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
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.
:)
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:
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!
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!
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
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.
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.
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