Today has been a very grey day here. Unlike New England, the weather that one wakes up to here tends to stay throughout the day. I've been feeling a bit better, and was able to accomplish a lot of reading, academic work, and a long walk around the harbour and much of town earlier.
Yesterday morning the weather was BEAUTIFUL! Above is the St Andrews castle. It's solely ruins now, but stunning on the ocean and has quite the history associated with the Reformation.
Below the castle
I found this view
and this seat
And proceeded to sit and accomplish some academic reading while gazing at the waves. :)
Later that afternoon I attended 'Crafty Fridays', a weekly community event held at the Museum of the University of St Andrews each week. Crafts are provided in a cosy(/cozy) upstairs room and a mix of female students, women from the community and the occasional man come to craft for an hour or two or three. Last semester I found it was a nice weekly retreat to relax and meet women who are students, professional artists, professor's wives, or employees at the museum. Last semester I worked on a freestyle needlepoint (where I free-handed the piece) for several weeks, and when I arrived yesterday, the museum staff asked if I was interested in creating artistic fish to decorate an event at the University next week. I was interested and searched through the art closet for material. I found some striped wrapping paper and buttons and soon began. I worked for about thirty minutes along with two female PhD candidates working on needlepoint and found once again it was a wonderfully relaxing escape. I think I created ten fish, and they were quite fun to make. :)
Later yesterday evening, I attended the opening ceremony for an interfaith room approximately 15 seconds from the room I live in. Previously a study room, the room recently became an interfaith room for the entire surrounding community/neighbourhood I live in in St Andrews. As I tend to love interfaith events, it all was quite beautiful and I felt so pleased to be witnessing it. St Andrews is a diverse and large university with representation from so many cultures and religions which I think was the most fascinating for me. One of the first articles I wrote last year for Saint Michael's student newspaper was an article I pitched and was eager to write about - an interfaith room at Saint Michael's (set to open next year!). My interviews and research was interesting, but with such a homogenous population present at Saint Michael's, I struggled to find the article I had crafted in my mind.
The event yesterday though was so much different though. About thirty to forty of us gathered for the opening ceremony, and we each removed our shoes before entering the space. The University chaplain was there as well as representatives from each of the faith societies who each presented a gift to the room. The Baha'i society donated their holy book, the Catholic society donated a rosary, the Christian Union donated several books, the Islamist society donated the Qu'ran and a bunch of prayer mats, the eastern religions society (comprised of Buddhism and Hinduism) donated several books including the Hindu holy book, the Jewish society was actually missing in action, but we all assumed it had to do with the the sabbath, and the Pagan society donated several battery-operated candles. :) It really was an exciting inter-faith gathering and I'm looking forward to using the space soon.
One last thing, my sweet friend Megan (see photo below!)
along with her family, Megan is quite passionate about the labelling of GMO's (genetically modified organisms) in food. Currently, a bill has been proposed to the New Hampshire Agricultural Committee which would require that all GMO's are labelled, and Megan sent along this petition. I was able to sign it and chose not to include my address which stiill worked, feel free to sign it if you're interested! http://signon.org/sign/new-hampshire-wants-gmo?source=s.em.cp&r_by=6975197
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