Geghard and Garni

This weekend was such a busy weekend! Saturday after language we went to Garni pagan temple, and Geghard Monastery. Geghard was the most beautiful place that I have seen in Armenia. It was absolutely breathtaking in every single aspect. My words could never come close to describing the beauty nor could my pictures capture it…

The start of the day waiting for our Mushtnis with some of my besties Alex, Ashely and peter

This is Geghard Monastery
The Monastery has a number of caves and prayer rooms surrounding it. Me and Alex found quite a few of them
This is an old bridge at the monestary that leads you across the small stream to a series of caves
Symbology in one of the monasterys huge Prayer rooms. You can't really see but at top is an Ox, then two lions and and I'll assume the Bird is an Eagle, which would mean they represent the Apostles... Though differnt Armenian historians would argue otherwise
Aremenian khatchkar, their style of the cross
Another Armenian khatchkar
The beautiful mountains that sorround the monestary, which is carved into a cliff from the inside out.
Ashely, Marissa and I in front of Garni temple.
At the Sacfrice alter, Marissa is my sacrafice
The temple was mostly restored after an earthquake brought it down, but in some parts you can see the original stones
We now have two intense weeks left of training. Every day we will have language for two weeks and after practicum, which for most of us means model school. I have to say I am super nervous for model school. I have never really taught a class of students before. I have taught small groups of fourth graders, or ESL to Adults, but never a classroom full of kids. My first three lessons believe it or not, are about Taylor Swift. Yep I am bringing some country music to Armenia. I am going to have the kids listen to BEST Day, and fill in the past tense verbs. Then we are going to talk about the song in terms of being autobiographic. The next day Joseph and I will give them Taylor swift biographies to read and discuss. And on the last day they will write their own biographies as if they were famous for something. I think it will be fun! I actually really love lesson planning, just not technical teaching.

Anyways since this week will be so intense, it was perfect that we ended the weekend with an A17 vs A18 kickball game. We had so much fun just letting loose and running around with the older volunteers.