I met with some remodelling guys (from Jeff's house) today for the flat I have across the street. I think I will go with them. They will be start in about a week, and say it will take like 40 days. I am not holding my breath. Tomorrow is May Day, an official holiday in Armenia for the first time in ten years I am told. We are trying to think of something interesting to do, but so far no great ideas.

The great news is that they will finish publishing "my" tourism book this week. It is called Rediscovering Armenia and Brady Kiesling wrote the Armenia section, I edited it and added a Karabakh section and it should be finally complete soon. It will be a really handy resource for anyone over here, with super detailed maps and directions... but it is especially perfect for backpackers/independent travellers. I have packed pictures from my travels onto the cover though that should leave everyone drooling for more. There is just soooo much to see and people just don't know about 90% of it. Now that I have mastered how to have a book printed, I need to figureout this distribution thing... wish me luck, or else I will have a very large and redundant library ;-)

I was with some Swedish tourists yesterday. One of them is a lady lawyer and belongs to an association called lawyers without frontiers. This is a new association and last month they've sent two reps to Turkey to sit on a court hearing. The case was against a Turk who had written some pro Kurdish articles. He refused to hide and went to Turkey for trial. Last minute, the Turks called the trial off. Was the presence of the foreigners the reason? Or what?
The lady met two Armenian lawyers and had a friendly chat. Some irrelevant/relevant facts:
There are 3000 lawyers in Sweden, a county with 8 million population and 500 in Armenia, with approx. two million population.
In Sweden, 10 percent of them is female, in Armenia close to 30 percent.
The legal structure of both countries is quite similar. (For details go and see a lawyer or two.)
In Sweden they pay exorbitant membership fees to Lawyers' association, in return, (among other things) get a monthly magazine, get courses (but have to pay for it), and very essential for them, get insurance coverage.
In Armenia, lawyers (among other things) get to use the building of the association for an office if they need to (can't afford to have their own office), get free lectures, no insurance for the lawyers yet. X-Soviet countries still discussing the subject matter.
Future job opportunities in Armenia: establishing private law firms and insurance coverage for lawyers.

I went off in the morning to get rid of Spot. After a while I took it to the pet section of Vernissage, near the Vardan Mamikonian statue, and gave it to some women who were selling boxes full of puppies. Then after resting up a bit at home, I went furniture shopping in peoples homes. I called a few people with ads in the paper and some of the stuff was ok, especially some shelves and some cheap chairs.

So much for getting to bed at 10pm. Oh well. I had a late brunch while me and Ashot were burning CD's for a million years. You will hear more about his project "shpiyon" (thats Russian for spy) later ;-) In the evening we went to look at another remodelers work (at Jeff's house) and talk to him about prices. He seemed quite reasonable and decent, his only disadvantage is he does not do wall tiles and parquet. So we'll have to see. After that we went to an art exhibit opening, saw some interesting works and met some cool people. I ran into the Orange County (woohoo) Registers reporter who came here years ago to report on the eye project which my dad worked on and met him at the time. He has spent lots of time here since, and his personal assistant by coincidence at the AIM office is Sona, the sister of my dad's classmates sons wife. (Welcome to Armenia!) We also ran into Armine, the cool girl who works at the Karabakh MFA. After all that we went to a middle eastern place I had not been to before by the med school, and then headed home when the puppy somehow interfered with everything. She is a cute little bitch and although she was well on her way to being adopted by two girls, someone I know grabbed her and somehow "Spot" is spending the night in MY shower. I have been sworn to that Spot will be out of the house by 10am never to be back again. Believe me, it will be so! I really think Jeff ought to join this log, I will keep trying to convince him...

Today I spent 6 good hours at Raffi's place. Burning out a couple of douzen CDs to free up some disk space on my computer. Working on a huge project (that should see light within months) has been the main reason for me to buy a new computer, which looks really old and slow when it comes to dealing with this huge files. It's been a week or so since the last time I worked on this project, codenamed Spitak (White,) which was basically spent organizing my computer for more work. Aram and Jason had came over at around 12 with some lavash (Armenian bread) and juice. Raffi had the eggs and onions ready for us to enjoy. Aram noted that eggs taste better in Armenia than in the states, I could not comment, since I haven't tried the Armerican ones, yet. I great (and rare) spring day we missed working on the computer.

More about project Spitak when I get a chance. Got to get back to work...

The first feedback has arrived for this page. It was a beautiful letter from a Hayastantsi (Local Armenian) who left for work abroad, and feels bad for having left. I do not blame anyone for leaving for work. You only live life once, and if you can help rebuild the nation that is great, but if you are hungry, then what point is there in staying. Going abroad and earning some money gives you the luxury of coming back here like we have. I am running out of online time so more on this later...

Well I finally did it, I bought the quail eggs they have at the corner market of my building. At a dozen for a dollar, I couldn't really go wrong. They taste like regular eggs, but are of course quite little and freckled. I fried them up and enjoyed them.

I left the house at 1pm to meet someone only wearing a flannel shirt on top since it was nice out. 15 minutes later it was pouring buckets and unbelievably windy. 15 minutes later it was all over. Crazy spring weather... Afterwards I finally met the guy I was supposed to meet but who was waiting for me at the wrong post office, and I got a great start on the hotel web site. We went to Mer Kyugh (Our Village) for dinner to welcome Mike Candan who is here for a week working on habitat for humanity projects. He was here doing LCO last summer and is a great fellow. SO New York!

Today was a great day. Since I passed on my hotel product responsibilities yesterday, and have not gotten direction on the hotel website I am to work on now, I had a week day all to myself. In the morning I had a contractor look at my second apartment here which I need to remodel from scratch. I know his work is high quality since he did my friends house, but some of his prices are just not tolerable... I am not sure what I will do yet but I am sure it will be time consuming and annoying ;-)

After that I went to the undergroud used book market under Abovian and Moscovian and bought a few books. One of them is a gem, with loads of pictures about the Lori region. I discovered some new places in there that I have to go and visit now. In the afternoon I just stuck around at home, in case anything about the web site came up. Meanwhile I finished "Tropic of Cancer" by Henry Miller, which did not impress me.

Hi All,

My first Blog is to greet all of my -new- friends in Armenia. Special thanks go to Raffi for this great idea, through which the diaspora (Spurka-hayer) will get a better picture of life in our motherland. -Ash

The night of April 23, I went to Red Bull, a neighborhood bar where I hang every now and then. I went with Haik, one of my oldest friends in Yerevan (our families have been close for 15+ years...). After a little while, we ran into 2 other guys I know, a journalist and his friend, and they joined us for the next round of cold Kilikia beer. Then my co-worker and close friend Hakob called my cellphone, asked what I am up to. I told him to come down and join us. It was now after midnight when our little group decided that the right thing to do was to walk to the Genocide monument right there and then. I have never been in Armenia on April 24th, so the subsequent trek was that much more significant to me. We walked up the hill, sat by the flame (12 hours later the number of flowers would grow from the couple of dozen to some uncountable number in the tens or hundreds of thousands...) and each of us went through the requisite moment of silence. I believe that April 24 is both a time for personal reflection, as well as an opportunity for each Armenian to consider how we as a nation move forward in a just, correct, and proper manner. The walk back down the hill was similarly contemplative. As Raffi wrote, April 24 is indeed moving.

April 24 is very moving in Armenia. Unlike commemorations in America, where you want to scream to the whole world, "HELLO!!! THERE WAS A GENOCIDE!!!", in Armenia, there is nothing to prove. Everyone knows. Hundreds of thousands of people walk from all over the city to converge upon the base of the hill upon which the genocide monument. From there a large mass moves slowly up to the eternal flames, all day long, with each person putting a flower or two by the flames. By the end of the day these flowers form a wall around the flames.

What a day, I walked for three hours. All the way from Yum Yum donuts, Paregamootyun Square, to Dzidzernagapert and down. With a group of Armenian tourists we went to Dzidzernagapert to pay our respects. Then I took the bus - free transportation for the day.
And Armenians in Armenia know how to revere the death. This is a poor country but people take flowers, tons of flowers, to the graves of their loved ones, and to Dzidzernagapert.
Think of thousands of Armenians from Artzakh, from Hayasdan, from Spurk, think of live Armenian classical music, think of Armenian flag and army, think of Armenian sun, think of a harmonious walk toward one goal. That's Parev Yergir, that's April 24 in Armenia.

Hi Raffi and crowd. Aram Hajian here and excited to contribute. For now, just a quick hello. I think this is a great idea and I anticipate a lively exchange from us all. -Aram

Just watched "Analyze This" with some friends on my computer... it was not bad. Today was very quiet with me virtually not leaving the house. I did get some confirmations though about this online log and there are five of us already agreed, and I am waiting to hear from others. So hopefully you will start to see entries from others as well very soon.

Ah, Ararat is looming quite clear this morning. The view from my balcony of Ararat and much of Yerevan is great. In the summer weeks can go by without a clear view of Ararat, but at this time of year it is usually right in your face every morning.

Yesterday I went on a Habitat for Humanity build with a mix of locals, diasporans and Americans all working together. I just lugged rocks. I came back early and skipped the planned camping trip to check on someone who was sick. I turned out to be the one with the bigger problem as something got lodged in my eye just before coming home and would not get out for a good six hours. Finally it did and the fantastic meal at Middle Eastern Cuisine with Lena and her relatives for $3 each really made it all better. Michael Kandan is coming from New York on Thursday to help with Habitat for a week... that should liven things up. Dunno what we are up to today.

Lena just arrived last Thursday herself. She is an Australian Armenian who we met soon after moving here almost 2 years ago. She went back to Australia to save up some money so she can come here more long-term... so we are quite excited to have her back, even if she is a vegetarian :-) She should be logging in here now and again soon.

Welcome to the new LIFE IN ARMENIA log...