Brit Pop and a Dog called Barks: Week 7

This draft has been sitting on my laptop for a long time, just got it finished up so there will be more to follow!

This week has again been fairly busy for AIESEC work, as we're getting to the stage where we need to have a full plan for the next year. However I've had a little bit of time to see the sights as well as a few other things.

Last Sunday, after I got horribly sunburnt at Lake Sevan (it's pretty much all better now!) I went to the AIESEC Armenia handover party. This was a big event where the new team for AIESEC Yerevan was announced, with the traditional glass of water over the head.

I also met a lot of AIESEC Alumni (ex-members) including Manu, who along with two other people both called Gaya has set up a group called Indie Libertines. They organise indie music parties in Yerevan, where the musical scene is pretty dominated by metal.

It happened that later that week they were going to be running a British music night at one of the clubs in the city. Naturally being the incredible expert on the UK indie music scene I was instantly recruited to help out. Sadly Armenians aren't quite ready for dubstep :(

The party was pretty great, they'd decorated the place with a giant Union Jack on the ceiling and had one of Yerevan's 7 indie bands playing covers of Oasis and the like. I'd put together a little UK pub quiz for everyone, and was quite proud to see how quickly they learnt they could cheat on their iPhones.

Not quite sure what they'll do with the 6 foot long Union Jack now...

The next day I moved house once again, this time to stay with Karen (pronounced Kharen) an AIESEC Alumni. Karen lives with his family (including aunts and uncles) in a sort of compound of 3 houses, in a part of Yerevan known as Bangladesh. It's called this for pretty much the same reason we'd call a part of a city Timbuktu although it isn't actually that far away, only 40 minutes on the bus.

Karen lives with his Mum and Dad on the top floor of one of the houses along with his brother Armen and Armen's wife and 1 year old son. However the bottom floor of that house is currently uninhabited so me and Karen have moved in there. When I first arrived I was met by a very woofy dog who appropriately enough is called Barks as well as their slightly quieter hunting dog Jacque.

Woof

On Saturday me and a few AIESECers went to the Genocide Museum in the park just outside the city center. It was a short walk up hill though some nice woods and gardens, but apparently on Genocide Memorial Day (April 24th) there is such a long line of people you can end up spending a whole afternoon walking slowly to the top in the middle of a huge crowd so quite a few end up fainting!

The museum itself consists of a memorial with an eternal flame, as well as a large exhibit hall that tells the story of the genocide through photos, documents and contemporary accounts. The Armenian Genocide isn't really covered in UK history lessons so if you don't know much about I'd advise reading up on it here. It was quite moving to hear the AIESECers I was with tell me about what happened to their grandparents, including how one fled Turkey with their mother and hundreds of orphans.

More updates to follow soon, sorry for neglecting the blog recently, a combination of laziness and busyness. Watch this space!