KHACHATUR ABOVYAN ARMENIAN STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY

Over 90 students, who arrived in Armenia three days ago within the framework of the Summer School 2017, are enjoying the beautiful nature of the country and the warm hospitality of Armenian people.

Dances, training, games, interactive workshops and discussions make part of the daily routine of participants of the international programme. Just on the first day of their visit, the foreign students were able to learn a few sentences in Armenian, got acquainted with the history of Armenian traditional celebrations. With the help of Marianna Avetisyan, Associate Professor and Candidate of Science in Psychology, they learned to communicate in a culturally unfamiliar environment, to apply new gestures and acquire other skills.

Before the visit, Hungarian Zoltán Kondás had managed to study Armenian history and was looking forward to the upcoming trip to Armenia. “I have read about Mesrop Mashtots and Grigor Lusavorich and studied the story of Noah's ark. I was very excited when I learned that we were going to visit Garni and Lake Sevan because Europeans consider these places to be exotic,” the Hungarian student said.

The kickoff of study tours began from the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin: the programme participants visited Ruben Sevak Museum and Treasury Museum of the cathedral.

Talking to old.aspu.am, Hungarian student Barbara Persa, said during the short tour she managed to learn a lot of things about the Armenian Apostolic Church. "It was very interesting for me to visit the first Christian country. The exhibits at the museums attest to the centuries-old history of the country,” she said.

The next stop of foreign students was the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex. The students laid a wreath and bowed down in memory of innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide.

This year, the Summer School project implemented jointly by the Student Council of Armenian State Pedagogical University and the Youth Foundation of Armenia for the fifth time is attended by students from ASPU partner universities from Lithuania, Hungary, Belarus, the Russian Federation and the Artsakh Republic.