Working in retail

About a year ago, I had a jolly good idea. I had just finished secondary school and I was facing what felt like an endless summer. I welcomed the sudden freedom after the exams with open arms. But after a week or so the novelty wore off and I felt like I had too much time at hand. I got bored. What should I do with my free time? After many days of pondering, I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Of course, I should get a job! A new question emerged: What kind of job should I get? I decided to go for something cliché and I applied for a job in retail. A few days later I was invited for an interview and it was announced that I got the job. Hooray! That day marked the start of a most interesting journey.

Working in retail, one has to deal with customers. A lot of customers. Over the course of a year I have probably met thousands of people, some were nice, some were annoying (sometimes I have to remind myself to stay calm) and some were... weird. It would be fun to look back on these experiences when I'm older. So here are some of my experiences with customers at my job.

1. One day a Japanese man walks in and approaches me. "Excuse me, miss, do you sell food-oh?" What the hell... Did he just ask me if we sell voodoo? What? Why? And then I suddenly thought of the anime Death Note. I thought of Yagami Light. I remembered that, when others call him, it often sounds like "Light-oh-kun". Hang on... Light-oh minus the oh equals Light. Voodoh minus oh equals... Oh, I get it. "Yes sir, the restaurant is that way."

2. A very excited boy comes in and in his hand he is holding a small package with something green in it. I happened to be near him at that moment, so he walked over and practically pressed the package against my face. "Look what I bought, Look!" And then he was dragged away by his friend. What was that guy trying to show me? That package contained something that looked like green powder or leaves or something. And then it dawned on me. Oh God, that guy was showing me weed! 

3. A woman came to return a purchase. "Hi! I would like to return this." *shows her purchase* "Of course, ma'am. Please go to the customer service department (which is like ten steps away from my cash register) to return your purchase." That was when her attitude changed. "WHY CAN'T I JUST RETURN IT HERE?" "That is not possible. This is the company's policy." "THIS IS BAD SERVICE!" And then she walked away. Well, okay...

4. A woman comes to pay for her purchases and starts talking to me in Spanish. "I'm sorry, I can't understand you. Do you speak English?" "NO, NO ENGLISH, SPANISH!" She demands that we continue the conversation in Spanish. "But ma'am, I can't understand you." Spanish is a beautiful language and I wish I could speak it, but I can't. After a while she gets annoyed. This has actually happened quite a few times. I've also been addressed in Russian. I wonder how some tourists navigate the streets if they don't speak either the language of the country they're visiting or English. 

5. A grown man comes to me and asks if he can try on girls' underwear. Need I say more?

Working in retail is interesting, indeed.

Yours faithfully,

Morgana

A break from the internet

You wake up one day and discover that internet is no more. It's gone. No more tweeting, no more liking, no more YouTube-ing. Does this sound like your worst nightmare?

Up until a few weeks ago, I would have said: "No. Hell no. Are you freaking kidding me? I can live without the internet! What do you take me for, an internet addict who needs to be online 24/7? Pff, you're so wrong, mate." But then I spent a few weeks offline and I'll have you know... I only whined about having no internet a billion times. 

It's scary how dependent our society has become on the internet. I was browsing 9GAG the other day when I found this picture, an 'updated' Maslow's hierarchy of needs:

                                       

It perfectly illustrates the power the internet holds over our lives. It's as though This joke is becoming reality. The internet plays a huge part in just about every field imaginable, be it the medical field, the business world, schools. Without the internet, we'd basically be lost.

While I will never deny all the good stuff the internet has brought us, the doors that the internet has opened for us, I still think that it's good to leave the internet from time to time and open our eyes to what is right in front of us (It took days of whining before I finally came to this realisation.). Those weeks without the internet forced me to explore the offline world and made me realise that there are still many more adventures waiting for me. I read a book (Clockwork Prince, highly recommended, by the way) on the beach, which is something I've always wanted to do, but couldn't since I live in a country where it's nearly always rainy. I finally witnessed a clear sunset and captured it on camera. But the thing that surprised me the most is how much I learnt about family and friends I've known my whole life. It's ironic how little I knew about people I thought I knew everything about.The time for obliviousness is over, however. I appreciate every opportunity I get to hang out with them, every opportunity I get to strengthen our bonds.

The offline world has not only taught me a great deal about myself, but it has taught me a lot about my surroundings, too. I love the internet, but breaks are welcome every once in a while.

Yours faithfully,

Morgana

Dragon's loyalty award | Morgana Anderson

Display the award on your blog.
It's in the sidebar.

Announce your win with a post and acknowledge the person who nominated you.
A massive thank you to Eve over at Pen & Key ~ Writing, Life and Me for nominating me. It means a lot :)

Present 15 awards to deserving bloggers.

I nominate:

1. Vanessa @ Simply me
2. Yanni @ Rude alignments
3. Booksballetphotos @ Booksballetphotos 
4. M @ The Life of Little Me
5. Maddy @ How To: Lyfe

Post 7 interesting things about yourself.

1. I've been a Potterhead for as long as I can remember. 
2. Because of my obsession with Harry Potter, I now have a burning desire to move to
    Oxford. It's not just because of Harry Potter, though. Oxford is plain gorgeous.
3. When I was little, I used to hide/lock myself up in our storage room on stormy days,
    because I was afraid of lightning and the sound of thunder. Why the storage room, you
    ask me? The storage room doesn't have any windows.
4. One day I was walking home from school, when I heard a classmate call my name. I
    turned my head to face her, while I continued walking in the opposite direction (I'm bad at
    explaining things... Please, bear with me). When I was done talking to said classmate, I
    turned my head round again and before I knew it, I walked straight into a bright, red pole.
    The worst thing is that this happened quite near the school and students saw me and
    laughed...They laughed their heads off. It was SO embarrassing!
5. I love travelling. I wish to see all countries in the world. I have a shelf dedicated to
    souvenirs I acquire whenever I've been to a certain place. Right now, my shelf holds
    souvenirs from France, England, Germany, Italy, Morocco, The Netherlands and Spain.
    I hope I'll add many more to my collection.
6. I'm extremely interested in languages. Languages connect people. I'd love to be fluent in,
    for example, Arabic and Japanese.
7. My lower jaw and teeth used to protude in front of my upper jaw instead of the other way
    around. You wouldn't notice a thing if I kept my mouth shut. It's getting fixed now. Part of
    me regrets this, because it was part of who I was, if that makes any sense. On the bright
    side, I can finally smile for pictures. 

Fear of public speaking

20.05.2015

I wanted to cry today. I wanted to cry, sink through the ground and never come back up again. Allow me to tell you what happened.

I’ve been dreading this day for weeks. Ever since my teacher announced that every student has to give a presentation in front of the whole entire class, I’ve been dreading this day. Heck, I’ve even lost sleep because of this. Even though I’ve always hated speaking in front of an audience, I had hope that, somehow, things would be different this time ‘round. I had hope that, this time, things would go well. And in the beginning it seemed like that was the case. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I wanted to say and when I finally did, I started practising. I practised in front of a mirror. I practised in front of a small audience, consisting of my parents and my brother. I practised. I practised. I practised until I was fed up with it. And then came today. You can do it, Morgana! There’s nothing to be afraid of. You’re not nervous. Just do it!  And so I went to class and waited for my turn. Ooooohh how I wish it was my turn already! And then it finally was and I walked up to the stage. Okay, you know your lines. Don’t panic. Don’t panic. You’ll only be speaking for about five minutes. Don’t panic... That’s when I panicked. As soon as I faced the audience, I forgot EVERYTHING. Errr… Errr… What was I going to say again? My face turned as red as a tomato as I desperately searched for that first line I had memorised. But it didn’t want to be found. I started apologising to everyone for no reason at all and we all stared at each other as the painfully awkward minutes ticked by. I’m gonna cry. I’m gonna freaking cry. Get me out of here! And then the teacher came to my rescue. “Morgana, why don’t you let A speak first, so you can get everything sorted?” “Thank you, I will.” So I waited for my turn once more. But this time, I wasn’t even remotely as confident as I was last time. When I started speaking, only incoherent sentences could be heard coming out of my mouth. I can see the faces of the people in the audience in my mind’s eye… Those faces contorted in concentration, trying to make sense of what I was saying. I couldn’t even make sense of what I was saying. Now that I’m looking back on this incident, I wonder what it is that scares me. Why am I afraid to speak in front of many people? Why am I not scared when I’m talking to a single person? Is this my insecurity presenting itself? My self-consciousness? Do I care that much about what people think of me? Will I ever be able to shake my fears and insecurities off? It didn’t happen this time, but one day I will overcome my fear of public speaking.

This diary entry is as true today as it was on that horrible day in May. I think my fear of public speaking has actually got worse since that day. I’ve been looking for tips on how to be more confident when speaking in front of an audience. I once saw on Ned’s declassified that it could help if one pictures the audience in their underwear. This is definitely not true for me. Every time I intend to picture them in their underwear, I panic and I forget to picture them in their underwear. I’ve also been told to not look directly into people’s eyes, but when I do this, I get remarks about it. One thing that I’ve learnt, is that I should never pre-write my text and memorise it. If I forget one line, I shut down completely. Just one tiny little mistake in the structure of a pre-written sentence and I get the whole thing mixed up.

Do you recognise yourself in any of this? What do you do to keep yourself calm before and during a presentation? And how do you manage to gain enough confidence to stand in front of an audience and speak?

I’ve got a long road ahead of me, but if I try my best I’m certain that one day, I will overcome my fear of public speaking.

Yours faithfully,

Morgana                                                            

Going on a road trip

Ever since I started watching Supernatural, I've had this crazy urge to go on a road trip. I'm not talking about a two hour drive to another city and back. No, I'm talking about kilometres upon kilometres of driving, driving through multiple countries, driving to new places, driving to thrilling adventures.

But where could a teenage girl, who still hasn't got her driver's license, possibly go to? Yeah, I thought so, too... Practically nowhere. 

So when my parents announced that we're going on one this week, you can imagine me going: "Yeeeess pleaaasseeeee!" I've always preferred driving over travelling by aeroplane. Driving enables you to take in the view in ways flying can't. I love that you can stop whenever you want to to capture beautiful scenery or to interact with locals and learn about other cultures. I've always been really interested in languages. I love the fact that they connect us, which, of course, is crucial when learning about new cultures and new places. I love that I get to practise these languages whilst I'm away. 

Apart from learning, road trips are great opportunities to just relax. Fortunately, I don't suffer from motion sickness, so I'll be able to catch up on my GoodReads challenge. I'm planning to take The infernal devices by Cassandra Clare with me, because I'm dying to complete this series. I adored the first instalment Clockwork Angel. I read it back in October of last year and it was exactly what I needed to read to recover from the year-long reading slump I had had prior to reading this book. I'm super excited to see how the story unfolds and what the fates of my beloved characters are. I also wanted to take The knife of never letting go by Patrick Ness with me, but I've been told that this book is emotionally draining. The last thing I need is for my parents to notice me crying in the back. "What's the matter? Are you all right? Why are you crying?" I can imagine me saying: "Er... I'm not crying, mum and dad." *Sniff* "My eyes are just sweating!" Yep, definitely something I would say. I also really want to watch some movies. This one doesn't need explaining, does it? And from time to time I'd like to just sit back, stare out of the window and listen to some music. 

I love road trips. They enable us to discover new places, to learn about the world around us, to relax and to embark on great adventures.

"Embrace the detours." 
              - Kevin Charbonneau

Yours faithfully,

Morgana

Noobs guide to movies

In terms of movies, I can honestly say that I have been living under a rock for the past eightteen years. To give you an impression of just how badly I have been living there:

(1) I have never ever seen The Lion King. I know, I know, I'm a disgrace. I should be ashamed of myself. Morgana, you're such a philistine!
(2) Remember when Disney's Frozen exploded back in 2013? For some reason I missed the whole hype. Tell you what, I don't even know what the movie is about. I just remember everybody singing "Let it go, let it go. Can't hold it back anymore..."
(3) I'm 20 years too late, but I can finally say that I watched Toy Story last Thursday. And I had a blast. What a magical movie. How I regret not watching this when I was younger!

I blame books and reading for my obliviousness regarding movies. You could ask me anything about a YA book and most of the time I have the answer ready for you. But if you ask me whether I've heard about or seen a certain movie, be prepared to hear a "No, what's that?", like, 90 per cent of the time. My movie-loving friend, Bella, knows all about this. I don't have many memories of occasions on which I've told her I had actually seen the movie she had been talking about. But the funny thing is, these same books that initially turned me away from movies are now helping to spark my interest in movies. 

But where do you start if you have eightteen years of catching up to do?

Last December, Bella and I picked up the book Since you've been Gone by Morgan Matson. This book revolves around sixteen-year-old Emily who has to cope with the disappearance of her best friend Sloane. Two weeks after Sloane's disppearance, Emily receives a to-do list with thirteen Sloane-inspired tasks. She has the summer to tick everything off, but what will emily find at the end of it? It's a cute and relatable contemporary, perfect if you're looking for a summer read. But what does this have to do with watching movies? Sloane inspired Bella to put together a list of nineteen years worth of her movie experiences to help me exit my rock once and for all. I thought I'd go ahead and write down every single movie on the list to remind myself of how much culture I've been missing out on. 

Movies you HAVE to watch.

(1) Now you see me
(2) Captain America: The first avenger
(3) The avengers
(4) Captain America: The winter soldier
(5) The Dark Knight series
(6) Rise of the planet of the apes & Dawn of the planet of the apes
(7) X-men: First Class & X-men: Days of future past
(8) The lord of the ring series
(9) The hobbit series
(10) The heat
(11) Let's be cops
(12) 21 Jump Street & 22 Jump Street
(13) Snow Piercer
(14) Shutter Island
(15) Inception
(16) Source Code
(17) Awake
(18) Million dollar baby
(19) The devil wears Prada
(20) The Help
(21) Freedom Writers
(22) Pursuit of Happyness
(23) Toy Story I, II, III
(24) The Lego movie
(25) Brave
(26) Frozen
(27) Wall-E
(28) Ice Age I
(29) Finding Nemo
(30) The Iron giant
(31) Up
(32) Ratatouille
(33) The incredibles
(34) The social Network
(35) The departed
(36) Avatar
(37) Slumdog millionaire
(38) Mean Girls
(39) Confessions of a shopaholic
(40) Salt
(41) Green Street Hooligans
(42) Mission: Impossible- Ghost protocol
(43) Limitless
(44) Mama

Oh my God, that's quite the list! Looking at this makes me so excited to venture into the realm of movies. I should get started, then. Bella promised me to 'hit me so hard, it'll make my ancestors dizzy' if I don't watch these. Bella, if I haven't finished this list by the end of this year, you have my permission to do just that.

Have you seen any of these movies? If you have, what did you think of them? Recommendations are, of course, always welcome :)

Yours faithfully,

Morgana

Help me! I'm melting!

Usually you hear me say things along the lines of "Oh my, it's been raining since for ever!" or "OMG, it's raining, snowing and sunny all at the same time!" But not today. Definitely not today... For today it is hot. That is actually an understatement. Let me phrase that better: it is suffocatingly hot. I've just come back from a stroll, drowning in my sweat, and I'm currently sat in my room with all windows closed. But, if it's so hot, why don't you just open a window, silly? I recently stumbled upon a picture that describes exactly why. I don't know who made it, but, whoever did, 



But first I've got to actually find the picture. Uuurghhh why is it that I can never find something when I'm actively looking for it? I've literally been searching for the past two hours and I still haven't found the picture. I'll just resort to typing out the text on the picture instead. What an anticlimax... Anyway, the text on the picture was as follows: Open window for a minute to cool down, 10 flies, 20 spiders, 9 stink bugs and a dragon all come flying through. Exactly why I won't be opening the windows.

I should probably go and look for some other ways to cool down. Help me, I'm melting! 

Yours faithfully,

Morgana

UPDATE: Never mind. It's gone back to raining cats and dogs again. Gotta love the weather here.