Since our arrival in Armenia 3 days ago, we've been staying in a resort hotel attending orientation conferences. During the day, the weather is quite hot (I think we're all going through a little bit of air-conditioning withdrawal, even if I don't like to admit it), but the mornings and evenings are cool, and it's pleasant to walk around the resort.
I'm told this area is actually heavily forested for Armenia, and that people come to the resort to enjoy greenery that isn't seen in other regions.
A short walk through the woods behind the hotel leads you to these church ruins. There is a plaque explaining the ruins at the head of the trail, but unfortunately, it's all in Armenian and I can't understand any of it yet.
Inside the church's remaining alcove, there is this peculiar shrine: the walls are streaked with soot as if there are routinely fires (candles?) lit inside the alcove, and this floor and walls are littered with religous imagery. I wonder who still prays here.
But my favorite picture from the resort has to be this one: there are many small playgrounds for the children of resort patrons scattered around the grounds, but there also appear to be a host of local's animals who roam around the area, and sometimes to two collide.
Tomorrow we're scheduled to leave Aghrevan and travel to our host families in the villages where we will be living for the next 3 months.
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