Tatiki het

My tatik is one of my favorite people in Armenia. We had a bad few days when she kept calling me fat, but as it turns out fat is a compliment here. To them it means that I am healthy and eating well. I think that the Peace Corps needs to add it to their host family training that it is never ok to call and American girl fat. That may be the cause of years of bulimia right there!! I knew she was just being crazy when after a few days of running; obviously I started again as soon as I heard her say that, she told me she didn’t want me to run because I was getting too skinny! In the matter of two or three days I went from being too fat to too skinny. I don’t want your family back home to think we don’t feed you, she told me. Which is funny because according to her I am either going to stay here forever and marry a nice Armenian boy, preferably one of her nephews, or she is coming to California with me and will marry an American man, mind you she is already married! The above picture of her is after a long day of scrubbing walls and re-painting.

Often when I am in my room with my door open or out on the sofa reading, Tatik will come and sit by me and relax. She always complains, I am so tired Alyssa Jan, too much work to do, always tired. I always tell her I am sorry and it’s such a pitty but it’s almost done. On this day she came in and saw my sunglasses and wanted to see how they looked on me. So I showed her. She then wanted to see how they looked on her. So I took a picture! She says they look better on me, but I don’t know, she is looking pretty bad ass in this picture don’t you think?