Today

Christ is risen!

I'm sorry I've been horrible at keep you guys (whoever actually reads this lol) up to date! I'm working on a longer post about the past month. But I wanted to give a brief summary of today:

Josh and another friend went to St. Nektarios monastery, they left this morning. However, I was the one that had arranged their ride, etc. Long story. Anyway, I got up at 7:30 and walked with them to the bus stop, while chanting Paraklesis :) The bus wasn't taking bills, and none of us had a charlie card or enough change, so we got on for free :) Josh was confused and so we started talking in Greek because we didn't want the driver or other passengers overhearing us, and it was pretty cool :) We stopped at Dunkin Donuts and got breakfast wraps, muffins and donuts, and met their ride at Holy Resurrection a little before 9:00.

I decided to walk back instead of taking the bus - walking should take about an hour. I also decided I was in no rush, so I could take as many detours as I wanted. I walked through a nice little neighborhood, discovered the birthplace of John Kennedy; chatted for 20 minutes with the pray-ers/protesters outside the Brookline abortion clinic and helplessly watched some people go in; passed a big Assumption Catholic church and decided to check it out - amazing architecture and stained glass!!!; took another detour and discovered a shortcut through a park, as well as some trails; and came back to school around 11.

I had a very unhealthy lunch...egg/cheese omelet thingy, muffin, gratis dunkin donut courtesy of a friend, and a spoonful of nutella. Probably the most unhealthy five hours of my life!!

Wanted to take a nap in the afternoon but it didn't materialize. Fr. Seraphim Rose, Evan and I got together to study Philosophy but it turned into looking at pix of holy people and talking about Fr. Seraphim. I finally got an hour or two of work done before church.

I was going to go to Vigil (Vespers and Orthros, back to back) at Holy Resurrection (www.hrocboston.org), and Fr. Patrick was going to pick me up early (4:30, even though it doesn't start till 5:30) because he needed to be there early. Evan and I started randomly talking about ROCOR and he mentioned he wanted to go to a church sometime and I said, "How about tonight?" So I texted my ROCOR friend and was like "can you pick us up for vigil at Holy Epiphany?" Then Zosha who wasn't going to be able to go to Holy Resurrection ended up being able to come to Holy Epiphany (www.bostonrussianchurch.org), and so it was her, Evan and I.

Vigil was all in Slavonic (except for two or three litanies) and it was very nice...we ended a little before 9:00 PM. There was a Panikhida (Memorial service) at 5:30, which ended about 6:15 and then Vigil started almost immediately.

We got back to campus around 9:30 - we talked to Fr. Victor and a few parishioners after church - and then Zosha and I came to the green lounge and had peanut butter, crackers and leftover fries from the cafeteria that George saved for us. Then I decided to write this blog. Then I decided to go to bed. Good night, and Christ is risen!