Place: Victoria Baths
Date: 25 July 2011
Hours Worked: 4 hours
Today was supposed to be set up like the days we spent preparing for the Beach Days, working from 10 to 1, take an hour lunch break, then work again from 2-4. We met outside on the steps of Victoria Baths at 10, Cecilia, Paige, and myself all walking together, and Brandi and Lisa had already arrived. We waited a few minutes before Shaakira and Amber came, then headed downstairs for tea and coffee. After a few more minutes, Ashley and Katie showed up as well. We talked with Martin about going to Wales, and made plans for two groups to go, one this Sunday and one next Friday. We then trooped upstairs to the cafe to finish our coffee and tea, then headed to work on putting the sand back into bags. Once there, people split up to work; Amber, Brandi, and Paige worked on one corner, Ashley and Katie worked on the other, Shaakira and Cecilia took sort of the middle end, and I worked by myself in the middle close to the wall. After doing one bag by leaning over and scooping, I decided to sit down and work. We worked like so for a bit over an hour, I think, maybe an hour and a half, and Paige, Amber, and Brandi had nearly finished there little bit. We took about a 20-25 minute break, drinking water, tea, or coffee, and Neil gave us crisps to munch on. When we went back to work, Amber, Brandi, and Paige finished their little bit and went to go haul bricks up from the basement, while Shaakira, Cecilia, Katie, Ashley and I all worked on finishing the sand, which took probably another hour, about. After finishing that, Marting and Neil said we were working so diligently that we wouldn't have any need to come tomorrow as was planned. The ones who had still been working on sand went to go help with the bricks. Cecilia and I took the angled bricks into another room in the basement, wearing masks while doing so since the room had a "Warning: Asbestos" sign, even though Neil said that there was no real risk. After finishing that, we were done for the day, so we planned when to meet for dinner and whose flat, then went on our way.
Today was probably the most emotional, per say, working day we have done so far. Everything was fine until I sat down to do my work, when everyone except Lisa, Shaakira, and Cecilia (and Martin and Neil) got irritated with me. Amber looked over and I saw her and asked, "What?" and she said, "I can't even look at you, I'm just shaking my head." A few more annoyed glances later and Katie asked if I wanted her to hold my bag to make things easier if I stood up, and I just replied, "No, the bag's fine," to which she said in an exasperated tone, "Then why are you sitting down??" I replied, "So my back won't hurt in the morning," then went back to work, since that was the truth - the reason I sat down in the first place was because after doing only one bag's work, I could feel my back starting to ache. After that, it was just whispers and looks in my direction that showed their irritation as everyone was pretty silent working, save the music. It was my thought that they had no right to be irritated at me; for one, being my classmates, they have no authority over how I work, only Lisa does and when I first did it she commented how she would be doing it too had she been shoveling too. Also, we had all day until 4 today to finish and the next day until 4 as well, so I saw no reason to rush; I had nothing planned later, except to come wash clothes and work on my paper after dinner. If they had wanted to, everyone could have sat down and worked how I did, but people wanted to just get done with the work. I believe most of the other people on this trip do not seem to realize this isn't a pleasure visit; coming here to volunteer at the baths and at Forest Garden was one of the main things to do on this trip, as we were informed several times; in fact, it was in the description of the class yet all people do when we have to work is finish as fast as they can and complain about it even then, not appreciate that we are over in a foreign country having a learning experience. Anyways, so I was just annoyed that people felt that they had a right to be annoyed with me, which none of the people who were did. Later, after our breaktime, Shaakira was standing at the railing watching us, and Ashley asked, "What are you doing up there?" Shaakira answered she was just standing, and Ashley replied with a little laugh, "Well standing up there is getting about as much done as sitting down here is," which did highly annoy me since I had been working hard and for one person, had gotten a sizable chunk done. Later, Katie said she had been bringing bags down for me to use so I wouldn't have to get up and "waste time"; what she didn't get, though, is there was no point in doing that since I would have to get up each time after a bag was finished anyways to move it over to where the rest of the bags where, so I might as well go get a new bag each time. A few minutes after that, she said something again, at which point I replied that I wasn't wasting any more than 10 seconds and it wasn't a big deal. What happened next was not pretty; she started yelling at me, I don't remember what since I was disregarding it anyways, and I just retorted as it came to me. She was talking down to me as if I was a misbehaving child who had been instructed to do one thing and was completely ignoring the rules, but it was hardly so; no one with any authority had told me what I was doing was the wrong way, even after I asked. So, I just replied as necessary and went back to my business, sitting right where I had before. After another minute or two, she stormed off, and Lisa went to go talk to her. She came back after another few minutes, and got back to work, carefully avoiding where I was or turning her back if she was close. Honestly, I didn't much care either way; I don't really listen to her regardless since most of what she says is either excuses or complaints about something. I just finished what I was working on til nearly all the sand was gone, then went to work on the bricks with Cecilia. I could still feel the tension from the other girls who had already finished, even though when they had come back in they could clearly see how hard I had been working. Basically, if people had just focused on their own task instead of worrying about how I was doing, there would have been much less drama and tension caused, which people tend to carry over into our everyday lives. If I could wish one lesson people here learned on this trip is to worry about yourself, what you're supposed to be doing, and focus on that instead of trying to control other people's business.
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