Life has seemed pretty unlogworthy this past week, but maybe it is just the rain rain rain. The sun has only come out for part of two days this week and it is just depressing. I was looking at pictures of April 24ths past and seeing pictures of T-shirts everywhere. Oh well... let me tell you all what I have been up to.

This past week I met a really interesting guy from Belgium named Hans, who is tavelling for a full year. The notches in his belt for countries visited is very impressive and he *really* soaks them in as much as possible. Culture, people, sites. So discussions with him were quite rewarding and his analysis of Armenia quite interesting. He stayed with an Armenian lady in her home for $5 a night rather than in a hotel. This sort of tourism is a growing phenomenon and quite popular already in many parts of the world. Armenia is a perfect place for it, if we could just make things a *bit* easier on the tourists. The visa situation is not bad, but could be better. The transportation needs to be easier to figure out. The homestay/hostel concepts need to be better developed and advertised. Those little things could make a huge difference. A few other things like bike/camping equipment rentals, developed treks, etc would be fantastic too. Anyways, since tourism here is one of my major concerns, I am going on about it a bit. So Hans is on his way out of Armenia now, he is in the north (Dilijan and Alaverdi) from where he will head to Georgia. I hope to meet up with him in the north for a couple more days, but I just hope the weather is nice if I do!

Last night I went to a coctail party at the Tufenkian Hotel for a friend that is leaving. It was really nice, with the hotel looking fantastic (even if it is in the middle of nowhere). The weather was kind to us and the patio party was great. I met some interesting people who I don't usually run into much, so it made for some good conversation.

I know that one other logger bought a car and is holding out on you about what that experience was like ;-)