March 30, 2006
First days
Oh, my. It took me two days and about 50 trials to dial up to this particular service. It's SLOW but you know what? I'm so happy to have a connection at all that I don't even mind how bad it is!
So quickly, before I lose this connection (I hesitate to go offline and write because who knows when I will succeed to dial up again) -- here some impressions from our first days in Armenia.
-- We can see the Ararat from our house! Well, from the bathroom window, anyway. And only the northern ridge. But it looked really beautiful in a reddish-golden glow of a spectacular sunrise this morning. Hm.
-- Speaking of the sun, we saw the eclipse yesterday! Everything was perfect, the sky was clear, the sun was bright, and then it got all dark and coolish and we could see perfect crescents with our holed papers. The kids especially liked the wacky shadows. Doug and I thought it was very cool.
-- Even the off-season tomatoes are good here.
-- Now that I'm finally connected to the world again, I feel less isolated.
-- We are eating parsley from the garden, freshly picked by Alan. He declared parsley-picking to be his new duty...
-- Doug is working a lot. But he seems to like it, so that is good.
More later, or so I hope!
Posted by claudia at March 30, 2006 12:29 PMWow, talk about great timing - just in time for a solar eclipse! Very cool.
Glad to hear you seem to be settling in well. What do the boys think of the new house and surroundings?
Posted by: Christine at March 30, 2006 02:39 PMGreat to hear from you and glad to hear things are going well!
Re: connections -- maybe it'd be easier to write posts offline and then e-mail to Carlos and have him do the posting? I can imagine a lot of stuff getting lost if you get thrown offline mid-composing.
Very best wishes!
Posted by: Michael M. at March 30, 2006 02:54 PMSounds cool. Glad your kids got to see an eclipse. I've never seen one, but have always wanted to.
Cheers,
Mike
Being jealous for the sight of the Ararat. I only have an office building on the other side of the street, although the window frames are red :(...
BTW, just had the idea to make an interview with you as longtime expat blogger(s). Does it sound horrible?
Posted by: Dezso at March 30, 2006 09:23 PMGreat! I had been wondering if you had gotten to see the eclipse. I'm jealous -- I've lunar eclipses, but not solar ones.
Your stuff has left on its looong journey to Armenia. They took everything without a qualm. I am interested to see if the tortilla chips make it there without being crushed.... About a third went by air, the rest'll get there someday. :-)
I never did get the pomegranate tea!
Hugs,
Natalie
Hi all,
Yesterday, I didn't get online at all. Today, I first tried for an hour, without success. Then I got on, the line dropped four times but I also got back online quickly. So, don't worry if you don't hear from us for a while. It's quite erratic.
Other than that, the apricots are in bloom! And we see the Ararat in toto, from our living room. It's just that you have to squint and peek through two main branches of the cherry trees that sit in front of the window. Once those are in bloom/green, I think we have to climb on the roof for a full view.
Yes, I'm composing offline. My (old) laptop has been so erratic [oh! Reconnected at 12 Kps! Cool!] that we were in the habit of saving posts frequently and writing them offline. This turns out to be a good habit these days! :-)
As I wrote this, the line got lost 3 times, and I got reconnected at various speeds. I don't know when this will finally go out. It will, at some point, I'm sure.
In the meantime, we are working on solutions. Currently, I'm looking for a person whom I can give huge loads of money for a new telephone line. As I said, we're on it.
Best of wishes,
Claudia
Posted by: claudia at April 1, 2006 12:30 PMI sent two boxes of books via M-Bag to Yerevan (great minds, Natalie!) so at least there will eventually be something to read.
Mmm, apricots.
Carlos
Posted by: Carlos at April 1, 2006 03:46 PMOh, my, Carlos.
Shall I tell you something?
We don't have mail service. I mean, in theory, we do. But there is no mailbox at this house and I haven't seen even the vestige of a mailman around here...
I hope there is a kind of PO place, somewhere.
[Sigh]
Posted by: claudia at April 1, 2006 04:15 PMOh dear. Well, this will be an experiment! I figure there's gotta be a way for Yerevanites to pick up a package from cousin Kirk in Fresno.
Posted by: Carlos at April 1, 2006 05:40 PMCarlos,
Your mind is greater than mine! :-) The stuff I was referring to was >300 lbs of consumables that have been sitting in my living room for a few eeks. It was all Claudia and Doug's stuff with a few extras (SpaghettiO's anyone?) thrown in.
I want some apricots.
I guess I'll send virtual birthday presents, when the time comes!
Natalie
Posted by: Natalie at April 1, 2006 10:19 PMTo whom it may concern:
It has come to my attention that several cans of MY Spaghettios are missing from the cupboard. This is causing me quite a bit of distress as I am now very perplexed about what I will be able to eat while watching Sanford and Son.
If the paties responsible will simply return those cans - intact with the delicious "franks" still packed in that yummy tomato sauce, nothing more will be said.
Thank You
Larry
Posted by: Larry at April 1, 2006 10:46 PMAhem. The previous poster will find that NONE of his SpaghettiO's are one their way to Armenia. If he had gotten up and looked before posting, he would have seen a full stock.
Posted by: Natalie at April 1, 2006 11:10 PMGlad to hear everyone is settling in well. I hope I am able to stop by for a day or so in six weeks or so. I have my Armenian visa, so I'll just have to avoid gettin distracted someplace between Ireland and Georgia.
Joseph Eros
Posted by: Joseph Eros at April 2, 2006 12:39 AMIt's good to see you.
Posted by: Randy McDonald at April 3, 2006 08:30 AMGlad everyone is settling in and that except for the net connection things are going smoothly.
Though it is the 4th of April where y'all are (and only barely still the third here) I just found out that today April 3rd is Armenian Appreciation Day.
http://halife.com/daily/triviamon.html
Also National Chocolate Mousse Day and
National Find a Rainbow Day
and National Workplace Napping Day, a day for employees to "lie down and be counted"
So in the next 20 miniutes I need to find an Armenian and appreciate him.