Sea is planning on coming
sometime in August, so I’m excited about that. I’ll probably be done with
training by then.
We met the Ambassador from the embassy last week. He said
that ecotourism and a few other entrepreneur things are anticipated for the
next couple of years in hopes of making Armenia lucrative. I think Armenia will
be really different even in 5-10 years. It is a transitioning country after all.
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| The aji (garden) which includes straberries, cherries, apples, and so much more! |
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| Mama Greta and the Pigs |
Yesterday, I had my first big cultural miscommunication.
Armenians speak incredibly loud and with a buttload of fervor. I was enjoying
my hard boiled eggs and tea for breakfast when my sister marched into her room
yelling, speaking fast, almost crying…and I caught only a few words about Tatik
(grandma). I was super uncomfortable. I assumed that things had hit the fan…so
I scrammed out of there to go to school. I find out later that night, as my
sister puts it, “Italians and Armenians speak loud.” She loves her family and
that nothing was wrong. She was just talking loudly so that her mom could hear
her. J
oh geez I need to get use to this fast!
If you guys know me well, you know that I can be really
oblivious and that I absolutely abhor dead things…well I was walking home with
a friend on a path that I take at least 4 times a day. I was aghast to realize that
there were flat, dried-out frogs everywhere on this dirt road. I shudder every
time I think about it. Hehe. But I still have my sense of humor; so far it has served
me well.
Is anyone reading my blogs? If yes, please feel free to
leave me comments or questions!
I finished my beef jerky. Sad day. What I would give for
carne asada fries right now J
Lots of love and positive energy from Armenia to you,
~Philus Synder
Croctopus Nhi Pguyen Sanchez
Do they make a lot of gestures too like italians?
ReplyDeleteit is funny that u switch to spanish but maybe in the long run itll help you to remember the words better or maybe worse who knows ahaha
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Armenia? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Armenia in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia,39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez
Phi Phi!!! Things have finally settled down over here and I am now going to follow your adventures regularly! It's funny about the flattened frogs...it is the same on the Big Island/Hawaii when I visited :P I'm glad you are learning so much and still using your Spanish!
ReplyDeleteI admire what you are doing Phi!!! chin-up and keep it up! <3 Jean