Neat places

These are pictures of Armine and me, a chuch and Austin at school with his teacher. These pictures were taken all over the place. they were not taken on the same day. the church was very pretty inside. Hope you like these pictures!!!

we are having lots of fun.

Madisen

School today -- Saturday

HI!!

Today I had school. The hours for school are about 5 hours a day, so they have school on Saturdays.

So today I had 5 classes. The classes were in this order, Math, History, Maps or something, Sewing and lastly I think it was manners.

In math we did math, I understood some of it but not as much as I usually do.

For history, the teacher obviouly talked about Armenian history, and passed around a couple of pictures. I was pretty bored in that class.

The next class witch was maps or something was pretty boring, ao I practiced my Armenian letters.

In sewing, I think the techer talked about length and stuff. They didn't sew, but I think they are doing it the next time.

The last class, manners was weird. I did not pay atention that much because someone was teaching me Armenian, but I did see the teacher teach like eating manners.

The last 2 classes (sewing and manners) were seperated. Boys do something else while girls do what I just said, sewing and manners.

For dinner we went over to Erica's house (one of the people mom works with). Another person mom works with is Amy. She has a dog and she brought it over. All of us were very excited to have a dog to play with. And the kids had pizza while the adults had egg plant parmeson. For dessert we had ice cream! This was the first time we had had ice cream in a month. The adults also got cake.

It was snowing when we were going to Erica's and now alot of things were covered. When we got home the boys went to bed and I started to type this.

Madisen

our trip

Here are pictures of us at the swimming pool and sledding.

Our trip

We went on a trip this weekend!!!

We deciced to go to a town called Tzatatzor. On our way there we saw a very old church. It was over a thousand years old. To get to the church you climbed up a lot of steps. Austin had a fit on the way up, so nana bribed him with some gum, he was the first one to get to the church. Once we were on the hill we could see all these mountains. In front of one mountain there was a lake named lake sevan. It was so big it looked like the ocean.

After that we went to Tzatatzor. We looked in three places and finally found a place to stay. At first this guy showed us a 200 doller per night room. Mommy said it was to big except I disagreed with her, it was the perfect size. Then we saw a smaller room, but larger then the ones in America. We decided to stay there.

The hotel served us all three meals. The times were all late for us. Breakfast, 9:00, Lunch at 2:00 and dinner at 7:00. The boys complained. While we were waiting for it to be seven, I taught Austin how to play checkers and chess. He had won the first game which was checkers, and was upset because he lost the game of chess. That day we went swimming in an indor swimming pool. it was about 5 feet deep all over, I was the only one who could touch because mom amd nana didn't get in.

The second day we walked all over town to get sleds. It took about 40 minutes all together, and soon we were back at the hotel. We had a good time. Me and Cole went to the very top of the hill. Cole was the first one to go down. He fell off into the snow. Once I was going down the sled I was ridding tipped and stoped and I was going down the hill on my bottom backwards. My bottom is still sore.

Mommy and nana got food poisning. They said they only slept for about 2 hours.

We got back on monday the 19th, mommy said we didn't have to go to school because it was Presidents day.

Madisen

Lori's job

Hi everyone. A few of you have asked about my job. It is going well and the learning curve has been steep. I am working in legal education reform. Armenia would like eventually to join the European Union and wants its education system to be recognized as on par with European schools. Armenia has agreed to follow the regulations as outlined in the Bologna Convention, but still has not quite figured out the actual implementation. So.... there is much work to be done. Armenia had 70 years of Soviet occupation and the one law school taught Soviet law. Now, they have their own government, statutes, laws, regulations, but still has much to do before its legal system will be on par with European courts.

The biggest difference from law schools here and law schools in the States (I can't speak for Europe) is the concept of critical thinking - using case law to make an oral or written argument. Here, there is reliance on rote memorization. The legal education is also very theoretical with little opportunity for practical experience.

Another difference: corruption. As a law student, I didn't pay anyone for my grades and didn't know anyone who did. Grading - while not always fair or uniform - was at least not bought. Here, the law professors are not paid very well - $200 a month is good - and the society has a reliance on bribes. A newspaper article was recently published showing that a huge percentage of students had paid for grades at one time or another.

My portfolio from ABA is to start a pilot project on curriculum reform. We are trying to start two new classes at the premier law school here - Yerevan State University - that teaches critical thinking skills. One class will be legal methodology, the other may be intellectual property (there is no actual recognition here - everything is bootlegged even though technically it is illegal). We are also working to start another clinic. The problem with the clinics (there are 3 functioning ones right now) is that they do not understand how to obtain clients despite the fact that there is a huge need for pro bono legal services. (One clinical director allegedly rejected my office mate's ideas to pass out fliers at the bus stations as saying that the female students would be unattractive to potential husbands!) Next week, I am visiting two clinics in the regions.

The upshot is that it is a good time to be working on legal education reform. The schools themselves seem to recognize that change needs to occur and are interested in trying new approaches. The students are motivated to learn new techniques and at a winter school put on by ABA, the students were very excited to participate in a moot court competition.

I observed a court case the other day. The courtroom looks somewhat similar - judge at the front, wooden benches for people to sit at and counsel tables. It was a scandalous free speech case. A documentary filmmaker criticized the owner of a TV station calling him a parrot, stupid, a crook, and god knows what else. The TV station owner sued and brought criminal charges that were pursued by the prosecutor's office. The best lawyer that the filmmaker could buy didn't argue what we would think was obvious: public persons can be criticized, criminal statute doesn't meet European standards, but instead made some lame arguments about how the words that the filmmaker used were not really insulting because the actual words would not necessarily be insulting to an average person. Absolutely nothing linking the case to human rights, right to free speech, public figure, etc. The defendant, the filmmaker, was asked to leave the courtroom because at the last hearing he apparently made more scandalous remarks. So much for the right to confront your accuser.

That's the upshot of my job right now. I like the people I work with. The Armenian staff attorneys are very knowledgable and helpful.

School and today

Badev(hello)

Today I went to P.E. I go on Tuesdays and Fridays. It is different from the gym that I am used to. The gym is about 1/3 the size of our gym and the floors are very old. There are locker rooms, it is just a room with some coat hangers. After you change, you do exercises and then relays.

Today this was my schedule. Armenian, (which I learn to right the letters) then English (the teacher called me the assistant), PE, Literature and finally art. The classes change every day so it gets very confusing.

Today Armina took us to Republic Square. There we went to the Armenian History museum. We saw alot of pots and pottery. In this one room there was all this stuff about the war. In another room there was a very old chariot which was used in about the ninth century. It looked very old and interesting. Armina said rich people had them, and when someone died they would put them in that and bury them in with the chariot. There were also dresses that people used to wear and old rugs and jewelry. There were a few earrings that looked that they were very heavy.

Madisen

Here are some pictures of the kids on the subway, at the entrance to the indoor market, and in front of art work at the Museum of Children's Art. Enjoy!

Kids are finally in school!

A wonderful thing happened today - Madisen, Cole Ryan and Austin went to school and they liked it!! Madisen and Cole's Armenian public school is about a 5 minute walk from our house. It is called "Orbelli" and after the shocked looks from the assistant principal and other administrators, they agreed to admit M & CR. Apparently, not many international children go to Armenian public schools despite the fact that Armenia has a very high literacy rate. Madisen and Cole Ryan were nervous this morning, but once we arrived, they were great.

Cole's class looks like a kindergarten/1st grade class - very cheerful colors on the walls, chalkboard, and two person tables. The teacher seemed very nice, but didn't speak a lick of English. Cole took his seat next to a little boy.

Madisen's first teacher speaks English and she arrived in an English class. Her classmates know some English, but don't seem exactly conversant yet.

I saw both of them after their school day and they were pretty happy. Cole did say he didn't understand a word, but he sure was more attentive during his language lessons with Armena! She was teaching them Russian, but has switched to Armenian so they have some hope of talking to other children at school. They are learning the alphabet and starting with some phrases. She was very helpful at the school - she told the other children about Madisen and Cole and made their day easier.

The school day is shorter than at home - Madisen gets out at 1.30; CR around 11.30. The building is a big concrete building that looks like it was built by the Soviets. Concrete floors, guards on the inside (not sure why since we are in a safe neighborhood, but supposedly they help kids cross the street - a major safety hazzard), and drab interior wall colors. They have decorated the halls with some student art work, but they need some more color. When classes change, kids scream down the hall. Madisen said they played tag in between classes.

Austin remains very happy with his pre-school. He was disappointed that he couldn't go on Saturday or Sunday.

Lori

My experience at school

School is interesting


The school that Cole and I went to was not like Travis Heights Elementary school. The school is pretty big and it is not filled with furniture. It has big rooms for kids to go out into it for break to wait for there next teacher and play a game, kind of like recess.

MY DAY
I liked school. I thought it was O.K.
The first class I had was English (which was very easy because they were reading a paragraph that the class had to revise and edit. The paragraph was about a 3rd grade level, I think.) Then Armenian history, music and then Armenian.


For English class they were learning Britain English. As I said above they were revising and editing the paragraph. During that break I met a girl named Lilit, she was very nice and gave me a piece of candy. She spoke English to me.
The next class(Armenian History) was in Armenian so I did not understand a thing, except chim which means no.
After that I had music with 4th graders. They were very nice. The music teacher was nice. The lesson was the most interesting thing. The class room had desks. For the lesson the students sang and danced.
After that was Armenian. I left early because Armena picked me up. She watches Cole and me so I did not do much of that. My favorite class was English because I could understand it.

I think Cole's day was good but I am not sure.

Austin really likes his school. He says he can't wait till they bake a cake.

Madisen

going out

Today was a very interesting day.

Today we went on the subway. when we got to where we were going we headed to the children's art museum. At the children's art museum, we saw children's art from around the world. Every one of the paintings, clay sculptors or rugs represent something from their country. There was beautiful art work, but the way to get to the art museum was difficult. We walked back and forth until finally we saw someone who looked like they could speak English. This lady didn't know where the art museum was but she tried to help us get there. Se asked alot of people where it was and finally we got to the museum. She was helpful because she spoke Armenian, Russian, and English, but with her e also walked in circles for a little while.


We did not do much today but we got alot of exercise.


madisen

Going to the markets

Today all of us went to Republic Square. To get there we took the subway. The subway is very different from the subways in New York. First you have to buy your coin which you put in this machine. The coins cost 50 dram, about 13 cents a token. Once you put the token in the machine, you walk through and go down a very fast steep escalator. When you get to the bottom of the escalator you go to the middle of the stop. You go to the middle of the stop because the subway is not very long, maybe about 5 or 6 cars. I think what is very strange about how the system for the subway is here, is you can ride on as many stops as you want for the same price, 50 dram. Children 6 or 7 and under are free.


At Republic square we decided to go to this outdoor market where everything is, it is called the vernisage. They have all sorts of things there. For example... books in English, Russian, Armenian and French, handmade rugs, beautiful wood carvings like a violin with the strings and everything you would see on a violin and a wooden clock with tiny details like a bird and a flower. They also had remote controls, mechanical tools, parts of computers, kitchen supplies, beautiful paintings. What I liked the best was the puppies that people were trying to sell. Some of the puppies were two or three months old. There was this black poodle that reminded all of us of my grand mothers poodle that had recently died. The only thing with seeing full bred dogs being sold is that there are so many stray dogs that need a home.

We also went out to eat at a restraunt for lunch. We had pizza. On the menuthere was this pizza I had never seen or heard of, fried egg and bacon, we didn't get that we got cheese and mushroom black olive.

After the pizza we went to an inside market, like a farmers market. There was all these different kinds of fruit, some dried and some not, lavosh( a type of Armenian bread) there was meats and veggies. While my mom was picking out bananas I saw this woman holding a chicken by its feet, about to get killed. On our way out of the market we saw the place where the woman got the chicken. After that we decided when we go to a market not to eat before that because people give you samples of almost everything like Costco. We also decided that if we went to a resteraunt we would ask if we could have a to go box even if we didn't like the food and then we would feed it to the dogs.

That is about all we did today


madisen

after about a week of the new house

My room has heat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The land lord came over about two days ago with an ironing board, three reading lamps and two heaters. We had only asked for an ironing board, so the landlord did not get us an iron. The reading lamps looked very cheap. The reading lamp that I got was a very confusing and ugly one. You had to put the lamp shade in the ring and flip the shade. If you don't get what I am talking about, just igore what I said because I didn't understand until I read the directions 5 or 6 times. Mommy and nana (my grandmother) got "prettier" lamps. There were dangely beads hanging from the shade, did I mention that all the lamps were touch lamps? The heaters were put in the office and my room. The heaters are space heaters.
In this house there are interesting light fictures. In the livingroom there are bowl like shapes. Dining room, chandeleer, as you walk up the stairs there are metal balls shaped like snow flakes, mom's room which is shared with nana has tulip shaped holders, my room small chandileer and the boys room has two blue balls and two white with different light swithces.
My dad turned in my magnet school applications and I can't wait to know if I have gotten into any and which ones if I have.
For school my mom decided I am going to do a project on nuclear weapons/ nuclear bombs and also atomic bombs, like whats the difference and that kind of stuff. (From Lori: we got into a discussion about the US/USSR and how Armenia was part of the former Soviet Union, the Cold War, WMD & Iraq, etc; she had a lot of questions so I did a project - thank God for Wikipedia). I am going to start Armenian public school on monday the 11th. I will take music, art p.e and math at school. cole is taking all subjects (I think) but will do a little more at home to keep up with everyone else. Austin who is going to a preschool and he really likes it. The preschool has a dog and I think he likes that. he also likes that they bake cakes once and awhile, but while he likes this new place I am sure he misses hi old preschool (MHOC) and esspicially his friends.

madisen

Here are some pictures of the kids next to our swimming pool (aka mosquito breeding ground) and in front of our house.

house

hello!!


our house is really awsome!
downstairs a bathroom, living room, dining room and kitchen. upstairs the office,boys bedroom, my bedroom, mommy's bedroom and a bathroom. the boys bedroom has a tv, desk, 2 heaters, two beds and a wardrobe sort of thing. My room has a bed, no heater, a small chandileer and a wardrobe thing. mom's room has queen bed, wardrobe, a couch and a tv. there is one shower one bath. the living room is big and the furniture is hard. dining room has a china cabinet and chandileer. kithcen is just like at home but is smaller.

Our New Home

We are now offically in our new house. We moved in yesterday. Robert and another driver rented a moving van - it looked like a convoy vehicle from MASH complete with the flaps - loaded all our stuff in under the watchful and disapproving eyes of our apartment landlord and drove about 5 minutes away to our new house. (Our apartment landlord was unhappy because he was trying to scam more money from CEELI because we arrived later than everyone thought, but the lease clearly says that the 10 days started upon my arrival.) He was also unhappy because Austin threw a snowball at his dog.

Anyway, back to the new house - it is 2 stories with the bottom floor containing a large living room with a hard couch, hard loveseat and 2 hard chairs. There was leather in the room, but we agreed that the landlords - who live next door to us -would take the leather and buy us cloth. Didn't realize that the cloth furniture would be stuffed with wood.

Some issues that still need resolving: Madisen's room has no heat and the "office" is cold despite the heating apparatus that is in the room. Madisen's room was grandma's room so not sure how she survived. There is no hot water in the upstairs bathroom, but plenty in the downstairs one with the tub. We also have only 1 phone right by the cold front door. For the next few days, we share with the landlord and another neighbor then we will get our line installed.

For the good news: we have more TV channels than we have ever had, in more languages that we can imagine, and even some in English! Mom has been going through each channel deleting the channels that would shock the kids and result in many questions that we really don't want to have to answer. There are TONS of those channels.

I also have DSL hookup! No more dialup unless we download and upload so much that I can't afford to feed the kids.

We also successfully went to the grocery store in a taxi and bought all sorts of stuff to keep us satisfied for awhile. The kids are still not used to all the smoking – Cole Ryan quickly pointed out that our taxicab driver lit up.

Armine, the nanny, started today. So far, so good.

Snowman

Here are the pictures as promised. I can't upload from home - dialup takes way too long and it didn't work. Lori

Snowman

Yesterday Cole, Austin and I built a snowman. It was short and took about two hours to do it. It was very fun. for the nose we used a pencil, eyes we used goji beries along with the buttons and mouth. It's head fell off today. I am sad. --Madisen