Halfway down the Danube

Y'all better watch yourselves. You keep heading east and you're going to end up in Turkmenistan or Laos or some Godforsaken place like that. :^) Good luck on the move. (I was wondering why Carlos was making noise about the Cheesehead State.)

As short notice for you as it seems to us? :)

Good luck and best wishes for the move.

I'm happy for you, yet I feel a little sad I won't be reading posts about Romania here on HWDTD. And that I won't see you.

I have to admit, though, that I'm curious about your future adventures in Armenia.

Good luck!

Good luck, Claudia!!!

How many languages are the kids going to end up with?! How long is the stay in Armenia planned?

Bernard, I already have their lives in Wisconsin planned out for them. The comics shop, the farmer's market, the spice markets, the cool used bookstores, the UU churches, the gaming store, G/e/n/c/o/n/ /a/n/d/ /W/i/s/c/o/n/,/ the German and the I-can't-believe-it's-not-German restaurants, the best places for Opa to hunt when he visits, and even people who take socker seriously (at least not during r/e/a/l/ /f/o/o/t/b/a/l/l/ gridiron season). And it's almost ridiculously kid-friendly.

Probably the occasional foot of snow is a deal-breaker. But that's what planning is for!

Thanks for the good wishes!

Yes, it's short notice. Not quite as short for us as for you guys, but almost. I'm rotating a bit at the moment, what with Doug still gone and all that. (Also, the laptop is making very strange noises. It never really recovered from that coffee incident.)

The Armenia stay -- yes, in Yerevan -- is thought to be somewhere between 21 and 30 months. But then, we were only supposed to be here in Romania for 18 months.

I hope you are all going to continue reading! We don't have so many readers that we can afford to lose some!

Kit - yes, that is sad. I was hoping to meet you in person as I'm a big fan of your art. BTW, you might want to give Maria a call, maybe. She is a bit shell-shocked as she's the Number One now! I'm sure she'll do fabulously, though.

Again, thanks. It'll be a bit crazy around here in the next weeks but we will be sure to report from Armenia soon! (The name of the blog will stay but the banner will change a bit.)

This all sounded really tempting. Until:

even people who take socker seriously

You've got to work harder on that one, dear.

Soccer, Carlos. S-O-C-C-E-R.

Or, as we say, football.

:-)

Well, in point of fact they call it soccer in Wisconsin too. So there shouldn't be any problem!

But 'soccer' is such a silly-looking word. I mean, *I* personally think that its form follows function, but it's as though it was labeled in such a way to proclaim to the US market, "hi! i'm a sport of the effete and the elite! like tennis with feet! come play me!" (Sort of like that horrible neologism "Bright" for 'atheist'. Yeah, good marketing skillz there, Dennett.)

'Socker', on the other hand, to the American ear has the phonaesthetic qualities of sweat and violence, implying blue-collar types doing things that shouldn't be humanly possible. Like football!

Anyway, most American soccer sucks. It's a virtuous cycle. But you could help break it! There's certainly room enough in Wisconsin for another major sport.

Good luck!

Armenia? No ... Armenia! I have got to figure out to visit you guys.

As for soccer, socker, futbol, whatever ... all I can say is that the World Baseball Classic is coming up, and I intend to root for the South Africans as far as their pluck and bitchen uniforms can take them.

All the while wondering why the f--k the Philippines isn't fielding a team. Carlos, what happened? I mean, truly, the sport seems like it would have been a perfect fit. Perhaps I will know more in March, but until then, can you help us out?

Which brings us to the important question. Claudia, truly, what are doing to insure that your children understand and appreciate one half* of one half** of their cultural heritage? We're already laying plans to teach my future young'uns about cricket, so you have no excuse. Erm?

* Nascar I figure they'll enjoy no matter what you do. Everyone does.
** Does soccer count? Isn't that everywhere?

Armenia? No ... Armenia! I have got to figure out to visit you guys.

As for soccer, socker, futbol, whatever ... all I can say is that the World Baseball Classic is coming up, and I intend to root for the South Africans as far as their pluck and bitchen uniforms can take them.

All the while wondering why the f--k the Philippines isn't fielding a team. Carlos, what happened? I mean, truly, the sport seems like it would have been a perfect fit. Perhaps I will know more in March, but until then, can you help us out?

Which brings us to the important question. Claudia, truly, what are doing to insure that your children understand and appreciate one half* of one half** of their cultural heritage? We're already laying plans to teach my future young'uns about cricket, so you have no excuse. Erm?

* Nascar I figure they'll enjoy no matter what you do. Everyone does.
** Does soccer count? Isn't that everywhere?

Hey Noel! Not to completely derail these comments, but baseball declined in the Philippines during the 50s and 60s for obscure reasons, and its place in Filipino sport space was taken up by... basketball. Soccer is even less in the Philippines than it is in the States -- where most sports-savvy Americans at least take pride in our women's soccer team -- but there are entire channels on Filipino TV devoted to basketball. High school basketball. Minor league basketball. _Bowling_ league basketball. Stuff they couldn't even show on ESPN 8.

Okay. Derailing of the senses over; let us all now return to Claudia's announcement that the Muir clan is moving to Yerevan. Yerevan!

Good luck in Armenia! And play kickball!

I started reading this blog because I was interested in objective foreigner's view about my country, Serbia. Then you moved to Romania, and I've learned heaps about it. Now I'm ready to learn about Armenia, you guys describe countries and its peoples great! Good luck!

Noel,

Terribly sorry to dissapoint you, but I can't revel in Nascar, no matter what you say. OTOH, with enough beer, all things are possible.

I do agree with Carlos about the phoetics of it all, of course; to further detour this whole show; "Water polo" sounds as effete and elitist as soccer, until you're getting shots for the bite someone put on your hand.

All that said, Claudia, good luck in Armenia. Yerevan should be interesting. I can't wait to see what y'all write.

Cheers

L

Yerevan. Hmm. Noah planted vines on the slopes of Ararat... Carlos - field trip to sample some Armenian plonk?

Much luck to you on the move, and may it be painless and smooth!

David and Leah

Claudia and Doug,

Best wishes for the move to Yerevan. You're going half way 'round the Black Sea! (Of course, if you went all the way 'round you'd end up back in Romania.)

Regarding soccer. Recently the sports pages of the Sydney Morning Herald have taken to referring to the sport as 'football'. The more popular forms of football in NSW (Rugby League and Rugby Union) appear under the page headings 'League' and 'Rugby'. Real football, Australian Rules football, is labelled 'Australian Football'.

In the SMH's sister paper The Age of Melbourne soccer is still called 'Soccer' and Australian Rules football is that paper's 'Football'.

Carlos,

As for your plan to lure the Muirs to Wisconsin, how're you going to keep them in Madison now that they've seen Beograd?

Wow. Remind me not to tell you my Yerevan story for at least another year.

I'll miss you. That's a very odd thing to say I know, since I've never met you, and nor am I ever likely to, but that's my first reaction. Weird.

Anyway good luck with the move and with the new place. I'll certainly keep reading even though I can relate less easily to Yerevan than to Bucharest.

By the way, the Armenian community of Romania was concentrated round here - there's a village very close to Miercurea Ciuc which was an Armenian village - and still has an Armenian church - and the town of Gyergyo (Gheorgheni, I think, in Romanian) was also a centre of Romanian Armenians. There are very few Armenians left these days - even fewer than the Saxons.

Exciting news-- Here's hoping the move goes well for the whole family! I'm certainly looking forward to hearing all about Armenia.

I can already see the day when bewildered commentors ask you why this blog is called "Halfway down the Danube" when you guys live in Ouagadougou.

Very best wishes!

Hey guys, all the best for your moving, I will certainly miss your posts about Romania and look forward to the Aremenian perspective.

Cheers and take care,

Congratulations on your work in Romania, and best luck in Armenia. I'll most likely be in Armenia myself for a couple of days sometime around May 10. I just picked up the visa--very nice hologram sticker.

Joseph Eros

Joe, you must come visit us.

Thanks to everyone else for the kind words. We will miss Romania terribly.

Doug M.

Hope you have a painless move: I've enjoyed reading your Balkan dispatches, and I'm looking forward to hearing about Armenia.

As Michael says, the website name may need to be changed: "By the headwaters of the Araxes", perhaps?

Best,
Bruce

Best of luck in Armenia.

Not sure I could do what you are doing; I get upset when moving between apartments, let alone countries...

Good luck and an easy transition!

Good luck with the move, though I'm puzzled as to how a visit to Laos leads to a permanent move to Armenia.

Are you sure you're not working for George Smiley?

Doug, Claudia--
Give me a heads up on when you'll be in Washington, and where, okay? Please?!

Claudia and Doug, I'm really glad you guys enjoyed Romania, and I hope Armenia will be a great experience! I'll really miss your posts about Romania, though! Multe salutări!!

Good luck with the move, and looking forward to your reports!

I stumbled upon your blog a few weeks ago and have been reading it with great pleasure. Although I've never met you I now seem to know you and am looking forward to reading about your Armenian adventure. I am an Austrian living and working in Italy for a pharmaceutical company. I'm going to Romania for 6 months in May and your account of living there has been very helpful. I was a bit concerned about moving to Bucharest with children (I have 2 girls, aged 3 and 5), but if you guys mastered it with three! Alles alles Gute vom ganzen Herzen fuer euren Umzug und Neustart!
Alexandra Zellenberg

Wow, I must be the last to know. Serves me right for not reading blogs daily. Listen, y'all have a good time in Armenia! That's quite a location to migrate toward.

La revedere.