First Day/Night/Day/What Time Is It, Anyway????

After 11 hours on the plane from LA to London, a 10-hour layover in Heathrow, a 5-hour flight into Yerevan, a 2-hour car ride to Vanadzor, and a 12-hour time difference, I really don't know which way is up. I do know that my Armenian hosts are very wonderful. Sara and Ara have two beautiful children, Tigran (second grade) and Sofi (Kindergarten). Sara is a great cook and stuffed me with lots of home-cooking. Ara makes his own wine. He kept refilling my glass, so I kept drinking it. It tasted like...like homemade Armenian wine. Ara does not speak English, but he lived in Germany for a time, so he and I use our limited combined German to communicate. When we run into trouble, we yell for Sara to translate. The one thing I definitely understand is that he loves to joke and is usually not serious. Of course this means we get along very well. Tomorrow is his birthday, so Sara made a cake from scratch.
Taking a shower today was quite an adventure. The water is only on for certain hours of the day, and it only gets hot for little spurts and then goes cold again.
It rained on and off all day and was very overcast. At one point in the early evening, we had a hail storm: very beautiful!
Tomorrow I visit Sara's school for the first time and will interact with kids in sixth and tenth grades. Kids here have English class twice a week for forty minutes each time. They also study Armenian and Russian. Of course, all three of these languages are written in different scripts.
Sara says that it is difficult for her students to be motivated to perform well because most cannot afford to go to University. And even if they do, there are still not many jobs. Sara's husband is unemployed, as are her cousins whom I also met tonight. Sara does everything she can to make enough money to provide for her family, like teaching private lessons and applying for grants such as the one to host me, but life is a struggle.
I feel very fortunate. More later.