Settling in...

Konichiwa, you guys!

First of all, sorry the blog is late: I know I said I'd be posting one every Sunday, and I had one all lined up for y'all.... But then shockwave crashed..... And I couldn't save nor publish the blog..... I thought I'd saved it and so refreshed the page...... And the blog that had taken me the best part of three hours to write was wiped......
I stood there looking at my laptop like

I was SO angry!!
No word of a lie, it took me about 40 mins to calm down and stop myself from ripping apart my laptop.
But I eventually chilled out and went all zen mode. And now.... Here's my blog!

Gooooood aftern-
*checks time*
Evening, readers of my blog! I have now been here in the "deep south" for the best part of two and a half weeks now, and boy am I lovin' it.
Now, the title "Settling in" would lead you to believe that I'm only just, well, settling in. But, that's not actually the case (to be expected, I suppose, as my title- writing so far has, to be honest, sucked). I was pretty much settled in after the first few days, and now I feel so comfortable and "at home" that it seems like I was at my actual house a lot longer ago than just three weeks. Southern Hospitality at it's finest (even though Krista and Steve are from Iowa and Chicago!).
So this past week I have been job shadowing Crickett Oldenburg at Allegra Marketing. It was great fun, highly interesting, and I gained valuable insight into the world of an independent marketing firm, which is who Allegra are- they're hired by small businesses to help them with their marketing campaigns. Crickett was a great person to shadow as well, telling hilarious stories in the car which helped keep em entertained between meetings.
Unfortunately, that placement was only for a week, and now I'm moving onto other placements. I figured that, seeing as I'm here and want to experience as much as possible, I'd widen my horizons to encompass other types of work experience related to Psychology. For example, next week I'll be working at a daycare centre, and I am looking into some possible placements with the Psychology departments at some local universities. It's all coming together nicely, and for me, excited is an understatement as to how I'm feeling.

While I was being driven around by Crickett, I couldn't help but notice that she used her phone A LOT whilst driving. This is something I've noticed quite a few people doing since I've been here, and it's taken me a bit by surprise.
Back home, being on the phone whilst driving is like the worst thing one can do in a car.... Aside from strangling a puppy and committing tax fraud.... Never strangle a puppy and commit tax fraud whilst driving.

   











^I'm watching you...

But yeah, I guess they can do that here because so few cars have a manual gear box- so they'll usually have a hand free to use the phone. If someone did it back home, how would they change gear?
So for a while I thought everyone here must be amazing drivers, but after Crickett told me that people in Shreveport are crap drivers, and after I saw two accidents in like, two days, I started to doubt that (fair enough, right?).

Speaking of phones, I'm using a temporary, prepaid phone while I'm here for local calls and texts. This is due to the OBSCENE prices that EE charge for data roaming (i.e. using your phone abroad). Back home, 1GB of data costs £10, which isn't too bad, but over here, 500MB costs £50!!!!!! That's half the data for five times the price.
Ain't nobody got cash fo dat!!!

...

Urgh.. Blogger keeps underlining words it doesn't recognise the spelling of (and trying to correct me when I use the English spelling of something). This is getting annoying...

JDBFIBRGIWBRUG POINTLESSNONSENSE OERBGUERBOEB

There we go, that's just to piss it off.

Anyway, this temporary phone's number must be a recycled one, as I keep getting text messages from numbers I don't recognise that make no sense to me. I've been ignoring these, up until Thursday, when I received multiple messages from the same number. Here's how the conversation went:

Stranger: hows ur job goin?
James: *no response*
Stranger: r u considered at work while ur at work or r u can go out n stuff?
James: *no response*
Stranger: I think women have to travel as much as men
James: Sorry, who is this?
Stranger: iight kool
James: I think you've got the wrong number, mate
Stranger: who dis
James: The person you've been texting all morning
Stranger: Is this Chris?
James: No, this is Rupert

After that, regretfully, my conversation with this entertaining stranger ended. I guess I'll never know who my moderately illiterate friend was. Whomever he may be, I'm sure he was the pride and joy of his English teacher (who should, with all respect, be fired).

On Saturday, I had a major first world problem.

I couldn't sleep in.
I know, it's awful, I've been receiving sympathy cards since then.

...

Only joking :D

But yeah, I had to get up at 6 in the morning to go and help at a Catholic community centre. We were going to be heading out and delivering soup and sandwiches to the elderly in the area at around 8:30, so we went earlier to help them prepare the food..... or drink.... Just what is soup anyway? It's like yoghurt- it's not a liquid but you don't chew it..... One of the great mysteries of life, I suppose.

Aaaaanywayyss, the morning was actually brilliant fun, I had a great time cooking the soup with the people at the centre (which is called the Knights of Columbus), and then actually delivering the soup was very rewarding- I could tell that some of the old folks really appreciated it.

However..... some.... didn't.

One guy in particular is apparently a problem every time- he used to be a minister and has consequently decided that he hates Catholics so much that he won't even accept free food from them. And before shutting the door on us, he said "the Lord giveth and the Lord TAKETH AWAY", like it was some sort of threat!

Stupid old coot.

But other than that, it was a great morning.

Afterwards, I assumed the role of the quintessential American teenager, and went to the mall. Clothes here are so cheap that I had to see if there were anymore I liked. Unfortunately, I didn't like the fit of the Levi's I tried on, so we went somewhere called Hot Topic. Now I've heard some things about Hot Topic, most of them bad. But upon walking in, after getting over the people who work there, who all have ear lobes the size of Venus, I saw their anime t shirt collection....

My reaction?

 It was awesome!

After that, I thought I'd treat Ross and his friend, Hunter, to lunch at a fast food joint called "Cane's". Paying for all three of us would have only cost me like 15 bucks, but just as I was about to pay, Steve (who had already eaten) jumped in and, very kindly, paid instead.

Very nice of him (thanks, Steve!), but I was just standing there like

Later on, we went for dinner at a Japanese steak house called "Shogun's", where the Cook cook's the food right in front of you, as well as doing cool tricks with his cutlery and fire.

The whole thing was utterly kick ass.

BUT NEVERTHELESS

It's getting on, and I've been at this for a while now. I know you all love to read my blog, but I do have a life- I've got very important stuff to be getting on with at 4:30 in the afternoon!

*opens anime website and Facebook*

Before I go, Ross introduced me to this awesome song, check it out!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cnQCk0u49w

Until next time

Jya ne

James x