Jan 12 Adventure to the Outskirts of Gyumri

Teaching update: We started on the project today and spent most of the four hours on the first assignment. The students learned that I would not just give them the answer for free. In addition to thinking critically, they learned to use pencil and paper when coding. Lena also informed about how the informal 'che' (meaning 'no') is more common in Gyumri, where as the more formal 'voch' is more common in Yerevan. Similarly 'ha' (meaning 'yes') is used more than 'ayo' in Gyumri.

For lunch today, we headed to the famous Cherkezi Dzor restaurant. While it is only 2 km from the apartment, it was quite a trek. Although we were still in Gyumri, houses turned into shacks, sidewalks disappeared and potholes emerged and grew until there was no more concrete - just sand and rocks. Even the dogs were more scared of us and barked more ferociously. There was also a mound of dirt, as tall as me, covered with manure. This part of Gyumri really felt more like a countryside village. After hitting a dead end, we had to make a 20 min detour. The path would weave around houses, making it difficult to differentiate it from a driveway and to see if it continued. Trying to figure out the right way was a fun adventure for me, but less so for my friend Nina.

Hard to see the shacks here since I was too busy navigating to take representative pictures

In the home stretch to the restaurant, a large puppy ran up to us with tail wagging. He kept jumping on me and lightly biting my hand. I tolerated this energetic play since this dog was just a large version of my cat Nemo, but Nina is really afraid of dogs. A local and I tried to redirect the dog so that Nina felt comfortable walking to the restaurant, but it didn't help that the dog kept trying to follow me and play.

When we finally made it to the restaurant, I realized that the restaurant was also a fish farm. The aerators created pretty fountains which added to the pretty scenery. 

Baby fish

That water is not a natural body. It is where the fish live! Not sure whether or not if the water is taken from the canal nearby??

Look at the snowflakes!

When we sat down, we were offered lavash chips with an orange mayo based sauce. Separately, the lavash and sauce didn't taste very special, but together it almost tasted like a light smoked salmon sauce. Maybe the fat in the mayo enhanced the toasty notes in the lavash chips.

I ordered the barbecued rainbow trout. It was seasoned with salt and paprika and grilled over a wood fire. The fish itself wasn't as flavorful as other fish I've eaten, but it was cool to see workers carry cot-loads of firewood to fuel the ovens and grills.