Something like a monk

Ok, due to popular request (Mom asked once), here is a picture of me in my cassock.
Here at St Vladimir's, students are expected to go to chapel twice a day during the week, once in the morning (matins) and once in the evening (vespers). Services last about 45 minutes or so. The community here strives to be semi-monastic (real monks go to prayer 8 times a day), but can't go full-on because there's a lot of studying to be done, not to mention families and part-time jobs for some of us. I'm experiencing a few reasons why monks aren't allowed to marry...they're far too busy being "spiritual" to be bothered with women.

One of the requests the seminary has of all its students, Orthodox or no, is that they wear a cassock to liturgical services. I chose a Western style (Catholic, to be precise, with some Anglican modifications) because, well, I'm not Eastern Orthodox! Plus, Western style looks much cooler to me, as the Eastern styles are more loose-fitting and, to me, casual-looking. If I'm gonna wear a black robe, I'm not sure casual is what I want to go for. I've gotten a few compliments from the Orthodox around me...not that it's about compliments, but it is nice to know I fit in well, at least aesthetically.

For those of you who are laughing at me (Johnson), I'll have you know that Neo wore a cassock in the 2nd Matrix movie, and I didn't see you laughing when he was kicking in Agent Smith's head. I simply mention that to provide perspective.

We really haven't been anywhere interesting, so no new pictures of the area just yet. We'll be making more or less regular trips to Manhattan soon, now that we're settled and getting into a bit of a routine.

Oh, and just for fun, check out this website...I'm studying ancient Syriac, which is pretty close to what Jesus and his contemporaries would have spoken...fairly closely related to ancient Hebrew. Anyway, check out the script. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/syriac.htm This stuff is nuts...looks like my dog Rocky wrote it. You'll notice, Syriac has 3 different scripts, depending on region/time period (and what breed of dog the scribe happened to be). Right now, I'm starting with the Serto (Western) script, and will look at the others later. Even though it doesn't look like Hebrew, it acts and sounds very similar. So maybe, Daniel (from the lion's den) would have understood some spoken, but wouldn't have been able to read it...just a very loose and hypothetical example. Don't quote me on that.

Ok, thanks for reading.

And we miss all you Japanese people! Tanoshiikata, yo!