I just have been watching “The Music Room” a program on CNN trying to be cool (it doesn’t work), but was about "Music in NZ" ... I have seen in succession King Capisi, One tree hill, Salmonella dub, P money, and so on... the presenter was being filmed at the entrance of Simunovich Fisheries, a door I crossed 1000 times... It was all so familiar but weird... from here… cold Yerevan…
Where funnily enough I’m not very used to not to be seen as a foreigner… everyone come and talks to me in Armenian, and kind of get offended when they realize that I have no idea of what they going on about… is very weird… in most other jobs.. tends to be very obvious my foreignness… but not here… at least not to them…. Not one person comes and offered me a menu in English… all Armenians I meet, later on come and tell me you look so Armenian… you look like my cousin Sevan… and so on I'm kind got use to it...
But.. I'm not getting use to the cold… geez... 1 degree C at lunch time… there is no need for that … however I'm kind of understanding the little things associated to it… like why most cars have all this cats footprints on the bonnet… because is warm there! As soon as a car parks… al cats from around come an lie there… is very funny for me!
It has only been one day since I'm here that I was able to walk the streets without my fleece jacket!...
Went to the Armenian equivalent of the Vatican... Which was cool... but quite “sanitized”.... very interesting painting, carvings and illustrated bibles…but it is funny, because on one side they have the spear that went on the side and “killed” Jesus (yeah man!!!) is not in display but is Armenia’s most treasured possession… and then all “priests” have a very Muslim looking beard and hat… on top of that one of the various religious icons they use is like a fake hand (like a prosthesis) in which the thumb and the “ring finger” are touching each other, meaning of circle of life that you see in the meditating Buddha statues in Sri Lanka…. Very weird…
Even if Christians I find my self more convinced that this is much more the middle east than Europe, even if local would get mad if the hear me… I don't know I just get to see it in the obvious issues, but as well in details… that perhaps only make sense to me, the combination of the fringe and the colour of the dresses of the waitresses in a restaurant… Their ideas on what we like… The plates of carefully sliced fruits… That all waiters/waitresses have an ID with their photos… That tea is called chai… that not one would ever dare to bring milk with the tea… and of course a slice of lemon...
Socially I got into some circles and I found my self "busy" during evenings... I went for an "audition" at the Buddha Lounge Bar a nice bar/club/restaurant copied to one in Paris where the "pseudo-alternative" crowd hangs out... and the guys was so keen that asked me to keep playing so I did a 2 hr set and I can go and play anytime I want they said, so I chose to be the resident DJ on Fridays... So I have the weekends free…
I normally eat at an Iranian Restaurant around my corner that cater students (many here), and it is a happy place with people talking to you and being friendly, besides cheap... so last week went there, and at the moment I'm getting is another 2 people comes in... and they are speaking Spanish... an Argentinean-Armenian composer (whom I knew about) and a Mexican anthropologist .... so they invite for dinner as it was the Mexican guy b'day... so other people started coming... 2 airport Argentineans (an Argentinean Armenian owns the airport!), Ecuadorian political scientist with NewYorican water economist wife..., various half Armenians from different parts, a Bask accountant-diver (?), a Norwegian social psychologist and her Norwegian political scientist flatmate, the German and French embassy officers, a Swiss-Italian development officer, the Canadian French microbiologist-filmmaker, and so on... so I was in my sauce... after they finish we went to the Mexican flat and had a pipe... and so on... So this crew kind of adopted me, so I got invited to quite a few parties and dinners lately and now besides having the Buddha gig... I’m now the DJ in the “Spanish Society” radio program at a local FM... bizarre....
I hate my job some days... I hate not being with my family... But destiny tends to pull some tricks on me of take me into strange situations... If I was Muslim and taught that my destiny and life book ahs been already written by Allah...
Well… I would strongly suspect that Allah does drugs...
