Ok, so that is not what happened, but I did manage to experience both this past week. A week ago, I met two other volunteers Jack and Ed to hike up Mt. Aragots, the tallest peak in Armenia. It wasn’t completely successful as all three of us didn’t make it to the top but we came close and camped out last Saturday night just below the peaks. It quite possibly could have been the coldest I have ever felt, but that is what good stories are made of, right?!

This past Wednesday was Armenia’s Independence Day. Any year is special, but this year marked the 20th anniversary so they did it big and did it right in Yerevan. My host father, brother and I went down for the festivities and were met with what seemed to be every other Armenian in the country. This country has 3 million people and I am curious to find out if 98% were in the Square at 10pm on Wednesday. Oh well, it reminded me of celebrating New Years at Disneyland..and being reminded of Disney is never bad. Remember that..ha.

In the next hour I am traveling back to Yerevan from Talin for some meetings at the Peace Corps office, then the majority of the volunteers and myself are heading up to Sevan for the weekend. This is considered our “unlock” weekend so this will be the first time most of us have seen each other since swearing-in in August. As you can imagine the idea of being with a group of friends in a beautiful place is more than appealing right now, especially after a pretty hard day yesterday. I hit a wall with language and was met with some communication and culture differences in relation to my job here. Oh well, I will worry about that next week, but for now, bring on Sevan!

I will post all of the pictures in the next entry because I have to finish packing so I don’t miss the 9am bus! I am excited!!!