Today was a very busy day. We had to wake up at 6:00 and go to breakfast at 7:00. After a day of partying and dancing yesterday, I really didn’t feel like waking up at 6:00. Instead I woke up at 6:30. We had a buffet for breakfast, as usual I got waffles and maple syrup.
After breakfast, we headed into the bus to go to Keghartavank. We sang and slept in the bus. Finally, we got to Keghartavank. We prayed, lit candles, and examined the ancient cuneiforms. Once we got out of Keghart we went to a little market. There were crowns made out of flowers, Armenian foods, and souvenirs. I got the floral crown – it surprisingly looked great on me. All my friends laughed and they found it amusing.
Later, when we arrived at Karni, I realized that all of that driving payed off. The view was beautiful and incredible. The hills and valleys were covered with greenery. The temple was also very impressive. It had huge rocks and towering columns and the best part was that you could feel the presence of the ancient kings. The temple reminded me of a book about greek mythology, called Percy Jackson. It reminded me of this because Karni was based on a sort of Helenic-Armenian style, and greek style is very similar to what Karni actually is. We took a mini hike through the small woods and into a bathhouse, then we walked to the small shopping center. I bought some peach tea. Finally we walked back to the bus, and we drove to lunch.
In the afternoon we went to Sevana Lij. We climed a huge staircase with 209 stairs to the top of the mountain where the church was. When we got to the top, Sarah and I collected Obsidian stones. We went inside the church and lit candles. On the mountain I found a crystal like rock. Then we went back down and a few of us went to the gift shop and got cool things. The last thing we did was take our socks and shoes off and dipped our feet in the cold blue waters of Lake Sevan.
After that we headed to the Sevan English Learning Center. We met and made new friends. We played games like untangle and musical chairs. I made a new friend and asked his name, his age and his favorite game which he said was football (soccer). Then we danced with our new friends and had a few snacks. We also took a picture with them and then said goodbye.
For dinner we had pizza and yummy pasta. While we were eating, we saw a cute stray cat out the window. It was a great day!
-Antrias Kahvejian and Aren panian