For the first time I really got into my next door neighbors background, and got interrupted as it got fascinating. Unbelievable what this country has gone through, her life was a regular gulag archipelago. I would like to know more, but let me share what she was saying... first of all, she is probably about 75 years old, that is my guess. Well when I first met her, she would only speak English with me. I was amazed she spoke it, but found out she was an English teacher at the Polytechnic. When I first met her she said she is Ukranian, but that is only a quarter of it. Although her father is half Ukranian, half Polish, and her mother is 100% Armenian, and she lives in Armenia, and her husband (passed away) was Armenian, she does not consider herself Armenian. In any case, much of her family was wiped out by communists for being bourgeois businessmen with foreign educations/businesses. Her husband was as I said Armenian, born in Iran, one of ten kids. He somehow got taken into some kind of orphanage or school and got moved to the USA. From there, he moved to the Soviet Union in Stalins time because he loved Armenia so much. He was, of course sent to Siberia. I do not know what happened to him because we were interupted, but I intent to find out...

Yesterday, I attended a seminar on the preservation of Cultural Heritage in Armenia held at the National Academy of Sciences. There were representatives from various organizations and an article has already been posted on GROONG about it.

We just got back from dinner with the world famous Katy Pearce (past readers of groong will remember her). It was cool to finally sit down and talk to her after all these years online... we met for an hour once as our paths crossed in Yerevan 2.5 years ago.

Now I (in Yerevan) just found Ara (in Karabakh) and Madlene (visiting LA) online and we all three just entered a chat room together, so I gotta go!

Well here is a picture of the rugs I picked up today. They were $75 each. If you ever consider shopping for a rug or two for your home, you can easily pay for a ticket to Armenia with the savings you get in buying the rugs in Armenia. Old rugs of all ages and types can be bought pretty easily for 8 times less than they cost in the states. (That is a wild average number, but I think not a bad rule of thumb.) A brand new Armenian Tufenkian Carpet can be bought in the showroom here for a quarter of the price in the USA. Considering that the average Tufenkian Carpet costs in the thousands of dollars, that would pay for your ticket right there.

I have at least a half a dozen things on my TODO list, which involve contacting another person by phone. That means it could take forever. In Armenia, there is no call waiting, there are no answering machines, and to top it all off, people are very averse to taking messages. They much prefer to tell you to "try back a little later", not necessarily knowing if the party you are trying to reach will be back later. Two of the people I need to contact live outside of Yerevan, which doesn't help. We'll see if I can make any progress this week.

In an hour or so, President Kocharian will pay an official visit to the ARMENIAInformation office, where I work. I don't think I am gonna go... I bought two cool rugs yesterday, I think I will pick them up instead. Maybe I will post some pics of them if I can capture them well.

One other thing I want to buy is this beautiful tropical island.... but I am over $1,000,000 short on the necessary cash. ;-( Anyone want to go in on it with me? :-)

On my way to teaching last night, I saw this old lady with a stick standing on the edge of the street. It looked like she couldn�t step on to the footpath so I rushed over to help her on the icy footpath. The old lady was so appreciative she blessed me.

Hi Everyone!!! I am still in Los Angeles for a few more days but couldn't resist logging so I thought I would send out a BAREV!

It has been really nice visiting with family and hanging out with old friends. I have been here for two weeks and already miss Yerevan and am looking forward to returning, irregardless of how cold I hear it has been, I am looking forward to coming home.

My flight to Los Angeles was really sad for me as I was on a plane with 15 others from Yerevan however I was the only one returning to Armenia. The rest of them were staying on in America... as I filled out everyone's custom forms (being the English expert on the flight) for all of them... I realized I was watching the mass exodus in full force continuing and it made me quite upset for a few days.

The good news is that I have a friend who is moving to Armenia by January. He is a parska-American Armenian and so we will have one more addition to our little community... I would like to congratulate Alex and take the opportunity to say "we can't wait till you join us in good old Yerevan"

I have a few days left which I plan to spend with my family and friends and maybe at some of the yummy restaurants here... Then it is back to Armenia. I think I will be moving into the new apartment straight from the airport. This is going to be exciting. I will be quite busy when I am back... and will fill you all in then. My old childhood friend Shant will be coming for a visit, and will be staying with me for a few weeks. I am tres-excited about that as we always have a blast together.

I hope you are all well and I promise to write upon my return.

Received a phone call this morning from the Director of �Duty to Live� and he advised that cool learning toy which was donated from Annette Collins in LA was a big winner with the children at the Centre. He advised the children were extremely happy, and were learning English words and the teacher was also impressed.

Tonight for my English class, I�ve decided to introduce more dialogues rather than grammar exercises. I will pair them up and ask them to read dialogues and ask questions to their respective partners.

Paying the phone bill is getting very complicated these days. As it was, you had to stop by a post office each month to pay. Now the government and the Greek-owned phone company are in the middle of a battle over whether the Greeks are permitted to charge by the minute for local calls. The Greeks have been billing us for almost 3 months now for each minute we are on the phone (INTERNET!) and the government has told us not to bother pay the per-minute charges. Well it is not that easy. There is only one office in Armenia that can tell you how much of your bill is per minute calls, vs how much of your bills is for calling long distance (this includes towns like Dilijan and Goris, as well as mobile phone calls.) The lines there are of course ridiculous. If they were just charging by the minute to talk to people it wouldn't even cost so much, but being on the internet a couple of hours a day gets quite expensive... not that we know if we will ever have to pay all these per minute charges or not. They are now negotiating I think.

Looked out the window this morning and the whole courtyard was covered in snow. There�s a swimming pool out in the courtyard (well, it used to be a pool, many, many moons ago) and that was filled with snow! It�s in fact snowing right now, it�s great! I�m being told it hasn�t snowed like this in November for the past 12 years, lucky me! Happy Thanksgiving to all.

The park you see in the picture I posted a few days ago is completely blanketed in white right now. Yesterday it snowed, slushed, or rained most of the day, and in the nightime it snowed pretty good it seems, a couple of inches. A white Thanksgiving? Yuck! No much I can do about it but crank up the heaters and dream of California ;-)

I finally uploaded an entire textbook on learning Armenian onto cilicia.com, but it needs a great deal of cleanup editing. It is something I have been wanting to add for years though, and I am really happy about this. Now anyone with internet access can make a great deal of progress in learning Eastern Armenian anywhere in the world. What is next? My genocide section is going to recieve a massive shot in the arm, with hundreds of eyewitness testimonies added, and hundreds of newspaper articles from the time.

As Raffi mentioned, it snowed on Saturday night. I was at a teahouse with some friends and as I left it started snowing. I wasn�t sure if it was in fact snow and asked my friend Anna to confirm this. You see I�ve only ever seen snowfall once before and that was in Armenia in March �99. My colleagues at work are trying to convince me that it doesn�t get too much colder than this. I�m finding it hard to believe, as it�s not even winter yet. I wore a hat this morning on my way to work; it seemed to help a little bit. Does one ever get used to the cold?

The park below my house right now, with pokr Masis off to the right... the snow has all melted away, but the cold is still here...

Yesterday I spent the morning searching online for Kiwi and Blueberry plants that I can buy to have brought (smuggled) into Armenia. They don't have them here and they would grow. Actinidia deliciosa, which is the normal Kiwi would not quite make it but there are hardier kiwis that can stand the cold. Blueberries would just love it here, and I can't wait to taste my first blueberry muraba (preserves). I smuggled a few plants in last winter and would like to have a few more varieties and give them to a few more people.

IT'S SNOWWWWWINGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!

There have been a couple of things I keep meaning to write about, but then forget to when I am logging. First, I noticed that they have started the "Northern Blvd" of Yerevan. Now, I thought this was just a bunch of baloney when I read all the articles about it in the news... but this massive pedestrian blvd stretching right through the heart of Yerevan, from the Opera to Republic Square is excrutiatingly slowly started. It has been part of the city's original plan from the 30's I believe, and that entire stretch of land is primarily one storey high shacks (which you can easily see from the rooftop of the Yerevan Hotel). The govt has never allowed real development, and yesterday and today I have been watching as they started to dismantle a very long, historic building on Tumanyan Street. It is a very beautiful building and like most of the historic buildings along the route, the stones have been numbered for reconstruction of the facade somewhere else. That is the sad thing... much of the city's really old, historic beauty is in this neighborhood and much of it will be lost. The carved wooden veranda's and mud/timber constructions will be gone for good. So we'll have to see how all this turns out, but it promises to change central Yerevan in a huge way.

The other thing that I wanted to write about is books again. I got some really great books a week ago at vernissage which were printed in Soviet times (The mid 1980's). They were the first to volumes of a 5 volume set. The next two have been printed in the nineties and the last is still being worked on. Anyways, the cool things about books printed here is that the last page gives you every kind of information you could possibly be curious to know about the book. The date it was submitted for publication, the date approved, the number of copies, price, number of 'mamuls', the fonts used, the size of the paper, the quality of the paper, etc, etc. So the two used books I bought at vernissage for about $1.50 each said that 30,000 copies of each were published. I went to the bookstore to get the third and fourth volumes, which cost about $10 each new. Now I finally get to the entire point of this paragraph... there were only 1,000 copies printed! And those were sponsored by the Gulbenkian foundation. There is just no money around for the publication of books here. Yes, of course a part of the decrease can be attributed to emigration, but NOT a 30x decrease. And even the printing of a thousand copies was out of their budget, they had to get sponsorship. So sad....

OPEN A B&B IN ARMENIA

I get asked every so often about what would be good businesses to start in Armenia. One of the best would be to move to Armenia outside of Yerevan and start a nice bed and breakfast. There is a good demand for comfortable places to stay outside of Yerevan and a place around Tumanian/Alaverdi, or Areni/Yeghegnadzor, or Sisian/Goris or Sevan or Dilijan/Ijevan would be a perfect waystation for travellers who don't want to spend half of their trip to Armenia in a car. A nice big house out in these areas can be purchased for as little as 2 or 3 thousand US dollars, and converted into a little guesthouse. If you want to move out into the countryside, or are thinking about doing something during retirement, or just want to start a business, it could make a tidy profit and help develop tourism here at the same time. The starting costs are not very high and living costs and labor costs in Armenia are also not high...

We watched two weird movies, the second with lots of gore and violence this evening, and just got back from a spooky walk home. Why spooky? Well the movie didn't help, but the walk was about between ten to fifteen minutes and streched across a large section of central Yerevan. The streets are quite dark, and deserted. The entire time, we came across two people. A man barfing and a woman sweeping the streets. We saw three cars the whole time. 3 lane roads completely deserted. It is just never so quite in California... there is always traffic, there are always lights... The final touch was walking up a pitch black stairwell in which at any time I could have just walked right into someone it was so dark without knowing it. Until I finally got to my floor and the motion sensor activated light finally came on. What a relief! I will definitely have to get them installed on every floor. Something I am convinced will eventually take place across Yerevan, but I am simply not willing to wait, even if this place is virtually crime-free (well at least when it comes to muggings and robbings, etc.).

I have ten workdays left on my current contract. I have to finish a brochure on Ijevan, a nice town in the Lori region of Armenia, plus do some training at the Visitor Center. We have been on a board game binge in the evenings... now we need a good deck of cards to expand our possibilities. The Moscow Theater is showing English language movies again, but still it is usually the same movie all week. Anyways, nothing exciting going on, so that is all from me...

I�ve been off work for the past week with some kind of stomach virus that�s been going around. In fact I was sick for about 3 weeks but seem to be better now. Unfortunately I think I�ve missed the mini summer everyone has been talking about, since I wasn�t aloud to leave the house all of last week when it was nice and warm outside. So I guess I got a taste of what I�ll be doing in the wintertime that is staying home in the evenings. Not much else to report on, I�ll resume the English classes tonight, which I enjoy tremendously.

I smell gas though the bulb is empty. It's not worth filling it as I will be leaving for Toronto on Tuesday. Will feel the excitement when I am there, right now I am feeling insomnia.
A blogger reader sent me a nice e-letter re my last entry. She writes, 'Thank you for today's beautiful posting. I have been fortunate enough to visit my homeland on more than one occasion (12 and counting) and I return every summer for at least 8 weeks.' Keep coming. As for me I moved to Armenia after the third. This month two years ago.
When we're in Canada friends refer us as Hayasdantzi, when we're in Armenia we're Canadatzi. Doesn't matter either way we're Hi. That's that.
It's been exciting two years. We've started new businesses in Tourism and Investment in Armenia. By Western standards we've started a new life; by Eastern standards, Life has unrevealed a new fold. We've come back to where we belonged perhaps after 1000 years.
Got letters from blogger readers and from www.parev.am. A friend wrote "Houzitch e nayev tidel ait ngarnere: intch keghetsgoutyoun, intch kheghdjoutyoun, intch barzoutyoun...
Voghtch menak: hargav or me gdesnevink ... touk "khenter" vor gabrik tser yeraze ..."
If you have a dream you better give it a chance. If not, doesn't matter consciously or unconsciously you'll pass it to your kids and one day they will rush in where you have feared to tread.

I just demolished Zabel and Viken in a lucky game of Risk. The cards dealt me most of Asia, and I was able to take and keep all of it on the first round, along with Australia. So in a short while we will head off to Lagonid for a nice falafel sandwich (50 cents). We may stop by the dept. store on the way to pick up a Monopoly set for the weekend... although if this fantastic weather keeps up, we may be forced to spend it outdoors.

As you may have noticed, I have moved the loggers name to the top of the post, so you can tell beforehand who is writing... plus I have removed the writers e-mail address which was causing us to get spam. If you need to write to us you can write to life@cilicia.com for now and we should all get the message.

I haven't been doing enough interesting things to post much. Working part time at the information office and trying to put the finishing touches on the house. Meanwhile, Zabel has been pretty ill so I have been partially housebound with her. A lot of people came down with an ugly virus these last couple of weeks, and I have (knock on wood) so far avoided catching it.

A pressing matter is the toilet tank, it's on must-be-fixed-it list, writing about it? Uuuu, I don't think so. What I'd like to chat about is safety in Armenia based on close experiences of the past summer.
Yerevan is a safe place, even in the middle of the night a person can safely walk in the streets. Though after midnight it's very dark and astray dogs take over. It's even safer in the villages.
Pickpockets? Yes there are some and their work is mostly seasonal. Preferred customers are tourists. I heard about two cases of pickpocket-ting: one in Vernisaj and the other in Echmiadzin. As in all capital cities one should be careful of crowded areas.
My personal experience was in Karapagh. Took a group of tourists to Stepanagert, walked around, had lunch, took them to souvenir shopping and at night returned to Shushi for dinner and bed. We were the first group of Shushi's hotel, a tasteful place built by a group of Armenians investors from LA. At night the group went to sleep and I went to the manager to pay the bill. And noticed that my wallet was missing.
Everything else was in my purse.
My mind made a list of places to check and people to doubt. First I went to my room and double-checked the place; the wallet was not there. I thought of my group, and instinctively decided that they were all honest people. Next came the employees of the hotel. I had left my purse unattended for a few minutes on the chair in the cafeteria. The manager, Alice, is a close friend. I trust her and her judgment. So, I asked her about her employees, she said that they were all trustworthy. That left me with the last suspect�myself. The more I thought about it the more probable I found that I had left my purse in the restaurant after paying the lunch bill.
With Alice handyman, Armen, drove back to Stepanakert. I could not remember the name of the restaurant but remembered the artificial fall and the small pool.
If we had gone to one of the restaurants recommended by Alice, Armen was quite confident that they would return it. Turned out that we had passed those places and with each stop our hope diminished. After five restaurants we found the place and walked in. As soon as the supervisor saw us, she said 'I have it with me and have kept it in a safe place'. She took out the wallet from a box and requested to double-check the contents. I pretended to do so, and left her with a gift.
To be frank, most of the time I don't know the exact amount I am carrying on me. But I had to carry enough to pay hotel and restaurant bills for the group.
I am assuming that the lady makes $40 to $80 per month. My purse meant a bonus yearly income.

The clean up on Saturday went really well and this time we had 25 participants (10 more than the previous month). Again there were some questions that locals asked wanting to know what organization we belonged to, where we were from etc. On the most part, people actually commended us on a job well done and asked how they could join. So pamphlets were being handed out explaining how they could help with contact numbers.

This morning I received an e-mail from a school friend of mine, Laura, who had heard that I was living in Armenia and was part of the Armenian Volunteer Corps. It was such a pleasure receiving an encouraging mail from a friend whom I haven�t really kept in touch with (20 years), but used to see at certain functions in Sydney. I was absolutely overwhelmed by her sincerity and warmness. What I�m sad about is the fact that she was in Yerevan in July and did not know at the time that I was also here, so we missed seeing each other. I will certainly keep in touch with her now.

A very nice Sunday with a traditional Armenian tomato-egg breakfast (dzvadzegh), popoki muraba, and dam aradz tea. Before the breakfast I went for a nice run. A few of the neighbors are getting used to me just jogging around the city. I remember when in 1995 I went jogging in the village we were working at with the LCO, the villagers kept asking me where I was going and why I was in a such a rush. It seems there are quite a few joggers here in Yerevan nowadays.

It was followed by a visit to my friends house where I ate myself to an oblivion (as if the morning eggs were not enough) i additionally stuffed myself with blinchiks, salads, pasta and cutlet. YUM

I got home at 9:00 pm and am now winding down with some internet time. As I came home tonight my apartments door was open (the remond apartment) so I walked into and found the basecoat has been applied to the living room and kitchen... WE ARE GETTING SOMEWHERE!!!

This week David comes back from being on tour with the Armenian Navy Band, my dad comes and I get ready for my trip to America.

Will fill you in as the week progresses. Have a lazy and relaxing Sunday everyone!!!

Never started Christmas shopping this early before. I am getting ready to visit Toronto and Montreal. It's the second year we're spending the Christmas there. Both families are there except us. Hope one day they all can come here for Christmas. That's a nice daydream�
We got hand made Gaghant babugs, wall dish paintings with manrangarchutyun themes and ceramic coffee cups, vases and salt dispensers.

One of the greatest joys in life is Armenian dancing your butt off at a Harout dinner dance. I will be doing this in less than three weeks on my upcoming trip to Los Angeles. This news has made me more than happy. If there is anything I miss about LA, its Harout dinner dances. My friends and I used to go to any Harout Dance regardless of whether or not we knew the host organization or not. Dancing Armenian is extremely fun, and Harout extremely entertaining... the mix is dangerous.

Things here are a bit chaotic for me. I have a good friend who is being called for military service. I don't quite know my thoughts on mandatory service but I do know that my friend cannot afford to go. He is the only breadwinner in the family and he has a decent job. Without him working, the family will go through hardship. It is a tough situation and I don't quite know how to feel. He wants to avoid serving and is quite worried for his family (his mother and his sisters). It has me quite upset.

I am also leaving in a week however my remodeling is not done. My father, my hero, will be here in a few days and will be my vice-hsgogh of remond... I am fortunate to have supportive parents. At first they weren't quite sure whether this was all right... moving here, buying an apartment... but since we all jumped in together they have been keeping me afloat and doing it with a smile.

It's Saturday night and I am happy to say that I am at home... relaxing and eating my second bowl of Borscht. I am learning some local dishes and am having fun cooking. I am a disaster in the kitchen but am learning fast. Monday I plan to try Borscht again, but without my friends help.

I am really happy to report that yesterday cilicia.com hit a new record on the number of visitors. The main entry page (index.html) exceeded 2000 visitors yesterday for the first time ever. The best thing about it is that there was no special even to even cause such a thing. In the past it shot up during the parliament shootings, April 24, the pope's visit, etc. But this was completely on its own. It has been steadily climbing to this level and finally I got 2019 visitors to that one page. This journal page is getting about 150 visits a day...

Haven�t logged in a while since things have been quiet lately. Today is a glorious sunny day and hopefully will be the same all weekend so I can enjoy the outdoors. Tomorrow is our clean up day, the first Saturday of the month where the AVC Volunteers together with local Volunteers meet and clean up some streets in the centre of Yerevan and create awareness amongst the local community. I plan to relax on Sunday with some friends and prepare for the English classes for next week.

Today we went to Gevork's workshop to see khatchkar in making. We're taking one to Canada for my father's tomb. It's 70 cm. high, has the cross in the middle and decorated by pomegranates and the Armenian symbols for eternity.
Got a chair to rest my knee and G's colleague ran out to his garden and came back with green leaves loaded with fresh bursting pomegranates. I learnt that they are kept inside to guard against evil eye.
There are so many connotations of pomegranate symbol. According to an old Armenian tradition the new-weds were given a couple pomegranates from well wishers for fertility and prosperity. (You're supposed to know that the seeds total to 365.)
On a khatchkar pomegranate symbolizes Christ' blood; and the best one is related to the original sin: What Eve gave to Adam was � a pomegranate.

It is my second night without Shakar and the house is just not the same. I know she will have a better life in Artsakh, where she will have a yard and the country air and all the country animals to chase, but I am still a little sad. She was bored in my apartment so I know the decision was a good one, especially because I know Ara will make the perfect dad... but I miss her biting my ankle and trying to jump on my lap all the time.She is really a special puppy and both her and Ara are very lucky to have found eachother. I am happy to be Shakar's far away mom/kavor.

Just as Ara said he came with two sixteen year old twins for a few days to Yerevan. We had a blast and yes I turned into a 16 year old again listening to pop music and talking endlessly about Enrique Iglesies and the likes of him. We went dancing and sang at a karaoke bar and went shopping. I hadn't done any of those things since my US days so it had been a few months and it was fun to parade around the city like a carefree 16 year old for three days.

The best however was long talks with Ara about moving to Armenia and how we can get more people to give it a try. We talked about our moves and why we moved and how we moved and what we go through to this day. I was telling him that it is finally hitting me that I am here and that this is not an extended vacation. It is a good feeling. The other day a reader wrote to us and referred to us as pioneers. I really hope this is the case and that more and more people are considering coming here.

The remodeling is slower than ever as the plaster is not drying, especially the walls that don't see any of the small rays of sun these cold days have been sparingly giving. I am leaving for America in a few days and I know that the job won't be done. Hopefully my dad will arrive from Tehran to take care of things while I am gone.

So if there are any dog experts reading, can you look at Shakar's picture from the October postings and tell Ara and myself what breed she is, we are too curious?

TOP TEN REASONS THE NY HIJACKERS WERE NOT ARMENIAN

10. 8:45am is too way too early for Armenians
9. Armenians are always late, they would've missed all 4 flights.
8. Hot girls on the planes would distract them.
7. Once in the air, they would argue and talk loud and at the same time
6. Free food and drinks on the plane
5. The suspected car found outside of Boston Airport would be a BMW with chrome alloy wheels not a Ford.
4. They would start fighting with each other to decide who would fly the plane.
3. Their first demand would be for Shish Kebab
2. Their mothers would have told them to be home for dinner at 6PM.
1. They would have told everyone months before they were going to do it.

Zabel got me an early Christmas present in the form of 24hr internet access this month... so I can actually log in the middle of the day! Internet is one of the expensive things about life in Armenia. 24 hr access (56k) costs $50/mo while night-time only (8pm-8am) access costs $20/mo. So I can only dream of DSL lines, mp3 trading and no busy signals on the phone and meanwhile curse the Greek telecom OTE which has a monopoly on the phone system here, as well as the corrupt officials who gave it to them for a nice early retirement account.

Now that I am only working part time, I have a lot of time during the day. It is hard to focus on editing text all day to add to my web site. I am trying to add detailed information on about 25 tourist attractions, as well as add language lessons online. I have all the text, it is just a matter of editing it and then putting it in web format. Soon I will have a bunch of newspaper articles from the time of the Armenian Genocide I will be adding as well, and eye-witness accounts of the genocide that have never been available in English before. Those are the plans, anyhow.

So we finally plugged in the big heater last night and today is nice and warm again... but I of course am not complaining!

One last note, I got a few questions about real estate this week, so let me refer people first to an article I wrote in EscapeArtist.com about many of the aspects of moving to Armenia. It should make interesting reading and answer a wide number of questions for people curious about Armenia.