We have been "krantzed"

So, our containers of stuff arrived into Armenia two weeks ago today. Since, we have been struggling to get he stuff. I have pictures to post, but internet is bad so they will have to wait. In the meantime, here is a short summary of our cargo adventures...

The cargo was suppose to arrive in Armenia about a week ago. But, apparently the jackass who was shipping his Hummer (some appeals court judge from the Ararat region), was pushing to get it into Armenia asap. Thus our cargo arrived unannounced on a Saturday. I was called to immediately come to the Cargo House to get our stuff. What arrived first was a half order of stuff that American Global Shipping shipped outside of our dedicated container. Just for the record, they are an aweful company and they ripped us off. Basically, Saturday they made us unload our stuff by hand, then they removed two vehicles include jackass's Hummer, and then reload our stuff into the container. On Monday we returned to the Custom's House and made arrangements for our stuff to be transferred to the warehouse where it stays until you clear the paperwork. In the meantime, the same day, our second container of stuff arrived. To put a very long and painful process in a few words, we worked with the Mother F$$@@#ers at the customs house to take our stuff to the warehouse, then back to the customs house to off load our two cars. Then we submitted our paperwork to the Customs headquarters. We were rejected because we did not have the Soviet Era Address stamp in our passports. So, we had our yet to be completed house put into our name so we could get the stupid stamp, which is called a "krantz". Well, since our new area is not yet in the stupid Soviet Era maps they use, they refused our application. More days and headaches passed. Harutune, saved the day once again by having his friend's grandmother agree to put us on her house. We also successfully, although painfully extended the days to complete our custom clearances. This took three days and much yelling.

So just to sum things up, someone we don't know allows us residency on her house. The kicker is she is 100% Greek! Through this nightmare, we have met a few nice people including our paperwork girl Lilit, the security guard outside of the custom's headquarters that keeps telling Houry not to cry, Lilit in the President's Office who keeps making phone calls for us and Vartan the consul at the Foreign Ministry who keeps going to Oveer for us. So, again just for the record, here is a list of Great people:

1. Harutune
2. Lilit
3. Lilit
4. Salpi
5. Vartan
6. Gourken
7. Gourken's Family

Now the list of evil people who I wish a very painful death to:
1. Artur at Customs
2. Harut at Customs
3. Vahe at American Global
4. Edgar at American Global
5. Aram at Customs (if monday does not go well)
6. Mr. Hummer guy (just because)
7. Babian at Customs (boss of non-auto stuff)
8. Mekitar at Customs
9. The guy in charge of Autos at Customs

We ended week two of our ordeal on a positive note with our new residency status in Armenia. We resubmited our application and will see what happens on Monday. Good news is that we have our vehicles and have started driving around Yerevan. Harutune pretty much does not want to give us back our Expedition. He is having too much fun driving it!

On other notes, Gail and her friend are in town and we had dinner this week. Also, yesterday evening we had dinner with Surpadzan Derderian, Sion Surpadzan and Hair Torkum. We had a very nice time. The girls also were with us and they had just finished their second dance class. They are taking European and Armenian dancing.