It took less than two months for the GOLDEN TIMES to reach the magical number of 500 fans on Facebook. A big THANK YOU goes to everyone, who supports this AEGEE history magazine with his or her interest. Fan number 500 was Mikayel “Mik” Minasyants, one of many great people from AEGEE-Yerevan – the antennae that was ranked first in the poll that we made in October. Mik told the GOLDEN TIMES more about himself and his life in AEGEE.
Golden Times: Mik, you are the 500th fan of the Golden Times! Congratulations! How did you hear about the Golden Times?
Mik Minasyants: It’s so cool to hear about that! I was sleeping already last night when suddenly my brother came to my room and woke me up, saying that I was that lucky person. My brother who is now holding some big positions in the AEGEE network is always following all your publications and yesterday when we were just having tea he show to me the page of Golden Times. I immediately liked it, as I am always like-ing different AEGEE pages and trying to get updates from the whole Network.
Golden Times: You mean your brother Armenak, who is now president of your antenna and speaker of the International Politics Working Group. But tell us more about yourself: how old are you, what do you study?
Mik (laughing): First of all, my real name and surname is Mikayel Minasyants, but in social networks I am a bit changing my name – I do not know how but I always get MiK MinasyanC. So I am 20 years old and now I am making my master in biophysics at Yerevan State University; biophysics is a bit new profession in Armenia and it is developing very fast. If I just try to describe it in few words, it is something like physics but in the context of biology.
Golden Times: How and when did you join AEGEE-Yerevan?
Mik: My brother was the very first member of AEGEE-Yerevan in 2010. So, he was always telling me to join the AEGEE family and at last I made that decision in autumn 2011, right before the Local Training Course organized by my local.
Golden Times: Are you an active member? What are you doing in AEGEE-Yerevan?
Mik: I am trying to be as active as it is possible. At least during the last five or six months I have not missed any event or meeting of my local. Now I am focusing my attention to some environmental initiatives of my local. So far we have not had any project or event on environmental issues. I am already planning some interesting things on this topic which I would also share with our network very soon.
Golden Times: Great! What was the best event you’ve visited so far in AEGEE?
Mik: Hmm, it’s a bit difficult question to answer; you know as I am a rather new person to the AEGEE family, I still have not had any possibility to participate in any European event and I am really looking forward to fill that gap during the upcoming month. But if I could mention a local project, I would surely point out the EU Awareness Action Day by my local, which was organized in February 2011 and highlighted on aegee.org. At that time I was not an AEGEE member, but it interested me a lot.
Golden Times: And where would you like to go with AEGEE this year?
Mik (smiling): To somewhere with a lot of sun, sands and beautiful girls.
Golden Times: Please complete the sentence: “AEGEE is for me…”
Mik: AEGEE is for me the key to Europe.
Golden Times: What other hobbies do you have aside from AEGEE?
Mik: I like reading a lot, especially Hunter Thompson, Frederic Beigbeder. I am also a big fan of the Real Madrid football team for already 11 years. By the way I also like to make my brother nervous…
Golden Times: What will you work one day?
Mik: I hope that once I would have a lovely scientific laboratory with full equipment and would make a scientific patent, once.
Golden Times: As a child, what did you dream to be your future job after growing up?
Mik: I was thinking to become a military officer and to take my duty in the heavy artillery, something like tank driver. I do not know if a military service could be considered as job, but I was always thinking of it.
Golden Times: Well, I’m happy to hear that you changed your mind. Where do you live? What do you like/dislike about your city?
Mik: I am coming from Yerevan. I was born, raised and now living in one of the oldest cities of the world. Our city has a great history of about 3000 years and here you may really discover many interesting things; starting with very modern European cafeterias, pubs and skyscrapers and finishing up with very old buildings dated from the 19th century. The thing that I do not like a bit in my city is its air pollution and sometimes traffic, which maybe are not so “cruel” as in mega cities, but sometimes you are stuck in them for hours. Also sometimes I do not like the lack or even absence of green transportation.
Golden Times: What are your best and least liked cities?
Mik: My favorite cities are – Malmo, Rio de Janeiro, Damascus, Marrakesh, Havana. My least liked cities are Baku, Novosibirsk, Houston.
Golden Times: What’s never missing in your fridge?
Mik: Eggs! I always like making and eating fried eggs late in the evening in front of my laptop and while surfing in Facebook.
Golden Times: How would you describe yourself in five keywords?
Mik: Smart, joyful, enthusiastic, cynic and hard working.
More info
AEGEE-Yerevan on the web: https://aegeeyerevan.wordpress.com/
Interview with former AEGEE-Yerevan President Shushan Khachatryan: http://www.central.aegee.org/~erth/goldentimes/?p=1534
