snowed in

I think that the longer I live in Armenia the more difficult it becomes to blog. It’s hard to write about the culture when it has sort of melded into your culture. Or to say the very least you have just become so accustomed to it. So like most Armenians in Spitak, I can only really talk about the changing weather!!! While I think of something to blog about, I want to share some pictures of the biggest snow storm I have ever seen in my life!! Please keep in mind I am from California so a foot and a half of snow falling in one day is huge to me!!! In fact this morning while drinking my cup of hykakan serj (Armenian coffee), I looked out the window and was alarmed to see the amount of snow falling. I thought to myself, there is no way that we could possibly have school today with all this snow. It’s pretty frigged in the classrooms when it isn’t blustering outside so I couldn’t imagine any of the kids would come to school in this kind of weather. I sent a text to my counterpart asking her if school would be canceled and waited for her response, hoping for a day of relaxation and a good book. But no, there are no snow days in Spitak, the town’s moniker means white, so I guess snow isn’t something that prohibits much from happening around here. I can only imagined how she laughed at my wishful thinking, thinking what a silly American I am for thinking a foot of snow is such a scary site. So I layered up, more so than usual, and trudged my way to class in the snow. On the plus side, one day I will be able to tell my kids, “quit whining, back in my day, I used to walk to school in the snow, uphill both ways” just as my dad used to tell me, but I will only be partially lying, because of course I only walk up the hill one way!