Day 1
We left St. Stephen’s with excitement and enthusiasm. Some students where sad to leave their other parent but as we drove to the airport all the sadness was gone and there was happiness in the air. We arrived at Logan airport and everything went smoothly.
We all got together and decided to go have a bit to eat close the boarding gate. We all enjoyed our late lunch and had plenty of time to even have coffee and unwind. We boarded the plane and had a calm and relaxing flight. Finally after a 6 hour flight we landed in Paris, France. Everything as of known seems to be running on time and the children and parents are all enjoying!
By Hovanes Aroyian
Day 2
Today we are waiting tediously, but excited to go to Yerevan, Armenia. Near the gate, we already see Yerevan printed on. We all filled in our journals today, for the first time! We are waiting impatiantley to go on the plane and get to Hayastan!! Everybody is so excited! Today at night , we arrived finally in Yerevan! Yay!
Everybody was so excited to see what Digin Ardemis was talking about all these years! We settled down at the Marriot, then we went downtown to get some pizza. Even though some of our baggage’s got lost, and found, we will still enjoy this trip together no matter what comes through our way! This is the best opportunity and experience ever! Can you believe we are already in Armenia? We all miss you St. Stephens! See you soon!
By Melanne Ghahraman
Day 3
Today I woke up very tired. But I remembered that we were going to Echmiadzeen, so it made me happy. Echmiadzeen is Armenia’s oldest church. It was built from 301 to 303. Until 1920, Echmiadzeen was known as Vagharshabad. At Echmiadzeen’s 16th century the church got miniature.
Dzeedzernagapert was very pretty. There is a big cross stone that represents the people who died, but didn’t have a grave. The tall, needle like monument, represents the diaspora. The cone shaped monument has 12 very big posts. Those twelve posts represent the 12 regions of Armenia.There is also a wall that names a bunch of Armenian villages that the genocide took place in. Beside it were some graves.
Today we also went to Oshagan. We went to St Mesrob Mashdots church, where St. Mesrob Mashtots was buried .We recited a poem in front of his grave in loving memory of him and we promised to always speak Armenian.
By Nareg Stepanian
Day 4
Today was so exciting because we went to Gomidas’ Aiki. I thought that only Gomidas’ gravestone is there, but I was totally wrong. There is so many intellectuals’ gravestones that you name it and you see it. We took a lot of pictures that it was getting annoying! There was even a bench that said Yerevan on it in Armenian. It was so cool!
On the way to Artsakh, we went to Khor Virab. At the bottom of the church were two dungeons and in one of them Krikor Lusavoritch was thrown in it. One dungeon was big and the other was small. Everyone was scared to go in (including me). I was really scared, but my mom told me that this is once in a lifetime thing, and after when most of my friends went, they told me it’s soooooo cool.
After a while I decided to try the dungeon that Krikor Lusavoritch was in. It was kind of scary at first, but then I got used to it and went down. It was really big and cool. We were all jumping around everywhere. There were pictures and one cross. We found the hole that Khosrovatookht (Dirtad Takavor’s sister), dropped bread and water to Krikor Lusavoritch every day. It was awesome! But the most exciting thing we saw was Ararat from the closest point you could ever see it. That was awesome!
The third thing we did today was to go to Noravank. It was really fun because when you climb up the stairs you think that you are actually rock climbing. There is still a ‘but” though. The stairs are so narrow. When I go to the top of the stairs, everyone told me to go back and not look down, but I still did! It feels like you are the king of the world when you are up there. (Just saying that it’s a good feeling). Noravank was the best!
The last fun and interesting thing we did was go to Karahung. When we were walking to go there, Juliana saw a puddle of mud, but she didn’t know that and she said “Oh that looks cool,” and she stepped in it and her new shoes got all mud. It was really funny. When we got Karahung, there were so many builders and everyone kept on climbing them and taking pictures on them. It was great!
By Karyl Ashjian
Day 5
Today we went to the school of Khachadour Apovian in Shoushi. We met the fifth graders there, and became friends with each other. We sang and recited poems for the fifth graders there. They also sang and recited poems for us too. Then, we gave each other telephone numbers and addresses, so we could keep in touch with each other.
Then, we walked to the church called Sourp Amenapergich. The church was built in 1868. The church had held manuscripts in hermit rooms under the alter. This church has been a weapon storage for the Azeris, until 1992 when Shoushi became liberated by Armenian freedom fighters. We visited a room under the church, that when you stand in the center of the room and say something looking up, the words will echo through the room. When we left the church, it started to hail on us very badly. The hail was very big and hard. We managed to reach the bus in the hail and rain. When we went in the bus, we sat down and went to the Shoushi Grand Hotel, to eat lunch. When we finished eating lunch, we went to Amaras.
Amaras is one of the oldest churches in Armenia. Amaras has been destroyed several times and has finally been rebuilt in 1858. Amaras was also the first and oldest Armenian school. The school part of Amaras was built by Mesrob Mashdots. Gregory the Illuminator had started building the church part of Amaras. He passed away before he could complete the church, but his nephew, Grigoris continued to build the church after Gregory the Illuminator’s death. Later on, Grigoris completed the church. We went inside the church and saw Grigoris’ sepulcher.
Then we lit a candle and went to the school part of Amaras. It looked very old .We saw the letters that Mesrob Mashdots wrote on the roof for the students he was teaching Armenian to. When we finished looking at everything at Amaras, we went back in the bus to go eat dinner. We arrived at the restaurant for dinner. When we finished eating our dinner, we went in the bus, to go to the Shoushi Grand Hotel. We went in the hotel, and went to sleep for the next day.
By Narek Sahakian
Day 6
Today we went to the Shushi Museum, since we didn’t go yesterday. Today was raining too, but we persisted. We saw a lot of pottery and rocks. We also saw a 3-D map of Shushi’s liberation plan. There was a plaque that was in memory of my dad, Vahe Mahrokhian. I felt very proud. We also saw a picture of the St. Ghazanchetsots church at the time of the liberation. It was very cool to see.
Next, we went to the first tank that entered Shushi during the attack. We said a poem called Artsakh. I think we said it very precisely. The tank was so cool. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to get down when it was so hard to get up.
We also went to the Gandzasar monastery. It was beautiful. The view was so pretty that I became speechless. The monastery was made in the 13th century. When you enter the church you see two rooms. One is a room for candles and the other is where you do the sermons. In the room where you do the sermons, you see two flight of stairs leading to rooms. These are called “akhotkadoon”s.
Next, we went to Nigol Touman’s house/museum. We had to climb up a really steep hill. On our way up the hill we saw a bunch of animals; such as geese, chickens, horses, donkeys, turkeys, etc. While we were there, we saw a rifle that was used by Nigol Touman. His real name was Nigoghayos Der Hovsepian. He was a son of a priest. So their family was really rich.
When we got to the monument “We and Our Mountains” we saw that it was closed for construction. We were really upset, but then Digin Ardemis told us that we were going to The Nagorno-Karabagh Republic memorial museum of the perished solders. It was really sad. We saw about a thousand or more pictures of perished solders.
Afterwards, we went to the military base of Stepanakert. We saw a bunch of soldiers and we sang for them. Unfortunaly we couldn’t see the tanks and machines because they were locked up. I was so upset.
Right next to the military base, there was an orphanage. Once we arrived, Mousegh jumped out and gave them his ball that he had got from the market. We played with the ball then we went inside the military base. Once we were done with the military base we played soccer with them. They were so nice and very kind to us. We really enjoyed it.
By Sanan Mahrokhian
Day 7
Today, we departed for Yerevan. Shushi was very nice, but we were all happy to go back. On our way we stopped at Berdzor to plant trees and plant our roots in Kharabagh . Trees are very hard to plant, but they are so useful to the environment and the economy. We should appreciate the work people go through to plant these beautiful and useful trees.
Our next stop was the tramway ride to the monastery of Datev. Everyone was so excited, but nervous to ride on it. We finally went out though and enjoyed the breath taking views of Datev and its surroundings; the trees, forests, sky, and mountains. The tramway ride was pretty steady; this gave us ample time to enjoy the scenery.
Datev was a really interesting place. This historical monastery built in 906 has served as a school as well as a spiritual and educational center. We visited all the classrooms of the school, which were really special since they were caves with hardly any light. Another room we visited was the “Jemaran”, a little space similar to a balcony used by professors and intellectuals to think clearly. The monastery even had a kitchen; among the cooking materials we saw was a huge sesame oil press. Finally, our tour guide Kohar took us to a structure that represents the symbol of the Holy Trinity. Unlike most structures, its foundation is round, which causes it to shake at certain times. Legend has it that whenever enemies attack, it shakes to alarm the people to the upcoming danger.
On our way back from Datev, we had lunch in Herher. The outdoor restaurant was unique. It had gazebos made out of wood over our tables, a play space, and brilliant scenery.
Our class learned so much today! Next stop… Yerevan.
By Anelga Hajjar
Day 8
Today we went to Alexander Tamanyan’s statue. When you first walk in you see all these pretty statues, but we only saw one statue that was of Alexander Tamanyan.We first went to the other side of the museum and we saw a beautiful flowery hedge in the middle of all the statues. They were very interesting to look at. We noticed that the Alexander Tamanyan statue had a map of Yerevan made as a sun. The streets going across were as a circle in a sun formation, and the streets going in colums were the suns’ rays. After, we went see the museum, but unfortunately it closed. So instead we went up for pictures. When we were going up we took the escalators. There must have been at least 15 escalators row after ,row after row. When we finally reached the top of Kascad there was a tower inside of different colored crystals. It was very cool because they were in different shapes and sizes. When we went out to the top floor of Kascad, we saw a beautiful sight of Ararat. I was sort of hoping that we would see the small mountain and big, but we only saw the big part.
We went to the Yerevan school and saw all the kids. When you would enter the school there would be paintings hung up on the wall. The school was much bigger than ours. They had like four buildings that were sort of like districts. After the teachers and some students showed us the slide show (they had made for us) we then went outside to play basketball in the basketball court.
Though it was very confusing because they had switched the teams so many times I only had remembered two people. Some people chose to play soccer instead on rocks and dirt and I didn’t want to play that because so many people fell and got cuts. Finally, we had to go to eat in the cafeteria. We ate cheese boregs and strawberry lemonade. Although I really couldn’t taste the cheese that well.
The Armenian tree project was very good and bad at the same time. I feel that some people do not take the planting trees seriously. It feels good to be planting some oxygen to this earth. It would be absolutely perfect if everybody sang “mer hairenig” altogether because some people were laughing and that isn’t good to do during that time. I was a little bit, expecting that we would plant it in the ground and water it with seeds and everything and dig a hole to plant it in. But it was okay because we still did half of what I thought we would do, such as: watering, and planting the seeds. Altogether I am mostly glad we got to go to the Armenian tree project and not let something get in the way of going. So I hope that some people will go visit the Armenia tree project and water our trees!
By Juliana Rizza
Day 9
When we were going to Lori, we stopped at the Armenian alphabet. Each person stood at their letter and took a picture. It was so cool to see the alphabet in 3D. We took a class picture on the S,V because of our school name. On the way we also saw three mountains, Ararat, Arakadz and Ara’s Mountain. It was a beautiful and bright day out. I wish it was like this when we went to Khor Virab. They were really pretty!
We also went to a market to get some food. We got the world’s best bread! It was so good, it was speechless. They made it fresh from the tonier. Under the bus we saw a cat. We didn’t want to touch it, but we did give it food. We gave it some bread. When we gave a piece of sausage and the cat swallowed it down in one bite. After a little we named it Lavash cause all we gave it was lavash.
When we got to Lori. Our first stop was Hovanes Toumanian house/museum. His house was very interesting because I love seeing ancient stuff. At first Toumanian’s had one room then they built four more rooms. When we were about to leave Sam saw a gift shop where we could dress up as Toumanian’s story characters. It was really fun! Narek and Hovanes were on a horse and Mark had a sheep it was really cute.
Haghbad was very cool. Haghbad in English means victory wall. The first one was built 976. The second was built in 1061. The third was built in 1063. There was a cross stone which was called st. amenaprgich. It was made of an orange rock. Today was the last bell (last day of school) of the Haghtbab School, so everybody gathered at the church.
Last of all we went to Sanahin. Sanahin means one is older than the other. It had so many cross stones. It was really pretty and big. They had so many grave stones on the floor and they had different designs .
For dinner we went to a very good restaurant in a hotel. The food was really good.
By Mary Boyajian and Natalie Gebeyan
Day 10
It’s day 10 ,we walked to the Metro train station. We took a train to the Yeredasartagan station. It’s called Yeredasartagan ,because in English Yeredasartagan means youth/young , and a lot of the universities are in the area of the station.
Madenataran was huge. It was made in 1957. The statue in front is Mesrob Mashdots and his student Goryoun kneeling in front of him. He is kneeling in front of him because he wrote his biography. Madenataran looks like a church because it has a lot of books. It has 17,000 books, 15,000 in Armenian and 2,000 are in different languages. Next to the door are 6 of our famous people. Examples are Anania Shiragatsy and Movses Khorenatsy.
If you stand in front of the door you can see Ararat very clearly. It is very beautiful. Also the Madenataran was closed. Another thing is that the Madenataran was on a hill. After that we walked to a puppet show. It was about a chick getting raised by a fox and a wolf. The fox wants to eat the chick. But the wolf feels like a real father and protects the chick.
Then we went to a kid’s art museum. The artworks were so creative and cool that ages 3 to 16 could do this.
Then we went to Vernesaj, it is a flea market which had knives, swords, instruments, jewelery, and Armenian nik-naks.
Then we went to the Grand Candy factory. It made the biggest chocolate bar in the world!!!! We bought so much candy and we loaded ourselves with bonchig(donuts)!!!! Then we went to a restaurant .The food was great!!!!! We had a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By Armen Michaelian and Arman Movsesian
Day 11
Sartarabad was amazing. The 12 bells represent the 12 regions of Armenia. I really liked the bulls. There were 5 eagles all with their backs faced to Turkey. When we walked forward to see the performance we took pictures with the Vehapar and President Sarkisian. We also shook hands with him.
The performance was great. The dancers were amazingly good. After that some people started feeling like they were going to faint. We also met the minister of education.
Being at Sartarabad was the greatest feeling I had ever had. If I could go there every May 28 I would. Tonight we are going to the opera house to enjoy the performance of famous Armenian traditional dance ensemble “paregamoutioun”.
By Sam Sagherian
Day 12
We started our trip at 8:30.Our first destination was Geghardavank.It was fascinating. It was built in 1215. The churches were carved out of rocks from top to bottom. Inside the church there was a natural spring. People say if you drink from that water your pain will go away. The steeple is decorated with pomegranates, which symbolize new life. In one of the rooms there was a hole in the ceiling so the people can communicate with the other room. The builders also figured out how to make natural air conditioning. In the room with the hole in the ceiling, the alter is built in front of an area with strong gravity. People believed that standing in front of the alter could cure them. In reality the strong gravity took away the pain for a little while.
Our second stop was the temple of Garni. It was built in 100 B.C. by King Drtad the first. It was dedicated to the sun god, Meeher, the Armenian version of the Greek god Helios. It became a nearly incapable fortress, it was also a summer house for Armenian royalty. We also saw their bathtub, it had four rooms. One three were tubs there was a hot water tub, a warm water tub and a cold water tub. The fourth room was hanging room, it had beautiful nearly complete mosaics on the floor.
Our third stop was Lake Sevan. After a long climb we reached the church at the top of the hill, it was called St. Apostolic Church, because Jesus’ disciples told Catholicos Mashdots,in his dream, to build a church there. It had an amazing view of Lake Sevan. I doubt you can get a better view of Lake Sevan anywhere else.
Our fourth, and final stop was the English Learning Center in Sevan. We met the students and had a fun time playing games with them. It was very kind of them to draw pictures to each one of us and make a little gift pack for us, each student exchanged e-mails and addresses and promised to keep in touch with each other.
Today was a busy but fun and a successful day.
By Mark Haroutunian
Day 13
Our first stop was at the Vartan Mamigonian statue, it was made in 1978. Vartan was on a horse with a sword in his, the statue was made by Yervant Kochar, a famous sculptor. It was made in honor of his bravery in war.
On our way to a museum we saw Krikor Lousavorich Church. The church is made from rocks, those rocks are from the city of Ani, they came from Ani because part of lost Armenia will always be with them. It is the biggest church in Armenia.
Our second stop was Erebouni museum. Inside the museum there was the real birth certificate of Erepooni. From 782 B.C.
Ancient Armenians learned to organize foods and clothes according to seasons. They make clothes from fur, cloth, bark and metal. They made art from shells and rocks, perfume from leaves, rings made out of diamonds, royal cups in shape of a horse of silver, rocks used for houses, iron masks and pots.
Our third stop was Madenataran, there are more than 17000 books there. The biggest book in the world is called Hsga [that means giant in Armenian] It’s bigger then a tire. The smallest book in the world is called the Dzoog [that means midget in Armenian] It is smaller than your palm. The Palatine Gospel is a very old and colorful book. In the book the color black is from walnuts. The Gospel of Echmiadzin was made in the 6th century. There are only three Gospels of Etchmiadzin in the world. One is found in Paris, the other is found in Italy and the oldest is found in Armenia.
Our fourth stop was National History museum. It was very interesting ,We saw the world oldest leader shoe dated 3500 BC.
Finally we had our farewell dinner.
By Mousegh Monteiro