The world's first Cathedral and the world's reddest Jamie: Weeks 5 and 6

Ahh, I've been really rubbish at updating this, so it's time for another epic post. Been really busy over the last 2 weeks with AIESEC work so I'm going to break my no blogging about work rule to explain what I've been up to. We've recruited a load of new members for RAU and have been training them up. Last Sunday we had our Orientation Day, where we taught our newies all about AIESEC.

I ran a session on AIESEC History, which meant actually learning the history. I'd definitely recommend AIESECers looking it up, it's quite a story. We had lots of games and things as well to keep the newies interested, and judging by the feedback everyone had a good time. Thanks to Ani, Zara, Lusine and Tatevik for helping out!

As my time in Armenia is starting to come to an end (still got 4 weeks though!) I've been trying to get out of the city and spend less time working since my teams are pretty well set up now. On Friday I went to Ejmiatsin, a small town outside Yerevan, with Elize, Ani and two Dutch journalists who have been traveling from Egypt back to Holland over land.

They ain't getting on no plane foo

We took a minibus out to the town, which took about 20 mins (Armenia is a pretty small country so it never really takes more than 2 hours to get anywhere). Ejmiatsin is pretty dominated by the cathedral and the buildings around it. The Armenian church is a separate organization, and all its priests are trained here. We saw a fair few priests wandering around in their black robes, as well as lots of tourists (which I've not really come across anywhere else in Armenia).

Bell tower of the Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral there were loads of decorations and paintings, as well as an altar in the center with a bible and a metal cross which many visitors would kneel to kiss. There was also a throne for the Patriarch (the Armenian pope) to sit in for the services and lots of incense holders.


After having a bit to eat we walked around to another church. There is a lot of building work going on, which made a difference from Yerevan where the general strategy for construction is:

1. Dig a massive hole, build the foundations and put a few cranes in before running out of money
2. ???
3. Building finished!

In the church we saw an Armenian christening, where the whole family is christened together. Afterwards they handed one of the Dutch guys a sugar sculpture of an angel. Apparently they give these to people who have not yet been christened, to remind them to get it done. I'm not sure the message sank in though, as he tried to eat it.

Yesterday we went to Lake Sevan, which is a huge lake to the north of Yerevan. It used to be larger but was massively drained by the Soviet Union . The same guy would go on to work on the Aral Sea which turned out brilliantly, I think he really hated water.

We got to Sevan town via minibus, where we met Ani and Elize's friend who lives by the lake. He had to go to a wedding, but managed to set us up with a taxi and direct us to a good beach.


Lake Sevan is pretty popular with Armenians in the summer, and the beach was pretty crowded. Much of the sand has disappeared as the lake is rising again (about 50 cm a year) and some of the resorts have already been flooded. The water was an amazing shade of blue, and apparently it changes colour a lot throughout the year.

We went for a swim in the lake, which was pretty cold even in the middle of summer, and afterwards had a picnic. Despite being careful with the sun, and trying to stay in the shade I managed to get quite burned, apparently this is normal in Sevan as the sun is very strong and the beaches quite exposed.

Even the horses needed to cool off

After a nice day by the lake we headed back to Yerevan, managed to get to the office to finish off a few things before heading home for a well-deserved rest.

Golden Apricots and Ancient Temples: Week 4

This week has been pretty busy with AIESEC work for both Bristol and RAU. However I've managed to get a bit of time to see a bit more of Armenia too. Firstly on Thursday I moved house again. I'm now staying with Tatev. a new AIESEC member, about 20 minutes walk from the office. It's nice to be staying with a family again, but I'd forgotten how much food they give you.

On Friday I went to the Golden Apricot film festival with Haykaz (my Finance and Law* guy for RAU). Every year they have a big festival, with directors coming from all over the world as well as lots of Armenian films. I went to see From Ararat to Zion, a documentary about Armenians in Jerusalem. It was pretty interesting, although the power went out 5 minutes in, so we had to start the whole film again. They also said the film was in Armenian on the program, so there was a massive rush for the door when they then announced it would be in English with no subtitles.

Me at the Moscow Cinema

In the evening we had more AIESEC elections, this time for the vice presidents. I was acting as an 'international observer' so I counted all the votes and announced the results. On Saturday we were meant to do the same for the MC* but not enough people showed up so we didn't have quorum. Instead we went to another of AIESEC's favorite pubs, West. It was a Wild-West themed bar, with swinging doors and electric guitars on the walls.

On Sunday I headed off to the University for the AIESEC RAU member meeting. Afterwards Tatev's family picked me up in their car and we all headed off for my first trip out of the city!

We headed north into the mountains (although pretty much any direction you go in Armenia is into the mountains). The roads were quite windy, but in much better condition than the guide book had led me to believe. We stopped briefly at the family's summer house to drop off the food for the evening before heading on to Garni Temple.


It was built in the 1st century by an Armenian king using money the Roman emperor Nero gave him to say sorry for destroying his capital (he was meant to use it to rebuild the city). When they converted to Christianity it got turned into a summer palace for the royal family. In 1679 it got knocked down by an earthquake, and was a big pile of stones until the Soviet Union decided to rebuild it.

The result is pretty impressive, especially as it's surrounded on 3 sides by sheer cliffs. However if you looked a bit closer you could pretty clearly see the bits that the Soviets filled in (see if you can spot them)


After this we went to another Armenian 'must see', the Geghard Monastery. This is meant to be the place where the spear that pierced Jesus' side is kept, and is part of a large complex of little cells carved into the cliff walls. Monks would come here to get away from earthly desires, and would live in these little holes, which could only be reached by ladder, for years.

By the entrance there were 4 little holes carved into the cliff, which people try to throw stones into while making a wish. If you can get one in then your wish will be granted. I managed to throw one in, but it fell out again, not sure what this means).

The larger caves have been carved out over hundreds of years, as the springs inside were worshiped back in the Bronze ages. I collected a bit of the spring water in a bottle to take back home.

Armenian Priest in the Monastery

After a long day of sight seeing we headed back to the summer house for Horvats, Armenian barbecue. It's quite similar to British barbecue, but with more fire. First everything is put on massive skewers while a big pile of wood is collected. The wood is set on fire, and the vegetables put straight into the flames. They quickly get completely burnt, but this is meant to happen. Once the fire has died down they take the veggies out, and someone picks off the burnt outside while the meat and potatoes are cooked on the ashes.

Expert Chef

The food was really delicious. and we has a huge meal out on the patio. The house is up in the hills so you can look down and see Yerevan in the distance. In the evening we headed back to the city, and a was able to give Rajitha a call to say Happy Birthday before I went to bed.

*Finance and Law - Does the budget and the compendium (constitution) for the Local Committee. Makes sure we don't break any AIESEC rules.

*Member's Committee - The National Committee for AIESEC in Armenia

Day 21: Wet wet wet

Yesterday was a very significant day in the Armenian calendar, rooted deep in their culture and history. It was National Throw Water at Everyone Day!

It's based on an old pagan holiday to celebrate the waters of Armenia, where everyone gets massive buckets of water and tries to soak everyone else. Apparently to cleanse their sins. As a result I didn't bring my camera along to the meeting today, which went quite well (we were introducing more newies to AIESEC).

After we had to escort the projector through the streets around the university, with about four of us acting as shield for the guy holding it and two more running ahead to check for people hiding around the corners.

We managed to get back to the office in one piece and headed out for lunch. While we were waiting to cross the road a car with blacked out windows went past and some kid with a super soaker totally drive-byed us.

After grabbing some lunch me and few AIESECers decided to have a water fight, before drying out in the sun outside the university. In the evening I went off to the Botanical Garden with a couple of other AIESEC people.

In the days of the Soviet Union it used to be one of the nicest gardens in the USSR, but since then it has gone downhill a bit. There were a few massive greenhouses with panes of glass missing, and the plants growing out of the windows. It was a bit Jurassic Park-y, especially as hardly anyone was there.

We played Frisbee in a clearing in the woods with some people from the English club (a place where they go and practice their English by talking about things). After that we went back to the office, getting soaked again on the way.

Ancient Manuscripts and an Irish Pub: Week 2

Hi everyone, sorry again for infrequent posting, I've gotten out of the habit a little bit :(

This week has been fairly busy with lots of work on AIESEC RAU. We will be getting a shiny website in the next few weeks, and have been working hard promoting ourselves on Facebook and another Russian social networking site.

On Thursday I got a bit of time to relax and explore the city. Miko, Ishxan's brother, was my guide. First we went to see his friend in the city center. When we arrived at his flat his mum immediately set out huge piles of fruit and cake, and served us all ice cream. Apparently this is normal in Armenia, would be so cool if this happened in the UK.

Yummy Foods

Miko, his friend, his friend's younger sister and his friend's cousin (who spoke english with an American accent), took me to the Matenadaran, the only ancient manuscript museum in the world [citation needed]. We saw lots of illustrated manuscripts up to 1000 years old, as well as books, papyrus scrolls and inscribed banana leaves from all over the world. They were all very interesting, but I couldn't take any photos,

So here is a photo of the outside of the building instead.

On Friday I said goodbye to Ishxan and his family and moved on to my new home. Originally I was going to stay with Sargis, but repair works at his flat have run on a bit longer than planned, so we are both staying in student accommodation. It's nice and close to the office (only 15 minutes walk) and quite comfy too.


Sunday evening we had an AIESEC party to celebrate Sargis becoming President. We had it in the Irish Pub, which was one of the least Irish places I've ever been. They had strobe lights.

It was all good fun though, there was a power cut, so everyone got out their phones for light, and the owner lit some candles. Everyone had a bit of a sing along, and then we went on to That Place, a new bar in the middle of Yerevan. It's a bit weird in that it's in a car park, apparently it's popular with Armenians coming from abroad. Maybe they like car parks. The facebook page boasts:

"Reflecting the owners' passion for bikes, you'll feel like you are in their own garage."

More posts soon, I'm planning to finish off seeing the sights of Yerevan over the next week, so lots of pics to come!