Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Things you see while walking the streets of spitak 2

So a few weeks ago I published a picture blog of all the strange things I see while walking around town... here
This is basically a continuation of that blog as I have had a week of spring break and not too much to do, I have been taking mini one to two hour hiking trips with Sophie, just going places we have never gone before... Here are some pictures from today's trip which was mostly warm weather and tons of mud. At one point I was ankle deep in the stuff!!! I was so ashamed walking back into the city center covered in mud, everyone staring at me... oh wait, they always stare at me no matter what!!! Point in case, yesterday I was walking with Sophie and off to the side were three little old me. I hear one of them say, this girl speaks Armenian. and the other says che ha?! (No yes?) the third says no she doesn't, she doesn't speak it at all. The first one raises his voice now and says Yes she does. She speaks very clean and proper Yerevan Armenian, and she even knows Spitak slang.... I am walking with my head down trying not to let on that I understand but trying to hold back from laughing at the same time. I don't know why I don't just interject and say well actually I do speak Armenian, I guess part of me likes that people don't think I understand them and talk about me as if I am not around. The other part is once people find out I speak Armenian we have a good solid ten minute conversation before they say something I don't understand, and then they are disappointed in me. It is just funny to me that after all this time, people in the streets are still so curious about me.






4 comments:

  1. Hi Janik! stares and curiosity? Suppose some aliens with their UFOs landed in Los Angeles ...you bet Americans are going to stare and be curious about those space aliens. In the same way, those 'Americans' who have dropped from a far far away galaxy into an Armenian town are going to be subjected to stares and curious looks of the locals! I do not understand why so much fuss is raised by Americans about stares & curiosity? Cut it off!
    (avoid the sheep herds at the mountains north of Spitak. The herdsmen are Kurds there and can be dangerous. Anyway, from the picture, Sophie now looks devilish and would scare anyone with intend to harm you) P.

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  2. The stern look on Sophie's face is saying: "Better nobody mess up with my patroness the 'Joan of Arc' of Spitak or else.." Enjoy!!
    http://bayrevival.org/media_archive.php

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  3. Stares! Stares! Stares! By now PCVs should have learned to take them as complements and enjoy the limelight while life goes on normal and return the complements by big smiles, by kiss-ly extended hands, by hugs. Specially if taken note that they are the only attraction on some of those villages or one of the main attractions.

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  4. Agreed Sofie is starting to look pretty tough.

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