St. Stephen's Armenian School

This morning after breakfast, we got onto the bus and we headed for Etchmiadzin. On the bus we sang Hayr Mer, Hymn Artsakhy and Harach Nahadag.

The Cathedral of Echmiadzin is very beautiful. It has a khach kar in front of it. The khach kar has an eagle and a sword on it. The inside of the church has two places to put candles. There was also a spot in the front of the room where there were candle holders hanging from the ceiling. We bought 70 candles to light for everyone who donated in honor or memory of their loved ones. Since today was Sunday and there was badarak, there were a lot of people there. We saw the Vehapar as he was walking to church and he touched us on our heads to bless us.
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First, we started the departure with praying and saying our goodbyes. Next, we’re almost to Armenia! After we said our goodbyes, we headed into the bus that would take us to the airport. After waiting a couple of hours and having something to eat, we boarded Air France.We were all so excited! After 6 hours, we finally made it to Paris, France. We stayed in Paris for 4 and a half hours, and then we boarded Air France after taking pictures. Just half an hour more, and then we land in Armenia!
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Today is our last day in Armenia. Today is a students only day. We are going to the Madenataran . To go to the Madenataran we needed to walk to the metro. The metro goes very fast. After getting off the metro, we walked 10 minutes to get to madenataran. When we got there, Chris read about the building. The building was designed by Mark Gregorian.

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Today, we are heading to Lori to see Hovhaness Tumanians house/museum, to the Haghpat monastery. On our way there, we stopped at the Letters Park. we took pictures as a class, next to the letters “s” + “v”. Also, everyone took pictures near there letters, and Digin Vicky took separate pictures of every student next to his own letter in his/her first name.
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After having a fun and relaxing free day, we started day eleven off by visiting Tumo. Tumo is an after school program which specializes in activities such as engineering, programming, music recording etc. TUMO is actually an abbreviation of Hovhannes Tumanyan, because the first TUMO that was built in Yerevan was next to his garden.
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After spending a fun night in Jermuk we headed out early to Datev Monastery. It was a very long trip getting there. Once we got there we all had to go to the bathroom, it took 3 hours to get there and there were no bathrooms on the way. We had to split into two groups to get on to the tram. Some of us got on the first tram to get to the monastery. After we landed in the tram to the monastery we started down the hill to look at cool things.We took more pictures in front of the church and in the tram. In the tram you get the best view over the trees and fields.
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Today, we started our trip by going to Gomidas’s garden. Gomidas was a very famous Armenian composer who wrote many famous Armenian songs. In Gomidas’s garden we saw the grave of Gomidas and other very famous writers, actors, and composers, like William Saroyan.
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Today we went to Oshagan, the resting place of Meshrob Mashdots. It was so cool. When we entered little kids were singing. After they sang we went down into a kind of basement like place and we recited “Khoseh Hayeren”. When we finished up with that we went outside to take some pictures. We took some pictures next to our letters in Armenian and we took a picture next to the Meshrob Mashdots statue. Then we entered the bus and were on our way to the church of Echmiadzin.
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Today our trip was to Sartarabad. When we woke up, we we’re already anxious to get there. We wore our orange t-shirts, ate breakfast, and got on the bus. It was about an hour long drive to Sartarabad, but we didn’t mind. On our drive there we saw beautiful sights of mountains, hills, and amazing greenery. When we arrived to Sartarabad it was very hot, and we had to wear our hats.
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Today we visited Dilijan. On our way there we went through a two and a half kelometer long tunnel that connected Kegharkounik province with Davoush. Once we came out the other end of the tunnel all we saw were trees. The entire area was covered in trees and flowers. I can’t find words to explain how pretty Dilijan was.
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Today we went to The Alexander Tamanian Statue. It was very big and beautiful.

After we took a lot of pictures, we went up the Cascade stairs. We saw a really awesome view of Ararat Mt. There was over 300 stairs, which was even more than the stairs to the Lake Sevan monastery! After that we went to Mousa Ler. This one had 118 stairs to climb up, which was okay for me. Then we planted trees with A.T.P! I planted 8-9 trees! It was an awesome experience connecting with my Armenian roots.
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Today we started out with breakfast at the Marriot hotel. Then we went out and took a picture. After the picture got taken we got on the bus and our tour guide explained the places. Our tour guide told us the history behind the historical statues and buildings.
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