On the trip to Gyumri on Saturday, we stopped at Talin and saw some nice churches there from the 7th Century. We then headed off to Dashtadem fortress, which was quite impressive with Arabic inscription on one side. The last stop was Mastara, again a 7th Century Church. We got to Gyumri and visited sister Arousiak�s orphanage, unfortunately the children as well as Sister Arousiak were at their summer camp at Tsaghkadzor but another Sister showed us around the premises and they have done an excellent job with the orphanage. We also saw where the children slept and everything was so clean and organized. The AYF interns I travelled with were a lot of fun and we spent the evening in Gyumri. On our return trip on Sunday we bumped into Zabelle from �Parev Inn� who was taking her group of young Canadian interns up to Gyumri.

Now as for the tourist who was staying with my next door neighbour, here�s a bit of background. He asked me a million questions on Friday night since he couldn�t speak Armenian with my neighbour. He is half Armenian (Dad�s side) from Fresno, an architect and wants to buy a flat in Yerevan. It was his first time here and had travelled from Germany by bus the whole way except for Greece, where he got on a boat. As we were discussing property prices another neighbour informed in passing that the 2 flats opposite mine were sold for $60k. The buyer will join both flats and turn it to a good-sized flat. This buyer got a sweet deal since prices have increased quite a bit lately. He�s the same buyer who also bought the huge space on the 1st floor, which will be a shoe store. He�s obviously loaded.

Well to finish off, I did feel the earthquake the other day but only for a split second.