Apparently I go nuts without internet when suffering severe culture shock.

US SIM card not all that helpful. Reception in the house is flaky at best. Yesterday it took me a full 3 hours simply to post (a) one message to a web forum giving the people I'm supposed to be meeting up with my address & US phone number, & (b) one LJ private message with the same details. ARGH!

I have no idea whether any of these meetings are actually going to happen, as I haven't heard back from anyone yet.

Also, this SIM card is locked down somehow so I can't use my phone as a WiFi hotspot for my computer, like I do at home when away from a modem. So it's tiny screen phone internet only.

And just to add insult to injury, T-mobile, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to put a "Web Guard" on my phone. This blocks access to LiveJournal & deadjournal, but not *actual* dubious content - I had no trouble viewing the NSFW webcomic Menage à 3!

Currently I am sitting in the sun outside the Walmart on the 192 at W Vine St and Oren Brown Road (feel free to look it up on Google Maps if you want to stalk me in the next half hour). I got so "claustrophobic" in the house that I had to get out, even though it meant trundelling along the grass verges of main roads. Claustrophobia isn't really the right term because that's a fear of open spaces, and there's nothing BUT open space here. But I felt totally trapped and panicky in a place where you need a car to get anywhere.

It's bloody weird here. Apparently Floridians don't believe in pavements/sidewalks. They exist, but only in actual housing estates. You go along the pavement & suddenly it vanishes, to be replaced with a naked grass verge. WTF? This happens over and over again down the length of a road. I have no fucking idea why, because the weather is so glorious here that walking or cycling in the outdoors seems a way better option than being stuck in a metal box, but go figure.I am also having severe environmental rage, all the time.

They don't recycle here. At all! EVERYTHING goes into the normal dustbin for landfill. ARGH! What a waste! Just add all the overpackaging issues (e.g. tons of disposable plastic bags, handed out like sweetie, even for things like 1 gallon drinks bottles WITH THEIR OWN HANDLE), and you can see why it's making me angry.

Anyway, going to try unbarring my phone again now. Hopefully will be able to read LJ again soon.

Edit, 22:06 Couldn't get my phone unbarred since T-Mobile's system was "being upgraded". However, I am now in HOOTERS of all places, using their free internet :D

Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.