I am Jenny (Yevgenya) Paturyan, former master student and current PhD student in Integrated Social Science. From my first days at Jacobs University I lived in Mercator College and came to consider this place as my second home. My first home is in Armenia. And my heart is in the highlands, but that’s a different story.

I guess I am kind of used to living on campus. When I was a kid my parents worked at Institute of Physics Research (yeah, my whole family are physicist, I’m the only “wrong” person :-P) and we had an apartment on Institute’s campus - 3 km from the closest little town. Compared to that, Jacobs University is a huge community almost in the center of a buzzing city.

It was a great time, really. A very quiet and safe please where people didn’t lock their doors, and grapes hung over every balcony. Our grapes were absolutely crazy. We never cared for them much, but they grew frantically and climbed every possible bush and tree. They still do, as a matter of fact. Eventually, we learned how to make vine. A gang of “native Americans” on bikes raiding neighbors’ strawberries, “camping” resulting in burning grass all over the place, hours spent playing outside, observing sunsets over mountain shoulders and stars shooting through the Milky Way…You got the idea of my childhood.

With the encouragement of my parents, my brother and I did quite a lot of hiking, together with other kids led by a local enthusiast. Armenia is a perfect place for that, since it’s mostly mountains and mostly not dangerous, unless you do something really stupid. The team got quite professional and we ventured into broader world. Caucasus! I was 13 and just got hooked up on Tolkien. It took me several days to re-tell the whole Lord of the Rings to my friends during long daily marches or at camping fires.

We moved to Yerevan where I went to high school and then to two Universities: Yerevan State University (philosophy diploma) and then American University of Armenia (MA in political science). At the age of 18 I joined a volunteer organization that very much shaped my character: “Spitak” Rescue Team. Trips, trainings, challenges, dangers, achievements, disappointments, friends, amazing people and funny adventures: there are lots of stories I could tell you about “Spitak” if you come by my place in Mercator D303 or sit with us at the “Mercator Big Table.” Except for mountaineering and story-telling, I also play guitar, read your fortune with Tarot cards, build little model ships, have been spotted on campus with a sword at my back, dream about jumping with parachute and sailing. In short: I am kind of weird. How about you?

(Text by Jenny)