I had an nice trip up to Gyumri (Armenia's second largest city) this week, and I really had to change my opinion of the town. I had been there before and stayed in one of the newer, soviet, high-rise areas on the fringe of town, which was obviously not very attractive, and the quick jaunts into the town weren't enough to change my mind. This time I got a chance to really walk around the old town which has loads of beautiful old one or two story buildings, lots of parks, pedestrian-only streets, churches, a very nice museum, good food, and we checked out some very nice hotels as well. (Berlin and Isuz). I could still never live there since the winters are colder and longer than Yerevans, but now I will look forward to future visits, where I will get a chance to wander down different old streets.

Along the way there and back we saw some really nice spots I had already been to, but was showing off to others. Dashtadem fortress was very well received as usual and Harichavank was spectacular! I had not seen it since its restoration was complete and they did an amazing job of it. After we lit some candles we noticed a white dove sitting in the monastery and took this as a great sign (I have, after all, never seen one in Armenia except in captivity).

I finished a project I have been wanting to do for ages now. I created a new web site with a calendar of events for every single Armenian community in the world! Go to www.calendar.am and start using the calendar meant for you. (You can add your own events)

And finally, my dads plane lands here in 1.5 hours!

A bit of news on lovely Armentel. They are supposed to be selling 50,000 new SIM cards for the next 10 days, that makes it 5000 SIM cards a day for new subscribers of mobile phones. Today is the second day whereby Armentel officially should be selling and releasing 5000 cards. I have had a mobile phone for over 6 months and have been waiting to purchase a SIM card so I can use the mobile.

This morning I went to Armentel to buy this �Easy Card� not so easy by anyone�s standards, and of course after 2 hours of waiting around they decided not to release any today. What happened to those 5000 cards?

The most upsetting part was the way the police were treating the ordinary people waiting patiently to purchase the easy card, they were treated so badly, I was amongst those people. The police are extremely rude in this country and make fun of the ordinary person in the street. By the way during the whole time that I waited not once an announcement was made that there won�t be any cards today.

So let me tell you where the 5000 cards went today. I would not have believed it if I didn�t see it with my own eyes. Shady people sell these so called cards in the newspaper. For curiosity sake we called a few of them and were told that they have these cards for sale for $70 US (Armentel�s price is $24 US). These shady people who have contacts are making a profit of $46 US per card. What chance does an honest ordinary person have in this country? I�m getting quite fed up and tired of this never ending corruption.

Ararat movie is still sold out! My work colleagues are trying to get tickets and they�ve been told that they need to book at least 3 days ahead. The good thing is that the showing has been extended till October hopefully giving everyone the opportunity to see this brilliant movie. I must have been extremely lucky when I bought the tickets to the premiere a week earlier. They have shown Atom and Arsinee on tele a few times and they showed Arsinee kissing her Armenian passport.

So many tourists in town, French, German, Italian, Russian, Philippino and a Scot in full gear dressed in his kilt and socks. This Scotsman�s been in Hayastan for 2 weeks already and has another week to go. I asked him to describe his impression of Armenia and he replied that contrary to his country where the villagers are the rich ones, the villagers in Hayastan are the poorest. He also said that Hayastan�s wealth is it�s people, where else would you find villagers inviting you inside their homes and not asking what it is that you�re after instead. He also mentioned that Armenia is the only country from former Soviet countries where he didn�t need an invite to come as a tourist, which also helped his decision to choose Armenia as his destination. Finally he could tell I was an Aussie straight away, which made me feel better since I�ve been told otherwise recently.

Raffi N. I read your logs, I love catching up on Diaspora news and how actively everyone seem to be involved in Armenian events, which is something I never did back in Sydney.

The Armenia Logs are kickin guys, bravo! I am so happy to see everyone logging.

Yesterday at 5:00 pm my hair was brown, long and curly... at 10:30 pm I had short, straight, blonde highlighted hair. What can I say? Once in a while you need to remond yourself too... just for fun. Yes, I am having a great deal of fun. Arthur kept calling me Jennifer yesterday, he has officially changed my name... as long as I am blonde I am destined to be Jennifer, very funny we are still laughing about it.

It reminded me of a real incident from the past. Years ago my hair was bleached blonde. Many of my Armenian friends called me white-washed... after the bleaching incident claiming that I was bleaching my Armenianess away. Well... what would these diasporans say today (still living in the Diaspora)...if they saw the new platinum blonde me. Am I still white-washed... or is it OK now that I am a bleached repatriate.

It's funny the conditions that Armenians put on eachother... in order to get the Armenian seal of approval. I have always been turned upside down by the demands the community at large makes on Armenians. Do you have to speak Armenian, read, write? Do you have to be Christian (or a practicing Christian)? Do you have to be dating or married to an Armenian of the opposite sex? Who made up all these rules and decided to outcast people who could very well contribute great things to the community but wouldn't or didn't because they were outcast.

Parajanov was Armenian, he was gay... but Armenian... would these people make an exception because he was one of the most amazing artists in the history of film and art. Would they make an exception for Atom Egoyan who does not speak Armenian fluently but has given the Armenian people a monumental and lasting peice on the Armenian Genocide. We make exceptions... and that is the least we can do. But here is a thought to adding to our pool of Armenian greatness.

How about just ONE pre-requisite to being Armenian. You have to be the best human that you can possibly be. That can be being a GOOD PERSON, and that way representing who you are (and a part of that is being Armenian) in a positive light... to... rebuilding Armenia with your millions... to... being active in your community... to learning to read and write Armenian at a late age... to... throwing an annual Armenian Christmas party for your non-Armenian friends and teaching them about the traditions of Armenian Christmas.... anything goes if you represent your Armenian Self in a way that will make this world better... Being a GOOD PERSON is being a good Armenian... it only brings us up. It only makes us better. It erases all the complexes and allows people to develop and prosper...

So I may be a temporarily experimental blonde... but I am also trying my hardest to be a good person, and that means I am on the right track... blonde hair and all.

PS. The Straight part is just temporary, just a blow-dry, for those of you who know I could never part with my Madlene defining afro of curls.

An incident happened a couple of days ago and I�ve been toying with the idea of whether or not I should log about it but here it is.

On Monday morning I went down to Republic Square leaving half way through my meeting so that I could help take down the tents from the weekend of the Kenats festival. Since our stepladder was stolen, I approached this man in his fifties who was supervising the dismantling of the stage where the performances had taken place and asked if I could use his stepladder. This fat man stares at me and says �I remember you from Friday night, you gave me the finger� I was so dumbfounded I asked him what made him so certain that it was I? Firstly I would never give an old man the flick, let alone in Hayastan, secondly I was at the movies watching Ararat! This fat man was so adamant that it was me so I asked him� aren�t you ashamed of accusing me of such vulgarity�? Then a young man appears out of nowhere telling me that this fat man is a respectful man and that he wouldn�t lie to me. By this stage I was steaming and luckily my colleague was by my side and pulled me away. Needless to say I was quite shaken by the situation and really quite angry with this fat man.

Now on a totally different note, Carlos and I went to an exhibition last night on Architecture of Ani, which was great. Just outside of the building we met up with Sara and her friends and one of them was Hirair Baze Khacherian who was one of the photographers from the exhibition. He has visited 42 countries and taken photos of Armenian Churches old and new and has been to Western Armenia 6 times! Can�t tell you how jealous I was. We all ended up going to a Greek restaurant and while the food was great, the ridiculously loud music killed us, even though we sat in a separate room with the doors shut. It was a great evening hearing stories from the photographer�s experiences in Western Armenia.

By the way Ara, I still haven't seen Mama Manoogian but we have spoken on the phone twice.

Oops, I didn't get a chance to share my thoughts on the movie Ararat. It is absolutely incredibly amazingly fantastic! Every single Armenian must see it, and buy the DVD :-) Seriously, I am not sure how it is for odars who do not understand our story, but the movie can really touch you as a diasporan in a deep way. It deals with all of the issues we face as diasporans regarding the genocide, and does it so very well. The whole cast seems like people you know, the story is (mostly) one you have experienced, the Armenian on the screen is heartwarming, and some scenes will stay with you forever.

Egoyan's movies always have many facets and layers, but this one seemed so simple to me, not because it lacked those things, but because the whole thing was so familiar to begin with that I was IN the layers. I can see how odar critics who do not know our experience, have not learned any of our story could find the movie less straighforward and complain, but if they could view it from our eyes they would realize that what Egoyan created is pure magic. Am I gushing? Yup!

The weekend was amazing, why? The opening of Ararat movie on Friday night, followed by the kick off of Kenats Festival at the Republic Square followed by festivities all weekend with the Kenats activities. Saturday night was really special, I have never seen so many people out on the streets just enjoying themselves, and it really was an experience. As Madlene�s log, her Artur did perform the finale on Saturday night and as a special treat, Egoyan and his wife appeared on stage briefly as well. By the way this Kenats festival will be a yearly event so keep late September in mind for all those wishing to visit Hayastan.

Oh and the movie Ararat, in one word �brilliant�.

It is the Kenats (Genats in Western Armenian, both meaning "cheers" when you are drinking) Festival this weekend, and last night it was great. I am too pooped to go again tonight. There was constant live music from what must have been dozens of musicians, food, fireworks, and of course, drinking! Cognac, wine and beer. Everyone was enjoying themselves in Republic Square, up Abovyan (which was closed) and Aznavour Square. What a party! Families eating and dancing till late, with cotton candy and Grand Candy for the kids. I've never seen so many people in the square I think. I got a great shot of the National Art/History Museum building with fireworks on it and exploding above it.

Today was a lot of fun with a couple people over for crepes. It is nice to get together in the home for a change. Then we went with Chuck, an American who's been living here for 7 years to visit his friend in a village on the way to Khor Virap. We took a mini-van there and ate some more delicious food (we couldn't resist this light, delicious, interesting food) and checking on the blueberry plants I had given him. It was an interesting village, with half Assyrian population and his next door neighbor was a German who had come and retired in Armenia! Now I am just happy to be sitting at home, relaxing.

i am sitting in a tv studio, waiting for my turn to appear as "the chick in the video" in arthur ispirian's new music video, sirdeh aka the heart. i look great. i have wonderful flowers in my hair and i spent all morning in the beauty salon... getting ready. i look like a rock star and am acting like one (little do i know, that i am just the chick in the music video... and not the main star)... arthur gave me an amazing compliment today... he told me that i would be "stealing his thunder, you look so good", it made my day.

the song is really mellow and has a bit of malaysian in it (don't ask me why, that is arthur for you). i kind of have a malaysian twist to me today... with my make-up and my hair-do... you will just have to see it.

this weekend is crazy... i have too many guests and visitors and i know that this is all getting quite repetitive but you have no idea how many guests and visitors i have. i was recently rude to family that is visiting blowing them off for a few days and lying because i am sick of dealing with people other than me and arthur (i mean we are newleyweds... right?).

there are a few special events to report. arthur was part of the independence day live concert outdoors last night and he actually performed the closing... so it was nice. all of our friends gathered around a nearby coffee shop to watch...and support me (the lonely wife in the audience)... we ended up being a big group of plus ten who clapped loudest for arthur. it was great.

yesterday i went to my friends school (she is the head of the school) because they had their inauguration ceremony for student government. they were treating the school like it is a little country... so all the speeches were made accordingly and it was refreshing to hear children speak about politics and make political statements ... such idealism you could not find anywhere else. we all sat around commenting on the puberty level of each classroom... how in the 3rd to 4th grade the girls are much taller than the boys. how the 5th, and 6th graders are all of the same height and then all of a sudden all are soo much taller... but still, the tenth graders, one look at them... and you pause "aren't they too young to send off to the army and the real world."

Things happen so early here. A girl I know is getting married in two weeks and she just celebrated 18. Boys are shipped off to the army at 18 (they are not the american fast grown 18 year old kind either, they still have soo many boyish qualities). Everyone wonders why I don't have children (HELLO, i was just married less than two months ago, what do you expect!!!). One lady told me that I must hurry, my ovaries may get too old. She said that I am already in the "risk group" at 25. The other side of the moon (America) tells me that I am much too young for children... here in Armenia, they fear it might already be too late. who knows. As of right now, we are not trying yet. We really do want to be newleyweds for a while... see the world.

See the world, show tourists the world. I have lost track of what we want to do. I have tourists tonight after the video. We have been here since 9 am (thank God they have the internet) and we are 2/5 done... It is 4:30. Irregardless we have guests.

Raffi, I have been trying to download something from the internet for months. MONTHS. I feel you sugar.

It is incredibly frustrating to wake up at 5:30am, when Armenia's internet connection is at its best in order to transfer less than 1 MB of files to America, and give up two and a half hours later in frustration, only half the job done. The internet here really really sucks, and I curse the government official who took a fat bribe in order to give the Greeks a monopoly, and the Greeks who are abusing their monopoly quite freely. Their service, prices, and attitude all stink. That is how my day started. I will be up early again tomorrow morning, trying again... tonight I will see Ararat, but all of the critics have me braced for anything. Last week I saw Calendar, also by Egoyan, and really enjoyed it. Being able to understand Armenian makes it so much more interesting, I highly recommend this movie which shows off a few of Armenia's coolest spots...

Right now all I would like to do is take a nap.

September is really the busiest month in Hayastan, from people visiting to a million activities taking place in various places. Last Friday night was the highlight for me as I finally saw the movie �Calendar� by Egoyan, I came away thinking this movie is so real. This Friday night I will see his new movie Ararat, I really can�t wait and since Mt Ararat has been amazingly clear this week, I consider it a good omen.

Tonight I attended a reception at Armenia Hotel in their new wing for the �Kenats� festival. The festival will kick off at the Parliament House and for the first time the doors to the Parliament will open to the public. Edward Topchian and the Philharmonic Orchestra will start the festivities and this will lead to the celebrations at the Republic Square where there will be concerts and all sorts of performances. The weekend will also be a big kef since it�s Independence Day on Saturday and the Government is also organizing performers etc. Sunday will also have activities at Republic Square. I may have a special treat for myself this Sunday and if it eventuates, I�ll log about it.

ararat mania. the movie ararat is coming to yerevan and everyone is manic. tickets sold out. i have never come across sold out before. i came across it today when i went to go buy tickets. luckily, trusty lena bought arthur and i tickets and we are good to go. friday we will be going to the premiere and i am sure you will get a well rounded review from all us loggers.

there are so many activities here in yerevan these days. arthur is singing at a few concerts, there are a few festivals, concerts, even cats is playing at the armenian music chamber on baghramyan (i still have to call to see if this is a full musical production)...

there are three puppies playing outside of my window in our newly put in grass. they are soo cute... tumbling all over eachother and having fun. two young kids just stopped to pet them. they were so gentle. it was cute. i love my window at my office... right out onto a quiet yet central street in yerevan. perfect.

last night my girlfriend edith had us over for persian food. i felt like i was at thanksgiving and my immediate yerevan family (arthur and david my brother/cousin were there too)... it was nice.

yesterday was my best friends birthday from los angeles, daniela. i called her and we chatted and i got off the phone and started to cry. i miss her. i wish that i was there to be by her side... for all the simple things... like best friends are. i started to get sad... and that is the truth. it sucks to be away from your entire family and friends. it is ok if it is for a while... but the permanency thing is tripping me out and i need to get adjusted. don't get me wrong. i am very happy. i just wish i had all the people i loved around me instead of on the other side of the world. sad.

Back from an exhausting, long, strange, crazy weekend of discovery and coincidence. On Thursday night I called Ashod Nakashian, who used to log on this page before he became too important for it (ouch!). Towards the end of the conversation, we ended up deciding to do somewhat of a repeat performance of our foray into the north of Armenia, and the border area with Georgia, paying a visit to Arkady, a villager our age we had become friends with the year before. Setting a strict take-off time of 9:30am on Saturday, we got our stuff into order and were looking forward to a serious change of scenery. You can read last years log here.

SATURDAY

Saturday at 9am, the first problems began... Zabel had work to finish before she could join us, and Ashod needed to get the brakes looked at before he came over with Anna. To make a long story short, we left at about 1pm, if not later. With half the day gone, already things started to quickly drop off of my list of intended destinations. Once again, Surb Grigori Vank of Dsegh would escape the shots of my camera, as well as a permanent end to its isolation after I nailed down its GPS coordinates. We drove up via Aparan, the town locals widely poke fun of as the stupidest in Armenia (think Polish jokes here). Stopping to look at a recently renovated 5th century basilica (the pictures on that page are outdated now), we were impressed with the work that had been done, the nice new garden and the townspeople at prayer. I gave the gardener there some new seed varieties and we took off over the mountain pass. Dropping down to Spitak, we were again impressed with the new church that was completed last year, but didn't have time to stop as we continued to Vanadzor. In Vanadzor we stopped at a food window where I was impressed with a loose local interpretation of the pizza, and we continued on up to Alaverdi (with another nice new church) where we made a final pit stop for food supplies before we headed up towards the border. The customs guy we met the previous year had met last year had gone on his vacation a day before we arrived, but different guys would be guarding his post during his absence. The two guys we came across sent us through without a hitch and after our 4.5 hour drive to reach this point we had another 2.5 of pure dirt road to look forward to. The scenery here rapidly changes and is absolutely spectacular, the girls had never seen it and were as impressed as we had been. Lush forests, bright green meadows, moist cool air, healthy cows, and picket fences remind you off a Swiss heaven, and the dirt road couldn't distract us from the surrounding beauty. Both Ashod and I were a bit worried about finding our way there over these dirt trails with no villages nor signs along the way, but were happy to realize we remembered every twist and turn of the way. Finally as we approached the village the first person we came across to ask directions to Arkady's house was coincidentally Arkady's grandfather, who is over 80 years old. He was grazing the pigs (a practice I had never heard of till I saw it everywhere in Armenia) and recognized us after a few seconds. Happy to see us he pointed us on our way and we continued to his place. Arkady was in happy disbelief, instantly recognizing us and telling us how the day before he was telling his mother we had forgotten all about them and wouldn't return. We laughed at the way the trip materialized much in the same way it had the year before and it seemed like we had just been there a week earlier, not a year. After working on a problem Ashod noticed on the car, we stayed up talking, laughing and drinking with the whole family before getting to bed well past midnight.

SUNDAY

Waking up very early, I tossed and turned, not wanting to get dressed to go out into the cold just to visit the outhouse. When a few of the family were up and about I got up and joined them, learning that the puppy, who was running around at a hundred miles an hour the night before, was now sick from eating mouse poison in the basement during the night and would not eat or move. The began to force feed him some matsun and Arkady and Zabel kept him awake and alert as possible for an hour or two to try to save him. Eventually he started walking again and after drinking a ton of water that swelled his belly up, he regained his appetite and got significantly better. At this point it was becoming quite late in the morning, and Ashod just got up. We had some tea and bread with fresh village butter and preserves while convincing our friends not to slaughter an animal for us. We settled upon them killing one of their turkeys, which we would BBQ later.

Heading out no sooner than 1pm, we had no time to spare. We drove into an Armenian Village in Georgia, where a funeral was taking place with the casket and procession going down the road we needed to take. This forced us to take a significant diversionary road, in even worse condition, which is saying a lot considering how virtually every meter of road in this area of Georgia is a complete disaster. We reached Khuchapi Monastery finally and were again amazed at this architectural wonder. Resting inside the border of Armenia, not too far from the Stepanavan-Tblisi highway, it is one of the most impressive monasteries of the land, which soars to heights few churches here reach. You can get up a great deal of it through a steep stairwell built into the walls themselves and we enjoyed the view and carvings a few stories up. Sadly short on time, we left for our next destination, Khorakert Monastery, which has a very unique look to it not seen in any other structure until the building of the new St. Gregory the Illuminator National Cathedral in Yerevan last year. Enjoying the scenery, the monastery, and one of the only gargoyles in Armenia, we rested up as the turkey cooked. It came out absolutely delicious and we cleaned up our mess before heading back to the village at 5pm. We left the village at 6, despite the protests of out friends, and headed back over the mountains. The customs guys had changed again, and these ones when we asked again about the guy we met last year said he was dead. He had died in a car accident the day before. We were pretty shocked, and I thought it was kind of odd that he was smiling as he told us this news. We stopped at a great little food joint in Alaverdi for Zabel to run in and pick up some water. The woman there asked what we were up to and said we should stay at her house. We didn't want to inconvenience her, so she just came out to say hello to me and I gave her some of those Candy Lily plants I have been growing, knowing that I will be able to visit them again next year. Finally, we went on to Odzun that night which we reached in the dark, and slept quite peacefully at a nice little guesthouse which coincidentally was run by a guy we had run into on the roadside two days earlier. Going to bed at 10pm, we were determined to head out early in the morning to make up for some lost time.

MONDAY

We were in the car at nine and didn't make it off the driveway due to car trouble. Half an hour of poking around under the wheel, etc led to the conclusion that more qualified mechanics should look at it and that the car would probably make it down to Alaverdi for this work. Well the car made it down and the wheel was removed and greased, the frame was welded and an hour later we drive north to the very tip of Armenia where the climate suddenly changed to hot and much dryer. Swinging in a loop to head back south, we stopped in Berdavan, to see one of Armenia's more interesting castles. Not too large, but very picturesque, we enjoyed this nice little castle which was only a few hundred meters from the Azerbaijani border. Some of the villagers escorted us to in so that we wouldn't accidentally stray and gave us a helpful warning not to wander east before heading back to their work. Finding our way back to the highway, we continued to Koghb over some brand new highway (which was nearing completion all the way past Dilijan, where a tunnel will connect it to Hrazdan and Yerevan next year, making it a primary traffic road to Georgia). In Koghb, we asked a few people for directions to Mshkavank Monastery. We overshot the turn-off road and the car broke down again. A little wire had come loose from the starter, and over an hour of poking around led to Ashods somehow blindly getting it back on. Now we had only a few hours of light left, but the old villager who had help us with the car and his friend who had given us food as we waited (we also grazed on blackberries, which had been ripening all over the region, along all the roads we were travelling) gave us some new directions to the monastery and we headed up. At a few points we wondered if we had lost our way, but in the end we found the monastery and a better road back to boot! The monastery was quite cool, and one of the tons of spots in Armenia that tourists never make it to. The architecture was interesting and some of the carving were just stunning masterpieces. Now with the hour really getting late, we rushed back towards the village, only to have the brakes freeze up on us. We stopped in the village for gas and to ask about a mechanic, when the gas station guy pops up and turns out to be one of the customs guy from the first day. Now we are quite far from that check-point and had passed dozens of gas places... what were the odds we would ever meet up with him again?? Well anyways, Ashod stunned him with the news that his coworker had died two days before, and he was quite noticeably saddened when he brightened up a bit and asked Ashod what the guy who told him this news looked like. When he figured out he laughed and said he was sure the guy was joking. Now we couldn't understand how that could be considered funny, but he laughed and said that is just how those guys were, he was sure of it. Now we were a bit stunned at the sickness of this humor, but Anna remembered the guys smile as he had told us 'the news' and it seemed to all make sense. We shook our heads in hopeful relief and went nextdoor to a mechanic who fixed the car... in just short of an hour. With no time left to see more stuff, we headed back past an area where the highway goes through what is technically Azerbaijan, but controlled by Armenia, which has a beautiful 7th century church visible from the highway, then past a large reservoir in the same situation, then to Ijevan where we picked up some 'fast food' (fried bureg kind of things) as the sun set. The last 3 hours of the drive were a blur and quiet as we went up past Lake Sevan and then down to Yerevan... getting home at midnight.

subway (the jazz club) last night reminded me of the most happening joint in new york... the one you cannot get into and dancing and drinks flying and kisses across the room... and tables of six seating twenty three... fun. we had a great time. one friend brought four guests visiting, one friend brought three guests visiting. between all of us we had the entire place bumping. usaid and all the ex-pats were also there. it was live salsa music and there was some great dancing.

the weekend was spent in garni and frankly my husband and i are sick of going to garni with tourists and will not be going anymore this year. mark my words. if you catch me going to garni again with tourists this year... please smack me upside my head. thank you. it was the first time in my life yesterday that i was not excited to go to geghard... and that hurt. geghard overload.

work is exciting. tomorrow i have a speech/conference at the academia. i do not know what it is about but will find out tomorrow and give you all a report. i will do my speech in english because i hear this woman's conference is mostly women from the diaspora (america mostly)... way to drive home a point... get them in the language they are most used to.

today i will prepare my speech and come up with ideas for the pilot for the morning show that my hubby and i got offered. we are not sure we want our own morning show... but we are doing a pilot just to see how it could be... we will decide then. will let you guys know, how that flies as well.

Since I�ve arrived in Armenia, the number of logs I�ve written is severely lacking. But it�s also highly representative of the number of things I�ve been doing and then also, the internet: its speed and normal lack of connection to the outside world. Most of the time, it�s fine, just not when I need to use the net!

For the first month our training consisted of language learning/improving for the morning sessions and then various discussions, guest speakers and visits to sites of interest to the AVC, were conducted in the afternoons. All of this training was very informative and quite useful in the attempt to cope with a very different culture and environment, and the AVC is a very unique set-up, which so far, has been a very definite pleasure to be a volunteer with. Jason and Anna are just excellent in organising everyone�s job placements and planning the training etc etc.

As new volunteers we participated in helping with Habitat for Humanity for one Saturday, helping a family to build their house in the village of Oshagan, and then last Saturday we participated in �Makure Yerevan� which was celebrating its one year anniversary � that was interesting, example: one of the guys who was watching us clear rubbish, when asked if he would help, said he couldn�t because he was Buddhist not Christian, and when it provoked the wrong reaction (ie I laughed a lot) he got very embarrassed and then apologised saying that he wasn�t Buddhist but couldn�t help because he was ill (hmmm)��..slowly slowly we�ll get there!

So training for the four new volunteers for the AVC has finished, and we�re now all working in our respective job placements. Most of the volunteers have at least two jobs. The jobs, which everyone hav been allocated with, are all very relevant to peoples� professional and private lives - all due to Jason & Anna. I have three jobs: one with Yerevan State University with a semiconductor research department, which will provide a good insight into the real workings of academia within Armenia, another one with a company, who are researching and developing fuel cells and are all a great team, and then finally I�m working with an absolutely amazing chamber choir, Hover, in helping to administrate them and their concerts within Armenia and then hopefully organising a grand tour of the US for next summer�..look-out for their CD (one of Raffi Meneshian�s Pomegranate signings) which should be coming out soon�.

Our host family time is nearly over, and I�ve really enjoyed living with my host family: Maurice, Sona and Hasmig � they�re really kind and generous people. I�m trying to look for an apartment to rent for the year and the main disadvantage at this time of year is that there are still many tourists renting apartments, and so people are looking for short term gains rather than an overall larger gain in the long term. They can charge so much more for two weeks, but then don�t really assess the situation in that their apartment will be empty until the next summer��so I may just stay with my host family until all the tourists have gone.

So, this is my log for the month, hope everyone else is well, I do wish I got Christmas presents like Lena this time of year � it�s funny how little things can do so much!

yerevan is super small. on my way home from work i ran into my guests from australia, ran into lena, got to introduce them, ran into old friends from LA and literally this was all done in about a 1/2 mile walk of fifteen minutes.

it was our anniversary yesterday so i went to the new swatch store and bought arthur a really cool swatch. i came home to find a nice chicken with pineapple dinner that he had watched made on TV earlier that day. the day was mine, to be decided by me... i opted we stay home. cute

so i took my first driving lesson on monday. now this is a funny story. in the morning i had my html website building class and i reminded my instructor as well as my colleagues to stay off the street between 5-6 pm. so the instructor picks me up in a 06 (now power steering... nothing about this car is electrical... i feel like fred flinstone...and he constantly has his foot on his brake and clutch... as if i am not trusted here. so we start driving... and i felt as if i was driving for the first time in my life. mind you i have been driving since i was 16 (a long time ago)... and i have driven a lot... i mean hours and hours a day in los angeles... a few times to mexico and san diego and vegas... all over... but this REALLY is different. mini buses doing whatever they want, trolley buses that take up a lot of space and go slow... no rules, lights that you can hardly see, rich people that think they own the road... and in essence actually do, pedestrians who apparently care less about their lives, yerevan construction that is at random spots with no cautionary signs, unbuilt sidewalks leaving the masses on the street with you... wow, i don't think they have made a driving video game this intense... maybe they should. maybe they can call it animal planet.

i am at the tail end of my driving experience and am driving slow because of all the afformentioned... and the white niva behind me is honking and honking and i curse in english and apparently my instructor understans and is amused... so he is not paying attention and the car is still honking.. and finally it pulls up besides me... and it is my html instructor... telling me that i drive just like i learn html... am i really this useless? it is the salt that i needed on the big gash of an experience... but of course i took it all in laughter and have been trying to drive arthur's car since my class convincing him i have mastered the stick shift...hmmmm.

ara, i am so proud of you. congrats on graduating the school of hard core karabagh understanding in martuni. i am sure you are going to do amazing. just always remember us little people and always remember to log.

i spoke with atom egoyan last night and he is coming. so excited to see the movie that i can hardly wait the nine days.

I just got home from having dinner with my cousins who are visiting from Toronto. We went to Paplavok since it�s central for everyone and while I had sushi, my cousins had basturma pizza. They bought me lots and lots of goodies which I consider a year�s supply. All I asked for was a diary for my job and I ended up with what they considered I would have missed, things like Cadbury chocolate, peanut butter, mozzarella cheese even muffins! It was like X-Mas!

This bit of news is for Raffi N. I found out that Old Yerevan is reopening on Tumanian Street again very soon. This time the restaurant will have 7 levels with each level having it�s own theme. It will be located right on the tip of the new Northern Boulevard. Something to look forward to?

I just finished many days of hard work, destroying the quality of my website. Why would I do such a thing? To prevent theft. I was proud of many of my high-resolution, beautiful shots of Armenia which were plentiful in my tourism section, but they just proved way too tempting apparently and many sites stole my pictures to use themselves... never even asking. I worked hard to make a great tourism site without thinking of getting paid, and these are mostly businesses that chose to steal from me. Now that all of the pictures have been shrunk and have big, ugly cilicia.com's on them, I will begin the next waste of time, which is contacting each of these people and telling them they have been caught and must remove the photos. What a pain in the butt! I could have spent all that time adding new, useful stuff to my site...

Yesterday the air conditioner was installed, which was quite an event. They brought in a massive crane which was juuust a touch too short, so the installer was standing on the top edge of the crooked basket at the top, perilously screwing things in, lifting, etc, giving *me* a heart attack! Installing the two units involved the guy complaining about the delivery guys and the salesmen, asking if he can change in the bedroom since he didn't come in his work clothes, later asking if I was from Iran, then complaining about America, then asking if I can get his friend a visa to America (to which I asked if he had mentioned to his friend what a horrible place it was) then asking me what I do, then asking for help lifting this and that, carrying this and that, then leaving a massive mess of dust and boxes and going home. What a difference from a service guy visiting your home in America! I was very tempted to mention that although America has maaany things wrong with it, I would never in a million years have to help a service guy so much and clean up such a big mess. But instead I kept my mouth shut and gave him a nice fat tip, less because I was impressed by his work than just because I usually stick to the mentality that if I would give a person a tip in America, I should do it here too. I do not give to beggars here, so this is the best way to help those who are already helping themselves.

There is a little lunch place I go to now and again (I used to go there all the time) and I tip there too. For me it is a normal restaurant, but locals for some reason know that in a place like that you don't tip. Ever. I found this out because a local I often go there with tried also to tip when he was treating me, and they refused to take his money... they told him later they only accept tips from me! Well this waitress has such a big smile whenever we come and is so helpful and nice, it really goes to show the original idea behind tipping... extra money for extra nice service.

So much has happened in the past week, I cannot remember all the events. Let�s see I spent Friday night with a couple of friends for a quiet dinner, which was really nice for a change. Saturday was wasted on trying to fix things in the apartment such as the fridge, trying to get a handyman to do a couple of things around the flat. It is so difficult to mind a reliable handyman, he turns up an hour late, then he goes to buy some of the material required for the job, turns up 2 hours later reeking of alcohol and the job cannot be done since the driller isn�t working.

After wasting the whole day, I decided to attend the soccer match between Armenia and Ukraine. What an atmosphere the stadium was in the last 20 minutes where our cheering (I think) produced 2 goals bringing the final score line to 2-2. The friends I went with had their faces painted and the flags and a dhol so we were a loud bunch and we later celebrated our good fortune with Kilikia beer.

Sunday was fantastic, we couldn�t have asked for better weather. We (Arthur, Madlene, Carlos and I) started off with breakfast, then headed off to Garni and Geghard. Madlene and Arthur�s summer house in Garni is great with a beautiful garden. We stacked up bags and bags full of fresh fruit to bring back to Yerevan, handpicked off the trees. We hurried back to attend a concert given by Andy, an Iranian Armenian and I�m told that bus loads have come to watch the concert from Iran since live music is forbidden. It would have been a very special event for those people. As for me well it was first and last time experience.

Today I attended a speech given by Francesco Frangialli president of WTO (World Tourism Organization). Once he finished his speech and his offsider was going to commence the powerpoint presentation in Russian, a person in the audience (I won�t mention any names but the person is an influential person) spoke up as to why the presentation was in Russian? Thank God for that person sticking to their guns saying that they thought they were in Armenia and why couldn�t the presentation be in Armenian? The presenter says that Russian is one of the 4 languages recognized by WTO? Can you believe it? How about English mate since this is a tourism talk?

Anyway it all went well after much discussion and to end his presentation he showed 3 websites for tourism, one of them being none other than the famous Cilicia site!!

Ok so as soon as the handyman is done with his job here while I�m typing this, I will go and visit my cousins who arrived from Toronto this morning. Sorry this log is repeating Madlene�s.

a football game, an andy concert, a trip to garni & geghard, and lots of meals with good friends. who could ask for more?

the soccer game was sensational. not so much the soccer because i do not think that either team did that well... with the exception of the armenia team in the last 20 minutes of the game. but the morale, but the hype, but the screaming and shouting of hayastan and hayer... and my personal favorite... hoop dur hayastan... was enough for me to be as happy as i would be sitting with a dodger-dog watching front seat lakers with jack nicholson. (my all time sports spectator fantasy pre-this experience).

the andy concert. well... it was an amazing sociological phenomenon. it was actually kind of sad. andy is illegal in iran... so the next best thing was armenia... so three buses and two planes of persian-armenians and just plain persians came out for the concert. it was sad. sad that music is illegal and they had to come out to armenia just so they could go to a concert... and have some fun... without being covered completely in black cloth. the people were going nuts, about ten thousand of them dancing and singing along to their favorite tunes which ... with a blink of an eye and a backwards revolution... became taboo in their own country.

sunday mornings at art bridge is like going to cheers, the bar, and seeing all your friends. it is where everybody knows your name... and they are always glad you came. a bunch of us... not expecting to bump into one another... my closest friends... all showing up out of the woodworks... all wake up sunday morning and crave pancakes and french toast. amazing boom.

lena, carlos, arthur and i went out on a garni and geghard adventure... which left carlos dumbfounded (his first trip to G & G) and all of us reinforced by the power of our land.

eventually we ended up at pablavok (another very hip cheers phenomenon) where we saw our best friends aramo and emma (also pretty famous singers)... it was just the right crowd we wanted. our friend michael boghosian (actor: yerevan blues, khatabalada) was there with his girlfriend and so was our friend ashot hakheyan (singer)... we sat for hours joking and singing and laughing and ordering more coffee and more watermelon. arthur opens up best around this crowd and he had everyone on their sides... laughing.

i am swamped at work... but it is good stuff.

today i will try to buy a new home computer... if i can get out of my office on time.
tomorrow i will start driving lessons.

and this week i will wait for the arrival of my cousin melinda.

more soon

Armenia vs. Ukraine soccer match last night... I didn't go, and haven't read who won yet, but if the huge group of youth going through the park below our house last night at 11pm roaring "Hayastan" and "Hayer" is any indication, I'd say we won. ;-) It is nice to see a little nationism and pride displayed here, sometimes it is in short supply.

last night we went to new chinese restaurant they have opened in deep komidas, changbaishan, (25-49-58). it was my girlfriend's (edith) birthday and so we were all in a great mood. we ate a lot a lot. we ordered ginseng vodka but since my husband and i don't drink... we just sniffed it.

yesterday, at work, i had a meeting with our new security team at the cascade. i told them all about the cafesjian museum foundation and what we are doing here in Armenia. i told them about our work ethics, our standard of service and how we need to be clean and decent (on our insides as well as our outer appearance)... the meeting went really well, all the security guards were young, decent young men... and had all dressed in suits and or really nice clothes for the meeting. i tried to give examples of the way i have been treated in yerevan by service people such as guards and waitors ... and how we need to differ. i really think they got it. arthur is convinced they must have teased my Armenian and some of the things I said (Ara, hee hee hee ed khujujn ov er?) ...but in the end... they must have walked away with something (i mean, come on, they must have, i talked for 2 hours straight).

my mom's friends are visiting Armenia and are coming over today. joy. next monday i have been asked to speak at this ladies conference but do not have details yet... i will tell you all about it as it unfolds.

they are doing the sidewalk outside of my office window. it is soo annoying i cannot even begin to tell you... especially since they have been doing it for three weeks almost. the other day there was a plank going from the street to our front door with wet cement underneath. i must say it was quite thrilling... to walk the narrow and unstable plank to get to work. hopefully they will finish this project soon.

arthur has found a new group of friends at Yerevan's dzor (gorge)... after taking me to work, he went down to the dzor to exercise and run... he found friends that have been working out there for years... muscle guys, health freak guys... and he has joined the crew. he goes at 9 every morning and exercises until noon. he jogs and does push-ups and his friend khachik (who is the master of them all) works him out hard.

this weekend: lena, carlos, arthur and i will take a garni trip (as carlos has never been)... we will do this on sunday and lena and i will race back to see who can log about it faster.

Here is a great shot of the very heart of Yerevan, where the new blvd is being built (Opera in the background). You can see what a massive construction site it is. The whole city feels like this with the sidewalks of every single major street in the center torn out, many of the streets themselves being dug up to put in pipes and wire, countless stores and museums under renovation, and even a slew of high-rise apartment buildings shooting up. If you want an idea of the scale of things, look at my streetmap of central Yerevan and imagine trying to get from any point A to point B when Marshall Baghramyan, Sayat Nova, Tumanyan, Pushkin, Amiryan, Nabandyan, Abovyan, Teryan and Mashdots are all torn up and not one side of one block that has been torn out has yet to be completed. I must say I am looking forward to what will feel like a brand new city when they are done, but if they don't finish by winter what seems at this point to be an impossible amount of work they have created, we are going to have a heck of a time getting around then, and spring will be even more of a nightmare in the mud. And yet they continue to tear out what little sidewalks are left, even if they are in pretty good shape. Anyway, with the insanity being the best way to describe how they are going about their tasks, I am just trying to enjoy the fantastic weather that has been continuing. Day after day of perfect tempratures. You can feel that the heat has lost its edge though and it gets dark at 9 now instead of 10:30 like it does in July... the march to winter has begun, and I hope it is as mild as this summer! I have decided not to take any chances however, and have invested in the last capital investment that my flat needed... a central heating/cooling unit. I found out they were 25% off yesterday and decided to stop procrastinating. I popped into Aray and got this massive unit that gets attached to the outside of the building, while a nice, quiet panel gets put inside to blow the air. They will have to bring in a crane to install this on the 5th floor, and I am sure it will be a big ordeal and headache, but I know in the end I will be so comfortable all year round that all the expense and annoyances will be worth it.

Oh, and one final thing, although Ararat has been partially obstructed by haze much of the time, it still peeks out at me every morning... my desk at home has fantastic view of our ler :-P

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.

Last night was great, Carlos (the Armenian Mexican) and I went to a Mexican restaurant to see if it compared to real Mexican food (it was my first meal there). Anyway the presentation was good and the taste ok. That was followed by Gor�s concert at the Rock Club then on to the jazz club for some Latin American music and dancing.

I went to the notary again this morning with Vartan, I managed to find the one who had assisted me last time. The procedure went smoothly and we were out in half an hour. However while I was in the queue waiting for my turn, this man pushes past me and stands there so I say could you wait for your turn please? He says you�re a foreigner, you don�t like our system here and you�re speaking out. I told him that I was being polite and that I was waiting for my turn and so should he and asked him why he didn�t like foreigners. He replies �oh I like foreigners and starts rubbing my arm and tells me that they throw free concerts for us (foreigners). What on earth is he on about? This is the second incidence I�ve had in the last couple of days, what�s going on?

On a totally different subject, I have noticed lately that drivers are being very courteous and letting pedestrians cross, actually stopping the car. Are they feeling sorry for the pedestrians having to deal with these atrocious conditions of the footpaths or are they changing and being considerate? Which brings me to the next point. A local tells me the other day that the construction bid was given to the Kharabaghtsis since the President would look after his own people. According to this local, the reason why construction is going so slowly is because the Kharabaghtsis hate the Armenians and they want to stuff them around.

Now I know this is not true, since a few companies have the bid for instance the Kharabaghtsis are working on the Khandjian section and local Armenians in other areas. So if this is the case then why are the other streets not completed? Too many unanswered questions.

Finally today I met a woman from LA who was looking for KPMG in Yerevan. As I started giving her directions, she noticed I wasn�t Hayastantsi obviously from my accent as we were speaking Armenian. So she asks for my name and then says I read your logs all the time, what a small world!
Thanks Madlene jan, I'm looking forward to that Garni trip!!

i am so sorry about your horrible day, len. i know what you mean about government visits.
so arthur and i go to get married. i am an american citizen and arthur is already a green card holder of the usa... so we do not fall under armenia's jurisdiction ... so getting married here has become quite a challenge. in fact, arthur will be taking our case to the ministry of justice today. luckily our friend vahag is also getting married to a french girl by the name of gohar... so we are all doing this together. it ends up bringing us laughs and laughs as we make fun of all the workers that are mean to us... and we are overly nice to the heads... so they don't have room to be rude.

it sure helps that arthur is a superstar and vahag is also a famous musician but we are just sick of passing out CDs and we are sick of them saying... OH arthur jan, we love your music and will listen to this CD... but sorry... we wont go the extra inch to help you marry the woman you love. i got married over a month ago in an armenian church but am not surprised that the government of armenia has not yet made it official. the church wont give us a document either... without the ZAKS, which is the state marriage certificate. we might just wait... and go to las vegas and have an elvis presley drive thru of love wedding... wouldn't that be fabulous. you try to have a good old traditional armenian wedding in armenia... and you end up getting the runaround. lol. (ok its not as bad as it is annoying. i don't have time to be running around government buildings waiting and praying for a stamp or a signature... i have honeymooning to be working on)

but i am sure one day soon we will get this paperwork out of the way... and we will be really happy that we married on the skirts of our great ararat.

see that is the thing about armenia. as frustrated as you get... as crappy as some things may get... it is still armenia and no matter what... it is still fabulous.

fabulous... that i get to see ararat every single day.
fabulous... that the entire history and culture of my people is at my fingertips.
fabulous... that when i wake up and get to work... i look at my coworkers and say BARILOUYS
fabulous... that going away for the weekend means exploring a cave people lived in thousands of years ago
fabulous... that europe and the middle east are hops, skips and jumps away.
fabulous... that i live in the hub of one of the things i cherish most about this world... BEING ARMENIAN.

I have come to the conclusion that I truly despise going to Governmental places. Yesterday I had to go to a notary to authorize Vartan from Moscow, to drive my Niva (he�s visiting Haystan for a few days with friends of his) A simple procedure really, legal and I�ve done this procedure twice before. This time however the notary I usually go to was closed due to renovations and so I had to go to the main office. After 2 hours of waiting for our turn, a lady arrives in tears saying she needed documentation notarised so that her daughter is accepted to University and she�s only been given 15 minutes to complete this procedure.

Thinking what the heck, we�ve already been waiting 2 hours anyway, we let her through, knowing very well that the story is legitimate, schools do put conditions like this on the public. While we�re waiting for our turn, Vartan and I are talking and the head notary woman tells us to shut up at the door (mind you we were only whispering). Our turn comes and this head notary decides that she cannot approve this authorization. The reason being is that I hold a temporary �Technical passport, driver�s registration� and I�m not allowed to carry this procedure. She simply would not listen to my explanation that this is the case since I only hold a 10-year visa and am not a resident. Then Vartan said something, I really don�t remember the exact wording and this woman went off. She started screaming on top of her lungs that we�re foreigners, we don�t know the law here and she�s the person in authority. Then she pulled out the Law book and found the section, threw the book at us and asked us if we could read Armenian. By now the whole crowd waiting outside can hear everything as the door is left open. She basically threw us out of the office with everyone staring at us. Was she just having a bad day or did she really dislike foreigners?

We are left with no other option but to find another notary on Monday morning so that Vartan and his crew get on with heir travels. Knowing that Monday morning will be wasted with this procedure, I decide to go and pay my internet bill as it�s due Monday morning. Before doing that I was supposed to meet someone at 1pm to have videotape delivered to me from Sydney. Of course he doesn�t show up and even though my day is going really badly I still decide to go and pay my internet bill. I get there and the whole office is in darkness and they have no power, which means no computers, no bills. They tell me to wait half an hour so I do with still no electricity. I make them the offer of paying what I think my usage was for the month would be and they can email me and tell me what the difference was and I would return next week to pay the amount. No can do, frustrated I leave.

I get home and there�s a call re meeting with the video man, great so we meet (it�s the third time now that we�ve been trying to meet, first appointment was on Friday). He turns up with the wrong tape so he needs to go back to his place to bring me the correct one. An hour later we meet again and this time it�s the right one.

Thinking my day couldn�t possibly get worse; I decide to go watch the Spiderman movie in English. Boy was I wrong! The movie was appalling; in fact I think I fell asleep. Today needless to say I stayed home all day to avoid encountering any obstacles.