what i see looking off the balcony
half my room on the cleaniest of days...
Today was one of those days I feel it's a miracle I survived. quite literally.! My sitemates and I hiked a couple mountainous kilometers away in the forest to see an old monastery. If you know me, that just sounds ridiculously false, but it's true. I was told we planned this trip out weeks ago, but by the seat of my pants already hungry and tired, I met up with my friends after coming from town with absolutely nothing hiking related except my hiking shoes.
In exchange for a couple hours filled with anticipated peril of rolling down a gorge or having a lung collapse, I made it up a... what I will proudly call a pathless mountain... and I feel really satisfied and blessed with the result. Now things hurt on my body that I didn't know could hurt but I got to see something hidden and beautiful that very few people on this Earth will ever know. Of course, I was the excessively muddy one that had to stop a million times and got pissed when my sitemates tried to help me or hurry me along because it was getting late and starting to rain. I think all was forgiven when we got to the top of what one sitemate called "the fun part" HA-HA-HA.
I don't always in hindsight thank myself for the Art History minor, I remember lonnnngg classes where attendance was necessary and I had to write lonnngg structured papers all the time analyzing things that in my opinion, may not need to be analyzed (atleast not by me). Despite what my mind initially remembers, it's nice to have an eye for what's around me. Now that I'm in Armenia I often see old artworks, especially carvings and architecture. I appreciate that I am educated to appreciate and read into these types of things. The newer part of the monastery had an occulus, a lot of very interesting biblical carvings in profile, and little perfectly kept rooms for the monks. The older part was less preserved but had an altar and a couple nooks where we all lit candles. It's peace was well worth the grueling hike.
Taking a different way back, we had a grand ole mud-sliding dirty time. Again, quite literally. But... atleast it was funny! Here I am now, alive and dry and happy to have spent this time with my sitemates, to have seen the Tavush nature at it's best, and to have seen something that predates just about everything but JC himself. Next hike- Aragat... (um, no).
