Life is good, I am loving my new job, and the house is back to normal and plenty of friends to spend time with. Tourists everywhere, every time I need a break from work, I simply walk out to reception and talk to tourists, Italians, French, Americans etc.

Madlene and Arthur are special people, I spent an evening with them a couple of nights ago and it was such a relaxed atmosphere, I really should discipline myself to spend more time at my friends� homes instead of meeting them at restaurants. It�s exactly as Madlene put it, even though we hadn�t seen each other for a while, we just picked up where we left off, I really love that in a relationship. I now have a copy of their CD and saw bits and pieces of the wedding video with Arthur�s songs in the background, it�s great.

We have had incredible storms and rain all week in the evenings, so all the streets now are muddy because of the construction. Still not one street is completed in the whole of the centre. My neighbour told me the weather would cool off after St Mary day (about 2 weeks ago), which it did. She also told me that from Sept 1st; it will warm up again, giving us another mini summer. My neighbour knows everything, she�s never been wrong.

Walked past Kino Moskva yesterday and I saw an advertisement for Ararat movie so I went in and asked as to when the movie would start showing and was told from September 20th, can�t wait.

A couple of days ago, Nalbandian was playing Sarkissian in the US open, who were you going for? (I�m referring to A. and R.). Still, Hewitt�s in there and doing all right, go for it mate!

i got sick yesterday. ;-) Its funny because it mirrors the last log so closely. I was hanging out with Madlene (which again, is not something I do often enough) and some others, when my stomach started to hurt more and more, to the point where it nearly had me crippled. I think it is giardea (sp??) since this exact thing happens every few months to me. Anyways, the nice thing about that is it suddenly passes quickly, and so I just lay down for a little while afterwards and gathered my strength.

The MTV music awards started at something like 2am here, but I was sound asleep. I am not sure if it is still going on or a rerun already, but it is morning and there they are... I just want to know if System of a Down got any nominations/awards.

Zabel loved her surprise. She got back on the VG flight on Wednesday night (which was great), and it took her a few minutes to notice the washing machine. It seems like such a luxury... but in the end it is great because we won't have to lug our laundry to the laundry service and we will save money in the long-term. They only have front loading machines here (except for some weird, childrens size machines around) which don't take up much space, but which frankly take often 3 times as long to do a load of laundry. I just don't get it! Most types of wash take over 80 minutes, whereas American machines take 25. Also they don't seem to believe in dryers here. Stores just don't carry them. In any case, for now it is great to just throw laundry in the washing machine whenever we feel like it.

i got sick yesterday. it must have been something i ate, but all the locals are convinced that mrsel em (i literally got cold, and thus am now sick).

i was scheduled to finally hang out with lena... and i was 2 hours late into our appointment but she was sweet and understood. so we got home and i called lena. i was still feeling a little sick but decided company would do me good. after a brief convincing session that i am ok and capable of serving tea in my "state" lena said she would drop by and bring a friend.

now i was laying on the couch, moaning and whimpering, waiting for lena to come over. arthur kept asking me to drink tea, jermuk, water, juice, tea, jermuk, water, juice and i was just NOT cooperating. then he left the room and i figured he became frustrated and gave up. a minute later he called me... i said, i can't come... he said hurry it's important. i went into his studio and he had found my favorite song karaoke, (overjoyed by stevie wonder) and so he passed me the words and said he wanted to record me.... music healing, i love it. pretty soon, in my terrible voice, i was building castles in the sky and loving life. by the time lena and carlos came over i was dancing the kochari. that was an amazing way to get my mind off stuff, i just feel bad that arthur had to sit through that horrible singing session.

seeing lena was fabulous. lena is special... not a lot of people in this world like her. after meeting her and becoming her friend you feel like you have known her forever. she is so comfortable and so smooth. no materialism, no pretences, nothing... just a good human being in front of you who is sweet, funny, understanding and smart. although i hardly get to see her, we always pick up where we left off. it is always fun with lena.

with lena came a new friend. welcome to yerevan, carlos. what an interesting guy. his father is an armenian who was born in mexico, his mom is mexican. he was born and bred in mexico in a small armenian community of barely 500. he is gettinghis phd in anthropology and is studying armenian communities in latin america... he is here in armenia now for five months to study armenian. he floored us, he knew so much about armenian culture (he said his access zone was ordering books on amazon.com). he seems excited to be here and is excited to start armenian classes.

i am feeling better now, although the night was not carefree. today my body hurts, my head hurts and i am weak but at least i am not sick anymore.

it is cold again. someone told lena that this is going to be a cold winter! anyone study weather around here? what does it mean when the summer is mild and cool... does that mean we are going to freeze our butts off over here?

Yesterday I did something I feel great about. I went to HSBC (which gives zero percent interest, and does not loan out my money to local Armenian businesses or individuals -- I heard that all their money is invested abroad), withdrew almost all my money and took it to a reliable local bank, where I opened an account. That one simple action has allowed me and one or more locals to come out ahead in life. I will get 6% interest on my money, while a local will have funds available to borrow in order to improve his farm! The bank I chose is called ACBA, and it is involved in loans to the agricultural sector. Farmers here do not get nearly the yields they should because they cannot afford enough of the high yield seed/fertilizer/pesticide/tractors/feed, etc, etc. that they need to get the most out of their land. So this will help them, and help me (I actually get a very decent interest rate, as well I should). The service at the bank was excellent and the location is very close to the Opera (between the Opera and Poplavok) so it is convenient as well. I am giong to move a little more money to Armenia to keep it there since the rate of return is much better than in th US. I recommend this to all the others who are glued to HSBC only because it has a British parent company. In fact this is a very easy and straightforward way to "invest" in Armenia. It is not the glamorous way to do it, but keeping savings in local banks is a the old fashioned way to help an economy. That is how Japan had such vast sums of money to invest in its own infrastructure and development. OK, maybe I am getting way too excited about opening a stupid bank account, but it just goes to show how you feel like little things here make a real difference.

The last two nights have had pretty decent thunder/lightening storms and the ground is now actually moist outside. It is a nice cool summer day today and it is forcast to continue like this for a few more days.

BTW, it seems as is the site that was hosting the comments has completely disappeared, and I don't know if it will ever come back. At this point if it doesn't come back soon I think I will just get rid of them completely.

Well this week has been the most hectic so far this summer, and I have a feeling it will continue until the cold sets in.
This past week we have been getting training with the AVC : language training in the mornings and then various discussions, guest speakers and visits in the afternoons - all of which have proved to be extremely useful and interesting. The other volunteers have been just great and as a whole group of AVC volunteers everyone gets on extremely well, but that's not to say that we're similar - no, everyone is completely different to each other which creates a great variety in the group. Various different opinions are emerging on some of the host families: generally very nice, but sometimes restricting, ie why do you have to go out anywhere if you have everything at home? Why don't you invite your friends here rather than meeting up with them at the opera?! Oh well, we all learn from these different situations. My host family are lovely and think I'm mad, but they quite enjoy it all : Hasmig, the girl of the house, is my age and she is really enjoying meeting all these different people and as well as me improving my Hayaren she thinks it's great that her english is improving.

Yesterday we went to Noravank and then the Areni wine-factory on the way back, it was beautiful but also absolutely boiling hot, so all the half armenians are lovely and red now.

Well, I had better get going as I'm off to the shoe maker who is going to make me a pair of shoes - if you did that in the UK the prices would be extortionate for hand-made shoes.

And what have I done for the past week? Precious little! Just been going to work, wandering aimlessly, spiking Madeline's coke with petrol (just kidding!!!!) and getting some stuff in order around the house. It seems like the summer is flying by, and people are pouring in and out, but I am not getting out of town enough. I am beginning to miss the days in '99 when I had a car and could just up and get out of town whenever I felt like it...

Zabel gets back from Boston in a few days and will be bringing lots of goodies as well. That is gonna be fantastic. I have some surprises for her too, so it is going to be a fun homecoming.

One quality of life improvement that I have really been enjoying this past week has been the screening of calls. I completely stopped answering my telephone, and let the answering machine get it even if I am home. It has been fantastic! So many phone calls you get in Armenia are wrong numbers, and incredibly, many times these people will ask who YOU are instead of telling you who they are looking for. Answering machines are still a novelty in Armenia, and therefore some of the messages you get are hilarious. People repeating "Alo?" again and again, or having a discussion with someone next to them about what this message could mean... it quite frankly surprises me since everyone here must have seen loads of movies with people waiting for the beep to leave a message, and then other people checking their messages. I don't know why, but in the past I always felt obligated to answer my phone... I have to thank Kristi for getting me past this.

I would also once again like to mention what a beautiful summer we are having. It hardly ever hits 100. This morning is nice and cool for instance. The night is falling much sooner already though and they have not finished one single side of one single block of sidewalk they have torn up. In fact they are tearing up new streets as well. Mashdots (Prospect) is the latest victim, and in fact they are widening the street as well at the expense of some of the green zone on the sides. It's too bad. I just hope that they finish all their work before winter because at this rate it is quite questionable. It is one thing to walk through unpaved dirt and mud in the summer fall, another altogether to walk through ice covered ground in the winter...

What have I done for the past week? Well Taleen the Aussie girl left after spending 3 months in Hayastan, the Aussies who were staying with me have left and my cousin Nadine who was visiting from Rome has left. You can all imagine the farewells that we�ve been having for all those who have left, including our dear Arsineh.

So I�m free for a week until another cousin arrives from Toronto on Friday and 2 more in September. So many new arrivals too, just this week I met 2 guys half Armenian who are visiting. One�s from Boston and is visiting for 3 weeks and the other is from Mexico who will be studying Armenian for the next 5 months. Neither can speak Armenian but are so willing to learn, it�s great. The Mexican tells me there are 500 Armenians in his country.

Also the second lot of the Volunteers have arrived and are going through their training session including Rhoda from the UK and my distant relative from London.

I went to water world today to cool off., mind you there won�t be too many more weekends before the cool weather starts. I know that I�ll be spending another winter here so I�m making the most of it while it lasts. All for now and oh I start my job on Monday!

so much to log. sooo much.

my day started off like this. arthur was driving me to work when my neighbor stopped me on the way before we hit the exit dalan and explained her situation. she has a lump in her breast and wanted to go and get an exam at the mammography center... i used to volunteer there so she asked if i had contacts. i told her that i would look into it and would get back to her. she was never married, all she had was her mother and the mom passed away last year and now she is alone. she works as a cleaner at grand tobacco and lives alone. mental note!!! i will help her.

i got to work and i am beginning a campaign to publicize the first peice of art that the cafesjian museum foundation is bringing in... a fernando botero, cat (a 2 and a half meter) sculpture by the world famous fernando botero... (probably one of the most famous living artists today). so i have forty days to convince the people here how amazing it is that we are getting a botero...which will bring us to the modern art world... right next to paris, new york, madrid, florence, WOW. even if it is a gadu

the botero is really important, it will bring a lot of attention to yerevan... and this is just the first of an amazing collection that includes Picasso, Arshile Gorky and many many many others. This museum is going to be amazing... only the construction budget is three times the size of the cathedral project.

so i got home and just wanted to rest because i was soo tired. but our friends visiting from los angeles called for dinner and they are soo nice and sweet that we just jumped out of the house again and flew off for a nice dinner with them and their kids.

they had asked how they can help...donations etc. so what i had done was go to the garni school to see what they needed.

ends up the garni school (900 students) does not have electricity, heating, flooring, proper school furniture, or bathroom facilities... and i thought i was going to offer them a library... we are going there with our friends tomorrow to see if they can help. i know they might not be able to take on the entire project but what they can do will be great. this will help our village and our kids... that will be amazing.

as we pulled up from this long day... my neighbor was waiting for me again. i have arranged her breast exam and will keep you guys posted.

welcome ani... i am very happy we finally got our armenia locals page up.

now that i am working my whole life has turned upside down. i cannot party late and have my own schedule of fun and pure merriment. i get tired quick. i have to wake up at 8:00 am no matter what. so the flavor of "weekends" has changed as well.

first off, i love working and this was long awaited and necessary if i was to keep the 3 grams of sanity i had left. i am proud to say the grams are growing by the minute. it is great to have a purpose and to be busy. it is great to wake up at 8 am no matter what.

this weekend was great too. the kind of weekend that you spend relaxing and prepping for work which included... finishing work on saturday and leaving for a wonderful weekend to our summer house in garni. arthur's family is great. they are such wonderful people. they are fun and funny and are really real. so we spent the day hanging out in his cousins village house. his cousin's family repatriated to garni from yerevan and live a traditional village life. they excavated their home (an amazing space on the edge of the cliff with garni temple on the other side)... and found an old bread factory with ten huge tonirs and big pots, pans and huge vases. amazing stuff. i mean hundreds of years old. they have the most wonderful backyard with a dog, chickens, rabbits, and baby pigs. they are a nice family and differ from most other families in the village. they will not start eating until (anouche)... the wife and mom, sits at the table.

arthur's summer house is two floors so it seperates into a space for two families. his parents and sister's family lives in yerevan but escape to garni during the summer weekends. his parents take the bottom floor with his sister and us kids sleep on the top level. his sisters children are 18, 15 and 8 (all girls) so we had a lot of fun... playing ping-pong, a water fight, cards and singing. ellen, the 8 year old, and i presented hovhannes toumanian's "The dog and cat" and arthur's mom was narrator. we ate and ate and ate including american corn which arthur had brought back the seeds for years ago. yummy sweet corn.

yesterday we spent all day just hanging out ... eating watermelons and visiting family. we were back in yerevan by 8:00 pm . our video guy came over so we can have our final say on the editing of our wedding video. then i took a nice long shower and tv'd myself to sleep so i can be ready for this... another week of work.

Yesterday was another fantastic Sunday. Didn't leave the house, enjoyed the cool, almost cold weather, napped, and got a lot of work done. I finally finished editing a tedious text on Hadrut Region, Karabakh. It needs a lot of polishing, as I have not gone back over it yet, but I put it online already so that people going there can have something to read about it... there is pretty much nothing available in English at this time. This still leaves 4 other regions of Karabakh for me to finish, but now that I have made some real progress I will be more motivated. The original text was over 50 pages and I edited it down to about 20, rewriting much of it and adding some directions. When I am completely finished I need to go back to Karabakh and visit many of these sites adding more specific directions, GPS coordinates and pictures.

Today will be a hectic day at work, so I am thinking of taking tomorrow off and maybe going out of town. I did not go to Ughtasar yesterday since I was still pretty beat from last weeks insane petroglyph hunt, but somewhere close would be nice.

Christine, an LA friend is in town visiting Armenia, getting her feel for the place and planning to move here some day. She is amazingly active, helping organize the April 24 march in Little Armenia, Hollywood, and showing how a couple of people can make a huge difference... Have I already written about her? If so, too bad, you're hearing it again! :-) But the reason I mention this is because this past weekend she met a pure American woman here by herself who likes it so much she has decided to stay! I look forward to meeting her, and in the meantime want to show how good a choice it can be to move here... irregardless of whether you are Armenian or not. She does not even speak the language yet! As I always say, Armenia is not for everyone, but it really is a great place for many people who can handle a slower pace of life, friendlier people, a nice little manageable city you can get around in on foot, an amazing countryside, yada yada yada. Alright, enough preaching for the day.

As I thought my trip back was not uneventful, I don�t seem to have much luck with long distance marshrutka rides. I left to go to the bus station early and the roads were blocked off as Shevardnadze was going to work. There were armed guards everywhere; I guess there have been too many assassination attempts. Anyway the bus finally filled with passengers and started south. The bus was old and slow, of course no air conditioning and packed with passengers and bags. Thinking that they were all Georgians (they were all talking to each other in Georgian and Russian), I did not speak to anyone for the first couple of hours. I put my headphones on and minded my own business.

It took 2 hours to get to the border, in fact it�s the worst part of the ride as the roads are in pretty bad shape. At the border, I held everyone up in the bus as I was the only foreigner. I was called out twice, once at the Georgian border and once at the Armenian. It confused the hell out of the customs people since I had 2 passports with me. The whole process took half and hour and we were off again.

Just past the Armenian border, our driver stops and decides that his bus will not make it to Yerevan and decides to lay off passengers in the middle of nowhere. Admittedly, there were 2 cars in sight with a few men hanging around. Everyone gets off the bus and start arguing with the driver and they�re all speaking Russian to each other. I�m just standing back and observing the whole scene. After a while (I lost track of time as to how long my patience had lasted) I found myself yelling �Hayeren�. Everyone turned around and asked me Dou Hayes? Ha? Maladiets. All this time they thought I was German and were not speaking to me, as I would not understand them. German? That�s a first; I�ve never been called that before.

By this stage they are all screaming at each other and it appears that the 2 cars that were present were prepared to act as taxis and take some of the passengers to Yerevan. They wanted to charge $60 for 5 people. Quite reasonable, if the bus driver was prepared to refund the passengers so they could use this taxi service. The problem was that the Georgian driver was not prepared to refund us at all. Some passengers wished to return to Tiblisi and I told them I was not going back 2 hours, when I was only 4 hours away from Yerevan. I stood in front of the Georgian driver and asked for my money motioning with my fingers. I stood in front of him until he gave me 20 Lari back $10 US. I was the only one he had refunded by then so I told all the passengers in Armenian to do the same so we can get on with our business.

Finally an empty marshrutka arrives and this new driver is willing to take us to Yerevan. A new fight erupts, as this poor driver is unaware that the taxis are losing their business. Now it�s the drivers� turn to argue and yell at each other and still the other passengers have not been refunded. By now it�s midday and the heat is excruciating. Finally the passengers are able to calm all the drivers, obtain their refund from the Georgian driver and get into the new marshrutka.

Once seated I started speaking to the Armenians. Most were born in Tiblisi and the grandparents were from Kars. They had moved to Yerevan 12 years ago and some 10 years ago. They again told me that the situation in Tiblisi was pretty bad and that the Armenians were looked upon as second-class citizens. The women said that it was only a matter of time before the Armenians were thrown out. My reaction was how could they just throw out 8% of the Armenians and their reply was that it happened in Baku and Sumgait. They believed that war was imminent and repeated that it was just a matter of time.

A trip that should have taken 6 hours by bus took 9 hours. The whole day was spent with no food, no drink and no toilet break. Everyone was exhausted when we came in to Yerevan, and we all went our separate ways. I was physically and emotionally drained and was developing a headache. Since all the Armenians I spoke to basically tell me the same story, I tend to believe them all. My last comment about my trip is that I�m glad I�m home.

Now that I�m back, I am playing tour guide. My cousin from Rome is visiting for 10 days, a distant cousin from London has relocated for a year and I have 2 Aussies staying with me. Speaking of playing tour guide, I start a new job in a week in the Tourism Industry so it looks like I�ll be staying till the end of March.

"Armenia's notoriously corrupt traffic police are facing a sweeping government crackdown, with more than a hundred of their officers fired for bribery over the past two weeks, officials said on Saturday." -RFE/RL News Report

What can I say? This is so fantastic. Unfortunately they are not changing the system which propogates this corruption, but at least it is something.

I should point out that we haven't talked about the weather for perhaps a month now... that is because it has been downright nice. Good hot days, which aren't scorching, but usually in the 90's with no or very low humidity, and the nights cool off enough to sleep very comfortably. What a relief over last summer and the heat wave of early-July. I do still have to water all my plants pretty much every day however.

I am torn as to what I should do this weekend. Should I go through another marathon car ride to see the petroglyphs of Ughtasar or should I go somewhere else, or just stay at home??? Only time will tell. No matter what I had better remember to pay my utilities today so that my electricity doesn't get shut off.

I am told that most locals are out of Tiblisi currently and are resting in Batumi (6 to 7 hour drive), or Poti on the Black Sea. Is that why the streets are so clean? No, I truly believe that I was tired of all the dust from the construction in Yerevan and this break did the trick. Once the project is completed the streets will look great.

I have also noticed, similar to Yerevan, Tiblisi has the same spelling mistakes (bad habit of mine). For example in the Levon Travel brochure it states that �fares for other destinations shell be provided upon request�. Same goes for the English menu in restaurants. The names of shops make me giggle like Voulez vous, Big Ben (a clothing store), Monte Carlo and Prospero�s a bookstore.

The train system works in Georgia. One can catch the train from Batumi at 8pm and arrive in Tiblisi at 8am. The distance from Tiblisi to Batumi is 384 kms, to Poti 335 kms, to Baku 630 kms and to Yerevan 295 kms. By the way the name Tiblisi means hot. Apparently when the old capital was Mtskheta once the king went hunting in Tiblisi, shot a bird and it fell in the water, boiled and cooked because of the hot springs. Another legend is that Mesrop Mashtots was asked many times to write the Georgian alphabet. One day he got mad and while he was eating spaghetti, he threw his food on the wall and created the alphabet.

I spoke to another local today who has many Armenian friends and he told me that in the soviet times, The Armenians were the rich ones. Now it�s now just the Armenians who aren�t living well but the whole of Georgia.

So today I went back to Nazi�s place (the home stay) to pick up a CDRom that Hans had left behind consisting pictures of Armenia. There were two tourists there one was Japanese and the other German. Then I went to the second McDonald for a fish Mac. Walked all the way back to Vake and was followed amongst other things. This guy in a BMW must have spotted me from across the road and started following me by car. After the third attempt and his stupid honking, I turned and said, �I don�t speak-a your language, just give me a vegemite sandwich� I must have been humming the Men at Work song, I don�t speak-a your language, he just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich. Anyway since he didn�t understand a word I had said, he drove off, serves him right!

This is my last log from Tiblisi; hope I didn�t bore you all too much. It has been a great experience and my friend was a great host. From my observations, I believe Georgia should have prospered a lot more than what Armenia has because of its open borders, however doesn�t seem that way because of its corrupt government. Nonetheless there are a lot of sites to visit, history and culture and should be a backpacker�s paradise as SHOULD Armenia. My next log will describe the trip down to Yerevan and since I�m catching a marshrutka, I�m sure it�ll be adventurous.

Phew, I am still a bit wiped out and aching from yesterday... I headed out on a road trip at 10am and returned at 1am. That is a 15 hour trip, of which about 10 were spent in the car, with approx 6 of those offroad, and all of them with at least 6 people (albeit two of them 11yo) in a 5 passenger car, and not a spacious one to begin with.

We began with a drive up to Lake Sevan, and headed down to its southern tip of Martuni (yes, we have one in Armenia too, not just Karabakh). From there we headed south into a massive alpine plain (over 2km) and then offroad to find some petroglyphs (or geoglyphs as the expert with us said). We finally got to the first few at about 4pm, which were near some villagers camping out it these high meadows above their villages, gathering hay for the winter. The winters around Lake Sevan are very long (Oct-Apr) since it is 1km higher than Yerevan, which is 1km high itself, and luckily for these villagers, the fields here were very lush. The variety and color of the wildflowers was mind-boggling, every few meters a new color would dominate, but if you looked closely there were always many different colors in any spot. The bees and grasshoppers were having a field day (no pun intended). Some of the flower fields were seemingly endless, and it was a little sad to see it all being cut down for winter animal feed. Anyway, the villagers helped us get a khorovats (barbeque) started which we ate together, and we took pictures and inspected the interesting petroglyphs which are so different from the patterns on Ughtasar. The other major difference is that here there were only a handful of rocks with these 5 thousand year old markings, while in Ughtasar there are thousands. Our expert friend was explaining some of the significance of the drawings and his theories, which apparently he believes to be related to astronomy. I am glad he was with us because we would have never found them in a million years otherwise. Luckily I have the GPS coordinates now and can go back anytime!

After the food we headed for the next site over bad roads, and in this whole region we kept noticing the vivid blue eyes so many of the villagers had as we kept asking directions ;-) We got to the next set of petroglyphs and these were very worn out, but again luckily the expert was explaining what they appeared to be and showed us some of his photos where he had enhanced the engravings. Very interesting... following that we stopped by Selim Caravanserai, which was in the neighborhood (you would realize how insanely off the beaten track we were if you know how out of the way Selim is) and dropped down from 2.4km elevation down towards Yeghegnadzor as the sun set. Nearly reaching the Ararat plain where so much of the highway has been completely torn up, we stopped in the dark for a watermelon at one of the first of countless fruit stands along the road. It was a delicious melon and overhead the stars were magnificent in this area without much man-made illumination, the half moon just allowed us to make out the silouhette of Ararat, and off on our right, where Yerevan lay was a cloud system which was exploding with lightening and causing brush fires as we drove home (no rain till hours later). As we approached the police station on the outskirts of Yerevan where I had had an arguement with the officers who I told to treat tourists more kindly (see older logs), there were no police standing outside pulling people over. In fact, across the entire area we had covered we hadn't seen a single one! What could explain what was nothing short of a miracle? Apparently at this very police station some journalists had gotten pulled over a few days earlier and recorded the bribe. Incredibly enough in a country where every single person knows this is the deal, it created a scandal, and for the past few days across the country they have completely stopped taking bribes. I do not expect this to last long, but boy is it nice! We finally pulled in at exactly 1am and I was soon collapsed in bed.

Today was the real test as regards to safety. I walked by myself from Vake, the suburb where I am staying, from Chavchavadze Street down to the McDonald�s on Rustaveli Street. Most of the shops were closed even as late as 11am(I�d hate to think what time they finish work). I was only harassed once by a street kid holding a baby who was stationed outside Wrangler Jeans store. Anyway I had a Mcfish and chips cost about $2.50. While I was eating, a local asked me if I had spare ketchup to start up a conversation. So I asked him if he knew about Armenians living near Sheraton hotel, he says I�ll take you there, I have a car. I declined the offer politely saying I wasn�t going there just yet. So a little further down from McDonalds on Rustaveli Street, marshrutka no 68 takes you all he way up to Sheraton Hotel. So once there, I was just walking around and asking people (Armianski oolitsa) Armenian Street, then finally a woman with a child happened to be Armenian and she took me to the Armenian area called Avlabari, in Armenian it�s Havlabar. We walked past Hay Tadron then she led me to Etchmiadzin Church built in 1804 where I met Hair Vartan Vartabed.

After Etchmiadzin we walked up to the Pantheon where the graveyard is located: Raffi, Tumanian, Charents, Nar Dos, Sountoukian etc.(I thought Tumanian�s hometown was Dsegh and would have been buried there). I never would have found this graveyard site. It is hidden behind a new Church, which is being built, which has taken 5 years to build and is almost completed. Now the sad part is that this new Church is being built on top of an Armenian graveyard, which were destroyed pre Soviet times. (the lady I met whose name is Aida told me her uncle was buried there). I asked the Vartabed at Etchmiadzin how this could be and he said we have written numerous letters but who�s listening? The easiest way to find the graveyard, from Etchmiadzin Church at Avlabani go straight up Mekrhishvilli street and it is located behind the new Church. The graveyard is in good condition with new paving being laid leading up to it. , however some of the tombstones have been removed or vandalized. On my walk up to the grave I also noticed the damage on some of the buildings from the recent earthquake in April.

Aida invited me to her place for coffee, mentioning a few times that her house is not that great (as if I cared, I was just so glad to have met an Armenian). Her mother in law was making jam out of the shell of a watermelon not the green skin but the yellow bit inside. Aida�s grandparents were from Kars. While I was there, people started screaming and we saw a guy running down the street. He was a thief who had just pinched a necklace off a girl�s neck and ran off with it. So the people further down asked him why he was running, not knowing that he had just stolen a chain, his reply was that somebody was getting killed up the street and he was scared. I couldn�t believe it in broad daylight it was about 3 in the afternoon.

Again when asked how they were treated in Georgia, they told me that the common phrase was you�re Armenian, we�re Georgians, implying that Armenians are lower class. I have noticed the Armenians here do not volunteer any information, I had to repeat my question a few times. Aida also told me that the Georgians are now moving to their suburb since the new Church is being built in Avlabari. So the Armenians are selling up and moving to Russia.

After that visit, I walked down to Sourp Kevork Church where the Sayat Nova grave is located. I spoke to a few Armenians there, including the serving priest, and was told that 75% of Armenian writers were buried in Tiblisi. By the way there is a yearly festival held at this Church for Sayat Nova, held on the last Sunday in May. There are representatives from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. They also told me that they are not treated well, they are discriminated in regards to job opportunities and if they are employed their advancement is slow. In summary, there are only two operating Churches, the rest are shut down.

Then I walked up Leselidzis Street from Sololaki region where Sourp Kevork is located. The street leads to Freedom Square but just off that street to the right is where the other Armenian Church is located (the one where the Argentinean funds ran out). While walking on that street I noticed locals even young ones making a sign of the cross when passing a church. I was later told each family has a favoutite church where they cross themselves if they pass the it even when seated on a marshrutka.

I then went Levon Travel; they now have two branches in Tiblisi, www.levontravel.ge

Finally I went to Djvari (meaning cross), a 6th Century Monastery. I�m told an aerial shot would look like a cross. It�s only 20 minutes from Tiblisi. Then I went Mtskheta an 11th Century Church with a fourth Century Church in the same courtyard, surrounded by a fortress. The frescoes in that place were amazing and it�s believed to be the place where the robe of Christ is buried. Mtskheta is the ancient capital of Georgia, I purchased a book and will read further.

I truly am sorry my logs are so lengthy but I get back to Yerevan soon and won�t be writing long logs.

Just an announcement for anyone who is in Armenia this weekend... there is an expedition to Ughtasar, the mountain covered with Petroglyphs this weekend. This is one of the coolest, least visited, hardest to get to spots in Armenia, and it is being organized very well. Starting on Saturday morning with food and fun, spend the night at a nice hotel, go up to the mountaintop on Sunday and have a bbq at a waterfall that night. Everything is included in the price of $48. Just get yourself to Sisian on Saturday (the earlier the better) and you are guaranteed an amazing weekend. Tomorrow I am off in search of petroglyphs on a different mountain range... I can't wait!

I had dinner with my friend and a local lawyer last night (he has received his education in America). This guy stated some interesting tips regarding traffic police in Georgia. When stopped by traffic police, the police should waive you down with a proper baton (not just any old stick) pointing at the driver directly and indicating the exact spot where he wishes you to park. Once parked, the cop should walk over to the vehicle, introduce himself, state the region he�s covering for that particular day and state the violation you have committed. Should the cop fail to follow these procedures he has violated the Law. The driver can also demand to see a letter from his superior stating that the cop in question would be covering the particular region for the day which they never seem to be able to produce (this part I did not know, regardless the procedure sounds the same as Armenia).

He also told me that there are 2 main providers of cell phones in Georgia. First one is 82% owned by Turkcell and 18% by some European partner. The President�s daughter and his son in law are the second providers. Statistically there are 250,000 active subscribers of mobile holders out of a population of 4.5 million. If one considers cell phone usage would more than likely be in Tiblisi alone, with a population of 1.5 million, you can do the maths.

When I asked him about the economy in Georgia, he said it�s in its contraceptive stage. Interesting way of putting it, wouldn�t you say?

I spoke to other locals today and one young woman explained that she fasts 4 times a year being an Orthodox, with her fasting commencing this week for St Mary. She explained that 70% of the population are Georgians, 30% minority consisting of 9%Russians, 8% Armenians, 6-8% Azeri and the rest Greeks, Yezidi and others.

I noticed a Levon Travel today on Rustaveli Ave. (I was in a car) and I�ll try and get there at some stage. There are some magazines around which would help a tourist. First one is called Guide to Georgia (I picked it up for free at a Cafe called which is the equivalent of Artbridge in Yerevan), which lists sightseeing spots, a bit on culture, economic review, shopping and nightspots. Another is called Tiblisi Pastimes costs 3 Lari = $1.50 and lists exhibitions, cinema, theatre etc. Finally The Georgian Times www.geotimes.ge for a bit of news. I had a magnum ice cream and it tasted bloody good. I also tried out an internet caf� with pretty good connection and since I used it early in the morning the cost was 1 Lari an hour (50 cents).

The friend I�m staying with is being screwed big time for her last 2 weeks in Georgia. She has worked and lived in Georgia for the past two years. She absolutely loves it here and has had a great time with locals until now. She was in the process of buying a car, which fell through as the seller turned out to be a crook (he hadn�t renewed the transit number plate that he brought from Germany) and so lost a deposit of $500 USD, the friend she had trusted who was helping with the car purchase let her down (he didn�t explain the proper terms of the contract), her landlord is threatening to sue her as she terminated her contract early by 2 months. I feel bad for her as she�s now leaving this place with bad feelings and it�s a real shame that people are trying to take advantage of her goodness and most of all because she�s a foreigner.

As anywhere else in the world, there are also kind people. The woman my friend was renting a garage from, gave her a little key ring as a gift for her new car, which she doesn�t have anymore. She is also sending a small gift to an Armenian lady from their school years (they would be in their 50�s at least).

I watched the Hewitt/ Moya match, I gotta hand it to Moya he was 5-2 down in the second set yet still came through winning the Masters Series. Poor bugger (Hewitt), better luck next time mate.

For those of you who enjoy discussions, I have started a new one about Retirement in Armenia on the discussion boards. It is a great great industry for Armenia to establish and I am VERY interested in all of your thoughts on this subject. The best way to go about establishing this industry in Armenia is to first find out what the diaspora's thoughts on the subject are. If you know people who have considered it and decided one way or another, their thoughts are especially valuable. Please reply on the discussion board where the (hopefully substantial) conversation will have enough space.

lena jan, i am loving your logs about tbilisi... it is making me want to jump in a car and join you. they are wonderful... please keep them up. i especially love the comparisons on lifestyle since it is something i have been very curious about for a while.

i am loving work so far which is a really big relief and i am loving married life (which is also a great thing). i have been quite busy and had a nice weekend. first and foremost, we were looking for a space to put arthur' studio... (now that we rented his big house out and moved into my little one)... so we have been shopping around for space... but then it dawned on me. we have a guest bedroom (which seems to be always full and that seems to always be a hinderance on our life as a new couple) ... so what if we turned the guest bedroom into a studio. that would kills a whole flock with one stone. his studio would be super close and available to him when he has bursts of ideas and inspirations... and he could have alone time with the studio when i am at work AND we will have less overnight guests so that we can be alone in our own house once in a while as newleyweds. perfect. so we spent a better part of this weekend building office furniture and pretending the microphone is on for a huge pretend concert to the wall that faces west in our studio. fun

we went to a blessing of a new house bought and remodelled by an american armenian here in yerevan. mr. gurgen melikian (see famous people on this site) was there and so were a few other department chairs of yerevan state university. they were partying hard hard hard. toasts, dancing, and singing. the department head of armenian literature was singing an amazing selection of old armenian songs. i was brave enough to ask him to sing my favorite song (kankanavor enger) and he went into a one hour amazing lecture on the history of the song. it was amazing. i am going to try to get the words... post them and then repeat the history i heard. i think you guys will find it interesting.

will write more later.

Services for utilities are great in Tiblisi. Residents actually receive a bill (left under the door) for monthly electricity usage, a phone call is received from the phone company as a reminder to pay the phone bill (imagine Armentel providing that service) and an email sent for internet service. In Yerevan on the first of every month, I need to remember to pay the internet bill, around the 12th pay the phone bill and on the 15th the electricity bill, which isn�t bad but would be a lot easier if those services were provided (privatization). When we first arrived to the flat in Tiblisi both the power and phone lines were disconnected since my friend had been away over a month. Once the bills were paid, within hours the services were resumed, same procedure as in Yerevan. On a side note I found the internet in Tiblisi to be slower. Oh and taxis are everywhere cruising the streets looking for passengers, unlike in Yerevan where the taxis are stationed like at a taxi stand or one must call a taxi company.

Residents in Tiblisi have the luxury of receiving all day water except from 2am to 6am when it is cut off. You know what this means, don�t you? Having a shower with RUNNING water. Now don�t get me wrong, I am not complaining with my water system in Yerevan but jeez it felt good having a normal shower with running water. Needless to say I�ve been having long showers. FYI, in Yerevan I receive water from 7am to 9am and sometimes in the evenings from 7 to 7.30pm.

On the flipside, electricity is a huge problem in Tiblisi. I am told in winter it is disconnected altogether and so unless you have other means to heat like gas or a generator, you freeze to death. In Yerevan, there is no issue with electricity. (I would rather have the water problem).

Today we went for a walk in town and saw the second McDonald on Mardjanishvilli Street in the Plekhanova region, which is one of the old parts of Tiblisi. Again the architecture is great, however the buildings are not maintained and either need a good clean up or a coat of paint. Anyway I had an address of a home stay on Mardjanishvilli Street that I wanted to check out and compare it to that of Yerevan. As soon as the ladies selling fruits and veggies saw us, they pointed us to the alley where the home stay was. There were two 6 year olds playing in the courtyard, said hello in English and lead us to Nazi�s apartment. The room is very nice and I wanted to compare it with the home stay in Yerevan. In my opinion, the one in Yerevan is in better condition, a room with a view as one tourist put it to me.

After that we went to Vagzali Bazroba, a huge outdoor market by the train station where one could find anything and everything. Most of the products are Turkish and therefore cheap.

We caught a marshrutka back to the flat and on the way crossed the Mtkvari River, which runs through the city, pity it�s a dirty river, but at least there are plenty of trees and really nice parks everywhere. Yerevan needs parks desperately, we have a few, off Baghramian, near the new Cathedral up in Monument but we could do with more.

Now regarding safety, I find myself clutching my bag tightly and looking back over my shoulder, am I paranoid? NO. My friend was attacked at knifepoint while she was jogging with another friend at midday. I have absolutely no safety issues in Armenia, whatever time of day.

One last thing for this log, I visited one of the Marriott Hotels (the second one is being built) and met one of the Managers who�s German. The lobby is really nice; I could not find any brochures anywhere as to what sights a tourist should visit.

I just woke up from a great nap. Now I feel caught up on sleep and rest. I did not leave the house all day, and I can't remember the last time that happened. I just read all day and watched some TV and surfed the net. Yesterdays game went well, but remains unfinished. The dynamics were quite interesting, with a wide mix of players -- diasporans (USA, Egypt), locals and an Armenian speaking odar (French-Canadian).

Now, for hopefully my last note about comments. I am just going to completely crack down on any comment that doesn't float my boat. No explanations, no excuses. There are strange comments, impersonators, and constant off-topic comments. From now on I delete them and ban users at my discretion. They are becoming disruptive in my opinion. You want to strike up a conversation? You want to discuss your own topic? That is no problem, you go to the discussion boards which are designed just for that. No more Mr. Nice Guy :-)

Left Yerevan 8am Friday August 9 and arrived in Tiblisi 5 hours later at 1pm. The ride up was extremely comfortable in a private car with my friend. It was till fairly green up north leading to Tavoush after which it became dry. The border was quite interesting; I showed my Armenian passport (10 year visa) at the Armenian border and my Australian passport with the Georgian visa 20 metres further (I haven�t crossed too many borders by car). I learnt at the border (this may interest those holding the 10 year visa) that if you have your residential address stamped in your passport on page 3, you could easily obtain a Georgian visa at the border for $30 US for a 21-day period. Since I�ve never bothered registering my residential address on the 10-year visa (passport), I had to purchase the Georgian visa from Yerevan and pay $50 US for a 7-day period. It looks like I�ll have to make another trip to Ovir (I digress).

The first village we passed after the border was Oblos, an Azeri village that looked no different from an Armenian village, same stalls on the side streets, same products, men squatting. Regarding similarities in Tiblisi same annoying honking, annoying car alarms, stray dogs, same marshrutnis (mini bus) except with Georgian writing (weird, I kept looking for Opera written in Armenian all day long).

Tiblisi is a cosmopolitan city and people get about their business without so much as staring at anyone. Cars around the city are newer than in Yerevan (they�re also cheaper to buy, I know this since my friend bought one today and saved heaps). Food is excellent, great khatchabouri, good cheese although more expensive than in Yerevan. There are stores like Nike, Sony, Polo, and McDonalds x 2. It appears that it�s a more organized, cleaner city, however everyone I have spoken to so far (Georgians, ex pats) prefer Yerevan and tell me that Yerevan appears more advanced because of the hundreds of outdoor cafes and a lesser corrupt government.

From my observations, because of the mixture of the people, the city looks more like a European city having maintained its charm architecturally (although the second Marriott is being built in Freedom Square).

Which brings me to my next destination, the Armenian quarter just off the Freedom Square. By chance I found a 17th Century Church, which looked like restorations had started but left unfinished. I started asking around and in a matter of minutes met three Armenians, an old lady (100% Armenian), another lady (25%) and a man half Armenian. They told me a group of Argentinean Armenians had started restoring the Church but ran out of funds so locked up and left it unfinished. The Church stores hundreds of books but the old lady told me that the valuable ones had been stolen. The man went as far as opening a gate in someone�s backyard so that I could take a picture of frescoes.

My next visit was to St George Armenian Cathedral built by the Armenian Prince Umek in 1251 AD. A wedding was taking place (groom Armenian and bride Finnish) and I spoke to a few of the guests who were Armenian. After the wedding, the priest started mass with only 2 attendees. This visit was an incredible feeling, I didn�t want to leave. My next visit will be Sayat Nova grave. If there�s anything else Armenian that I should not miss (except for Javakh it�s too far) please let me know (I didn�t do much research), I still have a few days here, till next time.

Woohoo! I am caught up on my e-mail. I wrote/replied to virtually nothing for a week, which caused quite a backlog... Things have been going good... I finally got my wire transfer on Tuesday, and the recieving bank THEN tells me they can't give me the $ until the next day because they have to get the money ready :-))) So I got it the next day, and then went to HSBC to open an account. That went quite smoothly except when the girl helping me got really pissed off at me for not wanting to fill out the fields about my education and job. That is none of their business, all I need is for them to hold my cash for me, and they don't even give me interest on it!!! (What an incredibly good deal for them, it show that there is room on the market here for another western bank to compete with them). Anyways, I told her not to take it personally, it was just none of the banks business, but she continued to take it personally. Oh well, can't please them all.

Today we play Diplomacy, which I haven't played in a decade, it is always an interesting ride...

On the morning news today on CNN, they were talking about how desperate Turkey was to enter the negotiations into the EU since all the other countries on the table were already in the negotiation stage. So they were saying that they had abolished the death penalty and lifted bans on the Kurdish language. There was no mention at all regarding removal of restrictions for the Armenian Community or any other minorities. They finished off by saying that 61% of the Turks wanted to join the EU. Am I surprised? No, in fact I don�t even know why I watch that channel.

My usual visit to the grocery store later turned out a little differently today. My conversation with one of the ladies to this day has been the usual small talk. Today she approached me and was kind of embarrassed and nervous by her request. She wanted 5 minutes of my time to help her write a letter in English. She�s a beautiful middle-aged woman who had worked at the Children�s library for 20 years and has been divorced for 20 years. The letter she was writing was to an Arab Christian man she had met in 1975

The letter she wrote explained as to why she had not been in contact with him lately. She had by chance recently found out that her former husband had acquired land, house, a car etc in an Arab country through a will, while they were married and was not willing to share any of the assets with her. She took her case to court and won. However the ex is still not willing to help her in any way, even after the court�s decision and she believes he will escape to that Arab country.

In the letter she was also thanking this Arab man for the funds he had sent for her son�s eye operation. When the son was 2 years old, the doctors damaged a nerve in his eye and this latest operation being the third one was also unsuccessful. He�s now studying International Relations and must be in his 20�s. Our five minute talk turned into a half hour chat but well worth it. The moral of the story is what good is the court�s decision?

So I�m off to Georgia on Friday for a week. It�ll be interesting to see what similarities/ differences there are between the two countries. I�m just glad to be leaving the dust in this construction war zone city albeit for a week.

Oh and finally my newfound cousin from the UK is coming to Armenia in a week and joining the Armenian Volunteer Corps program!
Also I am told The Aussie athletes are back from the Commonwealth Games. Having done so well and among them were 2 Armenian weight lifters, one bringing home 3 gold medals and hoping to compete with his son in the coming Olympics (first time in history to have a father and son team) impressed?

i finally have an offce and a desk and a phone and internet and business cards and a cell phone and everything i need to be a working girl. I HAVE A JOB! This has been a long awaited moment in the life of... and i am happy to say... i am a working woman.

i am director of public relations for the cafesjian family foundation and it is a great position. for those of you who are not familiar with the foundation we are the ones that are renovating cascade... (a 25 million dollar project)... in addition we are doing a million other things that are good for this country... hopefully we will have a website soon (totally up to me to do) and i will send you guys a link.

i had my first performance on tv as a rapper for arthur's new song and it was fun. everyone said i was a born natural and i had a great time on stage. some people even asked if i had a cd... who knows i might just become crazy enough one day and begin one.

we are not going on our honeymoon because of my job and we are pretty sad about that but my job is so cool that i am sure it will bring me a different kind of joy.

my mom is leaving on friday and i am so sad that i keep looking at her and frowning... i love having her here so much.

arthur's CD's arrive in a few days and we are starting to plan the premiere party. YIPEE

For the first time since coming to Armenia, I needed a wire transfer to get some cash... I usually just use the ATM. Wiring was such a harrowing experience, requiring the help of two relatives, and numerous phone calls. This is of course not a complicated procedure and I know people who have done the same thing instantly, but my bank (which I usually like) exhibited exceptional incompetence. It reminds me that "customer service" and employee competence may be better in America, but they sure are not guaranteed. What should have taken half an hour instead took two days with them literally calling me TWO DAYS after filling out the form themselves (and saying it was complete) to ask for additional information, like the address of the bank in Armenia! I was ready to tear my hair out, as the reason I needed to wire the money was because I was in a RUSH. Beginning with my attempts to do this online myself (wire transfer function became unavailable for 3 days), it took 7 days for the money to head out of my account there... now I just hope it actually makes it to Armenia ;-)

For those of you who have been following the news, Turkey just made HUGE reforms yesterday that the nationalists are going to try to overturn. If they stick it will truly be a HUGE step forward towards a more civilized Turkey. Also if they stick it will be very hard in the future to reverse that kind of progress. Aside from the highly publicized abolishment of the death penalty in peacetime (I don't know why the EU doesn't let countries decide this issue for themselves) they removed the ban on the Kurdish language, AND removed the restrictions on minority communities like the Armenians, Greeks and Jews. I have not had a chance to read more about this in greater detail, but I am looking forward to it. The churches should be allowed to aquire new property, to repair what they have, etc, etc... if anyone finds a detailed article outlining the specifics I would love to see it. The Turks have claimed that Armenians were allowed to live as equals, but with Armenians not allowed to build school, or attend the ones they have, or repair churches, etc, it was such a blatant lie that it reminds you of genocide revisionists.

Today we go to Ashtarak for a bbq and picnic. It will be nice to get out of the HOT city... yesterday at Vernissage we were melting away.

On Friday night, I met up with a couple of Aussie friends who are working in the Tavush Region in Noyemberian and an Armenian Aussie based in Vanadzor. Since they were all in Yerevan, we decided to have a feast and catch up. We were all dreaming of just sitting at a beach somewhere and thinking of different destinations close by that wouldn�t cost us an arm and a leg. I recently enquired about some flights and was quoted $700 US to Nice, $450 US to Athens and just over $300 US to Cyprus.Croatia was another option but of course too expensive. Come to think of it we left out Dubai and Beirut. Regardless I think I�m just going to have to stick with either Sevan or water world this summer.

Today was a great day, I went to Mt Aragats and it was so refreshing and cool. Of course I didn�t hike up the mountain but just lazed around the lake, which was too cold for a swim. It took me and the rest of the group about an hour to acclimatize since it�s situated at an altitude of around 3200 m. The weather changed very quickly and we all changed from shorts to jeans and fleeces but it was a welcoming change. We walked around a little and had snow fights (yes there�s still snow around the lake in August). On our way back we stopped at the fortress and Church of Amberd.

Fire works are going off as I�m writing this, setting off car alarms all over. I�ve been listening to the concert all night, which is taking place around the opera. (I guess that�s where Madlene�s Arthur is singing tonight). I can hear it so clearly; it�s so loud tonight.

It may be too late for this year, but you can start training for next summers race... I assume you contact the French Embassy in Armenia for details.
________________________
ArmenPress News Agency
Aug. 1 2002

VELOTOUR D'ARMENIE TO KICK OFF AUGUST 3

YEREVAN, AUGUST 1, ARMENPRESS: The third, already traditional
cycle race, christened Velotour d'Armenie, will kick off August 3
from a location near the French embassy in Yerevan.
Some fifty cyclists from France and Armenia will cycle across
several Armenian provinces and finish again in Yerevan. The tour is
organized by a prominent French coach Francis Rembond and the
Armenian Cyclist Federation.

Went to a friend�s house last night to watch a movie called �Best in Show�, really quite funny. I was told �A Beautiful Mind� is playing next week at Kino Nairy in ENGLISH! I�ll be going to see that movie.

This friend�s place had air-conditioning, what a difference that made; it was so nice for a change. We also had French onion dip, which was such a treat; I had forgotten how good it tasted.

I�ve been running around all day, visiting Ovir (the visa place), where I bumped into Madlene, her mother and Arthur, then to the Foreign Ministry, it really is a nightmare. This afternoon I am hoping the Georgian Embassy will have my visa ready for my trip next week. Let�s see which visa place is more competent, my guess would be the Georgian one.

I�m in the process of translating a small text for a friend and it�s really hard work. I had no idea it was going to be so difficult.

My next door neighbour now has a Director of a very well known international organization staying with her for a week. How refreshing is that? The person chose to stay at a home stay rather than an expensive hotel.

Madlene hurry up and let me know if we�re having your wedding party this weekend, otherwise I�m going to Mt Aragats, but needless to say I wouldn�t miss your party for anything!