Dilijan,
Armenia
Thursday, September 22, 2005
The telephone system in this country is just extremely bad. I have difficulty calling my sitemates sometimes because Armentel likes to re-route people all the time. And calling my warden who lives an hour away? HA! i get a recorded message (if i am lucky) that says that the city code is wrong. For some reason, my parents have no problem calling me in this country. Three phone calls... three times they have gotten through. But my friends who live about 100 miles away to the north in The Republic of Georgia (the distance between our sites is about the distance from Milwaukee to madison Wisconsin) Forget it! We've tried! I am about to give up with little headache. I write letters. A LOT of letters to former Uz-18ers everywhere. That will have to do for now. What else can I tell you. life is slow here. rather relaxing. I am getting to know my co-workers. There is a woman who is my interpretuer for my counterpart and me at work. In the faculty room today she talking to me in English and our co-workers scoulded her telling her that i to understand armenian. Anna (the woman speaking english to me) said that i don't understand very much. But my co-workers defended me and said that i can even read words from the armenain dictionary and i need to study aremenian so speak armenian to me. And so she did! I have been invited to another womans house for coffee. I had coffee at a neighbors house the other day. She showed me pictures of her family, told me she knew Jake ( a former volunteer here) and told me how much she hates president bush. Oh and about how the armenians view the americans especially after the looting in New orleans, I heard nothing bad here about americans. what i do see are things like the music video from turkey about a muslim man being tried and sent to his death in america. Bush is not well liked here. Elada (my neighbor) even spit on the floor after she said his name. The president of Armenia came to dilijan to celebrate opening up a fountain in the town square. rumor has it that the president of the republic of georgia also came. i didn't stay long enough. I had waited in the sun for three hours with a fellow volunteer and decided I had enough and began to walk home. when i was about 10 minutes away from home, a car drove past me and then backed up. To me and my Uzbek way of thinking I thought it was militizia wanting to ask for my documents. I looked at the passenger side and there was a woman! She said for me to get into the car and now my armenian mind kicked in and I just got into the car without thinking. Nope, didn't know the people! It turned out that the woman was a shop owner who I say hello to everyday coming home from work and her husband was the driver. She is the one who invited me for coffee to her house. Nope, sure as hell wouldn't get into a strangers car in America! But, this is a small town. On the way to work, I am starting to not look into strangers faces but the faces of people I know. I am integrating into my town!
Chad! I would like a buy a digital camera. Any suggestions! Yerevan is very much like a european city. I can get most things there. Take care everyone! Laura
Comments
Hi In Dilijan!
Hi! My name is Dan, I was in Armenia in August, including Dilijan around August 12th.
I stumbled on your posting, because I just got off the phone with a friend in Yerevan --speaks English well! -- and she mentioned that prices of houses in Dilijan were about 30% of what they are in Yerevan's suburbs.
Any chance you have access to any info on houses for sale there? The internet has almost exclusively Yerevan real estate.
Hey, have you been up on the hillside in Dilijan? Sun sets a little early, but there's that museum/street with 1300 AD restored places. And those cows and pigs on the streets!
I got a bout a half dozen pics of the town including a farmboy ham waving at me from the top of a haystack on the back of a farm truck...
You know, Dilijan has the best weather in Armenia, never very hot in summer, and it doesn't snow in town (only on the road before you get into the tunnel.
Another thing, on your way back to the tunnel, there is a little old lady with buckets on the sidewalk, she sells mushrooms, 350-450 dram for a kilo (that's like 35 cents a pound. She keeps them fresh inw ater. Well, pick up a kg, a couple square yards of lavash, some pppers and some chicken (or whatever) and some of that sheep cheese. Saute everything but the lavash and the cheese, make some wraps, sprinkle the cheese on while it's hot but before you wrap it, and your ready for a picnic or a roadtrip. We made up about fifteen, and drove to Syunik to see Carahunge, ate them out of a cooler for about three days.
And after the tunnel going into Dilijan, there was a couple with a fire on the side of the road, roasting 16' corn on the cob. It is so fresh and sweet, you don't need any salt or butter, just unwrap and eat!
And if you go south, make a stop in Areni, where the vineyards are. They sell local wine on the side of the road, and to keep prices down, they do it in Coke bottles...
Try to see Carahunge in Syunik, old Stonehenge on a high plateau, near Sissian (do NOT try any road into Sissian! they are all bad).
Well, I am at kcalbak@comcast.net, if you make it to an internet cafe in Yerevan---I can't imagine what a phone connection from Dilijan on dial-up would be like!! My friend in Nork can spend 4.5 hours just trying to get a connection, and that's back in yerevan...
Best wishes in Armenia---the country people are even better than the city people--and if you find any info on Dilijan rentals or for sales, I would grateful if you could forward it.
Dan...
PS I counseled my friend there to apply for the translator job, with the Belgians at Doctors-Without-Borders in Vanadzor--maybe you will run into each other if she gets through the interview!