If you think students spend all their spare time avoiding studying, going out with their mates and having a good time then you'd be right. Well our student bloggers do anyway. While they assure us they don't slack on the study, they've got a lot to answer for when it comes to enjoying themselves while volunteering.

All | Emma | Oli | Daniel | Carrie | Olivia | Fiona | Sammy | Ashley | Rochelle | Natalie | Tom | TomG | Harry

Friday May 07, 2010

A new start for Bookends...

Well, as I mentioned in my last post, I ventured off to China during the easter holidays on a study programme. This should have lasted 3 weeks, but oh yes you guessed it, a little volcanic eruption managed to extend my stay by 2 weeks! So sorry for the absence...

This of course meant that I had to delegate all my Torcher's organising to others while I was stranded in Shanghai - unfortunately I obviously delegated to the wrong people! I arrived back in Aberdeen on the day of the parade and found our float looking a little bare, at which point I marched off to Asda to buy random summery things (bubble machine and a paddling pool? Yes please!) and called some mates to help fill up the float as apparently only 4 other volunteers were showing up!

I was a little shocked at the lack of interest when before Easter everyone had seemed so enthusiastic, but on the night we still made a good go of it, dancing down the street to some ehhh "Hawaiian" inspired techno...which then hit Bassment Jaxx etc... well, my bucket was pretty heavy by the end despite emptying it twice so it can't have gone too badly! The parade as a whole is estimated to have raised over £10 000 for charity, thanks to the help of other 2000 students, and a huge and generous crowd lining the streets!

In other news, our new store is officially open! The space is about 3 times the size of our last shop, with extra space for tables, chairs and comfy sofas and beanbags, giving us a social and lively space, which will hopefully soon have all the cafe facilities we need! The store's shelves will be closed and locked in the evenings, as the space is also available to societies and students to rent out at night for events, allowing us to provide a further service to the students of Aberdeen - fantastic!

So far, we've had our hands pretty full with just attempting to shelves all the books and decorate the store, but now that it's all finished, we're hoping to see a surge in customers, which can only be good for the Charities Campaign...

Well that's the plan, I'll get back to you with how it goes... Fi.

Posted by Fiona ( 5:00 PM )
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