It's been a while - no surprises there, really. Over the past two months I've basically just been doing life here, so I figured I'd post a quick rundown of my standard week for your reading pleasure. (Who'd have thought life goes on as normal in another country?)
Sunday:
10am - Church at St Andrews, Eaton. It's an old school Anglican church with organ and lots of old people - new experience for me, and I'm actually kind of enjoying it. The main reason I'm going is because the pastor (sorry, the vicar rather) is a really, really top-notch bloke named Phil Rodd. Adam Moore's the youth guy there too, and including he and I, there are approximately two people in the 18-35 age group. As I said, this is a new experience for me, and it's good to be able to support him!
Sunday roast for lunch - usually chicken or pork. Good stuff.
8pm - student Bible study at Holy Trinity, the more-modern Anglican church that I first got in contact with when I arrived.
Monday:
Monday's generally my day off - I don't have anything to do until
4pm - Creative writing: Poetry. Lots of reading and writing poems, it's a very cruisy class.
6pm - Confirmation classes. Adam and I take two classes of kids who are looking at getting confirmed, and for an hour each week we go through an aspect of Christianity. Next week's the last one, because the confirmation service is next Sunday. Monday's group has 4 kids aged between 11 and 13.
Tuesday:
Cleaning day! Spend between three and four hours doing the whole house's vacuuming/mopping, as well as cleaning all the bathrooms and any other assorted jobs that need doing.
4pm - Pick up Mima (the youngest kid (9 years old)) from school and take her to her Bible class at Holy Trinity. Lots of fascinating discussions abound in this twenty minute walk.
7:30pm - Christian Union. Basically a church service for the CU guys, with music and a speaker that comes in generally from one of the churches in the city or one of the university heads.
Wednesday:
9am - Actor and the Text performances. Two 15 minutes performances with workshopping immediately following. I've been in one so far, have to do one more before the end of semester.
12noon - Creative Writing: Prose. A fun subject which is spent workshopping each other's pieces. My one's due in this Wednesday, should be fun.
7pm - Confirmation class 2. This class has 6 kids who are a bit older - between 12 and 16.
Thursday:
9am - Actor and the Text seminar. Do all sorts of assorted exercises in this class, generally revolving around the theories of acting.
1pm - CU Action group. Basically a Bible study with a few other guys and girls from the CU.
Friday:
7am - Breakfast with Patrick, Zac and soon-to-be John. Really good English breakfast too. Prayer and Bible study to follow.
The rest of the day is spent doing uni work, meeting up with people and doing some more assorted jobs.
Saturday:
Finishing up whatever hours I have left for the week, and then going out with mates and doing stuff.
Obviously there are a lot of gaps in this timetable - that's generally spent doing a few extra hours around the house, hanging out with mates at their house, one of the many pubs in Norwich or seeing shows/gigs, actually doing some uni work and talking with people from back home.
So that's basically been my life the past little while, and will be for about three more weeks. I shall endeavour to update a little more frequently with some of the more interesting things that have happened (including a trip to LEGOLAND!!!, seeing a freaking AWESOME funk band with three saxophones named Small Town Bullies - look them up on Facebook, and seeing Quantum of Solace twice. Is that out in Aus yet?)
