tourists and fashion...
The tourist season has begun even earlier than ever. For the last 3 weeks I've been seeing a lot of foreigners on the streets. I don't know where they're coming from, how many are Diasporan and how many completely non-Armenian, but it bodes well for the industry... visitors all just seem to love it here - I hear more and more people wanting to stay, wanting to move here... how can you sit at a cafe with a friend, people watching, drinking a half liter beer for 50 cents, walk all over in safety, and not entertain the thought?
Speaking of people watching - another tiny, but groundshaking change in the fashion here. Every single guy no longer crops his hair uniformly to 1 cm (half an inch). The new thing is for the hair on top to go long, and grow straight forward, a huge difference in looks and a big step towards the non-standardization of hairstyles. The guys look so much better with this one little change, and many have started to dress more normally too, with pointy black shoes taking a first-time drop in popularity. Girls, who still have a different style than in the west, have been looking great for a few years now... they give the girls in any city in the world a serious run for their money - though you don't get as much variation in height, hair, eye and skin color as you do in Australia, Barcelona or other multi-ethnic cities obviously.
Speaking of people watching - another tiny, but groundshaking change in the fashion here. Every single guy no longer crops his hair uniformly to 1 cm (half an inch). The new thing is for the hair on top to go long, and grow straight forward, a huge difference in looks and a big step towards the non-standardization of hairstyles. The guys look so much better with this one little change, and many have started to dress more normally too, with pointy black shoes taking a first-time drop in popularity. Girls, who still have a different style than in the west, have been looking great for a few years now... they give the girls in any city in the world a serious run for their money - though you don't get as much variation in height, hair, eye and skin color as you do in Australia, Barcelona or other multi-ethnic cities obviously.
posted by Raffi K. at 6:39 PM
17 Comments:
Awwww man, not the pointy toed black faux-crocodile leather shoes a la Italia...Man! JUST WHEN MY EYES HAD MADE TERMS WITH THEM...TSK
Omigod. They do that pointy toe shoe in Glendale, too. So much so, that the Glendale Galleria men's shoes stores stock those types of shoes. You just can't trust the Galleria anymore. WHY?!
Whats wrong with pointy toed shoes ? Am I missing something ? Johnston Murphys rule! Faux crocodile is gross though, have to agree on that one. Actually, any crocodile is gross.
I get an adventures abroad catalouge in the mail every now and then. This organization puts together tours to all parts of the world and the latest brochure included a piece about their new destination "Armenia and the Caucasus" From what I read a bulk of the trip is within Armenia and they visit Yerevan and Lake Sevan.
Last time I was at Zvartnots Airport picking up a friend a herd of English speaking (but not American) tourists boarded a tour bus with their non-Armenian guide and they were off!!!
It's great to see and hear about the number of non-Armenian tourists visiting Armenia!!!
Lori: It certainly is good to hear! But I always get nervous when I hear about odar tourists in Armenia -- just in case it doesn't live up to their expectations.
Interesting, I just spent a few days in Yerevan and I didn't notice many more non-Armenian looking tourists than I saw about 5 years ago. As for the hair style of Armenian men, same old same old to me. As for living in Yerevan, sure cafes and all are nice but the air pollution and the treatment you have to deal with as pedestrian are becoming real quality of life issues. Otherwise it was fun, especially if you are a non-Armenian who speaks the language a bit. Everybody appreciated my efforts very much.
Lori, i wonder who were those English speakers who were not Americans. Who eles would speak English other than Americans? Maybe people from where English language originated? Maybe England.
wasp there are also a few other countries where English is the main language, Canada, Australia, etc. Maybe they were North American Armenians who don't really know Armenian or are too used to speaking English.
Or Australia. Or South Africa. Or Canada.
New Zealand
Or Ireland. or New Zealand .... but naturally not as "pure" as Americanised English !
anonymous - frankly, if you've been gone for 5 years, you've forgotten just how the guys here dressed/cut their hair over time, and so the difference was not apparent to you. I was gone for 3 months, and the difference was striking.
Lets be a little more optimistic about the state of Armenia. I recently accepted a job offer with KPMG in Yerevan, my family and I are moving from San Francisco to Yerevan, we are extremely excited. whats the weather like in Yerevan?
IF you have not been to armenia for about 10 years and planning to go this summer is there alot thats changed also are the females up them selves , meaning do they think they are the best or friendly?
If you're moving to Yerevan, you should read: http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Live_in_Armenia
If you haven't been here in 10 years, you may not recognize it at all...
Well, yes a lot has changed during the past 10 years. At least in the very center of Yerevan and that is good. I hope that soon there will be at least some money available to work on the roads etc. in the hoods that are a one mile or more away from the center. Some of it still looks the same. Sure the center is all tourist friendly and the casinos on the way from the airport at fun to look at. For real substance more needs to change though. Also the attitude of making things just look nice so the city can compete with European cities. "Yerevan has everything now, things from France, Germany, Italy etc." is what I got to hear. I don't need to be impressed with such things, I find it more interesting that I saw arts and crafts that I had not seen before.
The English speaking tourists were definately not American or Canadian as they had distinct accents, but I didn't want to elude to where they could be from since I'm not good at identifying the differences between Irish, English, New Zeland and Australia accents.
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