I spent two more hours with Zach, Casey and Jay training for stewarding after that two hour session with another woman thursday, on friday Zach and I had our first two hour shift. We mostly just waited to be asked questions... we walked around the Cathedral and got even more acquainted with it. We were at Christ church from thursday to monday for two hours each. It is pretty quiet when we work in the morning... the cathedral life picks up at about 11. In one weekend we got 8 service hours, tiring. Zach and I always worked together because we both had monday and wednesday and friday mornings off. I worked three more shifts of two hours each before I left and once after I got back from the states. I had too much work that last day so I never got to eat in the great hall. Shame. I worked twenty-two hours total.

I have to make up for my missing posts. After the tutoring fell through I worked at St. Aldates for Alpha Course. I got about four hours there. That was fun because I got to work with Kara and Zach and a bunch of other people. We did a number of different things. The first hour we came in and got situated and met the people who were a regular part of Christ Church. Most of us were new so we followed around the few who had been coming because we were pretty clueless.

After that we began to set up tables and set out the places and cups. We set out cups, pitchers and silverware. They also taught us how to fold the napkins fancy-like and set them in the cups the proper way. It was funny to go through the tables because you could tell which ones Zach and Jason folded... not pretty.

Then Kara and I helped the lady in charge mix the punch. We were assigned to pour and serve drinks. We did that as everyone came in and mingled for a little while. As they settled in we got in our place to serve the food. We served food in the lines after it got started. They had made couscous, which we had just become familiar with because we had just been to Morocco. It was sweet reminiscing. Watching Jeremy and the dish washers was a treat, especially watching them make fun of him. It was three funny guys with water sprayers, bad news. We served and then got our food and ate while the speaker talked.

After the speaker was done and they were wrapping up we went through trying to clear the table of plates and cups people were finished with and taking pitchers off of the table. This helped us later when everyone left because it sped up the clean up. We spent another 45minutes or so cleaning and folding tables and table cloths after it was over and then we were done.

After Alpha course I got involved in being a steward at Christ Church with Zach, Casey, and Jay. The first two hours that we got from Christ Church were spent getting to know Jim, one of the vergers, and getting the details worked out. After about an hour of talking to Jim he sent us to have our first training with Stephen. We learned the first of many facts about the Cathedral and the college. Jim gave us some papers with information about the Cathedral to start us off then Stephen filled our heads with more dates and facts, it was quite a load for the first day.

The best part of working for Christ Church is the special privileges and the opportunity to see things that most visitors don't get to see. Stephen took us to the garden at Christ Church. First he showed us where Alice's parents and sister were buried, right beneath the window honoring her sister. Then he showed us the mammoth tree that inspired the cat's tree in the story Alice and Wonderland. I'm not really familiar with the story it has been a while so I do remember it in the story but I don't remember what it is called. He also showed us the green door that is the late rabbit's door in the story and he told us a story about the Dean that inspired the use of the door.

Our second training was much longer but it was enjoyable. It is tiring trying to remember everything that we need to have just a basis of knowledge for stewarding but it was interesting. This time we trained with Jim. He is very interesting and always has special tidbits that aren't just dates and facts. First we went around the cathedral and he mostly reviewed what we learned with Stephen.

Jim had us sit in the seats and explained to us why Christ Church's chapel seats were split and faced each other. It was because it was first a monastery and because it is also the chapel of a college. Then in order to show us how it worked he had us grab the prayer books and we practiced reciting back and forth reading the lines of the psalms and prayers out loud. He explained that they began doing it that way because they recited their prayers so often that in a lifetime a monk would say them some astronomical number of times and this cut the number of times in half.

I am a complete and utter failure to the human race and I have but one service hour to note. Not to mention this blog is somewhat like rubbing salt in an already throbbing open wound because having to write about it is admitting to my failure and I'm rarely willing to do that, though it happens often. I corresponded with the contact that was on the sheet of contacts that was given to us... and I thought that I had it all worked out. Worked out in the sense that I did talk to the man in charge but I had yet to rid myself of the terror I felt when I figured out that I was really going to have to follow through with this. (Not only that but I found out it was not the quaint one-on-one setting that I had imagined, but it was in fact a one-on-twenty scenario where the success of everyone in the class depends on me.) What it really boils down to is that after mustering up the courage to take the time to find this classroom, blindly enter and sit in a class full of people who at least share the common denominator of not knowing English, (so they can converse in OTHER languages I have no ability to understand) I end up sitting in the class for 20 minutes because the other tutor is late and the guy I talked to didn't even show up. I'm not even sure the tutor that showed up spoke English, so trying to communicate with her left me so exasperated that I just pushed Daley out the door and told her I was going with her to the Children's worship.

Instead I went and followed Daley while she met the woman in charge of children's worship. Laughing and talking and being naturally charming and socially inclined and I followed like a cowardly dog, dragging my tail between my legs all the way. One thing I learned about Daley is that she is really good with people... adult people even, and I would rather bathe with fire than suffer my own social awkwardness. We set up for the meeting and moved chairs and did things that people do when setting up meetings. I got one service hour but it wasn't something to be proud of. I got an email from the guy who didn't show up to my meeting and we're rescheduling but to be honest I have a feeling its not going to work out because in the week after my mishap a number of other students showed interest and I was asked to move to thursday's classes. I can't do thursdays.

Plans for service-blog 1

I am excited but anxious about beginning my service in Oxford. I'm really not too surprised that I am somewhat overwhelmed at the thought of the 20 hours that loom over me, even though you would think we have lots of time outside of class. I assumed (correctly) that orientation in Abilene was just a mean joke to begin the process of confusing our minds. A process which proved successful when the rest of the information was given en masse the minute we arrived. That's when my mind decided to go to lunch and it took my attention-span with it. This abundance of information is thrown at us just to see who would sink and who would swim. I'm sure that was the sinister purpose of the pre-departure orientation, sure of it. We've just been dropped in an unfamiliar territory and showered with information, warnings, advice and assignments, it's possible I am just slow but after the beginning of classes and balancing my time between class, ramblings, and sorting myself out I'm left a bit exhausted. Regardless, I am still ready to "plug-in" as it is called but I am a little wary as to how well I will be at time management. (Self doubt, what a way to start the semester.)

I plan to be an English tutor for the internationals pastor at St. Aldates. I have no idea whether I have the capabilities to do this, but as languages have always been a topic of interest for me I think that willingness to try counts more than my competence. I've yet to contact Pastor Danthon but intend to do so today. Contradictory to my doubts about finding the time to volunteer I may also try to connect with Viva Network. I've found just enough information about it to really catch my interest so I plan to call to see what opportunities are there, along with what sort of service it entails. Once again, I have no idea in this case of my capabilities to be of service to these organizations but here we all are outside of our comfort zone so there's no hurt in expanding myself. So, on that note here I go to force myself to make the call. I really hate making phone calls. I did however already enquire about volunteer opportunities at The Ashmolean Museum, (there wasn't any) which is a big step for me. So there.