Day 66: My “Day-off”

I love Oxford. I love how I have all the time in the world to read and study [even if that's not enough time, in all honesty]. However, I truly miss being able to have an organization, a job or something to do other than studying. I want another obligation besides submitting myself to my studies. Maybe that's just my nature. It's different for every single person but that's how I roll.

And because of how I roll, I somehow ended up from not having any other obligation to have 3 on this day.
My browsing around the day before brought me more than the one that was on my calendar the past 2 weeks.

I was suppose to do a Soup Run in the morning which I slept through. Well, I woke up at 6:30, got up at 6:45 and I knew I wasn't gonna make it into the city by 7:00 to help Sylvia out. So I texted her and hopefully she forgives me. As my punishment, I stayed up and did some reading. I then left the house at around 10:15 for my 2^nd volunteer work opportunity, the Rainbow House which is located at that picture up there.

In the Rainbow House, I got to help out in the kitchen and the counter as we sell food to the parents who bring their kids to play there. It's sort of a refuge for them. Especially since it was a rainy day so it was nice to have somewhere to bring their kids 5 and under. The volunteer coordinator there had the same name as the one who I was meeting tonight. And I finally made the connection so I asked her. And yep, she's the same one.

So when I got to The Gatehouse that night, which is a homeless center, she knew what to do with me. Usually, they put all new comers in the kitchen for the whole night. However, she put me in the kitchen for the first hour and had me serving tea afterwards. I got to interact with the homeless in Oxford from behind the counter that was a tad too high for me. It was truly a rewarding and humbling experience.

Suzanna and I then met up and stood in the queue for the play Cyrano de Bergerac. The tickets were sold out but we took a chance and we got in! We felt so lucky that night. The play was nice. It wasn't the conventional performance by the actor who played Cyrano was totally brilliant. He was fun to watch and listen too. Although, I still want to watch the play with a conventional performance.

I had a nice day off, even if I did some reading in the morning and the 2 hour gap between Rainbow House and the Gatehouse. Volunteering just makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.