Lilit's house

This is a picture of Lilit and Isabella.

I went to Lilit's today. Isabella, who came to our house 2 weeks ago also came. I got picked up at half past 2(as Lilit calls it). Mom wanted to pay for the mashtrootka but we took her fathers car instead.

When I got to Lilit's house her brother, Armen was waiting, he is ten. The first thing we did was do word search puzzles. I had shown Lilit and Isabella them the last time they came to my house. After the word search puzzles we danced for the longest time, 45 minutes at least. Then we had a snack of oranges and sweet sesame seed covered peanuts. Then Lilit's mother set the table at five o' clock, (which was early for me) and we ate. Lilit's mother had made chicken, pasta, this zucchini dish and a salad. I ate all of these things except for the salad because it was not with lettuce and it began to taste funny. While we were in the middle of our meal, Lilit's mother got ready to do something. I soon learned that she had to go to classes. We then finished dinner. Once we had each finished dinner, Lilit, Isabella and I went into Lilit's room to play Barbies. We played that for what seemed like the longest time. We dressed them and did all that stuff, and then put them away. Then we danced some more, and Lilit's mother came home. After she came in, Lilit got out a microphone and a few cords, and did karaoke with Isabella in Armenian and Russian. Then we had to go, because Lilit's father was waiting for us, and he was driving Isabella and I home.

That is all the exciting stuff that happened today. I went to school and that is about it. Yesterday, there was an English test to take and I got a 4!!!(a 5 is the highest)!!! The test was asking for us to explain or show an example of proper nouns, negative sentences, interrogative sentences and stuff like that.

madisen

What is going on here

Hi!!!

Here are a few pictures. The first one is of us having a picnic at the vernisage and eating pringals mom found at the 800 dram store(about $2.25). The second is of Lilit, me and Isabella who came over last Saterday. The third is Armine, RX and Cole.

Cole, Austin and I have been going to school, except that Cole got a week off from school while Austin and I didn't. Austin told Cole to get ready for school, but every 5 miniuts Cole would have to explain why he did not have to get ready. On Friday Austin did not ask Cole anything about school, but he did ask mom if he had to go to school or not.

During my school day I have all the classes I can't understand, like Armenian, Russian, geography, history and a couple others also. The only class I can understand is English, but a few things are confusing because they are learning british english, not American. I can understand the math but they use different signs.

For my language lessons I have finished learning the Armenian alphabet and am close to finishing the Russian alphabet. Armine(armena) the nanny and language teacher is now teaching me how too discribe things in Armenian.

We are taking care of a dog named RX, but he goes by rex. He is a pit bull and something else, he is very friendly. The landlords dog,also named rex is a german shepard and tries to jump out of his cage when ever mom takes RX to go to the bathroom. RX is leaving on Tuesday morning.

Cole and Austin have made a new friend!!! The landlords sons are being nice and friendly to Cole and Austin. One of his sons, Armen is 12 or 13 years old, he goes to the same school as Cole and I. The boys like to play with him unless they want to watch the T.V show even though they cn't understand a thing the people are saying.

madisen

Single Parent in Strange Land

Mom left on Wednesday March 14. I am now officially a single parent until Tom visits. Here's a brief glimpse of our life here and a plea to all readers to pray for my sanity:

The night before her marathon flight and the real possibility of not making all her connections or having a seat as she was flying stand-by, mom took a sleeping pill. She was out. Meanwhile, back at the ranch in the middle of the night....

Austin peed in his bed before I could wake him. I found him butt naked in Cole's bed - smart boy, why sleep in pee when you can get in a warm, dry bed? I then took Cole Ryan to the bathroom who promptly had stomach issues which shall I say resulted in a messy bathroom and son. After cleaning up the bathroom and Cole, dressing Austin, and rearranging Cole's bed to fit two bodies, I went back to sleep. Madisen had a bloody nose sometime in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep. (She didn't wake me, but used it to her advantage later when explaining her foul mood and why she just couldn't wait 15 minutes for the store to open and me to buy milk).

And mom was still in Yerevan....

Despite pee and poop problems just a few hours before, boys were up early and were able to say bye to nana. After Nana left, I wanted to shower and turned on the TV so that the boys would be zombies and not get into trouble. Well, CR is flipping through the channels and comes across a naked woman and of course pauses there. (Note: mom went through all the channels when the satellite TV was installed and blocked the porno/nude ones or so we thought. The channel that CR found airs cartoons during the day and is obviously misnamed "The Family Channel".) I flip the channel back to cartoons and take the remote in the bathroom with me figuring that CR is unlikely to drag himself off the couch to manually change the station back to the nudie channel. (Yes, I realize that you all think I am an idiot - especially the men reading this.) According to Austin that is just what CR did. Austin said that CR was watching TV channels that he shouldn't watch, but of course Austin was not because he turned his head.

Between poop, pee, blood, and porno.... single parenthood at its best and mom had been gone all of 30 minutes.

Follow up: I became an expert at blocking channels (it took two days to figure out), CR's stomach was luckily a one time thing, Austin is doing fine at night, and no more nosebleeds for Madisen. And, mom got home safely. I couldn't have done this adventure without her help. She was crucial - she flew 8000 miles with sleep deprived grandchildren who were definitely not at their cutest, settled the kids into a routine, went through culture shock, ate oatmeal for days when we couldn't figure out what else to eat, and dealt with crappy weather, not knowing the language, food poisoning (beet salad is the suspected culprit) and two moves of massive amounts of luggage. Thanks mom. I love you.

Stay tuned....

Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra

With the kids. Amazing. I have unlocked the secrets of taking the kids to cultural events: dessert bribes and keeping it to one hour.

On a Friday night, we went to hear the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra at the Opera House which sits in the middle of Yerevan and is absolutely beautiful. We walked in and up to the nosebleed section, but of course Austin had to go to the bathroom so he and I walked back down to the basement where the bathrooms were located. The APO played Shostakovitch's Cello Concerto No. 1, the world premier Symphony No. 1 by Rostomyan (Armenian guy - still alive), and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 Concerto. We left at intermission and missed Beethoven. I was disappointed, but decided that the evening had gone fairly well and didn't want to push the kids any father as the chocolate bribes were running low. We tried to leave through the doors we entered. Impossible. Stern looking Armenian women kept motioning to a door that was completely invisible from where we were. We finally turned a corner and luckily ran into a very nice Iranian teenager who understood our English and offered to show us the exit - through 2 unmarked doorways, down a dark flight of stairs and out the back.

Afterwards, we treated ourselves to Yum Yum donuts and a cappuccino for me. The kids even said they liked the symphony. Next week: Night on Bald Moutin (or, as translated, Night on a Bare Mountain).

One thing that was very suprising: the audience was composed sustantially of teens and young adults! And they were listening.

Garni and Gerghard

On mom's last weekend, we travelled to Garni and Gerghard to see two very, very old buildings. Garni was originally a pagan temple, but for some reason was the only one spared destruction when Armenia became a Christian nation in 301. Garni then became a summer residence for Armenian royalty; it is surrounded on three sides by 5000 meter cliffs and the scenery is spectacular. Gerhard is a monastary carved into a cliff. The Armenian Apostolic priests were conducting services when we were there. They sang beautifully and filled the church with incense. We also saw some animals - they still bring them as sacrifices. Luckily we missed that part. I am only posting pictures of Garni; the camera battery died.

Republic Square and Vernissage Pictures

Pictures of the kids at Republic Square and the Vernissage - art shopping market. Kids look silly b/c they refused to smile. The picture of Cole shows his necklace that he bought with his own money. He is at our house; landlord's laundry is behind him. The Yerevan Mariott is behind Madisen.

Going to Lilit's apartment

Today I went over to Lilit's apartment. I rode a bus there, it was not like the buses at home. It was small, the size of a van, but the seats were set up like they are on the buses at home. After about a 5 to 10 minute ride, we got up and went to Lilit's aunt's house. We went there because she was an English teacher, I guess she wanted to meet me and she came over to translate. Then we went over to Lilit's house.


At Lilit's house she gave me a present. It was a necklace with the Armenian alphebet along with a book in French but she thought it was English and a carved wooden pomegranite. We then went in to her room and played dolls for about 15 minutes, and her mother had put out some fruit for a snack. The fruit was very good - oranges, bananas, kiwi, pomagranate - and it was all arranged on the plate.

Then we watched some T.V and Lilit showed me pictures of her family. Her father came in, and wanted to know where I was from, so I showed him. Then he had dinner. While he was eating Lilit's aunt asked me some questions, along with telling me about her family, I also told her about mine. Once Lilit's father was done, he took some pictures, and then left again, I am not sure where to.

After that, Lilit's mother set the able and we ate. She had made Indian rice, Chicken and grape leave rolls. Everything was very good.

30 minutes later we had dessert and then we all started to talk. Then I went home.

International Women's Day - March 8

These Armenians have it right! Not only is International Women's Day an official holiday in Armenia, the whole country essentially celebrates Women's Month - from March 8 (International Women's Day) until April 7 (Motherhood and Beauty Day). According to Wikipedia, the first IWD was observed on 28 February 1909 in the United States following a declaration by the Socialist Party of America. Among other relevant historic events, it commemorates the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (New York, 1911), where over 140 women lost their lives. The idea of having an international women's day was first put forward at the turn of the 20th century amid rapid world industrialization and economic expansion that led to protests over working conditions. By urban legend,[1][2] women from clothing and textile factories staged one such protest on 8 March 1857 in New York City[citation needed]. The garment workers were protesting what they saw as very poor working conditions and low wages. The protesters were attacked and dispersed by police. These women established their first labor union in the same month two years later. More protests followed on 8 March in subsequent years, most notably in 1908 when 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights[citation needed].

The kids, however, were not impressed with the importance of the day. Austin woke everyone up early and didn't really care that I wanted to sleep in. Oh well.....So much for better working conditions at home....

While the BBC reported that women in Tehran were being beaten and arrested for sitting outside some government ministry demanding (while sitting, mind you) equal rights (read: the ability to see your children after divorcing an abusive husband who was awarded custody automatically), Mom treated me to a spa treatment at the only Indian inspired Ayurvedic salon in Yerevan. We joined my new friends, Erica and Sonya. Erica is from Amarillo originally; Sonya is my boss and from California. We brought wine, baklava, and cookies and had quite the feast before our spa treatments. Included in the low, low price of about $20 (with tip!), we each had our hair cut, a manicure, and a wonderful facial. All while sipping wine and eating. Afterwards, we met with another friend, Amy, and headed out for "Mexican" food at Cactus Cafe. Amy is from all over, but amazingly has a house about 1/2 mile from mine (off S. 1st for you Austinites).

Then we came home and the kids were still not aware of the purpose of the holiday and proceeded to bicker until I put them to bed early. I am starting to remind them of Motherhood and Beauty Day in the hopes that I can at least sleep until 7.30.

On another note... the weather is getting warmer. The kids are doing well in school. Cole Ryan has spring break this next week; for some completely unknown reason, Madisen does not. She also goes to school on Saturdays and he stays home. Last Saturday she refused; this Saturday she is not complaining because she has a playdate with a new school friend, Lilit (pronouced "lil eet"). Madisen liked going to school today as she and her female classmates were given a fabric flower and small plastic coin purse. Socialization starts early for IWD. Cole Ryan is still stymied as to why there is not "International Men's Day" and feels quite cheated. Austin, of course, is oblivious.

Mom leaves on Wednesday (3/14) and I am bracing for single parenthood until Tom visits in April. I have a new parenting tactic: if they misbehave, they have to pay me out of their allowance. I figure I will save up that money and treat myself to another spa day!

Today, Seeing a Russian play

Here are 3 pictures. The pictures are of the boys sitting waiting for the play to start, us at the restraunt but you can't see me very well and there is one more with the boys playing outside with the landlords dog in the background. Hope you like them!!!

We saw a Russian play today. The play I think was about a princess trying to find a prince or something like that. It seemed funny to the people who could understand it, but we couldn't. It was about 1 hour long, and my feet fell asleep. It was a kids play. There were only 5 actors, and there were not very many props. It was very small compared to the play my school preformed, Little Orphan Annie.

After the play we went to square1, a restraunt. On our there we saw a movie theater, but I don't think there was any movies in English. At the restraunt we got apple pie, 4 brownies, chocoate cake, one scoop of ice cream that came with every dessert, two thik milk shakes that Cole, Austin and I shared, and Nana got some coffe while mommy got some tea. We were filled up.

We came home and played outside for a little bit, then watched some t.v. Mommy and my grandma decided to order out, so they called Mr.toaster, a pizza place. Mommy decided to order 1 4 of a kind cheese pizza, two salads and a black olive pizza. We played outside again while we were waiting for the pizza to come.

The pizza came, but mommy had to walk a little bit to get it. We started eating while mommy was complaining the there was not enough lettece in the salad. Then we ate dessert which we each had a small doughnut.

Madisen