hello hello...
que dire. marie eve et moi voulions wuitter paris pour marseille, mais ce week-end s'avere etre le plus gros week-end de l'annee pour les francais, comme la st-jean pour nous. c'est la fete de l'assomtion. cest pas assez que la moitie des commerces sont fermes a paris au mois daout, et que tout est ferme les dimanches, il faut que tout le monde parte en vacances et que les prix de trains quadruplent... donc pas marseille cette semaine! on planifie autre chose au fait. on voulait partir vite parce qu'on etait ecoeurees de paris, mais on va planifier quelque chose d'un peu plus ultime. surement biarritw-pyrenees-marseille-barcelone. en tout cas quand on en discute ca revient toujours a ca.
sinon, on samuse beaucoup! on vit comme les parisiens, on sassoit dans les cafes et on fout rien, on regarde les gens passer, on mange beaucoup...
et jai decouvert, grace a marie, fauchon. (cliquez!) le traiteur le plus cher a paris... mais aussi le meilleur!! nous avnos partage un mont blanc et on se disputait a la fin, qui en avait mange plus que lautre :p evidemment cest moi qui la termine ;) maman jai pense a toi tout le long, mont blanc cest ton truc et cetait le MEILLEUR mont blanc EVER. yavait un petite gauffre et un confiture de myrtilles a linterieur... cetait decadent!!
on se promene beaucoup, et on essaie de trouver des trucs pas chers a faire parce quon a assez depense et on veut partir en voyage (oui, pendant que nous sommes en voyage!)
quand jy pense je nai pas eu le mal du pays une seule fois depuis mon depart de montreal. certes je pense a vous et vous me manquez, et peut-etre que maintenant cest plus facile parce que marie-eve est la, mais en meme temps je sais que vous etes la (meme si ce nest pas pour toujours) et cest assez reconfortant pour moi. je suis desolee a ceux et celles pour qui jai pris quelques jours a reecrire. je ne verifiais mes courriels que de maniere spontanee, tres vite et pas tous les jours, et aussi parce que ca me tente de vivre paris pleinement... je me demande un peu comment ca va etre a mon retour. si je vais vouloir voir qui que ce soit durant les premieres semaines... cest toujours difficile les retours...
mon numero de cell a paris.
je ne sais pas ce quil faut composer pour sortir du quebec ... 001?
06-65-04-26-63
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
coucou mes amours!!
arretez dangoisser; je suis a paris avec marie-eve et pour le moment je reste chez sa belle-mere en attendant le retour dalec. cette fin de semaine nous irons a marseilles et dans une semaine a barcelone je crois.
numero chez sa belle-mere
01-43-35-13-52
jaurais un celle phone bientot:
arretez dangoisser; je suis a paris avec marie-eve et pour le moment je reste chez sa belle-mere en attendant le retour dalec. cette fin de semaine nous irons a marseilles et dans une semaine a barcelone je crois.
numero chez sa belle-mere
01-43-35-13-52
jaurais un celle phone bientot:
Sunday, August 3, 2008
.
tuesday night was our good-bye party. we karaoke'd, and i packed, and the next morning chris and i took an 8.30am marshrutka off to tbilisi. we arrived around 2, took another marshrutka to the hostel, got lost on the way (of course!) but ended up in a lovely hostel with very friendly people. it was extremely, full, too. i met two 50-year-old french men from valence, one of them was armenian. this was their last night, they had spent the past three months biking down from france to armenia passing along all the neighbouring countries. chris and i had mcdonald's with them... yes i had a big mac. and it was satisfying, i am embarassed to admit! i was also told that a shaman was looking for me when i got to the hospital. he found me the next day and asked me to get an official invitation from canada for a georgian guy he barely knows. obviously the answer is no. but before he found me at least three people gave me this message....
tbilisi is nice. the people are much more laid-back, it's quite busy, and the architecture is beautiful. we did a lot of walking around, and we went to a bath house and had a sulphur bath - it made my skin so smooth! we didn't do any museums, but we saw interesting architecture and walked through old town, which was nice.
we took a night train to batumi, and our hostel was a nice and quiet one, a little further than the other hostels but close enough to the beach. the first day i spent quite some time looking for money... but also walked around quite a bit as well. come to think of it on this entire trip we slept a LOT. anyway yesterday we went for a swim, then south of batumi by marshrutka, past gonio (where there is a fortress!) and on to sarpi, where the beach is not as busy. we jumped off giant rocks and in the water i met thijs, from holland. chris and i parted ways, and thijs, his friend ruben and i spent the day together. we swam quite a bit, floated around... then went for drinks, i got back to the hostel at 2 am, and had to get up at 5 for our 6 o'clock marshrutka back to yerevan.
batumi is quite small. the buildings are run down, but they are beautiful pastel colours, pink green and blue, very marie-antoinette's cakes. there aren't too many people, not much to do either. there is a boring ferris wheel, you can rent bicycles but it's expensive and that's it. besides the sea, nothing much. the sea is beautiful, though. it's a very deep dark green, no waves but a strong enough current, and there is no sand. it's just rocks, but they are big enough and round and smooth, so it's unsteady to walk on but not uncomfortable. getting to swim in the ocean did me a lot of good. i just never wanted to get out, and the water was warm.
i guess that's it...
i came back today, set up camp at joe's, and now i'm out with the AGBU crowd for our last night all together in yerevan. thijs and ruben invited me over to amsterdam and anette is going as well, so i will go with her, and do some cities in the south of france, no more spain i don't think. i know it must get annoying to hear me change my plans all the time... but i'm enjoying myself :) i think i might not even do the south of france at all, just hang out with marie-eve in paris all the time and a few days in amsterdam.
upon my return i will have a giant picture-showing party or two :)
tuesday night was our good-bye party. we karaoke'd, and i packed, and the next morning chris and i took an 8.30am marshrutka off to tbilisi. we arrived around 2, took another marshrutka to the hostel, got lost on the way (of course!) but ended up in a lovely hostel with very friendly people. it was extremely, full, too. i met two 50-year-old french men from valence, one of them was armenian. this was their last night, they had spent the past three months biking down from france to armenia passing along all the neighbouring countries. chris and i had mcdonald's with them... yes i had a big mac. and it was satisfying, i am embarassed to admit! i was also told that a shaman was looking for me when i got to the hospital. he found me the next day and asked me to get an official invitation from canada for a georgian guy he barely knows. obviously the answer is no. but before he found me at least three people gave me this message....
tbilisi is nice. the people are much more laid-back, it's quite busy, and the architecture is beautiful. we did a lot of walking around, and we went to a bath house and had a sulphur bath - it made my skin so smooth! we didn't do any museums, but we saw interesting architecture and walked through old town, which was nice.
we took a night train to batumi, and our hostel was a nice and quiet one, a little further than the other hostels but close enough to the beach. the first day i spent quite some time looking for money... but also walked around quite a bit as well. come to think of it on this entire trip we slept a LOT. anyway yesterday we went for a swim, then south of batumi by marshrutka, past gonio (where there is a fortress!) and on to sarpi, where the beach is not as busy. we jumped off giant rocks and in the water i met thijs, from holland. chris and i parted ways, and thijs, his friend ruben and i spent the day together. we swam quite a bit, floated around... then went for drinks, i got back to the hostel at 2 am, and had to get up at 5 for our 6 o'clock marshrutka back to yerevan.
batumi is quite small. the buildings are run down, but they are beautiful pastel colours, pink green and blue, very marie-antoinette's cakes. there aren't too many people, not much to do either. there is a boring ferris wheel, you can rent bicycles but it's expensive and that's it. besides the sea, nothing much. the sea is beautiful, though. it's a very deep dark green, no waves but a strong enough current, and there is no sand. it's just rocks, but they are big enough and round and smooth, so it's unsteady to walk on but not uncomfortable. getting to swim in the ocean did me a lot of good. i just never wanted to get out, and the water was warm.
i guess that's it...
i came back today, set up camp at joe's, and now i'm out with the AGBU crowd for our last night all together in yerevan. thijs and ruben invited me over to amsterdam and anette is going as well, so i will go with her, and do some cities in the south of france, no more spain i don't think. i know it must get annoying to hear me change my plans all the time... but i'm enjoying myself :) i think i might not even do the south of france at all, just hang out with marie-eve in paris all the time and a few days in amsterdam.
upon my return i will have a giant picture-showing party or two :)
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
il est temps de pratiquer mon francais...
se sont passees plusieurs choses dans la derneire semaine! samedi nous sommes allees a matenadaran - un musee et centre de recherche qui contient des vieux manuscrits et livres armeniens. TRES interessant! les couleurs sont encore vives et les pages sont faites de la peau de moutons.
samedi, j'ai aussi rencontre de la famille. lucy, c'est la cousine a mon grand-pere nubar (d'egypte) qui est decede il y a un mois (qu'il soit en paix). lucy a environ 95 ans, comme mon grand-pere, et se souvient de lui et de son frere edouard tres bien. mais elle fait de l'alzheimers. donc elle m'a demande pas moins de quarante fois qui je connaissais dans la famille. et quand je disais que j'etais la petite fille a nubar, elle avait toujours les larmes aux yeux. elle ressemble beaucoup a mon grand pere, d'une facon bizarre... ca m'a fait un coup, j'etais tres emotive.
sa fille, c'est lili. et son marie a elle c'est berdj. ils ont deux filles, zara (a los angeles) et... me souviens plus, a moscou. berdj etait le ministre de la culture avant de prendre sa retraite, et il ecrit des pieces. d'ailleurs, j'ai achete deux de ses pieces aujourd'hui. hate de lire ca!
samedi soir nous avons fete agop et vivien, deux armeniens de la france, qui viennent d'avoir 22 ans. on est alle dans un beau et bon resto a l'exterieur de yerevan, on a danse sur de la musique armenienne, on s'est bien marres!
dimanche, nous sommes alles a sevan et a dilijan. sevan est le plus grand lac en armenie. on a nage un peu, je me suis fait bien bronzer... :) c'est drole parce que l'eau est tellement calme, c'est presque une blague. mais les armeniens croient que le courant est fort et que c'est hyper dangereux. je disais a un gars qu'en egypte, le courant est tellement fort qu'il fait enfoncer ses orteils dans le sable pour ne pas se laisser emporter. et lui, qui n'a jamais ete en egypte, insistait qu'en egypte ce n'est pas dangereux, que c'est plus dangereux ici a sevan ou il n'y a meme pas de vagues... hehe :)
lundi etait probablement notre meilleure journee passee en tant que groupe. une quinzaine de nous avons loue trois voitures et sommes partis de yerevan, voir autre chose. nous sommes passes par bdjni, hrazdan, saghmosavank... pour finir a tsaghgadzor, ou nous avons pris un "ski lift" au sommet d'une montagne, et huit de nous sommes descendus a pied. a part une pente a jermuk, tsaghgadzor est la seule place en armenie ou l'on peut skier. on s'est promenes beaucoup en auto, on s'est vraiment amuses! l'armenie est vraiment un tres beau pays, je crois que je ne l'ai pas assez dit. we come from a beautiful country. parfois je me demande comment je survivrais en montagne, si physiquement je suis faite pour ca...
pour les voyages, il y a plusieurs changements. donc mon vol de prague a toronto est le 29 aout. j'arrives a toronto a 14h30 et j'espere rentrer tout de suite a montreal, quoique ma cousine insiste que je restes avec elle et sa famille une nuit, le temps de me reposer. je ne veux pas vraiment rester a toronto, je veux plutot finir avec.
pour la georgie, j'etais sensee partir avec krikor, un gars que j'avais rencontre deux trois fois que je trouvais bien interessant. en tout cas pour raccourcir la longue histoire, je ne voulais plus partir avec lui, je pars plutot avec mon ami chris, a qui je fais confiance, et avec qui j'etais sensee partir des le debut. nous passerons par tbilisi et par batumi. ensuite, je reviens a yerevan pour deux jours. l'un de ces deux jours j'irais a aragats avec mon ami matt, pour une randonee pedestre. apparement il fait tres froid la haut!
le 6 aout je quittes yerevan pour paris (avec un stop a prague). je veux aller faire un tour dans le sud avec nvart, une des filles de mon programme avec qui j'habites, puisque nous serons la en meme temps. je vais aussi passer tout plein de temps avec marie-eve evidemment, et j'etais sensee partir en espagne, la raison pour laquelle je reviens le 29. cependant je partais avec krikor et la ca ne me tente plus. anette, une autre amie de mon programme, sera la et j'irai surement la rejoindre avec matt.
donc c'est ca pour l'instant... tout va bien :)
se sont passees plusieurs choses dans la derneire semaine! samedi nous sommes allees a matenadaran - un musee et centre de recherche qui contient des vieux manuscrits et livres armeniens. TRES interessant! les couleurs sont encore vives et les pages sont faites de la peau de moutons.
samedi, j'ai aussi rencontre de la famille. lucy, c'est la cousine a mon grand-pere nubar (d'egypte) qui est decede il y a un mois (qu'il soit en paix). lucy a environ 95 ans, comme mon grand-pere, et se souvient de lui et de son frere edouard tres bien. mais elle fait de l'alzheimers. donc elle m'a demande pas moins de quarante fois qui je connaissais dans la famille. et quand je disais que j'etais la petite fille a nubar, elle avait toujours les larmes aux yeux. elle ressemble beaucoup a mon grand pere, d'une facon bizarre... ca m'a fait un coup, j'etais tres emotive.
sa fille, c'est lili. et son marie a elle c'est berdj. ils ont deux filles, zara (a los angeles) et... me souviens plus, a moscou. berdj etait le ministre de la culture avant de prendre sa retraite, et il ecrit des pieces. d'ailleurs, j'ai achete deux de ses pieces aujourd'hui. hate de lire ca!
samedi soir nous avons fete agop et vivien, deux armeniens de la france, qui viennent d'avoir 22 ans. on est alle dans un beau et bon resto a l'exterieur de yerevan, on a danse sur de la musique armenienne, on s'est bien marres!
dimanche, nous sommes alles a sevan et a dilijan. sevan est le plus grand lac en armenie. on a nage un peu, je me suis fait bien bronzer... :) c'est drole parce que l'eau est tellement calme, c'est presque une blague. mais les armeniens croient que le courant est fort et que c'est hyper dangereux. je disais a un gars qu'en egypte, le courant est tellement fort qu'il fait enfoncer ses orteils dans le sable pour ne pas se laisser emporter. et lui, qui n'a jamais ete en egypte, insistait qu'en egypte ce n'est pas dangereux, que c'est plus dangereux ici a sevan ou il n'y a meme pas de vagues... hehe :)
lundi etait probablement notre meilleure journee passee en tant que groupe. une quinzaine de nous avons loue trois voitures et sommes partis de yerevan, voir autre chose. nous sommes passes par bdjni, hrazdan, saghmosavank... pour finir a tsaghgadzor, ou nous avons pris un "ski lift" au sommet d'une montagne, et huit de nous sommes descendus a pied. a part une pente a jermuk, tsaghgadzor est la seule place en armenie ou l'on peut skier. on s'est promenes beaucoup en auto, on s'est vraiment amuses! l'armenie est vraiment un tres beau pays, je crois que je ne l'ai pas assez dit. we come from a beautiful country. parfois je me demande comment je survivrais en montagne, si physiquement je suis faite pour ca...
pour les voyages, il y a plusieurs changements. donc mon vol de prague a toronto est le 29 aout. j'arrives a toronto a 14h30 et j'espere rentrer tout de suite a montreal, quoique ma cousine insiste que je restes avec elle et sa famille une nuit, le temps de me reposer. je ne veux pas vraiment rester a toronto, je veux plutot finir avec.
pour la georgie, j'etais sensee partir avec krikor, un gars que j'avais rencontre deux trois fois que je trouvais bien interessant. en tout cas pour raccourcir la longue histoire, je ne voulais plus partir avec lui, je pars plutot avec mon ami chris, a qui je fais confiance, et avec qui j'etais sensee partir des le debut. nous passerons par tbilisi et par batumi. ensuite, je reviens a yerevan pour deux jours. l'un de ces deux jours j'irais a aragats avec mon ami matt, pour une randonee pedestre. apparement il fait tres froid la haut!
le 6 aout je quittes yerevan pour paris (avec un stop a prague). je veux aller faire un tour dans le sud avec nvart, une des filles de mon programme avec qui j'habites, puisque nous serons la en meme temps. je vais aussi passer tout plein de temps avec marie-eve evidemment, et j'etais sensee partir en espagne, la raison pour laquelle je reviens le 29. cependant je partais avec krikor et la ca ne me tente plus. anette, une autre amie de mon programme, sera la et j'irai surement la rejoindre avec matt.
donc c'est ca pour l'instant... tout va bien :)
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
plux
coucou!
hmm.... what to say. i am leaving for georgia with my friend krikor next wednesday morning. we're going to take marshrutkas, which are little vans (or buses). they cost 100 dram which is about 30 cents. we'll be spending some time in tbilisi and batumi. i'll be leaving yerevan on the seventh, off to paris for about ten days, and then krikor and i will join up in spain. barcelona, ibiza and some islands south of ibiza. i can't wait!
by the way, who is krikor? krikor was on the same flight as some of the people from our program coming to armenia. we then ran into him at vernissage, whch is a flea market, and we see each other about twice a week and socialize. he was teaching at AUA here, he was teaching ecology. he studies the evolution of plants, and insects, and things like that. he's very interesting, he knows a lot and it's great to hear him talk about this stuff. initially i was to go to georgia with people from birthright next friday. but they are dilly-dallying and i'm sick of waiting for a clear answer, and i don't feel like going with ten other people. it will be difficult travelling with all of them, so i think i'll meet up with them once we're there for some sight-seeing or something. anyway i can't wait!
i haven't really been up to much these past few days except for socializing. setta left yesterday morning and i miss her lots. c'est tout i guess...
i'm meeting our relatives, my grand-father's cousin, on saturday with isabelle. it should be quite interesting!
hmm.... what to say. i am leaving for georgia with my friend krikor next wednesday morning. we're going to take marshrutkas, which are little vans (or buses). they cost 100 dram which is about 30 cents. we'll be spending some time in tbilisi and batumi. i'll be leaving yerevan on the seventh, off to paris for about ten days, and then krikor and i will join up in spain. barcelona, ibiza and some islands south of ibiza. i can't wait!
by the way, who is krikor? krikor was on the same flight as some of the people from our program coming to armenia. we then ran into him at vernissage, whch is a flea market, and we see each other about twice a week and socialize. he was teaching at AUA here, he was teaching ecology. he studies the evolution of plants, and insects, and things like that. he's very interesting, he knows a lot and it's great to hear him talk about this stuff. initially i was to go to georgia with people from birthright next friday. but they are dilly-dallying and i'm sick of waiting for a clear answer, and i don't feel like going with ten other people. it will be difficult travelling with all of them, so i think i'll meet up with them once we're there for some sight-seeing or something. anyway i can't wait!
i haven't really been up to much these past few days except for socializing. setta left yesterday morning and i miss her lots. c'est tout i guess...
i'm meeting our relatives, my grand-father's cousin, on saturday with isabelle. it should be quite interesting!
Monday, July 21, 2008
elevators
a lot has happened i suppose in the past week. i was in the hospital because i was dehydrated, had an IV stuck in me and got all better. on friday, the group left for artsakh. it's about an eight hour ride. we stoped in gandzassar on the way there, and some other place, as well as shushi on the way back. i have to say artsakh is very beautiful. the mountains are so so so high, you feel like you can touch the moon. at night if you listen closely you can hear dogs barking from afar, they sound like wolves and it was very nice. the moon shines so brightly, i've never seen that before. it was also ara's birthday, and we celebrated with cake and champagne, and a drinking night and a huge pillow fight at the hotel nairi (we were pretty much the only ones there, and yes that is what it was called!).
we got back yesterday and went to a latino night at a hotel, i wish i knew they had a pool because people were dancing and swimming. i haven't been swimming yet, and i don't have a tan at all except for on my feet, and you can see the line of my flip-flops. ew. i barely went into the tv station last week, i don't really care to at all. i just have to go in to give the der hair his questions.. setta leaves on wednesday. :(
i had a bit of a breakdown yesterday. i think there have been too many ups and downs since i got here, and certain people in the group are so... such despicable people that i just don't see why i'd even talk to them at all at this point.
i'm going to be staying in france for two weeks i think. marie-eve is most likely not coming back to montreal ever. she's starting a life there for herself, and i am so happy for her. so i want to see her since i don't know when i'll see her next.
we got back yesterday and went to a latino night at a hotel, i wish i knew they had a pool because people were dancing and swimming. i haven't been swimming yet, and i don't have a tan at all except for on my feet, and you can see the line of my flip-flops. ew. i barely went into the tv station last week, i don't really care to at all. i just have to go in to give the der hair his questions.. setta leaves on wednesday. :(
i had a bit of a breakdown yesterday. i think there have been too many ups and downs since i got here, and certain people in the group are so... such despicable people that i just don't see why i'd even talk to them at all at this point.
i'm going to be staying in france for two weeks i think. marie-eve is most likely not coming back to montreal ever. she's starting a life there for herself, and i am so happy for her. so i want to see her since i don't know when i'll see her next.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
:(
.
a couple of us have fallen sick over the past few days, to the point of hospitalization. i myself went to the hospital today and they gave me an IV. i don't want you guys (particularly my family) to worry because i've got antibiotics and all that jazz. i was simply dehydrated from... well from going to the bathroom too often, and i had some taboule last night that i did not digest and vomitted nine hours later. but i am fine. i am resting lots, drinking lots of fluids, being taken care of.
other than that, things are good. last night was maria's last night, and we all went out to a resto. i had a lovely time (but got sick!), and maria was so depressed. one good thing is that we don't really have a curfew anymore. we do, but if we come in after that time then whatever might happen to us or our belongings is out of AGBU's responsibility. to be perfectly honest i think that's crap to free yourself of guilt like that, "i told you so," and i mean what responsibility would they have if anything did happen to me? besides paying for meds all they can do is call my parents and say "oh so sorry, your daughter's dead" or something.
one thing i'll be missing because i'm sick, and because we are going to artsakh this week-end, is the golden apricot, an independant film festival, and i'm pretty upset about that. there are some armenian movies i wouldn't see anywhere else but here and i'll be missing them. wah wah waaaaah! another thing, was the roundtable discussion i was supposed to give at the women's ressource center at 4pm today, and the french class i'm supposed to teach tomorrow. i figure that since my ticket will be left open for an extra week then i can give a class that week. because otherwise it's so pointless.
.
a couple of us have fallen sick over the past few days, to the point of hospitalization. i myself went to the hospital today and they gave me an IV. i don't want you guys (particularly my family) to worry because i've got antibiotics and all that jazz. i was simply dehydrated from... well from going to the bathroom too often, and i had some taboule last night that i did not digest and vomitted nine hours later. but i am fine. i am resting lots, drinking lots of fluids, being taken care of.
other than that, things are good. last night was maria's last night, and we all went out to a resto. i had a lovely time (but got sick!), and maria was so depressed. one good thing is that we don't really have a curfew anymore. we do, but if we come in after that time then whatever might happen to us or our belongings is out of AGBU's responsibility. to be perfectly honest i think that's crap to free yourself of guilt like that, "i told you so," and i mean what responsibility would they have if anything did happen to me? besides paying for meds all they can do is call my parents and say "oh so sorry, your daughter's dead" or something.
one thing i'll be missing because i'm sick, and because we are going to artsakh this week-end, is the golden apricot, an independant film festival, and i'm pretty upset about that. there are some armenian movies i wouldn't see anywhere else but here and i'll be missing them. wah wah waaaaah! another thing, was the roundtable discussion i was supposed to give at the women's ressource center at 4pm today, and the french class i'm supposed to teach tomorrow. i figure that since my ticket will be left open for an extra week then i can give a class that week. because otherwise it's so pointless.
.
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