Karine Becomes Karen...

Today was my last full day in Armenia. I spent my day trying to see everyone I know here just one last time...I mostly succeeded :) Tomorrow morning, my flight leaves at 10am for Paris, after which I fly to Montreal, before finally arriving some 21 hours later in Chicago. I'm certainly excited about going home, but I'm also really sad to leave, because these past ten months have really been one of the best experiences of my life. I've met soooo many amazing people here, seen soooo many amazing places...It's been absolutely fantastic.

Everyone has been asking me, "When are you coming back to Armenia?" I don't know the answer to that question yet, but I know I need to come back. There's still so much here that I haven't seen and haven't learned...so many places I haven't been (like Lake Sevan! Okay, I saw it out the window of a marshrutka, but I haven't *been* there.) So some day, I know that I'll be coming back here. (After all, I have to show my Armenian teacher that I did all the homework he gave me! ;) )

But for now, I must say goodbye to this country that has been my home for the past 10 months. I'm sorry to leave here...but I'm excited for what the future will bring.


Hajoghutyun dzez,
Karen/Karine

The Mountain

Though Mount Ararat is the symbol of Armenia, the tallest mountain which is actually within Armenia's present day borders is Mount Aragats. This volcanic mountain has four peaks, only one of which is really climbable without ropes...and even still...by the route we took, at least, you have to be in really good shape. (Ideally, better shape than me......)

There were approximately 20 of us, maybe more, and we gathered in central Yerevan at 8:30am to begin our trek. This being Armenia, we left some time after 9. The drive was good...we played 20 Questions and looked out the windows at beautiful flowers and small (Kurdish?) shepherd camps. After about an hour, we arrived at the lake at the base, next to which is the cosmic ray monitoring station. After last minute preparations such as the application of sunscreen and putting on sweatshirts because a cold wind was blowing, we started off.

At the very beginning was a (slightly muddy) road...an easy incline, no problem. We stopped along the way to take pictures of the lake and the mountain up ahead. After crossing a grassy field which was crisscrossed by streams and swampy mud from the melting snow (there was still ice on the lake, by the way), we arrived at the first field of rocks. Stepping carefully from one loose rock to another was a bit tricky at first, but eventually I got the hang of it, and by the end of the rocky field, I was still with the bulk of the group, feeling confident. We continued on up the slope, crossing some snow (which was rather more strenuous than the rocks because you had to try to keep from slipping) and eventually reached our first stopping point, where we had some snacks and some water, and then continued on our way.

The climbing got trickier...sometimes people extended hands to help pull me up, and at one point I was actually half lifted from the bottom, half pulled from the top to get me up on top of a large rock. My out-of-shape-ness began to show...but we kept going. I fell towards the back of the pack, but I wasn't always the last...usually I was...but not always!

At one point I started talking to one of the other guys who I had assumed was one of the guides, but was actually a university student who had never been to Aragats before either. I felt better having someone with whom to have conversations like:

--Is that the top?

--I don't know, I hope it is...

--Yeah, me too.

--Hey [person who's been here before], is that the top?

--Nope.

--Really???

It's deceptive when you're up on the mountain...you keep thinking you've come all this way and then you look back and the lake still looks close, and you look ahead and you think that the highest point you can see, way far above you surely must be the top, and then it's a bit of a crushing disappointment to learn that it's not, that you can't even see the top yet...

Eventually, after climbing over and around more and more rocks, boulders, slippery pieces of slate (or whatever those flat rocks were)...we reached a point just before the final slog to the top. My feet were killing me by this point with blisters (on the arches of all places) but the guides told us we had to keep moving because fog was rolling in. So we made a final push and made it to the top, where we discovered the rest of the group sitting around waiting for us (they'd been there for half an hour at least.) Gohar started handing out bread and cheese to everyone, while those who hadn't already put on their jackets or other outer layers of clothing did so...except for the crazy guy who stripped to his boxers and started rolling around in the snow...

After everyone had rested for a bit, taken photos, adjusted shoes, clothing and backpacks, and eaten some food, we headed over to the other side of the peak to start the trek down. Except, the trek was actually going to be more of a slide...because we were headed down the glaciers*!

Those who had plastic bags of their own got them out...the guides had extras for those who didn't. And so the first brave souls started sledding their way down the mountainside...

I started off walking, but eventually realized that the snow was wet enough that I wouldn't get going fast enough to be out of control, and besides which it was so hard to keep my footing that as I was inevitably going to fall down anyways, I figured I might as well start sliding too. So I sat down on my plastic bag and started scooting and sliding my way down the mountain.

Reaching the bottom of the first part of the slope, the land leveled off for a few meters before continuing to slope downward, much steeper than before. Some brave souls started sledding down the steep slope as well, even as one of the guides was shouting out instructions (in Armenian, which I asked him to repeat in Russian) to keep right because it was dangerous to go too far left. As I was debating whether or not I really wanted to go hurtling down a quite steep slope sitting on a plastic bag, one guy stepped off a rock onto a particularly unfortunate patch of snow and promptly sank in up to his chest. It took three guys to pull him back out again.

A few more people headed down the steep slope, but the rest of us discovered that it was possible to walk down the rocks on the side, so about ten of us decided to go that way. A minute or two after we had started, the dark clouds which had been gathering ominously in the distance started to let loose...

Someone shouted in Armenian that it was raining, but soon it was apparent that it was not rain, and since snow is one of the words in Armenian which I actually know, I shouted back that no, it's snowing! We picked up the pace as best we could without falling on the rocks. At the bottom of that rocky section was more snow, which we alternately walked across or tried to slide on, but the slope was too shallow and the snow too wet to get up much speed until we arrived at another steep slope. By this point the group of 10 had broken into separate pairs, and I was with one of the guides. We debated about whether it was safe enough to slide down, but in the end we ended up half sliding half walking, until we got to the bottom where it was relatively level...just a slow incline all the way back to the lake, which, by this point looked extremely far away. The wind was whipping the snow in our faces as we started to alternately run and walk, depending on how firm the snow was packed under our feet. Soon, I could feel that it wasn't snow whipping in my face anymore but hail. Thunder was rumbling almost constantly in the distance. We were running out of time before the storm *really* hit.

The way back was basically in a straight line, with alternating fields of snow and saturated muddy fields of grass, crisscrossed by streams. Out in the open, there were no rocks or anything of any sort to give us shelter. We moved as quickly as we could across the slippery snow. But then, we saw the lightning.

Standing on a mini-glacier on the side of a mountain in a completely open area with nothing else around, not even a few rocks is NOT where you want to be when the lightning starts striking. So we ran faster, hunched over, as close to the ground as we could be while still running. It's a very unbalanced way to run...I wiped out a couple times. It didn't hurt...just got me even wetter. And keep in mind it's still hailing and the wind is blowing fiercely. But as bad as it was on the snow, it was worse on the swampy patches because you had to jump over streams and small rivers, and you wanted to go faster since the water would conduct electricity....

As we got lower, the snow got meltier, and was undercut by fast-moving streams of meltwater. At the edge of one such stream, we stepped on what we thought was a rock covered by snow but which turned out to just be an overhang of snow. It cracked, and we both ended up with our feet in the icy water. We sloshed our way to a rock and sat down to dump out our shoes, because lightning and hail or no, it's very hard to run with a lake in each shoe. (Though I was somewhat concerned that I would not be able to get my wet shoe back on if I took it off, but I had to get some of the water out.) Then we kept running.

Eventually we made it back near where the road had been and where a river now was. Jumping from stone to stone was tricky since there were no flat ones, and they were slick with rain and snow, but eventually we made it down to the lower part of the road which was just muddy, not a flowing river, and then to the parking area and the vans.

Inside the van, I tried to dump the water out of my shoes, and to change my socks, but I discovered that the dry socks I had brought with me were wet too. My jeans were completely soaked, as was my jacket, but that at least I took off and hung over the seat in front of me. It was a long, wet, cold, uncomfortable drive back.

*By glaciers I mean the large fields of snow on this side of the mountain that hadn't melted yet. I'm not sure if they ever melt all the way or not, but in most places they didn't seem to be more than a few feet deep. It's not like the Greenland ice sheet or something.

The busy month of June

Somehow it has gotten to be the end of June and I realize that I haven't posted all month! Sorry about that! Things here have been busy in my last full month in Armenia...

Earlier this month was a giant sociology conference--the 39th World Congress of the International Institute for Sociology--which had the ever-so-enlightening title "Sociology at the Crossroads." There were some really awesome things about this conference, and some really ridiculous things, and it was great for learning about corruption firsthand. I'm not going to get into speculation about who specifically was pocketing money or getting kickbacks...I'll just tell you the facts as I know them and let you draw your own conclusions.

But before I get into all that, I'd like to mention the awesome parts! Like having lunch with Immanuel Wallerstein and his wife! There were some really interesting talks too. At one of the sessions Professor Derluguian chaired, I got to hear Vadim Volkov speak! And at the session I went to on migration, I was one of three people other than the speakers who actually stayed to the end, so I got to ask my question and have actual discussion with people! And then of course on Saturday was Immanuel Wallerstein's talk which was really interesting to listen to!!

But as for the organization of the conference.....

They were expecting about 600 people to come to this conference from all over the world. The full program, with descriptions of the sessions, etc, was a gigantic pdf file that my computer did not like to scroll through. An extremely wide range of topics were scheduled to be covered...from the world economic crisis to the significance of toasting in the Caucasus to environmentalism in South Korea to a mathematical analysis of the 'Caucasian identity' (no, really!)

Now these 600 people were expected to pay their own way, pay for their own lodgings, and pay an approximately $350 participation fee (more to present). Needless to say, 600 people did not show up. Only about 150 did. But it still had the potential to be (and in some ways it was) a great event.

A number of my student-researcher friends and I wanted to attend the conference, but we were at a loss as to what we should register as. Students? So-called 'accompanying persons'? And how could we avoid paying for hotel booking assistance? We live here! We don't need a room in the Golden Tulip! Well, after asking around, (well, I asked Professor Derluguian who talked to Immanuel Wallerstein and Craig Calhoun...) it was determined that local students, ourselves included, should be let in to the conference sessions without paying. (Obviously this would not include attending the opening reception or congress dinner, but we didn't much care about that...we were in it for the academic enlightenment.)

So we come to the first day of conference sessions. My friend and I arrive at the door of the university, completely by chance, at the same time as Professor Derluguian's wife. And the security guards aren't letting any of us in. They said they wouldn't let in anyone who didn't have the proper nametag/lanyard/registration. But the registration table was inside on the second floor! After several phone calls to Professor Derluguian and some heated discussion in Armenian (thanks, Arusiak!) we were allowed to go up to the registration table. Where...we were still told that we could not be allowed in. Eventually, we ran into the person who was organizing the conference from the Armenian end, and she recognized us, and let us in....so in the end we got nametags that just said "visitor". But this did nothing to help all of the other local students who wanted to go....

In protest against this, Immanuel Wallerstein threatened to give his talk on the steps of the university if they didn't let students in....in the end, he gave a second talk on Sunday afternoon specifically for students.

So...you'd think that with the high registration fee and exclusive entrance, there would at least be some benefits, right? Like, for instance, translators? Because while most of the presentations were given in English, some were given in Russian, and not everyone could understand English, and not everyone could understand Russian. (But they probably could have gotten away with just translation into English and Russian, since everyone pretty much knew one or the other) But no...there was not a translator in sight. Even at the much much smaller conference I attended in October they had simultaneous translation--to and from three different languages! But here? No translators whatsoever...

I'm not going to even get into the whole Hyur Services (a tour company) issue....suffice it to say they were hired to serve refreshments in between sessions, to organize tours at exorbitant rates, and to book hotel rooms at even more exorbitant rates.....
(really, according to the laws of supply and demand, if you're booking hotel rooms in bulk, you would expect a discount, not a price hike!)

So yeah. There were some definite issues.

But nevertheless I did enjoy the sessions I listened to and I made some important contacts!!

* * *

Last weekend was nothing special to report. I was attempting (unwillingly) to learn contract law.

* * *

On Friday, I went to the university where my Armenian teacher teaches to attend the graduation for all the students there. In the beginning it was awkward because I didn't see any of the people I knew from his class (I had run into one girl as she was leaving and I was coming, but that didn't help me any!) But then later I met one of the Iranian girls whom I had talked to before, and who speaks perfect English, so I ended up hanging out with her. Of course with so many Iranians gathered there was some talk about the elections....the main conclusion seemed to be that while the protests, arrests, etc might not be successful in changing who's in power right now, at least it has taught the people not to blindly trust what their government tells them....

Also it was rumored that someone from the Iranian embassy was there to....keep an eye on this gathering of young Iranians.

But for the most part it was an apolitical event. Certificates were handed out, speeches were made (mostly in Armenian, and mostly incomprehensible to me...), and then there was a talent show. Because no event is complete without one. People sang, read poems, acted out skits...it was really quite entertaining. And then the "disco" started....but as it was really hot in there and I hadn't had lunch, I decided at that point to make my exit. But it was fun! :)

* * *

As for yesterday's mountain climbing adventure....another post will be coming soon!

More thoughts on electricity...

In light of the unstable voltage here, it would seem to me that it would make sense to somehow build in a surge protector to the lightswitches, light fixtures, outlets, etc. But that's just me.

I do now, however, have working lights in all of the rooms of my apartment, as well as hot water in the bathroom, and outlets that, as far as I can tell, all work. (i.e. none of them are scorched-looking anymore.) :)

But just in case, I try not to have more than one light turned on at a time.

Wildlife, Asphalt, and Elections

On this last day in May, a few more observations about life in Yerevan...

Wildlife

The black and gray crows (or maybe they're ravens?) are out in force of late, and they are obnoxious!! During the day, it's not such a big deal, but when they wake you up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday by squawking right outside your window?

Also, the cats seem to have given birth and kittens abound! Two of them were sitting right on my porch for most of the day yesterday, and for a little while one was hanging out on my windowsill! They're really cute and were I staying here for another year I'd be so tempted to adopt them...but...then again as cute as kittens are, I'm not really a cat person...

That's pretty much it for the wildlife stories so now moving on to the second part of the title...asphalt! (and elections. because they're related.)

Asphalt and Elections

This weekend are the mayoral elections for the city of Yerevan, and as far as I can tell, at least from the people I interact with regularly, they're being met with a whole lot of...eh. (indifference and/or cynicism). Maybe I just don't spend enough time with the politically motivated, but as far as I can tell the sentiment seems to be that the elections are more or less rigged, it's a foregone conclusion who's going to win, and they're all just a bunch of crooks anyways so why bother. (Disclaimer--I don't have a TV and thus don't watch the Armenian news, and this observation has been formed based on an extremely unrepresentative sample of people.) But no one I've asked has really been able to tell me much about who's running or what they stand for etc etc. (So if you want actual coverage of the elections...don't look here. Try A1+ or something.)

But there does seem to be universal agreement about the fact that the roads are being paved now (as quickly as possible, it seems) due to the elections-- i.e. so the ruling party can be like "look what we're doing for you! we're paving your roads!" and then after the elections, they can just sit there and line their pockets and be like "what? we already paved your roads. we're done now til the next elections." (Thanks to Inna for those observations.)

They really are doing a pretty awful job of paving too. Essentially it looks like they're pouring a dumptruck-ful of black gravel on the road, squishing it down, and calling it paved. It'll be potholed again in the space of a few months. One argument as to why this is, is that the pavers want to do a bad job paving so that next year there will be work for them when they have to re-pave again. And on the surface this makes sense...but Yerevan is a big city. And paving roads properly takes more time. So if you do fewer jobs in a year but do them well (thus taking longer, so still getting paid), and then the next year do some more roads, the next year some others...by the time you finish with all the roads in the city it'll be time to repave the first ones again. Thus ensuring the workers a perpetual source of income and the residents a decent set of roads. Is there any reason why it doesn't make sense to do this?

Bank Survey

HSBC may be the best bank in Armenia, but I still can't use their ATMs! The CEO does get points for personally responding to his email though. (and quickly!)

"Every horrifying situation will be destroyed."

Arman was trying out some new vocabulary words while reassuring me that somehow or another they'll solve everything. :) And it's true...

I already have light again in my bathroom--yesterday Arman came down and managed to get out the broken stub of the old lightbulb, and then spent a good half hour trying to rig things so that the lightbulb wouldn't touch the metal frame of the drop ceiling (the lightbulb is above the drop ceiling). And hopefully today Mher will be down to rewire my bathroom (since the outlet is totally fried) and then I'll have hot running water again too!

On the bright side, the (unseasonably?) hot weather means that at least the first five minutes or so of water that comes out of my faucet is not completely ice water, so it has been possible to shower (quickly!)

* * *

We're supposed to get thunderstorms tonight...and every night hereafter for the next 10 days at least. I'm excited...and hoping that there will be more than one clap of thunder. Thus far I have not been overly impressed by the thunderstorms here, but I have high hopes for these!

Like flipping a switch...

...summer has arrived. All of a sudden, the weather changed from being in the upper 60s and rainy to the mid 80s and sunny. I wish it would stay like this, but I know the 90s and 100s are coming...just not sure when!

I realize that I've been neglecting my blog again...but I shall attempt to give you an update on my latest activities.

Floods and Explosions!

Most recently, these activities seem to almost entirely involve bouncing from one apartment-related mini-crisis to another. The problems all started on the day when my landlord's son came to remove the water heater from my kitchen. It has never worked, so I didn't really care that he took it (apparently they have two broken ones and want to make one working one...). He made less of a mess than I was expecting, though more than I would have liked (well I mean, what do you expect when taking down an exhaust pipe that hasn't been touched in years?) But that, I figured, was that.
That evening, I had the joys of food poisoning once more, and late that night I discovered that for inexplicable reasons of plumbing, my shower no longer worked! (i.e. no hot running water, no convenient way to do laundry, etc.) So the next morning I had Vardan tell Abo (landlord's son) about the problem and he came to fix it. It seems the problem is that I have two pipes...and when they're not connected to one another, the water doesn't make it to the shower. I don't really quite get *why* the water runs that way, but apparently it does. So you'd think this would be a simple matter of a connector piece and then all would be well
Which it would have been. If the connector piece hadn't been defective. Upon turning the water back on, we discovered a giant fountain of water flooding my kitchen.
But the issue has since been dealt with--a new connector piece is in place--and all was well. I thought.

Then on Thursday night, the power went out. For about four hours or so. At some point in those four hours, it came back for about five minutes, but very unsteadily. This in itself is not a huge issue. Candles work well enough, and it stays light out til after 9pm now, so I at least got my lesson planning done, and when my computer's battery died and there was still no light, I just went to bed early. But then on Friday, we discovered that the unstable electricity had fried the hub at the studio (aka: no internet). Again, a solvable issue. We went out and bought a new one. Meanwhile, I had been off teaching, and when I got back, I stopped at my apartment to grab my stuff before running up to the studio. Though I had had power when I had woken up that morning...the power in my apartment was out again!
When I went outside, I noticed a long wire heading from my electricity meter across the street to regions unknown. It seems that the ice cream stand across the street still had no power, and were therefore borrowing mine! Now while I am all in favor of keeping ice cream from melting, I also prefer that the contents of my refrigerator stay refrigerated!
Eventually, this issue was solved by resetting the circuit breaker and then presumably we both had power.

But I should have known that the power issues of Thursday night presaged another incident Saturday morning....

I got up, and headed for the bathroom, flipped on the lightswitch.....and nearly had a heart attack as the lightbulb exploded! (not shattered, though, mind you--the glass bulb part blew completely off of the metal part, which is presumably still screwed in.) So, I figured, I was going to have to do something about that, but not until later in the day when the store would be open and I could buy a new lightbulb...and a flashlight! Because it's very dark in my bathroom, and the lightbulb is located somewhere above the ceiling tiles, and I'm not entirely sure behind which ceiling tile it is!

I continued on with my day. But then while rinsing laundry (with warm water) all of a sudden a popping noise came from my water heater and it stopped working. I flipped the switch off and on, (to no avail) and then noticed a peculiar burning smell. I immediately flipped it off, and waited anxiously for a bit til I was sure that no electrical fire was in the offing Then I went upstairs to tell Vardan, who was in his office. It seems an electrician will have to be called on Monday...I suspect my water heater will have to be replaced (too bad--the thing was new when I moved in!) I'm thinking the outlets here really need to all be equipped with surge protectors....because giant power surges seem to be increasing in frequency!

So that's the most recent news of my week. Also I bought strawberries, a summer squash, and green garlic! Fresh fruits and veggies have reappeared!

* * *

A School Talent Show
Moving backwards in time now, earlier this month, my two students (who are in the same class) invited me to come see their school show. Never one to pass up an interesting opportunity such as this, I accepted the invitation and headed over to their school. After briefly visiting the utter chaos in the classroom (40 or so students, their parents, some siblings, several teachers...in a small and crowded room!) We headed up to sit in the auditorium and wait for the show to start. As it turns out, the show was scheduled to start at 2, but as the kids had to be there at 1, so was I! After sitting down, I looked up, and saw...this -->
An absolutely gigantic portrait of Pushkin. You really don't get a sense of the scale from this picture, but that room was two stories in height, and the bottom of the portrait was at about shoulder level for me. While I've seen paintings this large before (Surikov, anyone?) I do believe this is one of the largest portraits I've ever seen. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out why there was a giant portrait of Pushkin on the wall, but eventually I did recall that the school was named after him. Still though. Huuuuuge portrait.

Eventually, after much waiting, (and seeing some truly spectacular parental fashion choices--my personal favorite was the woman in a tight-fitting pantsuit made out of light blue fabric with some sort of Hawaiian/palm tree print on it) it was time for the show to start. The kids, all in uniform, came in, and stood in an arc across the stage, singing a song (in Russian!). This was followed by various skits, recitations, individual performances (dance, piano, singing, rhythmic gymnastics), etc. The vast majority of the show (much to my delight) was in Russian so I could actually follow what they were saying. There was a small part in Armenian, which I did not so much follow, but most of it was in Russian. Later I learned that during Soviet times this particular school had been a Russian school, not an Armenian one, hence the good Russian program.

I'll post photos (and maybe some video) from the show on Facebook, but since these are kids, I'm not going to broadcast them all over the internet.

* * *

I guess that's about it for now...the research and the Armenian language lessons are progressing...not exactly swiftly, but progressing. We started reported speech last week in my Armenian lessons. It's almost exactly the same as it is in English. You'd think therefore that it would be quite easy. And it is...if I'm writing and have time to translate the sentence and think. But orally? Ha. Soooooo hard. And this is coming from English. Where we have reported speech like that. I can only imagine how much worse it must have been for my students in Russia trying to learn it.

And now off I go to continue cleaning my apartment. Mopping and laundry await! The chores are never done!

Remembering the Armenian Genocide

Today is the 94th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide--for those of you unfamiliar with the history this was the event which took place in 1915, where nearly 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Turks.

I'm not really going to get into the current politics of this issue--there are plenty of places to read about that, but suffice it to say that for Armenians, the Genocide is still a very deep and close memory. Thousands of people turned out to lay flowers near the eternal flame at the Genocide memorial--from the very elderly to parents carrying toddlers and babies. The crowd was massive; the police only let a certain number of people through at a time (a new feature instituted last year after the unrest following the elections).

I met my Armenian teacher and his class from the university around noon today to join the crowd as it made its way up to the memorial. We walked down Kievyan, and near the bridge we each bought a bunch of flowers to carry to the memorial. Across the bridge was where the crowd really started to thicken...


Eventually, we made it to a bigger open area where everyone just...stopped. At this point, I realized that Christine was very smart for having brought water with her...it was hot! Despite the weather forecast and everyone's assurances to the contrary, the weather was warm and sunny, and standing there in a big crowd with no shade, it was downright hot outside.

Luckily, many people, myself included, had umbrellas with them, because we were all expecting rain (every April 24th, so the story goes, it rains or snows because the sky is crying for the victims of the Genocide.) But though there were some ominous clouds in the distance, the sky overhead was filled with bright sunlight. (Yes, I am sunburned now.)


Eventually, the crowd began to move, and we slowly made our way up the long path to the memorial. The long walk up symbolizes the forced march which many Armenians were forced to endure (and which many did not survive.)


People were pressing in from all sides...you can see in this picture just how huge the crowds were.






As we got closer, you could see the spire, which is actually two points coming together, the larger one symbolizing the Armenians in Armenia, and the smaller symbolizing the Armenian Diaspora around the world.

In the distance you could make out the mountains which surround the city, but they were mostly shrouded by clouds. Just before this, a few drops of rain had fallen, but by this point it was clearing up again.

To the left of the spire, you can see concrete blocks arranged in a circle and angled in towards the center. There is one block for each Marz (district) lost. The blocks surround an eternal flame, which is our eventual goal on this pilgrimage.

Christine, ever prepared, had also brought along a bag of dried apricots, which she proceeded to hand out to anyone within arm's reach who wants them. A little boy, who couldn't have been more than three years old, took one and then his mom made him say thank you....it was the cutest "shnorhakalutyun" I've ever heard!

As we reached the outside of the circle, we saw all of the TV cameras and vans there to cover the event, as well as a couple of famous Armenian singers. (Sorry, I didn't get a photo.) Then we pressed our way down the steps and into the middle...


It was extremely crowded in here as well, though they were pretty efficient at moving people through. As soon as you had laid your flowers, large bouncer-type men shouted at you to leave. The amount of flowers surrounding the flame was absolutely incredible. Thousands and thousands of flowers. (Which makes sense given the number of people and the number of flower sellers out on the streets! But still, it was a sight to see!)

Then we made our way out the other side, and down the steps, where the pilgrimage continued, though at a faster pace and with a looser crowd because there was more space to move.


Afterwards, we all went over to Christine's place (which was nearby) for an early dinner of delicious homemade pizza. (I always did think that ajika would make good pizza sauce!)

Earth Hour

It is Earth Hour in Yerevan right now, and so I'm sitting here typing by candlelight, my computer running on battery. All my lights are off, and all my electronic devices are unplugged except for my refrigerator. I wonder if anyone else in Yerevan is participating?

"The Best Excuse for Anything" (Karen's Roadtrip Part 1: Georgia)

Last week Wednesday, I got up early in the morning to take a 7:30am marshrutka with Professor Derluguian from Yerevan to Tbilisi. We got to the avtokayan (bus station) a bit after 7am, and while Professor Derluguian was exchanging phone numbers with our cab driver, I went to find which marshrutka was ours. It turned out to be the first one sitting there--a new, bright red Ford van with Georgian plates (as I was later informed, it's much cheaper to register a foreign-made vehicle in Georgia than in Armenia...because Armenia wants to protect its domestic producers. Except there aren't any. So it's only protecting Russian producers.)

There ended up being a total of 5 passengers in the marshrutka--meaning I got an entire row to myself. (We did, however, pick up and drop off others along the way, but there were 5 of us starting in Yerevan and going all the way to Tbilisi.) This was my first trip further north than Aparan (which is about an hour north of Yerevan) so there was a lot to look at out the window! I have about half an hour of out-the-window footage that I have every intention of editing into a road trip video...

We drove through Spitak, which was the town near the epicenter of the devastating 1988 earthquake. You can see a few ruins, but there are also a lot of new buildings there. You can also see the prefab "temporary" housing that people are still living in over 20 years later, despite having been promised new apartments.

Not far outside of Spitak, we stopped for kebab. This was at about 9:30am, and presaged what was to become a theme of this trip--the incessant consumption of meat. But the kebab really was quite good...

We continued on our way north into what I'm fairly certain is copper mining country. At any rate, the rocks were the green color of oxidized copper, and you could see these long wooden slides coming down from the mountains ending above the river. Somehow I suspect the mining practices are not terribly environmentally friendly.

Then we got to the Georgian border and piled out of the marshrutka to get our passports stamped. Once out of Armenia, we passed through the no man's land (a short stretch of road) and came to the Georgian side of the border. It's immediately apparent how Georgians are modeling themselves after Americans. The border guards are all wearing uniforms that say Police on them in English, and except for the fact that they're speaking Georgian, they would not be out of place at any border crossing or airport in the US. After going through passport control (a fairly simple process given my American passport--no visa required) I had to go through customs and run all my stuff through an x-ray machine. The guy was confused by the umbrella in my bag, but other than that, no problems. Professor Derluguian had a bit more difficulty at passport control owing to his possessing a Russian passport in addition to his American one, but in the end they let him through as well.

Then we piled back into the marshrutka and drove off through Georgia. The first village you drive through after the border is not, in fact a Georgian village--it's Azeri. There used to be a big bustling market there but it's been clamped down on. The land you drive through on the way to Tbilisi is flatter than most of what we had driven through in Armenia (though of course there are mountains around). It's immediately apparent that the climate there is milder--everything was green and growing, whereas snow had covered a good deal of the Armenian territory we drove through.

When we arrived in Tbilisi, I got ahold of Dan, the Fulbrighter who I would be staying with. Professor Derluguian and I took a taxi, which dropped me off almost immediately near the old baths in the oldest part of town. Despite the short duration of the taxi ride (for me) we still nearly rear ended one vehicle while nearly sideswiping another. This was my introduction to Georgian traffic. You know...Armenian traffic is bad. Russian traffic is bad. Mongolian traffic is downright scary. But in all of those, there seems to be some slight amount of order in the disorder. Georgian traffic is something else. It is absolutely insane. I feared for my life.

Dan came and found me on the street corner where I was standing, and we headed off to his place to drop off my stuff. He has a nice apartment with a huge balcony/porch area with a fantastic view! He's also right in the heart of the old part of the city, so there's lots of cool stuff to see! Shortly thereafter we headed off to meet another of the Fulbrighters and to have some lunch. And thus started my whirlwind tour of Georgia.

We met the other Fulbrighter (an anthropology professor) in front of the opera and went to have lunch at, of all places, a Thai restaurant. But the food was really good! Afterwards we headed over to the university for Professor Derluguian's lecture. We got there early, and stood outside for a bit and I watched the students walk by. I was absolutely amazed at the fashion differences between Armenians and Georgians. Georgians look completely Americanized--the guys wear baggy jeans and sneakers or tennis shoes...nary a sign of ironed jeans or pointy-toed shoes. I saw a number of people with backpacks too. I didn't notice any girls sporting the super-shiny stiletto boots or shiny pleather bags, or coats or jeans covered in rhinestones either. It was rather astonishing. And I even saw two girls wearing Uggs! (Not, mind you, that I am advocating Uggs as an alternative to thigh-high shiny stiletto boots. Personally I dislike both.)
But yeah...the fashion surprised me.

After Professor Derluguian's lecture, there was a fair amount of confusion about who was going where and who was in charge of what...but eventually everyone but me went out to a restaurant, while I went with Kety, one of Professor Derluguian's friends from college to her mother's apartment. She and her mother were fasting for Lent (in the Armenian and Georgian churches this entails 40 days of a vegan diet), but nevertheless because there were guests coming, they had two kinds of fish and khachapuri (which is really one of the best foods on the face of the earth. cheese is the key ingredient.) (And thus we see one instance of the title of the post: the best excuse for anything? I have a guest! Didn't call someone back on time? I had a guest! Missed a meeting at work? I had a guest! You get the idea.) There were also vast amounts of fresh "greens" (herbs such as cilantro, dill, and tarragon, as well as green onions), as well as a salad with lettuce (and then your standard beet salad and pickled carrots, cabbage, and beets. There was also homemade wine from Kety's husband, and bread and cheese...and a rice pie which was also quite tasty. And fried potatoes. It was a big meal. As I was eating dessert (this thing made from wheat and raisins and I'm not sure what else, and keks with powdered sugar on top, and apricot preserves) Professor Derluguian and company arrived from the restaurant...and thus began a second round of dinner. Afterwards, Kety's mom played some Georgian songs on the piano and there was a bit of dancing....all in all, the event went late into the night, and it was a lot of fun!!

The next morning, Dan had to go deal with bureaucratic paperwork to get his Georgian residency, and so I was left to my own devices to wander around Tbilisi. Lonely Planet in hand, I had really only made it as far as the ATM when I heard my name being shouted and turned around to see Professor Derluguian and Beppe Karlsson (the Swedish anthropologist who had invited us) waving to me. Joining up with them, we wandered back towards old town (where I had just come from, but that's okay--there's a lot to see there!) to see the sights. It was interesting...there are Council of Europe and OSCE vehicles driving all around Tbilisi...the city is also plastered with posters bearing a question mark and the Georgian word for "Why?" (under one of which a clever person scribbled "because.") These posters are protesting the Saakashvili adminstration. But I'm not completely up on my Georgian politics so I can't give you all the details.
Outside of what was, if I recall correctly, the party headquarters, there was a sign stating "Our foreign policy priority is the integration into NATO." In English.

It was also interesting seeing how outwardly religious people are--if they pass a church they cross themselves. If they're standing at a bus stop near a church, they turn and cross themselves. And as there are a lot of churches all over the place (unlike in Armenia where a lot of the churches feel hidden to me), there are a lot of people crossing themselves, all the time. Also of note--the Georgians cross themselves right -> left, like Russians do. Armenians do it left -> right like Catholics.

Then we had lunch at Beppe's house and met his wife and baby daughter, after which we hurried off to the university because Professor Derluguian had another meeting and then spoke to a class of graduate students. (I sat in on both). Then we went off and grabbed some food (I finally learned that the green herb that burns my tongue if eaten raw is tarragon...and they make tarragon flavored soda too) And then wandered around for a bit before meeting Dan again. (We had contemplated going to the opera to hear Aida, but it's a really long opera and we were leaving early the next morning). So we headed back off towards old town, where we met up with Dan's roommate, and went to a restaurant where we had some food and some Georgian chacha. Which burns waay more than vodka as it goes down.

After that, we headed back to Dan's place, and drank some more chacha (toasting of course...I forget who exactly I'm quoting here, but "drinking without toasting is alcoholism". Yeah. that's kind of the philosophy at social gatherings in this part of the world.)

The next morning, I got up early, met up with Professor Derluguian, and got in the van that would take us (as well as a Czech girl named Mirka) back to Armenia...


And I will close this entry with the legend of how Georgians got their land...

God decided that he would give out his lands to all of the peoples of the world, and so he called them all to a meeting. The Georgians were so excited to be included that they immediately started feasting, and thus came to the meeting several hours late. When they arrive, God tells them that he has already given out all of the land, and asks them why they weren't on time. The Georgians reply, but we were feasting and celebrating in Your honor! God thinks for a minute, and then says, well, I do have this one little piece of land left...I was saving it for myself, but since you were feasting in my honor, I will give it to you. And thus the Georgian people were given the land of Georgia.

Update--an article from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)
March 3, 2009


Armenian Currency Free-Falls As Central Bank Ends Intervention

by Charles Recknagel


Armenia's national currency, the dram, has gone into free fall after
the Central Bank stopped intervening to support it.

In the space of a few hours on March 3, the dram went from 305 to the
dollar to as low as 400 to the dollar, a loss of up to 30 percent of
the currency's value.

Until recently, many Armenians felt relatively untouched by the
economic crisis sweeping the world, largely because much of the
country's income is supplied by remittances from the Armenian diaspora
abroad.

But as the economic situation in Russia has worsened, remittances from
that direction have steadily dried up. And the same thing, at a slower
rate, has been happening with remittances of dollars from the United
States.

Now, the decline of remittances has made its impact fully felt.

The Central Bank, which for years has relied upon remittances to fund
its policy of supporting the dram against the dollar, decided it could
no longer sustain that burden.

Read the rest of the article here...

The Economic Crisis Hits Armenia

Until now, I haven't really been feeling the full effect of the global economic crisis here. For the most part life seemed to be going on as usual. I mean, the economy here already had some serious problems (if it didn't, I wouldn't be here researching the social consequences of labor migration to Russia, after all). But the new crisis hadn't really seemed to impact here directly, except in terms of a wave of migrants coming home from Russia because the Russian economy is collapsing.

But today, it hit. The Armenian central bank devalued the dram by 21% and the exchange rate will now be free-floating, as part of an agreement to get a bailout from the IMF.

So...really sucks for anyone whose money is denominated in drams, and I assume prices are going to rise. You could definitely feel the sense of worry and panic in the air...especially if you went near a currency exchange booth. People have been going to stores and buying everything they can. According to my friend Anush, some of the smaller shops have already run out of things...oil, butter, sugar...
For any of you who can read Russian, here's another article.

Maybe i just don't understand economics, but i was just reading another article about what's going on here, and it's talking about how the dram being devalued is going to be good for the Armenian economy because it will improve exports and create jobs.....but....somehow that just seems wrong when people aren't going to be able to afford to eat....

I'm sorry that I don't have more insightful economic analysis than that....but if any of my readers know more about econ than I do and want to explain the ramifications, please go ahead and comment!

Also sorry this post is kind of disjointed--I keep re-editing and adding things to it as I find out more!

Khorovats

On Friday, we had a going-away party for Magnus, who, sadly, is leaving us on March 6. And at this party we had khorovats, or Armenian-style barbecue. It was big pieces of pork and slices of potatoes, all grilled out on the balcony over an open flame (all the more impressive because it was raining!) Those of us not involved in the cooking alternated between watching the grilling and playing endless ping pong. Magnus is the studio's champion, and he usually wins. But it's fun to play with him!

Then we all sat down to our feast. The food was absolutely amazing--normally I'm somewhat indifferent to pork, but this was absolutely delicious. Poor Inna--she is Lenting, and in the Armenian church this entails a vegan diet for the entire 40 day duration of Lent. So she filled up on potatoes. Additionally, there was lavash and bread, a cabbage salad, the salad that looks like sort of liquified pickled tomatoes and peppers, wine (of both store-bought and homemade-in-a-Coke-bottle varieties), vodka, Jermuk (carbonated water) and oddly, Diet Coke.

There was, of course, the obligatory series of toasts, which occasionally I understood parts of (I've got to hand it to my teacher...as irrelevant as the texts on Matenadaran, the linguistic origins of the Armenian language, and Mesrop Mashtots might have seemed, I did actually learn some useful words from them!) Vahe translated some, but his translations were (understandably) directed at Magnus so I couldn't always hear. But I still got the sense.

After a fairly significant amount of alcohol had been consumed (for the record, I was drinking wine, not vodka), the singing started. Mher, our gruff security guard (who was also the one who grilled the khorovats), has quite a good voice! I don't know what the first song was about, but it had tears running down more than one person's face. Then there were some other songs that were happier in tone...one of them, I gathered, was a patriotic song that the soldiers in the Karabagh war would always sing when they saw Vardan coming with his camera...I also gathered that this song got on his nerves!

As the meal was wrapping up, Magnus, Nelly, and I started cleaning up a bit while the heavy smokers went outside and some of the other guys stood around toasting more. Then followed a highly entertaining drunken ping-pong game, in which I was by far the most sober (having only had 2 glasses of wine and no vodka), and which therefore my team won.

It was a good evening. But we're all sorry to see Magnus go.

Garbage Day, and Other Musings

Sadly, I don't have anything to report to you about Trndez, the holiday with newlywed couples jumping over fire, because I ended up staying in Yerevan last weekend. And this weekend. But next weekend I'll be back on the road doing more interviews...

The other day here in Yerevan (or at least on my street) was apparently garbage day. A couple of guys with shovels and a dump truck came and shoveled up all the trash that had accumulated along the sides of the roads, next to the lamp post, on the sidewalk at the bottom of the hill, etc. Thankfully, this also included the disposal of the cat corpse which had been laying there on the corner for quite some time. (Magnus says it's been there since January, I say only a couple weeks, but either way.......)
So yes...for the time being at least, the sidewalks are much cleaner. And they'd stay that way if people would just throw their trash away in dumpsters.....

Sadly, today winter made a comeback. I woke up to discover that it was snowing outside. Now the temperature has gone up above freezing again, so everything is covered in slush. It's gross. Needless to say, even if I weren't trying to stave off getting actually sick, I would not be going out anywhere today. Luckily I got my grocery shopping done yesterday.

Speaking of groceries, I managed to conduct an entire transaction in Armenian the other day! (And earned an "Apres!" (Bravo!) from the girl to boot) Yes indeed, I successfully requested, received, and paid for 10 apples without resorting to Russian or having to say "chem haskanum" (I don't understand). This of course, was aided by apple being one of the few food words I know. My vocabulary of nouns is still fairly pathetic....although randomly, I now know the word for "linguistic family". It's long. And hard to read.

I do still suck at reading. I don't know if my brain will ever manage to make the transition from reading one letter at a time, sounding words out, to actually reading whole words. (We're not even going to talk about writing here except to simply say--I can't.) But at least I'm getting a little better at speaking and understanding.

And that, I guess, is pretty much it for now. More interesting (hopefully!) stories to come next week after I do some more traveling outside of Yerevan. And for now, off I go!

It's a kidney...it's a lung...no, it's.......a GIZZARD!

It was almost enough to make me into a vegetarian.

Chicken gizzards. Ew. Just, ew.

Actually the flavor was better than the cooked liver (not sure what species) from back in the fall...but in terms of gross meats, the ranking now goes:
1. Cooked liver
2. Chicken gizzard
3. Raw sheep liver, fresh out of the sheep

Yes, raw liver has fallen back to third.

If we're also including gross meat dishes (as in not just pieces of meat) I'd have to include kholodets (pig jello) in this list, and probably khash (hot gelatinous substance made from cows' legs and consumed with garlic and copious amounts of vodka) but I've never actually had khash, so as gross as it sounds, I must reserve judgement.

In other news, the weather continues springlike, if a bit gray and dreary. I also thought about buying a pair of blue boots yesterday, but upon trying them on, they proved, sadly, to be quite uncomfortable. So no boots.

And that's pretty much it at the moment. Tune in next time to find out about the holiday where people jump over fires......

An explanation for the traffic jam...

Last night I had my weekly Armenian lesson which finished at 7pm. I took the metro home, because I have realized that it's far more comfortable than squishing myself into a marshrutka at rush hour. And it's not that far a walk from the metro stop down the hill to my apartment, especially if the weather's decent.

So when I got out of the metro and up to the street, I saw that there was a huge traffic mess at the giant intersection there. My first thought was that rush hour was a bit worse than usual, but nothing too out of the ordinary--things get backed up when too many marshrutkas try to stop in the same place. So I continued down the hill, stopping in the shoe store with the brief notion of buying some boots (I had scoped them out a few days earlier), but no matter how many times I look at them, I really will just never see myself wearing those super-shiny black vinyl boots. If they were normal black leather, there's a pair I would have already bought....but I digress.

Anyways, I went back out after only a minute or two and realized that I was walking faster than the traffic was moving. And a few seconds later, I realized that hardly any traffic at all was coming up the hill. Once in a while a car would come through, but that was it. I tried to see ahead and caught the brief flash of the lights of a police car--I decided that there must have been an accident somewhere out of sight up ahead...maybe on the bridge? I kept walking. At the bottom of the hill, I saw that the cars going uphill were only ones that were turning right--nothing was coming straight. Then I saw a bit of a caravan of black SUVs, one of which had flashing lights. So I wondered if the president were somewhere in the vicinity and they had closed some roads? Police were directing traffic at the intersection, but of course it was still barely controlled chaos. I made it across the street, went home, and didn't think much more about it.

Until today...when I found out what really happened: http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=13544734&PageNum=0

So yes. The deputy police chief was murdered just down the street from where I live. Something like 9 shots were fired into him. He leaves behind a wife and a 5 or 6 month old baby. This is just really sad.

Spring?!!

It seems that were there groundhogs in Armenia, they would predict the impending arrival of spring, for it was quite cloudy here on Groundhog's day. And it also seems (*knocks on wood*) to be coming true, at least for the moment. The temperatures have been getting above freezing most days, and the air frequently feels springlike--especially on sunny days. This, by the way, only applies to Yerevan and Yeghegnadzor. I fully expect to freeze when I go to Hrazdan again this weekend...

But let me back up and explain.

For the last couple of weekends, I've been heading out to other towns around Armenia to do interviews and research. (Yes, fulfilling my actual purpose as a Fulbrighter.) Somehow all of a sudden I became insanely busy, between teaching English 3 times a week, studying Armenian once a week, stuff at the studio, and then long weekends out in the countryside. Two weeks ago I went to Hrazdan and absolutely froze because first of all it had been getting warmer in Yerevan and nobody warned me that Hrazdan is much colder (I didn't realize that it's virtually next door to the ski resort Tsakhgadzor...which, by the way, I can't spell). And due to the whole lack of indoor heat issue, it was a cold weekend. But a very productive one!

Then last weekend I headed southwards to Yeghegnadzor, which was completely opposite weather! It was sunny and warm (on Saturday I didn't even need a scarf!) and everything was melting, leaving the streets an absolute mess of mud. But eminently preferable to freezing. I have clearly lost my love of winter. It might come back when I'm back somewhere with central heating, but for now I can't wait for spring!

So anyways, while in Yeghegnadzor I got to do a little sightseeing in addition to interviewing--we went out to the church that's near there...Noravants (or something like that. I'm awful at remembering names unless I've heard them lots and lots of times.) Of course it's stunningly beautiful, as are most such places in Armenia. It's up in the mountains, and there are red cliffs surrounding it. There are two church buildings, and there used to be an academy as well, but now just the foundations remain. On one of the churches you can climb up these stairs to the second floor but they're very narrow and there's no handrail or anything and well...it's probably better attempted in tennis shoes than boots. On the way to and from the church, we drove through Armenia's Grand Canyon. It's absolutely amazing, especially when the fog was amassing near the tops of the cliffs. I'm told that the American Grand Canyon is even more impressive, but well, I've never been there...and this was pretty awesome.

But speaking of fog...
I took a marshrutka to Yeghegnadzor, and the road you take to get there starts off on a flat plain south of the city, and then goes through the foothills and into the mountains. It was sleeting in Yerevan and on the plain at the time, but visibility was good. Then all of a sudden we hit a super-thick fog. Visibility was maybe one car length in front of us. Now any sane person would think that this would curtail the giant game of chicken that is played on curving, two-lane mountain roads with barely a guardrail. But that sane person would be wrong. No, the fog just adds a new level of excitement. Because you still pass anyone whom you deem to be driving too slowly. And you do so despite the fact that only about half of the oncoming cars are using headlights, and despite the fog being so thick that you can't see the cars til they're nearly even with you....basically I'm amazed that I'm still alive.

But as suddenly as it appeared, the fog disappeared because we got above it in altitude. And that was pretty awesome, looking out across the mountains and seeing the fog below and the clouds above wreathing the mountaintops.

And Yeghegnadzor itself is in a stunningly beautiful location, surrounded by mountains that look like they're right out of Lord of the Rings or something. I am definitely going back in the spring!

This weekend I'm going to Hrazdan again, but this time I'm going prepared! Warm sweaters and long underwear! (Although just watch--it'll be warm there too just to spite me!)

And I guess that's about it. Pictures to come on facebook some day...but for now the internet is being highly uncooperative so it'll have to wait.

Aaaand...I'm back!

Sorry, everyone. I shudder to look at how long it's been between posts. I will try to be better about posting from now on!

Since my last posting, I have turned 23, gone back to the US, been to London, acquired a new student, and made what is looking to turn into some material progress on my research. So...a lot to report!

I went home for Christmas, luckily squeaking in right between blizzards. 20 hours of travel time and I arrived on the afternoon of the same day I left! I had an awesome time home with friends and family, which was over all too soon, and then it was back on a plane from Chicago to Dublin to London, where I had a 28 hour layover due to airline...issues. After spending far more time than I would have liked speaking with BMI employees at various counters, I finally got my hotel vouchers, and off I went into London. Conveniently, it's painted on the sidewalk which way you should look for crossing the street--in the center of the city too, not just at the airport!

So I went to the hotel and at first I just kind of crashed. But then that evening, I met up with my friend Joe who lives in London and whom I hadn't seen since college graduation we finally figured out (it doesn't seem like it's been that long!) He showed me around London, which is pretty awesome, and I definitely will have to go back during daylight hours! I must say, though...transportation is obscenely expensive! Cost me 7 pounds for my ticket for the underground...granted I used a couple times, but still! That's like $13 or something! (Not sure what the exchange rate is at, exactly, these days). But London was still awesome :) And it was lots of fun getting to see Joe!

The next day, it was back to Heathrow and back on a plane to Yerevan. New Year's on a plane is nothing exciting, just so you all know. I've experienced it so now you don't have to...because it's even more anticlimactic than sitting at home watching the ball drop. The pilot comes on at midnight and says it's midnight. The flight attendants come around with juice/soda. I don't think they even had champagne if you paid for it. Although the guys behind me drank a lot of whiskey. And then we landed in Yerevan.

Our landing was a tribute to the pilot's skill. (Although not as much skill as that pilot in New York showed!) The runway was...while perhaps not entirely unplowed, still coated with a good layer of snow! It had, in fact, been snowing all day on New Year's Eve. Despite it being New Year's, though, the airport was running smoothly (except for the snow) and I got my visa and got through everything quickly. And my suitcase which was held together by duct tape survived!!

I paid a rather obscene amount for a taxi--five times what I had paid going to the airport when I left...but on the other hand it was New Year's at 2am, and it was snowing. A lot. I am absolutely AMAZED that in this old Volga, which had windshield wipers which could barely keep the windshield tolerably clear, we managed to get all the way from the airport to my apartment without crashing, going off the road, or even fishtailing except for one brief second which was soon corrected. So it was worth the amount I paid. Because the roads were bad. And remained that way til things thawed. Sidewalks are still pretty bad because everything refreezes at night. Ice. Lots of ice.

The first couple days after getting back were primarily occupied by trying to get water and internet back, because alas! My pipes froze! And my ip was wrong so I couldn't get on the network! Eventually, though the water problem was solved, and now I just always leave my kitchen faucet on at a trickle and the pipes haven't frozen since.

In the evenings, a bunch of us from Bars went around visiting...lots of food, fun, and good company!

On the 7th, work started up again, and everything was quite busy at the studio. Gradually I've been getting everything back going--I've got two students now that I'm teaching English to (one I actually have to make lesson plans for....the other I talk to while he plays computer games.) My Armenian lessons start up again on Thursday, which is good, because it seems like some research is going to be happening soon!

I've been emailing and calling Peace Corps Volunteers, and I've got some things in the works...so it looks like I'll have some places to travel to on the coming weekends. I hope the weather stays decent!

It's been above freezing during the day lately, not that that helps much with the compressed ice on the sidewalks. At night it still gets pretty cold though. To that end, today I put up plastic on my kitchen window and on my hall window. The plastic on my hall window isn't really doing me much good, but I had the plastic, so I figured i might as well. The kitchen plastic is working better than I thought--with the kitchen door open, the kitchen has now been heated to the same temperature as the main room of my apartment--they have equalized to a temperature that is cooler than the main room would be if the kitchen were closed off, but the kitchen is exponentially warmer. No hope for my bathroom though. There is, however, one problem. Due to the temperature differential, when I open and close my hall door, the plastic on my kitchen window gets sucked in and out. I'm afraid that this is going to rip down the duct tape. I don't have enough left to redo the entire thing. And it wouldn't solve the problem. Engineers, if you have any solutions, I'm all ears!

And so now here I sit, recovered from a rather spectacular bout of rapid-onset food poisoning, which luckily departed almost as soon as it arrived. So yes...just so you all know, I didn't die!

And I will try to post more frequently!