society 2025-10-26T15:04:58Z

Rain lashed against the taxi window as Yerevan's streetlights blurred into golden streaks. I clutched my phone, throat tight with panic while the driver stared expectantly. "Ver gavige," I stammered—Armenian for "I don't understand"—but his frown deepened. In that humid backseat, surrounded by Cyrillic street signs and rapid-fire Armenian, my tourist phrasebook felt like a betrayal. Georgian was what I'd prepared for, yet here I was stranded in Armenia after a missed connecting flight, grasping

I remember the evening vividly, as if it were painted in shades of frustration and digital despair. It was a cold, rainy night—the kind where the wind howled like a forgotten ghost, and the rain tapped insistently against the windowpane. My family was cozied up in the living room, a blanket fort erected for our weekly movie marathon. The scene was set for perfection: bowls of buttery popcorn, dim lighting, and the promise of uninterrupted streaming. But then, as the opening credits rolled, the s