Zoo, Cow Milk Band-aid, Homemade Pickles

August 11 - Yesterday, Hripsime, Gorr, Tyrone, Mariam and I went to the zoo and the Mother Armenia statue that overlooks Yerevan. The zoo was an experience that I probably should not write about here - glad to have it, but not quite the same I've had in ATL. The statue is giant and has great views of the city.

Went on a long hike along the river with Elliott on Saturday. We found caves and a tunnel. We sat down to take a rest next to the river (I did not swim, not after that first experience) and a papik hung out with us. He was herding his cows. I took a fall while hiking down from a cave on loose gravel and tore up both of my palms. I asked him if there were any plants around that might remedy this, and he pointed to the top of the valley across from the river. Then he went to the cows and came back with a few plants he'd pulled up with cow milk droplets on the roots. He told me to put them on my palms, which I did, and it got very sticky and basically acted like a band-aid. This worked very well because the area was cleaner than the rest of my hands when I peeled the milk off at home and my palms are now healing nicely.

Today I made salsa and quesadillas for the family. I put one hot pepper in this salsa, and it was on fire. Very tasty. They liked.

Tomorrow are the LPI exams. I had a practice conversation with Meri and she said I'd score an intermediate.

Hripsime is teaching me how to make homemade pickles tonight.

I taught them the poem "starlight, starbright..." in Armenian.