Wow! Four blog entries in four days. I am impressed with myself. Not that I should be though. Each time I posted something it was because I was procrastinating at doing something more productive and purposeful, namely homework. Tonight it is studying for a Greek exam at 8:00 tomorrow morning. Ah... I think I'm good to go.

So today I was also taken back to my times overseas; but this time, it was both Lithuania and Kyrgyzstan. I went to a Russian Orthodox Church in nearby Ipswich this morning with another student. The service was, paradoxically, extremely foreign to me, and yet, very comfortable. It was comfortable because I knew what to expect: incense, singing, bowing, touching, kissing, candles, standing, etc. At the same time, it was quite foreign. Every Russian Orthodox service I have ever attended was actually overseas and therefore, actually in Russian. This was the first time that I actually knew what they were saying... in both the English and even pieces of the Russian! That was the weirdest thing. Also unusual to me was that there were chairs to sit in and it was seemingly expected of you to sit at certain intervals. I could deal with that. There was also a significant shortage of people, in comparison to my experiences overseas. Blending in was not an option today. No problem though.

All in all, it was great to experience that culture again, even if it was here in America. The most memorable and laughable part of the morning though came at the end of the service. In the Russian Orthodox Church, after the service has ended the people go up to receive a blessing from the priest. My friend, Chris, and I were both invited up to receive a blessing by a lady in the congregation. Why not? In doing so, we were the last in line for the blessing, which ended up being a good thing. But upon reaching the front we heard the laughable quote for the day. The priest asked us, "Are you orthodox?" For the first time in both of our lives we had to honestly say that "no," we are not orthodox. Of course, orthodox should be spelt with a capital "O," but it was funny nonetheless. How awkward would the situation have been, though, if we had said "yes?" I almost wish we had. :)