The weather is nice in Melbourne today. I think I will be here for the next month. I was thinking of travelling to the W coast of Australia, but the ticket prices seem quite unreasonable. I am still looking for options, but barring some last minute discovery, I will be here. Here is a nice place though. The past couple of days have been spent with my half Greek cousins. The one who lives in Sydney speaks very good Armenian, the one in Melbourne speaks kichm' Hayeren. The Greek influence has been much stronger in their lives however since they left Ethiopia. The Armenian cousins who I am splitting my time with speak fluent Armenian, and their Australian hubbies are picking some up as well. The kids are spoken a fair amount of Armenian to, so I think (hope!) they will speak it in time. It was fun bringing everyone goodies from Armenia (and Jacob Majarian's incredible photography book), they all enjoyed them a lot. Some of them plan on visiting Armenia which would be great, since everyone who goes there just loves it!

So anyways, last night we went to an Ethiopian Restaurant. The young Ethiopians there got a kick out of speaking Ethiopian with my aunt, uncle and oldest cousin. They also found the fact that I knew how to say "gossip" in Ethiopian (actually, the language is called Amharic) a hoot. A couple of them knew a bunch of Ethiopian Armenians, and they talked for a long time. Most of the conversation was in Amharic, so I can't say what the rest of it was about... A bit of trivia for you all -- the Ethiopian national anthem at the time of the Emperor was written by and Armenian named Nalbandian. Well, that is all for now...