Thursday, November 27, 2008

Shakh i Mat!

The title of this post translates to "Checkmate!" --there was great excitement here on Wednesday, because Armenia won gold in the Chess Olympiad for the second year running. Chess is kind of a big deal in this part of the world--kids study it in school, for example. The winning Armenian team was met by a crowd at the airport, covered live on TV, and led on a victory parade throughout the city. (Luckily I was taking the metro home that night so I didn't get caught in the traffic!)
So congratulations to the victorious Armenian team!!

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, so I'd just like to take a second to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving! The U.S. Embassy hosted a Thanksgiving dinner here, so I got to celebrate Thanksgiving for the first time in three years :) There was turkey and mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce in the shape of the can and everything! And of course, pumpkin pie. Yum!
Sorry, no pictures to share though--cameras aren't so much allowed.

One week from today all of the guys will finally be back from Kenya!! The office will once again be a lively place :)

Other random updates:

I start Armenian lessons today :)

I just checked the forecast again, and snow has disappeared from it--it's supposed to be in the 50s for the next 10 days.

I am temporarily sans heat again--in the interest of not dying, I turned off my gas heater when it started burning with orange flames. Need to get Mher to come fix it.

I will be very happy when I'm done with my grad school applications. I kind of detest writing application essays. But for better or worse I'm almost done--deadlines coming up fast!

Guess that's about it. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!!!

Friday, November 21, 2008

Sorry for the long hiatus between posts...

I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted! Time has been going faster and faster here, and when you combine that with an internet connection that has been becoming steadily less reliable and the fact that I've been fairly busy...well...the blog entries form in my head and never quite make it to publication.

I promise I'll try to be better about blogging in the future!!

So...let's see...when I last left you, I had just acquired a new pipe for gas, and was hoping to soon have heating. Well, I have since acquired a gas heater, and though I am still rather concerned about the prospect of dying of carbon monoxide poisoning, at least hypothermia is less of a danger.

I've acquired some other new household objects as well--just this evening, I bought a drying rack and saucepan (well, I find these items exciting anyways). This means that I can do laundry whenever I want, and that I can cook more complex dishes...including attempting to replicate the extremely delicious mushroom soup Nelly made for lunch today. I should probably buy some sort of mat or something that I can put under the drying rack though...otherwise I'm going to end up with a flood. So yeah...my list of domestic objects yet to buy now just includes a dishpan, the mat for under my drying rack, a kitchen lighter, and another rug for my back hall, because my floor just gets way dirty from my shoes. I might make another shopping trip tomorrow.

Now on to the more interesting stuff. At the studio, things have been super-quiet--a lot of the time it's just me, Nelly, Inna, and Tigran. It's been cold lately (although this week has been warmer, thank goodness), so to save energy, I (and Adrineh when she's there) have moved into Inna's office. Besides which it's just more fun that way--it's kind of pointless to have one person per office after all.

Today this German guy and his Slovenian friend/cameraman were here--they came on the 19th, and Anush went with them to Kharabagh (I swear I've started spelling it differently every time I write it...once upon a time I used to spell it Karabakh...I think Kharabagh is more accurate...but I'm not sure.) Today they were back and filming in Yerevan. They're nice guys, and their presence meant we had an extra good lunch which included the super-awesome mushroom soup.

The guys in Kenya are doing well--their trip is almost complete. The two Harut's leave tomorrow...everyone else leaves the 29th. Vardan and Arman will then be coming straight back, but Vahe and Vahagn will be staying in Dubai for a couple more days. From all the pictures they've sent back, Lamu really does look like paradise...I think I'd like to go some day...

This past weekend, I finally got my research really underway and went on a three day roadtrip to Sisian. (I have been corresponding with Peace Corps volunteers for a while, and I had planned this trip earlier, but circumstances beyond my control postponed it to last weekend) I really lucked out with the weather--managed to get in my trip between snowstorms, and the weather there was actually unseasonably warm, which was nice. I stayed with a Peace Corps volunteer in her house and hung out with a number of other volunteers. I also managed two interviews, and realized that this project would go much better if I spoke Armenian. It was funny sometimes, when we would be with some of the villagers, because if everyone was speaking Armenian, I couldn't understand, but if I spoke Russian with them, the Peace Corps volunteers couldn't understand, and if we spoke English together, the villagers couldn't understand. So I really need to learn some Armenian so that I can at least follow a basic conversation.

I'm actually improving on that front...depending on what the conversation is about, if it uses verbs from my list of like 10 verbs that I know, I can sometimes figure out what's going on. But I'm going to hire a private teacher, I think, because I would be learning much faster if I did.

But back to the weekend in Sisian--the first night, we had spaghetti and carrot cake (from scratch!) which was highly delicious. We also just generally had a good time hanging out. The next day, we went to a nearby village where one of the volunteers is stationed. He introduced me to his counterpart there, who is a really awesome guy who is planting a forest. The whole area is amazingly beautiful, and after the interview and a delicious lunch with many toasts in both Armenian and Russian (the latter was just for my benefit), we went with him to see this monastery. And now before I tell you about the monastery, I have to back up and tell about something which happened a few weeks ago...

A few weeks ago, I was asked if I would be willing to do the English voiceover for a film about Garni Geghard. Not knowing what I was getting myself into, I agreed. After all, I speak English, and do a pretty decent job of reading aloud. How hard could it be? Ha!

So it turned out to be an 18 page single spaced text, translated word for word from Armenian. It made very little sense. And it is very difficult to read something poetically when you don't understand it and it's not written poetically. Granted it's much harder to be poetic in English than languages with noun declensions because rhyming is so much easier when your words all have the same ending...

But anyways, after much discussion and argument, we convinced the guy that he needed to get the thing retranslated...he eventually found someone to do this, and that same person agreed to narrate the film, freeing me of the obligation.

Now the reason I tell you this, is that the beginning of the text related the story of this Armenian queen who was being pursued by bandits or some such and crossed herself and jumped with her horse down into the canyon and survived, and then out of thankfulness became a hermit of sorts in this cave that had three springs, after which she wrote poetry and taught classes from behind a curtain. She also had a hand in founding a monastery.

Well, by complete chance, the monastery I visited just happened to be the one that this queen is tied with. There was a plaque placed there by the British Council that explained it all in English. What are the odds that I would randomly end up at that monastery?

Anyways....

On my way to Sisian, I took a group taxi--more expensive, but a faster mode of transport. On the way back, I decided to take a marshrutka and save the 1000 dram. Although...in the end the cost is about the same because I then had to pay 1000 dram for a taxi from the bus station to my apartment. But whatever.

The marshrutka back to Yerevan is supposed to leave around 9am. I was told that it fills up quickly and I should get there by 8. Well...I was the first one there. By a lot. After I had been there for a bit, the taxi driver who had driven me and the Peace Corps volunteer to the village the day before opened up the door to the marshrutka and told me that I should go sit and wait in his taxi instead because it was warm, and in the marshrutka was cold. Having no reason to refuse, I went over and sat in his taxi, which was in fact much warmer than the marshrutka as its engine had just been running. And so I sat there and watched the people go by. For quite some time. At one point, the taxi driver came and turned the car on again for a while to warm it back up. I talked to him for a while...in addition to being a taxi driver he's a journalist for a major Armenian paper, and the Russian Аргументы и Факты. Then his daughter came by and needed a ride somewhere. I made to get out and go sit in the marshrutka, but he gestured for me to stay where I was...so I went along on a brief road trip to another part of Sisian. I was starting to worry that the marshrutka might leave without me but with my backpack which was saving my seat, but we made it back in time.

And I guess that's about it for the news from here. Going to Thanksgiving at the Embassy next week...and on Sunday I'm going to church with Nelly at Etchmiadzin, so that should be pretty cool! But for now I'm going to wrap up. I promise I'll try to be better about posting in the future! But if I don't post again before Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!!!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

The Dust Bowl

The good news: I will have heat--possibly as soon as Monday!
The bad news: this required an approximately 2-in. diameter hole to be drilled into my wall. Drilled and then further chiseled. This activity caused my apartment to become absolutely coated in a thick layer of wall dust. Not drywall, I think...grayish plaster or whatever it is that walls are made of. Instant concrete? Cinderblock? Beats me. I'm a little clueless when it comes to such things. But now there is a new black pipe on the wall next to my window, that heads out to my porch, is connected to the meter thingy (I think) and then further somehow connected to the gasline. On Monday, they'll check to see if the gas works, and I'll get a gas heater in here. I'm slightly paranoid about carbon monoxide poisoning, but on the other hand, my windows don't close all the way...so shouldn't be a problem I think.

So I spent most of my day cleaning. And cleaning and cleaning. There's still a lot of dust around, but I don't think there's much else I can do about it. I should still take my sheets outside and shake them off though. I also hope there's no asbestos in the dust, but not knowing what asbestos looks like, I wouldn't know if there was...

Ah well. In a few days I'll have heat. Which will be really nice.

The massive cleaning also led to a bit of furniture rearranging, which I think has improved the look of my apartment--made it a bit less jail-cell-like. The desk is now on the same wall as the bed instead of underneath the windows. Now I should just put some pictures up on the walls and I'll be all set :)

On Thursday night the whole crew set off for Kenya. I stayed up to see them off...they were worried about the weight of their baggage (nine checked bags for five people including camera equiqment and a motorized paraglider) but Inna talked to them at around 4am right before their flight left, and everything went fine in terms of getting through check-in so that's good! They should be in Nairobi right now...tomorrow morning they leave for Lamu!

This makes everything very weird around the office--for one thing there are hardly any guys left. Magnus is still around for the time being, but he's leaving Nov. 1 to go to Greece. Other than that, Tigran and Mher are still here, but Tigran isn't always there, and Mher, being the security guard, is generally not there during the day unless he's asleep. So the girls are currently ruling the office. I'm going to be in the office a lot less in the coming weeks, since there's much less to do. Instead I'll be off doing my own research. On that front I had a bit of a breakthrough last night--I met a bunch of the current Peace Corps volunteers, who are scattered in villages throughout the Armenian countryside. So now I have people I can call/stay with, who know the villages, know who I should talk to, etc. This is good! :)

Other than that, not a whole lot going on at the moment...still plugging away at my Armenian. I put my introducing oneself vocab to good use on Thursday night when everyone was leaving--Arman's girlfriend was there and I introduced myself, she introduced herself, and I managed to say nice to meet you, all in Armenian...but then she thought that I knew Armenian and started talking more and I had to switch to Russian and establish that no, we had already reached the extent of my ability to converse in Armenian. The next lesson is verbs though so soon I'll be able to make sentences other than pronoun + to be + adjective!
There are still some sounds I can't differentiate/pronounce, though. And I'm still essentially illiterate...but I've decided not to bother too much with literacy...speaking and listening are far more important.

And now I should be off--need to wash my dishes and finish cleaning up my apartment, and then I should go shake the dust off my sheets...

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Garni + Gehard

I didn't want to mess up the formatting of the last post by uploading more pictures to it, so I decided to make a second post for the photos from the end of the conference trip to Garni and Geghard. I know I've already posted some Garni photos in here, but a few more can't hurt! Here's a view of the Garni Temple from the back--my camera does well on bright sunny days.






Overlooking the cliffs and canyons at Garni [this photo and the next one]


























The Geghard Monastery--one of the most stunningly beautiful places I've ever seen in my life. the photographs can't do it justice. You'll have to come see it for yourself.










Vahagn took this photo--he thought the light looked cool--I agree!

















For the full collection of photos, check out my albums on Facebook!

Conference Photos!

Here are some long-overdue photos from the conference!
This is the resort where we stayed--Arthur's Aghveran Resort. Very new and swanky with one small problem--mice! Really not a fan of waking up in the middle of the night to see a mouse staring back at me...and not a tiny little mouse like the ones we used to sell at Petco...this was a big mouse...chipmunk sized, maybe.





Here's a photo from the conference itself...it was freezing in that room most of the time...












This is the view from the deck of the main building--that was where everyone would go for smoke/coffee breaks. Down below was an artificial pond that you could pay to fish in if you wanted to.

As you can see, this is one of Armenia's few forested areas. Very pretty!






On the last day, Vahagn and I hiked down to the river...it was a very photogenic location so we took lots of pictures, although I'm sure his turned out better than mine since he's a photographer and I just go for quantity in the hope that a few will turn out halfway decent!








On the last night we had a ping pong tournament. Professional sized tables are in fact smaller. And harder to play on. And some of these people were really good!

Epilogue to the Egg Tale

If your eggs are a funny color, don't eat them. Even if they smell/taste okay.

Otherwise you will be in for 2-3+ days of misery.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Not all eggs are created equal!

For weeks now I have been mystified by the numerous varieties of eggs available for purchase at SAS--"Elite" eggs, "Corn" eggs, "Village" eggs, eggs from birds other than chickens, eggs which come in plastic packages as opposed to cardboard...and by the way, eggs come in 10s, not dozens. But you can get half dozens. Go figure.
But anyways, I had had the plastic package kind, the Elite kind, and the Corn kind, and they were all pretty much the same. This time I bought the village ones, because that was what they happened to have...I assumed, owing to the large picture of a chicken on the top that they were normal eggs.
Well, they are chicken eggs...but...they're weird.
Dirty for one thing, but that's not a big deal--I just rinsed them off. But then I cracked them into my frying pan. The yolks broke on contact, and were a curious shade of red-orange. Can't say that I've ever seen eggs that particular shade before. I'm a little weirded out. But they tasted normal, so I guess they must be all right. You just never know what you're going to get when you can't read packaging.

Nothing too earthshattering has been going on lately. This weekend I spent some time in the office helping with the Kenya preparations...Vardan leaves in the morning tomorrow, and everyone else goes on Friday.

Then yesterday was the most glorious fall day--I hadn't really noticed that it was becoming fall until all of a sudden yesterday, there it was! Leaves changing color, falling from the trees, completely lovely weather. I went and wandered around downtown Yerevan for a while, discovered an art show which had some pretty nice paintings at it--if I could afford art I would totally buy some! Some day....

Then I went to this park on Baghramyan which just opened--It's a super-landscaped garden style park--lots of artificial waterfalls, but it's really pretty, especially with the fall leaves and everything. It was also really crowded--lots of people with their kids since it was a Sunday afternoon. This couple asked me (in Armenian) to take their picture. I did, and even managed to recall the Armenian word for "You're welcome".

I'm getting better at my Armenian--I even managed some complete sentences today. (For instance, "I am not sick." Because I'm one of the very few people in the office who isn't...)

Well, I was going to post pictures from the conference weekend in here, but my internet connection is sadly not cooperating. So pictures will have to wait for another time. In the meantime, if you're on Facebook you can check out all my photos on there--I've uploaded all of them.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Domestic Chores

I finally got around to mopping my apartment today...I'd been meaning to ever since I moved in, but just never got around to it. Surprisingly, mopping really doesn't take that long, nor is it nearly as backbreaking as sweeping (which is by far my least favorite chore). And if you're wondering, no, my mop has no automatic wringing-out type feature or anything even close to being that fancy. No, my mop consists of a wooden pole with a flat wooden piece on the end, and a floor cloth that I bought b/c I figured it would probably do a better job than the bit of old t-shirt that also serves more or less as my bath mat. And of course a plastic bucket. So yes...wringing out by hand, and you don't really want to think of what's in the water that you're sticking your hands into, but it's actually not that bad. And my apartment feels so much cleaner!

Also doing lots of laundry this weekend...doing one's laundry by hand isn't a problem if you do it every week, but last weekend was eaten up by the conference so I didn't so much get my laundry done...hence two days worth of loads (I have enough clothespins/clothesline space for about two loads at a time, depending what I'm washing). In the summer I suspect I could do a lot more loads in a day since things would dry faster, but now laundry takes the full day to dry.

Dusting is another highly necessary chore...not sure where all the dust comes from, but there's a lot!

Speaking of dust, I swept my porch yesterday...I swept like half an inch of dust off of it! I had no idea it was even there til I started sweeping!

So yeah...it's really not that hard to do chores without conveniences such as a washing machine or a vacuum...but appreciate your appliances if you've got 'em!

Friday, October 10, 2008

It's October already?

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long hiatus between posts--I've been fairly busy lately. It all started last week Wednesday, when I headed off for my very first academic conference.*

We drove out through the mountains to get to Arthur's Aghveran Resort--a pretty swanky new place in one of the few forested areas of Armenia. The landscape is really beautiful, but I didn't see a whole lot of it until Friday. On Wednesday after lunch, we had the first conference sessions. I won't give you the full play by play, because I suspect it would be interesting to very few if any of my readers. Suffice it to say that on the first day, the translation was only into Russian, and I understood maybe 1/3-1/2 of what was said. But I did get that the conference was being held in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of an Armenian statistician.

That evening, Gohar (the CRRC's librarian), Vahagn (the son of one of the conference organizers) and went for a walk, hung out, and played charades. (We were the youngest people there so we bonded). The next day, was my talk--I had, by this point discovered that pretty much everybody reads their presentation off a piece of paper. Even when presenting in their native language. This worked out well for me since I was giving my presentation in Russian, and I read Russian out loud pretty well...I just tend towards the incoherent when I have to talk about my work and worry about grammar, etc. My Russian grammar is rather horrendous, unfortunately. I will remedy this fact when I hit grad school. But anyways, my presentation went well, and I met a professor who was interested in my work and wanted copies of all of my papers, etc :) :) So combine that with the fact that I now have an actual legitimate publication to my name, and the conference was worth my time and money :)

Also on Thursday, a pair of demographers from France arrived, thus giving us English translation! Everything made much more sense then.

On Friday we had the whole afternoon free so we checked out the swimming pool and hiked down to the river. That evening, we all had a ping pong tournament--some of the conference attendees were really talented! Armenia so has the potential for a gold medal winning ping pong team...

And yes, as it turns out, regulation ping pong tables are in fact smaller than normal ones. Makes it rather harder to keep the ball on the table...

Then on Saturday we left Aghveran and headed over to Garni. I had been there already of course, but it's still pretty awesome. And I discovered some bits I hadn't seen before too. After Garni, we drove over to nearby Geghard, which is an ancient monastery and still functioning church. It is also one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life. My pictures do not even come close to doing it justice. We hiked around there for a while, and saw a baptism happen in the church. I'm uploading all my photos to facebook, so you can check them out there--my internet is being too slow at the moment for me to upload to both places. Maybe I'll upload some to here tomorrow.

Anyways, we eventually returned to Yerevan. This week has been a bit of insanity at the studio because everyone is getting ready for the Lamu trip which is rapidly approaching. I actually haven't had that much to do during the bulk of the day, but the last couple of evenings I've been employing my native-english-speaker skills to write numerous letters to Kenya Airways and various hotels.

Speaking of airlines and how I hate them, British Midland changed my flight back after Christmas. I was supposed to arrive at 1am on Dec. 31, thus having all of New Year's eve to hang out with friends, etc. Now I'll be arriving at 1am on Jan. 1, meaning that a) I'll have a 28 hour layover in London and b) I'll be spending New Year's on an airplane. So boo on that.
And there are no other flights to switch to. Transatlantic airfare is only $300! But you hit Europe and the prices go through the roof!

In other news, I bought a teach yourself Armenian book this week :) I now know how to say "How are you?" and understand three different answers--I'm well, I'm not well, and I'm so-so.
Still largely illiterate, though.

My research also seems to be on its way to getting started--I met with someone today who's going to help me find families to talk to...Gohar also said she'd help, as did the professor I met at the conference...so yay for that!

And now I'm going to go caption my photos on facebook. Stop by and check them out! :)

*Yes, I went to talks that were parts of conferences at NU, but at this conference I was actually an invited participant and gave a talk.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

The Milwaukee Brewers are in the Playoffs!!!

I know this has nothing to do with my trip to Armenia, but for the first time in my lifetime the Milwaukee Brewers are headed for the PLAYOFFS!!! http://www.milwaukeebrewers.com

The Calm Before the Storm

I haven’t done anything particularly interesting this weekend—quite aside from the fact that I’ve needed to be working on my presentation for Thursday (more on that in a bit), the weather pretty much removes any desire I might have had to go out and find something interesting to do. After nearly a month straight of warm, sunny days, we have suddenly switched to wet, rainy, and cold. Actually, yesterday wasn’t that cold, and the rain was only a drizzle most of the time, but today it’s been actively raining all day, and it’s pretty cold—in the 50s. (Which may not sound that cold, but when just a few days before it was nearly 90…) So I’ve devoted my weekend to such domestic pursuits as sweeping and laundry.

Now doing laundry when it’s raining is actually rather problematic. It’s easy enough to wash the clothes—the rain does not inhibit my filling up a bucket with water and laundry detergent, but the clothes don’t dry. For a little while yesterday there was a break in the rain and things got drier, but then the rain started again, and even though my porch has a roof and the rain wasn’t actually blowing onto my clothes, the amount of humidity in the air meant that my clothes actually got wetter than they had been before.

I also went grocery shopping…my favorite purchase is this German milkshake-in-a-bottle thing…I was feeling the lack of dairy in my diet, and I don’t just buy milk, because milk outside of the US all tastes like whole milk (not a fan). But these milkshake things have potential…they’re pretty good and not that expensive. (In Russia I ate yogurt all the time, but yogurt is actually fairly expensive here). I’m going to try the chocolate flavor next.

Other than that…I swept my apartment yesterday. I try to do it once a week. It’s amazing how much dirt accumulates on my floor over the course of a week. I’m not quite sure where it comes from. But today I acquired something which should help—a rug! It says welcome on it. (in English).

While I was out on my way to acquiring said rug, a funny thing happened--a woman stopped me and started speaking to me in Armenian. She was clearly asking me for directions, but of course I didn't understand a word she said. So I told her in Russian that I don't understand Armenian, and so she switched to Russian and proceeded to ask me directions to some sort of store that I'd never heard of. So in the end I wasn't terribly helpful, but I just find it entertaining that I looked like I knew what I was doing enough to be asked directions! I mean it's not like I look Armenian, but it's always nice to know that you don't look clueless.

Oh--I did do one interesting thing this past week! Armine's cousin is the director of this Armenian dance ensemble, and so she got us free tickets to see their show! It was a mixture of traditional Armenian dance and modern dance...it was really good!

This weekend is kind of like the lull before the storm--next week should be pretty crazy. On Tuesday night I'm working as the photographer at this agricultural conference (nobody else could do it. Yes, I know I'm not a professional photographer.) Apparently Jacques Chirac might be there...

Then on Wednesday starts my own four day conference. October seemed so far away, but all of a sudden it's here. I will be presenting my paper on Thursday...the prospect is a bit terrifying as I have to do it in Russian. I need to write myself a script, have Nelly edit it, and then memorize it...it's the only way I'm going to be able to pull this thing off. I've started writing it, but it's hard because, well, I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to say. I really don't know how these sorts of things work. But I guess I'll find out.

And then it will be time to really get started on my research. Armine and I agree that it would be so much better if the Fulbright were a 2-year thing--the first year to get to know the country, and the second year to do the research...but oh well. (We do envy Garin who's writing a novel--he can just do whatever he wants and call it "research"!) Maybe I'll meet someone at the conference who will be helpful. You never know.

One last note--if you're interested, all of my photos are now up on facebook.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Disclaimer

Don't remember if I already posted this disclaimer, and it should be obvious anyways, but the views represented here are my own, and I am solely responsible for the content of this blog. The views and opinions posted here are in no way a reflection of the views and opinions of the US Department of State. Though my funding comes from the Department of State, I am not a State Department employee, and therefore am entitled to my full first amendment rights of freedom of speech and expression.
The end.

:)

Where'd the mosquito come from?

I caught it just now attempting to bite my arm. I haven't actually seen many mosquitoes here--for all the CDC warns you that Armenia is a malarial zone, it's so dry in Yerevan (at this time of year at any rate) that you really don't see many. So I'm not sure where it came from, but I disapprove. I suppose I wouldn't have them if I'd close my windows. Oh well. As long as it goes away and doesn't try to bite me again, whatever.

As long as we're on the topic of bugs, the ants have come under control--I rarely see them anymore...regular sweeping has done the trick. Oh they still appear from time to time, but again, the open, screenless windows could be to blame. But it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for the breeze =P

I'm starting to learn a bit more Armenian lately--road trips out of the city are highly useful, since many of the roadsigns are written both in Armenian and English, or Armenian and Russian, so I can match up letters (on place names). So I'm getting better and faster. Still no good at cursive letters, though, and I still don't really know which of the five or so different letters which look like the number 2 is which, but I'll get there. I've also managed to learn the word for "right" (the direction). I was also told the words for left and straight, but those I don't so much remember. Once I'm literate I suspect the learning will go rather faster. My dictionary will be more helpful, for one thing.

But today proved to me that I have a loooooong way to go before I can even manage a basic conversation. I went today with Vahe, Magnus, and Magnus's friend who's visiting from Greece went to the Garni Temple so that Magnus could film his proposal for the documentary he wants to make. Magnus and Vahe went off to start filming, leaving me and Magnus's friend to wander around and be tourists. So we sat down on a bench to read in his guidebook about the temple before checking it out. It turns out that while conventional wisdom holds it to be a temple of Mithras, it could possibly have been a tomb instead. Nobody is sure. Also, it was destroyed in an earthquake in 1679, but it was reconstructed in the 1960s and 70s. You can tell which pieces are original and which are reconstructed, so it's pretty cool. Inside there's an altar and sacrifice pit, which according to the guidebook, were most likely not in the original version of the temple.

So anyways, while we were reading the guidebook, there was a girl also sitting on the bench who looked to be about 12 or 13 years old. At one point she tried to talk to us, but neither of us speaks Armenian, so we didn't really communicate anything. But then she wanted me to go with her, so I figured, what the heck, and followed her. She proceeded to give me a quite thorough tour of all the places with the best views. She took a bunch of pictures of me--she's quite a good photographer, as a matter of fact. We mostly communicated through hand gestures--She didn't speak English or Russian (although she understood a little Russian I think), and of course, my Armenian vocabulary consists primarily of the numbers 1-20, and a few nouns. I can't even make a sentence yet. Nevertheless, we had fun. At one point she tossed some stones up into a walnut tree to knock down walnuts. I ate a couple, but some of them just didn't seem ripe...they tasted funny, so I spit them out. Eventually we did establish that she wanted me to pay her (I figured that was probably the case--it's not like I didn't know what I was getting into), so I gave her what seemed fair based on the prices of things around here. It was kind of funny--she tried to teach me Armenian numbers by making me count the coins and add them up in different orders. I know there are moral arguments about this sort of thing, but I'm not going to go into them here.

Anyways, we eventually made our way back over to where Magnus and Vahe were filming, at which point the girl said she had to go home. (I do know the Armenian word for house!) After they got done, we went off to find some lunch. Or dinner. Or whatever you call a meal that starts somewhere between 3 and 4pm and ends somewhere around 5pm is called. At the tavern (actually a sort of porch that overlooked the canyon), we met up with the Swedish pediatrician whom we had met on our way to the temple. We had what turned out to be an exceedingly expensive meal, but then what do you expect when you're next door to a tourist attraction? The food was pretty good, but there were definitely a lot of flies and bees around. The bees are similar to yellowjackets, and they're everywhere. For whatever reason, they really like meat. As long as they don't fly too close to me I don't have too much of a problem with my bee phobia.

Hmm...must take a brief break to check that the cat I can hear quite close to my window isn't about to come in and pay me a visit...okay, it's not. Cats are absolutely everywhere around here--there are some very cute kittens! It's almost enough to change me into a cat person...almost.

So here you can see some of my pictures of the area around the temple. In the second one, you can also see the remains of where an old church once stood. At the bottom of the canyon, there's a river. It really is a beautiful place there.

Going back in time, yesterday was, for the most part, a very domestic day. I did my first serious load of laundry (i.e. two pairs of jeans). Jeans are rather tricky to wash, particularly when it comes to the rinsing and wringing out. I'm afraid I ended up nearly as wet as my jeans. But on the bright side, the dryness of the climate here means that my jeans were almost totally dry after about two hours of hanging outside on the clothesline on my porch--I was highly impressed, because when I hung them out there they were literally dripping wet. I did discover the need to purchase a rug for my back hall, though. It's a bit mucky from me traipsing in and out with wet flip flops.

In the evening, I went to an apartment-warming party for one of the Fulbright scholars (i.e. professors). She's here with her whole family (husband and two kids). I was the only other Fulbrighter to show up, but there was another American guy who teaches at AUA. Their apartment is really nice--newly renovated, nice modern furniture, etc. And they have a super big patio! The kids go to the same school as the kids of the embassy staff, which turns out to be located in the town that's cut in half by a canyon that's on the way to the place where we've gone paragliding.

[aside: there are fireworks going off right now--it's Independence Day today]

Edit: 9/22/2008
[I was told to censor myself a bit on the McMansion front. If you want my full opinion, email me. But I maintain my disgust about McMansions. Not just here, but also in the US, and wherever else they might be found. They're unnecessary.]
End Edit.

[hehe...there's a little kid outside shouting "firework!" I'm guessing the word's the same...]

So yeah. I'm at a bit of a high ebb of disgust with my country at the moment. McMansions are the least of it, but y'know.
I honestly can't imagine what I'd do if McCain won the presidency. It's a future too appalling to contemplate. And the usual standby of running away to Canada doesn't look so good anymore because apparently Canada's kind of falling apart. But my absentee ballot is on the way. So I shall do my part at least.

So anyways, moving further back in time to Friday, we find Karen going along on yet another paragliding trip, this one in the company of Vardan, Anush (Bars Media's intern who's my age), two British archeologists, Harut (the pilot), and Harut's friend and assistant. We spent a lot of time sitting around waiting for there to be wind. We were in the middle of a field, as this trip was a motorized paragliding trip, not the ordinary kind where you jump off a mountain. Eventually, after about two hours, there was enough wind to take off, and Harut managed to fly for about 20 seconds before the motor died and he parachuted back down to earth. Turns out, there was air in the fuel line. This was followed by repairs and more waiting for wind, but eventually he got high up into the air and circled over the potential archeological site, filming it. (This was the point of the excursion). Then the motor died again, but he was high enough that he could control his landing. So he landed at the bottom of the hill and we drove over to pick him up. Then we went around to the other side and climbed up the hill to check out the site in person. We found concentric rings of what were once presumably stone walls. I also found some cool bits of rock that are most likely nothing more than pretty bits of rock (the archeologists confirm this) but which to my eyes look a little like stone tools. So I kept them. But see the thing is that obsidian flakes really easily, so even if you find things that are sharp and pointy, they most likely just flaked off a bigger piece when it was being blown out of the volcano. So no actual artifacts...just pretty rocks.

Here are a few pictures from the day:




<- The archeologists Waiting for wind:












Monday, September 15, 2008

Happy ___________* Day, Everybody!

*insert name of previously unknown (to me) holiday which today apparently is.

Actually it's something akin to Memorial Day from what I was told. At any rate, it meant we had no staff meeting this morning and the two fruit/veggie stands closest to my apartment were closed. (Meaning that I had to go all the way around the corner. But more on that in a bit.)

It feels really good to be back in my nice cool apartment. It was hot in my office today. I suppose I could have turned on the AC, but that would have meant closing my door and since Arman wasn't in there most of the time, I would have been cut off from everybody else, which would just make life boring.

Speaking of my office, this is it:














And here are some of the grapes which grow outside of the studio:







But anyways, after work today I decided to go to a fruit/veggie stand to acquire an onion and whatever else struck my fancy to go with my remaining eggs which I have decided to cook for dinner. So I went to the one around the corner, which is operated by two middle-aged guys. I asked for one onion (in Russian), and there was the usual confusion of:
--"One onion"
--"One kilogram of onions?"
--"No, one onion. One piece."
And then the odd looks for buying only one onion. But see, I figure, when you're only one person, and when fresh fruits and veggies are available on a daily basis, there's no point in buying in bulk when things are only going to go bad! I also bought one carrot. To be fair, it's like a carrot on steroids--it's the size of three normal carrots. For whatever reason carrots in the former Soviet Union grow big. We got them like that in Russia too. Maybe it's Chernobyl....
haha.
But anyways, I then attempted to pay for my carrot and onion. And was laughed at and sent on my way. Apparently I bought such a pathetically small quantity of food that it wasn't even worth paying for! I'll probably go buy some fruit from them tomorrow and insist on paying--even if I do only buy one piece!

As long as uploading pictures seems to be working, here are a few from this weekend. I went with Vardan to paragliding again. This time he did actually get to fly. I just kinda sat there and watched. But I did get some good photos. And then at the end we drove through the mountains to go pick up one of the other paragliders who had landed some 40 or 50 km away in a village. Very pretty "road"! We had to ask directions from some shepherds along the way.

Oh, and that gaudy palace thing that some oligarch owns? I'll post a picture of that too. (It was out the car window, so it's not the greatest.)






Well, I think I'm going to post this now before my internet connection disappears. Bye!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

My First Weekend in Armenia

I realize that I had posted on Saturday afternoon, and therefore already covered the beginning of my weekend, but the interesting part happened afterwards! Just after I had posted that entry, Magnus and Vahe came to my window and asked me if I wanted to go with them to the protests against the visit of the Turkish president, and so I grabbed my camera and went along.

The protesters were protesting against the fact that Turkey does not recognize the genocide of Armenians in 1915, and that the Armenian government would allow the Turkish president to visit, even without their having recognized the genocide. The protesters lined up along the sidewalk across the street from the presidential palace. It was a peaceful protest, and not actually that big, considering, but it was definitely something interesting to see!
When the Turkish president's motorcade drove up, the crowd started shouting. I don't know what, exactly as I don't speak Armenian, but I did capture it on video nonetheless.

On Sunday, Vardan asked me if I wanted to go paragliding with him. Now while the idea of strapping myself to a parachute and jumping off of a mountain does not exactly appeal to me, I figured what the heck, I'd go along anyways, and at least get a good tour of the Armenian countryside! So after collecting supplies and stopping at the supermarket for water and snacks, Vardan, his two kids and I set off for the mountains.

It turns out that Vardan's kids both speak English and Russian in addition to Armenian, and his daughter is pretty much completely fluent, despite having only had English lessons for two years. I'm highly impressed. She served as my informal translator when people were speaking Armenian. It was kind of funny, because for a while it was just me and the kids and some of the other paragliders, and they kept kind of looking at me to make decisions about things, but I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. Eventually they realized that they should talk to Vardan's 12 year old daughter instead!

Driving out of the city, you see some of the typical McMansion types of development that you also see in Russia, and the US for that matter. But there is one house (palace?) that really stands out waaaaay beyond all the others. It's owned by some oligarch, and it is the most incredibly gaudy, tacky, ridiculous thing the world has ever seen. It's designed like a French palace, complete with fenced in courtyard, columns, and the works. It is also absolutely COVERED in statues, sculptures, random architectural designs, and the grounds and fence are similarly adorned. It's one of the most bizarrely tasteless displays of wealth I've ever seen.

Further out of the city, you see that Armenia really is a bit of a desert. The towns/villages are all built along rivers that are really more creek sized, and most of them seem to be dammed with a reservoir that is then used for irrigation. There are lots of orchards, because fruit trees grow well here, but vegetables are much harder to grow.

After about 45 minutes of driving or so, we reach our destination and start driving off-road to the mountain. Some of the paragliders launched while we were driving up, and we watched them fly for a bit, before driving over to one who had already landed. We loaded his stuff into the jeep to save him the hike back up the mountain. While we were waiting for the engine to cool off a bit (it overheats quickly in the thin mountain air) another one landed, so then Vardan went down to pick him up while I waited and talked to his daughter. Then he drove to pick up another one who landed. Meanwhile, the kids and I went up the hill a little ways to sit under the trees. This was the point when they discovered that I knew Russian and became much more talkative. Eventually Vardan called and told us that the radiator on his jeep had a hole in it, and that's why then engine kept overheating. So one of the other paragliders got in the other SUV to drive off and help Vardan, while the kids and I and the remaining paragliders started to hike up the mountain.

It was a pretty intense hike (straight up the side of the mountain) and by the time we reached maybe the third switchback from the top (we went straight up, but the road went back and forth), we were tired. Luckily, a truck was driving up the mountain, so when it got to us, we flagged it down and squished in to ride the rest of the way up.

At the top of the mountain it was raining and cold--very different from the hot sunny base! We hung out there for a bit, and then drove back down. Halfway we met Vardan who was driving up, and we switched cars. Then we all drove over to this mineral spring, where the water coming out of the ground is naturally carbonated. After drinking and hanging out there for a bit with some Armenian police officers, we got back on the road to head back to Yerevan.

But first we had to stop off in the village and return the water jugs that a woman had loaned Vardan to refill his radiator. She complimented him on his two daughters and one son, so I guess I look Armenian after all, haha! (Okay, not really!)

Then we stopped in a town that has a bakery that makes the best bread, and it was fresh and delicious. After that, we stopped at this place where someone carved the Armenian alphabet in stone. We took pictures, had a snack, and then played a few rounds of hide-and-seek (well, a bit like kick the can without the can, actually) Then it was back to Yerevan.

And now it's getting late, so I'll update you on the rest of the goings on here some other time. Plus I'll add more pictures. (They take forever to upload which is why I'm not doing more now.)
Bye!

Monday, September 8, 2008

Sandpaper is for Real Machos

In the bathroom at the studio, there are three different types of toilet paper--
1. Paper for Euro-American soft Asses: ordinary, white fluffy toilet paper
2. Paper for normal Asses: brown toilet paper, typical in Russia
3. Paper for real Machos: black sandpaper

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Well, it's my 4th day in Armenia...

Yes indeed. I am in a country that is not Russia. Although once upon a time Armenia and Russia were both part of the Soviet Union. And most people here speak some Russian. Which is good, because I don't speak any Armenian. But for those of you who may be wondering where precisely in the world I am, I am in the south Caucasus, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Alternatively, my location could be described as in between Georgia and Iran. Also between Turkey and Azerbaijan. And no, I'm not in danger of being blown up by a Russian bombing attack any time soon. For one thing, the Russians and Armenians have pretty decent relations. Actually, in terms of international relations things are getting a bit better here of late--today is the big Armenia-Turkey soccer match, and the President of Turkey is coming to watch. There's talk that the border might even open up soon. So relations seem to be improving in that respect.

So anyways, I got here on Wednesday, at 5 in the morning. An hour and a half later, after standing in line to change money, standing in line to get a visa, and standing in line to get my passport stamped (and a very confused exchange with the passport control guy who tried to speak to me in Armenian, I tried to answer in English, and neither of us understood one another, but we smiled anyways), I was in a taxi with Vahe, one of the guys from the studio, on my way to my apartment.
The road from the airport is lined with neon lights and casinos--there's a law prohibiting them from being in the center of the city. I didn't see much else, since it was still totally dark out, but soon we arrived at my apartment. I was given a quick tour, and then Vahe left and I stood around aimlessly for a while, in a stupor brought on by lack of sleep.

My apartment is bigger than I was expecting--there's a good sized main room, a small kitchen, a bathroom, and another back room that I think is supposed to be the bedroom, but my bed's in the main room, which suits me well enough as the back room doesn't have windows and I found a big furry brown spider in there on the first morning. (Luckily not a fast spider--I got it easily with my shoe.) I don't actually use the back room for anything since I don't really have anything to furnish it with (there are a couple of wooden chairs in there, and a built in wardrobe thing, but the drawers are kinda sketchy.) The shower in my bathroom is new, as is the faucet, which is nice. The shower's the only thing that I've managed to get hot water out of so far (it has its own water heater). There's a water heater in the kitchen too, but I'm not sure if it's broken or just off and as it's much older than the one in the bathroom, I'm not really sure how to work it and don't want to break anything. There's not actually a tub in the bathroom, but there's a drain in the floor, and the tiles dry pretty quickly.
In the main room I've got a desk, a couple of chairs with cushions which are actually quite comfortable, and a bed which is not. But while I was out today I discovered a couple of stores which seem promising in terms of buying something squishy to make my bed more comfortable.
The electric wiring seems all new, which is also nice.

Despite the heat outside (and it gets hot!) it's quite a pleasant temperature in my apartment, which I attribute to being on the first floor, having a porch with a roof, which is also shielded by the grape vines which grow above it. (Yes, with actual tasty grapes).

So...enough about my apartment for now. I'll post pictures later. Maybe this evening, maybe tomorrow because (and this is the best part!) there's free wireless internet in my apartment!!! High speed!!! Because my apartment is literally two steps away from the studio, which has high speed wireless. :)

Onwards now to the studio, which is where I've spent the vast majority of my time so far. In addition to my research, I'm working (volunteering, really) in the Bars Media Documentary Film Studio. I have my own desk and everything :) Everybody there is great, and it's a fun place to work. Every day we have lunch at the studio, followed by highly competitive games of ping pong (one wonders why Armenia doesn't have a gold medal winning ping pong team!) Vardan is trying to teach me how to play. So far I'm still pretty awful, but I'm getting better I think!

The conversations at the studio are in a total mixture of Armenian, Russian, and English. Everyone speaks at least a few words of English, and several of the people are fluent. So far I've spent most of my time reading through books of proposals and treatments for documentary projects, to get the idea of how to write one, although I've also been put to work editing letters in English, and I'm also doing research for one of the new projects about the North Pole.

Last night I got my first real look at Yerevan. (The previous two nights I was still so tired that I just went home). Magnus (a Greek-Icelandic guy who used to work at Northwestern and who now works at the studio) and I went to this cafe by the opera for dinner, and then met up with another of his friends, a French-Armenian guy, and then we went to this jazz club/restaurant and met up with two other girls and hung out for a while.

Today I slept in a bit (got home late last night) and then I went on a quest to find the supermarket as I'm nearly out of food. I definitely need to learn to read Armenian for figuring out streets and marshrutkas, but luckily the grocery store has most of its signage written in Russian. I got pretty much everything I was looking for, and discovered that if I can't get rid of my ant problem by scrubbing the apartment really well, the do in fact sell Raid here. It was kind of exciting. And this brings me to where I am now, sitting in my apartment again. I was really hot after the trip to the supermarket (it's a bit of a hike) so I sat down to blog for a bit. But now I'm going to get on cleaning my apartment and hopefully getting rid of the ants.

Oh, and if you're wondering, Karine is my name here, because Karen is actually a guy's name in Armenian.