Armenian-ism

This past weekend the Gyumri group decided not to go on an excursion to Dilijan, but instead opted for some downtime in Yerevan. All of us are starting to miss little things from home: white toilet paper (or just tp that doesn't feel like sandpaper), vietnamese food, thai food, guacomole, starbucks... In general we just needed a break from all the Armenian-ness around us.

Friday night we had a wonderful night at a surprisingly good thai restaurant in Yerevan. We were expecting the worst, but really it was excellent. The golden apricot film festival was winding down this weekend.. We were able to catch an outdoor performance behind the Opera House. It was a beautiful night, everyone was out and about listening to the original score to some movie shown at the festival. Little kids were zipping around in toy electronic cars. That's one thing I think that is so great about armenia. Kids aren't a nuisance, they are a joy. All Armenians love kids. Yerevan has many places where you can rent a toy electronic corvette for your kid. They also have a ton of those claw machines that may or may not produce a cheap, ugly stuffed animal!

Saturday, things didn't start out so great. Lori and I wanted to get things situated for our trip to Greece before coming home at the end of August. We went to a British Airways office to inquire about changing her ticket so she could fly home from Athens rather than Yerevan. The attendant told us, it should be possible with a $200 penalty. But once she started tinkering on her computer for awhile she told us it was not calculating. What wasn't calculating? It's not caluculating, she said again. What should we do if it is not calculating? Its not caluculating. she said. I chuckled to myself in frustration. This is NOT funny!! She said. IT IS NOT CALCULATING!!! Somehow I had managed to offend this woman. Lori tried to explain what my chuckle meant, that is was nothing personal. The woman just eyed me suspciously.

Anyways, we finally learned that lori would have to switch 'classes' to make the change so on top of the $200, she would have to pay $700 more. That really did not calculate with us!

So instead we are going to Georgia. There is a nice beach town called Kobuleti, that is supposedly cheap and beautiful and very relaxing. It's not the Greek Islands but I think it will be a very interesting off the beaten path vacation.

Nonetheless, on Saturday we were bummed that Greece was no longer in the cards. We walked out of the office in a huff. Yerevan is so hot, much warmer than Gyumri. I had a sundress on and sweat was dripping down my legs at 12 noon. Then to make things just a bit worse, I opened my purse to find my camera case and cell phone swimming in a pool of diet coke. Whoops. Crap. Oh no, my camera. I dumped everthing on a stoop, while lori ran for napkins. THe camera, thank god was fine. The phone had little droplets of diet coke on the battery and sim card. Not such a good sign!

We walked around yerevan in a steamy haze. At one point, desperate for a bathroom and a chance to escape the heat we ducked into the Marriott. The bathrooms were gorgeous. Cold marble, flushing toilets and air conditioning. I didn't want to leave. Lori looked at me and I knew she had a brilliant idea. We raced downstairs and booked a room.

Yes, it was impulsive and expensive. But it was sooooo worth it. Clean, soft sheets, an actual mattress and a clean bathroom. AMAZING! It's not that things are horrible in Armenia, but when you are raised in a certain way after awhile you crave the familiar and comfortable. So we went with this theme. I was craving guacamole and lori wanted cheddar cheese so we dined at the only Mexican restaurant in Yerevan. It was actually pretty good. Not MY guacamole but guacamole nonetheless!

We bought some gummy bears at the store and couldn't back to the hotel fast enough. We watched bad russian tv and rolled around in our silky sheets while chewing on the gummies.

It's great when a bad day turns out to be a great one :)