...in Georgia, already.

"Safely in Americus, Georgia. What's next?"

1am, arrived at the Apartment. As expected, no furnitures provided. Meaning I really have to fully utilized my newly bought air bed. Air bed. looks so uncomfortable and unstable. But, I dont have a choice here. I were so damn tired. My friend helped me to pump in air to the air bed (luv her deep2 ^-^)...took shower ,then sleepz.

The next morning, woke up early. Had a not-so-satisfying sleep. Partly because of my handache (drive too long), backache (sit too long), the airbed...and also mentally exhausted. Although it was a Sunday, but we had to go for Sunday meeting in another county. 1 and half hour drive from my apartment. Yup, and I need to drive again that morning. Gosh, to be honest, I was not mentally and physically "settle-down". So many questions were clouding in my head: what is this sun meeting? why is it so far? will i get intensive sales school from someone? which county will I work at? who will I meet later? how to knock at doors? do I need to memorize everything in the sales talk? Which house should I knock? what is trailer house? what is log house? how to demo the books? how many books in my whole set? how to sell the Bible? etc etc ETC.

Gladly, mostly all my questions were answered at the end of the day. Phew~

I were assigned to work at Crisp County. 30-40 minutes drive from Americus. Only two cities in this whole county, Cordele and Arabi. Guided by my friend/house8/student manager, below is a simple what-I-should-do-once-I-get-to-my-county summary guide:
1. Drive to the biggest city in the county, and search for chamber of commerce or city hall.
2. Get the county map, the area phone book, and ask about the safety condition of the area from the people in the chamber of commerce/city hall.
3. Study the county map.
4. Survey the area.
5. Pick a small area to start knocking on doors.

And what actually happened was...

When I reached Cordele,the biggest city in my county, I finally found Chamber of Commerce (Summary guide #1) after asking the cashier in this drug store (a store similar to Walgreens).

"Excuse me, do you know where is Chamber of Commerce?"

"Yes, you see the little building across the street? that's it."

I was like THAT IS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE? Its only less than 1 min drive from this store. I dont mean to "not see" it. But, it does not look like the Chamber of Commerce! Although I had not seen one before, but the name for this place sound so grand, agree? That is why I was hunting for a grand, rome architecture looking building! And I dont expect this white, small house looking is the Chamber of Commerce, with a huge sliced-watermelon "statue" in front of it. So, well, girl, stop criticising the place! Go in and do what you are supposed to do.
So, after parked my car (the only car in the parking lot), nervously, I walked towards a small-wooden-normal house-like door. I just went in, and a young girl greet me. A young girl? I was expecting some middle aged woman/man. Well, with lots of erm and er, I asked for county map and phone book(Summary guide #2). So the girl went to the other room to grab a map for me. She was wearing a cute black dress, with no shoes aka kaki ayam. While waiting for her, I scanned through the whole room, and I saw alot of Cordele information brochures. Scanned through them, and grabbed this particular brochure that really caught my attention.

Cordele Watermelon Days Festival 2008. Some of the competitions listed and scheduled: Watermelon eating contest, Watermelon Seed Splitting contest (ewww~), Watermelon Beauty Pagent (huh?), Watermelon Photography contest, Watermelon etc etc contests... WHAT THE...? Am I in a watermelon-crazed city?

Okay, my curiousity level rose. I must clarified this watermelon-crazed thingy! So, after gotten the map and phone book from the girl,

I told her, "I am new here, and I am wondering is watermelon a popular thingy here?"

She replied, with a giggle, " Yup, Cordele is known as the Watermelon capital of the world. We produce the sweetest watermelon in the world. That's why around this time every year, we have this watermelon festival."

Sweetest watermelon in the world? Did she just say world? Why I did not study this in geography? I have been eating watermelons for so many years, and I know how to differenciate between sweet and not sweet, but not sweetest...lor. Gosh, what is this? I really wanted to ask her, how do the people measure the level of sweetness? When measuring this, did they compare just the watermelons in the US or the watermelons around the world, like Malaysia? Do you know that US is not the only country that produce watermelons? Of course, I dare not to ask these questions la.

After getting the map, phone book, and answer for my curiousity, I get out from the place, got in to my car, and studied the map (Summary guide #3). Okay, set, now summary guide #4: survey area? how? Should I drive from the county border line to the end of another border line? c.o.n.f.u.s.e.d! Nvm, I can fit in this step with summary guide #5, randomly pick a small area and start knocking on doors. Looked at the map again, and yup, this is the targeted area!

Target area, selected.

Next, execution.