May 31, 2010
Today, day 11, we visited Alexander Tamanyan’s statue. Alexander Tamanyan was the architect of Yerevan. He was born in Russia and came to Armenia in the early 1920’s when Armenia was under the control of the Soviet Union. He drew the blueprint of the city of Yerevan for 125,000 inhabitants. However, the city grew to over one million people and they had to build more housing on the outskirts of the city. Yerevan was made up of 3 parts. The Republic Square, the universities and the industrial parts. In order to connect the lower and upper parts of the city Tamanyan designed the “Cascades” which is a series of steps made of white doof stone and has 4 museums on 4 different levels. The first museum is Khanjyan Hall, the second museum is called Sasountsi Davit Garden Hall, the third is the Eagle Hall and the 4th museum is Eagle Garden Hall. The Cascades is a beautiful structure made up of 465 steps on the highest level of which overlooks the entire city. To honor Alexander Tamanyan, the Armenian government decided to build a statue for him. The statue was designed by Ardashes Hovsepian, were Tamanyan is leaning over a desk and looking at his blueprints of Yerevan. Yerevan is 2,792 years old. Every year the Armenians celebrate the anniversary of the city by coming together and singing, dancing and sharing food.
We went to the Ananya Shiragats School. Our class got split up into three groups. One group went to Life Skills, another went to Geography and the third went to Armenian class. Every class had 12-14 students. The classrooms were about half the size of our classrooms. Everyone enjoyed their class and met new friends. After visiting the classrooms, we went to the computer lab and we got to write and play games on a touch-screen computer (how cool). Then we went to meet the principal of the school. We talked about Armenia and his school.
After visiting the school we went to plant trees in Yerevan at the Armenia Tree Project. At the Armenia Tree Project there was a reception for us where we met new friends. On our way back to the hotel we saw a clear view of Mt. Ararat.
In the evening, we went to the Opera House to see “Pert” an Armenian dance group. This was a great performance by dancers dressed in beautiful traditional Armenian costumes.
By: Natalie Ourfalian