Barev! I had a fun and interesting weekend and so I thought I'd walk to the internet cafe to update everyone.

The World Cup began last week. It is probably the only thing I understand on Armenian television at this point. I watched some of that on Friday. I also went to a friend Alex's to watch some sheep sheering take place. I live in quite a different place these days.

On Saturday, a bunch of volunteers got together for kickball, soccer, and frisbee. Then, we went to watch some more 'football' at a cafe in Charentsevan to cool down. It was great to see other trainees that do not live in my village.

Yesterday was a family holiday in my village. The men would wake up early and slaughter a family sheep. I tried to tell my family the night before that I wanted to watch the slaughtering (what a great cultural experience). However, we had a huge language miscommunication. I was woken up in the morning and told to go. I put my skirt on and was accompanied by my little host cousin. Then, we started to run. So I ran in a skirt outside of town instead of seeing the animal slaughter....oh well.

Later in the day, we went to this old church up the mountain to light candles. My father is a taxi driver in the capital of Yerevan so we took his big van to the church. The ride was like a roller coaster (so much that a little girl got sick...not so pleasant). After the church, we went back to the house and were greeted by at least twenty family members. And then, we ate. I accidentally sat at the men's side of the table (breaking down gender norms one day at a time). This was funny because they tried to get me to toast with them and eat meat. They even looked up the word "attempt" in my dictionary....and so I did. That might have been a mistake because there was meat awaiting me at the breakfast table this morning. Luckily, I know two ways to say, "No."

I hope everyone is doing well. Please fill me in on life at home....just don't mention Jimmy John's, I might get jealous.