Holidays
(This will be an unorganized log--try to follow...)
Well, once again Christmas is back... didn't I JUSTTTTT put away the wreath and fake poinsettas? Time to drag 'em out again. The year passed rather quickly.... I leave for Armenia in a few days, and I find myself both excited and nervous. Excited that I'll be spending New Year's in Hayasdan again (great choice), and yet nervous about leaving Hayasdan in just 2 weeks... (I haven't even gotten there yet, and I'm worried about leaving). I finally got my Residency passport, so no more $3/day fees that would always end up KILLING my wallet at the end of my 2 month trips. Yay! :)
This week is a difficult one at work/school. Both the students and I don't really feel like doing much work, but we both know we have to be there, so atleast one of us (ME) make the best of it... on the other hand, the kids just work on making it EXTRA "memorable" for me (hell). I tried making Christmas ornaments (paper mache involved) with them, but cheghav. For some reason sticking newspaper to balloons with starch just wasn't working for them. I guess paper-macheing comes later in life. ????
Last week the AYF out here had a protest in front of the Consulate for the Netherlands. Almost a 100 AYF-ers stood on Wilshire Blvd at rush hour traffic with signs and flyers informing the public about Turkey's human rights violations. The response from the official of the Netherlands was quite positive... the response of the public was generally good too.
Now here are 2 random things that have really bothered me in the past week or so.
1) Have you ever realized that there are days when it's just a regular day for you, but for someone else around you (maybe even a close friend) it's like this life-altering, catastrophic, phenominal day? For example, someone's family member passes away. You go to the funeral to support a friend, and yet you go back to work and the next day you wake up and you're in your cycle once again. Is your friend in her/his cycle? They just lost a family member.. that was a monumental day for them, and for you it was just something you did at lunch break. I was asking a friend about this issue I was having... and he didn't see the problem in it. I mean, I know that for a fact I've had days like that... and I KNOW my friends probably did what I did. They came, supported me, and then went on with their business. My friend also suggested the idea of what it would be like if EVERY DAY I made everyone else's business as important to me as I would my own, I probably wouldn't survive too long. That's true.... but it just bothered me anyway. Does it make any sense?
2) I was at the said funeral when I saw the highest of all church clergy arrive for the burial. My mouth dropped to the floor. You might be thinking... WHY! Well, it seems that nowadays the holiest way to travel is in an S Class Mercedes Benz. I suppose it helps get him to all the weddings, funerals, christenings a lot faster and more "in peace". All joking aside, I was veryyyyy bothered by it. Why would he choose to drive such a car, when he could be driving something more modest and helping support some sort of program for the youth? I could go on and on about all the programs our Armenian community needs and how much the community would benefit from direct involvement of the church.... but I just remember seeing that car roll up at the cemetary, and I'm just struck by complete awe and disgust. Who is he kidding? In fact, I could think of a 100 things off the top of my head that our Armenian school would benefit from with that $80,000.
During the past few weeks I've really gotten to know a lot of my students better. This is both good and bad. Good, because it helps me have an insight as to where they are coming from... why they are the way they are. Bad, because I can't stand what I'm seeing. I see the future Armenian generation as a "me me me" generation. They are constantly thinking of "what is in it for me". They only listen when THEY choose to listen, and when it comes to learning new things... they are just not interested. Today we were doing a comparison of the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide, and here I am thinking of how I can teach the lesson subtly and not make it too graphic, etc. While we were talking about exterminations, they started getting excited, and they started telling me stories about games they play in which characters' heads get blown away with brain being scattered all over. COMPLETELY DE-SENSITIZED! Combine this generation, with the leaders of the community (see above).... wow - VERY SAD.
K, that's all for now...
TSUH! :)~
(This will be an unorganized log--try to follow...)
Well, once again Christmas is back... didn't I JUSTTTTT put away the wreath and fake poinsettas? Time to drag 'em out again. The year passed rather quickly.... I leave for Armenia in a few days, and I find myself both excited and nervous. Excited that I'll be spending New Year's in Hayasdan again (great choice), and yet nervous about leaving Hayasdan in just 2 weeks... (I haven't even gotten there yet, and I'm worried about leaving). I finally got my Residency passport, so no more $3/day fees that would always end up KILLING my wallet at the end of my 2 month trips. Yay! :)
This week is a difficult one at work/school. Both the students and I don't really feel like doing much work, but we both know we have to be there, so atleast one of us (ME) make the best of it... on the other hand, the kids just work on making it EXTRA "memorable" for me (hell). I tried making Christmas ornaments (paper mache involved) with them, but cheghav. For some reason sticking newspaper to balloons with starch just wasn't working for them. I guess paper-macheing comes later in life. ????
Last week the AYF out here had a protest in front of the Consulate for the Netherlands. Almost a 100 AYF-ers stood on Wilshire Blvd at rush hour traffic with signs and flyers informing the public about Turkey's human rights violations. The response from the official of the Netherlands was quite positive... the response of the public was generally good too.
Now here are 2 random things that have really bothered me in the past week or so.
1) Have you ever realized that there are days when it's just a regular day for you, but for someone else around you (maybe even a close friend) it's like this life-altering, catastrophic, phenominal day? For example, someone's family member passes away. You go to the funeral to support a friend, and yet you go back to work and the next day you wake up and you're in your cycle once again. Is your friend in her/his cycle? They just lost a family member.. that was a monumental day for them, and for you it was just something you did at lunch break. I was asking a friend about this issue I was having... and he didn't see the problem in it. I mean, I know that for a fact I've had days like that... and I KNOW my friends probably did what I did. They came, supported me, and then went on with their business. My friend also suggested the idea of what it would be like if EVERY DAY I made everyone else's business as important to me as I would my own, I probably wouldn't survive too long. That's true.... but it just bothered me anyway. Does it make any sense?
2) I was at the said funeral when I saw the highest of all church clergy arrive for the burial. My mouth dropped to the floor. You might be thinking... WHY! Well, it seems that nowadays the holiest way to travel is in an S Class Mercedes Benz. I suppose it helps get him to all the weddings, funerals, christenings a lot faster and more "in peace". All joking aside, I was veryyyyy bothered by it. Why would he choose to drive such a car, when he could be driving something more modest and helping support some sort of program for the youth? I could go on and on about all the programs our Armenian community needs and how much the community would benefit from direct involvement of the church.... but I just remember seeing that car roll up at the cemetary, and I'm just struck by complete awe and disgust. Who is he kidding? In fact, I could think of a 100 things off the top of my head that our Armenian school would benefit from with that $80,000.
During the past few weeks I've really gotten to know a lot of my students better. This is both good and bad. Good, because it helps me have an insight as to where they are coming from... why they are the way they are. Bad, because I can't stand what I'm seeing. I see the future Armenian generation as a "me me me" generation. They are constantly thinking of "what is in it for me". They only listen when THEY choose to listen, and when it comes to learning new things... they are just not interested. Today we were doing a comparison of the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide, and here I am thinking of how I can teach the lesson subtly and not make it too graphic, etc. While we were talking about exterminations, they started getting excited, and they started telling me stories about games they play in which characters' heads get blown away with brain being scattered all over. COMPLETELY DE-SENSITIZED! Combine this generation, with the leaders of the community (see above).... wow - VERY SAD.
K, that's all for now...
TSUH! :)~
posted by shooosh at 8:41 AM
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