Our trip to Armenia
Day one: This is our first day as reporters in Yerevan, Armenia. We are Joel Herrera and Shelley Alingas, reporters of the Oakland Tribune, and we have been assigned a beat in Armenia to cover every little juicy gossip we can find, while reporting back to the Oakland Tribune every 24 hours. We just got off a 20 hour flight from San Diego, having been there visiting our families before we came to Armenia, and agreed to stay for at least 2 weeks. We’ll tell you, that airfare was expensive! We flew the Aeroflot Russian Airlines for $1,033 each--round trip (thank goodness the journalism budget covered that). We arrived at the Yerevan airport around 4p.m. and waited for a bus to take us to the Best Eastern Ani Plaza Hotel.
We’re just using one of the many ways of transportation. Most people travel by trolley buses, trams, buses, and taxis or use the subway in Yerevan. We also hear that a rail system connects towns and cities. There are approximately 3,330,099 people living here (hey, we’ve studied this country a while before we came here. We’ve even studied Armenian--which is the country’s official language--for 4 years in college). But studying it is so much different than actually being here. As we flew over we noticed that the country is very mountainous and lots of rivers and streams. Armenia isn’t very big either--it’s actually slightly smaller than Maryland.
Every time someone would walk by us at the bus stop, we would both greet them with an old-fashion hello, which is barev in Armenian. But there was a particular couple that caught our eye when they walked by us. It was our old pals from college: Shanelle Harvey and Gerald Perkins. We caught up on a few things and they explained to us that they were engaged and are having an engagement party tomorrow! A perfect way to get to know people and witness an Armenian tradition. They had gone and left us their number before we headed on to the bus.
On the bus we studied the people sitting around us. The women and men dressed casual like Americans did. Women with regular jeans and a T-shirt and the men wore casual suits to represent that they made money, since most people had their own private small or medium businesses. Typically, the older women liked to be more conservative, wearing dresses. Even the children seemed well dressed. We even saw a rural woman, probably visiting the city, dressed in thick socks and slippers. The bus drove us by many churches. Most of the churches were Armenian Apostolic or of Christianity which are major religions in Armenia. Maybe Shanelle and Gerald are Christians.
We walked up to the front desk of the hotel lobby to check in. When we walked through the double doors, a lady kindly asked if we could remove our hats. She explained that it’s an expected gesture when walking into any building. The clerk gave us a friendly smile and asked, “Vonts es?” or in English, “how are you?” and led us to our room (yes, we are too poor to afford separate rooms). Once we reached our hotel suite, we called Oakland to let them know that we arrived safely. Meanwhile on the television we were tuning in to a news broadcast station. The lady on the TV mentioned that President Robert Kochariar was recently elected for their republican government and that he made his decision to appoint Andranik Markaryan as the new Prime Minister. You see, a republican government has a president who is head of state and then appoints the Prime Minister who is head of the government.
Being tired and hungry, we decided to order some room service. We both have never tried Armenian food before, so it would be a new experience for the both of us. We called room service and asked what their usual meals consist of. The young man replied that staple foods in Armenia include greens, fish, beef, cabbage, and lavash (lightly brown thin bread that are baked). That didn’t sound too bad. After about a million questions, we finally made up our minds to get 2 orders of harisa, which is wheat and chicken cooked in large pots for several days.
Soon enough the room service personnel was knocking on our door with our food. He greeted us with a hello or barev in Armenian. We both shook hands to our new acquaintance. Out of curiosity and just trying to make conversation, we asked the service man how long he has been working at this hotel.
“For about 3 years actually. It’s a pretty nice place to work. The pay is good. Most people here work in service jobs anyway; either that or get your own business, or maybe do some industrial labor or grow crops for the country’s agriculture. But I chose to do this,” said the man. “Well, I must be going now. It was nice speaking with you. Tstesootiun!” Tstesootiun means “see you later”.
We later found out from a economic magazine lying on the table of our room, that agriculture along with industry and construction are major impacts on the economy. People manufacture electrical engines, machine tools, and chemical products. Armenians also mine gold, copper, zinc, and silver. But the major natural resources of Armenia are gas, gold, copper, molybdenum, zinc, and alumina. Service jobs are also important. The government even put out an ad in the paper encouraging people to own medium or small private enterprises. An article even explained how exporting semiprecious stones and gold jewelry also boosted the economy.
The meal was scrumptious however, we were submerged in boredom. So we picked up the phone and started to dial the numbers on the piece of paper Shanelle wrote on. She picked up the phone and we both started to make friendly conversation. Talking in Armenian off and on. Shanelle told us that we should both visit tomorrow morning and go out for breakfast so we could discuss about the engagement party that was going to take place that night. We all agreed and hung up. Tomorrow is another, but now we must sleep.
Day two: We woke up pretty early--around 8a.m.--and got ready to head over Shanelle and Gerald’s home. We traveled to the bus stop asking nearby civilians which bus would take us to our desired destination. It’s amazing what wonderful eye contact people have in this country, even with total strangers. One lady even said, “Hajoghootiun” which means good luck. Luckily, we did find Shanelle’s home. It was a rather small, but comfortable home. We knocked on the door and Shanelle led inside. She lives with her mother and father with her pet hamster. Shanelle’s mother brought out some fruit with a two cups of coffee (the usual custom for greeting guests, Shanelle explained to us). We only stayed for a few minutes when Gerald walked through the door and conjured us to head on out to the local cafe. In the car, we were all talking about tonight. Very nosy, we asked how Gerald proposed to Shanelle. She pointed out that in Armenia their customs are different than in America. The groom’s parents must request the girl’s hand in marriage and then the girl’s parents must consent. If they consent, then a khoskap, or a tying of promise, is held and the groom presents a ring as a promise to marry. And then later an engagement ceremony is held at the girl’s home and everyone is invited to celebrate. Sounds like a plan to us.
Once we got the cafe, we all ordered a light breakfast and caught up on a lot events and talked about many memories. After we were finished, Shanelle suggested that we’d go and buy some new outfits for the party. In need of something conservative to wear, we agreed. Gerald drove us to a nearby clothing store. Their designs of clothing is a bit different from ours. Both of us picked out a few items and tried them on. After we set our minds on an outfit it was time to go to the counter and purchase them. The man at the registered told us the total cost would be 16,884 dram. For a second, we were taken a back, but then I realized that their currency was different from America’s. Gerald told us that 402 dram equaled one U.S. dollar. So in U.S. dollars, we ended up paying $42. The owner of the store said, “barov gnas”, or “go with peace” as we left the shop. Having some things to take care of as a part of our occupation, Gerald and Shanelle offered to drive us back to our hotel.
In the hotel room, we again called up the Oakland Tribune to tell the editor of things we witnessed so far in Armenia. She told us to keep investigating and hung up. After a short nap, we noticed the alarm clock read 6p.m.--we have two hours to get to Shanelle and Gerald’s engagement ceremony. In a bit of a hurry, we took quick showers and hastily put on our new outfits. We arrived there at exactly 7:52p.m. Just in time. We entered through the doorway of the Harvey home and were immediately greeted with hand shakes and hellos. We handed Shanelle 11 daisies that we picked up on our way there. The local florist explained that a custom in Armenia is to give the hostess of the party flowers in only odd numbers. He didn’t really explain why though. Many of Shanelle’s and Gerald’s relatives and friends were there. The groom celebrates by giving his future in-laws jewelry, large plates of fruits and desserts, flowers, and Armenian brandy. For dinner everyone gathered around and made a prayer. On the table was what Armenians call kyabab and khorovats which are marinated meats places on sticks and cooked by the men. Some basturma, which is salted beef with a spicy coating, was being served. There was even a plate of grapes, peaches, apples, pears, cherries, and strawberries. Even some wine for everybody. We had a really fun time at the party. We met a lot of their relatives. But it was time to go back to the hotel and get ready for the next day.
Day three: As an impromptu decision, we thought of going to Matenadaran on Mesrop Mashtots Avenue in the beautiful city of Yerevan. Matenadaran has the world’s largest collection of ancient manuscripts. In there we viewed a portion of valuable works of foreign philosophers, some of which have survived only in their Armenian translation. It was amazing to witness such old things right in front of our faces. Matenadaran was really a historical place to be. After our wicked adventure in the past we made our way back to our hotel. Even though we were exhausted, we can ultimately say that we have enjoyed our experience in Armenia so far. We have come here in the first place to research hard news for the Oakland Tribune but found ourselves in the middle of an amazing country. The people and culture here is wonderful. Everyone is so nice and love to preserve their culture. We totally recommend anyone to come and visit, but if you like warm weather try visiting from June through August.
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