Here’s some sap for ya

I’ve been realizing how surreal reconnections are.

It doesn’t have to be your own experience. It does not even have to be one you are a part of. It could be walking past the reconnection of two strangers on the sidewalk. But to witness these moments, to be a part of them, is, I think, one of the most potent reminders of the importance of our connections.

My dad came to visit me, here in Armenia, in this place I have learned to call home in the last four months. This was a very special moment of reconnection for me. I got to spend a few weeks of my adventure with one of the people I feel closest to in the world, showing him my life here, and the world of new experiences I have been exploring.

While this moment of reconnection was special for me, it was about more than just our opportunity to adventure together. A big part of my time here has been getting to know my dad’s family. This whole section of his family that he had never met as they were half way across the globe. It has been an amazing experience for me to get to know, and spend time with them, and so I knew it was something that I wanted my dad to be able to experience as well.

He arrived just in time for the New Year festivities, which in Armenia, are the beginning of a week (+) long celebration of Christmas and ushering in the new year simultaneously.

Dancing is a large part of the festivities here, especially in our family. This has been one of my favorite parts about being here. There is a cultural lack of insecurity around dancing, a lack of self consciousness that frees you from your inhibitions and lets you just be there in the moment, fully in the music and the community. It is one of my favorite learnings I have had so far, how to release fully into this space.

Together, my dad and I got to dance the new year in with our cousins and extended family, all of them teaching my dad the dance moves they have taught me over my time here. It was really amazing, all of us, together, in this unbound space of love.

(unfortunately, WordPress won’t let me upload the videos of us dancing, but maybe thats better for the protection of the uninhibited space ;))

After spending time in Yerevan, and giving my tour of the sites of the city, the shops and markets, and my favorite restaurants (all serving Lahmajun, an Armenian meal, and a favorite for both of us), Dad and I took a trip up into Georgia to explore Tbilisi. Tbilisi is a beautiful city with which I have fallen in love in my time traveling the region. We ate Georgian food, searched for music shops, and peeked into churches, but mostly we just we enjoyed each others company, walking the streets and parks for hours with no particular destination in mind.

We returned to Yerevan at the end of the week, celebrating Armenian Christmas with the family over several meals filled with Armenian dishes that Papa grew up with, and that I have come to know while living here; Boureg, Manti, Tolmas, and countless different kinds of Kufta.

The celebrations came to a beautiful close with a farewell Dinner for Papa, as his time in Armenia came to a close.

But we still had a few days together.

In a complete non-sequitur to my adventures, I followed him to the UAE, where he had an extended (4 day) layover on his way home. There we got to enjoy the beaches, sun, and water of the Persian gulf. All of which was an abrupt change from the cold, arid mountain region of Armenia and Georgia.

We explored Dubai, which was unlike any city I have been to. Rich from end to end and filled with the kind of overwhelming consumerism that neither of us found appealing, but a spectacle nonetheless.

Really, it was just about winding down on the beach, and processing the profound experience of connection, and reconnection we had had over the course of his trip.

We said goodbye in the Dubai Airport, which was hard and sad, as goodbyes always are… but as a friend of mine once said, I felt so lucky to be so sad over an ending.

I flew back to Yerevan, where I am now, but not for much longer. Soon (next week!) I will start to make my way west, through Georgia and into Turkey, finding my way to the Gaziantep, the old city that my family lived in before the genocide of 1915. After that I will work my way north to Istanbul, and into the Balkans from there.

I will likely have more frequent updates, as life will be moving faster while I’m on the move. But for now, I am enjoying my last bit of time in this city I have come to know, and with this family I have become so close to.

With love from the Caucuses