Armenia-Part 5

I lied, last post covered Wednesday and Thursday and not Thursday and Friday, so this post starts with Friday. We pretty much had all the photos we needed to our project presentations for Saturday so we took it a little easy with the photo. Right after leaving the hotel we stopped by a puppet theater that we had constantly walked by but was always closed, This time it was open. After looking around in the lobby for a bit, a husband and wife came out and were so excited to see us and invited us to a puppet show a couple hours later.We told them we would try our best to be there.

 We were hoping to go to a village but he didn't have much time so I'm pretty sure we ended up  meeting with Siranush at some point. I'm having a harder time remembering what happened since I have fewer pictures.
I do know that we ended up going to the puppet show and we loved it. A whole bunch of school kids were there and we got there after it had already started so we made our way to the back of the theater in the dark.

 It was a funny little play and the kids were laughing throughout it. It was so exciting to see another fine display of the arts in Armenia. We then went to lunch with Siranush and I got this pirashki that was incredibly filling.

Photo by Anna

We did a little more souvenir shopping and I did end up getting this cup and pitcher set, which I have used multiple times already.  I love it. (6 cups and 1 pitcher, the rounded cups, not the straight ones)

 

We then made our way to another familiar family from our time in Armenia years before. We visited Liana and her two children, Yelena and Varam who were tiny back when we were missionaries. they fed us well.

 Yelena and Varam are extremely talented and we basically got a full talent show from them. We saw their artwork and they performed for us as well.

 Yelena plays the Cannon, at least that is what it is called in Armenian, I don't know what it is called in English. It's like a mix between a harp and guitar. And she is amazing, and only 12 years old!! Watch this video!

And Varam gave us a guitar performance!

Photo by Anna

After enjoying these children's may talents we said our farewells and headed out. We decided to explore the nearby cemetery.  Armenian cemeteries are so unique.

 

It started pouring rain after a bit so we jumped in a taxi and went to the church for a quick visit with the bishop.

We spent time collecting candy to take home to our families too. I stocked up on Kinder eggs for my family, preschoolers, and piano students.

  We then went to our hotel and invited Liana and Siranush to visit and eat ice cream.

 We then realized we were getting old and tired. Liana and Siranush went home and we went to bed.

On Saturday, I took even fewer pictures so I have less memory of what happened.
We met with John after breakfast to go over our photo presentations and finalize them into a slide show.
Later,  we went to visit Tatevik and Gohar to say goodbye and to pick up our paintings.

 

We ended up staying at Siranush's house for awhile to eat lunch and wait while her mom, Galia, finished knitting little stockings for our kids. 

Her dad taking a rest.

 

We went out to dinner with Siranush and tried to express how grateful we were for the opportunity to be reunited with her.  As the evening approached we made our way back to the hotel to get ready for our final storytelling presentations. Many local people were invited that had a part in any of the photo stories, so the room was filled.  It was incredible to see the many talented

photographers and the presentations were amazing, all representing Armenia so well. We were told that we will get access to everybody's presentations someday so I hope that will actually happen. I will share mine on the blog once I tweak it how I want.

After the presentations there was an after party and a group photo.

 We didn't stay too late because we asked Siranush to stay the night with us on our last night in Gyumri. It was a good night and I spent some time interviewing Siranush about her amazing life. I took down some notes and hope to make it some sort of blog post at some point. She really is an incredible woman and we were so blessed to get to know her. Anna took these photos Sunday morning. Siranush left for church and we packed up and went down to breakfast. After breakfast, we  drove down to Yerevan.

Photo by Anna

Photo by Anna

We stopped on the way down once we could see Ararat. (and from here on out, I only took photos with my phone, it felt a little bit freeing to pack my camera away and just explore) 

We checked into our last hotel, also owned by the same Italian man. We stayed there with 3 others from our workshop so we went out with two of them to explore the large Vernisage Market.

We started with eating some delicious Shawrma's for lunch... 

Then we explored the market and stocked up on souvenirs. I ended up getting a handmade chess set (A couple weeks earlier I realized we didn't have a chess set) This kid had made it. 

There are so many beautiful pieces of woodwork. 






I ended up with the chess set, a hair poke and friendship bracelets for my preschoolers. I feel like there was something else that I don't remember...

After the marketplace we went with Suzy and Irene (our friends from the workshop) to a little cafe for drinks. (Which seemed like a completely different scene than any restaurant in Gyumri) There were smoothies and Juice and the news was on a TV in English, oh yeah, and there was wi-fi! After a bit, we walked back to the hotel only getting a little lost and as we organized our luggage, Anahit Helelyan came to visit us. She served as a mini missionary with me and Anna. She apparently didn't even remember serving with me, haha, it was only for a couple days! We got caught up on her life and then she told us about all the local restaurants for us to check out for dinner.

 

Photo by Anna

We ended us at some underground restaurant that was based off of a famous Russian TV show, there was even dancing and mannequins everywhere.
 We ate food then Anna and I walked to a grocery store to use the rest of our dram then walked back to the hotel. We slept and woke up at 5:00am to leave for our flight.

We loved seeing the sun start to touch Mt Ararat from the Yerevan airport.

Farewell Armenia. It was bitter sweet to leave again. It was a long time away from my boys, but I do feel like I will be back again. My family needs to see and experience it as well. Max is looking forward to it and working on his Armenian. I can't express how grateful I am that this opportunity was placed before me. It all seems so perfect, I got to go and learn more about photography with one of my closest friends in a country I love. Yes, I would have survived just fine if I didn't have this opportunity but I have been changed for the better in so many ways. Our flight was very long and uneventful. We ate lunch (dinner breakfast??) in Moscow (airport) we got on our long LONG flight from Moscow to LA. Still couldn't really sleep. So we watched a bunch of movies and still seemed to find more to talk about. Once we got to LA we had a bit of a layover and had to go through customs and find our separate gates and eat again. Anna's flight left before mine. Both of which were delayed!! So stressful after a long day of flying and a long time away from family!! My last flight was fine since I got the row to myself. I did doze for a couple minutes! A huge deal for me. I had been up for over about 28 hours at this point. And then I finally got home to beautiful Portland. My dad was with the boys so Max could come pick me up. I had intentions and fantasies of recreating this very memorable moment when I came home from my mission 7.5 years earlier, but i was just so tired and excited to see him that I didn't even think of taking a picture! So you can look at this one...it's one of my favorites.

We grabbed my checked bag, I deliriously told him stories of my day and we went to get a pie to celebrate the longest Pi Day of my life (3/14/2016) We got home around midnight, sent my dad home and showered and eventually got in bed sometime around 2am. Whew, a long day!

The next week after that was a blur. I didn't know jet lag could hit so hard but I was useless after 8pm. I did enjoy waking up with me boys and giving them their surprises. They seemed happy to see me (I mean, at least they weren't unhappy right?) And at some point Charlie had his first chess lesson with our new chess set.

And that's a wrap for now, I will get my final project up here as soon as I figure out how to format it correctly. Thanks to those that stayed with me through all the rambling blog post and a great thanks to anyone who helped with my kids while I was away and gave Max a little break to get some work done. And a big huge mushy thanks to that amazing husband of mine who wholeheartedly supported me in mt desires to go on this trip, and did everything he could to make it happen.! Life is good!