Today we ate breakfast and walked to the Metro station to take the train to Madenataran. We got our tokens and got on the train. When we arrived at the next stop, we started to walk toward Madenataran. It was a long and tiring walk, but we finally got there. We took some pictures next to the big statue of Mesrob Mashdotz and his student. We went into the building and met our tour guide. We started to look in the main hall, which was designed to look like Geghart monastery. We saw the manuscripts Msho Jarndir and Donatsouyts or Hsgah and Tuzoog. We saw the first translated bible and book. One manuscript was so old and rotted, that if you touched the parchment it would shatter. I couldn’t even read the writing on it. The pictures in the books and manuscripts were drawn so elaborately and carefully with the colors from natural sources. We got to see those sources in another display cases. There were plants, such as herbs and wheat, that were mostly found in the fields of Ararat mountain. One display showed the Vortan Garmir, a bug that gives off red dye. That was it for the tour; I loved it a lot.
We got on a mini van or bus and set off for TUMO center. We bought some snacks on the way. When we got to TUMO center, we first went into a theater room, where our guide explained what TUMO was and how it worked. We had chosen to do the activity of film-making. After the guide finished explaining, we had lunch in the cafeteria. I had a sandwich and mashed potatoes. After lunch we went back into the theater room this time led by the film-making director, Shoghig. She got into the details of film-making itself. We had to make a short film with video cameras about the TUMO grounds with no dialogue, like a documentary without words.
We had to go outside and take short videos of the scenery. We stayed out there in the scorching sun for an hour taking videos of the beautiful park. After shooting, we got a break where we had croissants and bananas. Then it was time to edit and combine our videos to make a one minute video. On the computer, we cut and combined the shots we wanted to be in our video. It took a long time, and it was extremely hard to make the one minute clip. Luckily, we all finished our videos in time. We also added music to it. Everybody, even the parents (who showed up at four o’clock) watched our videos on a projection screen. After that, we took some group pictures outside the building with the first staff member we met.
We left and got in the mini van to go to the hotel before dinner.
At seven o’clock, we left for dinner at Lagonid. I ordered chicken shawerma. It was scrumptious.
We set off back to the hotel after the awesome food.
Nathan Kefeyan