adventures and events

it's been a few days since my last post. i've been thinking about what to write and its been quite difficult to address any particular thing that i've done in the past week, so i've decided to just let it be. yesterday, however, was absolutely wonderful. our friday's are dedicated to 'study' which means that we get the day off and can do whatever we want (at least this friday was). so i did yoga in the morning, ate a massive lunch (as per usual), but then started scotland hopping. first thing, hitched out of findhorn. got an awesome ride from a brother named nick who drove me to forres, which is really just down the road. as soon as i got out of his car i saw a giant bus with the name 'inverness' on it and high tailed it to the bus. i was standing in line with a gentlemen and i asked him how much the bus was, to which he replied, 'you want to buy this bus?' I'm started to understand british humor a little more. hahaha. i got on the bus and headed to inverness. it took about 45 minutes to get there so that allowed me to relax and enjoy the scenery. an interesting side note, however, is that i was quite nervous and felt a little uneasy while i was on the bus. it took a little while for me to get my bearings straight. i realized though, that this was really the first time that i'd been out on my own in scotland, which excited me a great deal. i don't think the reality of being in another country had really even hit me until yesterday. the bus dropped me off in inverness. i walked around trepidatiously at first, not quite sure of where to go or what to expect. i remembered, however, that there was a used book store a tour guide of ours mentioned last week as we drove through inverness on our way to loch ness. i decided that would be the best place to set up shop to get grounded. i really enjoyed walking around inverness. i entered into this goofy labyrinth shopping mall that was playing desmond dekker and had a little bit of a laugh at this place, ahh the little things. after some wandering i found the bookstore which was totally awesome. it was gigantic and had a coffee shop upstairs! so sweet. i got myself a cup of joe and decided to do some homework while i was hanging out. i read some of graham metzner's book about co-housing for my applied sustainability class. after that, after my coffee, i found a copy of the gospel of sri ramakrishna and read some passages out of that, which was absolutely uplifting. then i really took off. i left the bookstore and found this awesome health conscious cafe which was run by an old findhorn resident, so i bought a bar of raw chocolate and then crossed over the river. on the other side i found this magnificent cathedral, st. andrews. it was absolutely beautiful. huge stained glass windows, an incredible altar, beautiful wooden carvings all over the place, a total echo chamber. i was in bliss. i walked to the front of the pew and offered a prayer/meditation and wandered around in awe. everywhere i went after that was imbued with this quality of numinosity which i can hardly explain. the decor of european cities is, and i am going to make a broad generalization here, a lot more inspiring than cities in the states. it's like wandering around in a different time period, where there is still magick and mystery, the wandering nature of the streets testify to this. there is not some perfect straight line or answer to the problems of humanity, there is only an incredibly interesting journey which is nigh impossible to understand or navigate correctly. i walked around these streets, ducking into any alley or street that called to me and would enter into dialogue with my unconscious. i would literally ask it to present itself, that i might use the city as a metaphor for the labyrinthine nature of my own unconscious and then engage in a very real dialogue with myself in and as the city. so much fun! i walk around in love. my imagination is allowed more play here, and i can definitely feel it. inverness is a beautiful city. not too big, not too small, intriguing and inviting. i liked it a lot and will definitely go back. after inverness and picking up some good tourist info from a couple locals (an old bar which was a haunt of Jimmy Page's), i decided to head back. i took the bus back to forres and then went into an indian restaurant to get some take out. the guy who was working at the restaurant was great, we talked about meditation and evolution, hussein was his name, and i promised i would come back to chat with him some more. i caught the bus back to the park and saw my friend louis on it. he too had spent his day in inverness looking for a place to live. i made it back to findhorn and there was a jazz band playing in the community center, there was lots of wine and drinks and merriment to be had by all. so fun! i ate my indian food and drank wine and hung out with some amazing and beautiful people. i then finished my evening off with a hot tub.