Car Rides and Eye-Opening Tour Times

Some official blog business:

As you five can tell by now, I am trying to catch up on my blog postings for the week. To be honest, I think I will end up writing something twice a week. Not enough you say? Oh, I think you’ll live.

 

I’ll go ahead and start where I left off. The plane from Paris landed in Yerevan’s international airport, Zvartnots. Apparently, the international terminal was built in the last five years, very clean and modern and easy to navigate through. Sofia, Elizabeth and I picked up our 120 day Visas and moved through customs to meet Vram, Program Intern Coordinator of the Armenian Assembly Internship Program: Yerevan. Vram is pretty fantastic. I am not going to lie. He met the three of us at the airport with a van to take us to our apartments. Driving in Yerevan, I discovered, during that car ride reminds me of a line in the Rent song “Out Tonight” sung by the character Mimi. It states, “breaking the rules once I learn the game.” Fun real life car games like extreme lane switching and eliminate the pedestrian in the road reign supreme on the streets. After we did some extreme driving and dropped off Elizabeth at her apartment, I, along with Vram visited my apartment for the first time. I have no other way of saying this when talking about my apartment: I have some seriously sweet digs.

The next day was our day of Orientation of Yerevan. I met Sarkis and Armen, two other interns and with Elizabeth, Vram and me, the five of us hit the town. The city itself is very lively. People walk everywhere and they walk with a sense of purpose. Republic Square, otherwise known as Hanrapetutyan Hraparak is in the center of the city and contains most of the government buildings, the famed Marriott Hotel in Armenia and a wonderful large fountain that performs water dancing/light show every night (except for Mondays). We walked through open-air markets, had pizza at a great shop and ended the night with a look out on the water fountain. What surprised me on our day tour were the stores that have already settled in Yerevan like Guess, Clarks, and my personal favorite Untied Colors of Benetton. Everywhere I looked, there was construction and redevelopment, which made the former Soviet controlled country look promising, but there is clear presence of poverty-stricken people and places all around the city. Most of the buildings are Soviet-esque; crumbling and brown. Mixed in with these buildings are grand pieces of architecture like the buildings surrounding the Hraparak and opulent fountains of art like the Cascade. The day all in all was enlightening and gave me a good feel for the city. It also gave me the opportunity to start to really think about the state of things here in Yerevan.