Christmas Party

This week I made my first visit to Yerevan since swearing in 1 month ago. I came in on Friday for a Volunteer Safety Council meeting, but stayed in town an extra night, because Saturday was the Volunteer Christmas Party. (We celebrated as a group a little bit earlier than you might have expected because many of the A22s are going home for the holidays this year.) Sam also came up to the capital on Saturday for the shindig

The party was held at the Envoy hostel, where we were staying. The Envoy is a defacto home-away-from-home-away-from-home for many volunteers, and most stay there whenever they come into Yerevan. It's easy to see why- the Envoy is clean, comfortable, in a good part of town, it's got fast wifi, hot water, and good water pressure to boot. The staff there are kind, obliging, and work really hard to keep it all going strong. After our first stay, we're big fans of the place.

The staff seems to be fans of ours too- although they were probably decorated for the holiday season anyway, it felt like the decorations were for us, and they did get us all a cake for our party. Even through the Envoy has a great kitchen (where they serve a simple breakfast each morning) Sam and I were a little done with Peace Corps Cooking for a while- having (it seemed) just finished the apple turnover and roasted root vegetable dishes for Thanksgiving. So we didn't cook, and instead mooched off of desserts that other people brought. It was a really fun evening.

The next day we had time for brunch before taking a shared taxi home to Sisian. Sam had his first taste of bacon in country at Crumbs cafe where we ate (awesome brunch place, by the way), and that made him happy. All in all, the party was fun and I'm glad I went, but the 5 hour ride to and from Sisian makes even a 3 day weekend feel like a really short trip to Yerevan.