Technology

Hello everyone! First of all, my apologies for not posting this last night (or afternoon for the US).  My internet wasn't working and it made me really mad.  But, I typed it out last night anyways and (fingers crossed) you'll get 2 posts today.

I had 2 classes today, neither of which were very eventful.  We talked about volunteering as a leisure activity in my LEI class.  Snape still lacks the enthusiasm of a good public speaker.  (I really am starting to miss Butler professors.  They always show some life.) Then, I had my PMA class.  I think I now have a better handle on what this class is all about and it's really interesting. So, I'm going to explain it here so you can be amazed with me.  This class talks about management at the public sector level.  The public sector is basically the government, non-for-profits, hospitals, healthcare, etc.  This is really interesting because a lot of things in the Uk are public sector whereas a lot of things in the US are private sector.  (For example, most Universities here are public sector.  Students can go to college (a public one like Stirling.  Not Oxford or anything) for about $4,000 if not for free because the government pays for education.  I actually had a really interesting conversation today with a Scottish classmate about the differences in prices of colleges between the Uk and US.) I think I'm definitely going to learn a lot in the class. 

I had a really fun interaction today that I feel the need to share.  First, here is a little bit of back story.  I hate Verizon.  If you are ever going out of the country and have Verizon as your carrier, switch to something else.  Every other major phone company (AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile) exists overseas and are compatible with company's over here.  But Verizon isn't.  The service is terrible, expensive, and the employees honestly have no idea what they are doing/selling.  Plus there is a really weird thing going on between Verizon Cellular Connection and Corporate Verizon.  If you have service from one, you are considered trash to the other business even though they are the same thing.  But anyways, here was my experience today.  I have been having issues with my phone over here and recently I received the same text 19 times.  And I'm not paying for the same text 19 times.  So, I called this Verizon service number (which was an overseas specialists number) and got this lady.  Here is how this conversation went.

Me: Hi. I'm studying abroad in Scotland and am having issues with my phone.

Lady: Ok.  So, you're in Sweden right?

Me: No.  I'm in Scotland.

Lady: That's in the Netherlands right?

Me: No. That's in the UK.

Lady: ----- silence -----

She eventually helped me with the text situation, but honestly I was scared that she would screw my phone up forever and since there are no Verizon stores over here, well I would have no help.  Then, I asked her why I couldn't get Skype on my phone.   She told me that Skype and Verizon haven't reached an agreement about overseas Skyping (just for the record, every other carrier has reached an agreement with Skype for international data use).  Here's how this conversation went.

Me: Do the Verizon employees know this whenever they sell phones? Because I was guaranteed that I would be able to use Skype.

Lady: Well did you buy it online?

Me: No. I bought it from a Cellular Connection.

Lady: OOOOOHHHHH a third party dealership.  You should have asked a cooperate office.

Me: I have.  They yelled at me (true story). 

Lady: Oh….Well you can connect to Skype using wireless.  And there is wireless everywhere over there.  (Not true) You can go to a café and get wireless or go to an internet café.  Those are everywhere over there. (Also, not true.)

(Spoken from a woman who didn't know where Scotland was 5 minutes before making this statement.  And just for the record, there are not a lot of café's with free wifi.  Yes, there are some, but not a lot and most of them are expensive.  Like 4 pounds for a cup of coffee expensive.)

So, basically my day was spent being irritate with Verizon which is a reoccurring event in my life these days. Needless to say, I will be changing carriers as soon as I can.  Later tonight, I went to my volunteering meeting.  This was another disappointing moment in my day.  It turns out that it was a big time commitment and I had to have official Scottish documents.  So, I need to find a new club to join.

Tomorrow I have one class and then I leave to go on my home stay.  The home stay is a mandatory (they said that they would reschedule if I didn't go.  So, they mean very mandatory) part of my study abroad with IFSA.  I'm going to a little town in England called Ulverston which is near Shap.  I'm staying with 2 other IFSA students and we're there until Sunday.  Hopefully I'll have internet access, but who knows.  If not, I'll just make 2 in a row like I plan on doing today.