June 2, 2010
This is our last day in Armenia and we are very sad that we will be leaving tomorrow, therefore, we decided to enjoy every second that we have left in our homeland.
It was a beautiful, sunny and hot (36 degrees Celsius) day in Yerevan today. This morning we started our day by visiting the RA Ministry of Diaspora which was located right in the Republic Square only a few blocks from our hotel. They were very happy to see us. We sang a song for them and took lots of pictures with the Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hagopian. Stepan Bedrosian, who was the deputy minister of Diaspora greeted us, spent some time explaining the “Ari Tun” program and gave us a hat and a t-shirt which reads “Ari Tun” on them in red, blue and orange. We then went to Mrs. Hagopian’s office where she shared a new Armenian song with us and told us to make sure we learn that song so we can sing it next time we come back to Armenia.
Then we took the subway to Yeridasardakan stop and walked to Matenadaran. Matenadaran was built in 1957. It has many ancient manuscripts. We saw the books and manuscripts that showed that the Armenian Alphabet was created in 405 by Mesrop Mashdots. Of course, we were so excited when we saw the “hska” and “tzuk”. We also learned more about the Armenian historian Movses Khorenaci and saw his statue. As soon as we got out of Matenadaran, we couldn’t wait to go to the famous Grand Candy.
Grand Candy was amazing. We all had the famous Bonchiks and really enjoyed them very much! We will miss the Bonchigs and the chocolates.
At 8:00 p.m. we went to our final dinner destination Parvana. We ate, danced and had so much fun until 12:20 a.m. in the morning. We also had a chance to take a picture with one of our famous Armenian actor Rasmik Mansourian who was visiting from Los Angeles. He is currently playing in The Immigrants movie series. We had so much fun that none of us wanted to leave…but we need to pack and wake up at 5:00 a.m. in the morning. We will miss Armenia so much! See you all in Boston on Friday! We missed you all!
By Diana Krmzian