Monday, November 17, 2014

More Photos and a Video

More eye candy, folks:

Random photos 14 – 17 November:


and here is a link to one of the two videos I shot Saturday from the gondola ride to Tatev:


https://plus.google.com/110414898143254307072/posts/WFFcWFSJZUV?banner=pwa&pid=6082635000421532562&oid=110414898143254307072

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Thought Fragments on a Rainy Sunday

It has been a pretty busy week….well, a moderately busy week…..well, not really that busy at all.

On my first trip here in 2010, I trained five days a week, 6 hours a day.  That is normal. 

On my second trip in 2011, accompanied by Nancy, I trained only in the afternoons.  That was great, as it left us time to explore each morning.

On this trip, the bank has long decided that they cannot afford to pull people out of the branches for training during the day.  So, all training is now done in the evening, starting at 6:30.  And, bank security has declared that training must end by 8:30 so that all employees are out of the building by 9:00.  So, effectively, I am reduced to 2 hours of training a day.

Then, there is this thing I call Armenian Time.  It is not quite as bad as Hanoi Time, but it does mean that 6:30 training starts at 6:45.  And the 5-minute break is actually 15 minutes.

This sounds fun and like an easy work gig…but I have made commitments on what will be covered.  So the sessions are fast-paced, never go according to plan, and leave me pretty much mentally wrecked by 8:30.  But, the hourly pay is damn good.

I found out yesterday that Bankworld has signed a new 4-year training agreement with this bank. The bank has also asked me for a list of courses I can teach, as they want me back.  That made me feel really useful and welcome, and I would be delighted to return to Armenia as often as possible.  Hopefully there will be more lead time so other family members can join me.

So, other than rewriting the training every day, how have I been spending all of this free time?

Wandering.  Eating.  People watching.  Enjoying.

I have found several more caches…one in a park where many noted Armenian writers are buried, one near the main post office, and one in an abandoned amusement park (more on that in a minute).  I have two more to reasonably find…whether or not I do, they bring me to areas I may not have otherwise seen in detail.

I have revisited places Nancy and I visited when she accompanied me here in 2011….El CafĂ©, Jazzve, the Pixie supermarket, pizza diavola at the hotel, and many more.  Fond memories, all.  Not to ignore the new places.

One of the deputy chairmen of the bank asked me a few days ago what I thought of Yerevan since the last visit, and I wasn’t quite sure.  There is much new construction, mainly of high-rise office buildings but also some apartment complexes.  Unfortunately, there is also too much neglected infrastructure – crumbling concrete walkways, metal roofs too rusted to be much protection, etc.  I also think I see more beggars in the streets, and more elderly people who spend their days wandering.  The upscale stores have a lot of traffic but few sales…but the restaurants and informal stores are packed.  It is definitely a dichotomy.

I truly love this city.  Even today, rainy and the first bad weather day since my arrival, it was enjoyable to spend 3 hours wandering the main open-air market watching people, transactions, and the flow of society on a weekend. 

Anyway, yesterday was a most wonderful day.  My hosts (and good friends) took me on a 13-hour drive to Tatev, a famous monastery in the SE portion of the country (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatev_monastery).  My previous post herein gave a link to the photos from that trip.  But, nothing in the photos can compare to what we actually saw that day.  The next time I am here, my friends want to take me to Ngorno Karabach, the Armenian region that is also claimed by Azerbaijan and which is a main source of dispute in their 17-year war.  They have seen photos of the NC mountains where we currently live, and say that NK is very similar to that.  I very much look forward to that opportunity.


Time to reread the training I have planned for tomorrow and make possible adjustments.  Thanks for reading and listening to my random thoughts. 

A Visit to Tatev Monestary


Good morning, all.

The narrative will await another day.  But, here are 97 photos from my all-day venture to Tatev yesterday.  Enjoy!


https://plus.google.com/photos/110414898143254307072/albums/6082276940842037089?banner=pwa