My Street

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

May Flowers Pt 5

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 4

Quince blossoms in the garden...

May Flowers Pt 3

And now the town is covered in lilac. Seemingly overnight, all of Sisian has been bathed in the warm, comforting scent of lilac.

May Flowers Pt2

Wildflower season is really starting to kick in here, so I'm ramping up my May Flowers series. I wish I knew the names of these...

Sisian from the South

I took a new running route today which brought me around to the southern side of Sisian. Since our house is located on the extreme northwest corner of town, I rarely come out this way- which is a shame because Sisian from the south offers a great panorama of the town resting in front of Mount  Ughtasar.

#ScenicSyunik

Still running- not very fast, mind you, but moving forward nevertheless. It's nice to be able to get outside of town and see the countryside without having to filter out the soviet-era concrete block apartment buildings first. :)

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'll Never Really Fit In Here

The students at my school were taking a timed test in which they had to assemble and disassemble an assault weapon in school today. I was particularly taken by the part where they all were jamming magazines into the gun while pointing the barrel directly at their seated classmates in front of the table. Something of my thoughts must have shown on my face, because on of my counterparts treated me to a 15 minute explanation of why it was important for children to know how to use guns. It's days like this when I feel completely alien in this country. 

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.

Stairway to Work

In a continuing series of "things I see on my way to work", here we have the stairway I take to get to School #4 from my house. It's less of a deathtrap than it appears in the picture, but I'll admit to avoiding it at night or when there's snow accumulation. 

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. 

Zorats Qarer Again

I know, I know, sometimes it seems like all I ever post is pictures of Zorats Qarer- but what can I say? I just love visiting the old standing stones. They're the perfect distance from our house for a convenient afternoon hike, and getting out of town and walking through empty fields gives me a sense of inner serenity that I just can't find when I'm surrounded by people and cars. So, here we have again: Zorats Qarer.

Funeral Flowers

One of our neighbors died this week. They held the wake at the family's house today. Afterwards, the street was strewn with white carnations. They stood out in stark contrast to the dark browns and grays of the rocky street, mirroring the white-gray sky.

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. 

The Cross On The Hill

We had a PCV friend down from Gyumri today- it's a bit of a trek, but he wanted to see the sites of #ScenicSyunik. Kate and I walked him out to Zorats Qarer, but since I've already included a million pictures of the standing stones in this blog, I thought I'd share one of the cross on the hill overlooking Sisian. There are crosses like this one dotting the Armenian landscape across the country. There are at least 2 within sight of Sisian, and most of the surrounding villages have their own. There's also one all the way up on the top of Ishkhanasar, which is pretty incredible when you think about the work it took to haul the great big metal beams all the way up that mountain.

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...