what I actually do at work: shovelling snow off the roof

Yesterday at work, we had a little meeting about "interrupts" and their usage in microprocessors.  During the meeting, there was an unintentional demonstration of an in-real-life interrupt: somebody came in and told us that the roof had started leaking water into one of the rooms where our important equipment was located.  So, we had to stop the meeting and cover the machinery with protective plastic sheets.  We had determined that this water was from the snow that was melting on the roof, so Suren, Mikayel, Gevork and I went up on the roof to shovel the snow off of there.  We took turns because there was only one rope (one person could be tied to each end of it), and two shovels.  Finally, Suren attached a sheet of metal under the roof to divert the flow of the water, preventing further leakage into the building.  He told me afterwards "the rope is just for decoration, it wouldnt have supported any of our weights".  Hopefully he was just joking about that.

at last, an excursion out of the city

Since I arrived in Yerevan, I hadn't left the city until this past weekend.  Mainly because the excursions had been cancelled two weekends in a row.  Even though it cost me about the equivalent of 10$ to go to three places I had been to thrice before (Khor Virap, where St. Gregory had been imprisoned (I'm not writing Gregory's story again, read my previous posts from last summer) ; Noravank "the monastery with the stairs"; and Areni village which is famous for its wine and for a cave wherein was found the oldest shoe ever discovered), I still considered it worth it to go on the excursion.  I had never seen the hills of Armenian country side so covered with snow.  Our friend Achod, who was staying in Karabagh, joined us for the excursion.  Throughout the excursion, we all threw snowballs at one another.

On Sunday night, I was invited to my boss Suren's house for dinner, and I met his family.  His son-in-law, Mikayel, I already knew, since he also worked with us at the lab.  I also met Suren's daughter, Anahid (who is married to Mikayel), his son Gevork, his grandson who is also named Gevork, his mother, his wife, and his son's girlfriend Armineh.  Hopefully I got the geneology all correct.  The older Gevork, Anahid, Armineh and I were all playing songs on the guitar together, jamming out to "knocking on heaven's door" and other songs.  

tour of the orphanage, etc.

in 1999, my aunt Pam and my uncle Charlie went to Armenia to adopt two twin girls who were only a few months old, named Karineh and Narineh, from an orphanage just outside of Yerevan.  Since they didnt know much Armenian, they got some help with their translations from a lady named Siranoush who worked for the adoption agency.  They have kept in contact with her since then.
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Now skip over to the present:  2012.  When I told my aunt and uncle that I was going to Armenia and staying in Yerevan, they told me that they wanted me to meet up with their friend Siranoush, and give her a gift.

This past sunday I met up with her, and she gave me a tour of the orphanage where my cousins were adopted from.  She told me that a lot had changed there since they were adopted.  (I took a few pictures that I will post on facebook at a later point in time.)  This particular orphanage was meant for kids 0-5 years old; once a child is above 5 years of age, he/she is moved to another orphanage elsewhere in Armenia.  Afterwards, we met up with her 15 year old son, Andranik, and the three of us went to dinner at The Club. I ordered a type of soup called manti, which contains small pieces of meat wrapped in dough.

Later on that evening, I went with some of my friends to a concert where my friend Alin from Argentina was singing and playing songs on the guitar in Spanish, Armenian and English.  I invited Siranoush and Andranik to come to the concert, but they wouldnt let Andranik come because he's only 15 years old and the concert was at a bar.

A typical day in Yerevan:

I get out of bed, and my host mother gives me bread and jam to eat for breakfast, as well as tea.  No cucumbers, no tomatoes; those things were plentiful last time I was in Armenia and served every meal.  I put on my inner jacket, my coat, my scarf, my gloves and my boots.  Ready to walk out the door.
The snow falls down, covering the ground to half a meter in height (and counting), except where some brave soul has shoveled it out of the way.  My jacket also gathers snow as I walk to the bus stop, and from where i get off the bus to my building at the institute. A crazy dog barks at me along the way, on the inside of the institute's gateway.  There is a heater inside my office, but it is not very powerful, and I have to keep my coat and scarf on inside.  Welcome to the winter of Armenia.
My boss, Suren, had assigned me to program a chip so that it makes numbers appear on an LED display.  This, being part of a bigger project that I'd be working on for the next 3 months.  I had prior experience with micro-controller programming, so this didn't seem like a hard task.  Suren and his colleagues seem to take an old-school approach to their programming (by using assembly language exclusively) however, with a simple google search, I was able to find the C compiler plugin for the IDE that they had been using, and Suren asked me how to do the same.
After work, I take the bus back to my neighborhood and walk to the birthright office for Armenian language lessons.  Again, getting covered with snow.  During lessons, I discover just how much I have forgotten since the last time I was in Armenia, and how my grammar has degraded.
After that, I get on my computer and, using the birthright office's internet, I Skype with my friend back in the states.  Then, I have dinner with a few of my fellow birthright volunteers and walk back home, walk up to the fourth floor, knock, and my host mother opens the door, and i get ready for bed.  The cycle continues…

The past few days

A lot has happened over the past few days:

Thursday:

Sue and I found the entrance to Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross station (it actually exists, see facebook pics).  After writing the Harry Potter books, Kings Cross station created a tribute to the HP series:  a solid wall with a sign that says "Platform 9 3/4" on it, with a luggage cart that is attached to it (to give the illusion that it is going through the wall.  

Friday:

I took the 5:40 AM chunnel train under the English Channel, to reach Paris, where Sue's sister, Ginny lives along with her husband Aram, their daughters Maral and Shushan, and their son Vahan.  (This is the same cousin Vahan whom I had not recognized on my first morning in Yerevan on my previous trip to Armenia).  I only spent one night in Paris (since I would be spending a whole week in Paris on the way back), but it was a fun visit, although it was unusually cold for Paris.  The city is not used to subfreezing temperatures.  Ginny ended up giving me one a scarf for me to keep and to bring with me to Yerevan, where it would only get colder.  We attended a concert of Anatolian music on a docked boat in the canal where Vahan works.  Vahan normally lives in a small bedroom inside the boat, however the night I was staying there, he stayed with us at his parents house, because the pipes inside the boat were frozen and he couldn't take a shower onboard the boat.

Saturday:

after lunch with the family, Ginny drove me to the airport to fly out to the airport.  Flew out to the moscow airport ...

Sunday 

... and from there to the Yerevan airport, arriving at my homestay at around 5:30 AM.  Slept almost all day on sunday (getting up only to eat).  Found out that the next day I would be moving to a different homestay, and failed to sleep most of the night.  

Monday:

orientation, paperwork, blah blah, blah.  Then had dinner with my friend Allegra at the tashir pizza downstairs from the birthright office.  afterwards, i brought my stuff to my new homestay, and then went to another volunteer's house to meet with the rest of the group for a film night.  

Tuesday = Today:

nothing really happening today.  Tomorrow I start work at the Yerevan Physics Institute.  

Got into W&M!, (and update on London

Ok, I had mentioned that I will post when I get into William and Mary, and today, they have sent me the acceptance letter via email.

Updates from London:
Since my last blog update, I have been to three museums (the Horniman museum, the British museum and science museum).  On Sunday, I to the church with Sue, and then afterwards played ping pong with a hayastantsi* guy named Tigran who is about the same age as me.  Two days ago, I went with Sue to her workplace, where she works as an anthropologist, researching the Armenian people.  Last nigth I ate take-out from a fish and chips store, which is basically like a fast food place except that they don't have seats in there and they only have carry out.  I'm going to post the pictures from my adventures in London on facebook soon.  As in before I arrive in Armenia.  I'll let you, the readers, keep me accountable to that.


*hayastantsi = Armenian person born in Armenia, as opposed to spyurkahay, which is what I am:  an Armenian of the diaspora.