So I was religious twice-over yesterday...kind-of. And neon-green crepes.

Yesterday was Sunday and it was also Easter.

This meant that I went to mass yesterday morning at 11 in the morning and it was really, really full and people were dressed up for it. I feel that Easter and Christmas are the two religious holidays where everyone just decides to show up to church because they feel that both are important and thus they should go to church. I mean I understand this idea but I also feel that there's a spectator-like aspect in this, in the way that one gets a more abbreviated appreciation of religion to take in all the good things and holidays but not the more everyday things. I don't have a problem with the whole not attending anything else part, (because I think that some people are drawn to religion on a more individual and personal level, and a different path to religion works better for them), but I find the idea that you can consider yourself religious because you attend the major things slightly hypocritical, analogous to taking all the icing and not eating the cake (then saying you have eaten the cake). It just doesn't work.

Contrasted to my experience of attending a Passover seder.

In my dorm, some people came together and decided to have an unorthodox Passover seder last night. My overriding motivation for attending was curiosity--I have never really been exposed to other religious beliefs (except non-belief I suppose) and so I treated the entire event as a cultural experience. The ceremonious aspect of it was really interesting (although was not a good representative of seders in general according to the people present)--there was so much symbolism in the words, actions and sequentiality of the entire dinner that it made me think about the prevalence and enduring nature of symbols as a key to cultural identity. I feel that some symbols probably started off historically as mere necessities and had a functional value but then as time grew on and their function disappeared, the symbol gains power through its repetition. In the end, the symbol comes to stand for something greater than itself and becomes layered with a multitude of meanings and attributes. Anyway, I thought that was interesting.

And also, neon-green crepes.

I have never had such an...odd eating experience as yesterday lunch, when I ordered a La Normandie crepe (spinach and bacon with Swiss Cheese topped with a light white sauce) at Mellow Yellow. When I cut my way through the crepe, green sauce oozed out of the wheat-based crepe onto my plate, and it was NOT the color of real spinach...at all (not even the color of frozen spinach). The color was more similar to a shade of fluorescent green that was slightly bewildering to behold in a supposedly naturally-occurring plant substance--spinach. Tastewise, it was not that bad but it was definitely not good. Why? It was slightly sweet. Thank goodness for the bacon that made the taste somehow bearable.

So what will I do now? I will write this off as attempted (and failed account) of experimental food and not go to this restaurant ever again (and fervently dissuade people from doing the same).

...and this is why I normally do try to explore the restaurants around my school--not to say I never go to any, but just that I go to the ones that have been vetted and are supposed to be good.

And yes, I am a food snob.