eat, sleep, speak armenian?

This is the real deal farm life. Just like on TV! I am privelaged to eat cheese and drink milk straight from the cow because I have no other choice. Other than the whole village smelling like a stockyard, life in Arzakan is truly something else. You would have thought that Jesus Christ himself was walking down the road, the way people here look at us, especially in the small village. I am going to pay fifteen times more for posting these pictures, so I hope you enjoy!

a long way here

I've arrived. My group of volunteers and I are staying high up in the mountains in cabins for a few days before we begin living with families. The country is quite beautiful, mountaineous, green, lots of wildflowers. I have almost no time to write and use the internet, this is a quickie..... there are people waiting in line behind me and our transport leaves soon. We all just met the other 80 volunteers who were whooping excited to see all of us. All is good, I'm signing off but will write and post pictures sooner than later....

what!!??

....who's who of nerds

lines

I don't look up enough, usually never notice the design of things like crossing power lines. I accidentally manipulated this one by my incompetence using photoshop. Sometimes accidents are nice... you find something you never knew you liked before, a neat effect.

the road

I didn't take this photo, I take no credit for it. Photographer is Bruce Dale. I do however like it very much. Said to be taken somewhere near the border of Iran and Armenia.

babeh boy

I got to Houston late last night, slept on my brother's couch and woke up to the bright morning light and a tiny bundle of new life, Hunter, their week old son. Adorable.

mrs winti

i'll have you know that the quentin tarentino shades...... are back.

the moody reds

In the last year, I've seen Graham play plenty. He's got a way about him on stage.... born to be up there or something. I like these high contrast red hues... the lighting had an inspiring effect for picture taking

luisa maria guadalupe

She is not very loyal, but she is quite novel..... she told me she had come all the way from Mexico

my parents

run down shack

I know this picture might look cliche, I think it is a little too, but I waited for 45 minutes for the birds to cooperate for my picture. These birds swarm around the fields and ponds across the way from the nursery I work at. I know they feed on the crops. Probably pests, but after watching their flight choices and patterns I began to enjoy the simple picture I was after. I don't know why taking pictures is so satisfying, it just is though.

fields

I like to be able to see. I love fields, you can see above and around and feel free. I have a chunk of memories involving fields, one of which being when I had to walk the field out the back door of our house to get to the waiting school bus in the early mornings. The world feels open in a field, just the way i like it.

boy meets girl

My friend Becca is marrying JT, they decided. Now they will torture the living hell out of each other for eons. I was a fresh innocent fawn when I met Becca, and then she introduced me to narcotic drugs, and we've been good friends since. They wanted me to take a few pictures of them together while they were here in Austin for a weekend. We got up early and drove around town looking for something they liked. Posed romance. I've never seen the "opposites attract" paradigm work so well, as it does with these two. I think they'll work out perfect!

suenos

Ojala que yo estuviera en Mexico....

line your eyes girls

....jus a little prep work involved. My mother. I think she's going blind, she needs those real scary close up mirrors to apply her make-up now. I always get ragged on for not wearing enough of it. Ooops!