so i started keeping a notebook for "ethnographic purposes" and i'm just not capable of writing two different journals, so, blog fail.
here are some highlights of my time in armenia with only two days before i head back to istanbul (for anyone still out there):
1) the cool swiss guys i met at the first homestay. we hung out, went to "the club" where we had a good "western armenian" meal, and i went with them to khor virap, my first time taking public transportation to a famous site in armenia. a really nice old lady wrote down the return schedule for us.
2) being back at the same homestay. it really makes it feel a lot more comfortable staying with people i know in a bedroom that feels familiar, etc.
3) the famous armenian artist museum tour: sergei parajanov (filmmaker), mardiros saryan (painter), hovannes toumanian (poet), and aram khatchadurian (composer). not done in one day.
4) being recognized and welcomed when stopping by birthright. seeing ani and anoush (language instructor's daughters and my language instructors).
5) birthday! etchmiadzin, christina made a cake, and a cafe/hraparag night with christina, ani, and anoush.
6) garni/geghart trip with birthright. a fun group, and a great conversation with mikael and haykak.
7) a 3-day trip to gyumri, including the feast of Asdvadzazin, where they blessed the grapes on a platform in the main square. was fed too many pastries by overzealous host-mother. met another birthright girl. feel like i have a feel for gyumri.
other than this list, i've pretty much just been living. spending a lot of time reading and going to cafes. i guess the main lesson for this trip is how important it is to spend a lot of time in a place if i figure i'm going to get any ethnographic 'work' done. especially in the post-soviet world. especially in the post-soviet world.
so, its been good. i feel like the other really important thing is a feeling of normalcy of being in armenia. even though i developed a schedule, working, etc. last time- this trip feels even more normal. so, yeah, its been good. its been good to practice armenian, to keep up relationships with people i know here and make some new ones, and to realize how hard fieldwork is. am i any closer to an idea for a dissertation? maybe upon reflection.
well, i have to get a few final gifts, change some money into georgian lari, and get ready for a bus ride friday morning. i have to say, 'one week AND counting.'
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
these churches look really familiar; i.e: i swear its not a new research project
so, at first i just called it, "georgia" but that wasn't a verbose enough title. now that i'm in armenia, i can tell you about my first border crossings needing a passport (read: not tijuana or vancouver) and my time in georgia.
friday afternoon, i got on a freakishly long overnight bus that i planned to have take me to hopa, the turkish side of the turkish-georgian border. then i found out the bus would take me all the way to batumi, the georgian coastal town from which i planned to take a marshutka (i think i'm spelling this right, its basically a van that serves as the best public transportation, long or short distance, in the post-soviet world) to tbilisi. well, the bus got me to the border. i took all my bags off, walked across the border (no problems), and then waited for the bus. i was literally standing next to my bus, waiting for it to slow down and park. i guess everyone else was on the bus and they didn't care about me since i hadn't paid for past hopa anyhow, because it just took off. yup, hit the main road and kept rolling as i stood next to it. after a minute or two, i shrugged my shoulders and got in a taxi to batumi.
in batumi, i got pretty much directly on the marshutka to tbilisi. once there, i made my way to the 'green stairs hostel' where i had a reservation. but alas, i was several hours after i put my reservation down for, so i was asked if i minded staying in an apartment for the same price... a little out of the way, but an apartment to myself. a-ok by me. the metro ended up being really easy, and finally, after close to 24 hours of straight travel, i passed out in my solo apartment.
i woke up sunday to get a move on and get into the metro (after a long shower and shave, ah). i made my way to the st. george armenian church, where i attended badarak. and, very exciting, i saw sayat nova's grave (sayat nova being an 18th century armenian troubador, which parajanov's 'the color of pommegranate' is about- i may have subjected some of you to this film). after church, i ate some georgian bbq, and then wandered around old town, seeing, you guessed it: georgian churches! there are many old ones throughout town, and a few old armenian churches too. as the title of the post suggests, the similarity between church architecture and other aspects of armenian and georgian Christianity is really interesting, and have left me scratching my head. i've heard the strong national lines on each side as to why they look the same, but it really is strange how similar they are. after seeing the patriarchate and the oldest church in town, i had a beer at the "hangar bar" and read: drinking georgian beer steps from the oldest church in tbilisi at tbilisi's "only irish pub." yeah, it was strange. after some internet, i metroed back to the apartment (a mild endeavor since the thing stopped one before the last stop and i had to counterintuitively get on on the other track) and had a great encounter buying things at the store on the way. speaking absoultely no georgian, it was fun to interact with the girls at the store. and also use the subway, since i don't read georgian either- basically the one stop with numbers in it was my landmark, letting me know which of two directions to get on. that, and i'd count stops to the transfer station.
monday, i found my way to one of the bus stations, and managed to find the marshutka to mtskhetka (i think i've got this right this time, it took me a few when asking for it)- this is basically the georgian vatican, their old capital and home of their oldest churches. one, jvari, is perched way up on a hill, and is THE georgian church to see. i hired a taxi to take me up the hill, and managed to make a day out of it. he drove me further north into the mountains to visit a fortress/church ananuri. while i paid more than i wanted to, i definitely saw more of the country than i'd planned this way. we also managed to communicate quite a bit (it never ceases to amaze me how much information can be conveyed without a common language), and i had some georgian dumplings and beer outside of tbilisi. i feel like i got my money's worth. plus, he took me straigh back to my apartment. if i had been on top of it, i would have gone out to the internet, but a call home suggested, like i remembered the web site saying, that i wouldn't need a print out of my visa for the border crossing... (this is foreshadowing)
today, i woke up, packed, and the guy that i was renting the room from came and picked me up, drove me to the bus station, and made sure i was on the right marshutka to yerevan. got through the georgian border fine, and ah-hah, the guy at the armenian border asks me for my print out. luckily, 'we have internet, we have printer' and the fact that i was armenian seemed to make him happy. so i went to the back room and printed it out- it was, in fact, the first time this guy had ever seen the e-visa website. yeeeeah, you do need a print-out of your visa. i suppose i'm lucky to have made it across with my rather make-shift print-out visa (there are no graphics, its just stuffed in my passport), although considering how long i'll be here, i could have just gotten the 21-day visa. well, now i know. i'm sure the rest of the riders were annoyed with me, because i was definitely the last one through the border. but i made it to yerevan.
i was going to stay at the "envoy hostel" at least for the night, since i couldn't get a hold of my host family yesterday- but they were full. nicely, the set me up in a homestay. so i'll stay here for at least a night, and then move back to my old host family.
i have to say, it's good to be in yerevan.
and, like istanbul, its a very strange feeling to be in a city that you are familiar with, at least to a degree. its an unusual, but nice feeling. so i think i'll go enjoy a famous armenian ice cream and wander around this beautiful city...
friday afternoon, i got on a freakishly long overnight bus that i planned to have take me to hopa, the turkish side of the turkish-georgian border. then i found out the bus would take me all the way to batumi, the georgian coastal town from which i planned to take a marshutka (i think i'm spelling this right, its basically a van that serves as the best public transportation, long or short distance, in the post-soviet world) to tbilisi. well, the bus got me to the border. i took all my bags off, walked across the border (no problems), and then waited for the bus. i was literally standing next to my bus, waiting for it to slow down and park. i guess everyone else was on the bus and they didn't care about me since i hadn't paid for past hopa anyhow, because it just took off. yup, hit the main road and kept rolling as i stood next to it. after a minute or two, i shrugged my shoulders and got in a taxi to batumi.
in batumi, i got pretty much directly on the marshutka to tbilisi. once there, i made my way to the 'green stairs hostel' where i had a reservation. but alas, i was several hours after i put my reservation down for, so i was asked if i minded staying in an apartment for the same price... a little out of the way, but an apartment to myself. a-ok by me. the metro ended up being really easy, and finally, after close to 24 hours of straight travel, i passed out in my solo apartment.
i woke up sunday to get a move on and get into the metro (after a long shower and shave, ah). i made my way to the st. george armenian church, where i attended badarak. and, very exciting, i saw sayat nova's grave (sayat nova being an 18th century armenian troubador, which parajanov's 'the color of pommegranate' is about- i may have subjected some of you to this film). after church, i ate some georgian bbq, and then wandered around old town, seeing, you guessed it: georgian churches! there are many old ones throughout town, and a few old armenian churches too. as the title of the post suggests, the similarity between church architecture and other aspects of armenian and georgian Christianity is really interesting, and have left me scratching my head. i've heard the strong national lines on each side as to why they look the same, but it really is strange how similar they are. after seeing the patriarchate and the oldest church in town, i had a beer at the "hangar bar" and read: drinking georgian beer steps from the oldest church in tbilisi at tbilisi's "only irish pub." yeah, it was strange. after some internet, i metroed back to the apartment (a mild endeavor since the thing stopped one before the last stop and i had to counterintuitively get on on the other track) and had a great encounter buying things at the store on the way. speaking absoultely no georgian, it was fun to interact with the girls at the store. and also use the subway, since i don't read georgian either- basically the one stop with numbers in it was my landmark, letting me know which of two directions to get on. that, and i'd count stops to the transfer station.
monday, i found my way to one of the bus stations, and managed to find the marshutka to mtskhetka (i think i've got this right this time, it took me a few when asking for it)- this is basically the georgian vatican, their old capital and home of their oldest churches. one, jvari, is perched way up on a hill, and is THE georgian church to see. i hired a taxi to take me up the hill, and managed to make a day out of it. he drove me further north into the mountains to visit a fortress/church ananuri. while i paid more than i wanted to, i definitely saw more of the country than i'd planned this way. we also managed to communicate quite a bit (it never ceases to amaze me how much information can be conveyed without a common language), and i had some georgian dumplings and beer outside of tbilisi. i feel like i got my money's worth. plus, he took me straigh back to my apartment. if i had been on top of it, i would have gone out to the internet, but a call home suggested, like i remembered the web site saying, that i wouldn't need a print out of my visa for the border crossing... (this is foreshadowing)
today, i woke up, packed, and the guy that i was renting the room from came and picked me up, drove me to the bus station, and made sure i was on the right marshutka to yerevan. got through the georgian border fine, and ah-hah, the guy at the armenian border asks me for my print out. luckily, 'we have internet, we have printer' and the fact that i was armenian seemed to make him happy. so i went to the back room and printed it out- it was, in fact, the first time this guy had ever seen the e-visa website. yeeeeah, you do need a print-out of your visa. i suppose i'm lucky to have made it across with my rather make-shift print-out visa (there are no graphics, its just stuffed in my passport), although considering how long i'll be here, i could have just gotten the 21-day visa. well, now i know. i'm sure the rest of the riders were annoyed with me, because i was definitely the last one through the border. but i made it to yerevan.
i was going to stay at the "envoy hostel" at least for the night, since i couldn't get a hold of my host family yesterday- but they were full. nicely, the set me up in a homestay. so i'll stay here for at least a night, and then move back to my old host family.
i have to say, it's good to be in yerevan.
and, like istanbul, its a very strange feeling to be in a city that you are familiar with, at least to a degree. its an unusual, but nice feeling. so i think i'll go enjoy a famous armenian ice cream and wander around this beautiful city...
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