I don't want to overdo it with too many posts, but I have way too many stories to tell, especially if I rewind and look back at all my experiences over the past few weeks.

I attended a concert tonight with performances by the Komitas Quartet, the National Choir and more, commemorating Human Rights Day. I've been quite active at attending numerous concerts and plays over the past couple of months. Last week I went to a 3-hour music awards ceremony with performances by about 25 Armenian pop and contemporary singers, including my friend Ispir, but the past couple of shows that I have attended really got me sick. Though the performances might be great and the venues might be very nice to be in, you just don't get excited over going to these events because of how cold the places are. Yet, the shows go on all throughout the winter, because the performers need to make money, but the venues either can't afford to put on the heat or the heaters are way too noisy to have running while the performances are taking place. The good thing in all of this is that even if you decide to leave at intermission (because it's cold or maybe because you're not enjoying the show), you never feel too bad about not getting your moneys worth. I just think about shows I've seen in Toronto with tickets costing over $80. Here, even if you don't enjoy a show, you just walk away thinking "well, it only cost me a dollar!".

Now that Yerevans ugly construction sites are looking pretty, thanks to all the snow covering them, the newly paved streets covered in black ice can be quite deadly for drivers. But I am glad to hear that they don't salt the busy streets of Yerevan. All I can picture is how brutal Toronto streets look in the springtime because of all the salt that ate away at the tar throughout the winter.

In my last post, I talked about bad customer service. Now I want to talk about a combination of that and the not so easy task of finding a decent restaurant. Let me talk about my experience at Pizza di Roma that took place over a month ago with two of my friends. The pizza we ordered came with a bonus topping......3 private-parts hairs...........ew! When I reported this to the waitress, she looked at me with a blank face all confused. I told her how disgusting it was to find hairs in the pizza (and that was only in 2 slices and yet we had at least another 6 slices to go). She still didn't understand what I was trying to get at. She asked me if I was hinting at wanting another kind of pizza and of course I said no and I demanded to get a refund. And we did. Next story...

There's a so-called fast food joint called SFC (a total rip off of Kentucky Fried Chicken (aka KFC)). The atmosphere isn't bad at all and the food is okay (though the chicken burger is a little difficult to bite into and not the same texture as KFC chicken). Yesterday. I went there with my cousin who's here from Syria studying medicine. He ordered a typical beef burger and I had the chicken burger. The first bite he took he quickly looked right at me and said "look at my meat, should I not eat it?". The burger was brown on the outside, but the inside was as raw as the ground beef you purchase at a supermarket.

Me: I would never eat that, let me tell them.
Cousin: No don't worry about it, I will just eat the bread.
Me: What are you talking about? I have to tell them.
Cousin: Listen, you can't do things like this here, this is not Canada.
Me: Canada? What does Canada have to do with this? This is unacceptable anywhere in the world.
Cousin: Don't worry about it.
Me: You're pissing me off (now we're at the point of arguing 'cause I really don't understand the logic).
Cousin: So you tell them and then what? They don't care!
Me: Listen, I just want them to know. Somebody can seriously get sick from this.
Me to Supervisor: Excuse me, I need to ask you something. Please look at this meat and tell me if you would eat it yourself. (Supervisor girl is looking all confused as I hold the very obviously raw beef patty in my hand.)
Me: It's red!
Cousin: He means it's raw.
Supervisor: I don't understand what the problem is.
Me: It's not cooked, how could you serve this?
Cousin: Look, it's totally raw. This could have bad bacteria in it.
Me: You know people die from things like this? It could have a virus in it right now.
Supervisor: Do want a chicken burger?
Cousin: No it's all right.
Me: We're just telling you this so you guys know.

She then walks off without even apologizing. A minute later a man confronts us to apologize and asks my cousin if he wants a chicken burger. By now, my cousin is full because of the oversized buns they serve with their burgers. The owner goes on telling us how there was something wrong with the machine. Okay, I need to let you guys know that the beef burgers at SFC are probably half a centimeter thick. How is it possible that we have burgers back in North America that are sometimes more than 5 times as thick but are still cooked inside? So this was a warning to anyone who might check out this so-called SFC. By the way, don't expect a "can I help you", don't question why the pop cup is only half full, and don't bother paying the extra drams for a Pepsi instead of a Coke cause they just fill your cup up with Coke anyway.

Honestly, this wasn't a plan of mine to come to this country to dictate these restaurant employees about their service. I mean, who am I to come here to tell these people what to do when they've been here all their lives, right? But honestly, with problems like this, tourists walk away upset at the bad service and maybe a life-threatening disease because some kids haven't been rightfully taught about the restaurant industry.

Now let me tell you about the few places that I have enjoyed...of course the popular cafe/bookstore/restaurant Artbridge, Charlies (although for some reason it's rarely busy), Cactus (Mexican food...yum!), Breeze (Thai food, could be a little tastier, but still good) and a couple of other places. You know, I thank God most of these people open cafes rather than restaurants because they still haven't learned about the basic procedures of finding good recipes, preparing the food, and satisfying customers for the simple reason that they will return, maybe tell all their friends, and make the restaurants a whole pile of drams.

Sorry guys for the long post. By the way, thanks to all of you that have welcomed me.