On Saturday morning, I volunteered with Tzu Chi. I was invited and driven to food bank distribution at Costaño Elementary School in East Palo Alto by Jason Shi Gu. Our segment of the event began at 9:30am and lasted roughly two hours. (Jason and I left a bit early to accommodate his busy schedule; IIRC he also had blood donation around noon.)
Upon arrival, I was placed at the very front of the line where I mainly helped with salad containers. (I briefly helped with bagging zucchinis as well.) The weather started out super foggy / eerily reminiscent of fire season, but the sun eventually showed its bright happy face.
Standing next to me was a 23-year-old anime geek / PS5 gamer / software engineer named Ron whom I socialized with from time to time. Despite being so young, he had never gone to (or even heard of) any of the other Tzu Chi events organized by Jasmine / Victoria; out of courtesy I passed along his email to the organizers in charge.
All in all, the event was nice and quiet. The biggest takeaway I got from attending was that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a really good movie (thanks for telling me, Jason!). In fact, his praise was enough to cause me to choose it as my Saturday afternoon watch with Dad. (For those wondering, IMO it is a good film that showcases Asian culture.)
