dream outloud

This is a list I made about 1/2 way into the trip of amusing things I specifically "enjoyed" or wanted to remember about the trip:

************************************************************************************

• "Enjoy" - Packaging on our dinner on the plane from London to Yerevan, that we got super loopy over, and lasted the duration of the trip.

• "Fresh as a Daisy" - Packaging on hand wipes from the plane to Yerevan - also strangely amusing to us.

• Water "oxygen inriched" - Packaging on a water bottle in Vanadzor.

• "Everywhere I go, I'm just looking for fluids" - Otto, as we were discussing what we "see" [Otto - the pump man, Jim - lighting, Steve - lawsuits, Laurie - efficiency, Christina - design].

• Nicknames at the Clinic:

1. Ruzanna: the staff played a joke on Ando when he started working, and told him to call Ruzanna, "Aunt Ruzanna". She didn't like that too much. ;)
   
2. Yevgine: the "Minister of Finance" (because she handles all the books).
   
3. Karina: "muk", Armenian for "mouse", 'cause she's so tiny, that Steve Kashian calls her muk.
   
4. Marietta: "Armageddon", because she's a hypochondriac and everywhere she goes, and every story she tells, it always ends bad. Example: Telling a story about beautiful flowers...but they were on a dead man's grave. Example 2: Traveling through the beautiful mountains, and seeing really cool bridges (that are admittedly rickety), and having Marietta call them "Satan's Bride".
   
5. Marietta AKA "Armageddon" AKA: "Pyro Granny" - before we found out the clinic staff called Mariette "Armageddon", we called her "Pyro Granny", because she was always making a burn pile whenever given the chance, and doing it with great glee.

• "Monica Seles" - While unloading potatoes from the truck, and more noticeably when bringing potatoes out to people's cars, Otto would let out a hefty "Monica Seles" style grunt, before being able to move on.

• "Jimmy Jan": "Jan", a term of endearment in Armenia, tacked onto the back of Jim Baney's name - also similar to the name of a "freaky fast" sandwich shop. :)

• "This is tasty", Laurie said to Lova. "She's tasty", Lova said of Hayastan.

• At Hagphat, Marietta was in a picture with Steve at the top of a set of stairs. While the photo was being taken, someone said something to Marietta, and she ran, fast as can be (very spry for a 61 year old) down the stairs, laughing and embarrassed. Apparently, someone said that Steve wanted to take her home to America. And, rumor has it, that someone also said they were taking a picture so we'd know where her band-aid was, for when she moved it. (Marietta always had a band-aid on some part of her face [but never the same part], which is part of her "Armageddon" complex).

• Harvard Orphanage = fiasco. We looked for "Harvard" orphanage for about an hour before actually finding it...and finding that Rozik told us the wrong name! So, we were asking everyone for the wrong place - no wonder they kept sending us in the wrong direction!

*********************************************************************************
Well, those were some funny moments (at least in my mind). I hope you "enjoy" them!
~c