Service day

Monday January 26th, 2009



Today i woke up got ready and went downstairs for breakfast. I had class today at 8:45 until 12:30. Today was philosophy. it was equally as boring as last week. We started presentations today which took up some time (yay). I hung out with Brittany and Kelly for a little bit in their room, and then went out to walk around and go shopping with them. I didn't buy anything though. There were fresh seafood places here and there along the streets-- it makes it smell pretty bad, and must be horrible in the summer. There were also fresh flower stands on the streets, which smelt pretty. We went into the grocery store Shopi and Brittany had bought some stuff. After she paid, we went back to campus. She noticed one of the coins was not like any she had seen yet, so she asked the woman at the desk what it was. She said it was a franc, which isn't used anymore so we had to go back to Shopi to exchange it. The lady we checked out at didn't know any English, but thankfully we saw someone we knew there- Mikey- who spoke French and he helped us out. We thought she wouldn't exchange the franc for the euro, but thankfully she did. if Mikey wasn't there, i highly doubt that she would have given Brittany back the change, because she denied that she even saw us come into her line.
We went back to campus and i read until about 5, when I had to get ready to go to service. I was going to the Soup Kitchen with Stephanie. Once we got ready, we went downstairs and left to the soup kitchen with Leandro and Manuel. We had to take 2 subways to where we needed to go. We took the 10 train to Jeissiu and then the 7 train to somewhere else, i forgot where though. it wasn't the best area, but it wasn't a bad walk after that. Manuel told us to be careful because the men are rude. he told us "don't afraid to kick ass" haha. Only a few people spoke English there. We had to wear gowns, like in hospitals, shoe coverings and hairnets and gloves to work there in back in the kitchen area. I felt like a surgeon. I was behind dished out chicken patties onto plates in an assembly line fashion. A french lady next to me asked " how do you say this in English (pointing at the sauce she was serving)?" I said " ... sauce.?" and she goes " Ohhhh Sauce! Americans must have taken word from French" I was like " ah... yea probably" haha
Everyone there was really nice. One man started talking to me in french but i had no clue what he was saying so i just smiled and nodded hah. i swear that can get you through anything! lol It was a really good experience. i didn't mind it at all. It was long though, 3 hrs plus travel. I wouldn't have minded it if there were extra spots to do it again though. As long as I'm doing the same things.. i liked being behind the counter because i felt like if i was giving out milk, i wouldn't be able communicate with them-- it would have just been harder. Steph and I were invited to eat with them afterwards, but we both had a lot of work to do for classes. We headed back to school and i read for philosophy all night and went to sleep.