GREEN GREEN GREEN EVERYWHERE!!! What a picture perfect weekend it was. I gathered the troops and went camping in the Garni gorge for a night. Shant Petrossian, Sebouh Hatzakordzian, Kelly Bedeian and I grabbed our tents, sleeping bags, pots and pans, fruits and veggies, hot dogs and were outward bound to Garni. With no clue where to go, we hiked down only to stumble upon a corner of the world I will never forget. Of course, it called for creating an assembly line across an ice cold river with currents that nearly knocked me over to get to the side we wanted. The boys near reached hypothermia, but the reward was worth it. We found a perfect space between these humbling cliff sides with magnificent rock formations, right by the river/makeshift refridgerator... of course, building a damn was essential to making sure that we didn't lose our supplies. A full Saturday was spent setting up camp, playing frizbee, Kung Foo lessons, a game of Gin Rumi, climbing a hillside and preparing some tasty sandwiches.

Threats of cold temperatures and rain had us worried, but none were encountered. The weather was perfect. With the view of Garni accenting our landscape, the cows down the river, the passers-by practicing their English on us, and the lack of pressuring concerns, the evening was a textbook definition of relaxing. As the sun fell, the big dipper made its appearance, and the rest of the stars that have ever existed followed. The sky was crystal clear so much that the sky was lit up with millions of years of light.

So we started up the fire, cooked up some hot dogs and Kelly began reading our fortunes. Casual conversation took us well into the night until we couldn't even keep our eyes open anymore. So we hopped into our tents and slept to the sound of the running river right by our sides, ONLY to wake up to the cow on the other side at 8:00 am. Sebouh cooked up some omlets on the fire and we were on our way to climb up the hillside again, this time to see what was on the other side. We found only more natural beauty, and hence our weekend came to an end, but on such a wonderful note.

Going back to Yerevan was an achy and soar experience, what, with all the exercise I got after years of laziness. Oh, I will miss the rich green hillsides. As Shant said that night, "how on earth does one explain where we are right now?" How do you describe being one with nature just beneathe a temple that was built 2000 years ago, surrounded by enormous cliffs with rock shapes that none of us could explain? Just knowing the basic history of that land knocks me off my feet in awe of it all. It truly was a picture perfect weekend.