tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88983244960545498552024-03-20T23:18:54.346-07:00The YerevantSCmonologuesA group of USC students have joined others from Pointloma University and Baylor University to volunteer and build two affordable homes in Armenia's capital Yerevan. This blog is a collection of our thoughts and daily experiences of the trip. Please visit the following link to find out more information on the project: http://www.pointloma.edu/ArmenianCenter/ArmenianCenterProjects.htmULIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15453754144751407286noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-73758178701570673732007-06-10T05:04:00.000-07:002007-06-10T05:29:07.851-07:00...leaving on a jet plane!One month!!It seems like yesterday that Aline and I were discussing our interest in the project here in Armenia. To tell you the truth, this last minute trip ended up being one of the most memorable experiences of my life. A two week construction project turned into a month full of everlasting memories.Erik and I plan on producing a small picture/video montage of our experiences here in Matthew Keushguerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17914902300251200465noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-47202721275407119932007-06-09T04:45:00.001-07:002007-06-09T05:08:45.127-07:00Back in YerevanWe just got back to Yerevan from our little Karabagh trip. It was one of the most amazing trip ever. I will try to upload the pictures and more info on our trip within the next couple days. Our flight to LA is on Monday so we have a lot of last minute things to do before we leave.We had such an incredible experience in Karabagh and I can't wait to share what we did with everyone back home. ULIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15453754144751407286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-67301323331102305212007-06-06T09:08:00.000-07:002007-06-06T09:59:33.729-07:00Karabagh, We're HereMatt and I arrived in Stepanakert today. I'm not impressed by the city at all. I can't wait to get out of here and visit Shushi and other sites tomorrow. We met up with a friend of mine, Vrejuhui, who is working at a medical clinic in Stepanakert. I worked with Vrej in 2005 in a small village by Lake Sevan. We were renovating a grade school through the Land and Culture organization. Vrej is a ULIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15453754144751407286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-76792730418249748552007-06-05T01:02:00.000-07:002007-06-05T02:13:02.410-07:00....and then there were twoHello all.As Erik mentioned above, we are the only ones left here in Armenia. Sunday night / Monday morning we saw off the group from Point Loma University. Their flight was at 4 or 5 in the morning so we stayed up with them until 2am at the hostel until they left for the airport.Our last day of work was last Friday.... the houses look great. I'm glad I extended my stay to see the finished Matthew Keushguerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17914902300251200465noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-90705700636324074072007-06-04T07:00:00.001-07:002007-06-04T07:14:08.840-07:00We're Finally Done!Well, we completed work on both homes last Friday. Everything is done except the painting and installation of cabinets in the interior of the homes. We had khorovats at Lake Sevan on Saturday to celebrate. The lake was beautiful but we were the only ones there since this isn't the time yet for people to do khorovats there.The Pointloma group and Robert Moore left Armenia early this morning. ULIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15453754144751407286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-2548630862052960572007-05-31T09:43:00.000-07:002007-05-31T09:56:03.687-07:00More picsWe completed painting the exterior of the first house today. All we have left now is to install the drywalls and paint the second house and install the all the doors. That will all be done tomorrow, our last day. I'll have pictures of the completed homes soon after. We'll be going to lake Sevan on Saturday for lunch/picnic and to celebrate our completion before the Point Loma group depart on ULIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15453754144751407286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-10572895817200767792007-05-29T06:48:00.000-07:002007-05-29T07:09:01.088-07:00Hye Everyone =)Hello fellow bloggers, it's me, Matt again!It's been a few days since we've updated anything so let me give you a taste of what's happening here in Yerevan.First of all, if our girls from USC (that includes you too Kelly.... i mean Karine) are reading, we're glad you made it back, and we all miss you already. Kelly, I saw a sign for a pet shop a few minutes ago and thought of you. Shall we bring Matthew Keushguerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17914902300251200465noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-34261826475843730262007-05-27T02:50:00.000-07:002007-05-27T06:11:35.864-07:00Visual Timeline of our WorkI made a "picture timeline" of the work done thus far on the first house. The following three images are a glimpse of it, for the full thing go here. It's only taken about a week to get from foundation to where we are now!ULIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15453754144751407286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-234856501475941762007-05-26T06:44:00.000-07:002007-05-26T06:56:13.392-07:00FINALLY!!!Ok so i finally had the time to actually sit down and write something....even tho i leave in like 2 days....its my first time in Armenia and I totally love it!!!...the people are awesome, the food is great, and Mt Ararat is beautiful.....Aline and i have a perfect view of it from our hotel room!...Im so glad i came on this trip....not only was i able to help build 2 houses here....but i was also Janettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18240756753245122741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-65329910039028053072007-05-24T23:08:00.000-07:002007-05-24T23:23:23.714-07:00Matt's Foam VideoI haven't been feeling too well the last two days so I decided not to go to work today and just rest. I got bored sitting around the hotel though, so I walked over to an internet cafe to upload the blog. We made a video last week and been meaning to upload it for some time. I finally managed to do it now. It's Matt trying to break scraps of foam with his head. This was done while we were on ULIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15453754144751407286noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-31507829635970662552007-05-24T01:49:00.000-07:002007-05-24T02:44:03.868-07:00It's me!!Hey everyone. I FINALLY found time to update this blog (Thanks Kelly for leaving your laptop in my room). Believe it or not, it's something like day 11 of our trip and I just unpacked my suitcase. Today, the developer, George, gave most people the day off for some much needed rest. It's getting harder every day to wake up early and get to the site. Robert and Erik still went to work today (aren'tAlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12998262832050026938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-38533949919927748112007-05-23T09:33:00.000-07:002007-05-24T23:27:05.561-07:00Yerevan Rotary ClubToday after work we went to a meeting of Yerevan's Rotary Club. I didn't even know Yerevan has it's own Rotary Club! Steve Lazarian and George Fermanian (the organizers of our trip and the housing project) gave a presentation to the club on the housing project and what we aim to do after it's done. The club had a small group of individuals who were skeptical but the majority seemed optimistic ULIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15453754144751407286noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-49505863867461288602007-05-22T11:28:00.000-07:002007-05-22T11:35:03.863-07:00My turn :)Ahoy!My name is Kelly Moore, the younger of the two and I am updateing for Erik lolWell the trip has been amazing so far and I really really love Armenia.We get really tired because we work so hard but its all really good for us.I am really happy with the house and the teams working on them.Our group is wonderful regardless our differencesThis has been a wonderful trip and I plan on coming back Kelly B. Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03936669383752875361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-17377433892028528072007-05-21T11:08:00.000-07:002007-05-21T11:56:26.150-07:00More Photo'sI just uploaded the pics from Janette's camera. It took 17 minutes to upload 25 megs of em. I have to figure out a faster way to do this.Edit: also uploaded some photo's from Matt's camera.Matt's Photos 5/21/07 10:40 AMULIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15453754144751407286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-80267624199231542632007-05-21T10:41:00.000-07:002007-05-21T11:19:14.859-07:00My Thoughts...At Erik's request, i've sat down at the cubicle 3 seats down from him to "contribute" to the blog.Happy Erik?First off, the people i've met on this trip are just amazing and we are having such a great time. We decided to not go out tonight (for once) to see if we could finally catch up on some sleep. Yesterday the USC group (fight on!) visited Lake Sevan and the beautiful, foresty region of Matthew Keushguerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17914902300251200465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-501508006560195692007-05-21T10:06:00.000-07:002007-05-21T10:57:44.019-07:00Fine. I'll post somethingHi,My name is Rob. Barev.Erik has been talking about this blog forever. At first I thought he was going to post everything for us but now it seems like he actually wanted us to contribute too. Charjer.Anyway I like food and I like taking people to eat food. So far we have gone to a bunch of places (mostly around our hotel the Ani Plaza Hotel) and we try and eat something different each Robert Hudson Ashodian Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07237974393911291434noreply@blogger.com43tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-65422578182487782892007-05-20T10:03:00.000-07:002007-05-20T10:22:43.512-07:00An update finally...I have a ton of pictures and videos I have to upload but I'm still having problems with the wireless internet at the hotel. We're also too busy touring around Armenia, working, and hanging out to make time for a trip to the internet cafe. I'm using Kelly's computer to type this since her wirless works for some reason.Work began last Wednesday and there's already been a ton of progress. The ULIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15453754144751407286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-52063923924507523302007-05-17T12:10:00.000-07:002007-05-17T12:15:29.415-07:00First day at workI've been having some trouble with the internet at the hotel so haven't been able to post a lot of stuff. Here are some pics from our first day at work yesterday. The foam blocks in the pictures get staked on top of each other and concrete is poured into them to create the homes.ULIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15453754144751407286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-3201583443200805822007-05-15T06:54:00.000-07:002007-05-15T06:55:25.663-07:00Where is the Hummus?ULIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15453754144751407286noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-88687446076653054282007-05-14T23:49:00.000-07:002007-05-14T23:52:08.110-07:00The adventure begins... ULIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15453754144751407286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8898324496054549855.post-8015682849447226472007-05-14T11:27:00.000-07:002007-05-15T06:29:42.837-07:00Internet CafeAline, Matt, Janette, and I are at an internet cafe next door to our hotel (Ani Plaza). The place is small, no more than 300 sq. ft. and it has about 11 people cramped up using computers in it. And the worst part about it is the two guys sitting in the corner smoking cigarettes. This is pretty common everywhere we go in Armenia. I smell like I've smoked a pack of cigarettes at the end of each ULIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15453754144751407286noreply@blogger.com2