A very intense day today. The first meeting was at 10am and then proceeded until 9.30pm with no break. The meetings included USAID, a foundation, the Minister of Diaspora, and a former minister who is now a successful businessman. I can't remember a day in which I've learnt so much about history, cultural affairs, policy and different programmes and initiatives, and met people who are so highly motivated to make something succeed. Or had such a grilling as to our knowledge of what other countries do and our ideas about the merits of different schemes and proposals. My head is now overflowing with information about Armenia and its diaspora, which is no bad thing. We've more meetings lined up for tomorrow which will no doubt be equally fascinating. We've only seen a tiny amount of Yerevan, but it's an interesting city and I'll try and upload some pictures tomorrow (right is our hotel).
Showing posts with label Armenia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Armenia. Show all posts
Thursday, November 12, 2009
My head is overflowing ...
A very intense day today. The first meeting was at 10am and then proceeded until 9.30pm with no break. The meetings included USAID, a foundation, the Minister of Diaspora, and a former minister who is now a successful businessman. I can't remember a day in which I've learnt so much about history, cultural affairs, policy and different programmes and initiatives, and met people who are so highly motivated to make something succeed. Or had such a grilling as to our knowledge of what other countries do and our ideas about the merits of different schemes and proposals. My head is now overflowing with information about Armenia and its diaspora, which is no bad thing. We've more meetings lined up for tomorrow which will no doubt be equally fascinating. We've only seen a tiny amount of Yerevan, but it's an interesting city and I'll try and upload some pictures tomorrow (right is our hotel).
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Early starts
Today started at 3.30am, with a taxi collecting me at 4am to get me to Dublin Airport for a 6.20 flight to Paris. All being well this post is scheduled to be uploaded not long after I take off from Charles de Gaulle for Yerevan (to the right), the capital of Armenia. I was hoping to catch up on some work-related reading on the two flights but I suspect it’ll be an uphill battle. I’m definitely not a morning person and I can’t sleep on planes so I’ll probably be just vegetating between bouts of trying to concentrate. I’m really looking forward to taking a brief look at Armenia. I just hope I manage to get through immigration. It’s a long way to travel to get denied a visa at passport control (which is where you apply for one). For those wondering where it is, it’s a landlocked country surrounded by Turkey, Iran, Georgia and Azerbaijan – see Wikipedia
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)