Mayberry or Yerevan? Mt. Pilot or Mt. Ararat?

I met Aliza (not sure that's how it's spelled) at Yerevan State University and when she introduced herself, I asked her if it was here first time here.

"Oh, no. I'm Armenian." Armenia, via Berkeley, Ca. She's a former editor now doing her MA thesis on Caucasus media.

Aliza's parents (whose own parents presumably fled the 1915 genocide and concentration camps) met in Syria and then, like many diaspora, ended up in the US. Or they met in the US but are both Syrian-born. Can't remember which--it was 102 degrees and my memory melts in that kind of heat.

But here's the fascinating thing to me: For Aliza, being in Yerevan was like a village for her--despite that she was born in the US and has no living relatives in Armenia at all. Nonetheless, it seems like family for her among the diaspora that also visit.

I sat with Aliza at the ex-pat bookstore one afternoon and watched as she greeted and chatted--in Armenian--with a good 60 percent of the people that came and went.