Twenty nine years later I look at the country that became my new home, and don’t recognize it somedays. But hope is on the horizon.

Becoming a refugee

In 1988 when I was a 10 years old school kid, living in Baku, Azerbaijan, a conflict started between Azerbaijan and the neighboring Armenia, over the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous region. The conflict quickly escalated, and a war began. A war that has continued, on and off, for 30 years, culminating in a new war exploding in September of 2020.

My family was Armenian and quickly realized that living in Azerbaijan wasn’t safe for us anymore. At…

So your candidate lost?

I’d like to say I’m sorry about that, but that would be lying. I know lying is big for your candidate, but it’s wrong. I am not sorry he lost. In fact, I’m relieved he lost. Even more, I’m excited he lost!

I’m excited to see a new Secretary of Education who is not a corrupt, anti-public education hack and who won’t try to cut funding to Special Olympics.

I’m excited to see a new Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, who is not hell bent on destroying the environment.

I’m excited to see a new Secretary of State, who…

I always enjoy my birthday in September. It’s usually still warm, and I get a few days of celebration out of it. Last year I decided to go a bit low key (for me) so I texted my sister, my brother, and my 2 cousins to join me for family dinner and drinks at my favorite sushi place. They came, we had a blast, eating, having drinks and laughing. Exactly five months and one day after that, sometime during the night on February 13, 2020, my youngest cousin Stas took his own life.

I was born in 1978 in Baku…

I’ll be honest, I got the idea for this article after reading “What to Eat in Mystic, Connecticut”. It’s not that I was looking to copy the idea, it’s just it hasn’t occurred to me before to write about where I live because I think at times I’ve come to take it for granted. But for an outsider, Fairfield is a foodie paradise. So allow me to talk about it a bit.

I’ve lived in the area for about 4 years. There are many reasons why I like Fairfield. It’s a beach town, with 4 town beaches that I regularly…

First time I visited Puerto Rico was in 2012. I was happily married family man, with a beautiful wife and a 15 year-old stepson. We traveled to Puerto Rico to escape February in New England. My second visit was in May of 2017. I was in month seven of being separated from my wife, going through a divorce that at times felt like a roller coaster. San Juan allowed me to unwind and for a few days forget the real world existed. Visit number 3 happened in November 2018. This was a special visit, because I was coming back to…

Until April of 2019 I have never been to Vancouver. I have never considered going to Vancouver. The only two things I knew about Vancouver were: it’s on the West Coast and I have college friends who live there.

Then a project came alone with our Canadian office, and I traveled to Vancouver 3 different times between May and July of last year. I didn’t have a ton of time to explore the city, but I did have an opportunity to eat, since that’s kind of a basic need. Here are 10 places I tried out and enjoyed.