Good times were had by all

We are back in Armenia.  It feels nice, to be back home after almost eight weeks of absence. I know where things are in the kitchen (and which things are). I can buy a kilo of ripe, delicious peaches, a kilo of scrumptious tomatoes, a kilo of eggplant,  a five-kilo watermelon,  and two kilos of cucumbers for all of five dollars at the little corner store down the hill.  Of course, we had no water for 18 hours on the first day, it's been raining hard for two days, and the little bakery across from us closed shop while we were gone - so all is relative.

We had a great summer - the kids especially loved New York, the Montgomery County Country Fair, the various comic book shops, the waterpark at Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg in Virginia, playing with their cousins, and the day camp they went to for a week in Bethesda.

There will be extensive blogging on our adventures, plus our worry about the current developments in Iran, with what it being just down the street, so to speak.  Here just a few impressions and some pictures of our summer to start you off.

In New York, the biggest concern for the boys was the question: Where is Spiderman, and will we get to see him?  Doug and I decided not to debunk the myth that Spiderman and Batman are indeed living, breathing people. We will do that right after we pulled the plug on Santa Claus, in about five years or so.  Riding in a taxicab in New York was especially wonderful, and if you know a little boy in your life, you'll know why.  However, we weren't quite prepared for this interaction with the Indian taxi driver:

"Driver, hi!  My name is Alan."
"Oh, Alan, hello!  Nice name, nice name!"
"I want to ask you a question. Have you ever picked up Peter Parker?"
"?"

Traveling with three kids over the Atlantic has proven to be much less of a hassle than we had feared.  The boys are great travelers, and even though people get this look of desperation in their eyes whenever we step on a plane and come close to their seats, the kids are in fact pretty well-behaved.  It did help to have the laptop playing DVDs for them, though.  And lots of snacks - they love the concept of airplane food but they will never actually eat it.  Go figure.

We came back with 100 kg of luggage, lots of it fall/winter clothing for the boys (mostly Alan, the others have to wear hand-me-downs), and books.  Lots of books.  We are almost set for the winter now. (Hah, who am I kidding.  Of course not.  We never have enough books, never.)

Comments

[Paul]

I wouldn't worry about Bush's useless posturing on Iran. In the off chance that his ineptitude is so utterly complete that he accidentally gets himself into a war with Iran- Armenia has good relations with both Iran and America. Despite being a neighbor, the sealed borders with Nakhichevan and Azerbaijan result in just a mere 29 mi or perhaps even smaller open border with Iran. On top of that, thanks to the closed borders the quickest route to Yerevan from Iran is 10 hours through the insanely windy Selim pass. There's no real reason for Armenia to be affected militarily (nor by a flood of refugees either, seeing as there's such a small border and once across it there's quite a formidable trek between them and you). Of course, Iran being one of Armenia's two outlets to the world would be jeopardized by US action with disarray in that country, however being as far as it is most of the substantial trade is still done through Georgia. An attack on Iran is certainly a stupid move, but I don't think the effects on Armenia would be too drastic and it's not likely to be brought into things.