Greeting from Yerevan

Hello friends and family,

I am writing from an outdoor café (Santa Fe Café) in Yerevan, Armenia. Though I have much to write about this amazing country and the two days that I have spent here, I want to begin my travelogue from the beginning of my journey -- the Czech Republic. Maybe even before that I will write a little about why I am taking this trip...

I am a student of cultural diplomacy. For me this title reflects an interest in the ways that people can communicate through music, arts and culture in general in order to create cross-cultural communication. In all the places that I have travelled to in the world (which I hope to reflect upon in later posts) my most profound experiences and deepest connections have been a result of music. Music is able to cross lingual, cultural, and economic barriers in ways that other forms of communications simply cannot.

During my previous semester at NYU I realized (as I studies ethnography, politics, music, and language) that I had no time to absorb what I was learning and not enough experience with which I could guide and apply my studies. There has been a growing feeling in me for months and maybe even years that I need to understand my own identity and place in the world before I go out and begin to study others. After thinking it over and deciding that I did not appreciate the falling-off-a-building feeling I was getting as I rushed through my studies, young twenties, and life in general in New York, I told my family I wanted to take off for a year.

My plan was to first study the "other" place in the world that I most often identified myself with-- Armenia. For my whole life I have been "the Armenian" in my community. I loved to bring up my Armenianness when everyone was discussing their heritage. I loved to raise my hand in history class and deliver the story of the Armenian Genocide and how my family escaped. I loved feeling different. I loved writing grade school reports. I loved eating laghmajun, paklava, and dolmas. However, I've begun to feel that my understanding of being Armenian and most certainly Armenia as a country was very superficial and historical. I will leave my description of me/Armenia there and now start to describe my journey-- beginning with the Czech Reuplib (my 3.5 day stopover on the way to Armenia --- beats Moscow airport for 11 hours by a longshot...)

I arrived in Prague with slightly too much luggage to lug around-- however the ambition in me (or more likely cheapness and fear) drove me to the bus stand rather than the taxi pickup area. I took a bus to a train to a train and arrived in Poricany (45 minutes to the east of Prague) with no cell phone, heavy bags, and English. Having had know way to contact my host I walked to the office there where a very nice Czech Man who spoke no English decided he would drive me around town to try and find the house. I kept saying "CHURCH" to him and he would talk in full Czech phrases back to me. Nevertheless, after about 20 minutes I arrived at the beautiful home of Sarka and Roman. Two beautiful artists who own the monastary (house/teaching place) behind the only church in town. Sarka is an artist and theatre director in Prague. She has been invited to travel around the world to speak about theater and is a very intelligent and wonderful woman. Roman is a painter and teaches painting to teenagers in Prague. Both are very generous and happy and currently trying to turn their house in a Creative Collective where artists can come from around the world to practice their art, but first and foremost they hope to connect with the children in their village and provide them a place to cultivate their creativity. I arrived during a BEAUTIFUL sunset. I was tied up being fed a wonderful Czech meal (chicken, cabbagey sort of dish and potatoes) to photograph the area during sunset but I caught a pretty good time later on during the week. See photos hopefully attached. I stayed there one night and then went to Prague. Here is prague:

I was a tourist
I spent time with Maggie and Micah
I went to Cross Club which was very cool but very spread out
Prague Zoo is best Zoo
I love trdleniks
I gained weight

Now back to Poricany. A beautiful, magical, creative place. I returned on Thursday midday to relax in their extensive garden and have a wonderful conversation about artists, alternative living and general happiness around the world. Sarka showed me these books by this author Robert Florida who wrote a book called The Rise of the Creative Class and a few other books about artists and how they live. I didn't get to read them but I reeeeeaaaaalllllly want to and suggest some of you look into the books as well. They look awesome.

While we were talking Sarka prepared an amazing meal consisting of wild mushrooms (she and Roman had spent 3 hours walking through the forest that morning collecting hundreds of beautiful mushrooms), tomatoes, potaotes, chicked, ham, zucchini, onions, blue cheese, cream, butter, etc. It was so yummy and we ate and drank wine out in her garden. Her adorable Dog, Hakyo I believe is his name, cuddled up next to me and tried to get some food. It is hard to describe when you meet someone who inspires you and who seems to be doing amazing things with their life and work. All I can say is Sarka and Roman have built themselves a beautiful life in Poricany/Prague and I believe that their home will be bursting with creativity and happiness for a long time.

I forgot to bring my ipod but I wanted to include I list of songs that I have been listening to. So please feel free to plug into grooveshark.com if you would like to hear what I hear.

1. Lakeside - BLK JKS
2. Ruby - David Rawlings Machine
3. Let it Die - Feist
4. Terakaft
5. I was Wrong - Spanakopita ft. Jake Saner

Argh i can't remember the rest but I'll add it to the next post.

Love,
Sima