So we decided to apply for the 10 year special residency visa. This was right during the first round of elections in Armenia. The application asked that we write a letter to the President… to the President? How odd, we thought. Does he really read our letters? Anyhow, we waited to see who we should address the letter to. As you know we had to wait longer than expected. Anyhow, we wrote the letters and off to Ottawa I went to deliver our applications. That’s mine and my family’s. The Consul greeted us. Although I was about 30minutes late because I took a right turn instead of a left somewhere, He had waited for me to just about closing time. I, unfortunately had an icy greeting. He was very dry and unfriendly. Then when I asked to see the Ambassador, he said that he was busy at the moment (note: I have met with the Ambassador on many occasions before). I thought that it would have been nice to see the Ambassador, Ara Papian during this time when I was applying for this visa. I don’t know, it would have made the applicant (in this case, me) feel more welcomed and encouraged to apply. Don’t get me wrong, I was not mistreated, but a friendlier ambiance would encourage more people to deal with the Embassy. The reason we are applying is that we hope to eventually work and live there. I have been dreaming of this possibility since Armenia had become independent. And here we are taking the first steps to make that dream come true.
By the way, as soon as the second round elections were over in Armenia, provincial elections started in Quebec. Of course we hear less about it because of the war, but a new right wing party has received too much attention for my taste. I am sure they won’t win, but they become the opposition and that’s a no-no for Quebec as it had always been a province with a somewhat social-democrat program regarding healthcare, education and so on.
On another note, anti-Bush and anti-war (not necessarily anti-American) resentment has been growing in Canada. Especially since the US Ambassador to Canada made a threatening speech to a group of business people in Toronto about how we should change our attitude and support the US since it is in “danger”. There have been demonstrations almost every other day. Some are very large and passive other are small and more aggressive. Nothing like the San Fransisco ones though. Some American Armenians are upset at Armenia’s stance on this issue. They are saying that Armenia doesn’t care about them… what about the Iraqi-Armenians who could lose lives and all of what they have worked for for decades?
Lav, kich m’n al hayerenov. Ays verchers “Armenian Forum” ‘sdatsa yev shad hedakrkragan niuter gan. Shad gu havnim ays “magazine”-u. Yete chek pajanortakrvadz… yeghek!

Put out your cigarettes and take a breath of fresh air New York City, in 2 minutes it will be illegal to smoke in bars and restaurants!

It is rainy and snow is in the forecast, but I don't care. I have some great news I will announce soon :-)

Ok, so there's a full on war going on. --Ummm after typing that sentence, I don't think I still understand what a war actually means or entails... turning on the TV doesn't help much either. All they show is dramatized news, with fancy graphic designs about how Saddam is wrong and we are right. Ummm... are we? Like, who are "we" (americans) to decide the fate of people living in a place thousands of miles away, with whom we have not lived nor do we understand? Obviously I'm very disappointed that we are at war. Disappointed that in this day in age we can practically revive a person whose heart has stopped, or keep someone alive whose brain tells them not to be alive.... and yet we can not resolve issues and must resort to killing other human beings to "get our way".

Anyways, I'm just very annoyed. There are protests everywhere and it seems like no one is listening. It's kind of funny how there's freedom of speech and the right to protest, but the question is, will people actually LISTEN?? (maybe it's a loophole!) On top of it, we're all running around trying to lead our "normal" lives and yet there's this constant chant of "war in iraq" in our heads. I'm gonna have to be very "L.A." and say, "WHATEVER!".

Funny story: I was talking to my brother, who is now 16, and I was asking him what he thinks about the whole war thing. My brother goes, "what do WE have to do with is....we're Armenian". Hahaha, I just thought that was funny. He'll learn.

Health update: Seems as though I'm doing ok. I had some more dosage changes so now my main concern is keeping track of which dose I took yesterday and which one I'm supposed to take today..... uffff! So like those nene-s I'm gonna go get those boxes that have Monday-Sunday on it and arrange it so that I won't have to sit there and think, "what color was yesterdays?" for 20 minutes. :) At the end of April I'm gonna have a scan which will determine if I'll be getting radiation or not. I'm crossing my fingers.

School update: blah blah blah blah blah blah .... enough said.

Hayasdan update: 90% chance I will be in Armenia, June through late August. YAY! (I guess Asdvadz baba finally took pity on me and said, "Ok aghchigs, you can go this year." :)

Alright, I'm officially gonna be late.....

TSUH! :)~

I am taking the next step with the Armenian calendar of events web site, and creating email lists for people who want a weekly update in their email box on what is going on in their community. I am starting with some of the larger communities, LA and NY. I hope I will be able to keep up with this, but I am willing to give it a shot. If you want to subscribe to one of those community calendar of events, send a blank email to the appropriate address. la-subscribe@calendar.am or ny-subscribe@calendar.am and you are ready to go. If you live in one of those communities and would be willing to manage the weekly mailing and/or calendar, please let me know! If I can get help with these I can expand to Boston, DC and Yerevan soon.

How about having the LA Genocide commemoration in front of the Museum of "Tolerance", to protest its deliberate exclusion of the Armenian story? See how deliberate it is in Harout Sassounian's column below.

Another Example of Intolerance
By the Museum of Tolerance

The Los Angeles Times recently disclosed that the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles has eliminated an exhibit dedicated to the Armenian Genocide and stopped showing to visitors a documentary that described the extermination of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks. The museum officials gave the lame excuse that they had simply rearranged that particular exhibit and had replaced the documentary.

One of our readers just brought to our attention another piece of evidence indicating the great lengths that the Museum of Tolerance officials have gone to ensure that neither the museum nor its web site contain any reference whatsoever to the Armenian Genocide!

The web site of the Museum of Tolerance (http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/text/x00/xr0080.html) includes a brief reference to the German author Armin T. Wegner who was placed in a concentration camp for five years for having written a letter to Hitler asking him to spare the Jews. The museum's web site indicates that the source of this information was the Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem.

A quick check of Yad Vashem's web site (http://www.yad-vashem.org.il/righteous/bycountry/germany/wegner_armin_t.html), however, reveals that the Museum of Tolerance has deleted Yad Vashem's reference to the Armenian Genocide which was witnessed by Wegner who had taken a large number of photos of the Turkish atrocities while serving with the German army in 1915-16.

The Yad Vashem web site includes the following important information which is left out of the web site of the Museum of Tolerance: "The history of the twentieth century provided Wegner with plenty of opportunity to speak out against evil and injustice. On the road to Baghdad in the spring of 1915, serving as an ensign on the staff of German Fieldmarshal von der Golz, he could observe first hand some of the worst atrocities perpetrated by the Turkish army against the Armenian people. The horrendous scenes of dead and emaciated people that he had witnessed in the Armenian refugee camps - visible proof of the first systematic genocide of the twentieth century - continued to haunt him long after. He protested against them in his Road of No Return: a Martyrdom in Letters and in an open letter, which was submitted to American President Woodrow Wilson at the peace conference of 1919."

The museum officials would probably justify their removal of the above paragraph by claiming that they condensed the information on Wegner. Nevertheless, if they wanted to, they could have provided a passing reference to Wegner's personal experiences with the Armenian Genocide which would have explained his sensitivity and outrage at the crimes subsequently committed by the Nazis against the Jews!

Armenian Americans are still waiting for the Museum of Tolerance officials to do the right thing by reinstating all references to the Armenian Genocide in the museum as well as on its web site.

Oh, cut it with the news already. The nastiness of journalists really shines through during a war. I'm so tired of watching them cat fight over the smallest bits of news from the war and blow out of proportion until it becomes entirely false. God bless the men and women overseas risking their lives for me, but I hate this war. I didn't read all the comments to Raffi Kojians last log because I even got tired of reading about it.

So the big thing other than the war on the news is how Michael Moore (directore of "Bowling for Kolumbine," a documentary about guns in America which I'm dying to see) won an Oscar at the Academy Awards the other night. The BIG news is how he started with a standing ovation, but the second he mentioned a word about Bush being a not so great president, he got booed, and it was considered a low point in the evening. And this is the free world we are trying to spread to other countries? Well, I consider it a high point for a man to say what's on his mind in such a forum. It's about time people see what true freedom of speach is. The letter he wrote to Bush has been e-mailed around like crazy, criticizing his war. I think more people are secretly happy to read that letter, more than they are willing to admit. At times like this, we need more people who aren't afraid to say what is on their minds, even if it's support for the war. THAT is what freedom is about.

Other news about Michael Moore is that he teamed up with System of a Down to create the video for "BOOM!", a highly appropriate song for the times we live in. I'm ITCHING to see that.

And in other news, Turkey is digging their grave right now. The buzz in Washington these days is how Armenians have to take this opportunity to show the world what we mean about them. They have completely screwed their relations with the US, they can't be trusted at all anymore, and now human rights activists will reep the benefits when US stops supporting a country that continues to slaughter mass populations of people. I see the results now... more Congressmen are signing on to attend the Armenian Genocide Observance event on the Hill in April... some that we never expected. Sad that this is what it takes to open their eyes.

What a weekend indeed. After the Gor show at the Knitting Factory in NYC on Saturday, it was a treat to sit down with Raffi Kojian, Zabel A., Antovk P, Natacha S., and Gor. We hung out at Katz's Deli for hours, a NYC landmark according to Antovk. While Raffi looks like he is adjusting to life in the Big Apple (cold weather), Zabel has embraced NYC. In any case, great to see everyone.

There are concerts here in Boston being planned for April 24th. I tend to agree with Raffi's views on the lack luster April 24th scene. Especially in LA.

While in NYC, I ran into a really good jazz pianist named Tigran Martikyan (www.tigranmartikyan.com). Check out the website. As I am trying to branch out into jazz recordings, this guy seems like the real thing. We'll see how it goes...

I had the pleasure of hearing a reveiwers copy of "Serart", the new Serj Tankian and Arto Tuncboyaciyan CD coming out on may 6th. Fascinating stuff from two very talented individuals. My interview with Serj will be in an upcoming issue of Global Rhythm magazine focusing on "Serart". the website for the project is www.serart.net. Very cool stuff.

Rumors are that Lilit Pipoyan is going to be in New York and Boston in the next few weeks. I was contacted to try to put something together for an East Coast tour, but, due to work, school, and other time constraints, I have to take a pass. I will keep you posted if anything is concrete. She is a really good vocalist...

Saturday evening after the rally we hung out with.... Raffi Meneshian who was visiting from Boston! Always fun. Gor, Natasha and Antovk were there and we sat at a diner/deli talking late into the night. Wednesday is the first get together of Abakah, a new Armenian arts group that we are going to check out.

So in today's Armenian news I read that it has been decided that the AGBU will organize the LA Armenian Genocide commemorations. There is now less than a month to go and they just decided this! The AGBU reports that they have sent invitations to all the politicians to speak. Booooring. What a shame. I know it is easy to sit here and criticize, but this is something that has bothered me my whole life. That LA, which has one of the biggest Armenian communities in the world, and is such a media savy city as well could generate massive publicity. Instead, even the local news usually ignores the gathering in a public park with politicians making speeches. Again I hope to hear that a Little Armenia march/protest is being planning in Hollywood again, and hope I can be there for it...

Two things I am looking forward to in April. The average high in April is 60f (vs 50 in March) and smoking will be banned pretty much everywhere, like in LA! Woohooo!

Extending for over thirty blocks. The thousands of homemade signs were superbly entertaining and some very clever.



Civil disobedience. The ones sitting on the street (you can just make thiem out around the round hat in the front)
are arrested and taken away to onlooker chants of "Arrest George Bush" among other things.

Well, it has started. The bombs are falling. I will try to withhold comment on it because I can go on for pages... All entries into New York City are being checked now (imagine the traffic!) and national guard and police are being deployed all over. The price tab is nearly a million dollars a day. Luckily I do not have to commute or go anywhere, and have no intention of doing so!

I am happy to say that Levon Travel has removed my photos from their web site, and Ani Tour has agreed to, although at this time they are still on there. I am particularly glad these two cooperated because I like their companies otherwise. Now my battles to reclaim my photos are almost complete (I think!).

Two web anniversaries are around now. This website is now seven years old. I started it when I got back from living in Armenia for the first time and my internet account came with this thing called "free web space". Five whole megs, which it took me a while to fill. Then I got my own scanner and that quickly changed. As my need for bigger space kept surfacing, and plus I got tired of changing my e-mail address, I decided to get a domain name, and here we are on cilicia.com seven years later. Two years ago the Life in Armenia log was started. Armenia has come so far from the days of early independence when virtually no Western Armenians had ever visited and rumors of massive street crime and "the mafia" frightened off whoever wasn't too scared to go to a country without regular electricity and water supplies. Now we have an online journal of Western Armenians happily living in the homeland, with all the creature comforts, as productive members of society. You can go back and read two years worth of impressions and thoughts, see how things are changing, and what it is like to live there.

As I have had a lot of time on my hands, I have been a bit scattered about a bunch of things I have been working on, but have been doing some good stuff. One of the things I have been up to is promoting www.calendar.am quite a bit. Now that web site is getting a lot more visitors and event listings. Check your local community calendar to see what is going on in your neck of the woods. Bookmark it. Forward the link to your friends. If you want to help maintain your community calendar, just let me know. I have also recently redone the discussion boards on cilicia.com as I mentioned, and made the cookbook a little better too. I think the message boards are more inviting now and already seem to have more posts than before. Lots of other projects big and little are progressing too, but not enough focus on any one project for much in the way of results.

I read today that Glendale is going to build a new chess park, mostly for the Armenian population that is so into chess, making Glendale a nationwide center for it. This is great news, and I think that chess parks in general are a cool idea, but spending $400,000 to build a park with 14 chess tables sounds overpriced to me. And there is not even one of those massive chess boards with life sized peices that are so cool. I hope the park turns out nice. It couldn't hurt to throw in a few tavlu/nardi tables too :-)

Lots to say.
I went to a play called “Elle est la” meaning she is there. In this case, the “she” referred to an IDEA… the idea that one has in their head. The entire experimental play was about 2 people wanting to kill a third person who had a different idea than theirs. We never knew what the IDEA itself was. The dialogue was quite intense and heavy. It was concluded that regardless of them killing person #3, the idea will still remain. It will be carried in another person’s head and another and so on. So they decided that they would be persistent and persuade the third person to change her idea, OR accept that there actually is a possibility of another idea, one that does not match theirs.
SO, what I learned from this was, it doesn’t matter how many dictators “we” kill, or how many so-called terrorists we arrest, the IDEA will remain unless “we” do something differently. Perhaps ask why? Why us? Why them? I hope this made sense.

Last Saturday there were 250 000 Quebecers who took the streets to protest the unjust war that will be launched by Bush and Blair and the other “30” countries of the coalition. The way I see it is that Bush claims that he wants to establish a new “democratic” government in Iraq. However, he is ready to deny Turkey of its democratic process. I mean, when 90-some % of the population is opposing the war, how can Bush and his buddies expect that the Government of Turkey will disregard the voice of the people and carry out their requests of accessing Air space and land entry? Of course, he himself does not respect his people. An American 23 year old girl is crushed by an Israeli Bulldozer in Palestine, thousands of demonstrators in front of the White House, high profile American citizens who have spoken against his foreign policy, and more. He has simply ignored the cry of the people and has pursued his plans of war. Did you know that the Cafeteria of the Capitol hill has changed the names of the FRENCH fries to FREEDOM fries? … no comment!
By the way, one of the cool signs I read during the demonstration was “Bombing for peace is like F--king for virginity!” too funny! We too had a sign, it said NO WAR but in Armenian. We also had an Armenian flag. More than 20 people asked what country did the flag belong to. I was so proud of the solidarity on the streets. Too cool! Apparently these demonstrations had affected our Prime Minister’s decision not to support a unilateral US war on Iraq. Don’t get me wrong, I too want Saddam removed. I want him to be called to the international penal court like Milosevic and Sharon (for his massacres in Sabra and Shatilla).

On a lighter note, I attended a one woman show. It was Arpie Dadoyan from NY. She is a middle aged lady who has decided to return to her first love, the theatre. She was pretty good. I think we will hear more of her. Although she needs to work on her delivery and the amount of issues she wants to tell her audience, I think she was quite confident and funny. This was held by the Montreal Armenian Women’s Association on March 8, women’s day.

So Arsineh is now working with my brother in DC. This should be interesting… please tell us some APO stories Arsineh.

Last weekend I went to a friend’s Chalet up north. The weather was amazing. This could probably be the last time I go to this Chalet for a while. We are seriously considering moving to Armenia within the next months. This is way too exciting.

Tomorrow I will go to Ottawa (the capital city of Canada) to talk about LCO. Not many Canadians know about this organization. I will also visit the Embassy there. I Will tell you all about it the next time.

I hear you about e-mailing Raffi. I'm being added to more enemy lists every day for not returning e-mails. Perhaps it's the volume a day that I get. So few are ones that I want.

Anyway, I'm in DC. I was MIA for a while because I hadn't settled in just yet, and quite frankly I'm still not completely. But at least I'm at the point where I can now breathe. My first week down here was tough because I jumped right into work. And the lucky office that now has me: the Armenian National Committee of America. Yes, Arsineh has turned to politics... cuz design, editing, photography and AYF work weren't enough.

I'm gonna try not to talk to much about specifics with my work, because I really don't want to use this as a forum for spreading our issues. However, I'll probably bring up major events as they come. For example, we just held a presentation on Capitol Hill of the BBC documentary of the Armenian Genocide: The Betrayed. This was a 45 minute documentary that aired on BBC 2 in GB last month. They did a FANTASTIC job and the correspondent that covered the political portion of the video in Washington was at the presentation last Friday to speak on the documentary. Approximately 50 Hill staffer attended and it was a tremendous success. Though, there are more successes to come.

Other news, I had to take the Metro into work today because the streets I follow to work were closed down. Some guy with a tractor drove it into a pond and is surrounded by security men up the wazoo. I guess he's threatening to set off explosives. Now the US is under code orange (high alert) and all they can talk about on the news is the deadline for Saddam Hussein to vacate Iraq. They even have the deadline countdown ticker in the corner of the screen on CNN. Please. I'm so tired of listening to Ari Fleischer bs his way through press conferences (excuse my implication of vulgarity).

I'll admit it's somewhat frightening to be down the street from the White House during all of this. But at the same time, I feel a little bit more safe with the jacked up security all over the city. But I wouldn't mind driving into work tomorrow, so if anyone knows the guy who parked his tractor in a pond, can you tell him to just keep moving?

I have been rather bad about e-mailing lately. I don't know why, I just don't feel like doing it. I think I go through these phases. Oh well, I can't say I feel too bad about it :-) It does however mean that I get fewer e-mails from friends, including my friends in Armenia, which makes me feel so much further from there than when I hear about the day to day goings on. At least if some of them would log it wouldn't be so bad! :-(

The temprature has shot up to the 50's these past few days and seems like it will stay there for the next few days at least. That is sooo much better than the 30's I have experienced since my arrival. It is nice to be back to the Farenheit scale for weather, even though I strongly advocate a switch to Celcius. After all those years in Armenia all I know for sure is that above 40 degrees is unbearable, and so is anything around zero. So with the nice weekend weather we headed out to see new neighborhoods to see what may be to our liking. We walked north and the neighborhood became more and more heavily Polish until is was practically nothing else. A very nice neighborhood and vibe. In many ways it reminded me of Yerevan, and if we can find something there we'll definitely take it. "Finding Something" is an incredibly difficult process though and I am learning how time consuming it can be. It's very hard to do it without a broker, and without fees. When rents start at a thousand dollars, a thousand dollar fee for showing you an apartment is just highway robbery, especially if you don't plan on living there for years and years...

Eh, anyways, the other excitement in life is the vegan lent diet we are sticking to. The meat part is really not that bad, but the dairy (and eggs) are a real killer. Precious few foods are available at restaurants, so it is a true test. Interestingly, back when these lenten practices came into being, the seasonal changes and societal homogeneity made it much easier. In other words, the time before Easter was when you should not partake of dairy because the cows and sheep just gave birth and their babies need it, and for the same reason there are few large animals available to eat, since the females just gave birth, the babies are too small, and most of the males good for eating have already been eaten. Then with the whole society observing at once (and usually eating at home) there was not much choice in what to eat anyways. You were all in it together...

I am happy to say that Levon Travel has been been cooperative so far, so I hope things work out well. I also finally got a reply from Ani Tour about all the photos they have taken off of my web site. That situation was slightly humorous because they asked WHICH photos and it was every single one, and I am even IN one of the photos! :-) So I hope to have both of those problems fixed soon, which leaves only one big violator I know of. Did I mention that last year I even found a nice calendar for sale in Yerevan made only with photos from my web site? I had to buy one to have a copy! I just noticed an interesting shot from the store window on the calendar, and when I got closer to see who took it, I saw it was me! :-)

The apartment hunt in NY is intensifying. The prices for what you get are just unbelievable. You can buy a house in an Armenian village every month for the rent you pay out here for a tiny space with no bedrooms, and I am not talking about Manhattan. It is still a shock for me coming from Armenia, and used to lower rents in the LA area which I hear have skyrocketed too, but still nothing like this. Anyway, so far we have not seen anything worthwhile.

Simply amazing. I am still discovering web site with tons of pictures stolen off of my site. Do these people think I will never notice? Today I found out that Levon Travel, an AMERICAN-Armenian COMPANY is stealing from little old me. Again, not even the decency to ask, not even the decency to put a link. Nothing. Just take. This is a company with money and resources. This is in America where they should know better. I have sent them a list of the files they have stolen and will let you know how the situation is resolved. Usually when I point out to companies that they are stealing from me, they are very rude and arguementative, rarely cooperative and apologetic. It pisses me off soooo much. Well it makes me glad I put that annoying "Cilicia.com" across all the photos on my web site. Once I get all these stolen photos removed, they can no longer get nice, clean shots off of my site. Nigol knew what he was doing on parev.am when he had his URL plastered on the photos.

Juan writes how Popcorn + Coke = 24 April in Buenos Aires, I read that just this week they are meeting in LA to plan the big Montebello event. THIS WEEK! They have a month to organize everything, plan something interesting, and they start now?? So basically it will be the same boring stupid program that the media will ignore. Forget that folks, go to the Little Armenia march if they are doing it again. Show the complacent old-school leaders that they are no longer being followed unless they can serve the people better. Having said that, I hope there is another march being planned in Little Armenia! :-)

ARAM ARAM ARAM

This 24th April in Buenos Aires we would be able to see the Ararat Film at last. On next 24 april, there will be no acts or other kind of activities but that one. So now the formula is: Pop Corn + Coke = 24 April...
Going trough another topic i want to tell you that in Buenos Aires we have a nice park called PLAZA ARMENIA. It has a lake and it belongs to a complex of parks in the Palermo quarter. Next Saturday 22th at that park the Symphonic Band of the Buenos Aires City will be playing songs of the armenian compositor Aram Khatchaturian. He was born in 1903 so, happy birthday Aram!!!
This days i was wondering how is the life in Armenia Nowadays...i am reading the newspapers about kocharian and demirdjian and i just makes me puke this armenian politics system. I think that armenian males have to reconsider what they have done this last 200 years...This speech about the union of the armenians and that...I cannot understand why the armenian fully fights against the ideas of a national brother and shuts the mouth up when a foreign one hits him up. Do we want a real Nation or just to have an Epicurean life anywhere???


Keep on playing it Aram, you are armenian...

I have installed a new message board script on cilicia.com to replace the old one. The new one is much simpler and quicker, so I think in the end it will be much more active and lively. Check it out, it is at the same address that the old one was at: http://www.cilicia.com/board/index.php

I think I forgot to mention that we decide to do the full-on bak this year. Yup, no bak-light this time, we have gone vegan (no meat OR dairy). It is not so much that I miss what I can't have as it is a pain to find something I can eat or is inconvenient... but I guess that is part of the point. I just can't imagine being vegan all year round.

Not much else to report. I have just been doing minor things on the computer here and there.

This log should have appeared exactly one week ago… sorry!

I have just returned from Boston. Thanks to Arsineh, I had brunch at Aram’s dinner (I think that’s what it is called), a landmark.
I was in Boston for 2 days. I presented an info session on the Land and Culture Organization. I am not using the acronym LCO, since I have been getting e-mails about LCO means. The presentation was held at the ALMA (Armenian Library and Museum of America). This place is a must see if you are in the Boston area. The people were very friendly and the wealth of Armenian art and literature was amazing. I also visited NAASR (National Armenian ??? studies and Research).Although I only visited the front part of the store, I was impressed with the variety and the inventory of books they carried. If you are looking for any kind of book about Armenia and Armenians, give them a try!
This time, I decided to take the bus to the great ol’ US of A. Since I had driven to Detroit and flew to NY, I thought maybe I should give this means of transportation a try… to be honest, I enjoyed it. Although it was a bit long of a drive, I caught upon some of my reading and relaxed.
I just finished my second book about the early years of post-communist Armenia written by non-Armenian authors. The first one was called Between the Stillness and the Grove by Erika DeVasconcellos. It was a novel about Armenians during the 1992-93 blockade. The second book by Leonidis…, the first Ambassador of Greece to Armenia, was a recount of his activities in Armenia during his stay in 1992-93. Although it was a bit dry to read, he brings to our attention some compelling information like how Turkey was planning to attack Armenian in 1993, and how Ter-Bedrossian had to fly to Georgia and meet the President to have the delivery of wheat pass the Georgian borers. Shows you the seriousness of the matter when the Pres of 2 states have to intervene in these kind of details.
I’m now reading some Noam Chomsky. I will let you know about it soon.

Too bad I didn’t get to you Raffi M.

will write a new logabout some Armo events that took place in Montreal this week.

Back in DC. I'm so tired. I'm so very tired. I loaded up my car with the essential belongings... and now I'm here. The trunk was full, the back seat had every inch filled in with something almost to the top. And the passenger seat was full too... my teddy bear sat between the seats just chillin. He was my navigator.

So now I'm here. I already caught up with my dad on all the projects we have lined up for ourselves. He tells me about new stamps he has and how he's documenting more of his stuff, I tell him how I'm working on my photography for exhibition. I know where I get my "project initiative" trait... pops.

It's very quiet so far... no Armenians running around outside (that's my warped image of Watertown), no store front signs written in Armenian or buses driving by with some ian name on it. But I do think I heard a commercial mentioning something about Armenian and Persian rugs. I'm sure some of my Armenian friends have profiles at the CIA headquarters down the street (I live in Langley/McLean, VA). It's a change of pace, but I've done that enough to know what it takes. Just gotta find another bar in DC that will hang an Armenian flag and the Irish owner will learn to say "Parev Tzez" and complain about the Homenetmen Agoump guys across the street... or something like that.

I had a nice weekend with some exploration. We finally had some decent weather, in the mid-forties if that helps you to understand how much my standards have fallen, and so on Saturday we went to check out the Lower East Side since we need to decide on a longer term place to live. On the map it looked promising, since there is a nice long oceanfront park, the part we headed for was not hip and it was a bit far from the subway for Manhattan. So we were hoping it would be decent and cheap, and Zabel could bike to work. Well the park was nice enough, but there were neverending, massive government housing projects as far as we went along the water. These people were getting a really sweet deal, and there were unbelievable numbers of units. 20 stories tall, a few buildings deep, and they went on and on. I just would not be comfortable living next to these, even though the neighboring area looked OK. I think I am just too Orange County to make that transition. So we walked on to explore Alphabet City which is a possibility and then SoHo which is not in our price range.

Today (Sunday) we went to a massive sprawling art exhibition with loads of different mediums and styles and it was just a big free for all. Everyone could find stuff they liked and so we spent a few hours there until it all began to look the same. Reminded me a lot of the art exhibition at Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia, only it was not nearly free.

My computer underwent 3 exciting changed this weekend. I installed half a GB of RAM, which I am not certain if it is buggy or not yet, I am suspicious of a new bug I have during bootup. I got a sound cable from Richard for my TV card, so now I can hear as well as watch TV on my computer. And finally I got finally downloaded a spam killing program. It is called Mailwasher, and can be downloaded free at www.mailwasher.net and let me tell you, it is amaaaazing. I realised on Saturday that I was getting something like 40 junk mails a day, and even with DSL it is very annoying to see you have new mail, only to find out so often that it is spam. So I finally decided it was time to try this program which Katy Pearce had told me about while I was in Armenia.

I did not understand exactly how this program worked while I was in Armenia so I did not think it was appropriate for there, but it turns out it is very appropriate everywhere and absolutely ideal for Armenia. This program goes to your mail account and looks at the messages first, getting the message subject, sender and a bit of text. Then you can decide what is real mail and what is junk. Now here is the beauty of it. The ones you decide are junk mail get bounced back to the sender, who thinks your e-mail account is closed, plus the program "learns" that that message is junk mail and tells you such in the future. It also tells you if a message has a virus, and all these messages get removed from your server and bounced if you like, and you never have to download the actual message! It is just beautiful. So I will let you know how the progress goes, but I am quite hopeful that my problems may be greatly lessened :-)

It's official, I will be living in NYC for the next year. Who would have thought? I certainly wouldn't have believed it. Zabel got the extention to work on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' second season. It is quite a relief to know where I will be living for the time being, too much of my life was on hold. You can console me now about the d*mned winters... nah skip it, I can't be consoled....

I just finished up on my family tree. Yup, the whole thing that I have carried around on three large sheets of paper is now computerized. About 300 people on there, and growing :-) I highly recommend that GenoPro software, so easy, and it actually shows you the family tree looking like one (with the lines going from person to person) and when you are done you can upload the whole thing onto the web if you like.

So the talk two nights ago was interesting. I missed the first half hour because I was downstairs browsing away and assumed they would announce the start of the talk. They didn't :-) So when I made my way up there the crowd was quite diverse, and the speaker was an interesting fellow. I forget his name but his new book was something like "The best democracy money can buy" or government or something. Anyway, the most interesting thing I got out of it was just how much dirty money the Bush family gets from all this war prep. It was quite disgusting, and sadly it was not surprising.

Last night I made a delicious Leek dish from the cookbook I mentioned. I grew up eating this stuff and if you haven't tried it, believe me you are missing out. My only warning is that you should REALLY wash the leeks well. I think the size of a "bunch of leeks" may have changed since the book came out. I used one bunch and it came out fine, but then maybe three bunches would have come out fine too, I dunno.

And finally, I started a new forum on the message boards called "Notes from Armenia". It should soon have some messages from people living, visiting, etc there, from all walks of life.

Oh, and who won the presidency???

I remember when I first arrived in Boston six years ago. Everything was new to me, especially the concept of hearing Armenian spoken on the street. I transferred up from New York to study graphic design. I got my own apartment, and that moment was truly a turning point in my life. Life didn't seem so hopeless anymore. For a while I thought there was no end to the things I could explore here. It seemed the more Armenians I met, the more I realized how many Armenians I haven't met. The greatest thing about living in Watertown was realizing that I could go to an Armenian for just about everything I needed. I looked for an apartment through an Armenian broker. I worked for Armenians, shopped at a Supermarket owned by Armenians. I just saw a busline drive by yesterday called Gulbankians... owned by an Armenian. First job out of high school... no Armenians, but it turned out one of them had a landlord who was Armenian, who owns Ararat restaurant, and another co-worker lived upstairs from an Armenian who played the oud. I used to go out to the Middle East ever Wednesday night for Armenian music. Drive down Mt. Auburn through Watertown and all the stores are Armenian... including the funeral homes. When I look just a little bit closer at every corner, I remember all the memories I had here. They really shaped who I am today.

Some of my favorites... I remember the first time I moved to Roxbury, I had a party at my apartment and my brother-in-law used my phone books to burn for a barbeque on my fire escape (ironiv indeed). I remember sitting on my porch in Watertown with a couple friends at 3am watching strange people walkind down the street talking to themselves and breakdancing out of nowhere. I remember dancing with Sayat Nova and finding a new inspiration. I remember more recently driving a new friend to Montreal, but taking 3 hours to leave Harvard Square with having my car towed among other problems (that was a great time). I remember receiving the phone call from the person who asked me to move to Armenia to work for AIM. I remember the MANY nights spent at Donohue's for ten cent wing nights and steak tips and the Irish bartender greeting us with "Parev Tzez." I remember driving AYF juniors to every AYF event and laughing while they played with the radio the whole way. I remember the Steering Committee party after AYF Olympics in Boston when my friend slipped and fell on broken glass, only to be rushed to the hospital for stiches and hearing him say... now I have a scar that will help me remember this night forever. I remember walking around Harvard Square any given night in the summer and finding our Armenian friends playing chess and hanging out.

The list could last forever, or at least six years. But it's funny how it takes something like moving away to reflect on the great times spent on familiar streets. I went through this when I moved to Armenia. Now again. But there is something to be said about Boston. There are times that I curse the day I ever moved here, but so few and far between. When it comes down to it, this is the place that defined who I am, especially as an Armenian.

Now I go back home where I grew up... with maybe one other Armenian family in my town that I know. I know I've taken Boston forgranted and I'll realize how great it really is when it's gone, but it's comfortable here. They weren't kidding... where everyone knows your name.

It seems like I have lots to say this week. I find it is interesting how few people in my building full of young people are from the US. Most are immigrants of late, a few from Montreal, but from all over the world too. The strange thing for me is that almost everyone is a white immigrant. Growing up in Orange County, immigrant always meant pretty much Mexican, Vietnamese or the occasional Middle Easterner and Indian, so we are talking about tan/olive skin. Here there is a heavy Polish immigrant population where I live as well. Anyway, I just wanted to share that observation.

Last night we went out for a massive, bloody steak, and it was one of the best I have ever had. Today all I have eaten so far is corn. What a contrast, welcome to bak. Well I had better get going, we are going to attend a talk tonight at Barnes & Noble, the jist of it seeming to be how democracy is perverted in America today. I personally doubt the talk will shed much new info/thoughts for me, but I am going to give it a try, and plus I am curious to see how well attended it is and by whom.

I am posting this in both logs, pass it on to anyone who might bite!

How to Retire in Armenia today, for $70,000

Are you ready for retirement? Can you sell everything you own and scrape together $70,000 USD? In that case, you are ready. It is very simple really. You just buy yourself a nice furnished one bedroom apartment in central Yerevan for $30,000 to live in yourself, and buy two more studio/small one bedroom apartments for $20,000 each which you can rent out for $150 to $200 each per month. Since your living expenses in Armenia are only about $250 a month, this is more than sufficient to live off of.

Afraid of inflation? Don't be, if prices go up in Armenia, so will rents, and so your income will be secure. Plus, with two units, if one isn't rented out, you still have a good income from the other. You never have a mortgage to begin with so you can never have a negative cash flow. There are many variations to this plan, and prices of course change. You could have accomplished all this for half the money in 2001.

Variations to consider.

-You can also buy a nice summer house (dacha) for 2 or 3 thousand dollars. If you move there in the summer, and rent out your apartment in the peak summer months, whether by the month, or by the night (higher yield), you can earn a tidy extra sum.
-Alternatively, you can just retire in the countryside and only buy the two units in Yerevan to rent out. This means you can retire for $43,000 and believe me, you will never be able to spend all your income from the rentals living in a village. Monthly expenses in the village would be well under $100.
-You can also of course buy more than two units to rent out, the more the merrier, right?

There is nothing to this, it is a very simple, foolproof plan. Anybody can do it.

HAPPY GREAT BAREKENDAN! Yes folks, today is Armenian Mardi Gras, or Carnival if you prefer. Live it up, for tomorrow is the first day of lent. Tonight we are going out for a big steak dinner, as soon as Zabel gets back from Boston. Then tomorrow, no more meat, and I may yet decide to do the strict bak and become a vegan, but even then I have never gotten a straight answer as to whether fish is allowed or not. Anyway, it doesn't matter, it is all for the fun of it and to eat a little healthier.

Last night I met up with Khajag and his wife Gohar in Soho. We had drinks and explored the area a while. My first social outing on my own here, aren't you proud? They'll be keeping bak too, so we'll have to get together for some vegan eating. If you want to try some great Armenian vegetarian, vegan, or meat recipes, try the Adventures in Armenian Cooking Online. Believe me, I will be using it as soon as I get bored of rice and beans, spagetti marinara, and buffalo wings.... juuust kidding about that last one. :-) Next I have to get together with Mike and Dikran, old LCO friends. This means I will have to leave the house again, but I will psych myself up for it and wait till it is forecast to hit 40 degrees, and not rain :-P

Tomorrow also marks my first month of being in NYC, and although I am still no expert yet, that is no reason for me not to be judgemental. It sucks. Alright, alright I am kidding again. As my Aussie cousins would say I am in a cheeky mood. No, I can really see what a lot of people see in this city that makes them love it so much, it is just that many of those things are not important to me in a city. For me the main negatives remain the weather, the cost of housing (although that has gone up a lot worldwide), the amount of time it can take for public transport to get you to a lot of places, the small stores with much less selection and higher prices, and as much as I love being able to not have a car, when I go shopping for anything bigger than a boombox, I sure miss having one. The positives are the selection of food you can have delivered to your door (something I have not fully taken advantage of) the fact that you really CAN get around without a car, the oldness of the city which allows for urban renewal which is an interesting phenomenon to watch and to see the outcome of, and I must say the cost of public transport is very reasonable. I think the city is a bit to big for my taste though. So I complain a lot, I compliment a little, what the heck do I want you ask? (or you don't but you keep reading to see where this twisted log is going, anyways). My preference would be a city anywhere in population from a quarter million to a million and a half (counting all of its suburbs and abutting population) with incredible architecture, beautiful gardens, squares, fountains and public spaces, built in a fantastic climate near the beach. There would be a very low crime rate (which I do not think is difficult if laws and the justice system was done right) and 3-6 months of annual vacation. How is that possible? I am about to speak blashpemy, and may be deported for suggesting it in the holy land of consumerism, but I am going to do it anyways. Consume less!!! Once housing and food are paid for, if people don't insist on consuming tons of unecessary things, they could work MUCH less. How much do people spend on fancy cars, fashion, name brands, stuff they never use, obligatory gifts which the recipient does not want or need, etc, etc, etc. Alright, lecture over.

It seems 13 times' a charm. It was only a couple weeks ago that I settled into my new home (my 12th move in the last 2 years) but another chapter in my life quickly comes to an end. I'll be moving back home to Washington DC with my parents next weekend. I am being offered a job down there, of which I will get into more detail later. But for now, I am simply numb in utter shock that my life can continue this way. It seems like ever since I left for Armenia, nothing has ever been right and I keep moving around to get comfortable again, but it just ain't stickin. The place I'm living now is beyond comfortable (thank you Baykar for opening your home to me) but unemployment without the check is tough. The business is doing well, but it doesn't pay for all the bills. So it's back home with Mom and Dad for me... already the battle over which room I get has begun. My mom seems to think I'm taking my sister's old room... but little does she know I'm gonna practice the squatting technic in my brother's room. Dad, don't tell her that. :)

So more on the war discussion, to answer Haro's question... Haro, I am not one to believe that without war we will have peace. Regardless, there is no peace in the world right now. I simply question the real motives and what we expect to come out of this. I am not an anti-war protester, and I'm not a supporter. I just don't believe this is the best way to establish peace, if that's our goal. I wonder how much of a difference the world could make by buying those hydro electric cars or whatever they're called. That would kill the oil companies before the Middle East can kill us. But if war was the best solution and the ONLY solution to protecting innocent lives, I would support it. I just don't think this will protect us, but maybe destroy us.

At the same time, I'd like to step back and say I'm no qualified expert to be determining what's best for the country as I am not one of the leaders. It's times like this that I would like to trust our leaders to do the best thing, but I just don't feel like I have that trust right now.

Yes, it has come to this. Since I really don't know when I will be going back to Armenia, it all depends on this which depends on that, etc, etc, I am moving over to the diaspora log proper. Just as Madlene writes about how we should all be going in that direction. It is good to see that everyone else who has ever logged in the Diaspora living in Armenia log is still there, even the lazy bums who just quit logging (Ashod, Aram from the old days, and lately Alex and Rhoda). Since I may very well be back in Armenia in a few months or maybe more, I will not comment on reexpatriating :-) But at this point it makes more sense for me to log here.

The DSL has been so very nice. I was able to clean up files on the web server, clean up my favorites folders which were cluttered with tons of link to sites I needed to see if I was still interested in or if they even existed anymore, etc. I really do hope OTE sells Armentel to an Armenian who will do the patriotic thing and either dump the monopoly clause or provide decent, well priced telecommunications and internet services to the country.

This weekend I am moving downstairs two floors, to a much nicer apt. I am very happy about this since I spend so much of my time at home. I have been making a little progress with my book, but narrowing down the pictures has become painful and I need Zabel's help in deciding these last ones. Unfortunately her artistic eye is in Boston this weekend without me, so I am left to my own devices. I got back in touch with Khajag, another American Armenian who lived in Armenia for 5 years and we never met until last year on a flight from Armenia to the US. It was the first time he left in 5 years! He is living in NY now and I look forward to getting to know him better and hearing his stories of Armenia, and plus hearing about the Armenian community in NYC.

Ah yes, with the DSL I somehow got diverted into looking into family tree software (I have become the family tree guy of my whole extended clan and it is a bit hard without decent software). I found a great program I am enjoying called GenoPro which does a nice flow chart family tree, is easy to use, and best of all is free. I am about halfway done entering what I have, but when I am done I will send copies to my family all over the world and ask them to fill in many details. Birthdates, short bios, medical information, etc. I am also convinced if I keep adding people, I will eventually have every single Armenian in the world on there :-) I have so many last names there already and keep going in any direction I can get info for. I would especially like to know what happened to Haroutioun Dayan's family that moved to Argentina a few generations ago, and some of those lost during the genocide.

PRO-ARMENIA

Well, February is gone and March is coming in. March is the month of the Re-Starting activities. Primary, Secondary and University are starting next week and it brings a big movement to the whole city, even more to our community.
It is a pity that we don´t have any logger from France. An important conference took place there, called PRO ARMENIA and it was the second time this kind of event was organized. The first time was a long time ago (1900) and Kristapor Mikaelian was the one who organized it. The aim was the same of this new one: to join lots of politicians, thinkers, media people and well-known professionals from lots many countries to support the Armenia in many terms. Its like to make say those people "Watch out! I am important and i like the armenians too".
I was always complaining about the Ararat Film, because i did not have the possibility to watch it yet. But a nice news broke my complains. This 24th April Ararat Movie will be launched in all cinemas of Buenos Aires. Will armenians from Argentina only visit a cinema for this day??? Sure they will!!! What´s more, lots of armenians that are "scared" because of our community would prefer to visit a cinema to create a re-encounter with the armenian feelings.
About Argentina, we are having elections on the same week of the 24 April i suppose. The economy is getting quiet but the social movements are growing up. Some stadistics said that 60% of the country is under the line of poverty. Maybe Kotcharian would win here, we dont thing that Valotage would happen here. We feel very UNspirited to vote, argentineans at this time do not trust any candidate but themselves (anarchy?).

Changing the topic, one of my best friends and armenian dance professor married last saturday. When i went to buy him the present some days before the man who attend me and gave me the list to choose the present said something interesting. "You know -he said- it has been a long time since two armenians marry. I see them always marrying non-armenians." Truth is truth i said, and there is no problem about it. But it is the way we live in a diaspora. We, armenians, belong to a same root but we live in different countries. That means that we belong to different mixes of culture. I think the armenian loves more the country he is living that the one who is native from that land. An Argentinahay feels more argentina that an argentina.
I probably think that the armenian respects a lot the land that gives him work, pagan shadows of our nation...

Jancito Abadjian