Jody's Letters from the Road

Today was interesting. I and my brother, John, had been hesitant about telling Mom about me leaving for Armenia.  Since she just turned 98, we were wondering if telling her I would be gone for two years might upset her too much.  So,  we had decided not to tell her.  I felt terrible about this decision.  I spent two weeks with her, watching  her watch Jeopardy and answer the questions before the contestants and fall asleep watching old movies and television shows.  We went out to some of her favorite restaurants and I ate with and her friends a few times.  I kept feeling like I should tell her. I left Texas and went up to Washington D.C. to get some rest and study my new language.  I was talking to my friend , Joyce, who could not believe I had not told my Mom.  She said I was not giving Mom the respect she deserved.  She said Mom would be happy because I was doing something that was making me happy.  So, I wrote Mom a letter...

I like the line in the song "Wooden Ships" by Crosby, Stills, and Nash that says"If you smile at me, I will understand, because that is something everyone, everywhere does in the same language." I have been studying the Armenian language on my  own for the last few months.  It is a totally different language from English with a thirty-nine character alphabet.  I have not been too pushy on myself because I have feared if I was learning the wrong dialect, I would have to unlearn what I was learning.  Tonight, my first Skype class will begin with Anna who is in Armenia.  I have watched her video three times and begun a notebook with letters, words and phrases she introduces in Lesson 1.  I hope I can keep up with my younger fellow students. Learning Armenian as fast and accurately as I possibly can is very important to me as I begin this new adventure in my life.  Nelson Mandela once said," If you talk to a man in a language he understands, it goes to h...

I am trying something new to me and publishing a blog of my latest adventures.  I want to see how this works.