Month: August 2016

YARP hello from Isabelle!

My eyes stretched wide with amazement when my mother, Elise, Helen and I stepped into the studio. There were paintings everywhere I looked! We were visiting painters’ studio. As we walked around, admiring everything, Abgar Khachatryan, one of the painters working there, told us that he painted with his brother and father. His wife made scarfs and then painted pretty designs on them. Basically the whole family did some kind of art. Even Abgar’s little girl who I think was four, drew with chalk.

Abgar showed us where ‘his corner’ was. His corner was basically where he painted. Abgar mostly did collages. His most frequently used materials looked like different kinds of metals. Abgar’s wife, Ani, called Elise and I over to show us how she made scarfs. She already had the outline of a design on a scarf done so she finished it with us. She told us that once you put one drop of paint on the leather, the paint rapidly spreads. At the end, she told us that once she paints that background of her designs, she adds salt on them. After that you add salt on the scarf and you leave it for a while. So that’s exactly what we did.

For a second I literally thought that the walls were the paintings. My mother was standing in front of a painting while Abgar was explaining how most of the paintings in this room were his father’s, Sergey Khachatryan’s. There was this one painting on which my eyes rested on. On one part of the painting it looked like there was a photo of a little blond haired girl. I looked closer. It was no photo, it was a painting! This guy must be an expert!

My mother picked out about a billion paintings that she wanted to get, and poor Ani had to bring them all out so my mother could make her final decision. “You and Isabelle can each pick out one painting of your choice.” said my mother. Apparently Elise had one in mind, because her response was “Really?”. There is this one painting I want…” “Which painting is that?” I asked her. The painting is of a girl wearing a green dress and holding a black kitten.” We had just read the  Warrior series by Erin Hunter (I recommend it!), so we were really interested in cats.  Abgar thought he knew which painting Elise was talking about, so he shuffled around some of the paintings and came out with a painting. I knew it was the right one because when he brought it out, Elise’s eyes literally turned into hearts.

I asked Ani if the scarf we put salt on was ready. She said that it wouldn’t do any harm if we checked on it. We walked over to where the scarf was kept. Ani took the scarf and rapidly shook it. All the salt fell off. In place of the salt were now little white dots. It really was a good background design.

Today was a nice experience and I would gladly return. I learned a lot today, (good thing I know where we keep the salt at our house!) As we were leaving, I was thinking that this would make a good blog post, and in fact, I don’t think that my hypothesis was  wrong at all!

YARP hello from Isabelle!

Okay, this is it! My mother tells the taxi driver.  The car comes to a sudden halt. It was my friend Tatev’s birthday party. Apparently she was spending it at a restaurant called Good Time. I didn’t know this at the time, but indeed, I really would have a great time. Anyway, the building looked pretty promising, but, never judge a building by its looks. So I held my breath and walked inside.

This seems exciting! The floor of the building was tiled and it seemed like we were on the second floor of the place. As we walked in, I recognized Tatev at once. She looked very excited to see us.

“Okay, whoever wears one of these bands, will be a team leader. By the way, this is not a race,” said Sona, Tatev’s mother. I held my breath, I don’t want to be a team leader. “Okay, Tatev, you can be a leader…” And I couldn’t really  hear what she said next because I got carried away looking at the decorations on the wall. Then Tatev’s cousin Nouneh said, “Do we have to split up?” Everyone agreed that we should stick together.

Our first stop was bumper cars. In case if you don’t know, bumper cars are basically miniature cars. The goal of bumper cars is to “have fun” and bump the other cars. Normally I would be excited but now I was a little nervous. As I chose a bumper car, I noticed two handles on the side. They each said “tornado” on them. I realize this is silly but I was getting really nervous. While the operator was explaining how to work the car, I noticed that not everybody was driving a car. I wondered what would happen if I offered them to drive my car. And then I heard a siren signaling the start. Too late for that chance now! Since I was not listening while the operator explained how to work the car, I did an experimental push to the left handle. The bumper car moved  backwards while sliding to the left.  Now I understood how to work the cars.

“That was fun”, I said as we were getting out of the cars. There was not even a spark of nervousness left in me. But as soon as I realized what was next, it returned. The next event was an enormous bubble where one or two  or sometimes even three people get inside the bubble and move around. I had done this before, but the rule there was one person per bubble. After the first group was done with their turn, there was not a pang of nervousness, but this time there was also not any curiosity either, so I skipped that activity. (The first group looked like just a bunch of hamsters in a wheel anyway).

“Okay, since both of our birthday boys are interested in hip hop, we will do a little hip hop dancing!” said the master of ceremonies. Yes, there were three birthdays going on at the same time. One of them was Tatev’s. On the big screen appeared a group of teenage boys and girls dancing hip hop. Apparently we were supposed to copy whatever they did. Wow. I think I’ll pass. … Too late for that. The master of ceremonies  herself walked up to me and made me dance.

“This chicken is bland” I said, but I really liked the french fries and the salads. The lemonade tasted like a bunch of lemons and limes with no sugar at all, but plenty of something I can’t really put my finger on. Thank goodness when I heard the master of ceremonies  yell “All children, come for another gaa-aeme!!!!!!” This game was no better than hip hop dancing because you had to guess movies and I wasn’t too good with movies. And, they didn’t have The Martian!!!

My heart stopped beating when I saw the 6 year old little girl jump off. I was looking at the activity where a staff member straps you to some ropes and gives you a helmet. Then you jump off from about 12 meters high drop. It was scary just looking at it!!! Then I literally thought I would faint when only the helmet came back up. Was the girl okay? Then I heard something on the stairs and thank God it was the girl. Apparently you jump two floors. When you land, another staff member on the floor where you land, catches you, and clips your helmet to the vest you wear. Then he sends the helmet, vest and all, back up.

“Is there enough money in your band for me to ice skate, too?” I asked Tatev. She answered my plead. “There is only enough for one person in mine, if I had enough for two people in mine I would gladly let you try, too.”The ice skating wasn’t real ice skating but it still looked fun. You skated on something very similar to ice but not exactly like ice. I watched as they glided and slid on the ‘ice’. Oh well.

“Oh geez” I said as I watched Tatev sit on the moon. Good Time had a big silver moon that birthday children sit on. Then the moon went up to the ceiling and let them make a wish and then bring them back down. Thankfully Tatev quickly made her wish and they brought her back down. The cake was strawberry flavored. It was pretty delicious.

“Hmmm.” I sighed. “Thats a nice wall.” Then something blurry slid down the wall. My heart stopped beating for about two full seconds. I realized it was a person who slid down the wall. I think Tatev noticed the surprised expression on my face because then she said “I’ve never ridden that slide in my life” Yes, she said SLIDE!! Oh, it’s only a vertical SLIDE!!!!! I’m never riding that in my life! “And did you know, Noone’s birthday is at the Water World! (A park of water)”. Gulp!

YARP hello from Elise!

Today we are in Bjni village as always, only we are having guests this time. One of the guests is Judith Sarian. Ms. Sarian is from Boston, and she translated books by Zabel Yesayan. Zabel Yesayan was an Armenian writer, women’s right activist, and a teacher in Ottoman Turkey. She lived in the beginning of the 20th century. Zabel Yesayan was the only woman on the list of intellectuals targeted for arrest and deportation by the Ottoman Turkish government, according to Wikipedia.

“Do you guys want to go to Takavoranist (Bjni’s Fortress)?” my mom suggested. The guests agreed happily. So  off we went. The drive isn’t long by car, but the footpath is a bit longer. We took the river path to get to Bjni Fortress. We crossed ‘the bridge with no railing’, that’s what I call it, and onto the side of the road. This road didn’t have a sidewalk; there are not many sidewalks in the villages of Armenia. We kept following that path until we reached the foot of a large hill. Bjni Fortress is found at the top of the hill.

“The fortress of Bjni was built in the 9th to 10th centuries by the royal Pahlavuni family of the Bagratuni Dynasty,” as quoted by Wikipedia. It was reconstructed by the commander of Bjni, lord Vasak. In 1021 Bjni was attacked by the Turkish soldiers of the Daylamis, who robbed and attacked towns and villages. Vasak and his troops became furious and attacked the enemy forces. They met in battle near the Kasakh river, and Vasak and his troops killed 300 enemy soldiers, causing the rest to flee. After fighting, Vasak became tired and went for a nap at the foot of a mountain. A man who had to flee the village of Bjni came and spotted Vasak asleep and hit him with a near death blow. He then killed Vasak by throwing him from one of the high rocks.

I personally think that was an evil thing to do, since Vasak had just saved the town from destruction. Well, all people have different opinions. The enemy soldiers remind me of  character in the book I’m reading, the Warriors series, authored by Erin Hunter, about four clans of cats. One of the cats, Tigerstar, is a bloodthirsty male cat who plans of destroying the forest and robbing prey from other clans.

One cool thing about Bjni Fortress is that it has a tunnel that goes underground. People covered it and closed it with a gate, so no one would accidentally fall in. When we went, there were lights inside, and the small door was open. We didn’t go far though, since the stairs leading underground didn’t look safe anymore. After we walked some, we saw a light we thought was natural, soon figuring out we were wrong. At the point where the stairs started looking more fragile, we climbed back up to the entrance. The Bjni Fortress is an amazing site, and I think everyone should have a chance to experience the wonders of Bjni.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bjni_Fortress

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zabel_Yesayan