No trip to Karabach and a landlord with no light

Hi everybody!

I was supposed to go on a trip to Karabach this weekend but it has been canceled due to bad weather conditions. I do not know what they consider bad here in Armenia, all we have had the last couple of days are something that might just be qualified as rain.

For you who do not know what Karabach is and what is so special about it, here comes an explanation. Karabach are a country that does not exist. It is officially a part of Azerbaijan, but since its inhabitants was mainly Armenian a civil war broke out and as a result we have the Mountainous region of Karabach. Not a part of Armenia or of Azerbaijan although not a country by itself either.

Alas the trip is cancelled I will still go some day some time in the future. They say it is the most beautiful part of Armenia, although it is not Armenia. It is a bit like then Armenians talk about Ararat. “It is our mountain; it is a part of Armenia. Although it is in Turkey”.

So I had a couple of days of since the trip was cancelled. I spent them the best way possible, with friends.

This Friday my work had parent’s day. It was quite fun, my students presented ATC in English (I am so proud) and I had to shake the hands of every parent and smile etc…

After that the Georgians invited me to their place for a dinner and party, the Austrian girl joined to. It was really nice, good food and a great atmosphere. It was quite strange. If young Swedish people (or Austrian) would have a dinner with their parents it would not be so much of a party. Not that it would not be nice, but it would be quite calm and everyone would try to behave. Not the Georgians, do not missunderstand me they behaved but, they had a living party in which everyone their participated. Even the neighboring family came and joined in. It was really fun. It might be as my boss stated, the Georgians have adopted Petter as they see him as a foreigner too. (He did not approve of me participating, since it might look bad (bribe).)

So much happens right now. The Malaysian has left, one of the Germans is leaving today and we have no electricity in our apartment.

I am very sad that she has left (the Malaysian girl), I have had a great time with her, she is a wonderfull and happy person, and it was comforting to know that someone was going to stick out with you for the whole stay here. But she did the right thing to leave; they even told her at her work that they would not have anything for her to do. She is now in Austria and will soon see her family again. Good luck and thanks for everything.

About the apartment. We have had some problems with electricity before, but it has been a fun experience. You can call it a 'welcome to Armenia thing', kind of exotic. Anyhow all the time the landlord has fixed it and everything went back to normal. But recently the safeties have been going off while we were away. We could take it for a couple of days believing that it had something to do with some strange Armenian occurrence, somethings you just have to accept. But this Monday it started to smell burnt wire so we switched everything of and contacted @ so that they could contact the landlord. Don't you think that the landlord refuses to fix the problem! and are blaming us for it!. If he fix it we have to pay for it. We are not going to pay for it. Because we do not have electricity and we have been forced to throw away food for a value of more than 200€ and as innocent people we have to live in the dark. Currently we can have one light bulb on for about ten minutes before the safety switch of. It will not cost us much to pay for the electrician but it is also a matter of principle, furthermore we do not know what he will not be doing the next time. We are currently looking for a new apartment. The problems are that I am willing to take a quite expensive one, since I have only two months left, but there will be coming some trainees that will stay here for a longer period and they have to pay for the rent while I am gone. Also that I have a deposit sum to collect from the landlord, from what I have gathered it is one of the hardest things to do, collect money from a landlord. We will see how it works out.

Now I have to get back to my work and preparation for my parents visit in Armenia. It is going to be fun.

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P

Is a children disco better than a nightclub?

Life is good in Armenia. I am trying to find some better structure in my life. But as soon as find something to do, something comes in and disturbs the original plans. Usually the problem can be spelled ‘room-mates’ or ‘Germans’.

As example I can take yesterday. I had not been home for a time and planned to take the afternoon of, make some nice food and just chill.

In the morning the roomies asked if I was up for something after work. I said ‘No, to night I will make a lasagna’ and with that I left for work.

To my surprise I got an e-mail stating:

Hi,

we want to cook today Lasagne (Petters idea)? Where? At our place or at Claudias? Please Contact me at home after 7 pm or in my office (number: 524802), because I won't be able to check e-mails anymore today.

Regards
[XXX]

I was not up to make lasagna or spend the whole afternoon being social. I did not express that idea, all I wanted to do was to eat by myself and read a book. So I quickly answered with an email subject ‘Disclaimer’:

Hi,

Where did that idea come from? I just remember today that I said that I will not join you downtown, since I intended to make lasagna. The Lasanga planes are anyhow closed, I have decided not to make any.

Regards
Petter

So, no lasagna. It might have been a bit rude but I wanted to be alone. Instead I went and bought ingredients for chicken breasts filled with Feta cheese and some olive potatoes to go with that. Really jummie.

When I came home one roomy asked if he could join, why not. I thought. So we made and ate the dish, really good tasting. After it I took my book and lay down in my bed and started to read. But, the happiness that last. One of the guys was bored and decided that I to was bored, since I was reading. So to be nice to Petter I will talk to him for three hours. My next chance for solitude is… far away.

This Sunday the MCP came back from her semester and IC. So @ decided to throw a welcome party. Ordinary @ Armenia parties are quite lame, but at least they have them at nightclub. But this time they changed place, from the BB club to a place named Mango. I did not really want to go but one of the girls had just got married and another had a birthday, so I went. They had clearly stated that Mango was a much better place than BB club.

The sign it… scared me. It said Mango organizes birthday’s party and children discos. They moved from a nightclub and a children disco! And a children disco it was, the ‘party’ was over at 22.00.

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P