Putting the "me" in Armenia

---

Armenia is nice, but I have absolutely zero interesting things to
convey. The airport was shiny and new, but leaving I saw the old
Soviet one, which was crumbling and in disrepair. It looked like a
flying saucer, I think it may have been cutting edge when it was
built. No scary men with guns, no creepy dark rooms or anything.

I walked around this morning before meeting the boss of the project
here, R., for lunch with Tikki Tikki Timbo, my immediate boss. Tikki
and I get along at the highest level, but not so much the lower level
things. Tikki frustrates me to no end.

If you get a little uncomfortable with a lot of black leather, super
fancy cars, tinted windows, beefy men with duffel bags and gold
chains, Armenia may not be for you.

Just as an aside, supposedly, Armenia gets more aid per person than
any other country in the world. More Armenians live outside of Armenia
than inside of Armenia. The biggest industry is remittances, which is
the money that the diaspora sends back to family in Armenia. Diaspora
Armenians also send back cars, and I mean fancy cars. At the Sunday
morning car market, you can buy cars for $100,000 US. You read that
correctly. That was reported to me by R., the boss of the project in
Armenia. These are like tricked out Landrovers, similar to the type
cruising the main drag here in Yerevan.

Tikki doesn't like to go out, he claims it is because he's been here
too many times (like 3 times) but I think it's just because he isn't
adventurous. But probably just as well. After lunch out with R., his
wife, and Tikki, I walked around some more alone. It's nice to be able
to walk outside alone on a trip, but then again, this is like a
vacation in Eastern Europe. Oh wait, Armenia is in Eastern Europe. I
wanted to know if the Baghdad Realty sold real estate in Baghdad, or
if it was just the name.

We're having a party for the staff of the project because of an
excellent evaluation they received. They said they would only have the
party if they could come in late the next day to work. This could be a
good time.

I ate in the hotel just because I forgot to buy a guide for Armenia
and didn't really know where to go or any main key phrases to
communicate. Every once in awhile, one of the waiters would put on
opera and belt it out. He sounded good to me. Until he sang Besame
mucho. I wanted to laugh, because David does a killer version of
Besame moo-cho with a ceramic cowparade cow that we have at home.

Armenian coffee, which I guess is like Turkish coffee (anathema to
Armenians) is akin to sludge with liquid on top. Damn strong and damn good.

I hope to have something clever and interesting to share later after
meeting the people on the project (or at least getting out of
Yerevan), but this is it for now.

---

Comments

[Paul]

Armenian Getaways
Welcome to Armenia! If you get out of Yerevan (which you need to, it's a different world out there), try to visit Haghpat and Sanahin in the north! That area is beautiful, full of forested mountains. There are lots of interesting sites to see throughout, check out http://www.armeniapedia.org for information on a wide array of them.