Everyday Life

.....We have settled into somewhat of a daily and weekly routine here. For me (Emily) this includes the usual round of daily housework and frequent walks down to the shops for groceries.

.....On most Saturdays I do volunteer ESL tutoring through an organization called The Smith Family. I am currently helping a Liberian immigrant with reading and writing. We read the book Go, Dog, Go the other day and she laughed at the pictures as we turned the pages. It was fun.

....On Mondays I work in a little shop that sells secondhand clothing and linens. The money raised from this shop helps to provide a free telephone counselling service to the area. Some Mondays are quiet with very few customers, but other days are busier with people coming in and out of the shop, many coming in to look for bargains and to "have a chat". Most of the time when people hear my accent they ask me if I'm from Canada. (not quite sure why this is - never thought I sounded Canadian) I tell them that I am from the U.S. state of Tennessee. This reply usually leads to a conversation about Elvis or country music. I have also learned a lot about Wollongong from talking to people who come in the shop. They like to tell me interesting facts about the city and the ways it has changed over the years.

.....I had my first shoplifter the other day. (First that I know of, anyway.) As I was straightening the store one day, I noticed a woman bend down to look at a pair of shoes that were on display underneath the mannikin in the window. I turned my back for a minute, and when I turned back around I noticed that she was leaving the store very quickly. I watched her hurry into a car parked out front, but didn't think anything else about it until a few minutes later I came back to the place where the shoes had been and realized they were gone. I knew I hadn't sold those shoes. Then I remembered the lady who had looked at them and then later hurried away to her car. I've often thought since then that if she ever came back into the shop, I would ask her if she was enjoying her shoes.