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So, Trump said officially that he is going to “leave Chicago” (and the other three Democratic cities) “for now,” although he is threatening to “come back if…”
I want to put it in writing in my journal today, when we have no way to know how it will play out later. That being said, I might be wrong, but today I want to say: we resist and we can achieve something. Long live Federalism! 😀
Finishing the post I started three days ago.
I didn’t upgrade my return flights because I didn’t need to sleep on the long flight back, and I figured I could purchase the lounge access separately. What surprised me at Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport was that they had a 24/7 duty-free store and a 24/7 business lounge.
I bought some (a lot of) chocolate, chocolate-covered dried fruit (and the only reason I didn’t buy dried fruit without chocolate was that I had three bags from my host), some flavored coffee, a bottle of pomegranate wine, and a set of three miniature Armenian brandy bottles. I really wanted to buy a bottle of Akhtamar, the best local brandy, to give it to Vlad, but there were no medium-size bottles, and my purchase was already heavy and bulky enough, and I still had to squizz everything in my carry on (not like they won’t allow an extra duty free bag, but I didn’t want to have an extra bag heavier than my luggage :).
The business lounge in Zvartnots was … strange, and they were surprised I was willing to pay for it rather than claim my credit card holder benefits, but having that the flight was forty minutes delayed, and that, due to many flights departing in the early hours of the morning, the international terminal looked like a Soviet Union era railway station, I believe I made a right decision.
I also paid for lounge access in Frankfurt, and everything there was as expected. I charged all my devices for the long daytime flight, and spent the time productively answering tons of unanswered emails and documenting my trip.
I’ve already mentioned that the arrival process had become exceptionally easy after the new passports were introduced, but this time was a record, especially because I didn’t have checked luggage. Thirty-five minutes after the aircraft stopped taxing, I was already on the Blue Line train (that includes the airport transfer to another terminal), and two hours and fifteen minutes later, I was already at home (yes, I took the L again, and it is becoming more and more acceptable, especially without the heavy luggage)
Even though I stayed with locals, it’s impossible to draw any conclusions and/or form any opinion about the country after a three-day stay. Still, there are a couple of things I wanted to mention.
Armenia is a relatively poor country, still, the level of mutual trust is surprising and runs counter to my idea that you need a society of splendor to achieve it. One can say that the priest was comfortable leaving his belongings in a wide-open temple just because there was nobody around who could take advantage of the situation. But in the building where my friends live, the front door has no lock and no buzzer. Moreover, they only lock their apartment at night or when everyone is out, just like I do.
Another thing that I noticed was the way people talk to stranges. It was not our regular over-cheerful/annoying American talkativeness, but very calm and respectful willingness to support a conversation, whether it’s a smalltalk, or a meaningful discussion. No pressure to buy anything at the souvenir shop. Only the cab drivers at the airport, looking for clients, were annoying, but cab drivers are always and everywhere cab drivers. By contrast, during the actual rides, cab drivers were remarkably silent.
Calm, peace, and respect – these words defined my stay in Armenia.
When we left the monastery, we walked around a bit to take in some amazing views.
It started to snow on Saturday evening, and it kept snowing. And kept snowing. And it snowed all night until about 8 AM.
My hosts started to worry about whether I would be able to get to the airport in the evening, if the mountain pass wouldn’t be cleared of snow. And even before that, we planned to go to the Haghartsin Monastery, and we were unsure how the roads were going to be. By noon, however, it looked like the snow stopped, and the roads were drivable. My hosts ordered a cab, and had a unique experience of a ride on mountain serpentine roads with at least six inches of snow!
Finally, the cab driver said that he’s not goign to get us any further, and we walked a little bit up to the Haghartsin Monastery, where we had experienced the most beautiful winter fairy tale one can imagine.
I haven’t flown Lufthansa since 2020, and back then, I didn’t have a platinum status with Finnair, so I was not spoiled with lounge access and priority boarding. Several days earlier, I decided to upgrade my second inward flight to business class, because with six hours between flights, I couldn’t imagine surviving without the lounge. On the morning of Dec 24, I received an email from LH stating that the flight was full and asking passengers to check in their carry-on baggage free of charge. I didn’t want to check my cookies, so I decided the best way was to upgrade to economy premium. This gave me boarding group 3 instead of 6.
An hour before the departure, I was called to the podium along with many other passengers … and upgraded to business class🤷🏻♀️
The best thing about it was that I got almost six hours of sleeping horizontally, and was pretty much a normal person in the morning. The second best thing was that they served us a special LH spiced cocktail at departure.
And chocolates on Christmas morning, and one more small chocolate box right before arrival:
And our aircraft most definitely caught the eye of Santa Claus!
I worried a little bit about security in Frankfurt, because I knew that Germans are very particular with following the rules, and was not sure what would the say about sweet potato pie and a large tin of cookies in the carry-on, but to my surprise, German security had no issues with anything, and the only things that concerned the ORD security were two bags of protein powder.
I had a lot of time to spare in Frankfurt, which I spent in two lounges (the staff of the first one said they were closing at five, but it was quieter than the other one). I took their advice, and it actually worked well. Both lounges were indeed quiet and holiday-themed.
Something that really puzzled me in the business class blounge athroom – out of all places in the world, that’s where I would least expect it!
And something that pleasantly surprised me – a Christmas mini-dinner on the late-night flight to Yerevan. I can’t even remember the last time I had a goose! This one was very well made and had dumplings and cabbage on the side.
When we arrived in Yerevan, it was 4:15 AM local time, and I still had a 1.5-hour car ride to my final destination, but overall, the travel experience was the best possible for such a long trip!
So that I won’t leave a trail of stories-not-told, a quick recap of Monday and Tuesday.
On Monday morning, we went for breakfast to the Common Cup “to compare the breakfast sandwiches,” and the vote was that “both were good, but different.”
Shortly after, we left for Christkindl Market, planning to get there by its opening. The plan didn’t exactly work, since we had a couple of photo stops on the way (and a couple of fights), so we actually arrived at 11:20.
There was no wait, but the market was pretty crowded; besides, all three of us wanted food from three separate lines 😂, and it was really difficult to navigate. We got everything everyone wanted, and then we stood in a really long line for the best hot chocolate (Belgian, with a chocolate wrench on top).
Then, we went to the Sweet Castle store. As usual, there was a line to enter, but the girls were willing to stay in it. I told them they could get two small or one big thing each, and they ended up with gummy bears and hard candy (I hinted that there might be a lot of chocolate in the presents).
By the time we got out of the Sweet Castle, the crowd had subsided a little bit. There were still a lot of people, but as Nadis put it, fewer intimidating, so we happily continued our journey exploring the market, and stayed in another line to get into the Christmas Ornaments store.
Next stop was a manicure appointment. We started walking toward the DePaul campus (where the nail salon is located), but there was a bookstore on our way, and we couldn’t pass it without going in and starting to read off the shelves :).
… and then since we were by Harold Washington Library, one can guess what happened next :).
On Tuesday morning, we were waiting for Anna and John to come and have a pre-Christmas celebration together. They ordered the food from Honeybear cafe, and picked it up on the way. Once again, Igor escorted my mom to my place, and we had brunch, and exchanged presents.
Igor and my mom left, the girls packed, and all five of us went to the Merry Merry Chicago Concert. For Nadia, it was for either the third or fourth time, and she was looking forward to it. Kira was restless, and at the end, she said it was boring, and she didn’t like it. I think it was indeed too long of a concert for her, because before that, she only attended half-hour children’s concerts.
I went how and started to get my life in order. Actually, this time, the girls did a very decent job of keeping things in order, so it was not like I had a lot to clean up. However, I also had to pack for a short trip, catch up with work and other responsibilities, visit my mom, and finally talk to Boris for longer than ten minutes at a time. This took pretty much all the time starting with after the concert till 6 PM on the Christmas Eve, when I left the house with my luggage.
Sunday was our Art Institute Christmas Day: as anyone should, we went to see Napolitan Creche and Miniature Rooms, and then headed to the Ryan Center to do the projects.
The theme of the projects was a newly opened Bruce Goff exhibit. We missed it on our way to the Ryan Center, but went to see it after lunch, and then returned to the Ryan Center one more time to make more art.
We all liked the Bruce Goff exhibit. I previously mentioned that I was disappointed with the Symbolism exhibit, and Nadia said she didn’t like it either. She said that the Bruce Goff “Material world” was also “Strange realities,” but the funny ones. I agree.
We finally left the Art Institute close to 3 PM, returned home, and then spent the evening decorating cookies. Last Christmas, Nadia did a great job with cookies, and I told her I could use your help, but this year, it was on a whole new level, and Kira helped as well. They decorated all of the remaining cookies and said they could do more 🙂
Now, I am definitely employing their skills next year!
Igor picked up my mom, and they both came to have dinner with us, to socialize with the girls, and watch them decorating cookies.
My mom was really impressed with the work the girls did “on their own will,” and said that she understood how much work I had to do with the girls staying with me, and that she “sympathized with me.” When I told her that I do not see anything to be “sympathized” about and that I only do the things I enjoy doing, she got very upset and went on one of her regular rants about “my generation not being able to understand hers”, but I honestly have no idea how this all got connected in her mind!
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