Happy Daffodil Day!!

The bedside clock’s LCD displayed 05:15 when the alarm first rang. 18 minutes later, finally convinced that punctuality is essential, especially when you’ve signed yourself up for something, I dragged myself out of the comfort of my single bed and took the few steps over to the bathroom where I washed up and showered a nice, long, hot shower. Which is in my opinion, the quickest way to get rid of ‘morning coldness’, not taking into account the short period right after the shower itself.

ANYWAYS. Why the heck did I get up so freaking early in the morning? It wasn’t cause I had to, but I chose to. Simply because I don’t like rushing things. Therefore, I was able to take my own sweet time (almost) to have breakfast while watching the early morning news. And I gotta tell you, watching news here is actually pretty alright. Entertaining too! The news readers sometimes crack lame jokes and laugh at em themselves but that’s the entire point of it, isn’t it? The only thing I don’t like is there are all those LIVE advertisements to attempt to sell their cleaning equipment or exercise machines. Those come up way too often during the morning news, not the EARLY morning news, which starts at 5.30am. WOW. Imagine the lives of those news readers in the studio, and also the weather guy who reads the weather from all over Melbourne EVERY SINGLE MORNING. Amazing.

I am allowed to stray from the point of this post, am I not? :/

Anyhow, at approximately 6.30am, I left the building and was just in time to hop on a tram and headed down to my volunteer site in the CBD - Flinders Street Station Concourse Area. Arrived just before 7am, only to see an elderly local sitting on a chair at the site. Turns out he has been a Daffodil Day volunteer for the past 10 years! And I probably should mention his name now, shouldn’t I? He introduced himself as Tony. As for myself, Chien.

Not long after, a couple of Cancer Council staff(?) came over with a table and the boxes of merchandise. It was then when our Site Coordinator, Arina arrived. While setting up our booth, we introduced each other and so happened that she’s from KL, was also in Trinity a few years back, now doing her masters in child psychology O.O

Enough chit chatting, time to let the pictures do most of the talking.

Our site was in the train station itself, somewhere at the back, near the exiting validating machines - which you can see rather clearly from the picture on the right.

Setting up the booth in the morning; That’s a dude (can’t remember his name) from the Cancer Council who came over to help us at the beginning, Arina and Tony - our booth set up and ready to go! Check out all the merchandise for sale yo!

Tony and myself. We didn’t talk much. xD Anyways, wouldn’t you agree that the booth just looks so nice? It’s so yellow, blue.. and yellow. OH. Now I realise why it all seemed so familiar.

I suppose some of you would’ve already had Blitzerz in mind huh?

 
It was sometime in the morning (think it was when Arina asked Tony what made him volunteer) when we found out that Arina is a cancer survivor!! She had it when she was just seven. I can’t remember the exact medical term, but it was somewhere in her head :/ Okay fine, that didn’t sound too good. How could cancer sound good == Doesn’t matter. It was definitely great to have worked with a SURVIVOR!!

Anyways, just to name a number of the merchandise for sale (besides the fresh Daffodils):

• Dr Douglas (teddy bear)
• Mini soccer balls
• Wristbands
• Black pens
• Pins and broaches
• Key rings
• Magnetic photo frame
• 2 GB pendrives

Actually, I think I just listed out EVERY item. Oh well.

Sales was rather good earlier in the morning as even though everyone was rushing to work, many of them still diverted over and came to purchase the merchandise, and some even simply donated spare change, or the change from their purchases. Then at ten something, things got pretty slow, and that was when Tony headed home. On and off people still came over to show their support to the Cancer Council, and I managed to give a balloon to a little girl! Okay I didn’t mean to sound like a paedophile child lover. ==

EDIT: Sarah if you’re reading this, lemme know when you’ve blogged bout your day!
I’m sure it went great as well.

What I’m trying to say is that deciding to volunteer for Daffodil Day was definitely the right choice to make and no matter where I’m studying next year, I’d definitely sign up for it again. Just smiling and acting friendly and saying a simple “Hi, how you goin’?” felt good in a way, interacting with people, mostly the local working class, and not forgetting the local and international students as well. The way they respond to us, the way they’re so willing to support the cause and purchase the merchandise without giving much thought to it. Even those who didn’t have enough cash on them to purchase something decided to donate whatever they had on them!

There was this one elderly woman who came to us and asked if today was Daffodil Day. After knowing that it was, she told us that she was only receiving her pay next week, that she should’ve marked the day on her calendar. As she walked off, she turned back and glanced at us once more, before leaving the train station. It’s a little too late now, but I should’ve just ran after her, and gave her a broach or something. That was something our Site Coordinator did last year - Arina purchased a teddy bear for a local woman who really wanted one but couldn’t afford it - she was one of those street performers. This year round, she bought a pen!

And then there was this other woman who while making her purchase said to us, “What you’re doing here is good work”. Which of course, felt really good on the inside, even though that wasn’t the important thing. The thing is, when people hear the word cancer, they would naturally respond. People may not have any personal experience or know any one who does, but we are aware of the pain it that brings to the patients who do suffer from it. And I believe, that this is what makes us human - empathy.

That just sounded awfully similar to a HOI tutorial discussion ==

Back to today. Left the train station just before noon with a wristband and a mini soccer ball. After having a quick lunch at Hungry Jack’s, headed home, grabbed my stuff and went for Drama practice before going for the E&D lecture. After that, decided to walk up and down the northern end of Lygon to search for sponsors/advertisers for the yearbook. And I seriously walked up and down over and over and over again (at least four times each way) just to make sure I didn’t miss out on any potential sponsors.

Back home, I kicked back and relaxed and was grateful that the internet was working even though it’s acting up again at this very moment. How to publish this post lidat? I shall wait patiently for it to work again.

MOVIE MARATHON #2 tomorrow! Can’t wait to see how many people turn up for this one. xD