Things I've Already Learned

June 15, 2001

The benefits of living with a host family - no longer watching Armenians as if they were in a fishbowl - hit me the second I squeezed into the backseat of my new neighbor's station wagon with the 13-year-old neighbor boy and his mother. We headed to the shuka and then to my new home, Yerazghavorts, south of Gyumri. In that first hour, I learned more than in three days in Gyumri.

I learned:

-that the reason cars drive on both sides of the road is to avoid the holes;
-that when their cars die, Armenians don't get mad and cuss as many Americans do because it happens a few times on each trip;
-that OSHA would not approve of the way Armenians at the shuka handle raw meat and then shoppers' money;
-that homemade yogurt and cheese is delicious and that it's OK to eat something when you don't know (for sure) what it is; -that a main street with cows and pigs instead of cars is different, and a little funny, but kind of nice;
-that non-English speakers in America must feel as overwhelmed as I do right now;
-that children may be my greatest ally in learning the language;
-that if I don't want my host father or brother to smoke around me, they won't mind;
-that even though I vowed not to eat cherries after an A-8's worm story, it's hard to avoid them in any Armenian home. It's easier just to be careful;
-that my name is just as hard for my host family to pronounce as their names and words are for me;
-and that the A-8s were right; I don't have to worry about starving. In the first 20 minutes, even before arriving home, I was handed an ice cream bar, some flat bread wrapped in a page from a book, and a Lemon Fanta.

But I'm still glad I brought Wheat Thins and peanut butter.