Blogs from West, Armenia, Asia - page 12

It's Sunday night and I just returned from the third annual AUA School of Engineering picnic. The students (and some of the faculty) had to be coaxed into going this year because the previous two picnics weren't well organized. That's an understatement. In both cases they simply loaded 80 people into a couple of busses and spent the next few hours aimlessly driving around the countryside looking for a place to spread out. In one instance they set up in a meadow owned by a farmer who became irate when he discovered 80 people trampling down his prime grazing grass. They had to flee back to the busses while throwing money over their shoulders. Things got off to a bad start today when one of our busses broke down a couple of miles out of town. ... read more

Even though a meal at a fancy restaurant is only about $8, I managed to spend over $200 this week, so tonight I'm celebrating the end of my first week in Armenia with a home cooked meal. I only have one pot, so it will have to be stew. Unless I buy pans, I guess it will have to be stew every night for the next two months. What I dread the most are solo trips to the grocery store. Armenia is not a service-oriented country. It's the post-Soviet hangover. For example, it's not unusual for customers to stand in a queue without complaining because the cashier needs a break to call her boyfriend. I guess we all divide our time between being workers and being customers, so I can't figure out if this system is ... read more

Yerevan is the capital city of Armenia. It is historically and culturally a fascinating place. Some type of settlement has existed at the same location for over 2787 years. While my wanderings were mostly confined to where I could get on my own two feet (and microbus/metro/taxi), I was able to get an excellent feel for the city, especially it's center. The earliest record of settlement was found at the ruins of ancient Erebuni. Cuneiform records found at the site of the ruins mark the castle as having been built by Argistisi I in 782 c.e. with the help of 6,600 captured slaves. Armenians are a proud people, and Yerevan reflects this. Galleries of Armenian artists, monuments and statues dedicated to Armenian composers, authors, architects, poets, and heros are everywhere. They are only outnumbered by cafes, ... read more

Hotel: SIL Hotel (Yerevan, Armenia) $75 We wasted a lot of time this morning trying to find a bank that would cash D's AmEx travellers checks; no place wanted to take them (even with the AMEX symbol on the door!) We finally found a place that supposedly would cash them. My wife's ankle had been acting up, while he was inside the bank we sat down on the steps outside to give it a rest. A guard came out and motioned that we couldn't sit there. So we walked across the street and sat on the curb. She still kept giving us dirty looks! Still unsuccessful in cashing D's TC's (they wanted the receipt which was back at the hotel), we headed back to Republic Square which had an ATM. We found a taxi driver in ... read more