Armoholic in Rio

Post about Rio, the city of futbol, Ipanema, Copacabana, Bossa Nova.....
What can I say? It's gorgeous, always dreamed of seeing this city. Ever since I saw my first
photograph of the view from the Cristo Redentor statue.

Never have I EVER seen water like this, it is absolutely gorgeous! Coconut water from an actual coconut, yes please! Perfect sand, clear turquoise colored water, it's paradise....
Little blurbs of memories made:
Maracana for a Flu - Sao Paolo game, best to go to a Fla - Flu game (both Rio teams, a Classico). Fred plays for Fluminense, also plays in the Brazilian National Team, Rogério Mücke Ceni goalkeeper of Sao Paolo FC, goalkeeper who has scored more than 100 goals during his career, most goals for a goalkeeper in the history of football. 
Also, it was at Maracana that Pele scored his 1000th goal! 
Here is a little chant from the Flu fans.
"Vamos vamos vamos Tri Color, vamos vamos vamos Tri Color, Vaaaaaaaaaaammmoooooos, vamos Tri Color" The Flu colors are green, red and white.

Carioca = Gringo = the portuguese settlers in the native tongue

Pao e Cia for tapioca 
Bar Urca for caipirinhas (the margarita of Rio) and the best bananas fritas
Sugar Loaf for beautiful views of Rio and a nice hike
Cristo Redentor 
Lapa and Downtown walking tour
Lapa for Samba and Bossa Nova
Garota de Ipanema for lunch and to see where the famous Girl from Ipanema was written
Tijuca for a hike

On the list to eat
Cheese bread spelled pao de queijo but pronounced PUHOO dje KEZHO, speaking spanish helps a ton when you're trying to explain!
Feijoada

The metal bars on the first floor of all buildings, just a tad bit creepy but I don't even notice it anymore :)
So far we've taken the metro and the bus no adventures there... 

Made me miss YEREVAN SO SO SO SO MUCH!

Eu Te Amo Rio
Obrigada
Armoholic

Yerevan Jan

How I survived so long without seeing this city? I don't know... 

But today there is a light at the end of the tunnel, Armenia in 2 weeks! I. CAN'T. WAIT.

It's amazing the energy it gives me, the feeling I have just walking in those streets, people watching, sitting on the subway train.... The pulpulaks (water fountains), the shukas (farmer's markets), the cafes, the fresh armenian lavash, the fruits, the vegetables, the pink "tuf" buildings, the breeze in the evenings, the singing fountains, the view from Kaskad....
It's beautiful. My little city. 

Re-wind

We are sitting at a cafe near the Opera building - it's one of our last days, August 2009...
Some of us are leaving soon, some are staying a while longer but I have that feeling - the one you get in your stomach before something is over.....
Recap
Hranush Hakobyan - the newly crowned Minister of the Diaspora, the Iron Lady. Staff shakes and pales when walking into her office, major ties with the diaspora, has held leadership positions in politics since Soviet times. Maybe we need someone like her in politics....
The Minister of Economy - nice guy, may really try to do something for the rural areas of Armenia to boost the economy, the question remains if he will hit some sort of a "political wall" with all these good intentions...
The Catholicos (leader of christian Armenians) - didn't have time to meet us in Etchmiadzin, very busy man, visits parishes in the US that have never been visited by the Catholicos before, plans to build a summer mansion for himself in the center of Yerevan, taught one of our program participants how to drink vodka shots from chilli peppers, considers himself a "neighborhood dude", needs to take a communication/speech class.....

Jon Huntsman - a Utah resident, non-armenian "odar", has a construction company in Armenia, which we visited. Head of the branch in Armenia a British bloke who has a crush on our (ex) program director Arpi Vartanian. Super sweet guy - loved the brit humor.

An Armenian Harvard MBA graduate (shall remain Mr. Unnamed) - owner of an Armenian construction company which builds "elitar" buildings all around Yerevan.
*
We all pile in into Mr. Unnamed's office and he explains how they build their buildings in perfect English and "oh by the way I got my MBA from Harvard". He shows us a plan of a new building that they are building and we get into our van to follow his Lexus SUV to the construction site.
The car makes a turn, goes down a hill and there it is: the construction site, right across from the apartment high rise in which I spend all of my childhood. I'm not sure how to describe my reaction....
Me: Mr. Unnamed did you know that on this spot there was always a huge puddle the size of a small lake which cars couldn't get through after it rained.
Mr. Unnamed: Yes, we've drained it and it shouldn't be of concern.... (I wonder...)
Me: You are blocking my buildings view of Mount Ararat.
Mr. Unnamed: Well you should come and buy an apartment here in our building and get
a view on the mountain...
Me: Maybe I will... (or maybe I won't since you are charging crazy amounts of money that a US student and certainly not many Armenian citizens can afford).
*
A suivre....

The return of Armoholic...

So its been a while ... Over a year has passed (actually zoomed) by since I have left Yerevan. I left just as my two months in Yerevan predicted I would - in a hurry, stuffing my clothes into the suitcases and sitting on them to zip them up, without saying a proper good bye to anyone - You get the picture (remember those sleepless nights...)
The reasons being
- too many things to do last minute
- my dear cousin ending up in the hospital
All is well now, but the timing was slightly off.

So what on earth made me write today, at 9:39p.m. on this awfully cold Austin day..... aaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnndddddddd the reason is ,drumrollllll please, I HAVE BOUGHT MY TICKET TO YEREVAN!!!!!! Yes, I have! You will think I'm crazy and I admit I am because:
- I'm flying out on May 27th.
- I am compiling lists of people to see, places to visit, plays and concerts to go to.
- Today is January the 13th.

Dear May,
Please come soon.
Yours truly,
Armoholic.

Naturally now I'm in "nostalgic" mode and I start remembering my last stay.... Then again when is my brain not in nostalgic mode. (We, cancers, are supposed to be very nostalgic people.)
All the things I promised to write about and then just left all four of you hanging.
It's been over a year so I won't remember exact dates and times but I will give you a general overview of my last week in Yerevan in 2009 (hopefully you still care :)
Mostly I'd like to have it written down somewhere. So, when I am a shriveled, little, old grandma I can tell these stories to my hypothetical grandchildren.
Linum e chi linum mi aghchik e linum..... (I kid, I kid :)

Kharabakh/Artzakh the land of the brave and humble......

I haven't written in a while because the crazy schedule seems to follow me everywhere,
I guess it's not just a US thing it's already my second nature.
I have to make it to every event, try to see all of my relatives, the most lost and forgotten friendseven if that means waking up in the morning looking like a monster after
only four hours of sleep and trying to put as much "lemon-aid" on my eyes as possible
to cover the bags under them.....
So in my last blog I asked this question about being a diasporan or an Armenian and what exactly I was and surprisingly in this past few weeks that question has been popping up everywhere....
Starting from interviews to radio or newspaper
Journalist: "Do you consider yourself more Yerevanci or Amerikaci...." me: I consider myself both..... journalist: "No but if you had to choose one...."
My new found friends: But you don't look armenian at all..... You look hispanic.....
The random lady at the church who asked one our interns to be her children's godfather: "You don't look Armenian"
me: Yes, I am Japanese and Hispanic.....
Lady: I thought soooooooo
our coordinator: You have an accent when you speak armenian you don't speak the Yerevanci barbar......
coordinator: Bayc du mern es.... (as in you're one of us, very contradicting opinions coming from one person)
coordinator: Sofia's lived in America too long now she's a feminist. ( when I climbed on top of a tank without help)
unknown: but you're not american, you're armenian, you're a stanci......
relatives: you don't fit in, you dress differently....
relatives: you look really american in this picture... ( I have no idea what this one means)

There are many more examples of this woderful phenomenon, I call "The america stanci mexica jap phenomenon".
So since even one person can't decide for himself/herself what am I really.....
I have decided long time ago that it doesn't really matter what these people think, what
matters to me is what I think and what I feel.
I think I am both and I think being a mix is the best, I love it and I wouldn't change it....
I get the best of both cultures, I am very thankful to my parents for bringing me to Texas and giving all of the opportunities which I could have never had in Armenia....
I am also grateful to US because in many aspects it is a wonderful country with many opportunities..... It really is "the land of opportunity".
I love Armenia, it is my home, I have a special connection to Yerevan, which I can't really explain with words.... Even after man stare at you as if you're the last girl left on this earth,
even after taxi drivers try to rip you off I still love it.....
There is not one choice I am both a diasporan and a hayastanci......
Also, it doesn't really matter if you are a diasporan, a parska hay, a beiruta hay, a erord masci,
a kharabaghci, a rusa hay, a goriseci, or pink with purple polka dots, as long as you feel armenian
you like the culture and you want to call yourself an armenian none of the other things really matter.....
Really if all of the armenians in the world stopped one day and considered our wonderful yet very sad and long history they would understand that most of the armenian problems came and come from within. The root of our problems is division, and Armenians divided can not and will not stand (I don't remember who said that but some genius has already told this to our wise but yet stubborn people).
If you tell someone you're a Gyumreci/Lennaganci that already tells a person who you are, some people I've met do not want to deal with Lennagancis others love them.....
None of them really ever stops and thinks let me see what kind of person he/she is, no Lennaganciya u verj dranov hartzuh pakvec, urish ban chenq uzum lsenq (they are lennagancis and that says everything).
This weekend we were in Karabagh and on the way stopped in Goris, everyone really felt the
difference between Yerevancis and Gorisecis or Kharabaghcis. The capital of Karabagh Stepanakert was very clean although it was not as rich and diverse as Yerevan but the streets were much cleaner and the people were very curteous and nice.... It's not that in Yerevan you don't meet nice people but here even the waitresses were nice....... Now why do Yerevancis consider them a different bread of people I don't really know, so what if they may speak a dialect not similar to the Yerevanci armenian they are still Armenian.
Gorisecis also speak a different dialect, but they are as armenian as you can get.... Goris was a
beautiful city surounded my mountains covered with forests, in the words of one of our interns "These are really the places you fall in love with".
So over the weekend our schedule was pretty tight. Basically most of our trip came down to two words "eat" and "bus".....
The trip to Karabagh is about seven hours but we stopped in Goris and spent the night there before heading to Stepanakert.
The bus was a new kind of roller coaster which none of us have experienced before. So this roller coaster starts off pretty calmly and then starts hitting you against the walls and the ceiling, you have to make a huge effort not to fall out on the floor or get brain damage by hitting your head on the ceiling. After we were shaken and stirred this way for about two hours we arrived to Karahung (armenian version of stonehenge), after about ten minutes and some original yet quick pictures we headed to Devil's bridge, some more shaking, snack eating and sleeping later we arrived at Devil's bridge an amazing place which reminded me a lot of Sydney (Australia). Some more eating, joking, singing and napping and we arrived at Tatev monastery, one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. A huge monastery on top of a mountain, wrapped in forests with the most amazing view, a library, a bakery and numerous secret passageway designed to get you away from the enemies when the monastery is surounded. The whole trip was a long string of events all happening in one day. Before going to Karahunj we had stopped for lunch and also saw Shaqe waterfall. I don't think I have ever had such a rich schedule full of so many amazing places and all during three days......

to be continued.........
Oh P.S. before I forget I just want to write down some main events which I don't want to forget.
Meeting with minister of Economy visit to Parajanov museum.
Meeting with minister of the Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan.
Meeting with the director of Huntsman building company.
Visit to Gyumri.
Golden Apricot Film Festival
Meeting with Armenian Young Women's association
Interviews
Meeting with the vice qaghaqapet of Yerevan
Visit to Sevan
Waterworld
Meeting with the US ambassador
I can't think of anymore, but I'll add them once I remember

Post Dos

So hard to get used to the fact that I have access to a computer only once or twice a week.....
Anyhoo, some of my blog followers have told me that my blog seemed very pessimistic and I seemed upset. I would like to assure everyone that I was not mad at all. I am very used to the ins and outs of Armenia so I am not upset at all, I am actually very excited by the improvements taking place in Yerevan, which I mentioned in my previous blog, although briefly.
Since I do not write my blog every day I would like each of my blogs to have a theme. This week my theme has been "The return to Armenia".
On Monday and Tuesday we met with Arpi Vartanian (the country director of Armenian Assembly of America in Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh). Arpi came to live in Armenia several years ago during the "cold and dark" years when most of the Armenians did not have electricity or water in their homes. She has come to Yerevan with candles in her suitcase and has been here ever since. You can discuss anything with her starting with clothes and ending with the security issues facing Armenia. She is one of those people who has proved that it is possible to live and work in Armenia.

On Monday we had lunch at a cafe and on Tuesday we visited Parvana ( a restaurant in the Hrazdan valley). The restaurant had a dance floor and was built to resemble an Armenian village. The singers had very well trained voices and sang Armenian, Russian and Arabic songs. The song "Im axper'" (my brother/friend) was ordered at least 16 times by Edo and his friends from Iran and by Grish and his "axperner" :)
There was a belly dancer who performed well but I still think the star of the night was a little girl in a pink polka dot dress who did not leave the dance floor for a single minute. She danced to slow songs and fast songs and she enjoyed herself so much that everyone wanted to dance just by watching her. As armenians say "havesov er paroom".
We also had our first Armenian lesson on Tuesday I went by to help out as an assistant teacher.
I was assigned a student and so far I've taught her seven letters, several words and her first written armenian sentence. In the past I've taught children that were 6 - 8 years old the armenian alphabet and spoken language. Although I loved my children and they were really smart, they did not have the patience to sit through a two hour lesson or do their homework most of the time. It is so different to teach someone who wants to learn and is not running circles around the table :) Also my birthright (depi hayq) student is old enough to understand why is it important to learn this rare language that only a few million people speak in the world.

Yesterday evening we met the director of Viva Cell MTC (one of the largest mobile phone companies in Armenia). The head of Viva Cell Armenia is also an armenian who has decided to return to Armenia and has moved here with his family. As we walked into Viva Cell I realized that to this day I had not seen any company in Armenia that was built or run so well . The building was clean, it had large meeting rooms, each floor could only be accessed with a security card, the floors had spacious offices and large windows, there were security cameras in the hallways and antennas which were for wireless internet. If I did not know better I would think I was in Germany or France (not in America, because the style was too European).
We had a meeting with Mr. Yerikian (CEO of Viva Cell) and he told us about his experiences. The main message of his speech was that we can and should return to our Motherland. My main concern was the corruption in Armenia and how Viva Cell was able to overcome the corruption. Mr. Yerikian believes that if you are clean (as in you're not trying to cut any corners or bribe anyone to get ahead), have a good lawyer and you pay your taxes every year there is nothing to be afraid of.

Mr. Yerikian also discussed an interesting topic which he calls "corporate responsibility".
When I mentioned that all of my relatives and friends really like Viva Cell and wanted to thank him for all the "charitable" work he had done, the CEO of Viva Cell corrected me. He said, "What we do is not charity. We call it coroporate responsibility. We believe that as a corporation which operates in Armenia, we have a responsiblity of developing this country and giving back to it's people." ( This may not be his exact quote but this is a short summarized version of it) I was shocked and pleasantly surprised. In the US I am very used to the individualistic approach, no one really thinks that bettering the society around them will also benefit them. I usually have heated arguments with people trying to explain to people (mostly in terms of healthcare and insurance issues) that if everyone lives well around you ( has less health problems, is well educated.... etc) then you will benefit also. There are less murders, crimes and so on......
Viva Cell has done so much and has been so successful because as they say they "BELIEVE".....

Last week we saw a play in the Toumanian Puppet Theater called the "Aunt from Paris". The director of the play Narek Durian lived in France and has only recently returned to Armenia. The focus of the play was also the return of Armenians to their Motherland. It was a hillarious comedy but had a very important theme.

I think my fingers are about to cry so I will end this post, but before I end it I want to put out a question that I will hopefully further develop in my next post.
Who am I? A diasporan Armenian or an Armenian? An american Armenian or a Hayastanci?
( I was born in Yerevan lived here till I was fourteen. Then I moved to Texas and have lived there for the past nine years. According to my armenian relatives I am an American, according to anyone you ask in the US I am an Armenian.........) So which one is it really.... or am I just suspended over the Atlantic ocean somewhere????

This was post numero dos from armo-holic

toodles

Armo holic in Yerevan blog one

My summer has finally started and with it my blog. On June 12th I boarded a plane in Houston and flew to Los Angeles and thus began my summer adventures. This summer I am an Armenian Assembly of America Intern in Yerevan. I have been in armenia for the past week and have had a flood of new experiences.
So what do interns in Armenia do? Do we really work????
If you leave it to our employers than the answer would be NO. They know that you are an intern from America and all they want you to do is drink coffee all day, show up to work late, leave early and basically do nothing. Now this situtation would be ideal if we hadn't come here to know what it's like to work and live in Armenia. I am sorry but I am not here for two months to drink coffee with chocolates all day. No, I do not want to skip a day or two and yes I do want to work just like everyone else.
Armenia is a developing country.... Not everything here is perfect, it is not the ideal homeland that many people who haven't lived in Armenia imagine.
Several days ago I visited the Yerevan State University Chemistry and Physics department. The buildings were old and dilapidated. You could see that there was an effort to make it look presentable. The walls were freshly painted and there were some new desks in the classrooms, but the overall state of the building was terrible. The stairs were broken, there was trash all around the buildings, some of the windows were cracked and there were some posters on the walls which have been there since Soviet times. The cafe we went to down the street had brand new tables and chairs, a fountain in the middle which was shaped as a ship and a spotlessly clean floor.
Now this drastic difference leaves you thinking, does anyone here really care about our scientists, artists, poets and our Universities in general. Of course it's much more important to have a beautiful cafe next door then a good learning environment for our nation's brightest students........
Although I see the dificullties that Armenia faces today, I am an optimist and I believe that the development of this country will just take time. A long time probably but I believe that it will happen.
You can't help but notice the improvements that have already happened.
For several years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, we did not have electricity, heating or water in Yerevan. You can imagine if we were freezing in our apartments in the winter and got water only for one hour a day, what was going on in the villages outside of the capital.
Now there is electricity 24 hours a day in most of the homes. Water is still a problem in certain areas but most of Yerevan has water all day. Many organizations have helped out the villages and provided them with new equipment to make sure that they can work the land and feed their families. There are organizations which go to different villages and have classes with the local children and also have tranining sessions with the local teachers. There are also organizations such as the SOS Children's Village which helps orphans and abused children.
On Wednesday June 17th Birthright (Depi Hayq) organized a visit for us to the village. Each house in the village had eight children and they had a SOS mother. The children called her mom and referred to each other as brother and sister. It was very touching to see especially with the younger children who would not leave the side of their "sisters" or "mothers". Each of the kids was very proud to show their talents, some of them had amazing painitings, many could sing or dance and some played the piano. Villages such as the SOS village help develop the talents in these children and also encourage them to do something with their lives. If it wasn't for such organizations most of these orphans would not be able to afford a college education and would end up working in a grocery store or driving a taxi.
Speaking of taxis, the most educated taxi drivers in world are probably in Armenia. I remember taking a taxi last year while I was in Yerevan and my taxi driver was an engineer who had many years of experience, however since he was older and could not support his family by working as an engineer he became a taxi driver. Another taxi driver was a jeweler, some were chemists others were architects. None of these people really want to drive taxis but they do it to put food on the table.
Waiters are also an interesting breed of people. Not to generalize but waiters in Yerevan will probably get really high marks if anyone was to take a "rudeness" poll.
On Thursday we visited a restaurant called "Shirvan". A group of us walked in at about 11:45p.m. and ordered several drinks. The waitress told us that the they will not serve alcohol and food after midnight but that we didn't have to leave at midnight. At 12:15 the owner came up to us and asked us to leave. We had not even finished our drinks. When we got upset about it, he told us that the waitress had warned us that they closed at midnight. After about 15 minutes of arguing we payed our bill and left the place. You would think that she wouldn't sit us at 11:45 but it's Yerevan and apparently we were supposed to sit there for only half an hour.
There are the exceptions to the rule and it really makes your day when your waiter/waitress treats you well in this city........

So these have been my thoughts and adventures this week.
This was the first report of an armo- holic from Yerevan........

P.S. I would like to note that I am not an english major and that I am a total beginner in blog writing. So don't judge my grammar too harshly.