My Street

Seriously- for two months of the year, literally everywhere you look is green and beautiful.

When the cat's away...

Sam's in Yerevan this weekend, so I'm stuck cooking for myself. I'm an abysmal cook, but not a bad baker, so I did what anyone in my situation would do. I made myself a sponge cake with strawberry whipped cream frosting for breakfast.

Tolors Lake Church

About 5 miles outside of Sisian, there is a church that rests on the bottom of a lake bed. Much of the year it's covered in water, but you can see it now, and so Sam and I took a run out there to check it out. Unfortunately, sometime in the last 5 to 10 years, half the church fell down, but there's still enough there for you to imagine what it might have been once.

May Flowers pt 1

One of my favorite things about Armenia is the ridiculously amazing wildflowers they have here. So, welcome to the first installment my May Flowers post series. 

Our Garden

This is the area we're hoping to transform into a firepit and outdoor hang out area. For now, it's just an overgrown patch of garden. 

I Started Seeds

Summer is coming, and I'm getting ready. My DIY seed-starting mini-greenhouses are ready to go and seeds are planted. Garden 2017 has officially started!

Back in Armenia

Here's a super touristy video to prove it:

Heading back to Armenia

Well, today finds me on a plane headed back to Armenia. It was a good- if emotionally exhausting- trip home. I'm glad I was able to spend time with my family. I'll sure miss Scuppers for the next four and a half months, though.

#Overwhelmed

I didn't really think that post-service readjustment culture shock was a thing. Then, this evening, we went to the grocery store. I didn't really think a whole lot about it. I wandered around, and the produce section really drew me in. I stood there, marveling at the 3 different types of kale and the 7 different dried mushroom varieties available, delighting when the faux-thunder rumbled and the vegetable mister turned on. I took a few photos. Then we left. When we got back to the house, my aunt asked my dad if I had been like a kid in a candy shop. No, he answered, she seemed a little bit lost- a little bit overwhelmed. It wasn't until I heard him say it that I realized it was true. Here's a little image I made to remember that trip: 

Back in the USA

So- why am I back in America? Two days ago, both of my grandmothers died. How bizarre is that? I heard the news on Wednesday evening, and on Thursday morning, I left Sisian on my way back home for a few weeks to go to the funerals. I arrived yesterday afternoon. While this entire trip is bound to be both sad and stressful, there is one really great part: getting to hang out with my dog Scuppers. (Sorry Mom & Dad, you guys are awesome too, but, well, it's just not the same). And it turns out my girl's got game: 

Hike Down The Vorotan

So, I intended to go on a 6 mile run down the Vorotan river today- but about half way through it turned into more of a hike than a run. Turns out that particular path isn't exactly runnable. I'll have to find a different route for my marathon in August. But, it was super pretty. Here's a shot I took on the hike of near-by village Aghitu (called Aghuti by it's residents) from across the river gorge with Ishkhanasar in the background.

I Made A Video

I spent most of the day today making a video demonstrating for the new group of volunteers how our water filters are assembled. Actually- I only spent about an hour making the video (about 30 minutes to prep and film, and then another 30 to edit and process), but then spent the rest of the day trying to get good enough internet to upload the darn thing to YouTube. But I got there in the end, and I guess that's what matters. 

Brunch

For weeks now, Sam has been extolling the virtues of American-Style Brunch to our friend Karine. This weekend, we finally brought those conversations to fruition with a homemade brunch with Karine, her family, and the Sisian-area PCVs. Sam was our head chef, and with a little bit of help from the rest of us, he created a masterpiece: scrambled eggs with spinach and mushrooms, fried potato pancakes, made-from-scratch breakfast sausage, and the piece de resistance, fresh-from-the-oven homemade biscuits. It was a really fun morning, and I think that the food was much appreciated by all.

Morning commuters

It's been cold and gray out for the past few weeks, conditions which haven't really inspired me to take a ton of photos. But, today, I was walking into work and saw our neighbor Harutyun taking his sheep out to the open land beyond down. As I was walking up on this shepherd and his flock, it struck me that I might have become a little bit blind to the things here which are worthy of photographing. Walking to work along a dirt road past sheep is pretty much exactly what I was hoping to experience when I applied to the Peace Corps, and here I was right in the middle of that experience, thinking that I didn't really have anything to photograph here these days. Anyway. Here are the morning commuters with whom I share the road. 

GenEq Sesh in English Club

For the last few weeks, our Advanced English Club has been watching I Am Malala. I really love watching these young women discuss the ways in which Malala has taken control of her life through education, and the similarities and differences they see between Malala's life and their own. 

Spring Is Coming

Birthday Dinner

My mom, who's convinced that cake only comes from a box and can't possibly be made from staple ingredients like flour and sugar, sent Sam and I two boxed cake mixes for our birthdays this year (I'm just teasing you, mom- the cake mixes were awesome, as you're about to see). 

As it turns out, this was especially serendipitous, since our site mate Kate's birthday is smack dab in between mine and Sam's. So, with the help of our friend Karine (who you heard so much about during our plumbing crisis last Thanksgiving), we threw Kate a birthday party. Since Kate's a proud Texan, Sam made pulled pork and two varieties of homemade barbecue sauce for the meal, Karine and her family hosted the event, and I made up the red velvet cake mix that my mom had sent. 

All in all, it was a super fun night, and I think that Kate enjoyed herself. :)

Runs Are Pretty

Now that we have our water back, I can finally start to enjoy the runs I've been taking three times a week. It's nice to know I can come home to a hot shower rather than a few wet wipes after running around town. This is the view from the edge of the Sisian cemetery, looking at the World War II memorial (the tall column at the top of the hill) on the edge of town. 

European Goldfinch

Well, now that we've fixed all of our frozen pipes, it's finally starting to feel a little bit like spring here in Sisian, and that means that the songbirds are coming back. Today we saw this brightly colored little fellow, and this is the best picture of him that I could get. Looking at our bird identification book I think that the red cap, bright white cheek band, and distinct yellow patch on the wings identifies this guys as a male European Goldfinch. I wonder if we'll be seeing more of them around town in the weeks to come...

Further Adventures in Armenian Plimbing Pt Finally

Well, it's been exactly 30 days since we've had running water, and I'm pleased to report that the water is back on in our house. The plumber came and agreed with Vagho's assessment: the portion of the pipe which entered up into the concrete floor of our bathroom was frozen, and the thermal heat sink of all that concrete was making it pretty damn hard to thaw the pipe. His solution? Just chip away at the concrete around the pipe.

Seriously- the man got out a hammer and chisel, and just went to town on the concrete slap, resulting in a 6" deep, 8" wide ditch in the concrete around the pipe. 

Then we were able to hold the little electric heater up to the gap and start thawing the pipe. The plumber would have preferred to use a hair dryer, and was borderline horrified when he learned that I didn't know such a device, but the heater seemed to do the job well enough.

In the end, between the plumber and the heater on the outside, and Sam blowing into the tub nozzel to provide pressure from the inside, we got the ice plug out of the pipe. Sam even got to show is manliness by helping the plumber with the pipe-melty-tool: something I was forbidden from even touching just in case my girly cooties got all over it. (I'm making the part about girl cooties up, but I am getting sick and tired of not being allowed to participate in all the interesting ways that folks build/repair/replace things around here). 

I suppose I shouldn't complain: at the end of the day we have running water, and that's what matters. Unfortunately, all I want to do is collapse into bed, but now the real work starts: We have to wash every dish in the house and I have to run every piece of laundry we own in this country through the machine and hang it up to dry. We've also been rather lax on housekeeping, so that means that I'll have to sweep, mop, and tidy all rooms of the house- and don't even get me started on the hell that is our bathroom these days... I guess we know how I'll be spending the next few days...