In the morning, I hear kids' voices from outside. Behind my housing complex is an elementary school. A first grader like students comes one after another being taken hand by the parent. Some of them stop in the school yard and take a picture.
I heard entrance ceremony was Sep. 1 all across Armenia. So what's the day today three weeks later? Kids keep being taken by the parent and come into the school buildings and ascend the stairs.

The picture is interesting to me. Because I feel like seeing the relationship between school and home in Armenia. Maybe no Japanese parents took their children to the class room even if they are the first grade.
It's a little bit overprotective? Maybe no. For the parents, it's a quite important to know how's the new friends or new class. (Although the escort must be only first few weeks)

In Japan, child education is heavily taken role to a school. So Japanese children gotta think how to survive in a group from their pre-school age. The self-assertiveness is sometimes squinted by other member of the group. In the end Japanese people learn just following majority opinion and party is the safest way in their life. I believe Japan's bullying issue has a same root. On the other hand Armenia's child education looks like home based one. I think it is a world standard. Oh, I read in to it too much LoL

Fruits and vegetable vendors open market in the square. A man waving hand in a small window of barber's wooden hut. A rail track is a community road at most of the time. International train service between Georgia and Armenia is just once in a day for each direction. A butchers' owner already drinks a beer with long face. An woman sells sunflower seeds. I remember people often nibble it like a snack.

I stand on the hill side where I can look over the copper smelter. Under the perfect weather I have a perfect panorama. I don't know each part, or facility, has what role in the kombinat. But the chaos makes me so exiting. And for a ropeway gondola, it's still on the air without a inch of move from yesterday.

There is a guide plate by the roadside. A word "Hiking" is typed with nail holes. Oh, Alaverdi isn't famous for factory in general. Old Armenian churches and monasteries are set around the town. Trekking in the spots is popular tourist attraction. So why not try to visit one of them?

According to a map, the nearest site is "Sanahin monastery" which is located on top of rocky hill behind me. Now, I make sense. The other end of the rope way is Sanahin. But, how can I go up this cliff like steep slope? I ask people passing by. "Go around and around this mountain road! 7KM. Are you sure walking up all the way?" they say. The ropeway could be the shortest cut for getting there. But I have only two choices now, to walk or to take a marchroutka (Share taxi van). I choose the latter without hesitation.

After the march runs steep winding road, we come into another town on a flat land. This is my first experience of Fluvial Terrace in Armenia. The bottom of the canyon where current river runs is Alaverdi. And the town on the terrace is Sanahin ... No, people tell me here is Alaverdi too. This is new town and the one in the canyon is old town. Now I got it.

High school students' smile softens my heart. Meanwhile air of the town is sleepy. Satellite dishes on the old housing complex look like white mushrooms. It may have some relationship with the temporarily closed factory. The workers live in this town, for example. Yeah, it could be. Because the ropeway directly connect the edge of the town and the factory. It's not for tourists but for commuters.

So now I want to know why the ropeway was stopped. A guy tells me "Because of cable fire". If that's true, I'm so scared to imagine being passenger of the gondola which is hung in such a halfway.

Meanwhile, Sanahin monastery locate on outskirts of the town. A guide is describing something in Italian to a group of travelers. It's a picture of tourist place that I often see.
Oh, It's time to go back to lower world.

Although the sun declines, kids still play on the street of old town. Futon mattresses are still hang on the terrace of houses. Wait a minute, a futon mattress? That's some discovery.

Speaking of discovery, I often see a relief with portrait on the entrance of housing complex. I thought it's a guide plate of celebrity's house. But there are too many for that. I saw similar reliefs in other towns of Armenia.
My guess is that it's a commemoration of resident in the past. The family donate it. Some time the commemorative donation isn't relief but facility. One guy proudly told me "This drinking fountains are left by my father"