tourist

first off, horkoor, not capitalizing is very avant-garde. it gives my blog some edge. just dont tell any of my teachers :) i havent forgotten the rules, its just much "cooler" to break them.

so the past few days have been a lot of touristy stuff... not bad, i just havent started working, and ive been speaking more english than id like (not that i wouldn't be lost if i was speaking mostly armenian). hopefully by tomorrow (thurs) ill be starting my internship at the national leadership institute. we'll see.

sunday was church at etchmiadzin, the oldest above-ground Christian cathedral in the world. there is a professional choir, and services are always beautiful there. there is this hectic tradition where vehapar (the armenian version of the pope) enters the service in the middle of it. old ladies will beat you up in an attempt to kiss his cross or even graze his robe. luckily, we had vip seating for the day, which was helpful in avoiding this craze. in general, the service was really uplifting- its not hard to feel spiritual in such a beautiful, huge, ornate, and historic church during a very beautiful service. it was also the feast of st. etchmiadzin, which was an added bonus- just a few hymns at the end of service, but very meaningful.

monday we all went on the pilgrimage because internships werent set up yet- and im happy about that, because we went to two places i had never been before. the first was saghmosavank(monastery of the psalms), a monastic complex from 1215 (if i remember my dates correctly). it was, as most armenian churches, stunning. the architecture was a little unique, with a very rounded dome as the main dome. im at an internet cafe later, but im going to try to figure out how to add pictures later. the next stop was ambert, a fortress dating from the 7th century used by various dynasties throughout the years. a church was added later, in the 1100's. it is located on a peak where two rivers (the ambert, and another-blanking on the name) meet. it is very easily defended, and really impressive. like i noted, i could probably spend half a career of archaeology just at ambert. finally, we went to oshagan village, and S. mesrob church. This is the burial place of S. mesrob, creator of the armenian alphabet in 405 A.D. there was a beautiful garden with ornate khatchkar (cross-stone) letters, each one with a symbol based on its letter. this is a particularly relevant place for me because it is the place where father daniel became a vardabed (lit. "teacher" a special rank given to unmarried priests) last time we were here. it was nice to go back, and seeing the burial place of S. mesrob is always cool.

finally, yesterday (tues) we went to garni and geghart. i had been to both before, but not a problem going again! garni is the only standing pagan temple in armenia, reconstructed after several earthquakes. but it is a really cool architectural building, and very old/historical. geghart means spear, and is the monastic complex that housed the spear that pierced Christ's side for many years (it now rests at etchmiadzin). one of the upper rooms has the best acoustics ever. if i ever were to become a priest, i would beg and beg until they stationed me at geghart.

after geghart especially, i feel very peaceful. there is just some kind of deep quiet in the armenian countryside and inside the cold stone churches.

there are a lot of ancillary stories that i will add, but im getting tired of typing at the internet cafe, and im sure ya'll are getting tired of reading. so some fun stories including too much vodka, a really expensive dinner, and an interesting proposal, as well as pictures will be added later, perhaps this evening.