Week 2

I now have in my possession a great and powerful item.  This is called the Orange Dongle, a device with the power to bequeath internet connection upon my computer and not have to use the internet cafe.  I'm actually borrowing the Orange Dongle from Haig, one of the coordinators of the trip.  The problem with the internet cafe isnt the price (which is equivalent to a few cents an hour), but rather that it's only open for a short window of time each day and there are only 2 computers there.

This week was an eventful week.  Whereas the previous week it rained on and off and was (allegedly) cooler than it usually is in Armenia in the summer, this week was normal for Armenian summers (ie, really hot).  At the worksite, we dug up more bones, filled up buckets with dirt and dumped them out.

There has been much drama here.  One day, the landlady started yelling at us in Armenian, and I couldnt understand it.  Two of our participants in our house, Chris and Nick, the two twins, could understand this stuff. something about feces next to the front step (which probably came from some kind of animal) and that we were making interior of the house she was renting us a mess.  Finally, Haig explained the situation to her, and she got off our case.

Later on, a new housemate entered into the scene.  A small furry housemate.  For some odd reason, Sarkis, one of the participants staying in the other house, found a stray one-eared kitten and gave it to Chris.  Chris decided (quite contrary to his alleged cat-hating nature)  to keep the cat in the house.  He strokes it, saying "I hate cats".  Except he inserts an explative between "I" and "hate".
  We still do not know what we are going to do with the cat at the end of the trip.  It's probably too young to be able to hunt it's own prey, especially with one of its ears missing.  My guess is that I should send it to my friend Renee who lives in the US, and see what she thinks (Renee, please respond to this blog before this week is over, otherwise I will bring the cat home and give it to you.  Just kidding)

Today we got a chance to visit the area near the border of Armenia and Turkey.  We attempted to get the Russian border patrol to let us into the neutral zone, but a new policy does not allow tourists to visit the neutral zone very easily, so we had to turn around.  We did get to see the neutral zone, and a church just inside the neutral zone.  After visiting the fence of the neutral zone, we visited Gyumri, the second largest city in Armenia.  It is also the same city where Birthright has assigned me to do 5 weeks of unknown work starting two weeks from now.  By unknown work, I mean, they havent told me what I will be doing, and it's 2 weeks before I go there.  It's frustrating.  But Vahan my cousin assured me two weeks ago that this is perfectly natural for Birthright to not tell us anything, as he is an alumni of said program.  Sorry blogreaders for going off on a tangent.  But it is obviously frustrating.

Another note:  new pics are being posted on Flickr.