One of the biggest fears of the 21st century is the computer virus.
Yesterday an email message warned me about a dormant virus that would become active on June the 1st. Following instructions found the mentioned exe file and deleted it and then emptied my recycle bin.
Being a conscientious person forwarded the letter to correspondents. In the midst of it got another e-mail: the previous letter was hoax. The deleted file is part of Microsoft Windows utility.
So� that's how I spent my evening. Irritating and annoying people all the way from Armenia to Europe and North America.

Here are the forecast temprature highs for Yerevan...

Hi 80� F, 26� C (Wednesday)
Hi 81� F, 27� C (Thursday)
Hi 84� F, 28� C (Friday)
Hi 92� F, 33� C (Saturday)
Hi 97� F, 36� C (Sunday)

Considering it has not gone above 85 this year, and it was 80 today, it is hard to believe that Sunday will approach 100 degrees. And the "season" at Lake Sevan does not begin for another month. Most people here take these seasons quite seriously. When we visited Dilijan in the late fall, people told us we are crazy, what is the point? Hmmm, the beautiful leaves, houses, scenery, fresh air.

Today, like most of my weekdays was preoccupied with work. Ever since we got to know about the release date (of the software our department is working on) things got messy. Every hour we spend on one thing, means we spend one hour less on the rest. And the clock is ticking. I also got to know that our company is going public (i.e. our stocks will be available to the public to buy.) Which is a good thing, it should make us grow bigger and stronger. Which will eventually be reflected on us.

Other than work, I'm going through my exams, as you know. I still have about 2 more weeks. And that's really boring. I need to have some rest from school and work. Soon, I promise myself, soon.

One thing, though, was remarkable today. It was an e-mail I got. Like the one I wrote about a week ago, it was from a person that possibly found out about me from this log. Something that I start to like more and more... But this time it wasn't from some relative who found me, it was from someone who wants to move to our motherland.
Read on...

Dear Ashod,
My name is A----. You do not know me, I don't think. I have been to
Armenia twice and I plan to come again this November. Currently I work for
National Semiconductor as a Wireless Lab Manager. We design chips that go into
cellphones. My plan is to move there, find a wife, and get a job. I was
unaware Armenia had any high-tech and if I can find that kind of job, perhaps
that would be good. If I wasted your time, please forgive me. If you think
there may be interest in my abilities, please let me know.

Sincerely yours,
A----

A----, I respect your privacy, if you are reading this, I'd like you to know how good an example you are to others that are coy when it comes to asking like you did. Be sure you didn't waste my time, definitely there is interest in your abilities in Armenia (and in anyone in the high-tech field) and Yes, Armenia is moving towards High-Tech.

Yesterday was incredibly productive. I ordered a nice wood door with steel insides from one guy, I bought the kitchen/bathroom tiles, and ordered bedroom/closet doors as well as some furniture from Yura, a carpenter from Vanadzor. He will do the doors for waaaay less than all these other clowns. So everything is picked out pretty much, I just need a few other pieces of furniture, which I will probably have Yura make since everything I have seen in stores so far is pretty butt ugly. After that I will get a couple of appliances and finis!

Officer Hakob Mkhitaryan's Lecture on our (lack of) Rights

So Yesterday we had a run in with the police (again!). My own remodelers were taking me around to get the aforementioned items, when as often happens, a cop on the side of the road indicates you over for no reason at all (aside from a bribe). My remodeler (as often happens) ignored the theif and kept driving. The cop radioed ahead to the next policeman along the road - they really are everywhere here - and warned him of our approach. This cop, Hakob Mkhitaryan (Badge number 0347) stood in the middle of the road and forced us over. I got out and asked what we had done wrong to begin with etc, and him and his partner got incensed that I would dare to ask such a thing. They were asking where I was from so they could determine if they could get away with kicking my ass, (this is what they do to locals who ask questions or talk back if they don't have important friends) and were really mad that I was from America. His parter Rafael took my remodeling guy up to the first cop to write him up a ticket, which is a big pain in the butt because of the way they set things up here. He no longer would take the bribe since I had pissed them off. During this time I went over to Officer Hakob to get his name for you and he refused to tell it to me, instead telling me I have no rights in this country ("Iravunk Chunis") and go back to your country ("G'na ko Yerkir'")... Hell, I thought that was what I was doing all this time ;-) So I wrote down his badge number at this point and he decided he may as well tell me his name now that I have his ID anyways. He told me to go print it ("Kna d'be). I assured him I would and returned to the car to wait for my remodeler whose only fault (they never mentioned any other) was ignoring the theifs command to pull over for the fleecing. Now as I am sitting in the car waiting, Officer Hakob apparently had to give me more of his mind. He came over and sat IN the car and tried to chew me out some more. He said "Kayl angam dujh dur", which I don't know what it means even, mentioned he was from Arshaluys Village near Echmiadzin (apparently in order to prove he was not embarrased of his behavior and identity anymore), mentioned Yerkrapakh, and started trying to explain how police relations are with people in Hollywood, CA (in a further attempt to prove that his thievery is not so bad) before finally leaving me alone. All I can say is go to hell Officer Hakob. You are the reason this economy collapsed, and people are hungry and leaving by the thousands.

I hope I am not dwelling on the negative too much, this whole thing took only 10 minutes in otherwise a great day, but since this is the biggest problem in Armenia right now, I feel I must dedicate some space to it even though the police cannot harm me personally.

On May 28 we visited Tokhmakh cemetery.
Aram Manugian, one of the founders of the first Republic and one of my childhood heroes, is buried there.
Armenian history is mostly conceptual in Diaspora, here you can reach and touch it and a cemetery is such a place.
If you're not disturbed by the thought, it's worthwhile visiting a cemetery in Armenia. It reflects attitudes, values and culture.
At Tokhmakh by chance we met an acquaintance. She and her sister were bringing birthday flowers to their late father.
My sister-in-law invites us to lunch on her late husband's birthday.
In Diaspora we focus on the anniversaries of death, here the birth takes precedence.
Local Armenians spend fortunes on funerals and graves. Having a poor life is acceptable but poor death is not. Needy family will make enormous debts.
The most common grave ornament is Khatchkar in Armenia. Khatchkar is a stone cross, it is carved embroidery, it's an art form practiced by Armenians for the past 11 centuries. Though it might be erected for any occasion as a landmark, it's mostly erected on graves.
Other ornaments include abstract art forms, of beautiful women, of eagles, and statues of the deceased. This is the least favorite on my list. When the family of a mafios erects a full-length statue would you say 'God bless his soul' or 'Thanks God he's dead'? And trust me, you would know it by the figure.
Families spend hours by cleaning, planting, watering, incense burning and setting up a table. Passers by are offered bread, meal, juice, and arak (vodka).
The proper thing to do is to accept the offering say 'voghormi' (God bless his soul) and drink it.
Another glass will be poured on the grave.
This is the living and the dead from Armenia.

Yesterday marked independence day for the 1918 Republic of Armenia, a national holiday. I did not really wander about town much, but in the evening at a friends house there seemed to be a number of good programs on TV about this subject, and fireworks after dark.

On Sunday I joined a group of guys visiting Kobayr Monastery. This is one of Armenia's greatest spots at any time of year, but in the spring it is just magical. The exposed wall frescoes, building after building with beautiful reliefs, the Armenian as well as Georgian inscriptions, the large cave with a spring, the river gorge it is located in, the green of the Lori region compounded by the extra-rainy spring all contributed to making it an awesome Sunday. Almost nobody visits this monastery, which is just a 15 minute walk from the main highway. Very few people know about it, so we had the entire place to ourselves the whole day. Six hours of exploration, singing, and of course khorovadz (bbq) and perfect weather all day before we had to pack it up and make the 3 hour drive back to Yerevan. Today it is back to remodeling issues...

When your fantasy becomes true!

Science teach us that _nothing_ is absolute. Nothing is certain. Human beings tend to rely on things that wouldn't change. Believe, love and hope. Three things that helped our race survive for millenia. We all tend to find that thing that is absolute to us, that we don't doubt, and can't break. We try to find that in our friends and the ones we love.

Security, I'm talking about. And a secure life is what everyone seeks. Secure jobs, family and future. And when you have it, you can't give it up. You don't dare to. Until it's history!

The Soviet Union was all that for "it's people." The "Mother Country," as a lot like to call it, was invincible, or that's what they thought. 15-20 years ago no one would have listened to you if you have talked about "Free Armenia," it was an illusion that would never come true, a fantasy that people forgot about. People had jobs before graduating from school, had to go to schools by law. One had to finish school, get his job and get married. Life was simple, at least the way they knew it. It's no longer the same, people have to cope with that.

The ones that can't, are gone already, they left their homes and lands. An enormous amount of people with their families left their homes, from Ukrain, Armenia, Georgia... to Europe and the US, and Russia is not an exception. That was the case with most, but not all. Some have higher principles, and believes. For some, his home is his family and friends. And they are the ones that fight for it.

My Russian-language teacher, a true Armenian, likes to remind everyone of our history. Not the one that is hardly 80 years old, no, not the one that every corner of it is corrupted with a foriegn mark. She talks about Great Armenia, Cilicia and our ancestors. She talks about Gesaria and it's people, Van and Bolis. And above all, she talks about Armenian art and culture. Musicians, artists and scientist, among others, that were and are proud to be Armenian, just like her.

It dawned on me yesterday how important it was to have good friends in Armenia. I say this as my family is so far away from here and it can get pretty lonely at times without friends.
Today I went to a small Church called �Sourp Katoghige� which is located in a courtyard between Abovian and Sayat Nova streets. A christening was taking place and I watched with pleasure the happy event. Three sisters (orphans) were being christened at the same time ranging from the ages of 6 to 18 years old. I was amazed at how casual the service was, not at all like the christening events I had experienced previously.
Finally my landlord turned up today with his wife to collect rent and handed me 3 gorgeous roses. What hospitality!!

One of the most fulfilling moments of life is when you bring a smile to an orphan's face.
There's a 'mankadun', an orphanage, for 2 to 7 years old in Zeitun, close to where I live.
Dzovig and I visited them yesterday afternoon. Kids and adults are always happy to see Dzovig, they know she'll be bringing goodies. We had navy canvas shoes for the older kids and red sandals for the youngest.
There are 70 kids in five groups and each has two group leaders.
I noticed new faces. Haig, one and a half year old, would come very close when you called 'ari ari', and present his back so that you carry him to your lap. Nanor, his group leader, wears stylish clothes (she studied fashion design) and encourages them to dance with her. She got enthused by the red sandals. Even before trying I could see that the red was � the size of what Haig had on his feet. Off the old shoe went, and then a very thick sock followed it, a second sock appeared. Haig's foot size shrank by half. She tried the sandals and they were probably a size or two large on his feet. "This is great', Nanor did not want to part with them, and gave hearty kisses to Haig. Haig doesn't speak yet, he looked at his feet applauded and started chuckling.
The kids are well disciplined, won't make any vocal demands. There's shy Sareengule (=flower of the mountain) with very delicate features, Sirush with sexy Barbie doll face, Rusanna with the lazy eye, Nareg with russian-blond features, and plain-faced Mariam always well disposed and giggling. They were circling us. Navy canvass shoes were too large for them.
Most of the kids have at least one relative: an uncle, grandparent, single parent, and a few have both parents alive. The role of mankadun is changing from being an orphanage to boarding school for the impoverished. Then there's the horror story, the kids who were left at the cemetery.
Yesterday morning we went Hrazdan to get good deals, the first store we entered the sales-guy had a good chat with us and sent us to the wholesale section for better deals. He was very curious: "Providing for the orphans is essential, but are they taking good care of the kids? Are they affectionate? What about character education?"
Zeitun mankadun is a bright place with yellow curtains and bedcovers, books and toys in each room, gardens outside the building. Sirush had a big whole in her tights and some shoes had only half soles. From what we have seen, they are well fed and ARS feeds all orphanages once a week.
'Dzovig jan when you see kids are not wearing the new sandals demand that they always wear them', one of the group leaders advises us. The messenger is brave.
We need to buy shoes for the rest. The money is there; Armenian-French tourists donated it last month.
An orphan's smile is great compensation; an orphan's chuckle inspires faith and trust that things could be changed.

I made a great pot of "Armenian Lemon Egg-drop Chicken Noodle Soup" today, with chunks of chicken and celery added to the recipe. I think that is my absolute favorite soup, with the possible exception of Manti, if that is counted as a soup. I like to add carrots too, but they are virtually impossible to find, since they are out of season.

A postscript on running into people on the streets... not ten minutes after writing that entry I ran into the son of the owner of the restaurant who's chef I had run into earlier, and then I saw the guy who owns the best used bookstore in Armenia (on Mashdots under the Matenadaran).

A first postscript to the inside doors... the guy I counted on to meet on Friday from Vanadzor could not come because his uncle had died. It occured to me that deaths in the family were incredibly more frequent here than in America and it finally occured to me why. Because families are much bigger than in America, you have two or three times as many siblings, aunts, uncles, etc, as well as are much closer to your cousins and all.... so it makes sense that with so many more people close to you, there is a bigger chance something will happen to someone close. Today we went to a couple of places and still no luck, they were just too busy to be bothered. Where are you Home Depot?!?!?

I went to Vernissage today and dropped off some of Rediscovering Armenia books. Now I will finally see how well they sell...

Do I get a prize for squeezing so many links into this log?

Ladies are holding beautiful bouquets again.
Though exams are scheduled for next week and the week after, today the bells rang for the last time.
There's a festive mood. Young man-graduates are wearing suits with little bells pinned on their lapels, woman-graduates have bridesmaid like dresses and taking group pictures on Apovian.
Tonight they will party. 'Last Bell' is the end of high school, Tomorrow they will join mainstream of life.

Big City-Small Town: Yerevan

I don't know what it is like to live in a small town really, but living in Yerevan, a town of over a million residents (1989 census?) feels like one to me. The layout of Yerevan provides for a compact center of town, with lots of parks and wide sidewalks, and on the outskirts are areas of detached homes as well as highrise housing. So if you live in the center of town (pokr gentron) you get to know a lot of people and everywhere you go, you run into them. On the street a minute ago I ran into a volunteer I worked with 2 years ago, at lunch Nigol and Zabelle, at Arminco, the chef from a restaurant I went to all the time... Although the city in California I lived in had only 100,000 people, and I lived there most of my life, I knew far less of them, and almost never ran into anyone by chance. Perhaps it is because I drove everywhere I went, perhaps it is because you do not spend more than 1 minute on transactions and don't talk much over there, or it could be that everything is just sooo spread out. Once I was speculating that at any given moment when you are out on the streets of Yerevan, there is someone you know out there... whether you can see them or not. Within a minute we ran into one of our first friends in Yerevan, sitting in front of the Opera, who had just bought a house in the homeland.

Sorry folks for not having written in a while...I have a close friend in town visiting from Boston, so I have neglected some things. Anyway, among the many topics I'd like to write about a bit, one is live music. In addition to chess (a realm I love here in Armenia), the music talent level is phenomenal and scene is quite active. Through Jason (the head of the volunteer corps), a few months back I met Gor, a rock guitarist from Vanadzor who hangs in Yerevan pretty often. He played a couple of gigs at a new blues bar in the Rycom region of Yerevan (above Komitas). We had a great time listening to (and participating?!?!) renditions of the band's Armenian folk-turned-rock songs, as well as a smattering of American classic rock tunes. Beer is great and cheap (50 cents!) and a fine evening was had by all. A week later, Gor turned 28 and we celebrated in a scaled-down version at the same bar. On a different note (no pun intended) a bunch of us went tonite to a reception at the Hotel Armenia supporting Habitat for Humanity, an NGO from the states that has been registered here for about 6 months...Hover, an astounding choir comprised largely of music conservatory students here in Yerevan, sang a couple of songs and wowed the crowd. They are an incredible group and I'll leave it at that. Suffice it to say, if you like music, Armenia is a great place to kick back and open your ears. And I haven't even mentioned local blues, Armenian traditional, jazz, liturgical music, classical etc etc etc...

Another productive morning was spent with the local Armenian Volunteer. Then it went downhill from there, I was running around for the next 5 hours for the remodelling of the flat. Since I need a new phone line for my place I was sent to a far away place, which ended up being the wrong place. I finally tracked down the correct place to have phone line installed only to find out that I did not meet their requirements. One of the requirements was that I needed a letter from the notary to say all debts had been paid. Why that letter is important is beyond me, when I have the Title Deeds in my name as well as passport etc! Anyway then I made a trip to the Real Estate Agent who sold me the unit 2 years ago and luckily I have maintained good relationship with them and they will be helping me with the process. Meantime most of the roads were blocked because of Putin�s visit so I had to run most of the way. Finally I received the second feedback about this log page �Life in Armenia� and it was rather encouraging.

Have a cow, man

I got an e-mail from an Ameriga-Hay friend living in Karabakh today, it seems he is now being hooked up with good internet access. In case you didn't know, anyone wanting to move to Karabakh will be given a free house, land and some animals (including a free cow!) by the government, eventually even recieving dual citizenship. They also give money for each newborn as a way to encourage population growth and secure their future. The good weather and beautiful rolling green hills and forest alone make it a tempting.

The area around Yerevan is very dry and barren, but if you venture north to Dilijan it is green from there till the Azeri and Georgian borders. Likewise down south from Goris to Kapan and Tatev, and the irrigated oasis of Meghri. Unfortunately very few of Armenia's tourists bother to visit these lush and beautiful parts of Armenia, which I hope will change with time.

There's a meeting in Armenia and when one of the presidents is expected the main roads are barricaded and a policeman is erected on every 10 meters. Not knowing the custom, we went to Argavant, the area between Yerevan and Zvartnotz airport.
Ardavant is landmarked with dark gigantic furniture laid open in front of stores. Yesterday the merchandise was tucked inside; owners and employees had plenty of time to socialize with each other and with chain smoking police. From time to time driving police using loud speakers were announcing that parking was not allowed on the main road. The mood was one of forced holiday.
I just wonder, how many policemen do we have? Other than tax collection and ornamental function do they have other duties?

My log today is not about life in Armenia. In fact, it has nothing to do with Armenia, still, everything with "Life in Armenia." A couple of days ago I recieved an email from a stranger. The name of the sender did not give me hints, for I didn't know anyone with that name. I was a click away of deleting it, as I recieve tons of junk mail. And before doing that terrible mistake, I read the subject. It read "are we related?" And that stopped me. I opened the mail, 50% convinced that I'll be reading yet another ad. Thinking what a new way to make people open and read these ads. And soon, I knew I was wrong.

From: Lauren Alys Almquist <-----------@yahoo.com>
To: ashod_ash@hotmail.com
Subject: are we related?
Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 19:33:20 -0700 (PDT)

Barev,

This may sound like a strange letter but I am writing
to you because I saw your name on the cilicia website
and you were writing about living in Armenia. I was
wondering if you are related to my family, well part
of my family (I am half Armenian) their name is
Nakashian. I know that some of our relatives were
from Egypt and Libya so that is why I am so curious.
Maybe you are not related but it was too much of a
coincidence to pass it up. I was recently trying to
find if we still had any relatives left in Egypt but I
had no luck. Anyway, sorry to bother you I don't
know if this makes any sense, but I just had to make sure.
If you are not related, this is a big coincidence I guess.
I hope to hear from you when you have the chance, thank you!

Lauren

So, I've found a lost branch of the family (of may be our branch was the lost one :)

ASHTARAK CAPPUCCINO ICE-CREAM

Dram for dram, I think the Ashtarak Cappuccino ice-cream cone is the best deal around. Ashtarak, Shant and Tamara are the three big ice-cream companies in Armenia, and their freezers of premade ice-cream cones and bars are found everywhere. At 100 drams (less than 20 cents) the cappuccino is a great deal, although other cones can be found as well for as low as 50 drams. Fancy sugar cones and bars with nuts start at about 150 and cost up to 300 drams -- still a great deal. The ice cream season started in earnest about a week ago and will no doubt continue non-stop until mid-September to October.

No remond news is good news? I am taking a couple of days off remond shopping. In any case, except for furniture and doors/windows everything is pretty much set (as if finding good furniture or having it made is going to be easy!) In my building and the one across from mine about a half a dozen places are being remodeled, the most interesting being the place directly across the street from me at my level... women are doing the remodeling! This is unheard of here, so I will find out what the deal is there since I saw my wood guy over there and can get the scoop from him.

For lunch we went to a Chinese place off Mashdots, that used to be Chinese, then became Uzbeki, and is now Chinese again. It is very authentic and the cooks speak neither Armenian nor Russian... The food was delicious and we splurged, spending about $4 per person for our sweet and sour pork, fried dumpling, fried rice and tea.

Had a productive morning working on a Project with a local Armenian Volunteer, very talented young man. Then as soon as I came home, the doorbell rang and a woman announces she was doing Community work or something to that effect. I was suspicious so I told her without opening the door that the owner wasn�t home. I had some errands to run and had to leave the house immediately again, they were both still waiting for me outside, as I knew they would, and the woman announces they were Jehovah�s Witness. I refrained myself from making a derogatory remark, nodded and just walked off. The highlight of my day was that I found material for covering my couch, which I hope someone will be able to make (I have yet to find someone who can make some furniture).

Today Ararat was so clear, I'd never seen it this clear until today. You could see Ararat so clearly from everywhere, in fact it was visible until 9.50pm from a friend's house, it was an incredible sight, very magestic.
I also a met a lady today originally from Beirut who has been living in Yerevan for the past 3 years. Anyway she ended up coming from the same neighbourhood as I did (Nahr el Mod) and she knew my childhood friend. She will try and pass on my e-mail address as I have lost contact with my best friend from Beirut. Talk about a small world!

The weather has been changing in Armenia for about 2 months now. They told me that Armenia doesn't have spring. It just don't exist. Funny, I thought, how can the weather change from very cold to very hot without seasons. For the past 3-4 weeks it's been raining daily, only this week that it started being unregular. The days that are sunny and warm could end up being very windy and rainy too. Locals and friends that were in armenia last spring told me that it was pretty hot in may.

It's getting hot already, we all know that soon the rain will stop and the wind will turn into hot nights. Which also reminds me of the summer vacation. But before that one must go through some exams. And that's what I have to do next week.

Today, I got my exams schedule. The system in Armenia is a bit different than what I was used to. Before I used to have exams in ALL subjects. Some of the subjects had course projects. Here, in Armenia, some subjects do have course projects, but most don't have exams! So the idea of an exam is different. An exam is a written one (usually 1.5 hours to 3 hours,) where all students are expected to attend on the set date and time. If you fail or don't attend the first time, you are expected to show up 3 or 4 days later for another chance. If the subject had a course project, you cannot attend the final exam without having it done. But for the rest of the subjects, it's not the same. Usually you are asked to prepare some research work, or prepare for a quiz. More than one date is set, you get your grade on the spot, once you are done with the oral test (aside from the other requisites.)

Last semester we had to prepare a 10 page assay on philosophy or a philosopher. This semester we are given different subjects to study and prepare for the oral test. Languages work in a different way. For the russian language you are expected to participate in a conversation with the teacher and the rest of the class. At the end of the hour and a half you are given your grade, according to your performence. When it comes to electronics, computer architecture and control systems... it's a different story. It's the exam we all fear and prepare for. The long list of questions you have to squeeze your brains to answer.

I already asked my boss at work for some flexibility in my working hours for the comming couple of weeks, while I prepare and pass my exams.

Since last summer the interior of Echmiadzin has been renovated, repainted or revarnished.
Yesterday we took Viken to Echmiadzin. Viken is Nigol's friend from Toronto. More than seeing places he wanted to stay in Yerevan, drink Kotayk and watch Yerevantzis: the chic aghchigner, police collecting tax from drivers, the kids playing in streets. But a couple of times we dragged him out.
Arrived Echmiadzin and the first person we met was Abo, Albert of Echmiadzin, he is an amazing artist, a varbed in abstract painting. An architect, Samuel, was with him.
Abo was watching the congregation. Together we watched the constant flow, locals leaving the church by walking backwards, and visitors turning around and walking out.
Many visitors, Hi and odar, have been disappointed in Echmiadzin. We have heard so much about it that we expect to find a huge cathedral and we do not. It has its charms though. One of them is the main entrance, the detailed work, columns with animal figures on it. The other is the murals on the interior walls and domes, so colorful and so unique for an Armenian Church.
Asked Samuel about the animals, and he explained them by the influence of Iranian architecture, one of the shahs wanted to demolish Echmiadzin and the monks engraved his figure on the cathedral by night and convinced him otherwise. Suddenly the busy, colorful, wall murals make sense.
I try to understand Echmiadzin, The Holy Sea of all Armenians. I've descended to the heathen altar located under the Christian altar. It is said that the entry to the fire temple was well hidden, covered and closed, access denied by the power of Sourp Grigor Lusavorich's seal. Throughout history we've learnt that the heathen churches were destroyed, but the twentieth century uncovered the fire altars under the Christian churches. There's another one under Sissian's Sourp Grigor church, discovered and reburied three or four decades ago. Why would Grigor bury the fire temples and not destroy them? It is like Vartavar, Water worship ritual and celebration of St Mary coming together. It is like engravings of the Armenian khatchkars, the sun (heathen faith) and the Cross above it (symbolizing victory of Christianity).
Perhaps it is the understanding that different elements, layers of history, engravings come together to make one faith, one culture. Always changing always the same. Ours.

Doors

I spent almost 5 hours today, shopping for a bedroom and a bathroom door. I had been looking around already for a while, but without luck. Today I went to a place near the Opera that does good quality work with Lena and asked them for a quote... they started talking to me about their German technology, airtight seals, quiet shut, etc, etc... then they told me it would cost $200 for one door. Now you cannot imagine what a simple door I was requesting. A frame of wood which is 8cm all the way around, and a piece of wood (also 8cm) across the middle which splits it into 2. Glass fills in the two big empty spaces. This is very little work and very little wood. I told him that I did not need a door with fancy German technologies, I need a simple normal door! He said he did not make those, and acted as if it was beneath him. At this point I changed my mind about asking him any more prices for all the furniture I wanted made, and let Lena have a go at him. She tore her hair out for about 15 minutes trying to get him to give her a straightforward price. He was flatly refusing on the basis that he cannot be exact. We explained the whole idea of an "estimate" just needing to be somewhere in the ballpark so we know if he needs to bother give us a more exact number tomorrow after calculations, or if it is just not in our ball park. He did not understand and went on with more incomprehensible dribble before we got fed up and walked out. He at that point came after us and tried to explain himself to us again, but it was the same stuff he had already told us. We told him to just call us when he has finished all his calculations.

Next we went to a place on Nalbandian, which had doors imported from England which are fancier, bigger and shipped all the way across the continent for only $80... they did not have my sizes, and they do not do custom sizes. From there we went to the Arlex and AVC offices and asked for advice from our friends there. We were directed to a place near the Republican Stadium which we never ended up finding. So we kept wandering to Nar Dos Street, more populary known as Shinararneri Poghots (Builders street) where I found a guy selling a somewhat decent door for $50. I was asking him about custom making one and he said he could make my doors also for $50. At this point Lena's remodeling foreman Rudik showed up by chance and I turned around to talk to him for a second and before I knew it the wood guy was being hauled off by the police with his door and other wood. Two cop cars and a bunch of officers just hauled him and his stuff away without any explanation except saying to him that "we told you we would come this afternoon". I assume it was a shakedown since the poor old guy wasn't doing anything and there was no formal arrest or anything. Rudik thought they just wanted the door, and it was all a pretext for that. In any case, it was quite disturbing. I dislike policemen a great deal in America (at least the traffic variety) but here they are just corrupt scum of the earth. So now we headed to another place with Rudik which was going to take forever to make it and for too much money, and finally we gave up for the day.

A couple of days ago, I bought a smoked fish off the street, literally. It is pretty salty and oily but very tasteful. Will be eating that fish again.
Sunday was a perfect day and the weather was just beautiful. A group of us went hiking to Havuts Tar Vank, which is located in the Garni Gorge. It was a fair walk up the hill for approximately 1.30 hours. Once at the Vank though all that hard work was forgotten. It was so peaceful and serene. Well worth checking out.
Today, it was back to (remonding) and all I�m going to say is that the whole day was quite frustrating. As one would say �get used to it, this is Armenia�.

Saturday is the day of the week people wait for. Like in most of the world it's the day that people leave their jobs early and enjoy their time untill past bed-time. Also it's the day that people go to concerts and birthday parties. For me this weekend was a birthday party weekend. A friend had just turned 28, and so a bunch of us had to go and celebrate. It was fun, all of my friends were there. True, we had plans for travelling on sunday, we had plans to go hiking, which meant that we had to get some rest and be ready for a good long hike. Since I had to stay awake all night twice last week, I needed a good sleep (which I never got.) I left the scene early, people were still dancing and drinking.

Sunday had a clear blue sky, sunny and warm, a typical spring day. One that we never had all week. It was the day you'd love to enjoy site-seeing and hiking. We went to Garni's gorge (where there are fish farms by the stream) to hike all the way up to this church. Although there is more than one trail to get you there, there are no roads that lead to the church. You have to enjoy an hour of hiking to enjoy the church and the view from up the mountain. Me and my friend decided were were too tired for an hour hike. The rest (3 of them) took the water bottle and something to eat and started their jurney. Me and my friend stayed by the river, I took a nap while he read his book. Both of us enjoyed talking about different things and enjoyed the nature around us. Cows and horses around us and high rocky mountains.

The week is over and day routine is back. Back to work and back to life. Work experiece must be different to everyone in the world. For most it's boring, and for some it's just what they have to do to get the money they need to survive. I don't know about the rest of you, but I sure know that I enjoy my time at work. I'm a programmer, and my life is more or less connected with computers. Since we work in teams, collaboration is a vital thing for us. And being in a friendly environment is as important as team work. I had worked in several companies before moving to Armenia, some had less than 10 employees and some had over 150. I had to try to work with Armenians still. I had to try to use my native language at work. People here are very friendly, I had no problems to cop with, even though I'm the only employee from the diaspora among 100 local Armenians. It's true that I work at a branch. Nonetheless, it is the only branch in the world. And it's got 3 times as much emploees as in the headquarters in the US. When I came for an interview they told be that 90 percent of the products they have are made by Armenians, soon my work of 8 months will be in the hands of big chip manufacturers' engineers (among which is AMD). And not only it's made by Armenians, but it's also made in Armenia.

This log entry concerns my remodeling and house purchasing in Armenia, so skip it if that isn't your thing. Today the piping was all finished, so I really need to get my doors and windows ordered so that things don't begin to slow down. They will be putting in the wiring and cementing the floors next. I really like the guys working on my place so far. They are really great gentlemen and hard workers.

Buying a House in Armenia

OK, since I have done this twice now, I can tell you at least that if you are buying a simple apartment (flat) in Armenia, it is actually frighteningly easy. Easier than buying a car in America, even without financing! If it is a house which comes with land, then things get more complicated, and I do not have any experience with that. OK, so there are normal real estate brokers that can show you what they have listed. They showed me some nice places, but I was rather picky and wanted a bargain too, so I started going through the classifieds (in Gind weekly) and looking myself. When I found what I wanted, the other persons broker took care of all the paperwork, and all I had to do was hand over the cash (yes, there is no mortgage system here yet) and then a few weeks later pick up the deed to the house. You do not need to be an Armenian citizen to do this. If you buy a non-remodeled house in the very central part of Yerevan called Pokr Gentron, a studio apt begins at around $5,000 and a one bedroom starts at about double that. But of course, those houses are not remodeled. They may be in OK condition, but most likely you will have to gut it so as to change ancient piping, rotten windows, bad parquet, electricity, etc. For a remodeled place, add about 5 to 10 thousand dollars depending on the size of the place and the fanciness of the remodeling. If you do not have a lot of time to worry about remodeling, you should definitely buy a house which is already remodeled. I am not taking the cheaper high rise homes into account when I tell you about the market. Those homes built of pre-fabricated concrete panels can be slummy feeling, and more importantly, do not seem very earthquake safe to me. Locals feel the same way about them and therefore they cost noticably less. The buildings I would consider are called "Kari-shenk", meaning stone-building. They are up to 5 or 6 stories high and rarely have elevators. The higher floors are noticeably cheaper since locals hate stairs, and often the views and noise levels are much nicer on the higher floors anyways.

If you do not plan to spend a great deal of time in Armenia, you can consider renting out your home while you are not around on a nightly basis. There are a few agencies now organizing this so that tourists can get much better value for their money. Instead of two people paying $70 a night for a lame small room in a hotel, they can stay at a private home for anywhere from $20 to $45 a night. Some of these places sleep 4 or 6 people, which makes things a lot more affordable for families. The broker will give you 90% of the money.

Ooooh, I am so exhausted, but no hangover thank goodness. Last night we went to the blues bar which is this real dive up past monument. I didn't realize how much I had drank when it hit me incredibly hard. Now I still need to catch up on my sleep, and logging at 6:30am is not helping...

For the second time in 3 days, I had to visit zvartnotz (the airport) at 4 and 5 a.m. It's fun, only you have to stay awake till the hour. On the 15th an egibtahay was on his way to Yerevan from France. I had to be at the airport expecting swissair's plan to land at 3:50 a.m. Though it had been delayed, the plan was full of tourists. I thought may be they had to wait for some of them! Anyway, seeing about 150 tourists (and about 50 locals) fresh from the plan is fun. Some things do tell you how this country is developing and at what rate.
Yesterday (or rather today), I went to get a friend's buddy. After sleeping for a couple of hours (and waking up on my neighbor's electric guitar's destortion, who's latelly decided with his gang -2 or 3 girls and 2 guys- to form a band, and has been practicing daily ever since) I had to come to work. On the way got stopped by the cops (again,) only this time I recognised the guy's face, he had stopped me before. So I wait to hear what he's got to say, and what he said was lame (that I had back off a bit where I shouldn't) then he went on saying (without me interupting him) that this is the second time and he'll let me go, but the third will be the last!

Well the guidebooks are safe and sound, occupying an entire wall. Get 'em while they're hot off the press!! Hmm, it would be nice if I get them onto amazon.com so there is something besides that lame Lonely Planet book available abroad. Aaanyways, on the way back, Ashot got pulled over by a cop and took forever to talk his way out of it. Then as soon as I was done unloading the books, I looked over at the balcony of the place I was remodeling and saw my remodeling guys and that cop indicating for me to come over. I met the cop at street level with Zabel, Lena, and Ashot and we all started talking and complaining at once. I am not sure in the end what his original intent in coming over was (bribe?), but in any case in the end he was just repeating again and again he is the "neighborhood cop" (Deghamasayin Desuch) and it is his business to know everything that goes on in the neighborhood, who lives where, for how long, etc, etc. Can you say big brother? In any case I took his name (Aharon Sukiasyan) and phone number in case I have any problems and passed up the offer for a cup of coffee at my house or at a cafe that he put forward.

I am picking up the guidebook I had published today! Last night I started to calculate based on the one copy I had just how many boxes I will have, and lets just say thank goodness for Zabel's studio space. Now I just have to sell them all... yeesh.

In the past year or so it has become popular for girls to go blond here. Some girls even cut their hair short and dye it bright red or some other loud color. I remember just 2 years ago two separate diasporan girls who were here and had hair like that would get stared at as if they were aliens. Now, it is not unusual at all. Last year also, a noticeable number of men started to wear shorts in public for the first time. I hope that trend continues. In any event, things change quite fast here from one year to the next, and at least when it comes to wearing shorts, this is a good thing.

Rosa is my neighbor.
Today she brought me incense, showed how to burn it. I don't know if it will do anything for my father's soul, but I guess it will have calming effect on me. Per Rosa, timing is very important, have to burn it after 5 p.m. and on Saturdays.
I am new at this neighbor-neighbor relationship and very cautious. She's OK though, calls me before dropping in, doesn't overdo visits.
Rosa's origin is Karapagh, from a neighboring village where Marshal Paghramian was born. Once we started talking about Robert Kocharian and I said he's doing OK, only if he could create more jobs. Obviously the neighbours are not happy with him, (he's Karapaghtzi) and Rosa defends him, says Robert is so modest. Last May we were in Abaran for Tro's reburial ceremony, all the other hot shots came with fanfare, bodyguards holding umbrellas for them, and Robert came carrying his own umbrella. Nigol took a picture and it was precious. You have to give the devil his due.
Rosa has communist background, was the secretary of the region. 'Did you go to church before' I ask her. She did, especially to Echmiadzin but not very often. 'Now my grandkids are learning religion at school'.
She has come to study economics from Karapagh with her fiance and stayed here. He wanted to raise his kids as Armenians. First time she was in Yerevan and saw Armenian written in public places she was so happy. Her two sons have left the country one is in US the other in Moscow, married daughter is here. As a young widow she has raised three kids and given them higher education. She never asks but I know, she hopes that one day they will make good money and send her enough for remond. She hopes that at least one of them will return to live with her. Meanwhile she's living in this three room apartment all by herself with memories of four decades surrounding her.

Aaah, I am now settled in at home for the night... I was discussing remodeling issues with my remodelers and also chatting for a good 3 hours. Are you sick of hearing about my remodeling yet? Too bad! I have to live it. A big truck came by to haul away lots of rubble, and attracted a cops attention. He came upstairs TWICE trying to find me in order to work me over for a bribe. (I was out shopping) Let him keep trying, he is barking up the wrong tree.

My book is finally finished at the publishers and it is absolutely beautiful. I am so pleased. I brought a copy of it home and scraped it up as well as broke a really strange Soviet bat clock I bought today as I stumbled and fell flat out of a crowded minibus I was getting out of. Aside from the heartbreak of the broken bat clock which may be salvagable, I only suffered scraped knuckles.

A note about the weather... it has been raining a little every day for about 2 weeks now. Usually right around 5pm. It is not too bad and doesn't last very long but it does tend to cool things off quite a bit and make it hard to decide what to wear.

On every road in Yerevan there's a 'media kiosk' that sells newspapers, lotteries, crossword puzzles and magazines.
Lottery and crossword puzzles are sold like 'hot bread'. There are six to eighth different lottery programs and from what I've seen from surfing TV they've become one of favorite family pastimes. People watch it even when don't have tickets. Each program lasts around an hour: winners tell the story of their lives (how they got the ticket, the way they discovered they were winners, where they live, what they plan to do); then each program claims to be donating a portion of winnings to a good cause; there's one that gives to schools and on every session there's a principal reporting about the expenditure, what was renovated with all $100 or $150 USD.
Solving crossword puzzles is another favorite pastime in Armenia. Construction and other workers take a break for lunch and instead of having Kit Kat they have a crossword puzzle to solve. It happened with carpenters when they were working in our apartment. Sales people sometimes ignoring customers try to solve a puzzle and their colleagues from different booths would offer their help.
Yesterday all I wanted to buy was AIM Magazine, April or May issue. I went to the closest media kiosk and got scorned from the lady because I was not doing business with her. She only had March issue and I already had that from somewhere else.
She made me feel guilty (how is she going to survive if I do not buy from her?) made a promise and came home.
Where else would you scorn a potential customer? Only in Armenia.

About my remodelling, I have spent the past week basically shopping for material. It really is exhausting. It�s all coming together though, today I bought everything necessary for the bathroom.

The most frustrating part of today was choosing the parquet floor. The warehouse either doesn�t have enough stock of the wood that I liked or can�t order the same wood.

The �Varbed� who�s looking after the remodelling was shocked when I told him that I wanted to leave entrance to my bedroom open (that is no door). So he gives me an example to convince me to add a door and the example he uses is as follows: what if you have guests in the house and your husband wants to sleep? My reply was that my husband, in that situation would not sleep but join the guests!!!!

The �Varbed� is also arguing the fact that my guests absolutely cannot enter the bathroom from the lounge room. Instead one should enter the bathroom through a hallway. What�s the difference I ask since I would know regardless that the guest is using the bathroom?

Does my �Varbed� realize I will be the one living in my flat? I believe we are starting to understand each other slowly but surely.

The above was written yesterday but not posted, so I�ll keep going. This morning I went to Ani Hotel to see a friend of mine who works there. I ran into Caroline Cox and Artemis , an Australian Armenian living in Karabagh. Caroline Cox was on her way to meet the president and I had a brief conversation with Artemis but will definitely keep in touch.

Later in the morning I visited other local friends who reiterated the fact that it�s inconceivable to enter the bathroom from the lounge room. Whatever! Anyway, after all the frustration I experienced yesterday, the parquet floor worked out in the end and was ordered today.

The afternoon was spent checking prices for windows. Very expensive indeed so I�ll have to think about this one!

FYI - Blogger, the interface we use to post has been having lots of problems these past few days which prevent postings.

Anyways, yesterday we were at the store Ceramica, where a guy working there who had been really helpful and friendly mentioned he was leaving in four days for America. He will work there for five months, and then supposedly come back... I really hope so. Meanwhile, the guy that took us to the store himself was asking us how much money he would make doing his profession if he lived abroad. This was too much. But of course, with the economy the way it is, even people with jobs are just not making enough money to satisfy themselves, and you only live once... so you can't blame them. Luckily I haven't run into many people leaving in the past couple of months, or else this back to back news would have sat a lot worse with me.

I am currently reading "The Gulag Archipelago", by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. This book is an incredible documentary of life during Soviet times, for those who, usually for no crime, were subjected to some of the most inhumane treatments imaginable. For the elderly nowadays living in Armenia who reminesce about the "good days" of the Soviet Union, I can only say that anything at all is better than the nightmare that so many people were subjected to (tens of millions of people). The book was written only about the period of 1918-1956 so I wonder how things were afterwards... I wish I could share entire passages with you, but just imagine the most depraved tortured you can and you have a kindergarden class compared to what was being done to people.

First thing in the morning I tested out this new calling system called "Mergelian Kap". It is the first time I have ever called America from Armenia, since $3/minute was just ridiculous even once in a while. This is a prepaid phone card, which uses the internet to place the call to a normal phone number. The connection was very good and at about 20 or 25 cents a minute, I was quite happy with the whole thing. After all, e-mail and logs are no substitute for hearing a persons voice.

The house I am remodeling is completely gutted now, and looks fantastic! It is going to be so much nicer with half of the walls gone. In Armenia it is inconceivable to have an adjoining kitchen and living room. I am not sure if this is to separate the men and the women, or because they fry something every time they cook, or what. In any case, the new floorplan is working out perfectly, and people can see how cool it is to have those two rooms united and open to one another. Aside from this my quality of life has increased significantly with my new cordless phone, and refrigerator, both of which I got today.

This is one of the things I am happy to have escaped from in Southern California...

The internet is down on my computer since I reinstalled windows and all my software. The modem and network card are not working yet. Aside from that it is working much better.

Victory Day is interesting in that it was the day which the Soviet victory in WWII was celebrated. This was possibly the biggest holiday in those days. Coincidentally, Shushi was captured on the same day, and since that marked a massive string of victories that ended the fighting, it is now an Armenian Victory day... Except for some odd show in Republic Square and some fireworks at Monument around 11pm not much seems to have gone on.

In a few hours my remond (Russian for remodeling) is going to begin. I have a second flat in Yerevan across the street that I am going to fix up and it is not going to be a picnic if it is anything like the last. Since Lena began her remond on Monday, it will be a competition to the finish line... we are both supposed to have our places finished by the end of June at the latest (June 20th is the date I was given)... I am not holding my breath. Although having been through this before should help, I will share the headaches involved in this process with you. Two advantages I will have during this remond is that I have done all of my shopping around for the last one just months ago and since that is a major part of the process in Armenia since there is no Home Depot or IKEA or anything, you have to go to a million little scattered shops to find what suits your western tastes. On foot that takes a lot of time. My other advantage is that the new place is just across the street, so I do not need to go far in case there is a need or question for me. The place will be totally gutted, the floorplans changed, some new walls built, all new floors, a lot of plastering, everything painted, all new bathroom, and refinishing the windows. Soviet floorplans are very different from American ones. Kitchens are never open to the living room, every tiny little home must waste space on an entry foyer, and bathrooms are often seperated into two cramped rooms, one with toilet, one with shower. The new floorplan will make the place just perfect.

Today the country remembered The V-day and celebrated liberation of Shushi.
Every Armenian city and village has a monument dedicated to the local martyrs. I don't like the artwork, it's grotesque, but bow to their memory. Armenia sent half a million of her sons to the II WW and only half of them returned home. What was the population at the time?

Exhaustion is circulating thru my veins like lava.
Today was my father's funeral in Montreal.
Yesterday I went to Sourp Sarkis to meditate and communicate with Him.
I hoped that my grandma would be There when he first enters the other world.
Prayed that he'd join the Light and become a particle of it. "Hayrig Asdvadz Hokit Lusavore."
The choir was singing a hymn about Resurrection; I felt comforted and left the church.
My mind has accepted the loss, but the pain is still there.
My dad, Sarkis, was a decent and logical man, good father and a great Hi.
Cancer is a dilapidating disease. Last year of his life, illness and medication played succor with him. He suffered, became physically dependent, at times illusional and illogical. And I have problems with it.
I mean God, Are You God of Gilgamesh, God of Israel, God of Moslems or God of Christians?
Megha, megha, megha. Forgive me God cause I have sinned. I am in pain and taking it on You.
I am home but my family is continents away. At times like this families need to be together. My father did not want to get buried in that Cold Country. Help us God, help us to be strong, help us build a stronger Home, guide your sons back Home and we promise to build the biggest church on Mount Ararad for your Glory, Eternity and Truth.
Amen.

A couple of interesting days! Yesterday we went to Ashtarak and saw Karmravor Vank, quite nice. The fresh air was also great.

I had the pleasure of visiting Ovir today as my Armenian Visa is expiring in a couple of days. Ovir which is usually a mad house, was actually rather quick today but only because I had a representative from FAR (Fund for Armenian Relief) with me. With another visit tomorrow and luck on my side, I should be able to obtain a one year residency permit in about 10 days.

The afternoon was great as I went with a mate to the "Chess House". It was so refreshing seeing so many young kids involved, they looked so cute in their pensive mode. The building itself is quite nice too and very different from the exterior with a nice park surrounding it.

The weather has been rather strange lately, with clear, sunny, warm skys suddenly transformed into dark clouds with lightening, thunderbolts, and rain within an hour. I am enjoying the green that is just everywhere now, with the cherries already hitting the markets. Soon it will be apricots, plums and mulberries, then watermelons, and so on. In America, the effect of seasons is hardly noticeable at the grocery store with fruits being grown in greenhouses, and imported from the southern hemispherre. Here you are deluged with incredibly cheap produce in the summer and fall, while the winter and early spring are the season of potatoes, cabbage, beets and carrots... is it any wonder the Russians eat so much borsht (sp?) Their winters are much longer than the one in Yerevan. People here can fruits and vegetables like mad all summer so that in the winter they can have some preserves and jams.

Talking about moving to Armenia reminds me of my story. It only took me one visit to Armenia in 1999 to fall in love with it, and that was my first. It's one