1 week passed by...

I have been here a week already. Things are going well. I found a few grocery stores that don’t require me to speak. Awesome. They are a little far away from where I live but I usually try to swing by them when I get back from the office.

It’s funny that sometimes people on the street try to talk to me in English. Well, maybe that rarely happens to me. Before, people usually try to speak Mandarin to me.

Things are well and all basic needs are taken care of. One interesting challenge was when I wanted to do laundry, this is what I saw on the washing machine:


“Huh????” was all I responded. I had to take a picture of it and showed the picture to the staff the next day to ask for translation.

This last week I went to many touristy places:

This is the Matenadaran. Inside the building are tons of ancient manuscripts, bibles and maps. Quite impressive. Good that there was AC, too.

The Opera House. I didn’t go in there, but I would like to see a concert or something in there.

The Cascade. If you don’t want to walk up the stairs, you can take the escalators inside it! I took the stairs because I thought I needed some exercises.

At the top of the Cascade. I was supposed to see the Mt. Ararat, where Noah’s Ark landed, but it was too cloudy. I will go again when there is a clear sky.

Mother Armenia and the museum below it. It’s a pretty big statue that you can see it from many places in town. Most museums here are not tourist-friendly. They only have Russia and Armenian. I could just look at the pictures and the displayed items and then go away. But I have to say, Armenia is a country with a lot of history. I mean - a lot. I haven’t stayed in a country with a very long history for awhile. It feels quite different.

Outside the museum I could see an aircraft used during the Soviet Union time.

When I am hungry, I can go to a restaurant and get some food, here is the menu:

Ummmm….. what am I going to order?

No clue.

With the help of a friend, I got some delicious food. This is called “lamajo” (??). It’s a crispy pizza-like thing. Very yummy.