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.