I'm typing this blog entry mainly to 'warm-up' my fingers to type my 2000wd essay that i'm going to do right after I finish this entry, because otherwise, i don't really have the time to type an entry.

Funny thing happened just a few moments ago: my yiayia (grandmother) just walked into my room and saw all the clothes that are lying everywhere that I haven't been bothered to put away. After the usual chiding on the state of my room and my treatment of the clothes, she remarks something along the lines of: "When you're married Despina won't put up with this", which I found particularly amusing.

As usual, been really busy the past few days. Monday: Just work then food then sleep; Tuesday: work then Church (for the intro to Orthodoxy thingy) then food then sleep; Wednesday: Uni then Church (pre-sanctified gifts) then food then sleep; Thursday: Uni then study then Despina then sleep.

On Tuesday night was the tour of the Church, in which I learnt many things about the Church that I didn't know. I found very interesting Fr. Dimitri's explanation on the differences between Catholic and Orthodox architecture (Steeples vs. Dome), and it as a reflection of the emphasis of each's teachings in terms of God, and Christ's death and resurrection. To quote (very paraphrased and cut up): "The first thing you see when entering a Catholic Church is usually a large, particularly gruesome crucifix hanging over the altar...the first thing you should see in an Orthodox Church is a large icon of the resurrection over the altar" and how this reflects each Church's emphasis on the death and resurrection of Christ.

On Wednesday was the Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified gifts, which I really enjoyed. It was the first one i've been to, and I loved the whole being in darkness thing. (the Liturgy was done all in the dark, except for a few necessary lights so that the priest and chanter could read their things). I loved it, the darkness really allowed me to concentrate more on my prayer etc with much, much less distractions. Could also be that there wasn't many people there and that the silence was very welcome, compared to the relative commotion of a Liturgy on Saturday nights.

After that we all went to the Coffee Club, where we were finally introduced to some people that we see often at Church, but never have really spoken to. Andrew's blog entry from a few days also summed it up, so I won't repeat.

Now for that essay.