Hey, jan, ghapama!

Thanksgiving, one of everybody who's tried its favorite holidays, is right around the corner. Lots of eating with friends and family, and miraculously, no cards or wasteful gift giving!

I'm all ready for pecan and pumpkin pies, things we manage to get our hands on even while in Armenia (they don't even have pecans in this country, shocking, no?). But one thing I recommend for your family to add to the menu in the US, is the famous ghapama! Yup, you've heard Harout Pampoukjian croon about it, you've been wondering what's been missing from your thanksgiving table, and here it is... a second centerpiece... an entire, baked pumpkin, with a delicious sweet rice inside. Oooooookh!

So knock on wood, but the fall has been really great this year, and continues to be relatively so. Hopefully this keeps up through December. Because Armenia celebrates Christmas on Jan 6, and it's not such a big deal here compared to New Years, we still haven't got any Holiday decorations showing up on the streets.

So let me finish the story of the gas shutoff. So after Shooshig warned me there would be no gas, and I got home to indeed find my house in a slow cool, I thought it would be ok, since Shooshig said it should be turned on the next evening. Indeed, I happened upon a posted notice the next day that the gas was being turned off for two days, including the hour it would be turned back on! Who knew I should read those notices posted in the stairwell? So that night, not having showered (since I had no hot water), I anxiously awaited that gas that would not come. In the morning, still no gas. Ouch. So by night, when I was supposed to leave the house, I hear this loudspeaker going outside. You can't make any sense of what they're saying, but it goes on and on. Because it's for so long, I assume the police are trying to clear all the parked cars from the side of the road for an important motorcade, when suddenly, I hear the entire announcement again, and the whole thing makes sense. "Attention valuable customers! We are turning the gas back on! Please follow all safety precautions!!"

I check the gas, and a minute later it's on! I jump in the shower after 3 days and it's heaven... and just in time. I had to head out 5 min later. On my way out, I see what must be the gas guy going door to door as reached the floor below mine. I whiz past, almost stopping to say all's well by me (since he's coming to check safety -they're very paranoid about gas safety here), but decide to keep going. When I get home, no gas again! Another cold night, until I wake up cold and my brain clicks, and I realize, he had turned off my gas, since I wasn't home for him to check if everything was ok!! I go down in my pjs, with a light and some pliers, and sure enough, my suspicion was correct... I crank it back on and go home to wait for things to finally heat up.

Now, I heard a few conspiracy theorists say the government turned off the gas on purpose now, just to remind people what things were like in Ter-Petrossians time (cold!). Now I can't say I believe that theory, but I can say it reminded everyone - regardless of whether that was actually his fault or not.