Summer with teens

Finally summer is here in Yerevan! Which means NO school for a long time! Which also means more patience needed for parents to cope with the heat and non-stop arguing siblings at home.

This year is a little special, since we have three official teenagers in the house and one 7 year-old teen-wannabe who thinks that he can talk like the others and who just recently asked me if he can go take a walk in the city alone to see his friends :) too cute!

Tbilisi with kids

(From January 2018)

The best part of traveling with kids is that you get to be once more amazed at the simple things through their eyes. And the challenging part is to not get exhausted by all the questioning non-stop, the never-ending energy to try everything, touch everything and take risks. 

I am becoming more and more exhausted with the years and it seems with the forth child sometimes my energy level is down to minus 5. Of course having to balance the day and adventures with 2 teenage kids and a third who is almost 13 plays a major role on how much energy is left for the 4th child, a 6-yr old very active one. But overall it is going well and between two parents, we are managing to keep it together and enjoy the journey. 

Trip to Tbilisi

We arrived yesterday in the afternoon. The bus ride was a little tiring but we made it safe at around 4pm. Friends were accompanying us. It is their first trip to Georgia, they are really excited to discover the place.     

Even though it is not my first trip to this city, it is going to be interesting to explore it once more through my kids. I often travel to this place for work, since it is the most neutral space in the region where we can meet with our partners from Azerbaijan and Georgia, all together. So Tbilisi has been over the years, a place of meetings and conferences, but this time i will enjoy it this time as a complete tourist. 

Celebrations 2018

It is our 15th Christmas and New Year in Armenia. Things have changed over the years; in 2003, we wouldn’t see a single decoration on the streets, on the windows of the shops on the streets, or on the balconies of apartments. We could find some lighting decorations here and there but nothing majestic. The markets, restaurants, bars, shops would all close from the 31st to the 13th of January, until the old New Year. Local friends would advise us to buy bread for a couple of days, as well as food, to survive the long holiday. The whole country would stop for 2 weeks; rest, celebrate, eat, drink, and visit each other. Mothers, aunts, daughters would spend days cooking the traditional food; the Bood (porc leg/thigh), dolma, blinchiks, “olivye” salad and many other meals essential to the Armenian festive table.