Boy are the girls on this log making me glad I have had no bureucratic nightmares recently. In fact a few weeks ago I got my house re-registered (something I had put off for over a year) and it went very smoothly. They even treated me extra nice as a foreign guest I think. What with my house being re-registered, I now have the papers needed to re-register my phone line in my own name. It doesn't matter much here whose name it is under, usually the phone number for a unit stays the same from owner to owner to renter. There is no telephone directory, so it doesn't matter to anyone. But if you want to change the services on your phone, you have to be the registered owner of the phone line. I am pretty happy with my services, but I am considering adding call waiting.
One of the annoying things about this all cash society is that you have to physically go and give these utilities and internet company cash every month. The lines I tend to stand in are almost never long, but the fact that you have to walk to these places every month and hand over often close to the exact change, is a pain. At least the water company sends someone door to door to collect! Last time I just paid them for the whole year to save us both the trouble. Now if the other companies start to accept credit card payment, automatic payment, or even checks in the mail it would be quite nice...
It is true also that this has become an incredible hub of the Armenian world. I was just telling my odar friends over e-mail that the number of diasporans that pass through here is just astounding, and so many of them are coming back, and so many new ones are coming... it is awesome! I was telling them that just six years ago when I was here there was no such foregone conclusion, LA might have just as easily become the center for the diaspora... after all it is much more central and has a huge number of the diasporans there. But here we are and with all these diasporans coming and going, buying flats, moving here, it is really helping this nation be a nation. The Republic for all the worlds Armenians. Now that diasporans can easily get 10 year visas (which look decievingly like passports, but are not) the whole process is much easier. Dual citizenship will be the last step towards completing this circle. It will psychologically unite what geography separates.
One of the annoying things about this all cash society is that you have to physically go and give these utilities and internet company cash every month. The lines I tend to stand in are almost never long, but the fact that you have to walk to these places every month and hand over often close to the exact change, is a pain. At least the water company sends someone door to door to collect! Last time I just paid them for the whole year to save us both the trouble. Now if the other companies start to accept credit card payment, automatic payment, or even checks in the mail it would be quite nice...
It is true also that this has become an incredible hub of the Armenian world. I was just telling my odar friends over e-mail that the number of diasporans that pass through here is just astounding, and so many of them are coming back, and so many new ones are coming... it is awesome! I was telling them that just six years ago when I was here there was no such foregone conclusion, LA might have just as easily become the center for the diaspora... after all it is much more central and has a huge number of the diasporans there. But here we are and with all these diasporans coming and going, buying flats, moving here, it is really helping this nation be a nation. The Republic for all the worlds Armenians. Now that diasporans can easily get 10 year visas (which look decievingly like passports, but are not) the whole process is much easier. Dual citizenship will be the last step towards completing this circle. It will psychologically unite what geography separates.
posted by Raffi K. at 8:24 AM
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