Bamya

Hello everyone. I think I maybe the only East Coast USA member here. I am very happy to have found this site, as everyone here seems so easy going and open minded. I am 46. Married to an Armenian (much to everyone's surprise), and we have 2 kids, a girl who's almost 8, and a boy who's almost 6. We are a family of animal lovers. We have a dog, two cats, three ducks, and various jars and boxes of critters rescued or collected by the kids lining the kitchen counter tops. I am a psychologist by profession. My hubby is an M.D. I also have a degree in Armenian Studies. I studied under Nina Garsoian at Columbia U, and was one of her last students before her retirement. In my crazy youth, I lived for nearly a year in Georgia (then SSR), studying Georgian language. I lived in Havlabar, Sayat Nova's stomping grounds, and learned a lot about the aesthetic and culture that must have shaped Usta Sayat's life. He is very much a part of local consciousness, and as much as Georgians and Armenians pretend to dislike each other, there is an immediate mutual softening around anything having to do with Sayat Nova. Maybe witnessing that process first hand is what convinced me that direct contact with living arts is what will preserve humanity into the distant future. Rather than immerse my children into an Armenian community that harbors outdated, limiting, brittle ideologies, I try every day to give them a cultural experience. One day that might mean letting them watch me learn how to do Marash embroidery. Another day, it might be playing a part of Yegmalian's Mass in the car on the way to school.

I am very excited to have found this forum, and look forward to sharing and learning with all of you!