GOING HOME

One family's diary, journeys and thoughts

Monday, November 26, 2007

Suddenly winter




Thursday, November 22, 2007

News

It seems like in this ever hurrying time we resorted to meterly posting the news, so I promise there will be photos and philosopical musings soon. For now, just the news.

After much trouble, I finally got the dual citizenship status. From what I gathered, I am one of the first people ever to be granted such a status in Armenia.

The renovation is finally done, and we moved in - even thought there are still a lot of little things to do and we haven't unpacked yet and the house is a mess, but we are living in it.


It snowed today, for the first time this year. The part of the city we moved to is significantly higher than the center, so when we came down the hill this morning, we realized it's just our area that got snowed on. It was fun to look out of the window and see everything covered with white. Out came the scarves and gloves and fur-lined boots again. Yippee!!!


HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, November 04, 2007

More Funny Stuff

Hi everyone! What's up. Okay, some stuff from me. Another "funny stuff" installment. There will be more later...




There were these little buisiness card-sized flyers taped around our apartment building (and around the city) and I thought they were rather funny. Allow me to translate:

ONE NATION party
BEWARE OF JEHOVA'S WITNESSES
Unite around the Armenian Apostolic Church


In other news, as mom mentioned in the last post, our school had a fall festival on Nov. 2nd. There were the typical costumes you would expect to see anywhere in America--pirates, Supermans, Buzz Lightyears, Incredibles, princesses, Indians, witches, vampires, etc. Our class made a small haunted house. It didn't turn out quite as planned, as there were a few mishaps, but let's not go there. The evening was fun. And I'm not surprised that the Armenian girls mom brought with her wanted to go there. I suppose my school, though small, is more colorful and inviting than schools here. And for good reasons- what do you expect from a school that charges $15000 a year for tuition?

News and stuff

Well, our biggest news is that the day Vicky turned 18 she left and is now on her own somewhere. I hope she is doing well (I haven't heard from her in a week – I guess she is trying to prove something to me). Even though it was very hard dealing with her while she was living with us, we already miss her. Just for the sake of statistics, she was born when I was 18, so I had her around pretty much my entire adult life, with the exception of two or three weeks when I traveled without my kids.

Also, I must say that as the holiday season is coming, we miss out friends more and more. Christmas is so much more fun in the States; here it is just a religious holiday. There is no Thanksgiving and no Halloween. People in this part of the world celebrate mainly the New Year, and for that you gotta have a good company, otherwise that could be pretty boring, too – just sitting in front of the TV and watch others have fun.




The house renovation is done, per se... there are still a lot of odds and ends to be done and taken care of. I couldn't move in this weekend, either - the floors were polished (I have parquet in the living room and the hallway and it was soooo old and dirty!). Now the polish should dry and another coat be applied and dry... and then we can start cleaning up. There is concrete, dirt and wood shavings all over the place - it's a mess.


Roxy's school celebrated Halloween - probably the only school in the country that did. It was fun, with costumes and games and bake sale and stuff - just like any self-respecting American school. I took my coworker's kids with me to the party and they instantly decided they like this school better than theirs. One of these days I will post some pics of what a standard post-Soviet school in Armenia looks like... Anyway, Roxy's class, being the oldest in the school, had prepared a "haunted house" - all canvas and noises and stuffed people hanging. I think they had a lot of fun setting it all up, and some people did get scared, too :)

That's all for now. Here is a beautiful sunset I photographed out of my window yesterday.


Oh, and there is Roxy sitting at my work looking at Christian t-shirts online...


Thursday, November 01, 2007

FALL COLORS

I hope everyone had a nice Halloween (or Hollyween or Fall Festival). May this be a good start for a good holiday season.