Yesterday my host family took me to Lake Sevan. Lake Sevan is a popular destination for many Armenians; it is a very large lake with crisp clear blue water that laps up at the base of these tall mountains robed in mist and clouds. It got its name when during WWI the Armenians were forced to flee the town of Van for the eastern reaches of their homeland. Once there they named the lake in the region Sev meaning black and Van the town so Sevan means black town after the heartache of having to leave their homeland behind. But anyways the whole family including me was very excited about this trip so yesterday we loaded a six passenger van with nine people and all of our stuff including a ton of food and set off for the lake. Now if you look at a map you see that it isn’t a very big country and you can drag your finger from one city in a line to the city of your choice and imagine a convenient road connecting the two places. But in Armenia such a system does not exist literally all roads lead to Yerevan where you then switch over to the road that will take you to your desired destination. I have spent much time trying to figure out which marshutnies (mini busses used for public transportation) I should take to get to friends villages in a descent amount of time, but since all roads lead to Yerevan I don’t think convenience will be a factor. But anyways after about 2.5 hours of travel we got to Lake Sevan. We set up our tables and began cooking a horavats (Armenian barbeque) it was very tasty and the scenery made it even better. My host family wanted me to swim but I have yet to convince myself that jumping in cold water is something that I want to do so I did not swim. After a few hours of relaxing, eating a lot and conversation we escaped the approaching rain and got back in the van for what seemed like a much longer and more uncomfortable return trip (remember this is a six passenger van with nine people in it). On the drive though we passed my training village, Solak, which was really nice as I much miss Solak.
Also, yesterday before we were to leave I saw two neighbors wheeling in a wheel barrow an entire discarded cow digestive system. I’m talking the stomach all the way to the intestines and it was not pretty. Then they brought it to the backyard for the three huge dogs that my host father has to eat. I guess the dogs were satisfied because in the middle of the night when everybody and thing should be asleep they were only barking a little instead of their incessant constant bark! I also was in the market the other day when an entire cart like you would use at Lowe’s was wheeled through the market loaded full of hacked off cow legs and cow heads with tong and eyes still exposed. Now that was gross! But what’s even crazier is that in this region cows head is a delicacy and a popular Armenian dish is to shave the cows leg and boil it until it’s so tender it falls of the bone then you mix it with other stuff and eat it! So these were not discards but I guess the prize parts of the cow. But don’t worry your not missing out because at my welcome home party we will try all these dishes.
For those of you at school have fun and study hard. I start teaching next week.
Love, Me
