the way to travel

Today's English session with one of my 'patrons' was an interesting one - they normally are. So interesting in fact that 1) i can't bring myself to call them 'students,' it's like i'm taking an Armenian culture course from them. It would best described as the case of the 'teacher learning much more from the students.' These conversations are my way of observing the culture through the interpretation of the lay/expert Armenian. You see, currently, the sessions are attended by an accountant, micro-finance program assessor, and a history professor - crème de la crème. These people are of my age cohort and older. Let it be stated that when i'm caught up in the learners mode of this and that fascinating detail, i often find myself mouth agape and mentally slapping myself back into correcting-English mode.

Where i decided to take the conversation today was to a topic that i had been mulling over for the past several days - transportation. I asked her what she thought would happen in the winter due to the metro price hike? What would happen during this time when marshutkas (the mini buses) are preferred over a longer walk to the metro entrance, as you're likely to break a hip on some hard ice if foot bound for too long. Man, are the marshutkas cozy in the winter - well heated, aka packed with body heat. What initiated this particular mulling was that the new roommate noticed - a price increase sign for one of the larger buses. More price hikes?! eh, reconfigure budget stat!

The conversation then spilled into bus origination. There are a total of four types of buses around here. Reasoning for such variety: They're all cheap hand-me-downs from other countries. The Ministry of Transportation and Communication takes what it can get. I like this method, no doubt. something not surprising for those of you familiar with my lust for treasuring others' trash. Why build a whole new fleet of pollution making vehicles?

So, for instance, this nice big maroonish bus that has only one or two routes is French - as in, it was imported from France. According to my source it was one city's refuse after flooding some years ago. Armenia won whatever bid and now transports its citizens in its renovated interior. The source sarcastically stated, 'We're all just waiting for the radioactive buses from Japan to arrive.' Surely that's a little much, but then i remembered that the U.S. government contracted out an Alaskan company that provided an asbestos ridden fleet of trailers to give to the suffering homeless after Hurricane Katrina... real smooth.

All this just to say -bring on the buses! The metro is not fun in the winter!

This blog post will have a sequel around February 2012. I'll either have a picture of me atop a whizzing marshutka in a winter coat or one which captures me in crutches waiting for the metro.

Viva!