Sam's New Best Friend

The pet store we go to in Yerevan is called Kakadu, and appropriately, they have a cockatoo mascot. He loves Sam- as soon as we walked into the store, he wanted to climb on Sam's shoulder, and was very upset when Sam had to make him go back to his perch when it was time to leave.

Lauren's Birthday

We had an amazing party in the basement of the Envoy to celebrate Lauren's birthday today. She took a trip to Japan over the summer, and brought back the makings for pho noodles, which was AMAZING. Unfortunately, due to an oversite on my part, she's not in the picture because she was still in the kitchen dishing out the delicious food. But still, it was a fun evening.

Dogs in Yerevan

This week, we have fall vacation at school, which- for Sam and me- means bringing the dogs to Yerevan to get spayed and neutered.

Getting the dogs to Yerevan was a little tricky, but managable. We had earlier found a taxi driver who's mini-SUV- type vehicle had back seats which folded down into the floor. Combining that maneuver with pushing the middle seats as far forward as they could go, made room in the back for Muppet's massive crate. Hazel's crate sat next to me in the middle seats, while Sam and our driver, Vahagn, sat up front. It meant that we had to rent out the entire taxi, but we were able to get both  dogs up to the city in just one trip. The dogs took the travel relatively well. They were most definitely car sick the entire time (and puked pretty regularly for the entire 5 hour journey), but otherwise were pretty chill, without any whining or barking. 

Once in Yerevan, we realized that the AirBnB we rented for the week was absolutely perfect for our purposes. It was secluded from the street with a small covered porch and sunken garden, perfect for keeping the dogs and their crates, it convenient to public transportation, and it was literally a 5 minute walk from the vet's office and a  2 minute walk from a small park. We couldn't have found a better place to stay with the  dogs for their surgeries if we had designed it from scratch. 

So, while we're here, we've been working on training the 'place' command. Today, I got both dogs to stay on their dog beds (which I made 2 days ago by cutting up the cheapest puffy blanket we could find in Sisian and sewing the cut ends up) while I sat and read my book. I think it's a good start to their training. 

My Winter Commute Is Going To Be Awesome This Year

When we moved into our house, the street I had to walk down to get to my school was a washed out dirt road. Now look at it! No more puddle hopping and hoping not to fall into hidden pot holes during my walk to work this winter!

Sam Walks Both Dogs At Once

Here's a little trick that's Sam's been working on: walking both dogs at once. They seem to be catching on pretty quick:

We Have Wool

For a long time now, I've been wanting to get my hands on some of the wool from all the sheep that live around us. Well, today it's finally happened.

A volunteer who's site is a village not too far from us lives with a host family who keeps sheep, and sells wool. Today, we walked to their house and bought some wool. Because this is Armenia, that means we walked over to their house, were treated to a lavish spread of coffee, candies and cakes, had a nice long couple of hours worth of chatting, then bought some wool, and then before we left were loaded up with more food than we can possibly eat on our own.

But, at the end of the day, I have my wool!

Now I just have to figure out how to skirt and wash the stuff....

Sisian Is Beautiful

We're going on more frequent walks outside of town with the dogs. It's really stunning out here. 

The Biggest Dog I've Ever Seen

The neighborhood dogs frequently eat out of the dumpster that's across the intersection from our house. We have a good view of this "doggy theater" from our living room window, and it provides me with no small source of entertainment throughout the day. So, this evening, when I glanced through our window to check out the dog scene, all I could think of was "that's the biggest dog I've ever seen!". Here it is:

We Have A New Faucet (Adventures in Armenian Plumbing Pt 2)

Well, after a few weeks of having a super leaky faucet, we finally replaced the thing. The new faucet isn't ideal, but it's what we had available to us in town. We didn't even need a plumber. Go us.

Breaking Gender Norms

The women in town don't think I'm a very good wife. For one thing, I don't have children. For another, my husband is sometimes seen in getups like this one:

But seriously, demonstrating different gender norms and relationship dynamics is an important part of our service here as a couple. Sam's really proud of his cooking, and we try to share it with as many of our friends and neighbors as possible. When I'm hanging up our laundry, he's always ready to help. On the flip side, I go to the hardware store with the plans for any building projects that we want to accomplish and try to get our tools and materials whenever possible (although, the men at the hardware store will frequently refuse to let me buy things from the 'manly' section of the store if Sam isn't there with me, and I still haven't figured out a way to get around this), and try to take an active role in any 'man' activities to which we participate (like helping to push a car that's stalled etc)- something that usually pisses off the Armenian men involved, but that's just too bad for them. 

Organizing For School

So, after traveling pretty extensively throughout September, it's time to get back into the groove of life at site. I spent yesterday in the teacher's lounge at my school, trying to decipher the confusing schedule system they've got in place (which was finalized last week, so now I can get an accurate idea of when and where the English lessons will take place). I also updated my map of the school building, because I'm sick and tired of wandering around trying to find out which classroom my counterpart is in.