Concert in Yerevan and Other Week Three Excursions

Our field school coordinator is so dedicated to making sure we have the best possible experience with Armenian culture and decided that a trip to Yerevan to see a benefit concert filled with traditional Armenian singers and musicians would help us open our eyes to another side of Armenian culture. The concert was a benefit for a young child in Yerevan with cancer whose family was trying to raise funds for his treatments. The ride into Yerevan was taxing, as the van we rode in was incredibly slow. When we arrived in Yerevan we headed to the Caucusus for dinner, where we were each aloud to order our own meal. This was a nice change as most times our food is ordered family style. I ordered bbq Lake Sevan Trout, which came out bones, head, fins, tail and all. However, after a boiled fish head stew seemed perfectly normal. It was absolutely delicious, but we had to rush dinner to make the concert in time.

The concert was inside a puppet hall, where there were displays of all kinds of puppets. There was about ten artists on the stage, all sitting with cups of wine and cognac and one by one each would stand up to sing a few songs. It was a great atmosphere as many of the singers sitting would join in. Despite not knowing the language it was easy to follow along with the emotions of the songs and also the onstage banter between the artists. One of my favourites was incredibly animated and his stage presence really helped to convey the story even without understanding Armenian. There was everything from folk, to acoustic pop, to opera. There was one female singer who was absolutely amazing, and when the concert was over she approached our director, Dr. Areshien, and gave him a big hug. She was then introduced to us as one of his former students and a fellow Bronze Age Archaeologist. On the way home from the concert we were pulled over by the police for speeding, which was a fun experience.

The day after the concert I became very sick and had to stay home from the excavation. The ladies of the house were very concerned even though I tried to explain to them it was not a big deal. They would come up to me and poke my stomach, and offer me tea, and wouldn’t let me sit on the floor or walk barefoot. If I wasn’t so sick I would have been amused. My friend Buzz had made Ice-tea, which sounded awesome since it was so hot that day and tea always settles my stomach, however, when I went to pour myself some all the ladies jumped up and grabbed it from me, which put an end to that.

Another evening we had guests from another archaeological project in Armenia come for dinner, fish and a meat dish called kufta was served. This dish is prepared by lashing meat until it becomes swollen and puffy and then is boiled. Not my personal cup of tea. The guests were very interesting, and one happens to be from Toronto and is a curator from the ROM and offered a free tour when I am in Toronto this summer. The singer from the concert was also at the dinner, and sang for us a few times over dinner. There were plenty of toasts (as always) to everyone. Although the toasts today left a bad taste in a few people’s mouths, as one toast mentioned “the fight for gender equality is not nessisary as women are already the centre of a man’s world”, and others toasted to specific peoples ethnicities such as the “Indo-Iranian race” leaving others backgrounds out. I personally was offended as there was a toast made to each person at the table, minus three people, which in my mind is rude. It made for a very tense night at the dig house and set the tone for the next few days.