a day in the life

My week starts off on Monday morning at Vestry Mews, Camberwell, waking at 7:00am (!?! still not used to early mornings yet), getting ready, making lunch, and stepping out the door at 8:00am.

There's a five minute walk to a church down the street where I meet Michele. We exchange sleepy nods and then walk another five minutes to the bus stop.

We wait there for the #35 bus and after beeping in, always trek to the top deck for the 45min ride to Shoreditch, on the north side of the city. I currently bury my nose in "Wives and Daughters" by Elizabeth Gaskell

(thanks Liz!) for the duration of the bus ride while also eating my morning pastry, with a brief intermission while we go over London Bridge with a great view of the river and Tower Bridge just outside the window.

We get off the bus and walk another 10mins to the architecture office with a huge freaking door that's unusually hard to open.

The first thing after setting down our bags by our computers is of course to put the hot water on for a cup of black tea with milk and depending on my mood, sugar. Work work till hungry. Take lunch outside to a little church yard around the block. Sit on a bench or in the grass and partake of my sandwich. Back to work work in the tiny corner we call the office. There are four people in the firm but they are all awesome and I don't mind being in a cozy space with them until 6pm.

This is the daily routine from Monday to Thursday. After work on Monday we do some site seeing. Tuesday we go to Holy Trinity Brompton Church (HTB) for the student pastorate: small groups, food, and worship! Wednesday is Alpha Training at HTB for two weeks and then Michele and I are helping lead an Alpha Course at St. George's Church- a church plant of HTB(where consequently Lare and John also go to. Lare(pronounced Laura is Mike and Marietta's daughter)! Thursday probably more sight-seeing.

Fridays: As a part of the eMi internship, you have a weekly mentor session as well as get involved with a weekly community service. So on Fridays we get up at 6-freakin-am and travel an hour to the london Liverpool Street Station and another hour on the train out to Mike and Marietta's place out in the country-side, close to Colchester. Mike is the eMi UK director and Marietta is his lovely wife as well as my mentor.

The office is currently a room in their house but will hopefully be moving soon to a bigger room in a church in Colchester. This is why Michele and I are working in London and not at the "office" in Colchester- it wouldn't hold all of us. So we are working in London in Martin's architecture office- Martin is an architect associated with eMi but who also has his own firm. Anyway- I digress.

We get to Colchester and volunteer at an Open Door facility that serves tea, coffee, and biscuits (cookies) and provides a warm place to chill for homeless people. After 2pm we then meet up with our mentors for an hour or so and lunch. Then we hang out with Mike and Marietta and Sophia (Michele's mentor) for the rest of the day before heading back to London. I look forward all week to sitting with a cup of tea in their brilliant conservatory (sun room) out in their garden!

Sunday we go to church.




welcome to a day in my life as an eMi intern in the UK