Second Drive and Second Musuem...

I think I've mentioned it before but the customer service people I've encountered so far, have not been so friendly or helpful, and some of them quite scary. Last night, I went to the gas station to get phone cards. The guy at the counter was VERY old and VERY slow and pretty much CRAZY. I asked him for the phone cards, which were up "high" (most people could have stretched and reached them) and he started muttering and cursing under his breath about this and that, generally scaring the beejesus out of me. I had told him two (before he got up) and as he was up there (on a ladder, shaking profusely, making me worry I'd cause his untimely death for the sake of a call to Australia) I noticed he only grabbed one. I yelled out 3 times that I needed two but he failed to hear me over his own mutterings. When he got back down, I asked about the second one and he started yelling and screaming at me that it "wasn't a joke" and "was I trying to kill him" etc and so on. He got my cards, put them through the register and wished me a "lovely evening". Bizzare.

I'm sort of chronologically out of order here, but try to keep up...last night (before crazy gas man) was my first LCC meeting. An LCC meeting is basically a monthly aupair meeting, where we meet with our adult peer counsellor and the other aupairs in the area. We went iceskating, except I didn't skate because it scares me! Our next meeting is bowling though, so looking forward to that
Jumping in time again, this afternoon I actually had some very pleasant customer service experiences! A lady at Mc Donalds was very understanding and patient while I tried to decide what to eat (there menus are so different to ours and they call some burgers burgers but other burgers they call sandwiches....stoopid americans). Then at payless shoes, a lady asked about my accent which lead to a 15 minute conversation about everything from accents to travelling to families to christmas to religion to children....all with a perfect stranger. She was so lovely that we exchanged emails and hopefully I've got a new Jenkintown friend! At another store, while looking for some black jeans (which I bought and are very hot!) another girl was really helpful and lovely and then we chatted for ages about the aupairs that she knew, and what I was doing here, etc. I'm so glad not everyone in America is scary and angry!!!

A few nights ago (sorry, again about the order but I'm just writing this as it comes to me) I drove to the mall, and on the way home I almost hit a deer! We saw each other at the same time, and the poor thing was just as startled as me! It was the last thing I was expecting to see (have seen them before but not on this trip) and he was so big and beautiful!
Today was one of the best days I've had in America, so far! I went with the family to the Philadelphia Please Touch Museum - which is a hands on children's museum. I was so excited and it turned out to be even better then I thought, and I dare say I enjoyed it just as much (if not more) then the kids! There was a Please Touch City which had a garage, sky scrapers, buses, trains, parks on the top level and hospitals, stores, restaurants, homes on the bottom level. There was a Please Touch Outerspace room with rockets, ufos and planes. There was a beautiful, very old, restored carousel that was just amazing! A Please Touch Forest with water activities, a huge tree and animal statues. But by far the best two things were the art piece 'Statue of Liberty' and Alice in Wonderland's World. The statue of liberty was just her arm holding the torch, but it was a huge piece and made entirely out of scrap pieces, mainly old toys or children's items. It was breathtaking. Alice in Wonderland was so exciting. It was based on the original drawings for the book, and there was a fun house and a maze and statues and activities and it is just impossible to describe because it was so much fun, so exciting, so original....just amazing! You really have to see it to appreciate it.
But I can definitly say, I'll go back for sure! And anyone coming to Philly or anywhere close HAS to go....even if your not a big kid like me, I'm sure you'd love it!


I'm missing everybody, and just trying to still get into a rhythm of keeping in touch, and when to talking to everyone and so on. Its such a difficult time zone to work with, but I'm getting there. I've got photos up on myspace and facebook and I think they are all up to date as of tonight (yay!).
xxx