Island Picnic

In just a short 30-minute drive from our house you can get to a very shady-looking boat that will take you to one of the islands in the massive lake near our city. Besides being a beautiful place for picnicking and relaxing, the island is also home to an 1100-year-old building where a church met. There are ancient reliefs of Biblical stories on all the walls. Saturday we went with friends to the island. Unfortunately, they were doing some renovating to the building so we couldn’t get in or even very close. Hopefully later we can post better pictures with detailed photos of the reliefs on the walls. If you come and visit we'll take you there!

This sign is a perfect example of why we think a business teaching English will be "succes lull" here. The supposed English translation is the second paragraph. Click on the picture to see it better.

Things That Go Bump in the Night

We just got back from a short trip to the Capital for meetings. During our first night back I guess I forgot where I was. I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and apparently I was still asleep…for a moment…because about 5 steps into it SMACK!!! a wall jumped right out in front of me. I staggered backwards a few steps (ala Rocky against the Russian) and somehow managed to stay on my feet, but when I felt my forehead I found a golf ball growing out from it. I seriously thought I had a concussion. The next morning Sarah told me she was startled by a loud noise in the night, but she told herself it was only the neighbors. Once she saw my head it all made sense.

Two days later I still have a headache. The golf ball is a bit smaller but still remains. I know many of you are wondering how my nose didn’t hit first since it sticks so far out from my face. Well, I’m wondering the same thing.

Two by Two

We finally had a Saturday off from language class so we decided to see a few of the bazillion beautiful sights to see within three hours of our city. We planned a route that would take us by a waterfall, an old palace, and the supposed landing spot of Noah and his big boat. Of course, on this day we didn’t expect to climb Mt. Ararat – just see it. Like any good expedition you have to scout out the land before attempting to find the prize of your pursuit. Actually, its just a really, really, really big mountain and unless they build a ski lift we won’t be seeing the top.

Ugly waterfall that is supposed to be pretty in the summer.

It was on the way so why not stop?

Old palace built over 300 years ago.

We brought our lunch for a picnic and found a nice view
for about 5 minutes until Sarah got too cold - Girls!
And yes we know, Stephen is bald - save the jokes.

The most beautiful girl in the world
standing with Mt. Ararat in the distance.

Go ahead and say it, "Awwwwwww!"

Happy New Year

March 21 is the first day of Spring, Stephen’s dad’s birthday, and New Years. That’s right, here in our part of the world for countless years people have celebrated the New Year with the coming of spring. In our city, thousands of people join together in a huge field near the lake. Men, and especially women, dress in traditional attire and dance to traditional music. Many get there early in the day to build fires and then men jump across them as a symbol of leaving the bad things behind from the previous year and preparing for the good things that will come with the New Year. Unfortunately, we didn’t get there early enough to get pictures of the fire jumping, but below you will find a few pictures of the day. As you can see it was a little muddy.

The second and third pictures were taken by Jonathan Henderson
who is an excellent photographer. You can see his work by clicking

on the link to the left of this page under "Our Favorite Blogs."