i have been missing in action... i know. i have carpel tunnel syndrome and so i have been ordered off the computer. i will not be able to write too much unless i can convince a friend to type my entries. carpel tunnel syndrome (CTS) is really uncomfortable, especially in the cold winter.

i have been back from my trip for ten days. it was quite hard coming from the sun of los angeles (where we literally spent days hanging out on the beach) to the cold cold winter here in yerevan. the following things happened to our apartment while we were gone. 1. water pipes froze 2. sewer system blew up 3. water tank blew up 4. water reserve (bak) broke 5. sinks and showerheads jolted from their positions and broke 6. toilets split in half with ceramic and all 7. bathroom flooded and ceiling and walls destroyed and mildewy. WELL, it got really cold at the apartment. a few thousand dollars later, a few showers at hotels and peeing at a neighbors house ... we are almost in the clear. it was hell. we are saving remodelling of the bathrooms for the spring.

los angeles will have to be another entry because there are many beautiful tales to tell.

for now i will say that it feels good to be home. i am happy to be back at work, back with arthurs family and our friends. last night we went to another couples house. he is the son of garo hayrabedian, and is a famous jazz musician vahagn... and his wife is a french-armenian, an attorney, who repatriated like me. we listened to vahagn's new album with arto tuncboyadjian and we hung out and then gohar and i broke off to talk about life with musicians. funny.

today is the first day that my bathroom situation is so that we can finally take showers at home and invite guests. i am having a work party. this weekend i will do a few favors i promised my mom and friends i would do for them.

Because of my CTS i raised my house cleaners salary and have asked her to come everyday. she has a very high salary now and is happy. She is fully taking care of her two children and her parents and she is happy because she can even save some money for herself each month. she is grateful and i am so happy with her... and happy that i have her to help.

life is back to normal except that i have two braces on my hands. i am actually getting used to the cold and i am not wearing stockings underneath pants... just skirts...that is a huge breakthrough for a cali girl in the cold.

This following letter is off of Groong. Read it and raise hell.

Dear Groong readers,

The Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times (owned by the Tribune) and
Philadelphia Inquirer published an article by notorious Turkey-based
journalist Amberin Zaman. Her articles boast an affiliation to the
L.A. Times and have systematically dismissed the Armenian Holocaust,
referring to the genocide as `allegations.'

Two Armenian-Americans braved below zero temperatures to hold up signs
protesting Armenian Holocaust Denial in front of the Chicago Tribune
Tower today - January 23, 2003 - from 1:30 to 2:30p.m. Five more
protests are planned, and the public is invited to partake.

Letters, e-mails and phone calls complaints to the editors did not
result in the publication of any apology, correction, nor in the
firing of Amberin Zaman. Holding signs which read, `Chicago Tribune
Publishes Armenian Holocaust Denial,' and `Apologize and Fire Amberin
Zaman NOW,' the protestors wanted no less than what would be expected
if Jewish Holocaust denial was published. Amberin Zaman crafts
imaginative sentences that used the word `genocide' but put the blame
on Armenians. Links to several of her sinister Holocaust denial
articles and more information on the protests can be found at
www.TurkishDenial.Com

Chicago Tribune Public Editor M. Don Wycliff - in charge of publishing
corrections --hung up the phone on one of the protestors after saying,

`I will not publish a correction...this is absurd...this is a
quibble...I don't care about Holocaust Denial...[and] where is the
proof?'

When proof was cited over the telephone, Mr. Wycliff said, `I don't
need to hear this, thank you for your call' and hung up the telephone.

The secretary for Chicago Tribune Editor Ms. Lipinski has taken but
not returned phone calls.

A man presumably from the Chicago Tribune asked to read one of the
flyers being passed out by the protestors. Tribune security guard was
seen asking for a backup. Local media and the Mayor of Chicago were
contacted but none showed up in the bitter cold to cover the 1-hour
long event. The mayor, Richard Daley, who spoke in 1990 at the public
commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in
Chicago, was out of town.

5 more protests are planned at 435 Michigan Avenue: Thursday, January
30, 2003, from 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm (1 hour); Thursday, February 6,
2003, from 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm (1 hour); Wednesday, February 12, 2003,
from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm on Lincoln's Birthday (2 hours); Tuesday,
February 18, 2003, from 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm (1 hour); and finally
Tuesday, March 11, 2003, from 11:00 am to 2:30 pm (3
hours). Chicago Police have been notified and so far have requested
only that the protestors stay on public property, and refrain from
littering or blocking the sidewalk with their 1000 flyers.

For more information, contact K. Sarkis Dakarian at 847-910-1517 or
turkishdenial@yahoo.com

Pre-election campaign has officially begun three days ago.
Armenian citizens in LA, Moscow and 32 other cities will be able to vote.

Personally, I am looking forward to the next presidential election. I am hoping that by then Armenia will have a bill for dual citizenship and I'll be a member of the electorate.

Did you notice that there are two candidates with the same first and last names. Where else this could happen, eh?
Last count, eleven candidates, a couple of them real dodos and not a single female. You think there are no women qualified for the job?
One respected lady is Dr. Ludvila Harutiunian. She's smart, politically mature and balanced. And she knows better than to trek the impossible journey, twice.

I am also looking forward to May elections. O.K. Armenia is not ready for a woman president. But will women have more seats in the National Assembly? I mean, look at Europe, republics of former Soviet Union, most have thirty to forty percent women elected in their parliaments. We're not Europe? Look at Iran for God's sake, and some other Islamic countries, they have more women in their legislature than we do.

We can do better than four seats, right?

Well, I finally got a digicam and you know what that means...pics for everyone to see! My parents sent me this early birthday gift, which totally caught me by surprise.

I took these photographs of three new stores on Abovian Street...
Franck Muller (watch boutique);
Louvre (another watch boutique);
a perfume store (which although it didn�t come out that clear, is quite nice looking).

If the pics are blurry it's because I was shivering from the cold 11pm at night.

I saw my first film at Nairi Cinema. "Mahatseer Payts Voch Aysor...which translates "Die But Not Today"...which is actually "Die Another Day". The theatre was quite impressive. Dolby Surround Sound, decent sized screen, but, of course, in Russian. The complex also has another smaller theatre for English movies, an arcade room, a few restaurants, and more. This week they're showing Spy Kids 2 and Harry Potter 2 in the larger theatre and Spy Kids 1 and Harry Potter 1 in the English theatre.

I just bumped into an excellent new resource online... an Armenian-English, English-Armenian online dictionary. http://www.glossword.ru/list/91/

Commenting in the repatriate logs is turned off. Any comments or discussion should go on the message boards.

All you die hard tennis fans (I�m probably the only one in Hayastan), did anyone watch the Roddick match? What a way to unwind after a 12 hour day at work. Ok so he�s American and he did make a comment to the referee, questioning a point saying �I�m surprised you can count to 18� ah you don�t argue with that referee, he�s been around for donkey�s years. Mind you, there was a lot of eye contact between Roddick and his coach, is that allowed? Anyway, what about when the players let the ball boys have a hit at 19 all in the 5th set? You�re probably all wandering what the hell am I talking about, well the whole match was covered in Russian and I picked up a few words like proste, vapshe, kharasho, maladiets, pagga. Even when McEnroe was interviewing the players, the Russian voice over kept going! I�m like shut up for 2 minutes. Anyway both players thanked the crowd; ah those Aussies appreciate a good game when they see one.

On a different note, welcome back to Alex, Kelly, Sam, Madlene and Artur. They call me to check up on me, sweet really. Which brings me to the next point. I did finally get an EEG done and the results showed����mumbo jumbo really. So a couple of friends overseas will interpret the results for me to see if I should have an MRI done. I won�t start panicking until someone tells me to get on the next flight to Sydney.

Oh and I finally decided to register my name at an Embassy, yep the British one, just in case!

Lena, come home quick! Your country is burning down... it is true, actually, the whole day was completely overcast by the smoke of the fires burning in the Melbourne region, and the capital city (Canberra) is in really bad shape. My cousin who I am staying with just had a pool finished last Friday, so I have a good respite from the heat.

Last weekend we went to Lakes Entrance for a couple of nights, and visited the Buchan Caves on the way back. Another really nice cave, with beautiful formations. Australia seems to be rich in these. The caves are among some Eucalyptus forests, which I never really stopped to think about the scale of (quite large!). So far I have seen most of the famous Australian wildlife, mostly as road kill, but I still haven't seen a single koala bear.

We passed Mt. Ararat again on the way back, quite easy to miss. Interestingly, besides this Mt. Ararat, there is a decently sized town called just Ararat in the opposite direction from Melbourne where a half-Armenian friend grew up. He said from the town you can see a set of twin peaks which are the spitting image of Mt. Ararat as seen from Yerevan! That would be worth seeing, but I don't think I will make it out there. Other than that, there is just 2 weeks left for me here... after that, we'll see where I head.

It's too bad about Sargsian. It was nice knowing all three of our boys were advancing. I am hoping for an Agassi vs. Nalbandian final, with Nalbandian on top.

I was watching the re run of Sargsyan and Ferreira game this morning from the Australian Open and was looking out for Raffi K.in the crowd with the Armenian flag wrapped around him. Actually it was quite funny to see the Armos from Melbourne being loud and chanting Sarkis, clap, clap, clap, Sarkis, clap, clap, clap. Unfortunately he didn�t make it but he looked quite relaxed. My 2 cents worth is that he�s too slow on the court and really needs to work on his serves. So we still have Agassi and Nalbandian to watch out for.

I�ve had a relaxing weekend, catching up with some of my friends who have returned from their Christmas breaks.

Wow! I haven't logged in a week. I accidentally deleted the modem driver from my uncles computer and had problems reinstalling it. I dropped by a net cafe once to check my emails, but without ventilation, the cigarette smoke was killing me! I miss Toronto's "smoke-free friendly environments" (I can just hear all the smokers cursing at me now). In the meantime, I don't have the studio set up completely and I'm facing internet problems running my Mac here in Armenia.

I've been staying with my aunt and uncle (who are repats who moved here over a decade ago) for the past two and a half months. They decided to go away for the holidays, so it was weird being so far away from my close relatives and friends I've left behind in Canada. I'm not much of a schmoozer, so I'm not very gifted at meeting new people. It's been one of the most difficult things I've had to face being here, but I have to say that Lena and Ara have been super nice and comforting over the past few weeks. I take friendships quite seriously, so I know it will take some time to see whom I click with.

I have to do some minor house repairs in the next couple of days. The bottom parts of the walls and the baseboards around the washrooms are ruined because of the small flood I had last week (when the tank was running and I ended up getting drunk at my neighbors place - check January 11 log).

Tomorrow is shopping at Goom (I think that's how it's spelt). I got taco shells, seasoning and salsa sent to me from Toronto, so I have to get the condiments and hopefully avocadoes to make guacamole for tacos. Sure there's Cactus Restaurant, but nothing like homemade commercial Mexican food. Now, if only I could figure out how to make successful corn flour nacho chips and taco shells so I won't have to order them from Canada.

Dear all,

The following Cultural sites have been renovated in accordance with Lincy Foundation.

S. Parajanov House-Museum
State Museum of Folk Art
Philharmonic Little Concert Hall
Y. Kochar House-Museum
M. Sarian House-Museum
Y. Charents House-Museum

Snow, snow and more snow, yesterday it rained and snowed all day. Today it�s snowing pretty heavily!! Is there an end to all this, yes it�s pretty but...

Cafe Armenia

So last night we went to Cafe Armenia, a small (10 tables or so) restaurant not far from my cousins house. The proprietor and the two other workers were Hayastantsi, and the atmosphere and menu were exactly what you would find in a pre-remond post Soviet little eatery. From the plastic lace tableclothes to the one sheet menu in English on one side, and Russian on the other (and you need to be able to read Russian to figure out that what is called in English something like a wrapped meat is what is called a Blinchik in Armenia and like what I have heard called a Blitz in the US). Aaaanyways, the food was mixed. The soups were delicious, the salad normal, and to be honest, I was a bit disappointed with the Khorovadz. The wine (complimentary!) was nice and although it was a blend of Australian wines, he had done it so that it tasted like the usual Armenian table wine. He also made tan for us with coriander, even though it was not on the menu. Well we were stuffed by the end and had a good time. He pointed out how sad it was that so few Armenians ever came to his restaurant... all his other clients were Australians or Russian Jews. I suspect if he were serving tabule and homus it may be different, but nevertheless, it is sad.

Today I hope to see my cousin's pool construction finished (it was plastered yesterday) and filled. I miss having a pool in the backyard!

Today was a very long and exhausting day. I spent the whole day in Stepanagert running around, returning to Martuni in the dark and rain. I wont get into details as it was all the standard run-of-the-mill stuff.

I will tell you about something that happened yesterday, which I heard the conclusion of today.

I am a committee member of the Martuni water project, which is funded by USAID and managed by CRS (Catholic Relief Service). Part of my duty to the committee is to help manage a water project which is to resolve our water projects.

Yesterday I went to inspect work being done in an area near my new factory and while taking pictures of the pipes and work, I see walking towards the houses in the area a fox. Mind you, this was 11 AM and besides the chickens nearby eating from a garbage heap, there were people.

I didn�t notice in which direction the fox went after it went behind some building blocks, but figured that it was going towards the chickens that were eating garbage, so I walked towards that area to scare off the fox.

I neared the chickens and could not see the fox and suddenly, I could hear screaming up the street and could see some commotion. I ran over to see chickens running for their lives and a teenager chasing the fox, who jumped over a wall to escape a stoning the boy was giving it.

Next thing I see are men and young boys running out of their houses with shotguns. I really didn�t get a chance to count, but will estimate a dozen shotgun and maybe 30 people running after the fox.

I didn�t hear any shots, but later learned that they tracked down the fox, killing and skinning it.

I have to conclude that there is a very good chance that this year we will not have a mouse problem in our fields, as if we had mice, most probably the fox would have been stuffed with the little rodents, rather than coming into Martuni in broad daylight, looking for chicken to feed on.

I have to tell you that I felt sorry for the poor fox, but also understand that people can�t allow such a creature to come into the city and make off with their chickens which they raise to feed their families.

I also feel a little bit safer to know that many of my overly protective neighbors have shotguns and in the event of some threat (man or animal) from outside our neighborhood, I believe they know how to deal with it.

Some Armenian Wine recommendations:

Since it came up in some of the comments, here is what I think of Armenian wine. Try the plain "Areni" label, the Gandzak, or for half the price and not too bad, the Earth Blood. All are good dry Armenian wines. For a good red dry Karabakh wine, try the Martuni. At 35 cents a bottle in Karabakh, you won't regret it! For a sweet Armenian red try Anoush, it was not bad for a sweet (or was it semi-sweet?), which I don't usually like. And finally, for the best white wine I have ever had (thanks to Vartan Marashlyan), try the White Ijevan. BTW, good normal wine in Armenia is usually around $2/bottle, with cheaper ones costing half that. Of course there are fancier wines starting at $3, but I don't know anything about those.

On a totally unrelated note, there is great news that the Greeks are interested in selling their 90% share of the Armenian Telephone Company, Armentel. IF the right buyer comes along, especially an Armenian, there is a bit of hope the communications (telephone call and internet line) prices could drop dramatically. This would be a great boost to the IT industry and the connectivity of Armenia as a whole to the world. Otherwise this monopoly the Greeks own has another decade before competition is allowed...

HAPPY OLD NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

I know 2003 is going to be the year of the Armenian people and nation�I can feel it!!!

May everyone do what they have to from this point on find what they are looking for in life and follow their dreams so they enjoy all their living days on earth to there fullest.


WELCOME OLD NEW 2003!!!!

Ps. We are welcoming in old new 2003 with rain which started at 12:01am.

Something incredibly embarrassing happened last night. I went out for drinks to celebrate my friends� birthdays from last Thursday and last Friday. After a very pleasant evening we all left to walk our separate ways. It was only 10pm and I was so close to home, I refused a lift from my 2 friends who crossed the street to walk to their car.

As I started walking home, there was a guy walking my way, followed by 2 girls and followed by 2 other guys. So this group of 5 people was walking towards me in the opposite direction. What happened next was totally unexpected. The guy in the front of the group grabbed my arse as he walked past me. After I got over the initial shock of what was happening and the fact that this was happening in Armenia and not Italy, I swore at the guy. The 2 bimbos following him started giggling. I screamed at my friends across the street as they missed the pinching bit but were still keeping an eye on me to make sure that I was ok.

The guy who performed the said action was no teenager but the bimbos were. Of course I swore in English well more like Aussie and they probably didn�t even understand A little useless information from Yerevan but if my friend If Kristi is reading this, she�ll truly appreciate it. Why am I logging this? To prove that Yerevan is like any other city?

PS anyone interested in seeing a pic of the Armenian Church from Rome please refer to my old log from Dec 30, 2002.

Today is the eve of the Old New Year (referred hereafter as �ONY�). I�m not too up on the ONY, but people here seem to know all about it. It seems that based on the old calendar, January 14th of the new calendar is the day that January 1st fell on the old calendar.

A friend of mine gave me 2 candles to light so I could observe the ONY, one of them on the eve and one on the actual day.

So I decided that it would not hurt to play along and put a candle in a candleholder that I got as a gift from someone on the new New Year and lit it after it got dark outside, as I had been instructed.

I guess at midnight I�ll be welcoming in the ONY, that is if I happen to be awake and maybe I�ll even pop open a bottle of the bubbly (Jermuk) to welcome it in..

Happy ONY to all, may it bring to you all you want and then some.

I think I need a cup of coffee because I�m getting a little yawny and if I�m going to be awake to welcome in ONY, I have to do something to rid myself of the darn yawny feeling.

Note: The candle to the left is the actual candle that I have lit to welcome in ONY and the candle that I will light tomorrow will look almost identical to this candle at some point of its burning.

I did the artistic touch up to make it look like it is floating in the clouds (thought that was not my intention and maybe it does not even look like it�s floating in clouds). I wonder if I could do photo touchup for a living? I better keep my day job. Wait, I don�t have a day job!! Oh well.

Yesterday's winery tour was quite fun, much more so than I imaged. I have never been on a tour like that, and didn't even know if you drink the wines or have to spit them out. We drank and ate all day long, this should become a very popular activity in Armenia soon! The whole time I just imagined how Areni, which is Armenia's wine country, will soon transform into such a place. We drank sample after sample, from place after place, never drinking too much -- nor too little! I took a bunch of pictures which I hope will be helpful in showing Armenian wine producers how to tap a new market... charge people a buck to sample wines (which is waived if they purchase some) as well as sell all kinds of related and unrelated thing, plus make their places a lot more presentable, attractive, rustic, old-looking, etc, etc.

As Zabelle logged, there has been dense fog all around Yerevan. I�ve never seen anything like it and last night when I was coming home I couldn�t see a metre in front of me. Crossing the street was quite scary as the headlights of cars were only noticeable when they were actually right in front of me. In fact there have been no flights in or out of Yerevan for the past 3 days and my boss was stuck in Moscow for 3 days, my worst nightmare. I just got a call and she has landed so all those loggers returning in the next couple of days, fear not, it looks like the worst is over.

Also I noticed today on my walk that there�s this white stuff on branches of trees, it�s not quite snow, it�s not dew, what the hell is it? Can someone tell me what the tiny white stuff is?

Harout, what were you saying about the weather?

There was a heavy fog in Yerevan today. We descended from Azadutyan St. to downtown Yerevan and noticed that the city was in mist. On Derian Street we saw volunteers cleaning the streets, then to Republic Square and the Christmas tree was invisible. By the time we reached the outskirts of Yerevan I was urging Nigol to cancel the trip to Giumri. However, once we passed Vahakn's houses everything got clear. The same thing happened in reverse order on the way back in the evening. Most unnerving experience.

I love Giumretzi-s, they are so proud of their heritage, and contribution to the cultural life of Armenia. At the beginning of the 20th century when Yerevan was a mud city, Giumry was flourishing. Had all the qualifications of becoming the capital. In this sense Giumri reminds me of Vazken Manoukian, the man that could have been the president.

Times changed, earthquakes happened, azeri population got exchanged with Armenian refugees. Today we got very close to the border, to Voghchi and Pyuragn inhabited by the refugees. Most of them had higher education and professional careers in Baku.

The highway from Vahakn's houses to Giumri was clear and well paved; the roads in Giumri were atrocious; to visualize the roads of Voghchi and Pyuragn, you have to think of a narrow passage beyond atrocious with lots of pits and holes in it and covered in ice.

This year Giumri's roads will be paved and construction of 71 more buildings completed. Important for economy, but transitory jobs. Seasonal/ permanent employment is being created in Agriculture. Even a couple of years ago the Armenian market in Winter was full of tomato, cucumber and other hothouse products imported from Turkey. No more. The agricultural field is tax-free for the next five years and is growing rapidly, and hothouses are sprouting in Araradian and Shirak fields. And Giumri is rising again.

The weather has been awesome these past few days, so I've been trying to get out as much as possible.

Wednesday night: Rock Club to check out a performance by Gor. Many of the Peace Corps and Armenian Volunteer Corps members were there, including fellow loggers Lena, who mocked me for wearing all black (like a local), and Rhoda, talking about pubic pizzas and raw burgers. Although I was pretty relaxed, I had a good time, enjoyed watching all the non-Armenians dancing to Armenian music, speaking the language, and having an amazing time!

Thursday night: Went to see what was happening at Republic Square with my cousin. There were people everywhere, cartoon characters, amusement rides, games, music, cotton candy (YUM!), and about a dozen Tzmer Babiks (winter grandpas = Santa Claus').

When we got home, my cousin realized that the washroom floor was wet. Unfortunately, even after 3 months of being here, I haven't gotten used to this "start the pump, fill the water tank" business. While I was cleaning up, my neighbor from downstairs rang the doorbell to tell me that the water had leaked into their apartment. So I apologized. A minute later, another guy came from the same apartment, I apologized again. Another minute later, a third guy came up, I apologized again, end of story...well, not quite yet. At that point I felt so bad I put on my slippers and told my cousin I would be back. I went downstairs, they answered the door, and I told them that I felt bad and (thinking that the damages were so bad since 3 guys came knocking on my door) I wanted to see what a mess I had made of their apartment. What was their response? Come in. They made me sit down at the dinner table (along with the 3 guys, a friend of theirs, and grandma) and served me a big pile of food. I didn't feel like eating anything, but we all made numerous toasts, had shots after shots of vodka, chatted about this and that, then I returned home all tipsy giggling non-stop. I was downstairs for 2 HOURS, while my poor cousin was sitting alone in the apartment.

Friday morning: Visited a friend of mine from Toronto who used to be my Armenian school principal (Arpi Meras). She was the first person I came to Armenia with, back when I was 9 years old. She's got quite an unusual and motherly relationship with most of her students. We went out for a quick tea, then split so I could meet my other friends. I treated Nune and her PR rep, Liana, for falafels. After that, I split and hooked up with Arpi Meras again. We hung out with a few friends for a while, then the two of us split and met up with Sirusho at an Armenian pop concert. Following that, along with other friends, we went to Suzan Margaryan's place for a late dinner (Suzan is a very well known Armenian singer and the mother of 15 year old Sirusho, another popular Armenian singer). We were there "till late chatting and having a nice relaxing time. The fog was horrible at night. I haven't seen fog like that my entire life.

Saturday: If all goes well, is a trip to Gyumri with Nigol and Zabel.

By the way, Ara, I got the Ararat movie on video and it is the English version. I found out that there are 2 versions. They have the exact same cover, but one has a blue tint on the top of the case. I had asked one guy, who was selling the movie, what the blue tint represents and he told me that all the cases were printed with the blue tint, but some had faded under the sun. Stupid! The bluish one is the English one and the other one is the Russian overdub (which is the one you got I think).

Well I am back from camping, which was fantastic. We were camping next to an inlet with tiny islands and very close to the beach too. Australians love to camp, and this campground at Mallacoota was huge, with almost every in massive 2 or 3 room tents. There was a lot of boats and one of them was being hauled by a red Niva, just like the one I had in Armenia! On the outskirts we passed a tiny hill named Mt. Ararat, I have pictures of it, but it is really quite pathetic. Anyway, tomorrow I will see wine country and the rest of the week I hope to relax and catch my breath before the next trip.

When I was trying to nap, I thought of some things I had been meaning to include in this log, and so now that I am in front of the computer again, and ready to add them, I forget. Typical. Well one of the things was that there was a big Armenian clan camping across the way from us, and a few sites over. We didn't talk much, but I was impressed that they had been going there for 18 years and were staying a month almost. Ah yes, I also wanted to mention that we went through loads of bush, where I saw few kangaroos and birds, caught a few fish (3), were given some fish by some people nearby, and caught some prawns (13 of them to be exact). So the catch was not too great, but we were impeded with handicaps like getting out of bed slowly (I was reading some Grisham books) and a bit of windiness. Prawn are incidentally NOT the same as shrimp, although I can't really say what the difference is. You can find out online I am sure. We did some offroading which was a joke compared to Armenia. The dirt roads were better than many of Armenia's old paved roads, and we never even needed 4WD in the 5 hours or so we were offroad. Hmmm, what else did I mean to log about? Oh we had a great hike along the coast, over remote beaches and cliffs and a nice sea cave. Alright, I think that was most of what I wanted to say.

I went to the medical center today for some tests on Mashtots Street and took a friend in case I needed translation. After explaining what had happened on the flight to Moscow, he took my blood pressure, which was 110/70 and he asks me if that�s normal. I don�t know you tell me! I told him that my oxygen intake which I had done in Italy was 98 and he told me that was very good. Next the lungs, healthy, ok. We then decided to do an ECG, and it read between 55 and 63. Now I thought that was pretty normal but he tells me it�s on the low side, did I play sports he asks? Well in my younger years I did. I thought 55 reading was pretty athletic, so is it normal? The Doctor is convinced I�m into sports otherwise it wouldn�t be that low, I�d better start exercising I think to myself.

The next question is do I eat enough? You have no idea mate how much I eat, I tell him instead that yes I do. He�s not convinced. Why is that doctor? Your appearance he says. Thanks I�ll take it as a compliment. He recommends that I see the neurologist. Ok, so after seeing him, everything is normal and I�m fit as a fiddle. The Doctor comes back and tells me that I need to eat Armenian fruits and veggies. What�s in season? Beetroot, carrots and apples. How original, apples!

Since they couldn�t find anything wrong with me, we put it down to exhaustion, lack of sleep and hunger. The evening of my flight, I didn�t sleep, I didn�t have dinner or breakfast an dI had been working very long hours. Let�s hope he�s right, in the meantime I will do my own research or better still consult my trusted friend Kohar, my AVC mate! I think I should still get an EEG done, if it�s available in Armenia.

Decided to skip the cold, the snow, the ice and commercialization of holidays. Stayed in Yerevan for Christmas.

Looks like can't run from certain things.

(In Yerevan) the Canadian weather caught up with us in the second week of December and stayed with us for four weeks. The break came yesterday, the snow melting process started by hitting the trees, then the roofs: piece by piece the frozen ice detached itself and find its way into streets and onto unsuspecting passerbys. On the fourth floor of our hotel, the waterpipes that survived the phenomenal weather of minus twenty something of last week burst early this morning. Stoically we accepted the fact of soaked rugs and dripping ceiling. When it gets dry we have to renovate and repaint the damaged areas.

A piece of ice hit me this afternoon. I was reading today's issue of 'Haygagan Jamanag' (January 8, 2003), an interview with Ardashes Geghamian, one of the twelve aspirants for Presidency.
A paragraph caught my eyes (more like popped it), I translate,

Naturally, our people distinguishes between it's begotten son, (referring to himself), of this land and water, and a visitor who has come for games and wants to be transplanted on our land by artificial means. He won't succeed.

It's pre-election time. Time to discredit your opposition and opponents. Ardashes Geghamian is targeting Vartan Osganian, the Armenian who was not born in Armenia but moved to his land to serve his country, applied and received Armenian citizenship.

And in his haste, we all become target of his DISCRIMINATION. He is not scared of alienating Diaspora and expatriates (no votes to be gained from this pool). And this is the man who gave a different meaning to preelection campaign by taking it to Russia to search for voters in Russian power circles (and hence the debate/animosity between him and Osganian).

At the moment, "splashes of mud," is the way to describe the state of our streets and politics. I am sure it will change for good pretty soon.

Finally the snow melts as my thermometer peaked at 15C today, although I noticed the Opera House time and temperature display showing 0C. Nevertheless, you can go out without a jacket and walk around in all the slush.

Early this morning, after only 3 hours of sleep, I got a phone call by some guy who was freaking out on the phone because a water pipe in his attic had exploded and he claimed he was swimming in his apartment. He happened to be the neighbor of one of my friends, who is out of town, and was worried about her place. So Nigol (Zabels hubby) and his friend Ara picked me up and we head over to her place. The ceilings were drenched, layers of paint were coming off, water was dripping down the walls, etc. Ara replaced the part of the pipe that had exploded and turned off the water supply. Since the roofs of these ancient Soviet buildings are not properly constructed and insulated, all the pipes freeze and eventually cease water flow and explode.

Driving to our friends place I noticed a bunch of people gathered in front of an apartment building. A few guys were carrying an open coffin with a woman lying in it and they were doing 360 degree turns in front of the building. In the meantime, there were a couple of guys playing the duduk. I had never seen this before. If anyone knows anything about this tradition please comment. And this was all happening on a really busy sidewalk.

I also had a chance to check out a place today, to possibly purchase, up in an area of Yerevan which I absolutely love. I don't want to jinx it, but after a short tour I'm attached!

My return flight was not uneventful. Since I was petrified of fainting again, I completely stuffed my face in before and during the flight. The flight from Rome to Moscow was delayed by an hour, no biggie as I had time to kill in Moscow. For some unknown reason, not that I�m complaining, I was upgraded to business class, what a great start one might say, especially since I had a very sore back thanks to the hours of waiting in the queue to see the Sistine Chapel a couple of days earlier. Due to technical difficulties, they did not show any movies in business class, no worries; I had my trusty CD player with me.

I arrived in Moscow at 6.30pm and the pilot announced that it was �15 Celsius (I left Rome at +15). The connecting flight to Yerevan was at 11.30pm so I walked around in Terminal 2, which was heated thank goodness. So after 2 packs of chips at $3 each (the Taj Mahal restaurant was having a break so I couldn�t eat there), I got to the transfer transit desk at 8pm and was told to return at 8.30. So I went back at 8.30, only to be told to go back at 9.30pm. So 9.30, it was, when I returned, hi, I�m back, the girl looks at me and says

your flight has been delayed to 2am.
ok, can I ask the reason for the delay?
Yes, no plan
No plan? Do you mean no plane?
Yes, no plan, we wait for a plan
So where is this plan coming from?
Another place
Has the new plan arrived yet? No? ok, I�ll return at midnight. Will you be here at 12 o�clock? �cause if there�s no plan, I won�t be a happy chappie, you know.

She gives me a meal coupon for dinner and after a few misunderstandings with the validity of the coupon, the lady at the restaurant was very helpful. The restaurant upstairs looked like a military cafeteria, the lady who worked there couldn�t speak English. So I was trying to tell her that I didn�t want any meat, just cartofil and rice, she understood. She came back and asked if I wanted chai. Chai? Tea? Si gracie, oops wrong country, I mean prego, I mean kharacho, yes please. By this stage I had left Rome 10 hours earlier and the airport in Moscow was practically empty by 10.30pm with a few people sleeping on the floor or benches here and there. With absolutely nothing else to do, I started reading a book by Simon Payaslian on the Armenian Genocide, which Alex had given me on X-Max Eve, and thankfully I had forgotten it in Ara�s car when he dropped me off at the airport, and had taken it to Italy with me.

So by around midnight, my lower back is still very sore, not forgetting of course the bump on my head from the flight to Rome 12 days ago, which has now reduced from a golf ball size down to a 2 Euro coin, I returned to the transit desk. Of course the girl is no longer there, the lights aren�t on and the gate is shut. I asked every passer by if they spoke English, NO was the reply. Finally 3 more Armenians arrive and we all wait there together. After 10 minutes of small talk, I couldn�t wait any longer and I told the other Armenians that I was going to speak up, since they weren�t prepared to do so. I went further down the corridor and finally found someone who could speak English. She told me the plane to Yerevan had not arrived yet and that we would have to wait till 7am. Listen here Darling, I�ve waited 7 hours at your lovely airport, if you could tell me what destination this plane is coming from, such as Copenhagen, I might start believing one word that you are telling me. Besides sweetie, I am not waiting till 7am and why is it that you haven�t found a plane yet, since you�ve known about it for a few hours, why is Armenia flight the last thing on your agenda? Putting it simply to you, I want to fly today because it�s our Christmas, what are you going to do about it?

The other Armenians are just standing back listening to the whole conversation, not saying a word. The lady disappears and another one comes out and talks to one of the Armenian men in Russian, saying that they don�t get any money from Aeroflot ticket sales and leaves. So what is she really saying? The man tells me that she�s asking for a bribe indirectly, I�m like over my dead body in a loud voice. Miraculously 5 minutes later another lady appears with our tickets and boarding passes, follow me she says. Oh you have found a plane? How nice! We were transferred by bus on the icy tarmac to terminal 1, and yes there was a plane to Yerevan at 2am. I didn�t want to know what the temperature was at that time. We boarded the plane and this contraption appears outside the window, hosing down the wings to melt the ice.

I arrived in Yerevan at 5.30 am and the temperature was minus 2, not bad at all I�m thinking. Now comes the fun part of getting a taxi, I offered to pay 4000 drams since they asked what I would pay kouyrig jan. After a few fights amongst the taxi drivers which lasted 30 minutes, saying I was crazy to pay that little, one of them approached me and asked me to pay 8000. Listen here mate, I live here and I know my destination only costs 2500 drams, wouldn�t you rather earn 4000 than return empty handed? Then this man appears and greets me, I say do I know you? He says you don�t know me? I�m like na! So I ask the taxi driver who this looser is and he tells me he�s a military official who works at the airport. And what does he want? He says he�s probably going to ask you a question. Finally he agrees to take me, so on very ice roads we drive off to the opera at a very slow speed, with cars all over the streets, stuck on ice or in the snow, we arrived at 7am. Even though he didn�t offer to help with my luggage at all, I paid him 5000. Today being Jan 6th I didn�t even make it to Church, I was too exhausted from my 18-hour flight, considering it would take 3 hours if there were ever a direct flight. My flat was freezing and still is now at 9pm, even with the heater on all day, the bottled water, which was left out, felt as though it came out of a freezer. It�s good to be back, I might have a nice early night and back to work tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

Guess what I had for breakfast yesterday morning...SFC! Oh no! For those of you who haven't followed my previous logs, it is the restaurant that served my cousin a completely raw beef patty in his burger. And guess who ordered SFC today? My cousin! I have nothing against the chicken burger and the fries, and anytime I've visited the restaurant that's all I've had. So of course that's what the both of us had this morning (well actually afternoon, woke up late...I thought I could fight S.A.D. this year, but it's still there). Delivery is about 20 cents and they bring it on a motor bike.

I haven't done much since New Years, mostly relaxing, and trying to find open variety stores to buy ingredients for baking cookies. Eventually, I found everything I needed at Parma (the supermarket). (Just a note...they have the laser barcode scanning things there...cool!) I've been craving popcorn lately, but can only find the microwavable ones, which I don't like. Some things are pricey, like 1L Heinz ketchup for 4,900 dram...ouch...that's about $8.50 US/$14 Canadian. Luckily I brought a bottle with me from Canada...which cost about $3 there, Canadian. Eventually, I'd like to get everything that's made here, but in the meantime if it's not from here, it's either from Russia, Iran or Greece...nothing from Turkey for me, thank you.

The weather was quite pleasant last night. Although it's been snowing for the past 3 days now, it wasn't that cold.

Hey, we got the latest Harry Potter and James Bond flicks in theatres here (of course in Russian). Guess how they translated "Die Another Day" in Armenian? "Die, but not today."

Dropped by a couple of cd stores looking for a few cds...including the new one from A-Ha.

Me: Do you have the new one from A-ha?
Salesperson: A-ha?
Me: Aha (meaning the expression "yes").
Me/Salesperson: (He he!)

I can't wait 'till they find a better display system for their cds.

Anyway, Merry Christmas again!

Shnorhavor Nor Dari yev Surp Dsnund bolore

Things are fairly cold here at the moment. My brother came to visit Armenia for the first time ever and presumed the heat in the airport had been turned off, and that outside was the same temperature as inside � unfortunately, for everyone, it was (and still is) quite significantly colder outside ;-)

Thinking that, being so cold, I wouldn�t be travelling anywhere in Armenia too soon � not true: AVC had a winter fest which involved all the volunteers travelling out to Giumri and Spitak and hosting Christmas parties for disadvantaged children in the regions. The parties were all a huge success, bringing a lot of excitement and joy to the children (five parties in 1.5 days, involving 450 children), and additionally providing the AVC volunteers with a few laughs, with respect to our journeys out to the regions. It took five hrs to get to Spitak in a clapped out minivan, and then the other, slightly more dangerous, version is the trip back from Giumri to Yerevan in the falling snow. Normally the journey takes 2.5 hrs, it took us 8.5 hrs due to: all the cars being stuck in snowdrifts, the road being closed, having to wait for the snow plough and then having to wait for all the excellent Armenian drivers to resurrect their cars, due to trying to overtake on a icy and snowy road in the middle of the night. Suffice to say, we all made in back in one piece and all of the AVC volunteers are still alive�.

The holidays have begun and are nearing the end and after weeks of food preparation, it is being eaten. The tables are absolutely laden with food�..and millions of visits are completely obligatory, which is great fun, but I feel slightly stuffed after everything (dolma, blinchiks and khingali in abundance! - excluding the vodka).

My brother has sampled the village life in Spitak, where we stayed with Keri (AVC volunteer out there) and were so very well looked after. He has also sampled the delights of Gor�s music, drunk vodka before 12 noon in an effort to try and warm up on the way to Garni, been skiing in Tsakhgadzor today (it was foggy and snowing, but highly amusing). This excludes all the visits we�ve made, and still have to make�.that all makes up for his luggage consisting mainly of my belongings

Once again, Shnorhavor Nor Dari yev Surp Dsnund bolore

Ahhh, I am speeding down the information superhighway with my cousin's cable modem, networked to a computer I plugged my hard drive into. So it is like having my own machine back, but with instant internet! What a pleasure. I have all my favorite bookmarks, files, etc handy now. If any of the loggers have photos for me to upload, there has never been a better time! That having been said, I am leaving tomorrow for a week long camping trip near the beach. Okh, I can't wait. How much better does it get? All the things I miss I am loading up on. Broadband internet, beach, foods, etc. One of the nicest things though is that here, even as an outsider, I don't stick out like a sore thumb, and am not so interesting* just because of the way I dress** or where I am from. It is funny that in Armenia I stick out more than in the west, just because of dressing habits... because certainly I have a good Armenian face (not to mention rug... on my chest!).

*Being interesting is nice and novel at first, but it can get old rather quickly... how many times can you answer the same questions about America vs. Armenia or sometimes rather personal questions without going nuts or inventing new answers (lies ;-) every time? Often you just want to be a regular uninteresting person, but can't.
**How do I dress? Like a regular Californian. Shorts/jeans, sandals/flip-flops, t-shirts... ie. very casual. Many of the younger crowd in Yerevan are becoming much more casual, which is a nice trend for me, since now people in Yerevan can't automatically tell I am an ardasahmantsi (outsider) until I talk to them and they detect my Western Armenian mixed in with the Eastern.

Happy New Year to everyone.

Last night on NYE, I went for dinner at the Pantheon with a couple of friends and literally sat at the Piazza, right in front of the Pantheon, it was great. We then headed off to Piazza Del Popolo, which is where all the action was, fireworks etc (nothing like Sydney of course) but still rather nice. It was such a mild night and the crowd behaved so well, everyone popping champagne bottles everyone and being showered in champers, what a difference! Today being my birthday, we walked around the city on a perfect clear day, Trevi fountain, Colosseum, etc and so many gelatis along the way, it was perfect. Arividerchi from the lovely city of Roma.

Happy New Year to all!

I had my first New Years Eve celebration in Armenia last night and although I've heard many stories about how exciting New Years Eve is in Yerevan, I had a pretty relaxing evening.

Most of my Toronto repat friends have decided to spend their holidays back in Canada this year, but I still had a variety of invitations to New Years Eve gatherings here in the Motherland.

My cousin (who is studying here in Armenia) and I decided to celebrate the evening at a relatives place. Throughout the night, there were neighbors coming in with empty pails and walking out with full pails of water. All their water pipes were frozen. A few minutes prior to midnight, our electricity decided to go out. Luckily, by the time we found a lighter to light the candles, the power came back on. Unfortunately, the entire block didn't have electricity for the entire night. It was interesting to see how excited my relatives were. Although they had no guests other than my cousin and I, they still got all dressed up, including the girls putting glitter in their hair, and enjoyed themselves greatly. I got a glimpse of the festivities in Republic Square on TV. The lights on the tree looked great. It was too cold to go out so I ended up staying over night and returned home this afternoon.

Oh ya, my breakfast was quite interesting this morning. I woke up to a buffet of pork, Armenian meatballs (kyooftes), stuffed grape leaves and peppers, humos, salad, and more. Whoops! I forgot the vodka. That was definitely the heaviest breakfast I've ever had. Though, a simple cereal would have been enough for me.

Since the schools are closed now and most people don't return to work 'till after Armenian Christmas (which is on the 6th), the streets will be filled with people for the next week or two.