"mount Ararat"

first of all i'm sorry for being off blogging and flickering.. me, Mike and Nicole went to "Cedar point" - an amusement park situated on an island. it was awesome and it's a separate post. i just took more than 50 photos and i still have to go through them all, find the best ones. the other reason was my notebook adapter broke and while i was waiting for a replacement i was on Mike's notebook, and well i didn't feel like blogging from it :) anyways..

Steve found out about the existance of an Armenian restaurant! he read an ad in a newspaper! so we got all excited about it and went there today...

we got into the car and Mike put on the radio which made me stare at the player. i couldn't believe my ears - the music seemed to be armenian! i though it only seemed to me and that maybe some radio station put on some authentic music. once the artist started singing there was no doubt left - it was armenian music!!! it kind of freaked me out - it seemed i was in the wrong car or not in america at all! then Mike explained that on sundays from 5 to 7 there is armenian radio on!!!

so yeah we were listening to it all the way to the restaurant (15 mins). we arrived and it seemed small and just appeared out of nowhere. we went in - tables with white tablecloth, glasses with white napkins, chandeliers, red velvet draping... classic restaurant. the only customers were 3 people who were speaking russian. then this young girl approaches us - and she looks 100% armenian. however i spoke english to her. then she asked if i spoke russian and she immediately switched to it. we ordered some armenian food and wine (not armenian :(( ). the food was very good and homely, and there was lavash (flat bread kind of thing). we really liked it all.

the other lady who approached to check on us seemed to be the girl's mom and we got the feeling that the restaurant was run by a family which explained why food was so "right". and only when we were done eating and asked for the bill i asked if she was armenian (which was an obvious question but i was just startled that she kept speaking russian to me).

girl: yeah i'm armenian...
me: yeah me too..

at that moment her face literally got lit up, her eyes grew wide, a very wide surprised smile appeared on her face and she said "what??!!" and so it started... we switched to armenian, then she took me to the restaurant kitchen and introduced me to her mom. i was gone for good 20 mins as Mike says :)) and i didn't even realize that! they were so nice! her name was Lilit and her mom's name was Nana. Nana got married to an american man and moved here. she asked some questions about me and Michael and said he was very sweet-looking guy. Lilit had been here for 2 years already and was excited about a new girl who doesn't know any armenians around here. then we even seemed to find some people we knew in common - from my university. no need to say that we exchanged numbers, and made plans for hanging out together.

it was funny to be there in the kitchen - there was this old woman there and i didn't know if she was armenian. Lilit and Nana went out to take care of some customers and i was waiting. the woman looked at me, i smiled at her. also there was a young american guy Nick working there. must be funny for him to constantly here armenian and russian buzz :))

later it turned out that the older woman was armenian too. it was so strange to be there and see 3 women of 3 generation speaking armenian and making some food. didn't feel like america at all. later me, Lilit and Nana went back to Mike and switched to english. Nana said Michael was lucky to have an armenian wife... which made me smile :D:D then she asked us to come over to their place for dinner someday. and then she said "don't even dare to pay!" Michael was surprised by such hospitality and well like i said they were very sweet. Nana looked at food that we didn't eat and asked "didn't you like it? why didn't you eat this?" which made Michael smile - he says only immigrants do that and that it's something nice.

and the other thing was it was a lot cheaper than american equivalents! so we will be going there very often now. and we're going to take Steve and Nicole there :) i hope they like it :D

but yeah it was so much fun! so tomorrow i will go out with Nicole - we will have a breakfast together at our fav. place - "the Baker square", then we will go on a photoshoot, then will clean around some and probably craft (another thing i haven't blogged about yet). and on tuesday i will go out with Lilit and she will show me around. i'm really excited now!

i'll stop here and i will try to catch up and make more posts soon :)