Constitutional Referendum

The good news is that dual citizenship is on it's way. The exact way it will be implemented still had to be defined, and when all this will be clarified and codified is uncertain, but it will come. Don't count on the right to vote though, folks!

The bad news is that the vote was once again blatantly rigged...

In any case, for a recap of the whole constitutional referendum, visit Constitutional Referendum of 2005 on Armeniapedia.org

Social Issues Awareness Clips

A few weeks ago I teamed up with my aunt (a long time repat) to work on an idea I have had for quite a long time.

Social issues awareness (such as litter prevention, respect for the environment, etc.) have always been brought to the attention of the North American public through media, particularly television, for years.

We sat down and came up with a loooooooong list of issues we thought we should work on.

At first the style we wanted to shoot in was something a little more dramatic and bold, but we later decided to hook up with a local theatre director to help us out. We figured he, as a local, would better understand what might actually work in Armenia, and his idea to make the clips more upbeat and fun, but yet keeping those issues we had come up with earlier, would turn out to be quite good in the end.

We borrowed a camera and a cameraman from a local television station, we used volunteer student actors, and I decided to give video editing a shot on my computer in my studio.

The clips we shot included: one which talks about respecting each other (the clip shows a guy entering a variety store, without looking if there is anyone else waiting to be served, goes to the front of the line to order something), the second is about speaking cleanER Armenian (lost diaspora tourists ask for directions, yet become more confused when the guy they ask responds in complete jargon), and the third is about litter prevention.

These first three were a great test for us, and we've already planned the next batch of clips. Hopefully the feedback we hope to get will be positive, and we can actually get through to some people. Already, the people who starred in the clips, as well as friends of ours whom have seen the clips have said that they have been affected by its positive messages.

The clips started airing on Yerkir Media as of today.

Online vote to get an Armenian a job?

http://ktla.trb.com/news/local/special/

Your support is needed to help Jill Simonian in her endeavor to become the next KTLA 5 Primetime Weatherperson. If you didn’t already know, Jill made the Final 2 last week. Today (Monday) she goes on live in the morning (b/t 7am and 9am) and again at night (@ 10pm) with Hal Fishman. The online voting is extremely close, so please go to the direct link above or to www.ktla.com and click on the large icon “The Audition.”

If we can get an Armenian a great job just by clicking, why not? I'm sure her opponent is moblizing the ethnically blonds of the world ;-)

Long Weekend

I had a four day long weekend for thanksgiving. Thursday - Thanksgiving - was my second opportunity to introduce Armen's relatives to the thanksgiving meal. I spent ALL day cooking for ten people... note to other incompetent cookers - do not make a meal for more than 4 people on your first try. In any case - I had a semi-successful meal including a turkey, stuffing, mashed pototoes, pumpkin soup, gravy, cranberry sauce, and three different pies. I must say I was surprised by my Armenian family's dislike of the cranberry sauce - it's my favorite part!

I'm off to the US in less than a month and Armen and I are anxiously waiting to move into our new apartment... yes, it's STILL not done! We did check it out yesterday and it is completely painted - we are just waiting for the floors, kitchen, and bathrooms to be finished. I hope we can move in before we leave!

With that being said we are still looking for a dog sitter for the two weeks we'll be gone. Our regular dog keeper can't keep Rocky (he ate one too many pair of slippers last time apparently) and now we might have to put him in the doggy jail (as they call it here). If anyone has good dog keeper contacts, let me know.

And most importantly today is the constitutional referendum. Here is a good site that talks about the amendments... http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/11/069E36D4-46E4-40BD-B2FE-5BA74230A09E.html.

Laser Eye Surgery

The second Diasporan I know to have laser eye surgery in Armenia is quite happy with the outcome. It was a $650 procedure and insurance did not cover it in her home country, where the procedure cost thousands of dollars...

So if you aren't covered for this, come to Armenia, see the sights, then get the laser procedure and the trip will more than pay for itself!

more signs of modernity

Yesterday I attended a full scale fashion show with catwalk, beautiful models, bright lights, paparazzi, glamorous guests and all kinds of cocktails. It was great to see some of the up and coming fashion designers of Armenia. here is lots of talent which is expanding. The event was entitled "Pret a Porter"

Last night also, 2 of our good friends from Montreal who were here for almost 4 months left to go back however, 2 friends from Lebanon came for a week's visit. We went out to a Karaoke joint where the smoke was so little that we stayed till he wee hours of the night.

... I don't care what anonimous thinks about my social life - I choose who I want to hang out with and where I want to go with my friends! If you don't like my lifestyle, tough!

Statue Of Ataturk In Rome?

Could this AZG article be right? Rome wouldn't even allow a mosque until a few years ago, why on earth would it erect a statue of Ataturk (Mustafa Kemal)?

AZG Armenian Daily #210
18/11/2005

Italians have decided to erect the statue of Ataturk. We should revolt
about this tragic decision and write to the Mayor of Rome.

The e-mail address of the Mayor of Rome Walter VERTRONI is:
w.veltroni@comune.roma.it

Bad boys, bad boys (or COPS: Georgia)

Sometimes it's hard to think of a proper title for a blog entry, nothing interesting comes to mind, or encapsulates the contents properly. This one had the opposite problem, with the two up there, along with Men in Black, it's a small world, the long road home, and some others coming to mind, but anyway, let's get to the story...

Yesterday morning, we were going to head back to Yerevan which involved catching a cab to the bus station (no metro there), catching a marshutni (mini-van) to Yerevan, then catching either a cab or a marshutni or two home from the bus station in Yerevan. I asked my friend how nice it would be if a car would just pick us up right there and drive us straight home. Soon after the woman running the place we were staying told us there were Armenians with their own van who arrived late that night and were heading to Armenia that morning and said we could get a lift with them. Not believing our luck we joined this collection of 3 Armenians to make five, and head back home together. One was an Armenian whose parents immigrated to Armenia from Iran long ago, one a Georgian-Armenian who moved to Armenia long ago, and one a Yerevantsi who had emigrated to Israel five years ago, but now spend half her year in Yerevan. We all had 10 year passports except the one Armenian citizen - whose parents were from Iran. It seems that at the visa office in Yerevan, they discourage almost everyone from applying for the 10 year passport, they instead tell you to apply for a 1 year (for the same price!) and keep reapplying... of course this expands their opportunities to collect money a great deal, and you really have to insist on the 10 year.

In the "small world" segment of the story, it turns out I knew friends of the Israeli-Armenian in Haifa, where the Armenians from Hayastan have a pretty tight-knit community, and I knew the Georgian-Armenian girl from a bar she worked at that I visited just once one year ago.

So anyway, we headed off, stopping at a huge marketplace near the airport on the way - and I mean massive. It was a muddy mess from a rain I had not heard fall at night, and though most of the shops were shut since it mostly operates at night for traders to take their wares to market in the day, it was impressive nonetheless, with loads of Armenian shoppers.

From there we headed to the border, stopping just before at an Armenian village where the Georgian-Armenian girls parents live. Her mom prepared a feast in something like 5 minutes - I think it was a new world record. After feasting and talking (and of course drinking a bit of homemade vodka, this time from grape) we headed for the last stretch of road to the border.

There weren't too many cars, and we soon were two cars away from passing customs, with all the car papers processed, when a bunch of men in black ran past our car to the customs post with pistols in their hands chasing one or more customs workers, another guy ran behind them with a video camera, recording the events. It was surreal, soon all the customs workers and soldiers were standing against the building with their hands raised, with a swat team (ski masks, automatic weapons) guarding them, the men in black (with pistols) questioning them and taking them to pee, and searching the area with black lights and flashlights for something. Meanwhile two dogs played at the feet of the apprehended customs guys and the swat team guys quite obliviously. This went on for hours, right before our eyes when they had us move off to the side. The small black dog at this point stood in the middle of the cleared area and looked around, looking a bit confused at the activity. Shortly after this the Minister of the Interior of Georgia's arrived with a large media circus following him, including CNN. We suspect it was either about bribes or drugs or both, but don't know.

Finally they started letting cars through again and as we made our way towards Armenia the Georgian-Armenian girl saw her father passing in the opposite direction towards Georgia and talked to him, and gave him some water, as he'd been waiting for hours as well. The final hurdle of getting our passports stamped left us speechless as the Georgian asked us for cigarettes... When we got to the Armenian border, the guard remembered the Israeli-Armenian girl from a previous trip 6 months ago, and we got stamped and through... the last sight being the black dog playing at our feet... he'd just walked across the bridge to Armenia - no visa, no problems... we just had to laugh.

REJECTED

Finally back from my trip... it feels like I've been gone for ages. Luckily the weather doesn't seem too bad in Yerevan (ie. cold). It's sunny and not too much colder than Tblisi.

Last August when I was in Tblisi I was tempted to apply for a visa to go to Azerbaijan since, I'd really love to see it and compare and contrast, and get a feel for what the vibe is like there. I never got around to it, but this time, with fresh reports from Katy at Blogrel.com it seemed that as unlikely as it would be, I may as well give it a try. Before heading to Turkey me and another Diasporan applied at the Azeri Embassy. The consular official who took our application seemed to have been caught a bit offguard - the only question he asked was about my friend's occupation and time in Armenia, and he forgot even to take my application (I had to hand the obvious papers and passport in my hands to him after he concluded the meeting). In any case, we were quite surprised to hear him say "no problem, come back in 3 days". Still not completely convinced, we went to Turkey and returned to the embassy at 10am. After waiting around (everyone waits outside on the street, a muddy construction area with nowhere to sit) for a while, he came out to us and said to come back at 4pm to pick up the visas. We were again amazed, but asked if it could be earlier so we could catch the 3pm bus to Baku... he said, ok, 1pm it is then and took our passports. Well, in a state of disbelief, but rather happy, we headed off to kill a few hours and eat some delicious khachapuris. At exactly 1 we arrived back and the guard (Georgian) rather rudely informed us that the official was not there and he had no idea when he'd come. Our suspicion was that the rudeness was over our morning laughter (suppressed, but maybe not enough) when he tried very publicly and unsuccessfully to get the phone number of a cute girl applying for a visa.

After waiting an hour and a half, the consular guy drove up and saw us, and said there was a problem and said to wait another few minutes. After we got in he said he had been sure we'd get the approval and even had stamped the visas in our passports, but they had not gotten the clearance from Baku for some reason and he had to cancel them. Is it possible we could get an invitation from someone in Azerbaijan? Well my friend said he had an Azeri classmate a year earlier and could get one from him, but it would take too much time so there was no point. The official asked his name and when it was given, another guy wrote it down not thinking we'd notice. Then he asked the friends address and phone number and other details, even though we had made it clear we were not going to pursue the letter or the visa... rather scary. We expressed regret that it was not issued and curiosity that others had not had this same problem, he assured us he had no idea what had happened and that an invitation, any invitation surely would have put us over the top... we extended our hands to shake, catching him a bit by surprise (not that our entire application wasn't one), and left - none of us ever mentioning the pink elephant in the room.

I had heard that those with last names ending in -ian or -yan are not given visas, and knew of specific cases including one where the US Ambassador had to intervene to get a US govt employee in. It's really a shame they have adopted this policy, and that along with the war rhetoric makes me wonder if they can possibly be genuinely working towards a peace deal at these peace talks, but still remain hopeful...

Babymania

Vayk is the luckiest one out of our 3 kids since he will have not one, not two but FIVE playmates of his own age; two Lebanese, the other Canadian, one Australian-German another American.

Lots of young Armenian couple friends are having babies. This is a good sign. However, this is not enough to repopulate Armenia. I wish the Government (an why not, the Diaspora) would devise a plan to encourage the growth of the birthrate and immigration. Although it seems more Arabs, Iranians and Indians are migrating here to study/work, I would think it would be perhaps a good idea to have some more repast to join us.

Leaving Turkey

I must say I left with a not so great taste in my mouth. It seemed everybody was out to cheat us and trick us this time, so we headed back to Tiflis as fast as we could, which involved a night in the dump of a village of Posof. Whenever we were taking transport, exchanging money, or negotiating anything, and even at the border it seemed pretty clear we were getting a "special" price indeed. I didn't get a chance to talk to many locals about the Armenian thing, though at Ani I did ask the ticket guy why the huge sign did not mention Armenians anywhere, and as usual, he shrugged, then moved on to asking if we wanted to stay at a hotel he knows in Kars...

It is great being back in Tiflis, which I am enjoying. The more time I spend the more some of the differences are apparent to me. There just aren't the ridiculous Hummers and extremely expensive cars here, and strangely enough very few Nivas as well. The roads are pretty good though, so that might explain the Niva thing. There are noticeably more foreign cars though, like VWs and Fords. Crossing the street here is harder because of wider streets with fewer lights, and so people don't walk across all over like in Yerevan.

In the metro, like most other places, there is no Russian script, though you can see where the Russian letters were cut off of the walls. I find that sad in a city which prides itself on diversity and is multiethnic... even Armenia which is 98% Armenian did not remove the Russian letters. The metro is bigger though with over 2x as many stations and double the number of cars in use - lots of people use it to get around. I think Yerevan's metro needs to double the number of stops in order to be more useful as well.

One other interesting Georgia-Turkey note is the visible pipeline project. Massive sections of it seem to be underway still, right by the border... you have to see it to understand the scale of the project I think.

NUR

It's NUR season!

It's always been one of my most favourite fruits, and my fridge's fruit drawer is filled with them right now. Well, that and granny apples.

I just cleaned one, like my mom used to for me when I lived with my family :-( and it looked so yummy and cool I had to take a pic of it before I dove into it.

Where am I?

I am dying of exhaustion, and annoyed by yet another different keyboard. Wait, I fixed that problem... much better. OK, so I am in Kars now. Two nights with terrible sleep, last night camping at 2km elevation in a snow/frost zone which was pretty brutal. Tonight a hotel it is! We drove through Borjomi in Georgia then Akhaltsikhe (not Akhalkalakh) which was some of the best scenery we'd seen in Georgia besides Kazbeki and the botanic gardens of Batumi on a past trip. Unfortunately hit the Turkish border (where they were nice enough but it was a rather confused process and they tried to screw us really good on the exchange rate for car insurance) at night and didn't get to see the scenery in daylight, but the moon was almost full and bright orange, so we did pass a massive lake (thanks to a wrong turn) and the campground was chosen for us by car trouble. We woke with everything - including the tents - literally covered in frost.

One of the strangest things about being here is that it is spitting distance from Armenia, but TWO time zones behind. So the sun rises at 5:30 and sets at (no kidding) 3:30, and it's not even the equinox yet. It is quite ridiculous. Aaaanyway, all day was spent at Ani, which is just so amazing even the second time. I actually saw new stuff I hadn't noticed last time and it was quite different looking in the winter than in the spring, but the scale and all was just incredible yet again...

That's all I have the energy to write now.....

Serious Log

I heard a rumour that the first McDonald's in Armenia will open on Tumanyan Street, on the first floor of Dodi Gago's new residential building project, next to the infamous Shawarma place.

Anyway ...

There's something I've been wanting to write about for quite some time, but I've always thought that I should just keep my mouth shut so that I don't get nasty remarks for whatever reason. But, after seeing Raffi's recent blog, I figured I should just talk.

I don't want to put our race on a pedestal, and talk as though we are better than all other races of this world (we're not, right?) ... but I've always believed that drug use has never been a huge part of the lives of Armenians. Sure I'm making a generalization, but I'm not saying that Armenians do not use drugs. Excluding marijuana, harder drugs don't seem to be as widespread as they seem to be in other races. Again, I will say that I'm not saying Armenians do not use harder drugs, and I know 'cause I have witnessed Armenians ruining their lives, and even committing suicide, due to drug use. But if I compare us Armenians to what I've seen and heard of Georgians, we are much less interested in drugs than they seem to be.

I was in Tbilisi a couple of years back, and I couldn't believe the things some local kids were saying. They were shocked to learn that I don't smoke pot. For these kids, smoking pot was a daily routine. And according to them, everyone in Tbilisi uses drugs. Maybe they were just stoned and talking stupidity, but Raffi making the same sort of observation makes me wonder.

Moving on ...

On so many occasions I have noticed diasporan visitors seeking drugs. They ask me where they can find stuff, and they also ask my local friends who get shocked by their requests.

Recently, I even heard an idiot diasporan say, "I want to move to Armenia to be a dealer, I think there is a huge market for it."

So this is the kind of pathetic contribution some corrupt diasporans want to give to Armenia and Armenians. Bravo!

I always figured us diasporans should try to sort of analyze what we have learned by living abroad, and to share those observations, good and bad, with locals who constantly ask us about life in the west. Never to paint a picture of North America as being paradise, and never to make it seem like Armenia is the best place on earth and the west sucks.

To see some people, particularly North Americans, coming here and giving the rest of us a bad reputation is really disgusting. What's also so disturbing is that they seem to be mostly diasporans doing this more often than non-Armenian visitors. So is this the best way we can contribute?

Sorry for the serious blog. I promise the next one will be fun.

Georgia

Well tomorrow will make it a full week in Georgia, and I've had a lot of time to absorb and observe. It's been quite cool. Aside from a trip up to Kazbeki, it's been Tblisi the whole time.

Kazbeki is a small mountain town along the Georgian Military Highway en route to Russia. It is in a bowl of impressive mountains, with a cool monastery and then the lone peak of Kazbeki Mountain which forms the actual border with Russia. In the village we stayed at Vano's house (he's Georgian) and he told us about the village church which he said his Italian (either grandfather or grandfather's grandfather) ancestor designed... he said it was an Armenian Church on the silk road and that a few years ago the inscriptions were erased and removed. It was a rather nice little church for a small village and when I checked it out all the inscriptions were indeed removed, and it really wasn't clear to me if some carved inscriptions laying around were old or new or what... but in any case I'll put the pictures online when I'm back. He also told us about a UFO he saw in Tblisi and many other strange things, so.....

Alright, now here are a bunch of random thoughts from the past few days.
-Many old churches are being rebuilt all over - from scratch or whatever is left. They are very religious here compared to Armenia and plus these are making the city more interesting. All the work is very well done.
-Electricity and gas cuts are normal. Long cuts can occur, and do.
-People dress much more like the west here, and their hair and such as well is much more normal. They look much better than in Armenia :-( But the Georgians we spoke to said it happened pretty much in the past 2 years, so there is hope! :-)
-Again getting around in Armenian as much as possible is fun. Quite interesting to test peoples levels of comprehension. Many don't speak any at all, some speak a tiny bit, some understand but don't speak, and some are just plain fluent... including an Azeri guy we met yesterday who was very nice to us. Most people seem to want to emphasize that differences don't matter, and overall I think they mean it except that there is a very real pressure to be Georgian first and last, and I don't think the next generation will have virtually any non-Armenians speaking Armenian. Times have changed, populations are more mixed, and Georgian is the lingua franca, Russian is not very prevalent at all.
-Prices do seem to be higher for most things, though not vastly.
-Drug use seems to be much more prevalent, from marijuana to heroin. There are a fair number of used needles laying around, and people do ask if you smoke pot. There is a popular Georgian movie in the theatres now about a group of Georgians who go to Karabakh to buy pot.

And as a transitory ending, tomorrow we're off to Western Armenia. As the map was spread out at a Turkish restaurant, a young Turk came over and asked if we are going to Turkey and if he could answer any questions. We just asked what he recommended and such and at one point he said he was from Kayseri (Gessaria). When I said two of us at the table had a grandparent from there, he looked at us both, and then didn't say anything...

LEVI'S

My local friends constantly ask me questions about the English language (how to say certain words, how to form sentences, and so on.)

Since I've been living here, I've come to realize how complex the English language is. Not necessarily how rich it is, but rather how inconsistent things are. (I suppose it's like one of those things that has always been there, but I've never taken notice of.) For example, there are too many synonyms, which the Armenian language doesn't seem to have a lot of. Then there are the abnormal pronunciations of many words, abnormal because they don't match up with the way the words are spelt. This abnormality rarely occurs in the Armenian language, especially in the Modern Eastern Armenian spelling used in Armenia.

If you know how to read Armenian, then you most probably know how to pronounce the words correctly. But in English, it's a totally different world. Am I making any sense? (If you know what I'm talking about, just take any sentence in this blog and you'll notice.)

I know I shouldn't be comparing the two languages, but I've realized that the more I learn the Armenian language (modern, not Grabar) and how to express my thoughts, the more I understand how rich, yet simple (in most ways) it is at the same time. Pronunciations are straight-forward, especially since we rarely have more than one letter to make a certain sound (in English, ie. "ch", "sh", etc.) Also, when you hear a word for the first time, you can usually guess what it means by just dissecting that word, since Armenian has a tendency to combine words to make new ones.

Anyway, I'm sort of getting into too many details, but here is what I'm trying to get at...

I know NIKE is a brand, and not an actual word in the English vocabulary, but most locals in Armenia pronounce the name NIKE the exact way it is spelt. When I try to correct people and tell them it's pronounced "Ni-Key" they get all confused.

Ya ya, no reason to make a big fuss, but...

I just saw a new LEVI'S store, which replaced the Shanghai Chinese Restaurant on Mashtots. (I'm not sure if it's an official franchise, but anyway, that's not my point here.) The store's sign says "LEVI’S" and beside it is the same word in Armenian, but spelt to pronounce "Léveess".

We are one... or are we?

What's up with all the anonymous commenters?

To start, I am all for constructive criticism, but what I read in the comments to my log about "Can't have one without the other" was disturbing. It sort of reminds me of our history; every time one melikdom (is the such a word?) rises to power the other tries to bring them down - no need for Arabs and Turks or Persians, we could crumble our own system, thank you!

I mean who can really prove what the Diaspora really contributed, physically or financially? and who can honestly say where the assistance went (in some peoples pockets or to the cause?). So there are faults and successes everywhere. What we really should focus on is the common points, like how can we pressure international powers to finally recognize Karabagh as a Republic or even as part of Armenia - after all it is considered ours either way.

I would like to see some comments on what types of means should all the parties (Armenia, Karabagh and the Diaspora) use to convince the world that this is not invaded land but reclaimed.

Instead of bickering on who fought with guns and who supported with money and lobbying, let's discuss Javakhk, Nakhijevan and Western Armenia. I mean are we really ready to stand by any of these lands in the case of retribution or another victory?

Unfortunately I am not that optimistic about the united front, not only because of the comments you write, but because these comments reflect a bitter reality that lies within all Armenian communities – note, I am not individualizing the problem as much as pointing my fingers at communities, organizations and “doctrinised” Armenian institutions.

It's all Cabaret!

It was a full weekend from receiving a French delegation at work to celebrating 2 wonderful friends’ wedding anniversary. The wife is a distant cousin with whom I grew up in Canada and the husband is a great guy Lara and I had met at he university ASA. They have been here for several months and would really like to find a decent job (or two) to stay or even come back for. They will be returning soon. I will miss them a lot since they have been our neighbors for some two months and we have spent lots of time together. They have a baby a few months older than Vayk. They are so cute together.

Last night we had a typical “hayastanstsi” celebration on Proshyan street’s “Ceasar’s Palace”. Food was good – khorovadz, kyabab and Areni. Live Armenian music entertained us all night. We danced – it was nice evening.

Today we attended one of the best shows of the Chamber theatre “Cabaret”. This show is a must see. You do not need to understand Armenian to attend. It is full of light humor and fun songs and skits. This theatre is one of the oldest so called alternative and progressive artistic venues. I for one have seen the Cabaret 8 times – and will return for more.

Tblisi

I'm in Tblisi this weekend, and having a great time. It's cool being back a second time and already knowing my way around, talking to some people from my last trip, speaking Armenian to everyone to test their knowlege :-) Again I was amazed by the perfect Armenian of a Jew I met - it was flawless. It's much better this season - without the humidity - though it has rained a lot. An interesting thing I've learned is that the Armenian neighborhood of Havablar, one of the oldest in the city, is going to be torn down completely. Most of the buildings are crumbling, but the architecture is great and I am quite curious to know what will replace it. One massive building is already going up and I think it will be the presidential residence, or the US Embassy, that's what I've heard. Lots of security in any case and no photography allowed... lots of thoughts and little time, so hopefully more later.

Can't have one without the other

It’s really amazing to witness and experience the speedy pace in which Armenia is developing. I am well positioned within the company I work to deal with emerging entrepreneurs, NGOs, International Organizations and Embassies. In just a short time (less then a year) the people of Armenia have lived a dramatic transition from the clothes they wear to the dining and the courtesy in their gestures. Either I am getting used to the lifestyle here and distancing my self from the western standards or true enough, there has been a massive change.
Note, change is note always and only for the better. If you were here only a year ago and if you were to revisit Yerevan now, you will notice how many new shops, restaurants and hotels have emerged. You will also notice the change of landscape in the downtown area where most of the old structures have been destroyed to build some new, lifeless buildings.
More of this destruction is taking place near the vernissage. However, it seems there is one very nice building open the corner of Hanrapetutyun and Tikran Mets that will be renovated and keep its identity. this historic building is where the first independent republic was announced from.
Another building has been saved. It is the one on Amiryan, in front of the Bellagio café (note – never go to this café; awful service). the owner won the court case claiming that if this building was destroyed, the oldest standing building in Yerevan would be the Iranian mosque on Mashtots… imagine that!

More Mango?

Since I spend most of my time at work and cannot log about those events (oh though I would love to) I feel like I must add the female perspective on the opening of Mango.

The is the fourth actual representation to open here in Armenia (lead by Betty Barclay - Germany, Naf Naf - France, Two Lips Shoes - US, and now Mango - Spanish). It seems that a franca-hay has franchized this spanish clothing line and he must have paid a pretty buck or two. Franchising costs 100,000 euro down in addition to the cost of purchasing the property, equipment, and a number of other things. The store is pretty small but apparently Mango tried to purchase a number of properties next door and was denied. (Prices here are sky rocketing and to purchase a store now costs between 2k-4k per square meter pending on location). They say that if dual citizenship is finally allowed that real estate prices are going to go up yet again.

I went in yesterday and clearly made a small purchase (got to help the Armenian stores, right) and was pleasantly surprised by the prices. A number of "fake" stores have opened their doors here in Armenia and sell clothing for ridiculous markups. The Victoria Secret store, for example, charges about $15 minimum for undies that cost no more than $5 in the US. The store continues to be busy and Armenians are ready to spend their money on normal priced clothing (the girls must look good, right?) It will be interesting to see what happens one month down the road when the excitement of it's opening has dwindled down.

In other news I had lunch two weeks ago at Artbridge with a few friends. The lead singer of SOAD was there and it was great to see local Armenians enamored by him as well. He seemed quite nice - giving autographs to whomever asked - pregnant ladies included!

Have I mentioned that the Hrazdan stadium now has three hard tennis courts? It is now THE tennis club here in Armenia and is being renovated to meet "international standards". Apparently sponsorship is coming from wealthy Armenians in Turkey as well as the president of the Armenian Tennis Federation. My tennis partner and I saw him play the other day at the courts and he actually had brought multiple body guards with him. Who needs body guards to play tennis? Maybe he's scared of flying balls... hmm...

Mango Madness

Der Hova - I've beat you to the punch with the Mango photo at least. What an absolute zoo! Also tried Central Cafe - everything tasted great, but the price/portion ratio left something to be desired.

Chickenless Caesar

I just ate at a restaurant I frequently go to.

I ordered a Chicken Caesar Salad and the waitress told me, "The salad won't have any chicken in it because we refuse to use any poultry due to the bird flu virus."

WOW, you think, how thoughtful for being careful with their customers staying healthy. But wouldn't it have made sense to actually make the salad cheaper?

Basically, with the bird flu virus spreading around, these guys are actually making a profit.

(I wonder how many times I've said this since moving here...) Only in Armenia.

Shops on Abovyan

You guys know that area of Abovyan Street between Sayat Nova and Moskovyan which has always had so much potential to develop, but was always sort of run down ... well except for that beautiful section of Café de Paris???

A lot of construction was been happening around there over the past few months, and the place is cleaning up big time.

The arcade, a few stores up from California Pizza, has just transformed into a Mango (MNG) franchise. Across the street is a store called Studio 26 which carries all BSB clothing from Greece. Next to it is another clothing store called Roberto, and next to that are a few other places being built, which will probably also turn into clothing stores. A nice new big café has also opened up across from Café de Paris called Central Café.

I definitely have to head up there again this week to take some pics for everyone to see.

Armenian flash...

A couple of people sent me this link to an Armenian flash animation which they said is quite funny... the internet's not fast enough for me to watch it just now, but no reason for you not to check it out and let me know how it is :-)

http://www.flashplayer.com/animation/numbertwerve_movie.php

http://www.flashplayer.com/animation/mrsbutcher.html

and a bonus temporary link on groong which quite amused me: Going for the elusive gold

Smoking???

I noticed this week a new section of a cafe has been built of glass so that it can operate throughout the winter. I also noticed a big no smoking symbol for the new section. It was so great to see... and then I remembered. On January 1, supposedly, new anti-smoking laws come into force which require non-smoking sections everywhere. I don't see other places making changes, and there isn't that much time left, so let's see how that all plays out. But just the thought of it has me excited!

Model Village

So there was another thing I wanted to share about Barcelona, though I'm back in Yerevan. While I was there, one of the coolest things I visited was a village, built for tourists. The village was in the middle of Barcelona, with every narrow street (no cars allowed) being typical of a specific region of Spain. It was very well done with every little angle being picturesque, and loads of appropriate stores for tourists as well as restaurants and bars. You actually had to pay to enter, but I think it would be even cooler just open to the city/world. I could see Kond being redeveloped like that with a tiny section of Dilijan architecture, then Goris, then Meghri, then Tashir, then Hadrut, then Gyumri, then old Yerevan, then Marash and Van and so on... it's not going to happen, but anyway, I loved the idea and the implementation.

Comeback

BIG NEWS – Artur Mesjyan makes a HUGE comeback last night. That’s right, I had the pleasure of attending the long awaited concert of Mesjyan who could be considered a guru of Armenian Blues. This poet-singer-composer was absent from the music scene and even from Armenia for over 7 years. He had been singing about the corruption, the spoiled governing bodies, the dream of a better Armenia… then for some reason he disappeared in the very deep parts of the USA.

Last night a , thanks to Vahan Arzruni’s dedicated organization - he stole everybody’s heart. I was mad at him though – why sing these songs after such a long abandonment? Where was he and the rest of the real heroes when the country and the people needed them most. Iwas struggling not o blame him and try to understand perhaps why someone like him with all the love he could feel for his people, just leave – I guess when push comes to shove; you shove off!

I am sure that by now you have also heard about the new café they are erecting in front of the Gomidas Chamber Music Hall; the next time you attend an Aram Gharapegyan or Anna Mailyan concert, you wil probably hear a nice background of some Russian pop or Armenian Rabiz – nice touch, don’t you think?

Some of you may also be wondering where I have been for such a long time. Well, consider this as my come back!

I will give you a brief update about the past couple of months:

Jan 05 – Visited family in Canada and held recruitment fairs for LCO in the USA
March-April 05 – changed jobs from Program Director of LCO to Commercial Manager of VivaCell, the new mobile operator (I know what you are thinking; Raffi in the corporate world???)
May 4, 2005 – Lara and I had our third baby; Vayk is our first son – he is now 6 months old and the cutest attraction in Armenia.
No vacation this year –
working on the house in Shushi – The B&B will be ready by Spring
met Raffi Menechian –
waiting for Arsineh –

That’s enough for now. More later.

new expat blogger

check out the newest addition to the expat log, which will give us another interesting perspective.... Welcome (father-to-be) Klaus!

Armenia, Armenia

I haven't logged in a long time. Many reasons...none very interesting.

Last night I fulfilled one of my long-held wishes and that was to see Rouben Hakhverdian in concert in Armenia. I had seen him in concert in the US, but had never had the opportunity to do so in Armenia--in Yerevan, the city which his songs immortalize.

Although the venue was not one that I necessarily enjoyed, and one would argue somewhat ironic, the concert was nonetheless very enjoyable.

Hakhverdian's sense of irony, sense of political incorrectness, and his ability to conjure nostalgia about a by-gone era in every listener, even when one has no frame of reference of the Yerevan of yester-year, is uncanny and simply invigorating.

He began and ended the 2 hour affair with his signature "Sa Erevann Eh" (This is Erevan), which reminded the audience of a Yerevan that now is in the throws of rapid modernization, and he sang the praises of Digin Arus, the quintessential Armenian grandmother, in the sunset of her life. Having seen the transformation of some of the physical reminders of that era, I thought of a picture that I had taken earlier yesterday, which at the time was simply an interesting image, but last night turned into a more palpable testament to what we had, what we have, and where we're going--and perhaps what we have lost, irrevocably.

All in a day's life, today, in Yerevan.

A touch of Armenia (and Karabakh!) in Barcelona...

Somebody's calling the homeland...