I wish I were one of Tolkien's elves...

I am a walker. I've often thought of changing my surname to "Pedestrian". Heheheh, bad one, eh ? Anyway, Like some guy once said in some old movie, "I like to talk to a man who likes to talk". Well, me, I like to walk with a man who likes to walk. Unfortunately, I haven't met that person yet, so I go on my little hikes quite by myself...

Yerevan is a good city if one likes to walk. Just about everything is walking distance, or can be made to be. If you're not pressed for time, it's almost a crime to not walk everywhere, especially around the centre of town. However, over the past few days, we have been receiving loads and loads of snow, and this has made walking about somewhat more difficult. Get the drift ? (Heheheh, sorry, couldn't resist that one) But that does not stop me. Neither sleet nor rain, nor snow... Well, actually, I don't really like walking in the rain, and I'm not exactly sure what "sleet" is, but as for the snow, ha! I laugh the white fluffy stuff in the face. They're all a bunch of flakes anyway... Oops, did it again, didn't I ? Heheheh. I kill myself sometimes (I expect many of those reading this right now wish that were literally true).

Right. On my snowy way down to my internship, I noticed a formidable sight: Armenian women, shovelling. Yes, sir, it was powerful, and, once again, I came to realise that this nation of ours would be nothing without its strong, capable, glorious, if a bit unsung, women heroes. And by that I mean The Everyday Woman. Mayrig, kuyrig, horkour, morkour... There's a lovely song, one of the old Tashnag favourites, about one Gigo. His mother complains that they won't take him to battle for liberty because he's too young, and she says that she wants to see him with a gun before she dies. And then there's "Zartir vortyag", another very good one, about a mother awakening her son, calling him to battle, preparing him for it... She says, "Aha krchi pokhan kez sour, pokhan tghti grvi tashd / Kna prgir ko Hayrenik, ko mayr jbdi koh yev hashd", roughly, "Here is a sword for you instead of a pen, and a battlefield in place of paper / Go and free your Fatherland, so that your mother may smile with contentment". Quite touching...

But I digress. I was talking about my walk through the city the other day. The snow had pretty much ceased already, and it was (still is) getting on the warm side, as I stopped to buy some mandarins from one of those street spots on Paregamoutiun. They'll soon be shutting down street vendors, by the way. I don't know if I like that... Too "European" for me, I prefer the "Eastern bazaar" motif to Yerevan's streets... Anyway, anyway, I went off on a tangent again. So, as I was buying the mandarins, this bunch of snow falls right on my head...! Very fortunately, the fruitmonger had pulled over a cellophane sheet on top of his wares, and that prevented anything perhaps dangerous from happening, but it did fall RIGHT on my head, which I thought was rather amusing...

Still, it was hard walking that day, and I thought of the elves from J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings". They can walk ON the snow, you know, as can be witnessed in the movies of the same name, and I thought, "If only I weren't Nareg, with an internship, but Legolas, of the Fellowship"... Heheheh... I wonder how ol' J.R.R. came up with that character's name ? Oh yeah, now I remember. He was visiting Edinburgh, and saw this girl who was very much after a man. But he wasn't interested, and as she threw herself at him, he shrugged her off and said, "Leggo, lass!", and thus an everlasting name was born... Okay, okay, I'm making that one up. I always make those ones up...

But my sentiment is true; it would be nice if I could walk on the snow. And I sort of did today, for the most part, as the top layer has frozen already. Ah, you see ? Living in Yerevan, one's dreams come true... Of course, if I didn't live around here, chances are there wouldn't be this much snow about in the first place, or - better - the authorities would deign to clean it up... Anyway, another interesting bit to do with snow: I had my first shovelling experience...! It was quite something, I didn't realise one could get so hot and flustered out in the frozen snow without the aid of any of the staff at "Omega" (From what I've heard, of course; never felt the calling of actually going there).

I think I ought to end this blog now. See, I have, 'esd sovoroutyan, been cracking some pretty stupid jokes, and I guess another one will generate strict protests, and I don't want to get Raffi in trouble, especially after such a nice welcome. So, as I'm walking on thin ice, I'll leave it at this much about walking on snow.