My apologies for starting another post about how cold it is in Armenia, especially here in Gyumri. I’m bundling up in my bed over here, trying to write this blog post, but it’s taking me longer than normal to type because I keep mistyping words since my fingers can barely move from the cold. So I frequently stop typing to tuck my hands under the covers in order to help my fingers regain better mobility, but that’s not really helping. I just found out the other day that this past week was the coldest weather Gyumri has had in the past five years! Some days, it’s been getting down to -10 ˚F, and that’s without factoring in wind-chill. Honestly, when I applied to the Peace Corps, I imagined that I’d be sweating it out somewhere hot right now, not cowering from subzero temperatures. But vochinch (Armenian for “it’s ok!”)!! This freezing weather is definitely proving itself to be one of my “conditions of hardship,” so at least I know I’m meeting one of Peace Corps’ Core Expectations. And with this weather obviously comes snow. Normally, if I had been back home on the East Coast during Jonas, I would’ve been ecstatic about the amount of snow and been like “OMG SNOWWW!!!!!” But now, since it’s been snowing on and off in Gyumri for 2 months, I’m like “Oh. Snow.” And ice. Yay for ice. Gyumri won’t be warm enough for the snow and ice to melt completely until at least March (if not later). When the sun makes an appearance every now and then, some snow does melt but then it freezes overnight and creates a whole new problem – black ice. I’ve already slipped and landed flat on my back more times than I care to admit, and I have the bruises to prove it. I’m trying hard to convey how frigid it is here, but I don’t think I’m doing the cold justice. I’ll include a couple more personal scenarios as last ditch efforts to relay what kind of temperatures I’m dealing with in Gyumri. So I’ve seen frozen dog poop before, but now I can say I’ve seen frozen standing dog poop. It’s cold enough here so that when dogs go #2, the poop freezes and remains vertical after the dog finishes pooping (sorry for writing “poop” so many times). I’ve also experienced wet hair freezing thanks to my swimming years, but never had I experienced dry hair freezing until last week. Technically, my hair was “wet” before it froze, but that’s because it was cold enough that my breath condensed a lot, causing the part of my hair I was breathing on to freeze. Does that make sense? Vochinch if it doesn’t.
The first major snowfall of this winter happened over Nor Tari, aka New Year. Nor Tari is the largest, most celebrated holiday in Armenia. When I told Armenians that New Year’s celebrations in the US only last one night, they laughed because here in Armenia, Nor Tari lasts 7 days. Festivities started on December 31, especially in the evening, but Armenian women had been cooking for weeks in preparation for Nor Tari. The tradition is to set the table with all the food that’s been prepared and then wait until midnight to eat. When the clock struck midnight on New Year, we toasted and sat down to a fantastic meal – and that’s when the eating started. Nor Tari is essentially 7 days of straight eating. People came to visit my host family and we ate; I went with my host family to visit people and we ate. Just constant eating. It was a lot. Since Nor Tari lasts so long, I went to visit my PST host family in Mrgavan for the end of Nor Tari and ate there, too. But it was so great to see my first host family again! The baby, Nelli, can walk now!! I’m hoping I can visit them again soon for her first birthday. Right after Nor Tari ended, Peace Corps had all TEFL volunteers come to Yerevan for PST Phase 2, where we got additional training related to our TEFL certification. It was great to see friends I hadn’t seen since we moved to our permanent sites in November. But during this training, we found out that there were several cases of H1N1 (swine flu) in Armenia, so the Ministry of Education decided to push the start of school back one week…then another week…and another week. 3 weeks!!!! School was supposed to start back on January 11, but because of swine flu, we had the entire month off!
So no school at all in January! Taking advantage of the extended school break, my friend Olivia and I traveled down south to Syunik Marz to visit some PCV friends. We visited Goris and Kapan, and the weather was beautiful (much warmer than in Shirak Marz)! So we got to do some hiking near Goris (check out my insta pics), and in Kapan, we visited a beautiful Armenian war memorial.
After the trip down south, we still had another week to kill before school started back. I convinced some friends to come visit me up in Gyumri, and when they visited, they finally got to experience the temperatures of Gyumri and agreed that Shirak Marz won the cold contest out of all the Armenian provinces.
I started this post writing about the cold, and now I’m ending this post writing about the cold. Sorry about that. And sorry this post isn’t longer. My fingers can’t take much more. Hopefully, I’ll be able to report back at the end of the month that February brought some slightly warmer weather.
P.S. Bonus video of me and my friend Daniel dancing to J-Biebs on top of a mountain in Armenia. Only viewable to those whom I’m friends with on Facebook; is it too late to say sorry now?
Ariane in Peace Corps Armenia 