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I was endeavoured to write a detailed diary about my everyday encounters during my London Ambassador shifts. However, you know how difficult it is, for someone who is not a good observer to tell anything interesting. In the end, it was just a trivial note for what have happened during my first volunteering experience.
After three compulsory trainings across 2011 and 2012, finally I was about to carry out my duty officially between 23rd to 28th August. I arrived in London on the 22nd and stayed two nights in a hostel call 'Christopher's Inn' in Hammersmith. It was a good hostel, considering it costs less than ten quid per weekday. The state of the hostel, including both dorms and bathrooms, is acceptably clean and it offers free (basic) breakfast and discount drinks. Furthermore, the hostel is located right next/in front of the Hammersmith tube station, which adds to its advantage. But the price increases considerably during weekends. Hence, I have had decided to move to YHA St. Paul for my rest of times in London. The location of the second hostel is excellent, too. It is very close to St. Paul Cathedral and with bus stops and tube station nearby. The only disadvantages are the services provided by it are rather unsatisfying comparatively, for it does not include both free wi-fi and breakfast.
Regarding the volunteering experience, it certainly has been interesting for the past couple of days. I began with uncertain about many questions till now I am quite confident in answering any problem that people throwing at me. The whole tasks of a London ambassador are quite straightforward. We act like an information desk that providing tourist assistances such as pointing directions, answering Olympic-related or unrelated questions, handing out free maps and broachers etc.. Although we were told to spread out around our base, which is Leicester Square in this case, most of us still incline to stay very closely to our pod, for, I don't know, it seems to be fearful and awkward to stand in distance from our base. It is also fascinating to observe the dynamics among the volunteers. We have had at least four different area managers in only three days and we normally joined by workers from transportation sectors, and occasionally, people from flying squads.
Volunteering is the main goal of my trip, but without doubt I grabbed this opportunity to go to as many entertainments as I can. Well, partly is due to the boredom of simply stay in the hostel whole night. Anyway, I jogged down various events that I can go to during my stay and most them, if you know me well, are related to theatre. So I went to Donmar Warehouse for 'Philadelphia, here I come' (for I saw a snapshot of the show and attracted by the lightening design, which is quite funny, I think), which is my first time of standing throughout a play, and it is exhausting since I been standing through my shift. The second night, I got the day seat to see Tamsin Greig's 'Jumpy' at Duke of Yoke Theatre; the third night was my first try of 'promming' for the well-known BBC Prom. However, it was something rather for experiencing the atmosphere than actually for the classical music. I had no idea that it would be an opera and more or less drifting between tiresome and disinterest throughout the performance. For the fourth night, it was my scarce interest in musical. The 'London Road' at Olivier Theatre in National Theatre was a good fun and sometimes emotional show to watch.
In the following night, I returned to the house known Royal Albert Hall for a German youth orchestra and enjoyed my first time in watching classical music live performance, in which I stood no more than five meters from the stage and it was certainly an magnificent experience. The pity was that, with my dumb ears, I can hardly tell whether the performance was good or not. Nevertheless, I suppose the orchestra must be good for they were not only be invited to perform, but also their performance was televised. I invested my last night in London to the pertinent musical 'Les Miserables'. It was quite a shock when I saw the 'sold out' notice at the box office, and I was going to ask the possibility of ticket exchanging. Sitting on the upper circle, it was slightly difficult to have a clear view of the stage and I have had to lean forward constantly, in order to see where are the main characters are doing. Although people have been telling me how great the music is in this musical, I still found it not attracting me that much as 'the Phantom of the Opera' does. Maybe it is due to my unfamiliarity of the songs played.
28th is going to be the last day of my shift and I cannot wait to go back to my comfort and silent room. It has been fun to live in hostels, for that I was amazed by how clean they are than anything else, to be honest. Also, I discovered a cheaper way to cover my food expense, which is visiting supermarkets' branch that are specialized in fresh food near their closing times. They covers my breakfasts and lunches pretty well. However, there is limits about how long I can living on like this and an week probably reached my maximum. I do miss my room, where I can stop worry about how much clean cloth remains and shampoo left. But, it was great to be part of something this big and I am glad that I did it.
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