hotel armenia - saturday at 18:30
cheers everyone,
just a few days short of the end of my yerevan adventure, i finally got a dial-up account. or more precisely i borrowed a dial-up from a new isp, with offices in the same hotel as iesc.
so here i am, sitting in bed with my laptop on-line for the first time since arriving here (with the exception of some literally useless connectgions at the office).
we're close now. yesterday i gave a seminar on "Software Development Methodology & Project Management". It went well. about 20 participants from a number of armenian it companies, and everyone seemed to find it interesting and fruitful. good!
today was spent in large part, lounging about, sleeping in, finally gettting around to using the bathtub for what it's there for, having a great lunch at the artbridge café, and then going to the market to buy some simpel souvenirs. i got what i came for, there might be pictures at a later time, but decided not to get one of the gorgeous wooden backgammon boards they make here.
i simply don't play backgammon, so it's probably pointless to bring one in.
i did buy a doodook, which is the local armenian reed-instrument, something of a mix between an oboe, and a recorder. just for fun. and a few other curious items.
apart from that it's been a suprememly empty day. and the only thing i kind of regret about this trip is that i haven't gotten around to hiking more, seeing more places, and generally using my weekends better. part of that has been due to the workload, trying to get as much as possible done in a fairly short period, and part due to laziness and lack of suitable travel-companions. in that way this has been a totally different kind of trip than mu 3 months in Ghana. staying in a hotel, no other volunteers my age (not entirely true, but...), and of course just less time to do it all, and get into things, and decide what is worth doing etc.
right now, i really feel like coming back. i think i'll try to arange an adventure tourism trip, and see if i can gather 10 or 12 of my friends to head of to Armenia next year. the opportunities for hiking, mountain-climbing, caving, canoeing, bicycling etc. are almost endless. and it's a cheap country too. once you offset the high cost of airfare, by planning at least 3 weeks of ground-time i think it could be an incredible experience. and hopefully Arminag at the Visitor Information Center can help arrange the tours.
we'll see if i ever get round to this, but it's a sound plan of action....
