IREX brought in the "Johnson brothers" this week to lecture over 80 Armenian teachers from around the regions the art of cooperative learning. These Armenian teachers have also been involved in IREX educational activities for years - and it seems like they are finally accepting new methodologies they can use in the classroom. It's great to see change happen right before your eyes.
Now it's Friday night and for the first night in months I am going out clubbing. After living in cities including Montreal, Boston, and Madrid... Yerevan is a city that needs a lot of work in this department (to say the least). However in the past year there have been a few places that have opened are clearly a step in the right direction. I'll report on my experience later...
It is now later. Last night I club hopped around town with colleagues in from Azerbaijan. We started with Astral where, believe it or not, hundreds of Indians had gathered in celebration of the start of Diwali - or our equivalent of a New Years celebration. One boy shared with us the story of Diwali which was really quite fascinating. For those of you who are interested in reading up on it you can check out http://theholidayspot.com/diwali/. We also learned that there are over 400 Indians studying at Yerevan State University's Medicine Faculty who each pay 6k tuition each year. They were all so friendly! We were even asked to take part in the lighting ceremony at midnight. After a while, however, we decided that it was time to leave Astral. The smoke was already getting to us and by 1 very few people remained.
We walked down to check out the opening of Chez Christophe's bar. It was nice but small so our visit was quite short. As we exited the bar, a new Brabus car almost ran us over and my American colleagues and I "may" have lashed out. The Brabus of course had to stop and I thought we were all dead. Fortunately my colleagues have a great way with people and befriended them immediately. We were invited into their car so they could take us to our next destination - Atlantic. I seemed to have been the party pooper and refused to get in. Who just randomly gets into a strangers car???
Anyway, we finally made it to Atlantic and stayed for a total of 5 minutes. It seems to now be more of a place where men go to watch prostitutes dance. And the mirrors... everyone was dancing and staring at themselves in the mirrors. For those of you who have never experienced this first hand it does sound funny. But after 5 minutes it becomes downright ANNOYING! So we left.
Our last stop of the evening was Bunker... oh how I love Bunker. We arrived at around 2AM and were surprised that so many people were there. We ordered sandwiches and fries (which were really really good) and a nargileh. It was a very nice, relaxing atmosphere. My only complaint was the smoke of course. We stayed for about two hours and lounged around. It is one of the few places in Yerevan that I recommend highly!
After getting home at around 4ish, I passed out. It's been a while since I experienced such a long night... I am getting old!
Now it's Friday night and for the first night in months I am going out clubbing. After living in cities including Montreal, Boston, and Madrid... Yerevan is a city that needs a lot of work in this department (to say the least). However in the past year there have been a few places that have opened are clearly a step in the right direction. I'll report on my experience later...
It is now later. Last night I club hopped around town with colleagues in from Azerbaijan. We started with Astral where, believe it or not, hundreds of Indians had gathered in celebration of the start of Diwali - or our equivalent of a New Years celebration. One boy shared with us the story of Diwali which was really quite fascinating. For those of you who are interested in reading up on it you can check out http://theholidayspot.com/diwali/. We also learned that there are over 400 Indians studying at Yerevan State University's Medicine Faculty who each pay 6k tuition each year. They were all so friendly! We were even asked to take part in the lighting ceremony at midnight. After a while, however, we decided that it was time to leave Astral. The smoke was already getting to us and by 1 very few people remained.
We walked down to check out the opening of Chez Christophe's bar. It was nice but small so our visit was quite short. As we exited the bar, a new Brabus car almost ran us over and my American colleagues and I "may" have lashed out. The Brabus of course had to stop and I thought we were all dead. Fortunately my colleagues have a great way with people and befriended them immediately. We were invited into their car so they could take us to our next destination - Atlantic. I seemed to have been the party pooper and refused to get in. Who just randomly gets into a strangers car???
Anyway, we finally made it to Atlantic and stayed for a total of 5 minutes. It seems to now be more of a place where men go to watch prostitutes dance. And the mirrors... everyone was dancing and staring at themselves in the mirrors. For those of you who have never experienced this first hand it does sound funny. But after 5 minutes it becomes downright ANNOYING! So we left.
Our last stop of the evening was Bunker... oh how I love Bunker. We arrived at around 2AM and were surprised that so many people were there. We ordered sandwiches and fries (which were really really good) and a nargileh. It was a very nice, relaxing atmosphere. My only complaint was the smoke of course. We stayed for about two hours and lounged around. It is one of the few places in Yerevan that I recommend highly!
After getting home at around 4ish, I passed out. It's been a while since I experienced such a long night... I am getting old!
posted by Arina at 10:57 PM
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