Armenia- The Odds and Ends

Hi everyone. It's been silent here for long enough I suppose. (then again you all have been pretty silent too, is anyone even still reading my blog?) But the jet lag coming home was so intense! It took me a week to be able to stay up past 9:00 pm and not wake up at 5:00, dazed and confused. And then there were all the photos I had to sift through. ALL THE PHOTOS. To some extent I had gone through them while in country, of course. I had to have a story presentation at the end of the workshop. But mostly those were mulled over with the National Geographic photographer, John Stanmeyer, and myself. Once night time hit journaling and cursing at/praying for the wifi to work so I could call home was about all I could muster the energy for.

Some screen shots of our calls. Notice the opposite day times for us.

"So what's the point of this ramble, Anna?" you may be asking yourselves. The point is I have NO idea how to even start blogging about the experience. I haven't even really known how to talk about it with anyone except Buck, who got the most raw emotions from me through our videos calls from across the globe. Thankfully my video presentation, I hope, does a good job relaying to you all how I felt about it and about Armenia. But still. I took over 2,300 photos. And narrowed that down to 555 edited photos. But that's a lot of photos to post, despite my mad narrowing-down skills.

So. If I were to summarize the 12 days I was gone it would.... it would be... all too impossible. No. Okay. I can do this. (If only I could feel vulnerable enough to just post all 25 pages of my journal from the time.) Okay. Here it goes.... I think. Okay. OKAY.

I flew there, you know, like any sane person would do to travel over 6,000 miles away from home. I flew with Rebecca. We met in LA and took a Russian plane to Moscow and then to Armenia. We watched a lot of movies and the sunrise over Greenland (!), hardly slept a wink, and ate some weird airplane food that made us feel bloated. (of all the details for me to add! come on Anna, get it together....) My anxiety as we neared landing in Armenia was through the roof! I had to stand at the back of the plane for 45 minutes. That and my grandma knee was killing me!

Greenland!

We stayed the first night in a hotel in the capital city of Yerevan. It was cute!

Nice welcomer

The breakfast spread at the hotel that morning:

 And in the morning we met all the other people from the workshop and then drove to the city of Gyumri, two hours away where we were met by John Stanmeyer, (the national geographic photographer) who bounded into the van with the jolliest of hellos.

The hotel we stayed at in Gyumri was also cute and owned by the same Italian Artisan man. Compared to America it was like staying in someone's old castle home but for Armenia? It was pretty snazzy. Running water and everything! Amazing!

Rebecca kept telling me not to pet this cat but... I can't help myself

Maybe I'll just talk about the workshop in this post? Break them up a little bit that way? Okay, let's try it. (and now a P.S. in the middle of the post. But hi, I just finished this post and now I'm back here in the middle to tell you that this post is not just about the workshop but it's basically the post where I detail all the random things that didn't merit their own post. Good? good.)

So the workshop was not a course, but, well, a workshop. We were free to go our merry way every day and come and go as we pleased. Everyone else had a translator with them everyday and that's how they got around. Rebecca and I stayed together for the most part and took our dear friend Siranush with us everywhere and every day. (more about Siranush later!) At first we thought we'd have to break up because we were photographing the same people but once we nailed down our stories it was easier as we were both looking for different things.

John liked to keep everything "organic." So that meant coming in at random times to the hotel and hoping he was free to look over your photos from the day. Mostly this worked out. He is a very cool guy. He's seen a lot and has a lot of refreshing and open minded views on life. He loved to joke and laugh. And man, he really knows his stuff. He is truly a master at visual story telling. He's an artist so you never quite knew what mood he would be in when viewing your photos but over all he was encouraging but pushed us hard. The whole time is kind of a blur but at the end of it somehow he totally changed me as a photographer and added new pieces to who I am. I am seeing things in a totally new way and taking photographs I used to only dream about. He let me use one of his lenses the whole time too! Amazing! Except now my life will be incomplete until I buy said lens. haha This paragraph feels totally incomplete and surface-y compared to all the stories that really go into it, but I'm trying to be concise, right? Just know this: It was indeed life changing and interesting and had a lot of different unexpected moments and emotions to it. A lot of layers.

Selfie after finishing my final presentation

There were 12 other people in the workshop and then 2 sponsored Armenian girls. I got to know certain people better than others just depending on when we were all around but the last night when we all presented our stories I felt the power in sharing our souls with each other, not competing like the world would have photographers do, and I felt so close to everyone and like I knew them in a special way. There were also two women Armenian photographers there that were working for John and who have a non profit there. I really felt a special bond with them and they truly helped me to be a better me. And their photos! Absolutely stunning work! I had so much inspiration while I was there, being surrounded by so many talented people! 

The group

Some photos during editing sessions at the hotel. Whoever was around would watch what other people would go through with John. It was always interesting.

And now for some random odds and ends.

Who wouldn't want to wash their clothes in barf?

I fixed our toilet with a banana

Some gifts I was given, not counting all of the food at peoples' houses!

This was from a man who owned a fancy antique store:

From some friends, two interesting vases:

A yellow dress from Turkey:

 This represents the random gifts from owners in the market. One man gave us a bag of fruit:

Flowers given to us on Women's Day, March 8th

And the dearest gift from an old friend there, she painted it herself. It's Mt Ararat and Noah with some people. I'll talk more about this in another post:

The gifts I bought for my family and myself:

For the girls- lockets, Armenian books and coloring books, traditional dolls, candy, and handmade hats:

For Buck. Because papiks and tatiks (old people) are a big deal in Armenia and we met there and we are going to grow old together. This is hand made and it was perfect. :)

For others:

 For myself:

The last day we went back to the capital city again, Yerevan. We got to stay at the last of the three hotels owned by the artisan man.

We went around the large market of handmade goods and bought some gifts. We got to spend the day with some women from the workshop group and it was fun to get to know them better and show them around and help be their translators.

That night we found a super random restaurant. It was underground, huge, nice and had dancers even! And random wax people...

We got to see our mountain, Mt Ararat (where they think Noah's ark landed) one last time. It's a special landmark for Armenians, even if Turkey has since taken it over and out it in their boundaries.

Also, we had to leave the plane and walk outside to get to the airport in Moscow so can I say that I've been to Russia now? ;)

Snow covered Russia!

The flight home was long and brutal with hardly any sleep. Following the sun around the planet makes for one of the longest days and it's very confusing. But coming home late at night to see my little girls run to me in the airport exclaiming "Mommy! Mommy!" was the best. Stealing a kiss from my Buck on the escalator down to the luggage claim was also the best. :) 

I know this post was suuuper random but I have some ideas on how to make a few more concise and consolidated posts. So don't give up on me just yet!

If you've missed the other posts here are the links:

Odds and Ends

Familiar Faces

Being a Tourist
In the Home
Village Life 
Around Town 

Armenia Diary