It is New Year’s Eve. In less than 8 hours it will be 2004. Sorry Leksy, I beg to differ since I believe that Sydney is the best city to spend NYE. Are you kidding? The warmth, the people and the amazing fireworks, you cannot beat that.

I’ve been absolutely stuffing my face in with seafood, I had it at lunch again today with my parents since I won’t be seeing them tonight, fresh prawns, great fish. So for the countdown, I will be spending it in the city with my friend Rozanna, a repeat of last year for NYE where we spent it together in Rome.

Tomorrow for New Year’s Day, my sister has a surprise in store for me. It’s great to be around family, I am loving every second of it. Happy New Year to all and a safe one, I do miss all my friends in Yerevan but it’s such a different atmosphere here, I am enjoying the difference.

We, Parev Yergir, as company and as individuals had a good year.
Family visited. Business was good, though we had a couple of rough moments with 'hargayin'.
Nigol took over a new challenge, and went into construction. Our new house, the first of Vanahovid community, will be ready in summer 2004.

On the last day of the year, I would like to share two moments that made an impact on my spiritual world.

May 2003 -
First visit of my brother-in-law and niece, Nayiri, then two and a half years old to Armenia.
A hot day, Nayiri woke up in the mini van, parked under the shade. She and I followed the steps of her parents to Dzidzernagapert. In her Pampers and underwear she ran all the distance from the museum to the fortress, like an athlete, to her father's arms. Down the stairs we all went wearing long faces, remembering but not uttering a word. For no apparent reason Nayiri went to the fortress, faced the wall, and started singing Cilicia, 'yerp vor patzvin trner huso, yev mer yergren pakh da..' stumping her right foot with the rhythm of the song, like a wail.
That moment, I believed in reincarnation, genetics and collective memory.

December 2003
Two Sundays ago we went to Yeraploor.
Aram Boghossian, the commander of infantry division of Shushi battalion, survived the war but yielded to cancer three years ago.
You can do nothing to a grieving mother. I walked away from the group and approached Antranig, a twelve year old beautiful boy.
'Is your father buried here?"
"Yes'.
He leads two teenage girls and me to his tombstone. Instead of his picture a palette has been engraved on it, a painter. I see that Antranig has already visited him, a single white carnation lies on it.
I look at the date, he lost him when he was two.
(Carnations were meant for Aram, he understands that family comes first, and he got bunches of flowers from others.)

After a couple of silent moments, one of the girls, Sona tells me that her maternal uncle is buried there too. We visit him, a guy in his twenties. Another single white carnation.
Sona has a hero for an uncle and a cad for a father. He has disappeared in Russia four years ago, leaving four kids behind.

Next we visit Anna's paternal uncle. His father is home, taking care of her and mother, mother is an invalid in bed.

On the way we meet the rest of AYF junior gang, 'Have you been to Shahen Meghrian's tomb?' they ask. We have not.
Antranig leads us. Shahen and his nephew are burried side by side. Antranig checks the dates, they've fallen in the same battle. Then he approaches and kisses the seventeen- year-old's tombstone.
Like one Armenian guy kissing another on the cheek, like one brother to another, like an oath.

I want to cry,
I want to hug this wonderful, beautiful twelve-year-old.
This orphan, this boy, this man, this soldier.
God bless him and his generation.

If you are an Armenian Diasporan between the ages of 18-32, please fill out the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=5474277743 for the new organization called Birthright Armenia which is planning to offer free roundtrip tickets to Armenia for young Diasporans willing to consider intermediate to long term opportunities in Armenia- for work or study. They want to know your views. I have not filled it out yet.

Pass this message on to other Diasporans you know in this age group... I have high hopes for this organization.

Background: Pez is a candy in the US and I don't know where else, that comes in a dispenser somewhat resembling the photo below, with different cartoon, animal or person heads on it. Thanks Der Hova for this one....

Well the year is rapidly coming to a close. It is such a fantastic feeling, after having so many days off, to have a week more to go! I feel great, even though it is so cold out. The snow has not melted away yet, it is about an inch or two on the ground. I wonder when the temprature will rise above freezing and melt it all away. So with all this energy, yesterday I went to the Parev Inn to visit Nigol and Zabelle, two loggers who I have not spent much quality time with this year. I just was stopping by "to talk", and was there for six hours! Thats what I call a proper catching up. So at around 6:30 Shooshig shows up (yes, the logger from L.A. who is staying at the Parev), and at seven we headed out to get a bite at the famous Chez Garo's. Well Garo was there with the lady who owns the Phonecia Restaurant (both of them are Diasporans), and it turns out that they went to school here together, and both came back and opened restaurants this year! Pretty funny. Then it comes out that they went to school with both my parents here too. Yup, another crazy small world story here in Yerevan. I may have said this before, but I will say it again, it is great to see Yerevan as the true hub of the Armenian nation, including the Diaspora. The Diaspora could have been centered in LA or Beirut or Moscow, but it is clearly in Yerevan that Armenians from all over the world are coming together, and it is a beautiful thing. Now if only we could get back Cilicia so that at least part of Armenia would have a mild winter.

So today started out quite unusually for me - I went to a big khash eating breakfast. Yes, the famous khash that Madlene wrote about this week. And no, I was not crazy enough to have some. I was once convinced to try it - boiled bones and tendons and other leftover animal parts, and believe it or not it did nothing for me. I think you need to grow up with it to appreciate it. Anyway, my guests were excited about the whole thing, so I just went along to spend some time with them and watch this ritual. Then it was back to my nice, warm apartment (the restaurant was not warm at all), where I was inspired to implement a major change in the interface of my tourism page. That worked out quite well I think, with the new page much better, and soon I should make a couple of more improvements to it as well. One of those improvements, with the hard work of Der Hova, will be the addition of Restaurant Reviews, which people can add their comments to. This will allow everyone to have their say about this waiter, that dish, etc, etc and I think it will be a lot of fun to read through. So keep checking back for that, and be sure to read up before your next culinary outing in Yerevan, then tell us what you think.

As far as Madlene's comment that none of her friends are around, all I can say is thanks from the chopped liver over here. Pfffft! :-P

What will I be up to the next few days? I dunno, and I don't care!

Frohe Weihnachten und ein Gutes Neues Jahr!

Greetings from The absolute best city in the world (sorry Lenski)--München!
I hadn't had a chance to log in a while but wanted to certainly wish everyone on or around Cilicia a Merry Christmas and a Great 2004!

I can't lie and say that it's been all that difficult being out of Armenia for this season. I am a sucker for sentimental stuff during the holidays. So, walking around the Chritle Kind Markt in Munich and catching up with cousins and family has been great, but I will say this that Armenia, my friends in Armenia haven't been far in spirit. I'm realizing how much of my identity living in Armenia has become, and how much I think of Armenia when I am not forced to think about it.

BTW, I did see some of the decorations at Republic Square, and it is quite a contrast to last year and the decorations just a few streets below the square. And also, I wish they had kept that Hotel Armenia sign in some form on the building--hat eht ecommericalization of Armenia.

So, in short, and in hopes of maintining my sanity on this German keyboard, I wish everyone a healthy and prosperous season, and may it be the foreshadowing of all that will be good in the new year.

The merriment of the season to you and your loved ones.

my mom got what she wanted. snow everywhere.
ozzie is the one really excited. she is jumping for joy and eating mouthfuls at a time.

my entire family is at a restaurant eating khash, i opted for the office. i have not tasted khash (a traditional armenian meal where they boil all the unnecessary parts of the cow into a stew). i cannot bring myself to try it... i will refuse to kiss arthur for two days (khash comes out sweat glands, breath, and it makes people really stinky) but everyone tells me how yummy khash is... there is a bit of intrigue to try it, as it is a national pasttime... i just can't bring myself to doing it. they say it is the best flu shot around... but cow feet boiled is not my idea of a soup du jour. ozzie on the other hand, would probably devour it.

my cousin is coming tomorrow night and i am off to the airport for the 5th time this week. all for good reasons so i cannot complain. i am so excited that teni will be here for her first new years in yerevan.

although i miss my repat friends terribly (even though i am a bit teed off that lena is enjoying luscious beaches and alex is on an amazing christmas in europe tour without me while i am pondering eating or not eating khash) i am happy enough with my parents, my hubby, my work friends, my friend friends and my golden.

arthur has recorded two new songs. one is the famous christmas song (chestnuts roasting on an open fire...) and the other is his own new song which we will premiere at the armenian music awards. did i tell you guys i was invited to announce an award. the music awards are grammy style. I will have to dress and walk like a superstar

tonight arthur and i are on a game show playing against another couple (aramo & emma). i am a bit nervous because i am not too well informed on culture here... i have only had a few years of experience... learning all the famous names, events and of course the soviet side of soviet history. i will let you all know if we sink... but what is for sure is arthur will stink.

Winter is finally here, currently THERE IS A SNOWSTORM IN YEREVAN!

Merry Christmas! Late for American Christmas, early for Armenian. I had a nice Christmas, crepes at Niziblians house for breakfast, flirting with his little baby. I am making progress with her smiling and kind of winking at me. (Watch out Raff!). Then a nice Christmas dinner, and made my way home for the arrival of a friend from DC. The flight was an hour and a half late, for reasons not explained to them, so I got to bed a little late, but today I made up for it with a nap. The final payment was done on the apartment I am buying for someone as well, and I got the keys, so that is finished. Nice not to have to carry my passport with me anymore -- just in case.

I got more great reports about the progress the airport is making. I am really looking forward to seeing the changes next month when I fly out. Abris Eduardo Eurnikian! (the Armenian from Argentina who is running the airport now).

Did I mention my personal assistant is working out great? She is very responsible and taking care of lots of little errands I can't (don't want to) deal with. Next she will tackle getting my water contracts signed, and bringing payments up to date.

Wow, I have done so much this week. First of all I caught up with a good friend of mine, Peter Thomas who invited me for dinner at his place. The first thing he says to me is “it’s not fair, luscious, you are supposed to age and not look identical as the years go by” He says we will be sitting in a nursing home when we are 80 years old and the oldies would be calling me, nurse, nurse and I would say shut up old fart, I am one of you and I would still be beaming. Even if we have not had email contact for a while, my friends in Sydney would still drop everything to see me in a heartbeat even if they have gone their separate ways, it really is a good feeling.

Anyway Christmas was an absolute scorcher, a typical Aussie Xmas at 40 degrees. I spent it with my family that was quite special considering I had spent the last 2 Christmases away. I saw pictures of Bondi beach where there was not a bit of sand available to stand on. All those pommies that did not have homes to go to where at the beach but Santa was there with his surfboard to keep them company. After my family lunch I visited my friend Rozanna and her family another tradition of mine on Christmas day.

Today Boxing Day was quite a buzz. I was out on the harbour to watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart race (usually lasts about 3 days). Had a great day, not too hot nor cold. I still have a lot to do and a lot of friends to catch up with. Might go night clubbing tomorrow night with my sister and niece after we feast on seafood.

I decided to freeze my nose tonight just for the sake of going out for a walk.

Boy was I completely shocked to see Republic Square. Last year was nothing like this. Does this country have enough electricity to spare for our main Square?

Of course the big tree was there in the middle all alone, and at least another dozen or more smaller trees with flashing lights on all the new lamp posts. The buildings were also lit quite nicely, and seeing the illuminated red Marriott sign at the main entrance to the former Hotel Armenia topped it all off. Abovyan Street was also completely lit (although I really don't like the new lamp posts they put up).

I will try to get some pics to share with all of you.

I forgot that at the end of each log, I was to post a line saying: "Arsineh, can't wait untill you move here."

So, please consider this to be the first message of its kind.

here's an old log I hadn't posted for some reason. it dates back to last week...

What an interesting and improvised night!
On behalf of LCO, I was invited to a social event at Hotel Terjan... I know, no one really knows where it is. Apparently, it’s in Yerevan. We took a taxi and after 15-20 minutes of driving through the dump of Yerevan, we turned a corner and there it was. A 3 story building freshly renovated. This place looked like it was out of a European town. It had an Italian design but get this, EVERYTHIGNG was made in Armenia. The sofa, the carpet, the beds and mattresses... EVERYTHING! This is really a nice and close place to get away.

After visiting the hotel, and tasting some great wine, we decided to have supper there. It was a great menu. I won’t get into details but we started with entrees and ended with a great desert. The best thing about the whole place was the.... the, come on guess. THE SERVICE. The people at the reception, in the restaurant, all of them seemed to be happy to work there and they were enjoying their job. That’s what it’s all about after all, enjoying what you do.

I take back what I said about Yerevan not being decorated and the windows not being pretty and all. It is really nice to see the city getting into the festive mood. More and more people are wishing each other a Happy New Year just in case they don't get to see each other before the 1st.

We've decided to go to Beiruth for New Year's and Armenian Christmas. This would have been our first X-mas here, but when 10 of our friends had decided to leave for Lebanon, we thought that it would probably be the best opportunity for us to go as well. Lara, my wife, hasn't been for over 12 years. Much has changed since. As for me, I have never been to the former hub of the Armenian Diaspora... exciting!

Tonight is Christmas eve. We have decided to have an intime family dinner at home and watch a Christmas film with the kids. We are also going to sleep in the living room under the tree. Baby Jesus will put little gifts for good kids in their stockings.

This week was a reminder of how thankful I should be for what I have, especially at this time of year. I went to the earthquake zone to visit some refugee families that are still living in dohmiks (metal trailers). It sounds beter than it looks and feels worst than it sounds. I visited a family of three who sleep, eat, bath and cook in the same rectangular box. These people are refugees from Baku who have found refuge in the earthquake zone villages. It has been over 15 years that they have made this box their home. This is UNACCEPTABLE!

With this in mind, I wish you a merry Christmas and ask all my friends, family, community and the world to pray a little and act a little for these people.

Wow, so this thing is really powerful, my throat still hurts, and I am still coughing. They say it will be like this for a few more days yet. I went to work though since it is mostly down to a cough/throat thing and I had to get some stuff done, and there is very little time before the end of the year.

Me and a few others will be around for the holidays, despite what Madlene says! (coughing, not sniffling!) I am looking forward to seeing the absolutely massive Christmas tree in Republic Square finished. I'll be at a couple of nice Christmas dinners, it is nice to be eating normally again in time for that.

What else? The court case is over, the house purchase is half done, and believe it or not, I got gas lines installed last weekend. Yes, they came last Friday - a month or more after they were supposed to, and turned them away begging them to return on the weekend when I was a little better recovered. They actually came back like they said, and after 9 hours of in and out, they finally finished. They did a decent job, but now I really need to have someone come and do some touching up to my place. Painting, patching, fixing. On Christmas night my guests arrive for the holidays, and then soonafter it is off to the US for a week.

i am an extremely happy person. (tu tu tu)
my parents are here and i love having them in my world.

you have to understand that my parents are the best people i have ever met. i love waking up and knowing that i will be with them when i leave my bedroom. i love the parska-hykakan breakfast rituals... and the tea drinking and gossiping and the advice and the stories and the trips down memory lane. i love my mother's love for christmas and her hugs and kisses and i love my dad's need to constantly improve my life in any way he can imagine.

well new year is on its way and i am busy decorating the cascade, and of course decorating my apartment. i will have an office christmas party, a family new year's party and i will organize ozzy's first birthday party.

well most of my friends are gone... and the ones left are either busy packing or sniffling. although i am too busy to be devestated about it all... i do hope everyone comes back soon.

Memories of Canada

Beautiful decorations in malls, on streets and houses. Set up right after or right before Thanksgiving. Same carols played and replayed a million times. Lists. Marathon shopping. December 24, Christmas Eve. Boxing Day. Credit cards full to the limit. Finish line, New Year.
January the 2nd, business as usual. More sales. Boxing Day extended to Boxing weeks.
Hey! Don’t take down the decorations; don’t disassemble the Christmas Tree. What happened to the Armenian Christmas?!
Actually the 6th is a working day. If you insist, you’re permitted to take the day off.

To be frank, commercialization of holidays was not the reason that brought me to Yerevan. But it’s the reason I avoid North America for this time of the year.

Nowadays, Yerevan came out of inertia and showed signs of New Year related activities. Like assembling a huge Christmas tree on the Republic Square (one third already assembled).

Nowadays, I would not mind hearing a carol or two.

There’s no frenzy, but people are shopping mostly for food. New Year Eve the traditional table will be set with drinks and food including Pork leg (jugo) and kufte. For thirteen days, (eleven of which are official non working days), there will be a festive mood. The table will wait for any visitor who might drop in, unannounced. Food, drinks, toasts for a better future.
On the 6th the religious and not-so-religious will go to church.

As for me, please no drop ins. Call before you visit. And no I don’t cook pork or kufte and there’s no permanent set table.

Does that make me a hybrid?

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Shnorhavor Soorp Dznoont to you all.

Oh my gosh, this flu was the worst thing of its sort to hit me in many many years. I only lasted 2 hours at work on Thursday, and had to come back home. Since then I have had chills, fevers, sore throat, runny nose, a hacking cough, insomnia, and other symptoms better left unspoken. It has hit the whole city pretty hard, I understand they are even closing some schools to slow it down. The worst of it seems over, but boy I tell you, it was a rough rough ride! I don't know that I will risk leaving the house much this weekend.

On the streets there are more and more decorations, and of course Armenian Christmas is still 2 weeks away. I am going to take a few days off, in combination with all of the holidays coming up to get a nice break. In Armenia you get 3 days off for New Years, the 31st, 1st and 2nd. Isn't that great? Then there is the 25th for American Christmas, and Bush declared the 26th a day off this year for federal employees, so it turned out quite nicely.

My brain is still a bit foggy, so I think that's enough for now.

I am still not over the jet lag and last night I only slept for 3 hours. So this morning the cockatoos were in full force at 6am laughing heartily. This was followed by cicadas going off, which meant it was going to be a scorcher. And that it was, a scorcher at 38 degrees and humid. What else could I do but go to the beach? Big mistake, it was so hot, the sand was hotter than I ever imagined and I only lasted 10 minutes and went back home. During those 10 minutes I watched a couple of lifesavers rescuing swimmers from rips who had their arms raised for help, it was quite impressive to watch the speed of the life guards.

In the afternoon my friend picked me up to visit her parents and we had a nice pesto fettucine and it was good to catch up with them and some other friends on the way back home. It’s going to be just as hot tomorrow, what to do?

I went to Diamond for lunch the other day. Before walking into the restaurant the sky was completely clear, but when we went back out the snow had completely covered the ground.

Today feels like a different season though. The weather was beautiful with a high of 17.

So at Diamond we found out that most of the entree prices had a "+ 200" note beside them. Inflation has apparently affected The Diamond Club as well.

For a change, I felt like having something different, so I asked my spaced-out waitress about the chicken burger. I asked her if the patty was made of ground chicken meat and she answered, "No, it's with a couple of pieces of chicken breast". Although that is what I prefer, I decided to go with the cheeseburger instead. I tried to explain that I wanted my meat cooked well, but she got really confused. This was repeated a few times, and she only understood once I started playing charades (I gestured my hand being the piece of meat, and it being flipped over on the grill a few times, this while I'm telling her that the meat should not be pink). Finally she understood and went to the kitchen to put the order through. A couple of minutes later she returned and said, "They just told me that the cheeseburger has no meat, it is only a piece of cheese". How stupid of me for not knowing that a cheeseburger in Armenia is actually a grilled cheese sandwich. So I decided to go with the chicken burger instead. When the burger arrived she said, "We ground the chicken so that it will be easier for you to eat". Did she think I wear dentures?

The next day I head over to the post office to pay my monthly phone expense. I owed 900 drams, so I paid 5,000 drams, and received 4,000 drams and an Armenian crossword puzzle magazine (which probably cost only 50 drams to print). So they made a profit off the change they owed me.

Oh this Armenia (or rather Yerevan). I love you, but I need a vacation.

My Dear Raffi, I know what a white pointer is, just didn’t want to log about it. In fact I have to copy and paste what a friend sent and his definitions re my last logs. Here it is.

lorikeets: a parakeet from lori
Boxing Day: what you do to an englishman the day after the wallabies lose the rugby final Hobart race: hobo+art = vernisage aussie style - where street bums sell their art


"white pointers": this is what happens if you have your bikini top on and a cold wind blows in from the south. they are so distracting that you shouldn't swim if there are many around. usually appear in pairs.
I decided to play tourist today. So after a healthy juicy huge mango, I caught the bus to Manly Beach. When tourists come to Sydney they either go north to Manly or to Bondi where all the kiwis (New Zealanders) are found. Heaps of kids (all surfies) were on the bus obviously wagging school since yet again it was a perfect day. Kids still stand up to give their seats to women and elderly people, it’s great. So I get to the beach and it’s packed, like I said it’s touristy.

As soon as I went into the water to cool off, the announcement comes on from the lifeguards calling everyone back from the water, as there were severe rips. The announcement also said that if you didn’t come out of the water then you would be liable to pay a fine of $110. I’ll try and post before and after shots and the beach was closed for the day. Unperturbed they all come out including myself and still enjoyed lying on the sand. They started giving out free cold drinking water in bottles for everyone and announced that if we wanted to swim we could just go up the coast a bit but no one seemed to care. Back to my usual beach tomorrow where there’s less people and cleaner water and sand, what do tourists know?

Can one overdose on seafood? I’ll be the first I reckon. So far I’ve had seafood everyday, South Indian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Lebanese, great cuisine everywhere. I’ll have to venture off to Darling Harbour still, the Italian suburbs for some delicious Italian meals and the trendy bars in the city. All for now, I’m off to have fish at my Mum’s.

I am quite sick :-( Poor me :-) I am going in to work now anyway, but maybe I will leave early. I dunno.

All the snow is gone, Lena. It has even warmed up a tiny bit.

It seems I know some ozzy slang that even Lena doesn't know though - pretty good, eh? Lena - ask your "westy" friends what a white pointer is when they are not talking about sharks! (and you may not want to log the answer :-)

Where are all the loggers? Are you snowed in? Another glorious day in Sydney, beautiful one day perfect the next!!

I did venture out to the beach today for an hour, the water was so clear, so blue, no white pointers today Raffi, it was safe to swim!! I must say, the beaches in Sydney have never let me down previously and I doubt that they ever will. After the beach I went for a long walk just to smell the incredible flowers and admire the greenery everywhere, I can't get over how green everything is.

The people in Sydney amaze me, they are soooo beautiful, polite, down to earth, friendly and mind their own business. Everything is so clean, organized, ok I should stop bragging I do love this place.

So far I've caught up with family and my friends Rozanna and Helen. I still have to catch up with Adam, Peter, Jacquie, Alyth and Cameron, Kevin, Chris and the list goes on and on. I have something planned for almost every hour for the next few days, then it's Xmas of course. There's talk of spending Boxing Day on a yacht to watch the start of Sydney to Hobart race, that'll be nice as I'm sure it'll be good weather for it.

As Raffi said I left Yerevan Friday night and I knew it was going to snow since all the leaves had finally fallen. So on the way to the airport there were heaps of cops and I knew something was cooking. The taxi was not allowed to drive to the departure terminal as it was blocked off, why you ask? No not a bomb threat, just the lovely president arriving.

I had my work colleague with me and while I was gone to pay the exit duty tax, the guy at check in tells my friend that my luggage is overweight. So my friend says what do you want me to do about it? The guy says do you want to settle this the legal way or work something out? I arrive at the counter and my friend gives me the update. Mind you I was over by 4.8 kgs (I’m only allowed 20 kgs), I’m like forget it bring my luggage back since they had already taken it away. Of course they take their sweet time bringing it back in the hope that I would give up and pay up. So I simply take some books out of the luggage and place them in my backpack. I turn around to the guy and tell him how foolish this all was since I was taking it on the flight anyway. I barely had anything in my backpack, I looked at the guy and said if this was a full flight I would have gladly paid up but there were only 40 people on the flight to Dubai for crying out loud!!

Dubai I love, I stayed overnight in a hotel. They have McArabia at McDonald’s there. I simply love the designs of the buildings, modern but yet with the Arabian touch, it’s clean, organized and warm.

Bahrain, I had 5 hours to kill there. Now for some reason they were checking Australians and Europeans I was told at check in. So I get to the gate since I already had my boarding pass and the guy is scrutinizing my passport holding up the line for a good 5 minutes. I ask the guy if there was something specific he was looking for? In other words can I help you mate? No he says just checking, another 5 minutes passes and he asks me if I had an Australian visa. Uhh mate you’re holding an Aussie passport, I don’t need a visa? Ok you can go through. So anyway turbulence for most of the way to Singapore then some more to Sydney.

Ah Sydney!! The first thing that struck me was the smells of trees, flowers, there is nothing like it in the world. And the green, how green is this place? What about waking up to the sound of lorikeets? I went over the harbour bridge today on a glorious day admiring the beauty of this city, it truly is paradise. I haven’t hit the beach yet since I came down with the flu and fever on the way over here. More later!!

SNOW is falling outside my window. It is so beautiful. Congratulations on your first snow of the Winter Yerevan.

The first snow of the year for Yerevan is falling now. Brrrr...

Alright, a kinder, gentler log (lighter mood). Lena is home for the holidays, I expect to see pictures of the Australian beach arriving in my email any time now. She was just in time to miss the frigid tempratures all day yesterday. If there had been any precipitation yesterday, it would have definitely come in frozen form. I had a nice day yesterday, despite the cold, and the fact that I spent a chunk of it trying to make progress on a few of my tasks without any visible progress. So I am hoping I made invisible progress :-) I did have lots of time to hang out with friends though. Arsineh (Diaspora log) is here as you know, and I saw her and a bunch of others. I tortured Raffi and Lara's kids for a while at Alexs art exhibit, that was a lot of fun. In the evening I saw "Pirates of the Carribean" at Kino Nairi, which was really much more of a kids movie, and at night it was Fiesta Latina III. That was a fun party that the folks from Latin America have been organizing occasionally since the summer, and looks like it will continue. Everyone loves it, there were easily over a thousand people at Astral (if my crowd counting ability is worth anything - I should have asked the bouncers). It was my first time at Astral, since I am not a big night club person, and I was absolutely amazed at the size of the place. It is in the opera square, and was dug underground. So from above you just see some concrete, but it is so huge, and so massively deep inside that I was impressed. Now of course we all object to these places being built in our parks, but we can't really boycott them. Why? Because since they are being allowed to build in the parks, that is virtually the only place that for example cafes are being built, so there is no alternative. The government recently began to talk tough about preserving green space, and although I don't believe it, we can keep our fingers crossed.

Raffi, you have me inspirized me. (my kooky way of saying inspired)

I have my neighbors water pipes to fix. i know... i know... you may be wondering... why am i fixing my neighbors water pipes? they are upstairs neighbors and the water seaps through to our apartment so it affects us even though it is their pipes. since they know this... and are not in the greatest of all financial shapes... they don't fix their broken pipes and hope we eventually get sick of the damage to our ceiling. we have officially gotten sick of the damage our ceiling has taken and are willing to fix their water pipes. it was the perfect plan for them. it has worked.

i have to finish the remodelling of my basement and my balcony which has been going on since mid-october. we call him smelly guy even though he is an old friend of arthur's. he remodels for us. he smells... even though i have told him on numerous occassions how much better he looks when he shaves (hoping that he will take to the compliment and shave and shower and wear newly washed clothes) arthur also tells him how nice he looks when he is shaven. lol

and let me add my own abuse story... this happened at the notar. The notar is somewhere you go and get something notarized. I wanted to give permission to my driver to drive my car when i am not in it. someone told me i have to go to the notar. rats. we got to the notar and found this sovietesque lady wearing a military type suit... she looked like she literally was kept since soviet times and hates the world, her job, her life and me :o). we managed to get in after an hour wait... and she saw the paperwork i had to offer...which was extremely legitimate. she told me that my signature looked like a three year old scribbling for the first time. i thanked her and smiled wide wide wide. then she told me since she had never done this for a foreigner that she would have to find out what the process was... and that i should come back in a week. (a week is pretty harsh)... i lost my wide grin and gave up absolutely on being nice. i complained and complained and she was not about taking it at all. the meeting ended and i left hating the world more than she ever could...

when a police officer friend told me that i can get the same permission in one sheet of stationary picked up in any office supply store for 100 dram and signed by me. i love this world again... but hate the original advisor that i must go to notar... and the notar hell on wheels woman that i met. my brother says that hate is a strong word... and that i should never use it. i would like to retract hate and replace it with dislike. thank you.

3 more things on my todo list which I forgot about. Can you tell I am feeling a bit overwhelmed? Fix the leak in the roof. Have architectural drawing made of a loft space and approved by the government (yes, this will lead to a remond). Have Rediscover Armenia reprinted. Not to mention two other books I have started and stopped working on, and I know I am forgetting other things... Ahhhh!

Hey, at least Ararat looks breathtaking again today! :-)

3 more things on my todo list which I forgot about. Can you tell I am feeling a bit overwhelmed? Fix the leak in the roof. Have architectural drawing made of a loft space and approved by the government (yes, this will lead to a remond). Have Rediscover Armenia reprinted. Not to mention two other books I have started and stopped working on, and I know I am forgetting other things... Ahhhh!

Hey, at least Ararat looks breathtaking again today! :-)

So I'm busy, so what? What does that mean right? Well let me tell you. I am involved in a court case. I am buying an apartment for somebody (involving wire transfers, trips to the notary, etc, and nothing happens quickly). I am considering starting a business, but need to clarify something with the utility company and decide in under one week. I have to privatize and build on the roof space above my 2 apartments before a law that just passed allows someone else to build there. I am still having the gas line installed where I live (they have not done it yet) and then I have to get a gas heater for the air, and another for the water. I am afraid to think about what else I am forgetting. I read recently somewhere that your temporary memory, your "todo" list in your head can hold (for the average person) seven items. I have no items left!! So when I go crazy, I will have good reason. To illustrate, let me share the story of one "run in" with the paperwork monsters here.

I am renting out an apartment here to a foreigner, and the renter bought a car. To register the car, he had to have a registered address first. (Many people don't bother register their car, they get a 3 year unlimited use and sell permit instead). OK, so we went to the "jhek" to register him, to the same exact jhek I had gone to before in order to take care of some such household issue. They told us this was the wrong jhek, that my jhek is near the Opera. What? But I took care of business there a year ago. But no, they swear it has been many years since my building was transferred to another jhek. After I made them swear they were sure, we went on to the next jhek.

The next jhek was abandoned, except the one woman who could help us, had one person in there. It took a good while. Finally it was our turn and after explaining what we needed, she said she did not know how to do it for a foreigner (which my renter is), so we should go to the "Militsia" and ask Anna something or other how it is done and come back and tell her. Now, I was in true disbelief. How could this be I asked? We should go, and find out how she should do her job, and then come back and tell her??!?! All the time thinking we could tell her anything we wanted. Yes she said, explaining where we needed to go. Well why don't you just call, I asked? Oh, they never pick up the phone. Still in shock, the guy who appeared behind us in line starts repeating what we need to do in his English, seeming very happy to get a chance to use his English, and apparently thinking we don't understand and that is why we keep asking why and what. I told him I understood very clearly that I must go and find out what this womans job it is to know, and come back and tell her, and that I am merely amazed because it is so CRAZY!

So we go to the Militsia and ask the cop in front of the building for Anna. Anna who? Well the Anna who deals with registering people. "Oh, we are calling here 'Anna' now?", he mutters under his breath? And points at which door to go to. So I find out Anna is the head of the department, and assume I have been insulting towards her by using her first name only. Here you are meant to refer to full names and use the formal tense of the verb for elderly and fancy people, and strangers in general at first. "Barev Dzez", not just "Barev". So anyway, Anna (whose last name I never could remember) was not in, but someone else told us what they thought we needed to do, but to wait anyway, because they didn't really know. So we waited, and pretty soon Anna came and told us that actually, she didn't know, that we needed to go to OVIR and ask Tigran Ghulyan. Well that was a name I could remember, since I had been to OVIR, and seen Tigran Ghulyan there years ago. He was actually quite nice. So we headed over to OVIR, an office I thought I would not have to return to for 10 years when I got my 10 year visa, but how naive I was :-)

So we went up to Tigran, who was in the same office (miraculously there was no line) and speaking in three languages found out the answer to the big mystery. "She should stamp a blank piece of paper", he said. It was that simple. That was it.

So now, armed with the answer, we stopped and got xeroxs of the paperwork, and headed back to the woman who didn't know how to do her job. There was an hour to go before the jhek closed, but wouldn't you know it... she had left early that day, and nobody else could do it for us. We had literally ended the day where we started it.

Ahhh.... so now you can imagine, what every step of every "to do" item I listed in the first paragraph involves. This is not an exaggerated story, it is not unusual. Last month at the notary, I spent hours in the one office waiting in long lines, being told to stand in the wrong line, having the notary take in a famous actor, neighbors, and favorite clients ahead of me in line, and finally leaving before my paperwork could be finished.

RUMORS

Well they say rumors can take on a life of their own, they say not to believe them, but when people can provide all the details, answer all your doubts, it seems natural to believe a story, right? Well here is the rumor I heard about myself that left me pretty dumbfounded. It has been circulating at work apparently, and I heard it actually a few weeks ago when it was much less elaborate and thought my confirmation that it was not true would squash it. But obviously it was still going around and growing more and more crazy, because yesterday I heard it from my supervisor of all people!

So the story goes, about three weeks ago I went to the Vice-Consul at the US Embassy (I work within the embassy compound) and declared that I wanted to give up my US Citizenship. The consul, who (like just about everyone in the embassy compound) knows me, and tried to talk me out of it. He insisted that I talk to the Director of USAID (since I work at USAID), who I work closely with, first. Well apparently the Director could not talk me out of it, so we went to the Ambassador. Now it is not such a big embassy that I don't see the Ambassador a few times a week, and go to meetings and events with him, often with the Director of USAID. Well the Ambassador asks if I am really sure, and is tries to talk me out of it, but damn it, my mind is made up. So they send me to the vice-consul, and let me sign the papers, but he tells me that he won't file them for a few days to give me some additional time to think it over. But wait you ask, then how could I keep my job, which is meant for an American? Well yes, I was told that I would have to take an 80% pay cut and I accepted that. So it was done. I gave up my US Citizenship and picked up a real Armenian passport. That is how the story goes.

The thing that is so remarkable is the detail. All the people involved, any one of which could easily confirm that the whole thing is not true. Now admittedly, the story is so detailed, I don't know if I myself could have resisted believing it, but it really boggles the mind HOW those details all got into that rumor?!?! I mean, it is easy enough to guess how the rumor started. Raffi Hovanissian gave up his US Citizenship a while back in order to run for President, and when some Americans heard that "Raffi gave up his US Citizenship", not knowing any other Raffis, could have been confused. But that does not explain the elaborate tale at all. All I can say is, this will be a valuable lesson to me, not to believe things so easily, even if they seem just so believable...

Having said all of that, let me now repeat, THIS WHOLE STORY IS NOT TRUE! I am still a US Citizen. I have no intention of turning in my US passport. Phew!

Now that your head is (I assume) reeling from that story, I will log in a seperately what I have been up lately.

Excuse me Raffi N., but I think that comment you had made about Yerevan storeowners not having "jashag" was a little harsh. We North Americans have always had the freedom to see the world and to see everything out there. Think about the conditions Hayastantsis had been living in for over 70 years. The censorship and the restrictions.

What a difference I see in the overall look of the city this year. Many stores have their holiday decorations and trees up (of course artificial ones since real ones are banned from being cut down in Armenia, unless they are brought here from abroad) and are having sales. So much is improving and progressing really fast here. Sure we all complain about so many things here, but most of the time I think to myself ... "what a wonderful world". (Hey, this is perfect timing for me to purchase all my appliances and other goodies for my new place.)

On a more serious note I have to bring up the telecommunications situation in Armenia. I recently read a study on telephone and cellular phone expenses in Armenia compared to many neighbouring countries. What Armentel is doing to this country is really horrible. The regular monthly charge for a home telephone is about $2.10 Canadian (or about $1.60 US). This includes a few hours per month, and after that it's a few Drams per minute. Armentel also had another option, which allows you to pay a few dollars a month to get unlimited usage (perfect plan for unlimited internet subsribers).

Moving on to internet costs, unlimited dial-up, and I stress dial-up, is between about $52-65 Canadian ($40-50 US) a month. In Canada unlimited dial-up costs about a third of that.

Now the latest Armentel development is ... NO MORE UNLIMITED PHONE SERVICE and the additional per minute charges are going up. When countries such as Georgia are practically using cell phones for free, we Armenians have fallen into this mess. How is our IT industry (which is said to have so much potential) supposed to develop in these conditions?

AH! Ok, yallah, goodnight!

Too busy to write, but how could I not log this picture of Ararat this morning? Note the building coming up in front of it...

Where have I been, you say?
I was in Artsakh last week. In Shushi actually. I love that city. One must use their imagination and see beyond the rubble. This city is Beautiful, rather WAS beautiful. It is one of the 2 old remaining Armenian cities. Gumri is the other. The architecture is unique and has a causasus feel to it. I don't say Armenia, because during the last half of the 20th century, the Azeri Soviets made sure to populate the entire city with Azeris. They burnt many old Armenian houses in order to build large soviet apartment buildings... pretext. Anyhow, I spent about 2-3 days meeting with old friends and looking for possible new LCO projects. God knows this city needs work!
Moving along, Sunday was the premier of my documentary film simply entitled, 15. It is a short documentary dedicated to the young surviors of the Gumri Earthquake. The main characters were the 15-16 year old Gumri youth and a Canadian 16 year old guy, called Vruyr. He was visiting Armenia and Gumri for the first time. The mood and the message is one of hope. I'm quite proud of the final product. This is my first film (outside school projects). I will start some screenings here and there. I'll keep the readers posted, in case some of you might want to see it.
I am also excited because I will be visiting Lebanon for the first time. Lara and I decided to spend the New Year in Beiruth with some of her family which she hasn't seen for over 12 years... this is going to be an experience none of us will forget. I have heard about this country for far too long, I think it's high time I saw what the fuss is all about. I will visit Anjar, Bourj Hamoud, B'albak, AUB, Antelias, Hripsimiants and so on. I would like to go to the south, if possible.
As for Christmas, I think we are the ONLY family to have already put up the tree. Yerevan is not decorated much. It is just now starting to look a bit like Christmas. I kind of miss all the lights and decorations in downtown Montreal. They have Jashag (taste) something that most Yerevan shop owners don't have. You would think with all the talent in music and painting and dancing, that Armenians here would have better taste when renovating their homes or decorating the restaurants and boutiques.
Finally, i am working on bringing the LCO website into the 21st century. Once it is finished, it will reflect the col and dynamic organization that it is. New launch is Dec 31.

Culture fever, that's what I've been up to for the past couple of weeks, from the Opera House to the British film festival to a rendition of "God Save the Queen" sung to the wrong tune just as the British Ambassador walked past (it was unintentional) but perfect timing, to celebrating Thanksgiving with friends and bonding with my close friends. Souvenir shopping at vernissage, the newly relocated craft centre, the Christmas bazaar at Armenia hotel etc etc. Why all this shopping? cause I'm going home in 4 days!!

The weather has been great so far not too cold and I hope it stays that way, compared to last year, I'm not complaining.

last night was fantastic. a night with my closest friends, caring and sharing and chatting until the wee hours of the am... about life. i love nights like that. hadn't had one as far back as i remember.

i have new neighbors downstairs. they are a really nice parska-hye family. today i will go and welcome them... and have some tea... as we good parska-hye's enjoy doing (several times a day).

i also have new neighbors upstairs (of my office)... they are a nice syrian armenian family. do you see what is happening people. armenians are repatriating at alarming rates. i love it. this place is getting more magical every day. i have to admit when when i moved here a few years ago... i felt a little detached from the world. slowly this is becoming the epi-center of everything i dreamed of, an armenian home with armenians from all over the world reuniting. come join in on the fun.

uncle raffi, sticks and stones may brake my bones, but words will never hurt me! especially because my vocabulary is limited to sit, bark, lay down and no.

i love yerevan this time of year. although it is not the best outdoor weather, we bundle up and go for walks... evening walks are one of the best things you can do in life.

i also love yerevan this time of year because i can see my friends, i have no tourists in town and there are so many great things to buy for the winter. for example... today i will go to the zatik orphanage to buy christmas cards. then i will go buy wool yarn to order knit sweaters for the winter... and tomorrow alex and i have a date to do some christmas shopping at the craft center. yipee

my parents called to see what i wanted from the states. i still can't think of anything i need from the states.

Imagine how much easier it was for the Polynesians before the white man came when it came to laundry... they didn't have any! (nor for that matter do full time nudists nowadays) Why does that come to mind? Doing laundry seems neverending, especially when you have to wear so much more clothes than you do in Southern California. What a pain. At least a year and a half ago I got a washing machine, before I had to carry it to the cleaners. The benefit of that was that they washed, dried and folded for you, and it was pretty cheap, but still I prefer to just throw it in the machine. My complaints about the machine though are that the good ones here take well over an hour to wash a load, compared to 25 minutes for the machines I grew up with, and normal driers are virtually nonexistant here, and even if they did exist, I don't really have space. So line drying is required, which is no fun in general, but especially in the winter when it is too cold outside to dry anything anyways.

So why am I logging? To complain about washing machines? Not really. I didn't have much to report, and as I sat looking at the screen, that is what came to mind. So lets see, what else? Today I was feeling a little under the weather in the morning, so I took a sick day -- my first. It was quite relaxing, but I could not fall asleep all day to nap, and the tickle is still there in my throat. Tomorrow I have to go to work either way, so I will try to just bundle up, drink tea and eat soup to try to stave it off.

Hmmm, another reason I am logging is that the comedy channel is not working on cable, so there really is nothing good on. So sad. They don't know when it will be working again, it has been a few days.

The last thing I will mention is that although things here don't get all decorated for Christmas the way they do in the US (and of course Christmas is celebrated on Jan 6), it is beginning to feel like Christmas is coming. Lena leaves in a week, my friend arrives about a week later, lots of others will be coming and going, people are all talking about their Christmas plans, I will get 11 days off in a row (4 of them are Saturdays and Sundays, but still), and then in January I head to the US for work, and then hopefully to Budapest. So it is all slowly but surely creeping up.

Now I hope the others will log - and that they have something more interesting to say than my stream of consciousness nonsense! :-)