Tolors

I went on another hike with our host mom and siblings today. It was really fantastic. This time we walked about 2 miles out of town to a mountain lake named Tolors. 

I was suuuper impressed with our host mom, who spend the majority of the hike not only walking, but towing one or another of her kids on a sled. What an incredible workout!

And while it wasn't exactly rough terrain, the snow was uneven and lumpy where the cars had driven on uncleared roads. 

The countryside here is beautiful. 

One of the most astounding moments to me was when our host mom said "we'll have to come back in the spring when everything pretty". I was at a loss for words. I think this it's beautiful as it is. 

When we finally got to the lake, it was magnificent. It's apparently a reserve for a local hydroelectric plant, but you couldn't see any of that from the lake shore.

We at a small lunch at the lake, and I admired the scenery while the kids played around.

As we walked back home, we were all exhausted, but thoroughly satisfied with ourselves. It has been an excellent day.

An even longer extended vacation

Okay, this is just getting ridiculous. School's been cancelled for the third week in a row. At first, all the vacation time was nice, but now we've spend a week vacationing in the capital city and a week kicking around the house: I've read 2 books, watched a whole season of the West Wing, and knit until I've given myself a mild case of tendinitis. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm ready to get back to work...

But until then, here's a picture of a puppy:

I miss gardening...

I've been reading gardening books since the end of PST Phase II. I can't stop thinking about alternative irrigation techniques and scheming about what season extenders could be successfully implemented here- cold frames are out (no wood), but low-tunnels are a definite possibility...

Yes, ladies and gentlemen: it's officially January, as I have started dreaming about gardens.

I miss gardening so much. I miss the satisfaction I get from growing our own food and having Sam cook it. I just flat-out miss vegetables. One of the major impulses t ogarden here is that fresh veggies just aren't available in the stores during the winter in Sisian. A low-tunnel and some cold hardy asian salad greens would go a long, long way to alleviating this problem. The climate here in the summer is also perfect for broccoli, which I've ever even so much as seen in Sisian.

I miss rice pilaf and steamed broccoli with lemon juice. Or pasta with broccoli and onions cooked in olive oil with lemon juice. Really any starch with broccoli and lemon juice...

The point is: I need a garden.

Khach Mountain

We went on a small hike up the hill in the back of our house (which the kids call "Khach Mountain") today with our host mom and host siblings. It was incredible. I think I'll let the picture speak for themselves:

And... A little bit longer extended vacation

Snow continues to fall here in Sisian, and the start of the school term has been delayed again as the  incidence of swine flu in Armenia continues to rise.

It's nice being back at home, and not having to be back at work right away isn't half bad either. 

Back at home!

After a week of training and a week of Yerevan vacation, we're back home in Sisian. It was a good vacation, and it was really nice to live independently for a while, but I'm glad to be away from the city. I can only take so much of its noises, smells and lights before I dream of being back in the countryside. I know that before too long the luxuries of Yerevan will seem like a treat again, but for now I'm enjoying my renewed appreciation of Sisian and all it has to offer.

Yerevan Yarn Shop

One of the best finds during our stay in Yerevan so far has been this yarn shop. It was shown to us by another volunteer, who kindly took us on a brief jaunt around center city to point out stores of particular interest- and this one totally merited it's spot on that list. This shop's name "Teler" translates into English as "Yarns". Up until now, the only yarn I've found in Armenia have been thin acrylics. But this shop had yarns of all weights in wool and cotton polyblends. I still think that most of my yarn is going to be shipped from home (or perhaps purchased as fleece if I can ever figure out how to source it...), but it's good to know that this kind of product is available here if I want it. 

My Birthday!

Today was my 29th birthday, and even though we didn't do any of the things that we would have done back in the US, it was still a pretty good day.

We started things off right by having breakfast at the Green Bean Cafe- one of the few restaurants in Armenia that is non-smoking. I had a hot chocolate that was so thick I had to eat it with a spoon! Essentially, I had a steaming mug of chocolate soup for breakfast. It was great.

After tat we had to find a tailor to alter the suit we bought for Sam yesterday. We purchased one of the less expensive suits available, but it meant that the store from which we bought it didn't offer tailoring services, so we had to find them for ourselves.

A quick Google search brought us to the Armenian version of the Yellow Pages, which recommended a tailor shop called Jean Jacques. They didn't have a website, so we called the phone number to see if they could help us.

We were a little surprised with the woman on the other end of the line didn't speak English. Although most Armenians aren't English speakers, in the capital city, it's very common for retail shop personnel to speak at least some rough English phrases. But the fact that this woman didn't speak our language turned out not to  be a problem. She was very kind and patient with our broken Armenian, and she was happy to speak slowly and repeat herself or use alternate phrasing to ensure that we were able to understand her.

These things may sound basic to someone from America where many of us deal with non-native English speakers on a daily basis, but in a country where you almost never encounter a non-native speaker trying to communicate in your language, these skills are relatively rare.

It turned out that the women at Jean Jacques were happy to alter Sam's suit, and they could fit it for him today. So, we set off to the far side of the city where Google Maps told us the tailor shop was located.

When we got off the metro in the neighborhood to which we were headed, it made a lot more sense that the woman didn't speak English. We were waaay outside the touristy area the center of the city. And although the tailor shop was roughly where Google thought it would be, the entrance (and only signage) was around the back of the building between a block of residential apartments and a children's playground, so it took us a while to find it.

But find it we did, and the women were super good at their jobs. They fit Sam in about 10 minutes- including some subtle alterations in the shoulders of the jacket (not an easy thing to do), and only charged us 6,000 dram (about $12US) for the whole thing, which they told us would be due when we picked the jacket up the next time we were in Yerevan. They even gave me the address and phone number of the store where they buy all their sewing machines. It was a really nice interaction.

Since the address they gave us for the sewing machine shop was close by, we stopped in on our way home. I was able to price a few machines, and know that generally I'll need a budget of about 100,000 dram ($200US) if I want to buy a sewing machine. It'd be a big purchase, so I'd have to save up for it, but I think that it might be worth it in the long run- especially if I invest in one of the Bernette models, which would be useful back home as well as in country... But I won't be making any sewing machine purchases until after we move into our own house, so that's a decision for another day.

For now, it's enough that we were able to get Sam's suit tailored and locate a sewing machine shop, and get some more general knowledge about the availability and pricing of machines in this country. We've also accomplished this same task with guitars for Sam over the last couple of days. We've been cooking for ourselves, keeping our own schedule, and generally feeling pretty independent. It's been a good week.

A little extended vacation

Well, this is an interesting turn of events. Yesterday was supposed to be our first day back at school from winter vacation. But, the day before yesterday, we officially learned that they've decided to cancel school this week and start the term on January 18 instead. Apparently we're in the midst of a minor swine flu epidemic. 

Given that we still hadn't found Sam a suit, or looked for sewing machines for me, we decided to rent an apartment in Yerevan for a few days to give us some time to ourselves, and to accomplish our errands in the city.

I'll also admit that the semblance of a normal life- living in our own apartment, with out own kitchen, and own laundry machine, and keeping our own schedule- is really, really refreshing. It's like I can really relax for more than an hour or two at a time for the first time since arriving in country. 

Exploring Yerevan

While we're here in Yerevan, we've been visiting every music store we can find for Sam to look at guitars. We're also planning on going suit shopping for Sam (he needs a navy blue suit for a wedding in April), and maybe even looking at sewing machines for me. It means that we're getting out and walking around Yerevan a lot more than we have had a chance to before now. Today, we came across the massive stone wall. It was a little incongruous with the rest of the city- despite crumbling infrastructure, Yerevan is a modern city and the predominant material found there is concrete. It's unusual to find something as old-fashioned (if not actually old) as this stone wall. 

PST-Phase 2

We're in Yerevan this week to attend a 5 day training even. It's the first time we've seen all our fellow PCVs since swearing in and moving to site almost 2 months ago. It's really nice to talk with every one, although the training sessions themselves aren't quite as enjoyable.

The Peace Corps has put us up at the Hrazdan Hotel in Yerevan, a large hotel from the soviet era. We have a great view from our room of Mt. Ararat, which we hadn't seen since we left Shahumyan.

The other window in our room looks out over the city. This will be the first time we've stayed for more than 2 nights, and we're hoping to become a little more familiar with it while we're here.

So, for the next few days we'll be hanging out with our PCV friends, and taking advantage of the many restaurants that Yerevan has to offer (okay, maybe one or two: we're on a pretty limited budget, and the Peace Corps only reemburses you 2,400 AMD- about 5 dollars US- for dinner). It should be a nice little trip.

Nor Tari Burrito

So, a few days ago I posted about the foods that are onmi-present in the Armenian household around New Years. The difficulty is that all that food was made a week ago, just before New Years- and it's been sitting around on dinner tables all week. It's also pretty much the only food in the house. So, we give you, our way of safely eating the leftovers:

New Year's Feast

We have been to several Nor Tari (New Year) parties in the past week, and we've found that there are some commonalities to all of them. We have the heavily laden table:

The fruit bowl, the dried fruit, the barbecued meat:

More barbecued meat:

Cakes:

Bean patties:

And, of course, the ever present tolma (with both cabbage and grape leaves)

As well as olives, various fried foods, nuts, seeds, and salads. Seriously, Armenian New Years spread is just about as intense a food holiday as there is anywhere in the world.

Walking through woods on a snowy evening

To celebrate New Years, Sam and I took a walk down by the river.

It's been snowing for a few days now.

And there aren't any signs of it stopping.

In a landscape largely devoid of forest, this is as close I as I can get to walking in the woods, listening to gentle snowfall.