A Half Plate of This, a Bit of That

Hello!

So, the metric system isn't coming as hard as I thought it would. It turns out AP Chemistry had a deeper scar than I thought it did. Well, at least now I get to reap the benefits.

 I don't have to deal with them in the kitchen too much though. There are literally no measuring devices here at all, so all of it comes from the United States sent by missionary parents. If you ever ask an Armenian for a recipe, they'll just say "oh half a plate of this, a plate of that, just a bit of this"....so not very helpful. The ovens are in Celsius, but thankfully Chemistry helped with that as well. Plus I got a ton of my recipes from other missionaries, so they had it already written in Celsius.

 You know, it turns out that I don't mind raw onions as much as I thought I did (raw, mind you). They put them in Sharmas all the time and I think they add a nice sting to them. As long as it's not overdone, it's a pretty yummy addition.

Well, Armenian food is pretty complicated, so I haven't learned too much. I can make Borsh though, which is a really good beet/potato/beef stew thing. I can also make an Armenian staple which is fried cauliflower. It's basically just boiled cauliflower dipped in eggs and salt, then fried up. It's better than it sounds :p

Well, my week was pretty mixed up. We had an opportunity to go up to Hrazdan this week on Friday and Saturday on exchanges. It's a city that the missionaries haven't been in for too long, so it's really exciting to go and see everything there. The only downfall is that it is super cold there, second only to Gyumri.

 One funny tradition they have there though, is that in wedding processions to and from the church, the lead car straps a dead animal skin to the front (in most cases a fox or something). It was quite a shock seeing it the first time.

We got to do some service for our investigators this week, which was pretty nice. We helped them dig their garden area so that they could plant some garlic for the winter season.

We got a Christmas tree on Monday, along with some Christmas lights :) Now our home is all decked out for the season.

Well that's all, I love you all!

Elder Hammer

Our Christmas tree.

Hrazdan

Us gathered at Hrazdan with the Charentsavan Elders and the APs