Armenia Week 2

We arrived after 30 hours of flying or waiting in airports. The kids were pretty good given the length of the trip. I didn't have to resort to benadryl because the Chicago flight left right at bedtime. While Madisen and mom were lucky enough to be in business class, Cole Ryan, Austin and I had 5 seats between the 3 of us. They zonked out.

We arrived in Yerevan at 10.30 p.m., took a bus to the terminal, got through passport control, and then dealt with our mounds of luggage. Luckily Sergo, the office driver, Sasha, his friend, Robert, another office driver, and Sonya, my boss met us at the airport with three different cars. They took us to our apartment - 2 bedroom/1 bath - and we crashed.

We are fairly well adjusted to the time differences after about 3 nights of waking up at weird times. When we arrived, there was snow on the ground and last night even more fell. Cole Ryan and Austin LOVE the snow. I literally can't keep them out of it. They are either jumping in the piled up mounds, hitting icicles, or punching shoulder height snow banks. It is exhausting just to walk down the block with them! Madisen also likes the snow except perhaps not quite as much - she is able to walk down the street without being overcome by the impulse to connect with snow.

Food is interesting - we went out to eat twice. The first time, our waitress didn't understand anything we said (and we knew exactly 0 Armenian at that point - day 1). I tried to ask for water and she brought vodka. We eventually got coke and fanta. She brought BBQ - a big hit here, but the kids didn't really care for it. So, they ate bread and drank fanta. The second place was Mexican food - Cactus Restaurant. It was good, but catered a bit too much to the expat crowd. And, Cole Ryan ended up throwing up after we ate there. Austin also hurt himself there when he fell on the ice.

We go to the "store" at least once a day. We have figured out that eggs, lavash (bread), juice, cheese and pasta are good. Mom made black beans tonight and even though Austin swore he wouldn't like it, he ate three bowls. Not a lot of fresh veggies; certainly not fresh lettuce for salads.

Have to run. On dial=up and mom wants to email. Lori