WarsawWoman's Xanga

Quiet times are almost over!

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:18:59 GMT

It's been a very quiet summer at work - too quiet with 99% of the school on summer vacation. By next week everyone will be back and the new semester will get underway. That's good news, as I found the quiet becoming very depressing. If you've ever taken the Myers-Briggs, you know that people are rated as either being Introverts (I) or Extroverts (E). It has nothing to do with how shy you are or what you might think about these terms; it actually has to do with how you are energized. Are you energized by being around people, or do you have to have time alone to get energized? I'm definitely an 'E', and this summer in the quiet just completely confirmed that. So thankfully I can get re-energized soon!

I wanted to post one last picture from Jennifer's trip here that the woman I replaced just emailed to me a few days ago. This was taken in the villa that we were originally supposed to move into. I thought it was a pretty good picture of all of us, so here it is:

Dubai

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:48:40 GMT

We moved into our apartment this week. We are going to like it a lot once we get settled. Our first night here we decided to take a swim and relax - it has a great pool and gym. We weren't out there ten minutes when Bill slipped on the wet tile and went down. He never saw it coming and crashed down on his back, clipping the back of his head on the edge of a tile step! I'm convinced he was knocked out for a few seconds because he didn't answer me and was very still. He was bleeding like crazy. Someone called a ambulance and they took him to the hospital. He ended up with 5 stitches. They did a CT scan to make sure there was no internal damage - and found nothing (kaboom, ching!). LOL That was Bill's joke - I'm not sure the doctor could relate to Bill's humor. Also, when the doctor asked if he worked and if he would be able to take it easy for the next couple of days, Bill told him that he works for me as my manservant (he made up that name for his 'role' when we moved to Poland 4 years ago), so he thought he could get some time off. I'm not sure this Middle Eastern doctor got that one either! Anyway, I was glad he was able to joke by that point. There's about 45 minutes - from when he got out of the pool until he was in the ambulance - that he doesn't remember at all. He was talking to us some during that time, but he was very quiet and disoriented. It was scary, but I'm thankful he's okay.

Below are some pictures from our time in Dubai - mostly from when Jen was here visiting.

At my school, we had graduation in June. It was a women only affair, and we were given abayas to wear. The Emirati women wear something similar to this every day, plus a head scarf. It was very comfortable. I sort of wish I could just throw one of these on everyday and not have to worry about what to wear! It was a women only affair because the Sheika (kind of like the queen - first wife of the Sheik) came and presented the graduates with their diplomas. Being all women, the plan was for the girls to be able to not wear their abayas and head scarves. However, because there was some man from the palace there in the sound booth, many girls didn't uncover for the ceremony.

There are so many malls in Dubai. Jen said she never thought it was possible to get tired of going to malls! They are pretty amazing places. The one below is one built to look like the traditional architecture in Dubai. The inside looks like an old souk.

The Mall of the Emirates is famous for it's indoor ski slope. I posted pics of that back in February. Below is a picture of what a man-made indoor ski slope looks like on the outside.

Below is the mall I described in my previous post, where each section is a different country. They are, in order: Persia, India, China, and maybe Tunisia.

Family in Persia below.

Tallest building in the world. Jen says she will never go to the top of it!

This building below is near the Mall of the Emirates. It is freaky because it is built in the shape of a triangle, so you can't see the side of the building from this angle. It looks like a fake building on a movie set or something.

Scenes around town, touring, beach, etc.

We went on a desert 'safari' where they take you dune bashing and the other things I described in my previous blog. Below are the pics from that trip.

The camel farm

Above is a dung beetle pushing a piece of camel dung! It pushes it backwards so that it's head is facing the ground away from the dung. Smart beetle!

Claudia, my shy and reserved child joining in (with other people, not alone thankfully!) with the belly dancer.

Looks like Bill had a little too much of the flavored tobacco!

Jennifer sitting on a camel. That's the closest she would come to riding it!

Update from Dubai

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 07:22:57 GMT

Moving to Dubai has been an amazing experience so far. First of all, after being in Armenia where there are very few western products and where there were so many things we couldn’t get, the choices here are almost overwhelming. Going into a grocery store feels like you are stepping into a store in America – everything is available you would expect to find back home; except here, the Brits, the Aussies, the Indians, the Pakistanis, the Kiwis – everyone can find just about anything they would expect to find back home. I guess just about anything in the world is available here. It’s pretty amazing.

Jennifer was here for a little over a month visiting. She helped us explore the city, and since we had a visitor, we did some of the touristy stuff that we might not have done right away, like going on a city tour and taking in a desert safari. The desert safari was interesting. First they take you “dune bashing,” where in 4-wheel drive vehicles they drive you over the sand dunes. It was fun, although I think our driver took it pretty easy most of the time because a couple of our passengers weren’t really up for too much jerking around (I won’t mention any names). Then they took us to a camel farm where we saw camels and a falcon – oh yeah, and a dung beetle that was really pushing a piece of camel dung around. After that, we stopped on the dunes to watch the sun set and then headed to the Bedouin camp they had set up in the dessert. There we got to ride a camel, smoke some flavored tobacco in a shisha (that’s a water pipe), eat a buffet dinner and then watch a belly dancer. Many people got up and danced with her part of time, including my shy and reserved child, Claudia. What are we going to do to bring her out of her shell?! We also got henna tattoos. These are temporary tattoos that these very talented women can paint on at amazing speed. I don’t know everything about this custom, but I know in the Middle East and parts of India (maybe other places as well) women get these for weddings in elaborate designs on their hands. They also do this for special occasions, such as holidays.

Speaking of weddings, Jennifer, Claudia and I got to go to a wedding. One of the strangest things was that none of us knew the bride or the groom, but we were invited along by one of my new colleagues. The bride goes to our school. It seems that it’s no big deal to go along if you are invited by another wedding guest – the more the merrier. These weddings are definitely different than western weddings. First, the women and men have completely separate parties. The actual vows or contract is carried out a few days before with some religious leader involved (most of the time) and I think filing some legal paperwork. The party we went to was in a large banquet hall. We all sat around at round tables of about 12 people each. We arrived around 8:30 p.m. or so, and it was on a weeknight. There was a lot of food and tea and Arabic coffee – no alcohol, of course. Then at around 10:30 p.m. the bride came in. She was wearing a very fancy, white, western-style wedding dress. They dimmed the lights and had a spotlight on her as she walked slowly around the room so that everyone could see her. Then she walked up some steps to walk slowly down a runway, like at a fashion show, and then onto a stage that was elaborately decorated with red curtains framing a sofa. She sat on the sofa, and then everyone went up in groups to greet her and have their picture taken with her. Because it was all women at the party, many of the women had taken off their abayas (the black robes they usually wear) and headscarves. You have probably rarely seen such over-the-top dresses and jewelry assembled in one place! Some of them were quite beautiful, although I don’t think there would be anywhere to wear them back home, except maybe the evening gown competition in some beauty pageant. Some of these were probably too much even for that.

About an hour or so after the bride came in, certain music is played so that the women know that the groom and other men are about to come in. Many of the women covered themselves, but I was actually surprised at the number of women who didn’t. The groom came in with a group of men – I think one was his guardian (the bride and groom, as I understand it, were both orphans) – and then several guys his age. They went up to the bride, where he lifted her veil and kissed her on the check. Then the bride and groom sat together on the sofa and people went up to greet them again. We left around midnight while this was still going on. From what I’ve been told this was a comparatively simple wedding party. Sometimes there will be dancing and/or entertainment.

If there is one thing there is no shortage of here, it is malls. Jennifer said she was surprised that she was actually getting tired of malls. There is the Mall of the Emirates, which is the one that has a ski slope inside. There is one that is built to look like an old traditional souk (market). There is one that has sections representing different countries conquered by someone or traveled to by someone – some historical figure whom I don’t know anything about. Anyway, it is really beautiful. If you’ve ever seen the Venetian casino in Las Vegas where the ceilings look like the sky and you feel like you are really in Venice – that’s what this mall is like. There is a Persian section where everything is done in tile – mostly blue. There is Indian section that has a life-size elephant (not real). There is a Chinese section that has a life-size Chinese boat. You get the idea. Even one of the ‘smaller’ malls near where we are staying right now has a small amusement park inside, complete with a roller coaster!

We are currently living in a hotel apartment very close to my campus – close enough to walk to work before we got a car. We were supposed to move into a villa (house) where the person I am replacing lived. It had three bedrooms and a maid’s room, a pool across the street shared by about 12 villas, and a really pretty small yard with a palm tree and several large flowering trees. It was also about a 15 minute walk to the beach. We should have moved in at the end of last week, but when the guy from our school called to request some maintenance to be done, he got a notice from the company that owns it that they don’t want to rent to the school any more. This is becoming a problem in Dubai. Housing prices have gone through the roof, so the company can sign a new lease and probably get twice as much for the villa as before. We were all really depressed at this news. However, things have worked out okay. We got to see an apartment a couple of days ago that is really terrific. It has three bedrooms and a maid’s room, it is on the third floor, and it has a balcony that runs the entire length of the apartment. It has a really nice pool as well as an exercise room and sauna. It’s much newer than the villa, so it’s nicer and more modern in many ways. The villa was good in that we could have ridden bikes around there – it really felt like suburbia. The apartment is more in the city, with lots of shops and restaurants conveniently located around. We’ll be able to walk to a lot of places once the weather cools off. Also, they are building a metro system in Dubai, and there is a stop about a block away from the apartment. These are a lot of the conveniences close by that we enjoyed about living in Yerevan, Armenia. It’s also only about a 15 minute drive to the beach, so it’s not that much further away. The thing we will miss the most about the villa is having a yard, but at least there are some good trade offs.

People from all over the world live here. Just in my department, the following countries are represented: India, Philippines, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Palestine, Lebanon, UK, Egypt and U.S. (me). I’ve read different figures, but approximately 75% of the population of UAE are expats from other countries. In Dubai, I’ve read that 90% of the population are expats! We are discovering, however, that not all expats are created equal, sadly. As part of the process to get your residency visa, you have to go to this hospital where they draw blood (AIDS test), take a chest xray (TB), and take a urine sample (who knows). Dubai gains almost 900 residents per month, so this is a very busy hospital with lots of waiting at the different stations. I went with Bill there last week – he is finally getting his residency visa (that’s another story I’ll have to tell sometime) – and we were amazed that if you are white, you don’t have to wait in any lines. Bill would try to wait in line, but some employee would come up and take him to the front of the line and say “no line, no line.” Even the other people waiting in line didn’t want Bill to wait in line, like they knew he wasn’t supposed to be there. Those waiting were almost all from India, Pakistan and the Philippines. I was amazed. In a part of the world where white people aren’t the majority population and aren’t the indigenous people, we get preferential treatment. What should have taken 2 - 3 hours took less than one hour. In spite of the convenience, it didn’t feel right at all. It made me feel sad and uneasy. Uneasy that we were treated one way at the expense of other people, and that there really wasn’t anything we could do about it. Sad that so many of my friends wouldn’t have been treated the way we were treated because they were either from the “wrong” country or had the “wrong” skin color. It made me think about a lot of issues – and about how this happens in a lot of places in a lot of different ways, but I’ve never experienced it so blatantly. This is a topic to delve into deeper at another time.

On a lighter note and to summarize, we are as settled in as we can be until we move into our apartment. We stay out of the heat as much as possible, since it is getting pretty unbearable – especially in the middle of the day. Work has gotten quieter since 99% of the school is gone on summer vacation. I have some time now to sift through the mountains of information I got in May and June and try to make sense of it all. Claudia has been accepted into an American school, so she will be back in regular school in September – thankfully! Bill will start looking for employment soon. A company he used to work for, Ecolab, is here, plus there is a really large Ace Hardware store close to Claudia’s school that could be promising. We’ll see . . . and we’ll keep you posted.

Settling in

Wed, 21 May 2008 12:12:03 GMT

Being new is always difficult. It’s always better if you just prepare yourself for that fact, but it is still hard even then, not knowing the lingo of the new place you are working, not knowing names and faces, not knowing job functions of everyone – or even yourself! Then there is learning your way around a new town or city, getting used to new accents. Everyone speaks English here in Dubai – at least everyone I’ve encountered – but the accents are a little hard to understand sometimes. Then there are the logistical parts of settling in, such as setting up a bank account, getting your household goods delivered, getting kids registered in schools, getting work email accounts and learning all the new passwords that go along with those sorts of new systems.

My new college is very high tech and it’s going to be very cool – once I learn how all the technology applies to me and how to use it. I got a cell phone that includes a PDA. I’ve been saying I need to switch to a PDA, but I’m not sure I even know how to answer a simple phone call on this phone, and since I’m already at my “INFORMATION OVERLOAD” limit, I’m not in the mood to learn how it works.

It’s always nice to get your own things and get settled into a new house – so it can start really feeling like home. Our settling in will be delayed until the end of June; however, in this case it’s worth the wait. We are currently in a hotel apartment, which is a two-bedroom, 1 ½ bath apartment with a kitchen and living room. Since it’s a hotel, it includes maid service, which is a great perk, and it’s very new and nice (Is there anything in Dubai that isn’t nice and new?). It’s also a handy 5 minute walk from my office, which is good since we don’t have a car yet. At the end of June we will move into a 3 bedroom villa which is located in a great neighborhood – you can even ride bikes around there, which we missed a lot living in Armenia (riding a bike there would have meant great risk to life and limb!). Across the street, it has a large, shared pool with 10 or 12 other villas and it is a 15 minute walk to the beach! If you look at a map of Dubai, it’s just below the “World Island” – it’s marked in red below. It has a beautiful small yard – which our dog Winston will enjoy – with real grass (we didn’t see a lot of that in Armenia), some lovely flowering trees and a palm tree. I’ll post some pics when I get the chance. It will be a great place to entertain or just to enjoy an evening barbeque – at least for 6 – 8 months of the year when it’s not too hot.

One of the biggest shocks is being in a foreign country, but walking into stores and feeling like we are in America! All of the American brands of everything are available, along with the UK, Indian, European, Australian, Lebanese, _FILL IN THE BLANK__ brands from all over the world. After being in a country with very small markets with not many western products, the choices are a bit overwhelming. It’s awesome. And we can read ALL of the labels! Everything is in English. No more mystery food.

We have reconnected with some of our former colleagues already. We have gotten together with two friends from Warsaw who live here now. Our next door neighbors from Warsaw lives here, but I haven’t seen them yet. One friend works directly across the street from me. She is the one I stayed with when I was here in February. What are the odds of that?

Overall, we think we are really going to love it here. It is a fascinating place and we look forward to exploring and learning our way around. But I must say, my heart still remains in Armenia. . .

This is a pretty wild looking map, isn't it. Those strange looking islands that look like the world and palm trees are manmade - and quite huge. Supposedly you can see them from the moon. Everything in Dubai is the biggest, fastest, tallest, longest . . . you get the idea. The area marked in red it approximately where our villa is.

Above is the building where I work. My office is on the right side, the fourth window from the glass doors on the bottom.

Ancient ruins

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:16:05 GMT

We recently visited Erebuni, with it's museum and ruins that you can climb around on. This is from Wikipedia about Yerevan, and it's original settlement, Erebuni:

The territory of Yerevan was settled in the fourth millennium BC, fortified settlements from the Bronze Age include Shengavit, Tsitsernakaberd, Karmir Blur, Arin Berd, Karmir Berd and Berdadzor. Archaeological evidence, such as a cuneiform inscription, indicates that an Urartian military fortress called Erebuni (Էրեբունի) was founded in 782 BC by the orders of King Argishti I at the site of current-day Yerevan, to serve as a fort and citadel guarding against attacks from the north Caucasus. Yerevan is thus one of the most ancient cities in the world.

Below are some pictures.

Statue in front of the museum.

Bill and Claudia in front of the museum.

Children singing in front of the museum.

Inside the museum.

Ancient artifact. What did you think it was?

The museum has many old artifacts like pottery, tools, weapons, etc.

The ruin were pretty neat. You could climb all around on things. The museum is being rennovated soon. I wonder if it will be as 'open' to the public after that. Right now, it's not really protected, as you can see from grafitti on some things.

Steps leading up to the fortress.

Claudia loved climbing around on the rock walls.

Parting is such sweet sorrow

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:11:22 GMT

We are in transition. Learning about the place we are going - Dubai - and jumping through all the hoops involved in moving to a foreign country. Tying up loose ends here. Finishing projects at work. Deciding what to keep, what to give away, what to sell, what to throw away. Deciding what Armenian things we want to buy before we leave. All of those 'fun' things to think about and do.

The hardest part of any move is saying goodbye to many dear friends. Here is definitely no different. We are starting the 'going away' or 'last supper' dinner circuit, inviting friends over before packing makes that impossible, going over to other people's houses for dinner, etc.

As Juliet said, "Parting is such sweet sorrow." I would much rather leave a place that I have love and affection for, than to leave a place bitter and happy to shake the dust of it from my feet. That may sound strange, but I would rather have more fond memories of wonderful places and people who have blessed our lives and who will forever be a part of us, than to be filled with bitterness and bad memories. I'll take sweet sorrow over anger and bitterness any day.

Below are some pictures from some of our 'last suppers' so far:

Below is a combination of part of the small group that meets at our apartment and some of the members of the worship team from our church. Besides the one Armenian guy in the white sweater in the middle, they are all medical students studying in Armenia. All are from India except for one guy who is from Sri Lanka but grew up in Kuwait. They are such a wonderful and inspiring group of people with interesting life stories. I am blessed to have been associated with them. One of the easiest ways to fly to Armenia from India is through UAE, so we are hoping that some of them will stop off and see us as they travel to or from home in the summers.

The girls, including our two Armenian daughters on the far right and far left.

The guys.

V. with Winston.

Dessert time! Looks like someone is having seconds.

On the left is one of my favorite students (I know, I shouldn't have favorites ). Pictured beside Claudia is her mom who is visiting from Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, and her niece. I stayed with her mom when I went on a recruiting trip to Georgia last fall. She is such a lovely, hospitable woman. Her home was so warm and inviting - exactly what I needed on that trip!

A couple of the students couldn't make it to the first dinner, so we had another round just for them.

The guy pictured with Claudia below is from Burma. He gave Claudia the jacket she is wearing. The cloth was woven on looms in the village in the area he is from - in the jungle! She'll have to grow into it a little, but what a special gift! It's one of the few things he has with him from home, and he's kept it with him for 5 years here. He decided it was time to give it away and wanted someone in our family to have it. He has an amazing story. He is the first from his tribe to ever get to study medicine, so he has plans to eventually return and travel from village to village as a sort of medical missionary to his own people. He has also made connections with some very important people in the UK and he goes there on his vacations from school to learn from doctors and to advocate for his country. He's even gotten to address parliament there!

Big news!

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 11:07:08 GMT

Well, we have a big announcement that will probably take many by surprise. We are leaving Armenia and moving to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). We move in mid May.

We decided around the first of the year that although we truly love being in Armenia, it is time for many practical reasons to move on. There are many benefits that I don’t get here that are becoming increasingly important, especially with the ever-shrinking value of the U.S. dollar.

Some of you have probably read or heard about UAE. It’s an exciting place – kind of like California during the gold rush years in a sense. Some of you are probably freaking out wondering what kind of glue I must have sniffed! If you don’t know anything about UAE, just know that most, if not all, negative things you know (or think you know) about Middle Eastern countries don’t apply here. Here’s a great post by someone who decided to move to UAE:

http://www.escapeartist.com/efam/69/Living_In_The_UAE.html.

In UAE, women can drive, don’t have to cover their heads (non-Moslem women anyway), have jobs, get an education, etc. As a western woman, I will dress exactly like I do in Armenia or Poland or Arkansas, U.S.A. I just won’t wear my string bikini to the beach. (Wait! I wouldn’t wear that in Arkansas either – thankfully to anyone in view.) As foreigners, we can even buy pork and alcohol, which isn’t allowed for Moslem citizens of the country. There are lots of churches in UAE for expats, so yes, we are allowed to follow our beliefs and traditions.

UAE is a shopper’s paradise. There are more malls than you can imagine with all the brand-name and designer goods on the planet available. And if you get tired of shopping, you can always go snow skiing – in the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai! I’m not making this up.

Every food franchise I can think of is available – the typical McDonald’s, KFC, and Pizza Hut like many foreign cities – plus so many others. They even have Papa John’s Pizza and Dunkin’ Donuts. In Armenia we just got our first real franchise – a Russian KFC. We don’t even have McDonald’s, which I actually think is a good thing, but that is another matter.

One thing we will lose, and something all three of us enjoy, is our simplicity of life in Armenia. I live a five minute walk from my work. We don’t even have to own a car here. We will also really miss our small little international church here. We’ve been very blessed by being a part of this group of believers.

We will miss so many things. We are very connected to the people and invested here. I also enjoy my job a lot and will miss my colleagues.

Probably most of all, we will miss our Armenian daughters, the two Armenian sisters that live with us. But Roxie got a full scholarship to Hope College in Michigan, so she will hopefully get a visa and be able to go study in the U.S. in the fall. Nune works at a bank, but she is considering applying for an MBA program next year. We’ll help them get re-settled as we transition away.

Below are some pictures I took in Dubai and Sharjah, UAE. I was there for a few days on my way back from India and got to stay with a friend and former colleague from Warsaw who is now living there.

Below are my friends from Warsaw who live in UAE now. This is one mall with an Egyptian theme. On the outside, it's shaped like a pyramid and it's decorated with Egyptian images on the inside.

Skiing in the Mall of the Emirates.

The beach at Sharjah.

Street scenes in Sharjah.

A historical area in Sharjah. It is nice that they are actually preserving some of their history.

There are lots of huge mosques, of course. They are quite beautiful.

Barbara enjoying tea in the courtyard of the museum.

The building below is the administration building where my office will be. It is a woman's college and it has a beautiful campus!

People below are gathering at a stage in one of the malls to watch honest to goodness Zulu dancers!

Praying for peace on Good Friday

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 08:50:21 GMT

Today is the first day of the lifting of the State of Emergency that was declared 20 days ago in Armenia after conflicts between the police and citizens protesting the outcome of the presidential election. Part of the state of emergency essentially took away freedom of the press, so my usual sites for Armenian news in English have remained pretty dormant for the past few weeks. Today however, they are flooded with disturbing stories of eye witnesses from the weekend of March 1, including stories about innocent bystanders who were not even a part of the protests, but were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up victims of a stray bullet. Here are a couple of those sites: http://www.hetq.am/eng/ and http://www.armenianow.com/.

Today there is a silent protest being called for to form a silent chain from the Opera House where the clashes first started, through downtown and on to the area where the deadliest clashes occurred. We, of course, will stay at home, safely away from any possible problems, but I am so disturbed by these events. Also, one of my Armenian 'daughters' who lives with us works at HSBC Bank right on Republic Square, right on the path of the silent chain. I worry for her safety, of course, as she will probably get off from work during the time of the 'march' or soon after.

Also, I just feel so sad for the situation that has developed here. I know the path to democracy is not easy, and there is no perfect democracy anywhere. I guess I just take for granted that a system should be in place that you expect to work most of the time. But I know only too well that in many countries in the world, that is not the case at all.

Armenia has so many struggles, some imposed by others, some imposed by circumstances, and some imposed from within. I just pray for stability here so that the country can heal and continue to move forward.

We're safe and sound . . . well at least I can vouch for safe

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 17:17:07 GMT

You may have read or heard about a state of emergency being declared in Armenia. A couple of weeks ago they had their presidential election. A former president who ran is claiming he won and that the election was bogus. They've had growing protests in the city center with people camping out. It all came to a head Saturday when the government cleared out the protesters. Then another demonstration ensued with supposedly 10,000 people and clashes with the police. Officially, 8 people died and over 30 were taken to the hospital with injuries. Our Armenian daughters have been at their mom's in Spitak, 2 hours north of here. One is on vacation and the other finally went home when her university classes continued to be canceled because of the demonstrations. We called them last night and they said there were over 30 tanks that they saw heading toward Yerevan through Spitak. Today, there were a few tanks on our street, but we are several blocks from the edge of the city center and much farther than that from the area where the most recent problems were. As long as one stays out of the city center, life seems to be going on normally for everyone around us. And we certainly don't plan to venture into the city center any time soon.

So don't worry about us. We get word from the U.S. embassy if there are problems that we need to be aware of. As a matter of fact, I am one of the wardens, one of the ones who passes the messages on to other Americans; so I get messages every time and very quickly. We are definitely safe and sound (er, I guess we are of sound mind - as sound as ever anyway).

Please keep Armenia in your prayers. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/world/europe/03armenia.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Cobra, madam?

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 15:56:51 GMT

Yesterday, five of us took a bus from Delhi to Agra where the Taj Mahal is located. The 12-hour or so round-trip bus trip was at least as interesting as our destination. The scenery fit all of my stereotypical images of India: crowded, dusty, crazy traffic. We saw more animals on the 12-hour round trip than I’ve seen in years, and this was all on the streets of a city of 4 million people: monkeys, parrots, cranes, pigeons, cows (street cows, just wandering around), elephants, camels, horses, donkeys, dogs, pigs (some looked like razorbacks, but they were black), chickens, a cobra . . . . maybe that’s it.

Watching the people is fascinating. There are so many different types of people crammed into such a small area. The contrast to Armenia, where almost everyone is Armenian and has the same religion, clothing, etc. is amazing. There were Moslems, Hindu, Sikh, turbans of all varieties, women dressed in beautiful sari’s – such bright colors and gorgeous fabrics. Women and men wearing heavy scarves wrapped around them for warmth.

The Taj Mahal was pretty amazing. It’s so huge, with beautiful white marble inlaid with sem-precious stones forming flowers and other decorations. We also visited an old fort and palace of one of the emperors of India. The history of the country is reflected in the mix of architectural styles, with Persian, Hindi and other elements mixed together.

Everywhere you go, you are accosted by people selling souvenirs. The sad part is the handicapped people you see begging for money. I saw a special on some Discovery channel sometime about a boy in India who had to walk around on all fours because he had problems with his legs and couldn’t stand up straight. I saw several children like that today. Very sad, especially since that could probably be fixed with surgery.

One woman in our group was sharing a story about a place she visited yesterday. She said a guy came up to her with a basket, and said “Cobra, madam?” as he lifted the lid to reveal an honest-to-goodness snake. She hates snakes, and was quick to say “No thanks.” She mentioned that she tripped over a man with two monkeys as she backed away. I’m guessing that “only in India” fits this scenario!

Street scenes on the way to see Taj Mahal, taken from a moving bus:

These are modern rickshaws. They're used as taxis.

Notice the three people on the motorcycle. We saw that a lot. Once we saw a man plus three children on a motorcycle.

These bright red things that are being sold are carrots.

This picture is pretty blurry, but it was the only shot I could get of the traffic cops. They stand on these stages in the middle of the intersection to direct traffic.

This is the entry gate into Taj Mahal.

Just inside one of the Taj Mahal gates.

We saw so many interesting outfits. These were actually some of the more subtle colors we saw. There were lots of women with these bright, beautiful scarves and saris.

There is a famous picture taken of Princess Diana sitting on a bench in front of Taj Mahal. This is the bench, so photographers are around to take your picture (they are printed and waiting for you to buy as you leave) on "Diana's Bench."

The white marble is really stunning, especially when compared with the surroundings outside the walls of Taj Mahal.

This is a mosque at the side of the main building.

This is one of my favorite views.

This is the river behind it.

We had our driver stop because we wanted to take our picture with the elephant.

This is the fort I mentioned above.

There were monkeys all over the place.

This area is where the king's concubines stayed.

This is our 'guru'. Literally. Our guide's name was Guru. He was a funny, very nice guy.

There was a lot of beautiful stone work here, too.