What a great feeling! This was the first time that attended the opening ceremonies of the Pan-Armenian games. I must say, I was impressed with the whole thing. It was well organized and beautiful. The players, the dancers, the fireworks and the spectators were great. I had gone with a group of friends. Many of us were re-pats and some friends who were visiting. There people from Canada, Lebanon, England and France. We were gathered in Armenia to participate in this Pan-Armenian event. I was talking about this phenomenon today with a few friends. Someone mentioned how only Armenia (and maybe a few other countries) could have organize pan-national events. For instance, has anyone heard of pan-Chinese games or pan-Italian events. We are unique this way and what makes it work is the willingness of most diasporan Armenians to join in such events. Speaking of which, there were hundreds from Iran, Russia and Georgia which is sort of expected. But tell you the truth I was definitely not expecting to see only 2 from Montreal… AMOT! It’s a shame. I was truly embarrassed to tell people that I used to live in Montreal, one of the most active Armenian communities in North America. I know for a fact that there are 3 soccer teams (HMEM, HMM, AGBU), 7 basketball teams, ping-pong teams, track-and-field athletes and soon… where were they???
On another hand, I was surprised to see players from Nigeria, Addis Ababa, Swiss and Belgium.
Last night was also a good friend’s wedding from Montreal. They had decided to get married in Armenia and have asked their family to join them here. I wasn’t able to attend Saro and Tania’s wedding but I think this is a fantastic way to make these special ceremonies more memorable.
I missed the meeting with Shooshig, but I had bumped into her at the Parev Inn where she was staying. It was nice putting a face to the name.