September 12th, 2007

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This morning we traveled to beautiful Lake Sevan, about a 45 minutes from Yerevan with Maliek and Ani. As we were driving, Ani was telling us many great stories about the Armenian culture as well as tales about Lake Sevan. Lake Sevan is the biggest lake in Armenia, and has many vacation homes. Two churches from 900 BC sit atop a hill that is surrounded by the lake, we parked the minibus and climbed the stairs to look at the churches. As we were walking up about 200 stairs (counted by Sandra), an older Armenian gentleman serenaded us as he played his small guitar. He seemed to be dressed in traditional Armenian wear, which added to the beauty of this area. The churches were amazing, old tombstones sat in front of the entrance that were gathered from around Lake Sevan. A painter sat next to the churches painting magnificant scenes of Lake Sevan in watercolor as well as oils.

We ate lunch at a restaurant overlooking Lake Sevan, as with all the servers, the woman was extremely nice. She was particularly happy to chat with us as her brother lived in East Lansing! We ate a local fish, Sig, which everyone enjoyed.

After Lake Sevan, we headed back to Yerevan to visit the Genocide memorial and museum. It was extremely sad. The monument built to house the eternal flame was very impressive, with 12 leaning stone towers to honor the 12 regions of Armenia effected by the Genocide.

An english speaking guide gave us a very informative tour of the museum, highlighting many different aspects of the Genocide. It was a very emotional afternoon, however, very educational.

The team went to Ai Leoni for dinner, a very nice Italian restuarant in Yerevan. Our table was next to a family celebrating one of the son's birthdays. As part of the celebration, a waiter came by 3 times to sing wonderful italian and armenian opera. It was astonishing how fantastic he was! It was thought he was a music student at one of the universities in Yerevan.


I have many pictures of the day, including a recording of the waiter singing, the computer I am on does not recognize my camera so I will try to upload them tomorrow...

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