Friday, Saturday and Sunday

The beach today was beautiful. And peaceful. And reflective.

I know it's been awhile since I last blogged. I've written pieces of this post throughout the last few days and just never felt the motivation to publish it. I don't know, I love writing these posts, maybe I was just searching for more to say.

Before I attended Catholic Mass earlier today, I went on this walk and took these photos.

I think it had been four months since I had last been in a Catholic church, and I was so pleased to be there this evening. Religion/Catholicism/Protestantism/my beliefs continue to be something I'm trying to figure out. I explored a lot of it last semester and find it's a very personal topic and I'm not entirely comfortable sharing it, but I don't believe I'm the only person who has ever felt this way. I feel God's presence very much in my life and I truthfully find such joy in Christianity, yet I continually find the Catholic church as an obstruction. I don't believe I'm alone in finding that the Church has grown increasingly conservative, and I struggle to find my place in it. In the past year I felt at times that I wasn't deserving of religion if I couldn't follow the Church, and too often I incorrectly identified God as the Church, and felt that I just wasn't worthy of God if I couldn't follow the Church. And while this is also quite personal to me, when I lost several close friends suddenly last summer and fall, I distanced myself from religion. My quest in faith continues to be confusing and stretches much deeper than these words, but I've felt recently that the influence of Mary and the incarnation of Christ in the Eucharist sumbolize the reasons in which I think I may forever be Catholic.

 

So much smoked fish.

My roommate Kerry and I explored the farmer's market of St Andrews on Saturday morning. :)

We also explored some tidal pools.

Then I found myself in a tidal cave.

Kerry from afar.

I spent some time this weekend with Miriam and met a couple of her lovely friends from Edinburgh over dinner last night at a Mexican resturant here. While here, I always miss Mexican food. Usually tomato-flavors. And tortilla chips. And black beans. And mexican spices. Scottish-Mexican food is a bit different. I chose not to order the haggis enchiladas available on the menu.

 

I went on a run this evening around 10pm. It was dark but beautifully still and wonderful. I enjoy running outside late at night, Above is a photo taken in Septemer of October of 2012, but I love it, and I stopped here to take a break from my run and gaze at the dark sea. The lights in the distance in other small towns glitterd along the coast, a flag stood on the Old Course nearby, the lights of the window displays in the golf shops were behind me, and the strength of the wind pushed me as it increased throughout the night. Now, the wind sounds as if it might break through my window.

 

 

 

On Saturday, my kitchenmate Samuel turned twenty-three. On Friday evening, several of us went to a Chinese restaurant. It was quite delicious. I loved the dumplings. And the prawn (shrimp) chips. And even the duck. Not so much the lamb, though. Here is a photo of a bunch of us later that evening in the kitchen:

Joy, Conor, Samuel, myself and Shuk Yee.