Shtapir, Genatzenq

I put my alarm clock at 9:15 today. Despite getting up at 8:30 on my own. I went back to sleep until my alarm went off, then went to sleep again until Tsoline walked in the room to tell Aline her mother was on the phone. I wasn't rushed today because I was supposed to interview the Belgian Hunger striker I missed yesterday night before heading to work. So I easily got ready, then had breakfast, then prepared lunch, brushed up and left.

I went to North Avenue, the brand new, centrally located avenue of Yerevan in search of my Belgian Human Rights activist. I was done with the interview around 12, when I went to work. When I arrived, Julia –my editor– asked me when I could be done with the story. Thinking about political context and such, I predicted I would not be done by the end of the day. She started negotiating. After a minute, she got what she wanted. 

So I sat down at a computer and started transcribing the interview. I printed the french transcription and started writing the article in English. Surprisingly, even though I've only been in the country for 3 days, and have no political background, I managed to get informed enough to get political and global historical context. Granted it was a 600 word story (it's for the web, they have a 600 word limit.), but I am usually so slow.

The reason it had to be done today was for it to get published on Friday. (yes tala... btw... people are starting to think you're a religious jew with all the msg u leave on my wall about Friday). ArmeniaNow.com is a weekly that is published every friday. I love the fact that I landed on Sunday, filed my story on Wednesday and will have it published by Friday (it sounds like a Craig David song from the past). Also, I didn't fall asleep at work anymore... (I attribute that to the extra hour I got this morning... and the mid-day strong cup of Armenian coffee maybe).