Plane rides, and Yerevan Apartments – I Need Valium.

So the story of my Armenian adventure begins on the 17th of June, the day after my 21st birthday. This birthday was a little bittersweet for me, and my solutions for drowning out the bitter and celebrating the sweet involve the same process: friends and alcohol. I had an amazing birthday bash at the Alehouse with my amazing friends, and what was supposed to be a casual beer and wing night, turned into Aurora drinking a pitcher and a half of beer, flaming zambuca shots, and being a huge, but happy, mess. This meant that the morning of the 17th, the day in which I needed to finish packing and preparing for my trip and fly to England, was instead a day of a massive hangover, rendering me useless.

Good thing there are moms to pack suitcases for times when the only thing you are good for is sitting on a couch. staring at a bowl of won-ton soup, and pointing to things that need to go in suitcases!

I left for the Halifax Airport around 9:30, and by 11:40 I was boarding the plane. I sat beside an old man who wore a satin sleep mask and snored the whole way. Sexy. I can’t sleep on flights because I am ABSOLUTLEY TERRIFIED OF FLYING, even though I do so regularly. So I was not only hung over, but also a nervous wreck... and watching sappy chick flicks the entire way to Heathrow didn’t help my already pathetic mental state. I calmed down once we got close to landing, as I could see the English country side below me. All the little thatched roofs made me want to not even bother going to Armenia and just stay in England forever instead. Once I landed in Heathrow I was amazed at how huge the airport was, there’s a freaking shopping mall in it! (I went inside Burberry and thought of you Margaret!) I ended up getting food and passing out on a bench for a few hours, as I had six hours to wait before my connection flight boarded.

I was much calmer during my flight from Heathrow to Yerevan, even though the plane was not nearly as nice. I guess I was just used to flying by then. My company was much better than sleep mask guy, and I got to chat up two guys from Greece/England. When I landed I was very confused, the airport signs didn’t always have English translations... and when I got to the baggage area I realised the girl who was supposed to pick me up was not even there! I got my luggage and went to the exit area, and after a while I saw an older Armenian man with a sign saying “UCLA FIELD SCHOOL.” The TA, Kristine, who I had been talking to was not there as planned, so I was slightly uncomfortable. The man was Professor Areshian, the main coordinator for the field program, and was very nice. He drove me from the airport to our temporary apartments in the city. We passed by a street of amazing looking casino’s that I hope I get to visit later. Dr. Areshian picked up some groceries for me at a corner store: the groceries included a loaf of flat bread, a tub of sour cream, two kinds of local cheese (one tastes like a variation of feta, the other like a bitter cream cheese), some walnut pastries, tea, unpasteurized milk, and some carbonated water.... interesting choices.

The apartment is located right beside the American Armenian University and just down the road from the Presidents palace. Although, I felt very sketchy walking into the apartment as you have to take a dark narrow back alley to get to the parking space, and when you are walking through the building (which has open windows with no panes of glass on some of the levels), you feel like you are walking through a vacant cement warehouse... not an apartment building. I won’t even begin to describe the inside of the apartments – I will let pictures do the talking. I am not someone to get nervous, I live alone in Newfoundland and I love it, however, being alone here with the only people I know across the city is the most terrifying thing ever. Even though I haven’t had a real night’s sleep since the 15th, and would love nothing more than to crash, unfortunatley the place creeps me out way too much to try to sleep. I am the first of the girls to arrive, so I am alone for the night... and I’m not liking that AT ALL.


My kitchen in the Yerevan apartment


My View from the Yerevan Apartment