Victoria Baths 17/7/11

Place: Victoria Baths
Date: 17 July 2011
Hours Worked: 4 1/2 hours


Today was essentially almost exactly like yesterday. We met in the morning at 11:30, half an hour before the Beach day was due to start, and went to pretty much the same positions we had at the beginning last time, with Cecilia and I starting our day sitting on the steps again. The first family arrived 15 minutes before it was due to start, so Neil went ahead and just let the little girl in the pool. More kids came as the hour progressed, but not as many as the day before, and more smaller children today. After Cecilia and I's turn was over, we went again into the craft room to work on finishing the mural. In this time, I also colored a seahorse. Today, I had eaten beforehand and brought a snack but it was still not enough, so Cecilia and I went back to our flat at 3 p.m. to grab a quick bite to eat, and came back at 3:30. We were there for another hour, finishing up the last bit of the mural and generally cleaning up a bit. We left around 4:30 after having a brief meeting with Dr. Walker about what would be due after us coming back from our break we had. 


Today was nearly exactly like yesterday in the sense that we did the same thing for about the same amount of time. The only difference was that today, I was so hungry that I took a break to go back and get food instead of sucking it up like I had before. Other than that, I was chilly but entertained again while watching the children play, and content while working on the arts and crafts. 


I was surprised that there weren't more kids; the amount that showed up today was probably about 15-20 kids less than the day before, which meant also less parents so it just seemed a  lot less crowded. I think a contributing factor to that was the weather, which was extremely gloomy and chilly that day so possibly the people who live here, even though they are used to the weather, didn't think it a good idea to go swimming, or rather playing, in cold water with that kind of weather as well. Perhaps a bigger factor of it was that it was Sunday and for many people here, it truly is their resting day. The culture here dictates that in the morning you either go to church or relax, and in the evening you have the biggest meal of the week, so you must have time to prepare it. So, in between taking their relaxing day or making the large dinner, the parents didn't have time or didn't want to use the effort to take their kids out that day. I noticed that opposed to the day before, although there were still plenty of minority families, there was a noticeable increase in the white families there, so many that goes further to the culture and speaks that perhaps the British families were more inclined to still go out on a Sunday than the others who had a whole different culture they have come from.