Since we brought Colfax home last weekend, we've been surprised by a few things he's taught us. Chief among them is that Yerevan is even dirtier than we first thought. I never thought that the city was spotless, but now that we have a little a garbage magnet, slurping up the nastiest bits like they're puppy crack, it's become painfully obvious how un-spotless it really is.
Litter is a common problem in the developing world and Armenia is no exception. Compared to the myriad of other issues, trash collection and creating a societal mindset that discourages littering is low on the totem pole of things to do. But for me, it's one of the saddest parts of living overseas; I miss clean, green common spaces. There's a lovely (in a retro/dilapidated sense) Soviet park behind our apartment building that would be perfect for evening strolls, but I'm nervous to take Colfax there because of all the litter. Needless to say, we've already started trying to teach him to walk nicely on his lead as well as the command for "leave it!"
The second surprise has been a more pleasant one. Armenians seem to love dogs! Because you don't see many Armenians walking dogs around town (only homeless street dogs walking themselves), both Nick and I expected our neighbors to be indifferent to our pup. Not so. Old men crouch down to pet him, baby-talking in Armenian about what a nice puppy he is. Little kids ogle him from across the street, shouting "Shoonik! Shoonik!" (Puppy! Puppy!) The building manager -- whom we both worried would freak out when he found out we had a pet -- gave him a nickname from an old Soviet movie, Mimino. "Zarbazan" is the loveable mutt that follows around the main character, and is now apparently our dog as well. Today, we even tossed him in the backseat of a taxi so we could play on the Embassy field. The driver spent about as much time petting and looking at Colfax as he did with his eyes on the road. But that's another blog post :)
Litter is a common problem in the developing world and Armenia is no exception. Compared to the myriad of other issues, trash collection and creating a societal mindset that discourages littering is low on the totem pole of things to do. But for me, it's one of the saddest parts of living overseas; I miss clean, green common spaces. There's a lovely (in a retro/dilapidated sense) Soviet park behind our apartment building that would be perfect for evening strolls, but I'm nervous to take Colfax there because of all the litter. Needless to say, we've already started trying to teach him to walk nicely on his lead as well as the command for "leave it!"
The second surprise has been a more pleasant one. Armenians seem to love dogs! Because you don't see many Armenians walking dogs around town (only homeless street dogs walking themselves), both Nick and I expected our neighbors to be indifferent to our pup. Not so. Old men crouch down to pet him, baby-talking in Armenian about what a nice puppy he is. Little kids ogle him from across the street, shouting "Shoonik! Shoonik!" (Puppy! Puppy!) The building manager -- whom we both worried would freak out when he found out we had a pet -- gave him a nickname from an old Soviet movie, Mimino. "Zarbazan" is the loveable mutt that follows around the main character, and is now apparently our dog as well. Today, we even tossed him in the backseat of a taxi so we could play on the Embassy field. The driver spent about as much time petting and looking at Colfax as he did with his eyes on the road. But that's another blog post :)
No comments:
Post a Comment