a little about where I live

So I thought I might give you some insight into my neighborhood. For those of you familiar with Yerevan, I'm on Toumanian, near the corner of Baghramian Street. If you know where the CNN building is (i.e. the building with the CNN logo on it. Who knows if it actually contains a CNN office), it's just down the street from that.

Living so close to the center of the city means I can:

*Walk to the Opera house (and the oodles of cafes that surround it) in about 5 minutes.
*Walk to Toumanyan Shawerma (best shawerma EVER, PERIOD, HANDS DOWN) in about 10 minutes.
*Walk to Republic Square and CMI in about 12 minutes.

In other words, the location rocks my world. Plus, I have a 24-hour Internet cafe and a supermarket across the street.

Last night I decided to do some exploring in my neighborhood and ended up a rock club (Stop Club) also across the street. I listened to the band that was billed as folk-rock. It turned out they were a bit more indie. It was awesome. What was more awesome, as I sat at the bar, was seeing one of Anya's best friends walk in. Yup, finally found Maro! She came here as a volunteer for two months. That was eight months. Maro was supposed to go home next week. I may have convinced to stay at least as long as I'm here. (Sorry, Anya!)

After that, we went to an Irish pub and then a cafe near the opera with some Brits of Polish origin who'd come to Armenia for the week to see the Armenia-Poland football (soccer) match. I got home at about 3:30, which means I woke up at 1 and barely got out of the house a few hours later, which is probably better because the atrocious heat has begun. You can't walk 10 minutes without sweating like a pig. Ick.