I turned around, shocked to hear my name, forgetting I had on a nametag. I smiled, glad to hear my name used, though it was a small gesture. I collected this man's tray and we then had a pleasant conversation about my studies and the California coast. After a while I said goodbye, he wished me luck and I continued haveing more conversations and collecting more finished meal trays. Just a simple moment, but it impacted me so much.
Friday we all went down to the Tenderloin distric to serve in St. Anthony's dining room. The afternoon of conversing and busing tables passed quickly and a lot was learned about this particular part of the San Francisco community. The TL is known for being the hot-spot of crime in SF and surprisingly it is only 7 by 7 blocks. It is bordered on the north, east, and west by some of the most affluent districts and south of it is Market St. , which is a strip of some tourism, and then SOMA (south of market street) which isn't the best area, but it is better than the TL. Basically since all these wealthy neighborhoods border the Tenderloin, all crime, poverty and homelessnes have been pushed and corralled into this small area. Things like drug sales take place there because it is easy for them to when so many other things are happening and when your police force is more concentrated on keeping things from happening on the perimiter, near the Financial district, Nob Hill and Union Squre, it leaves little attention to the area within those peramiters. Pretty interesting stuff.
We finished out the rest of the day in the dining hall, which was a blast and passed very quickly with another few memorabel conversations-one with two older men who began making jokes about where I was from, the government and other things. They were pretty funny, so I reacted accordingly. One of them then goes "You know? You have a great sense of humor for a young girl. I don't see many young people willing to laugh like that and not take things too seriously. Thank you...it was really refreshing." I genuinely was enjoying myself and didn't even think about how I was reacting, so this came as a surprise. It then of course, sent me into a whole realm of thouts about how we react to things and what makes up who we are in that sense...I won't go into all that.
After volunteering, some of us wandered downtown and then over to Chinatown, where we then walked to Northbeach. A great way to end the afternoon.
Here we are at the end of Chinatown, as the district transitions into the Northbeach area. This is Brian, Michela, Barrett and I.
In addition to that, we had a picnic this weekend at Alamo Squrae Park, which has a great view of the city, is within walking distance from our house and, as you can see, is across the street from the Painted Ladies. Such a nice, sunny afternoon.
Also within walking distance is the Haight! It's a really fun area with many eclectic things. While walking down Haight St. we all had to gather and take a picture. Right to Left: Me, Brian, Amy, Meghan, Maria, Katie, Chelsea, Becky and Barrett.
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