It's not that the sort of party is unfamiliar, or something I've never experienced-- it's more like it seems vaguely similar, the sort of trappings of a typical casual work-place party, but everything just seems a little off. So we start everything off with a long toast, celebrating the NGO, talking about the founders, etc. Then we have a table of food set up, all really great food, so much food, more than all of us there could ever eat. So we all start eating, but then they take the music, in this tiny little room, crank it up to 11 so we can barely hear yourself think, and it vibrates anything close to it. Oh and it's loud like techno/house type music. Then soon after that we had breakdancing, the same people from the Halloween party.
Then we have people just generally dancing and eating, so really that part was pretty chill, people were having fun. I was just being an observer.
At one point this guy who I had never met came up and said I should dance. I was like, no no, I'm okay. Then he asks "Do you know Pantera?" Yes I know them. "Dimebag Darrel?" Yes. "Okay, then dance." No. "Do you know System of a Down?" Yes, I know the band. "Okay, then let's dance!"
Following this we had a traditional Armenian dance, that looked like the a kola style type dance I remember from my Serbian language classes, and at Serbian new year celebrations. That lasted only for a short time, then we moved on to some Russian songs, birthday songs with a guy playing acoustic guitar.
Then they started playing (and again, remember this is really loud, like feel it in your chest loud) some cheesey metalcore band with these over-the-top melodic leads, really overproduced, with generic screaming, and of course a breakdown for the bridge. (If that sentence doesn't make sense then don't worry, just keep reading and ignore it.) I never thought I'd be at an Armenian party and hear a breakdown. And there was even an open dance floor where kids just started break dancing.
Abruptly they shut off the music, and then hand me an apple with a string tied to it. Eventually we are told we just need to hold the apple for this next activity, and I was given the apple because I was tall. (and by Armenian standards, I am). So I hold the apple up and two Armenians have to work together to eat the apple. Sortof like bobbing for apples in reverse, where they're reaching up into the air, instead of down into a bucket of water. My group did pretty awful, but they had fun, and I saw actual groups eat the whole apple, even the core.
After handing out the prize (some chocolates) they started the music back up again. The one guy asked me about System of a Down earlier. This is an American band, but they're from California and all or most of the members are ethnically Armenian. So most Armenians have a sort of ownership over the band, so they're pretty popular. I often see graffiti that just says "System of a Down" or "SOAD." So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when they played some System of a Down. What did really surprise me though, was that they played the song "Sugar" which is a pretty strange song, and from their first album. I listened to that song in like 7th or 8th grade, the entire summer, with my best friend's stereo on his front porch. The band has had all sorts of albums that were all more popular than their first release, so I would expect Armenians just to know songs from their newer stuff that I've never heard. It was pretty nostalgic hearing this old song I had all but forgotten about. I couldn't stop from smiling.
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