What a weekend indeed! My friend Shant's parents are here visiting. I am just as close to his parents as I am to him so it is wonderful to have them. Friday night we went to dinner to Monte Cristo and it was so nice. With Arthur away I finally got to sing along to RABIZ songs without getting reprimanded for being ANJASHAK. It was nice to be with Uncle Vahik and Auntie Alice and watch them enjoying Armenia. They both work so hard they never get to be here as much as they want to. With only two weeks of vacation a year they always choose Armenia as their destination. I love that.

Saturday was a lazy one spent doing a lot of nothing. I went to Arthur's sisters house and we just hung out and talked and laughed and I made my famous GARMIR PILAF.

Sunday was yet another baptism from abroad brought here. The baby was beautiful and the baptism was in Saghmosavank, a monestary that I helped rebuild. The reception followed and we had fun dancing. The most fun however was in the mini-bus a bunch of us had rented for the trip. We sang songs and enjoyed the nature.

Arthur returns in three days and I almost can't wait any longer. Ozzie and I really miss him.

Oh by the way since Ozzie is starting school this week I decided to send her away to relax for the weekend. She went to the village with my in-laws and had a nice weekend. She is now back and rested and waiting to start training. (ozzie is my six month old golden retriever who i am waiting to take a picture of so i can post it... i need a friend with a digital camera)

What a weekend, I don�t know where my energy is coming from. Friday night was a friend�s birthday and instead of presenting gifts, the friend asked all attendees to donate money instead. The party took place at Spendiarian Music School, which specializes, in vocal preservation. The school�s students presented a concert that left every single person astounded. So much talent and the whole time I was thinking what happens to those amazing voices when their voice breaks. It was later explained that this school specializes exactly in that, which is to preserve those marvelous voices. 3 young boys presented the grand finale, talk about the future 3 tenors.

Saturday night was dinner at Hin Yerevan (Old Yerevan) with the visiting doctors that Raffi K. mentioned. Although this place is great for tourists, traditional Armenian music and dance, albeit loud, it is not a place for those of us living here. I must say though, the Ishkhan fish that I had which was barbecued for a change instead of the usual boiled plate was the best fish I have had in Armenia so far in 2 years.

Yesterday my visiting cousin who only had 2 days in Yerevan visited the Memorial museum, followed by the mass in Etchmiadzin, then on to Vernisage, Garni and Geghard and finally dinner. This cousin who was traveling with 3 other Diasporans dentists had spent a week in Yeghegnadzor region at camp for orphans. There were 3 groups of orphans totaling 600 kids. Between the 3 dentists who worked round the clock, they managed to do 758 fillings, pulled out 600 teeth, and the cleaning and flossing of all kids on a voluntary basis.

My cousin left this morning and will return next year to volunteer again. One down, 2 more visiting cousins to go from Toronto.

Hundreds of Armenian doctors will arrive this weekend from around the world for the Armenian World Medical Congress. It seems that interest is pretty high, and these meetings are supposed to become a biennial event. Hopefully, a lot of good cooperation/partnerships between diasporans and local doctors will come of this. We will be seeing doctors all over for the next week or two, including my dad, and Lena's uncle.

Yesterday was the end of the NATO excersizes in Armenia. Except for seeing some guys on the street once in a while who are clearly not Armenian, and from their age/haircuts giving away their military backgrounds, not much else was seen or heard of this. Azerbaijan chose not to attend the excersizes in Armenia, but next year it seems the excersizes will be held in Azerbaijan, and they have no choice but to allow the Armenians to attend. The Armenians have already said that they intend to :-) Interestingly, someone returning from Azerbaijan this week as a tourist was telling me how high Karabakh is on the Azeri conciousness. How much it is talked about and discussed in the news. For the life of me, I don't know what they want with it, unless they plan on emptying it of Armenians. Otherwise, what use is it to them? All it amounts to is a headache. I would really love to travel to Azerbaijan and talk to people and find out what they are thinking. I have had one decent email exchange with an Azeri that simply stopped when I asked him a few questions about why he thinks Karabakh should be ruled by Azerbaijan. I can't find the last message I sent him, which I wanted to include a part of to show the sorts of things I asked. I made sure too that it was clear I was not trying to be antagonistic, not trying to "win" any arguement, simply was interested in his point of view, and sharing mine. Anyway, he never answered.

The history of the Southern tip of Karabakh and Nakhichevan is interesting in how it somewhat parrallels the history of Jews and Israel. These historically Armenian areas were emptied of Armenians completely by the Persian Shah Abbas I, who was afraid the Ottoman Turks would take the lands and all of the industrious Armenians with it. So he forcibly moved all the Armenians from those lands, including the incredibly rich towns of Jugha and Agulis, to Persia proper in 1605, many of them to Isfahan. In Isfahan there is a whole neighborhood named Nor Julfa, where the Shah even built an Armenian church (in a rather Islamic style) for the new imports in what may be the only case of a Muslim ruler building a church in history. So meanwhile, Turkified Albanians, who today are called Azeris, slowly moved into those areas, while the Armenians were kept out. Eventually when the Russians took over this area of the Caucasus, and Armenians were allowed to move back, many did. This accounts for a rather mixed population, which was heavier on Armenians in some places, and heavier in Azeris in others. Nakhichevan for example when it became part of the USSR was about 50/50. During Soviet rule, policies in Azerbaijan led to depopulation of Armenians (Nakhichevan for all practical purposes had no Armenians left by the collapse of the USSR), and in Armenia, Azeris were moved out by Stalin to make room for repatriating Armenians, there was no Soviet Armenian government discrimination that I have read of. Of course back in the early 1800's, none of this mattered much since there was no such thing really as nationalism, and the ethnicities did not intermarry much. Now, with nation-states, things have become an ethnic disaster. So anyway, I was just reminded of this bit of history when I mentioned Azeri claims and wanted to share it since it is so interesting. Today's Karabakh does not share this history however, since it was not part of this whole depopulation/repopulation. It was too far north.

So now I am heading to the massive Hin Erivan restaurant, which I have not been to yet and is actually the NEW Hin Erivan, since the first one was demolished last year and this is the replacement.

Yesterday's view of Ararat was INCREDIBLE! I took about 75 pictures from Dzidzernakaberd (the Genocide Memorial). This, in addition to my current collection of pics, along with the 140 pics of Amberd I took last weekend, another 170 pics of Yerevan Zoo (including the bucktoothed llama), plus I'm traveling a little bit this weekend ... my collection is going to be great!

In the meantime, I'm staying at a friends apartment since the place I was staying at (with my relatives) has been completely taken over by other relatives/tourists.

Work is going well. I'm in the midst of composing an instrumental album, which I hope to release this summer. I'd also like to put together a few parties in various Armenian cities over the next few weeks. I've noticed how much attention Yerevan gets (compared to the other beautiful cities of Armenia) and I'd like to focus on these other cities, throw a few parties, and maybe even work with some of their talented musical artists.

Last night was the best nights sleep I have had since returning. From 11pm to 6am. Not quite as long as I need, but we're getting there. It is definitely summer, the streets are packed, the sidewalks full at night. Lots of visitors coming, including a distant cousin here now, and my dad coming in a matter of days. It will be like this till October. Work is going good. I am learning a lot about the organization still, how it works and who does what. The office is working on a new strategy on what to focus its aid on over the next 5 years. There is a marked shift towards job creation, and helping the small/medium enterprise sectors. I am happy to see this since I do believe the saying about teaching a man to fish is a good one. I should be putting a lot about this online at my work website soon, but only after it is all finalized, which will take a few more months :-)

So yesterday I read a little blurb about an Armenian restaurant in town I had not been to, and decided to go there with Edina who is visiting. Well it was not all that great. The dolma was ok, but otherwise it was rather weak I thought, and not cheap. That place has been one restaurant after another, and I doubt this one will last too long either without major change.

Tonight it seems like everyone was at this controversial play L.O.V.E. by a British group. I am the last person to go to these things, but rumor (unfounded as it turned out) of nudity swayed me :-) I will leave it up to the others to review it, since I am not much of a theatre buff.

I guess thats about all there is to report. My apartment is dagnu vra (upside down) and I have no desire to do anything about it...

ARTO In the HOUSE!!! That's Arto Tumboyakjian (I think that's how his name is spelled???) He gave a Kick A - - performance yesterday and the day before for us folk living in Armenia... you guys out there in the Diaspora, yeah you, what are you waiting for to move here? Well if not move, at least visit, do some volunteer work or your college/university internship or work on short/long term contracts here... just get HERE!
Why do I sound almost hysterical? Well, in a short matter of time, I was able to visit some the most gorgeous parts of Armenia and the summer hasn't begun. I have been to Vanadzor and all the way to the Georgian border, then to Goris and then on to Karabagh. Stayed in Shushi Hotel (beautiful and great service). Today I went to Gumri...
As for Armenian culture, I saw an awesome dance performance by Baregamutyun, Arto (did I mention it was a great show?) and Thursday I will go to an English play called L.O.V.E. It is a controversial UK production that has toured in the Caucasus during the past days. Apparently it is for18 and over since there are explicit scenes of nudity and violence... cooooool!
Ok about some the bad elements that I have been facing here. There is too much injustice and most people here say, eh what can we do? And as for the construction, or destruction rather, I will not get into that. I still don't understand why they start digging out the other street when the haven't finished this because... lack of funds??? can't these people put out a budget? and if their budget runs short, can't they logically consider using the $$ that would rip out road B to fix road A. And IF they find more $$ than they can consider ripping out road B.
Anyhow, back to the fun subjects. Work is GREAT! Although there are little things here and their, this summer's LCO campaign will be one of the BEST! There are about 25 volunteers from the Diaspora coming to join another 10 volunteers from Armenia to work on a construction project of Fruit dryers in a refugee village called Ayroum, in the north and the Shushi General hospital in Karabagh. More volunteers will come in August to continue the work. If you o someone you know wants to join the August group, there are still a few places left. get in touch with me or visit the site at : www.landandculture.org You know you'll have an amazing summer if you join. You can ask Raffi K and Madlene since they too have been introduced to Armenia through LCO...like me!
As for the environmental issues that are being raised here, I too am much concerned with this issue. I have joined the coalition that Madlene had brought up a while ago called Bahbanenk mer Antarner (Protect our Forests). For those in Yerevan (or arriving soon) there will be a demonstration on Saturday dealing with the misuse of the green space in Yerevan. Read below:
"GREEN" COALITION

12 social organisations in Armenia uniting established a coalition for protection of Yerevan� green zones, taking into account the recent mass building at the expense of green areas in Yerevan and the neighbouring territories and the negative consequences on health and ecology because of destruction of green territories, and realising not enough activity of the state structures to protect the green zones of Yerevan or misuse of commissions in town-planning sphere.

Coalition calls all the social organisations and citizens to phone 53.27. 25 or to address ecocoal@freenet.am if finding planned or current building, cutting or any other law breaches alike on green or vacant territories in Yerevan or nearby.

It also calls to join June 28 protest action, which will start at 11:00 AM from Yerevan State University Square. Signature collection will be arranged as a protest display to Yerevan City authorities for policy they hold to the green territories.

For those of you visiting Armenia in the near future, it would be beneficial to check out www.customs.am The list includes cultural artifacts, customs procedures, what items are allowed for foreign citizens visiting etc. The list is vast compared to what Australia allows into the country.

Tourist fever season is in full force, although I enjoy spending time with visitors, it is really draining combined with my day job. I have friends visiting from Sydney as Raffi K. logged, a cousin from LA. volunteering in dentistry in the regions and another cousin from Toronto also volunteering. My very good friend Kohar will also be interning in one of the hospitals this month, she arrived this morning, can�t wait to see her.

I have this bad habit of saying bad things about los angeles. perhaps it is because i grew up there and found very little value in the culture it represents. but this morning i found myself missing the city. i am playing ozzy's (not my puppy azazel's but ozzy ozbourne') old la tonight and missing the palm trees and the dog park on mulholland. perhaps it is because arthur is in los angeles right now. perhaps because i called him yesterday and he was hanging out with my mom and they were laughing and ... i missed them both.

ok i know it sounds pathetic that i am complaining about missing arthur. and i feel even worse because i know raffi will read this and him and zabel are apart for even longer. but what can i do. i miss the guy. i have been playing arthur songs that we have not played in a long time.

my dad left this morning and i always get sad when he goes since he is such an amazing person. he is my absolute best house guest hands down. he is always a help, never a bother. i do not notice that he is there at all. he just wants to do what i want to do. and he is the most generous and loving person. a very correct and responsible man towards his family.

today ozzy (this time i do mean my puppy ozzy) is getting her 6 month shots. so i will take her to the vet. i am sure she will come out like a champ considering that she is so smart. it has been a week and she is mostly potty trained. 100% never doing it in the house, and we are almost done teaching her not to do it on the balcony... but in the yard.

speaking of which my girflriends (two beautiful armenian twins datevik and zara) came over for tea the other day... and they were walking under my balcony and got peed on by ozzy. luckily they are wonderful people...we washed it off and laughed about it.

this morning ozzy pooped in front of the ministry of social services and they got mad at her. and so my uncle, who is visiting, had to clean it up. that just proves how smart ozzy really is. lol

It is the 21st of the month, and I missed the deadline to pay my electricity and phone bills. Now I am paranoid they will shut them off! Uff, I hate that the grace period is so short, and that you can't have an autopayment system. I have been so badly jetlagged, and sleeping such odd hours in addition to work that although I remembered once or twice that I needed to pay, in the end I forgot. Oh well, I guess the worst of it will be the cold showers, and having to go to the electric and phone companies in person to get these things turned back on (at least I know that is how the electric works, I dunno about the phone).

While I was in the US, I wired myself some cash. Ordinarily I just use the ATM, but I needed more, so I try wiring for the second time since moving here. Well this time it worked flawlessly! What a contrast to last time (the problems last time were on the US side, and were in great part due to me being here, trying to wire from there). I had it wired to Armimpexbank, which has very low rates (.5% of the amount, plus a $5 fee if you don't have an account). I don't know if I would keep an account there, but for wiring (twice now) it has been excellent.

Well in a week I will be marking the 4 year anniversary of my move to Armenia. It would be so nice if Zabel were here to celebrate it with me. What a different country, city, repatriate community, etc, etc. Sure it has so much further to go, but you know, it is absolutely remarkable how much forward progress we have seen. The roads, the shops, the way people dress... so many things have been transformed.

A sign of the times? A year ago we met an Australian couple that lumped Armenia into a large tour of the region they were doing. They had a lot of trouble just getting here, and then looking for accomodation. They were ready to leave after their first day when they bumped into Lena who vaguely remembered them and took them in. The rest of their trip was just great, they loved Armenia, and now are back to buy a place and want to spend 6 months in Armenia, 6 in Australia. How perfect. Perpetual summer.

A final note on the electric trams Ara logged about. I agree they should not take out the tracks, but that having been said, I think they should stop service altogether until they can both upgrade the cars and actually expand the lines. Very few people use them even though they are extremely cheap, so there is no point in operating them in these economic conditions. But really, tearing out the lines completely is just premature. Traffic is getting worse by the day and as the economy improves, a redone tram system will probably fit in well with the city's needs.

YAY! I finally went to the Yerevan Zoo, which I had planned to visit for months. One Marshrutka (public transportation van) to get there cost 100 dram (about 26 cents Canadian) plus admission was 150 dram (about 39 cents Canadian, 1/46th of the admission price for the Toronto Zoo, which apparently they have closed down now because of the SARS outbreak). The place was great with lots of animals (monkeys, horses, hippos, reptiles, tigers, lions, wolves, a big ugly hyena, bears, deer, camels, etc.) and I took 170 pics. Here is one of a bucktoothed llama.

Work is coming along well and I've got quite a few projects to work on, plus some work to continue in Canada (but will prepare here).

The other day I was at a cafe with a couple of friends and while sitting we witnessed a crazy Marshrutka lose one of its tires which went rolling down on Baghramyan (across from where we were sitting) and hit our car twice! Luckily no damage to the car or anyone in the Marshrutka. Everybody just came out of the van and started walking away like nothing had happened. If you happen to visit Yerevan this summer, check out how low to the ground these things are....filled with about a hundred people.

So a few hundred members of the military, from 19 countries, are here in Armenia for the NATO exercises. For once I'm not the only one being stared at because of my skinhead.

Weather is beautiful, usually around 32 celsius, but raining a little more than usual for this time of the year. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, life is beautiful here in Armenia! :-)

i am sad to report that i do not yet have a picture of azi... but she is doing great. for those of you who have not yet read she is my new six month old golden retriever girl.

we go out a lot and today she came to work with me. she sat under my table the whole time and eventually laid down for a long nap. i took her up a few cascade stairs and the team just loved her.

yesterday in the afternoon we took my dad and uncle to our summerhouse and it was nice. the weather was great and we ate a bunch of great village stuff including yogurt and honey swirled... yummm.

my dad is getting together some of his friends and the in-laws and wanted to go to a restaurant tonight. we decided to go back to our wedding place.. archanots. it is arthur's last night so it is his goodbye pary. i know he is only going for 11 days but we are newlyweds... and 11 days matter to newlyweds.

work is a little slow right now which is good because the down time is used to spend with my dad... but i hope that things will pick up soon as we have a lot of exciting stuff going on here at cmf (www.cmf.am)

did you know we have call waiting in armenia you have to press flash 2, then flash 1 to go back and forth. the problem is you can go from line 1 to line 2 ... and can go back to line 1 only. you cannot choose the second caller... no matter how important they are. sometimes it gets problematic but it is nice not to hear so many busy signals.

I am logging from the Vienna Airport, so excuse any typos or lack of punctuation. The keyboard is a bit different and I am not going to worry about it. I did not really realize this would be another of those 14 hour layovers. I recommend going through London and avoiding this wait unless you want to get out and see Vienna for 8 hours like I did last time. This time I did not book my flight since it is a work trip and so I didnt really pay enough attention to what was being booked. For example, I also had a 3 hour layover in NYC, which is the first time I have ever had to stop in the US on my way to Armenia. Now, ordinarily I would have just considered this a pain, but this time it gave me a chance to see Zabel for an hour and a half, which was just so nice, even though it has only been three weeks since I saw her in Yerevan, I know I wont see her for months to come.

So back to LA. My last few days there were just fantastic. Friday was spent with my cousins who never seem to see each other unless I am there to get their butts in gear every year or two, and the funny thing is we cant stop laughing when we all get together, but then thez sit and wait for me to return to get together. They swore this time they would start to hang out every month, but who are they kidding? Saturday was just the absolute perfect beach day. I went over to my friend Vans house (American, despite what the name could imply), and saw his new baby boy Bennet. It seems nobody is naming their kids the usual names anymore, I am hearing more and more baby names which I have never met an adult who has that name. Anyway, cute kid, who we ditched along with Vans wife during nap time and we headed down to Newport Beach where we got a fantastic parking spot. It was not very crowded, but there were lots of young sun worshippers out to make it just like the good old days ten years ago when we used to head to the same exact spot. In the evening we went to the Macaroni Grill which was ok, and then played Settlers of Catan, which is a fantastic board game which seems to be catching on worldwide, probably because it is a strategy game which even girls like to play. Sunday was the day I set aside for my dad to do whatever he wanted, and it turned out to coincidentally be fathers day. He drove me all over the southland to visit relatives and places, including some I had not seen in forever. Many people during my visit claim they will be visiting Armenia soon, but as I always say nowadays, I will believe it when I see it.

I cant wait to be back to my own place in Yerevan, I miss being at home. I have slept in 7 different places in the past 3 weeks, in 4 different cities, and just want to get back to my own bed, my own time zone, my own computer and my own crappy internet access... well ok - I would rather take a DSL line to Yerevan with me.

the last time i logged, it was 11:30 am on saturday and i had already written... what a great day this already is. little did i know that it was going to be one of the greatest days ever.

after walking around and doing some errands and some work... arthur and i were hanging out at home whe his friend arminka called.

i don't know if you guys remember but arthur and i hosted (commentated for armenia) the eurovision song contest. during down times when we were not talking about the song, the singer or the contest... arthur and i just talked with one another... funny small stuff to keep the show interesting. during that time i said that i loved dogs, that i loved golden retrievers and could we go to vernisage on saturday to look at puppies. arthur said no and that was the end of that.

an owner of a female golden retriever (there are only four in this country) had just sold off the last of their first generation of armenian goldens (now there are 15). he had kept one out of the litter for himself. however since he heard me say that i love them... it had been in the back of his mind (he has always loved arthur's music)...

after a few more weeks he realized that he was having a hard time keeping... mommy retriever, baby girl retriever and two cats in one apartment. he found us and told us that he had watched eurovision and if we wanted the puppy.

my heart was pounding. now remember... i am crazy for dogs and have wanted a puppy from the first moment i moved away from mom and dad. after marriage it has been our one truly truly big marital problem... i want a doggy more than anything... not in the house... you don't understand... it is going to s*$# everywhere... you get the point, right?

so they brought azazel over (named after a character in a chekov story)...they call her azi, or azizz. she is a six month old pure bred golden. a quiet, smart and well behaved golden beauty and most important SHE IS OURS.

he caved in after seeing how sweet she really is. he caved in after seeing a few tears and a few knee dropping moments of desperation. arthur is getting to know her. he likes taking her on walks. she really is smart. she already knows how to sit and lay down and fetch and we are working on the potty stuff... 20% has been in the house but it is OK... my girlfriend lala, the experienced dog owner is teaching me soo much.

but i have to say azi has really changed my mood... i am happy, calm,. and everything is great. i promise to post a picture very very soon.

my dad and uncle are in town... and everyone is being very good about me having azi. my dad and father in law were over last night and both were petting azi as if she has always been around. dad is out walking azi now. i am stoked. and only a few times has arthur freaked out (usually when she s&#* in the houses)

but arthur is leaving for the usa soon and i am sad. although my uncle and dad will be here... i am really going to miss arthur. this time he is going for 11 days and that will be our longest stretch apart since marriage.

oversized telephone bills here we come.

as for my puppy... i promise a picture soon.

what a great day that really turned out to be

My last two days in Southern California are upon me, and the weather is getting decidedly warmer. Today I may brave the beach, at least I hope to. The past few days have been nice. Got some things taken care of, saw some people, returned to some old haunts. Real Estate prices seem to be on everyones minds and I wonder what is going to happen as soon as the interest rate goes up the first time. I am looking forward to being back in Yerevan, in my own home. The visit here was nice, but I don't know that I will be back anytime soon. I am rather tired of long plane flights and crashing all over the place. At least for now :-) Hopefully I will be able to do more regional travel from Armenia these next couple of years, like Georgia, Iran, Western Armenia, Syria, Russia and E. Europe. They are all so close, offer so much, and I have not seen any of them yet. Also, knowing that I am going to be gone for at least 2 years, I am finally selling my car which has been maintained here all this time. That is my last real property and solid tie to California. All I will have left now is a few boxes in storage and a California Drivers license.

In Yerevan I expect to have a hundred emails waiting for me at work from people I met on this trip... so I will have to get right back into the swing of things. No time for jet lag...

it's a nice summer day, and i'm sick. finally, the stress and long work hours of the last few weeks (elections etc.) have caught up with me! i had the privelege of being present at the swearing in ceremony of the Third Convocation of the National Assembly of Armenia on Thursday, and i have to say, that when national anthem sounded off, I felt an immense amount of pride at the moment, and at the sight of dozens of elected representatives taking the oath of office to legislate and represent this nation.

The blemishes from the elections could certainly be seen and felt, but at the same time, it seemed to be a moment of healing, but the old addage of "politics makes for strange bedfellas" certainly applied here completely.

On Friday evening, after work I met a young Armenian American from Columbia University, here on a visit for the first time after his family emigrated 12 years ago, and we discussed some options for him to do a youth leadership project next summer. Although the ideas were raw, and the discussion not too sophisticated, what I loved about it was that there are these new young visionaries in our community who are opening their eyes and seeing opportunities--professionally and personally--to be involved with/in Armenia. This, I think, is one of the most important contributions the post-independence generation can make to Armenia and Armenians.

what a wonderful day sor far and it is only 10:30 am. arthur woke up early because again the arthur and der hova team were going to be on tv... this time bari louys hayastan on prometheus. i just finished watching the one hour interview and derhova did a better job with his interview than the last one. pretty soon he will be a pro :o) arthur as usual complimented me... and i am hoping my head did not inflate to levels wider than our front door.

I signed on to the logs for the first time in a week and saw the picture that ara had posted from the H1 interview and was all smiles. thanks to martuni from yerevan. also, arthur ispirian's new album art & ispace will be available at stores starting today. yipeee. if you do not live in armenia... you are going to have to wait. it will be available outside of armenia very soon.

the cascade is starting to look amazing as the flowers are a tsakhkeling and the renovations are really starting to show. by next week i should have our website updated so that you will see all the new transformations. i promise to give a heads up.

speaking of websites i am going to let a very big secret out. but please do not tell arthur (my husband) that i told you guys. for his birthday (august 15) i am going to surprise him with his own website. next week he will be going to LA so i will be free to collect, create and get the project going. on the morning of his birthday i will wake up and turn on our computer as usual then go to the website... and he will see it for the first time. i am so excited about this surprise. although arthur is very modern he has not joined the world of internet. i am not afraid of him stumbling onto this site. if none of you tell the surprise is good to go.

my dad is coming in two days and i am so excited that i am already getting the house all ready. i can't wait to take him to the theatre and to new restaurants and just to hug him. the funny twist is that dad comes monday... arthur leaves two days after to go to LA... so dad and i will be here ... and arthur and mom will be there... dad is also bringing me pistachios, watermelon seeds, rice, zereshk, nabat and some other great persian treats. yummy.

i just have to say raffi and laura nizibilian's kids are beautiful and are really loving it here. i am so happy such a wonderful family has moved to HAYASTAN!!!

Ah, so nice to be catching up on sleep finally, and catching up with the peeps. I got a little business taken care of yesterday, including going through a few boxes I have stored at my cousins, and wlil take a bunch of it back with me to Armenia. It is so nice knowing for sure where I will be the next couple of years, since I can actually make plans for once! It is also nice to have some free luggage space to fill up. I hear there are very cheap shipping services from Glendale, but I did not have time to track any down unfortunately.

Today I will head down to Orange County, but may be back up since I am alloting people days and letting them plan the days for me :-) I am already running quite low on days though, and fear that the June Gloom will not allow me a proper beach day :-(

Saw Yerevan Jan. Michael Poghossian is one of my favorite Armenian actors. I'd seen his Yerevan Blues a few years back and then kinda started to look for him in other productions. The cool ones are Khatabalata and Symphonie of Silence. Back to Yerevan Jan. It was at Kino Moscwa, we even had popcorn... The film was a satire and a look at Armenia and Armenians in general. I like the messages he sends through his unique humour. the best is the scene in the pag shuga (closed market).
I also bought my first piece of clothing. A pair of black pants under$20... cool!
The LCO campaign is coming together. We'll have over 50 participants this summer. Can't wait.
I'malso remon-ing (renovating) the LCO office. It's gonna be real cool. Whoever is in Armenia, pass by and se us on Vartanadz street. I'll tell you more about the whole nes concept for the office. Meanwile, I'm enjoying this weather and can''t wait to my first ever visit to Jrashkharh (water world).
The kids love it here! Do I say that enough times... it's true, they love it!!

Thank goodness for these logs, I can find out what some of my friends in Yerevan have been up to while I have been gone. They have not logged about apricots though which worries me since it should be apricot season now and how could they resist writing about that? Were the crops so badly damaged in the unusually cold winter that they are hard to get?? I must say as much as it used to crack me up how much Armenia's apricots are praised, I have had a few on this trip, including fresh from the farms in Fresno and they are not even in the same league. I hear the same about the apricots in E. Europe, so maybe we really do have something here. I will keep researching/eating apricots and get back to you :-)

So, I have been away from the internet for over a week, with the exception of 20 minutes at Horizon TV last week. The withdrawal is not so bad as it would have been if I had actually had a free second to think about it! I have been working crazy 14 hour days during this diaspora tour, and met more people than I can ever hope to remember. It was a fantastic trip, but man am I beat! We would start off every day with an early breakfast meeting, then more meetings then lunch meetings, then afternoon meetings, then dinner meeting and either an open public event or another private meeting. On average the day started at 8:30am and ended at 11pm. Any scheduled breaks pretty much disappeared because all our meetings would run overtime (which compounded over the course of the day) and eat them up. We did this 7 days in a row. Alright, so enough about the hours, let me just say I met some of the most dedicated, kind, helpful people in the world, all interested in and most working towards helping make Armenia a better place. In case you did not know, I was travelling with John Ordway (the US Ambassador to Armenia), and Keith Simmons (Director of USAID/Armenia). The goal was to better inform the Armenians here in the US (or anyone else interested) about the types of programs and assistance the US has provided to Armenia, since many people have no idea, and to solicit opinions, questions, partnerships and whatever else may develop from such meetings. As you can imagine we met such a wide range of characters, and visited the SF Bay Area, Fresno and LA, so it is very hard to really summarize all that I would like to share in any meaningful way. But I will say that I did get to see many old friends (like Arsineh in the Diaspora log), plus a few internet friends (like Raffi Momjian) who I had never met in person, and meet many others I had or hadn't ever heard about. Alex Sardar is quite a celebrity, people asked about him all over the place! I should also say the Ambassador and Keith really enjoyed the trip, they seem to genuinely enjoy meeting all the diasporan communities and are quite impressed with the depth of commitment and caring they come across. (as am I)

I wrote down all the questions that were asked at all the meetings, so that I could determine what the most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) are. Hopefully I will have the answers up on the web soon enough. I think that is all I will write about the trip for now, unless I remember something else I specifically wanted to mention. I could just go on forever otherwise about the specific individuals, my impressions of Fresno, and the different Armenian groups, etc.

So on to the present. Last night I came to my cousins house and today I will nurse a bit of a cold I seem to be incubating. I'll take things easy and see a couple of people. I only have a few small errands to do before I leave for Armenia, so I will spend most of my time with friends and hoping the clouds dissappear long enough for me to have one proper beach day. I know what Arsineh means about when you visit an area, all of the family obligations you have, but I have been training my extended family for years that I do not follow that mold. Nothing malicious, I like them all fine, but I have a few short days to relax and see the people I always spent my free time with while I lived here, and if I did all of the obligatory familial visits that would eat up my whole trip. Even if I had 2 or 3 weeks, then I would have to see everyone twice, once to say hello, and once goodbye. So I will just see a few people and enjoy that time more.

Ara, how awesome you got that photo of the interview!

Madlene and I were thinking "We should have taken a pic to post here", but then when I came home and saw the one you posted I got all excited. That was my first Armenian tv interview since 1994. I think I stumbled on a few words, but I hope people understood what I had to say.

Arthur Ispirians album will be a shocker to many in Armenia (since I've never heard this style being produced here) but I'm hoping things will start changing here soon. There are so many talented artists in this country, but creativity is lacking. Armenia produced some awesome music back in the Soviet days, but the pop music being produced nowadays lacks immense creativity and depth in order to compete with the world market. This is one of my missions here in Armenia.

After the interview we went out to a cafe for a bit, then, after 1 in the morning, we decided to go to a huge outdoor 24-hour market in Malatia (aka Bangladesh). We did some produce shopping, and also bought 25 eggs from a woman from Akhalkalak (Georgia). What a different world this place was.

To keep with Raffi's theme of "something new everyday," here's a tale of cultural dissonance. The weather's been quite warm this week in Yerevan, and it feels (finally) like summer has arrived. With summer's arrival, and my incessant need to forget this past winter, I have taken out my choice shorts, which I now wear around Yerevan. This of course, being an unusual sight for Armenians in the homeland, I get the occasional double take, and the otherwise lengthier visual study of my hairy legs.

Last evening, I met Lena and a few others at a local eatery, and thereafter I assisted Lena with a framed painting she was taking home. Walking along Sayat Nova, into the sunset, and as we were approaching Terian Ave. we noticed two women standing smack in the middle of the sidewalk taking photographs. As any good, distrusting, and paranoid westerner would do, Lena and I immediately veered to our left, so as to avoid being caught in the lense of the photographer. As we were passing by, we noticed that they were speaking English, and so again, as two unavoidable foreigners would do, we asked who they were, and found out that they were from National Geogrpahic. Before long, I realized I was speaking with Alexandra Avakian, an accomplished and well-respected photographer, whose work I've admired for some time now, and was blown away by here images from Iran in an NG issue a couple of years back. So, we spoke a bit, and she said that she was doing some additional shooting for a story on Armenia, which according to her is scheduled to appear in early 2004. I know that Alexandra had been in Armenia in 2001 at the time of the Pope's Pontifical Visit to Armenia.

So, we spoke for a brief while and continued on our way to Lena's apartment, all the while scolding ourselves for being so distrusting, that it cost us a potential appearance in NG. There goes that cultural dissonance again.

I can safely say that tourist season is in full swing here in Armenia. We have school groups, organizations, individuals, families and friends visiting already, and this is not the best of it yet.

One last note on the fruit front, every corner seed seller now also has a selection of shlor (gojeh sabz--for the persian speakers, generik-for the arabic speakers)--and for the English speakers, these are unripe plums. They're sour and wonderfully refreshing in the summer. Reminds me of my childhood.

Cheers!

Everything is a major discovery these days.
Oh look they have this or that! For instance, we were looking for bio baby food with no added sugar and such, we found it! We then started looking for toys and gadgets for the kids. They have a Barbie store, not that our daughters are encouraged to play with the plastic icon. We were wondering what we should ask our parents to bring along when they come to Armenia this summer� nothing really. They even have canned hommus and zaatar (for the middle easterners).
The other day we went to the Persian market and bought a coffee peculator for about $27. We are now looking for some good coffee. The one we found is a German brand� not bad, but I miss my Caf� Rico who imported fair trade coffee and � (torrifier) (how do you say the roasting process???)
What have we been doing these past few days you say? Well after having Mexican food at Cactus, we went bowling with a few friends. Although it was way past her bed time, Amassia had a blast bowling!! This place is open 24 hours� guess where we�ll pass our time this winter? We also attended a special ceremony celebrating the 4th anniversary of the �Francophonie� (that�s French speaking) in Armenia. Did you know there is a French Kindergarten and University but no elementary or high school here in Armenia? We gotta change that! We also went to the 100th anniversary of Aram Khachadurian. The National philharmonic orchestra performed at the American University of Armenia.
Today was just another great day with the family. Our Sundays are looking like this: wake up and spend some time with the girls in bed. Get ready and pass by the Gatoghigeh church on the way to Artbridge (Amassia and Varanta�s favorite place) for breakfast. Meet friends and have a not-so-stressful morning (right Alex?). Then wonder aimlessly around town. Pass by Vernissage. Talk to people. Buy a thing here and there. Sit at a caf� and enjoy a mango juice or ice cream. Finally meet some friends for supper or just some drinks at the Opera park. Today we spent a $100 and bought books, carpet, vases, jewelry, a bag woven out of kilim (hand made by a fashion designer) and a soviet style winter hat for me.
How great is life?

Everything is a major discovery these days.
Oh look they have this or that! For instance, we were looking for bio baby food with no added sugar and such, we found it! We then started looking for toys and gadgets for the kids. They have a Barbie store, not that our daughters are encouraged to play with the plastic icon. We were wondering what we should ask our parents to bring along when they come to Armenia this summer� nothing really. They even have canned hommus and zaatar (for the middle easterners).
The other day we went to the Persian market and bought a coffee peculator for about $27. We are now looking for some good coffee. The one we found is a German brand� not bad, but I miss my Caf� Rico who imported fair trade coffee and � (torrifier) (how do you say the roasting process???)
What have we been doing these past few days you say? Well after having Mexican food at Cactus, we went bowling with a few friends. Although it was way past her bed time, Amassia had a blast bowling!! This place is open 24 hours� guess where we�ll pass our time this winter? We also attended a special ceremony celebrating the 4th anniversary of the �Francophonie� (that�s French speaking) in Armenia. Did you know there is a French Kindergarten and University but no elementary or high school here in Armenia? We gotta change that! We also went to the 100th anniversary of Aram Khachadurian. The National philharmonic orchestra performed at the American University of Armenia.
Today was just another great day with the family. Our Sundays are looking like this: wake up and spend some time with the girls in bed. Get ready and pass by the Gatoghigeh church on the way to Artbridge (Amassia and Varanta�s favorite place) for breakfast. Meet friends and have a not-so-stressful morning (right Alex?). Then wonder aimlessly around town. Pass by Vernissage. Talk to people. Buy a thing here and there. Sit at a caf� and enjoy a mango juice or ice cream. Finally meet some friends for supper or just some drinks at the Opera park. Today we spent a $100 and bought books, carpet, vases, jewelry, a bag woven out of kilim (hand made by a fashion designer) and a soviet style winter hat for me.
How great is life?

I�m back from Dubai and the whole time I was there I was kicking myself for not having done this trip previously especially in the winter!! Yes the water was blue and warm and yes the sand was white and hot. Talk about total relaxation, I�m really crazy for not having done this before.

My anxiety attack started when I was checking in at the terminal in Dubai for my return. Armenians were pushing and shoving to get ahead in the queue. When I landed the taxi driver I had previously organized to pick me up didn�t show up. So yet again the fight for a taxi started between the mafia Doka taxi people (who by the way do not assist passengers with their luggage once at the house) and some guy following me around all night while I was looking for the original taxi company, not to mention this fat bloke who kept banging on the window for 45 minutes while I was waiting for my luggage.

For the first time in my life I went against my gut feeling and decided to use the guy who was following me around. The car would not start, it then ran out of petrol. The driver ran somewhere to fill up a bottle while I was sitting in the car in the middle of the street, pitch black. Then it stopped again, he filled up again. Then cops stopped us, the driver casually pays the cop with a handshake, we�re off again only to be stopped again (while I�m screaming at the driver not to get out of the car). It turns out that the driver didn�t have a license. You know I couldn�t care less I just wanted to get home, I was exhausted and hadn�t slept for over 24 hours and had to go straight to work.

Raffi M. this log is for you.

I keep forgetting to mention that they have started advertising psychic and dating phone lines on TV now.

So I haven't said anything about bad customer service since my infamous SFC and Pizza di Roma experiences, but I have a couple of new ones to add to the list.

Valentina Shoes is one of them. I won't get into the details, but I am currently boycotting this place because of an abrasive sales lady who makes Seinfeld's "Soup Nazi" look like Mother Teresa.

Last night a friend and I decided to drop by the calling place in the Post Office Building on Republic Square and were "greeted" by workers who obviously graduated from the same anti-customer service training workshop that the Valentina lady attended.

The first employee told us to use whichever booth we wanted, but when we walked into a booth and started dialing she screamed at us for being in the wrong booth. Since she had made me the center of attention in the whole room I told her off for not telling me that in the first place.

I decided to leave that side and go over to the other booths where there was another pickle-face sitting behind a desk and a computer. This woman, as you will see, had obviously taken an extra curricular course in "How To Swindle Your Customer Out Of 300 Drams".

My friend decided to make a call and I timed his call. He spoke for less than 6 minutes and we came out of the booth expecting to pay 6 minutes worth (600 drams). Of course the pickle-face had her computer conveniently turned to one side so that she could only see it. I asked her how much the call cost and she said 900 drams at which point I questioned her and soon got into an argument. My friend joined in in English "I'm not paying that much", and soon an Armenian woman customer and her family joined in, as well as another man, and we all started yelling at her for trying to rip my friend off. Eventually we got our way.

When we left, our entourage of supporters followed us towards the more reliable Mergelyan Gab around the corner.

Progress will not occur without communication. Speaking out is key in this country, but also, telling employees you are not satisfied with their service doesn't always solve the problem. I've realized a simple "Can I speak to your boss because I'm not satisfied" will have a much greater impact. I can't wait until employees work for commission. Then I want to see how their attitudes will change.

We dropped by SAS grocery store and bought some milk after this calling episode, and while walking home we came across a cute hungry cat. We decided to open the carton of milk and feed it on the sidewalk for about 5 minutes then split. Now if only I had my own place so I could bring all these cute street animals into my home.

yesterday i was in the middle of a log when the doorbell rang. it was some guy who said he was from the city municipality to collect our annual property tax. because i had not calculated this cost i was a little frightened thinking... do i have that much at home? will this affect the vacation fund? then all of a sudden i saw the figure next to my name 1,790 ahhhhhh. ok now comes the great part. it was in dram. i owed armenia 1,790 dram which is about 3 united states dollars in property tax for the year 2002, or 2003 (he was not sure). I paid the fee and told him that he was welcome back anytime.

so now i can finally write about PROTECT OUR FORESTS. a few of us here have started a new coalition called protect our forests. It is a growing coalition of concerned individuals, businesses, national organizations, international organizations and others who understand the threat that armenia's forests are in and are ready to do something about it. we had over 150 individuals at the meeting and already broke out into 5 groups. i am in charge of the public relations, environmental awareness, and education group and i had a very smart group of eager individuals ready to get started. i will write more about this but if you are interested in the coalition please email us at protectourforests@yahoo.com and see how you can help.

did you know that we are down to 7% of forest here in armenia. our goal is to get it back up to 25%... it is not only a goal. it is a matter of survival. you read a lot of literature that states... that we need to do something... now... for our grandchildren. the scary thing is that in armenia... the situation is so grave we have to do something now... for our children. there will be no forests in 20 years if we continue at this pace.

things otherwise are going well. i have been taking russian classes for over 3 months now and am able to express myself on a very elementary level and it feels great. but mostly i am able to understand what people are talking about. today at the meeting some people spoke russian and i was able to understand some of what they said. it felt great.

tonight i am going to my friend's 30th birthday and am realizing that... i am no longer part of the young university world. i am now 26 and most of my friends are older than that. today at the coalition meeting one of the university students had a bright idea... and i responded with. i am so impressed by the youth here... i am still having a hard time swallowing that i am not that young idealistic university student anymore... but the late 20's working person... admiring that university energy that those young kids had today at the meeting.

everyone who knows me still tells me i have the energy of a football team. i love contributing it to the families in crisis organization, orran (www.orran.am), and now the protect our forests coalition. I hope I never lose this drive.

the funniest part of the meeting was that arthur, my husband the singer, had come to the meeting to support my project. when we went around the group and everyone was introducing themselves (very serious group) arthur stood and said "arthur, song and trees organization." everyone was on the floor. he has such a great sense of humor.

I was away for a long time but this didn�t stop me to drink the nectar of Armenia life.
After traveling for some years I became a very pacifist person and it was a shock for me today to realize that I am very much ready to declare a war. My slogan is no other than � Shoot the Marshrutka drivers� , and without any mercy. Yes, I am one of the �foreign� guys who tries to drive on Yerevan roads according to the driving regulations. And hell, a policeman can stop and ask me if I know how to drive? I add �shoot the police, too� and I have reason for that. Probably 90% of the drivers in Armenia have not passed a driving exam but couple of Greens do the job. I have passed exams in two countries that have very different driving systems: One, European the second , N American but still not qualified for Armenian roads. I don�t complain, I am doing my best to learn. Here are some tips: 1. don�t waste your nerves and energy on swearing marshrutka drivers, they know about it and they ignore it, they don�t even look at you. Why should they? They work for high ranking government officials, which means whatever they do they are immune of being punished. 2. If you see police take the most left lane. The chances to be stopped is slim. 3. If they stop you just don�t stop, just pretend that you are surprised, they will not chase you for that since time is money or two packs of Marlboro cigarettes. However I would advise you to wear bright shirts or t-shirts and try to look as much foreigner as possible. I have been stopped once and that time I was wearing a grayish T-shirt. 4. Try to get a car with red plates, it makes you the king of the road. If you get that buy � Born to be wild� single. Have a safe trip.

The second issue is concerning to the construction work. Whenever you start something make sure the construction people measure everything before they start their job. I am saying this because they might dig for meters and face a basalt 60cm wall of a building and then spent days to ponder that how to go thru it. Also never pay beforehand since your work will never finish. If in Cyprus today means tomorrow, in Armenian it means next week or next month.
Good luck. Just try not to loose your humour.
I wonder if Hertz rent a car on Abovian street has ever had a client. If you know, please share.

It was a very interesting weekend.
Friday after work and a long walk, we had asked the new babysitter to stay with the kids for the FIRST time ever, so we could enjoy a night out with a couple of friends. So we walked towards Monte Crysto to meet some French-Armenian friends who had moved to Armenia in 1999. Pretty cool place. On the way, we spotted a bran new hotel called Europe (or something) we went in to see a beautiful very modern building with excellent reception. The big orange silky curtains behind the beautifully crafted reception desk were a fresh site in Armenia. The General Manager, a Lebanese guy, informed us that it had just opened and the Lebanese Armenian owner was very nice. We decided we would come back for some drinks another day. By the way, prices started from $70.
So we finally made it to Monte (as it is called by the regulars). Met the friends and what did we see, Raffi and father Richard Hovanissians sitting with Libaridian and the owner, Mike. What an interesting encounter seeing the former advisor of LTP sitting at the same table as the Former MFA. You know how you�ve always read about those cafes in Paris or NY where some writers or intellectuals gathered and met�. That�s exactly how it felt. Here I am sitting several feet from these very influential Armenian individuals. WOW!
Anyhow, just wanted to say that we also met a friend who had gone to the US to study and was back home for the summer. You may some day, hopefully, meet her on this log� keep an eye out for Shusham Avakyan.
Saturday, as I had mentioned, was my 33rd birthday� that�s crucifixion year (or something). I�ve always shared my birthday with a cousin and another friend. I thought it would be different in Yerevan. Guess what, it was the 33rd birthday of a new friend I met in Yerevan and� and � my favorite Hayastantsi actor/director Michael Boghossian who has debuted his new film on that same day at Kino Moscwa. To keep it short, I spent my birthday with about 17 friends from Lebanon, Canada, Georgia, Armenia, Cyprus, Syria, Iran and France. George Bush would not approve of this company! We were at Hin Yerevan, one of my favorite spots in Armenia� their new feature, a dance group that entertains and invites you to dance.
That�s it for now� COME TO ARMENIA!