Reflections by Kris Tatiossian

These past 10 days have been incredible. Visiting the country I’ve heard so much about since childhood seems almost surreal. Hearing stories of Meshrop Mastotz and Khor Virab, seeing Mount Ararat in pictures, etc. don’t even come close to experiencing them all in reality. My favorite part, however, doesn’t lie in the history of this nation, but in its present beauty. A couple of days ago we all hiked up a practically vertical staircase to visit an ancient church in ruins. At the top of the mountain, the church lay in rubble, but the view of the surrounding country was more beautiful than any church could ever hope to be. The view from the top included a bubbling stream below, a small hillside community of ranchers, but the most incredible part of all was the plateaus that rose vertically above the land. They were football field sizes of land surrounded by shear precipices. And above these pieces of land were the community of people. They had a 360 degree view of Armenia in all its glory.