Life as a bookman

Ok, when i'm talking about selling books, what do i mean?

Selling books is nothing like setting up a book stall in the middle of a shopping mall, waiting people to come and buy your books. When i said i'm selling books, what i meant was selling books door-to-door. I worked like a salesman actually...(but we preferred to call ourselves "bookman")

The books we sold included:
a study bible, an illustrated bilbe in stories, a set of bible reference books (which includes a handbook, dictionary and concordance), a black history set, and a homework handbook set.

So, everyday, i drove 30-80 miles to my county (the distance varies, as i worked in 4 counties in 2 states). Once i had reached my county, i had to look for areas where the african americans stay. Yup, in this job, my main focus was on the african americans, or blacks (some ppl found this word offensive, but most don't). The main reason for my choosing of blacks as my customers was because they were generally more friendly and more religious. The whites were indubitably richer, but most of them, YES, MOST OF THEM (at least most of the whites i had met) were VERY DEFENSIVE, SNOBBISH, COLD and RUDE. (I don't blame them though, coz who would be friendly to a foreigner that knock on your door and try to enter your house??)

Once i reached the area, i would start knocking on doors. To make sure that we could enter the house to show our books, we were taught to do a "set-up" using our "salestalk" (which we were trained over and over again). The key was to make people to like you and trust you. Once they like you and trust you, most of them will let you show the books if they have the need. And whether they buy it or not depends on the closing skill, which i think i seriously lacked it...

Hence, i worked 10 hours a day, 6 days a week (mon-fri). Sunday was my only off-day, but i had to attend a group meeting which normally took place in Cheasepeake, VA. We went to Raleigh, NC twice to have a combined meeting (which 3 organizations met). In such meetings, we called number (an activity which compared the sales of the students) and discussed ways to improve our sales. Of course, before each of the meetings, we had good lunch (either chinese buffet or Golden Coral).

This was my life as a bookman for three months...

my "bed" (protected by all my stuff!)

my "home" for three months...(we lived in the left side)

Pittsburgh - Roanoke Rapids

05/28/2005

We left Pittsburgh in the afternoon, and soon enough we found oursevles driving endlessly again on the highway. On our way to Roanoke Rapids, the hub cap of my car flew off. I did not know it until Renjie called me. Luckily, the hub cap was just the decoration part of the wheel.

We reached Roanoke Rapids at about 11.00 p.m. Upon reaching the single-storey duplex, a brick house which will be our "home" for the next three months, we were welcomed by Hon Boon and Sime. They had cooked us some chicken, which we gladly finished it. Little did we know that we were about to face the toughest chapter of our lives in no time...

Ann Arbor - Pittsburgh

05/27/2005

We (RenJie and I) left Ann Arbor for North Carolina on the 27th of May. My car was practically packed with all of my belongings (i left two boxes of academic stuff with voon seng. thx vs!) Before we left, we went to the plymouth Shell to do an oil change. To my dismay, the mechanic found out that my car needed some repair. There was something wrong with the axel thingy, and i was told that the wheel might fly off when i am driving. Knowing that the parts won't be available until the next day, i decided to take my chance. I had a feeling that the mechanic was exaggerating again. (coz remember that i once did a used car inspection here?)

The journey to Roanoke Rapids, a place 710 miles from Ann Arbor was pretty boring. It was estimated that we would need at least 11 hours to reach there (according to mapquest). Since i cannot listen to the radio or play any cd, i have to fight my sleepiness by chewing gum or singing. (the singing method was quite effective, it acted like some sort of shock treatment) We stopped a few times to refuel our cars, and when it was dark, we decided to find some place to park our cars and have a sleep. We stopped at a parking lot of a church near an exit of the interstate highway.

The very next day, we continued our journey after refreshing ourselves in a service station at the highway (i bought myself a hot chocolate). Since we would pass by Pittsburgh in our way, i figured it would be nice to visit my buddy, hong tuck, in the Carnagie Mellon University.

Probably due to the weather (cloudy and moody), i did not really like the atmosphere in Pittsburgh. The city was indescribably weird, somewhat possessed the aura that only a disgruntled old man will exude. Hong tuck still looked the same when we met him (haha). He brought us to the place he stayed, which was a room in his senior's dorm. After that, we walked around in the university and had lunch (chinese buffet) in the downtown. Other than CMU, there was another university in Pittsburgh - the University of Pittsburgh (of course).

(i will post the pictures later...)

Hong Tuck and I in Pittsburgh..

University of Pittsburgh...

Mitsubishi Mirage 2001

Hahaha...long time since i last posted anything. Currently i'm still in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, but since i'm not doing anything now (i lent my car to Priscilla coz hers is in the bodyshop. a good excuse for not working right?), i'll try to tell what exactly i have been doing for my first summer in the states...

*this post is a continuation from my last post* &pardon me for my grammer..sigh~~&

So, after much trouble, i finally got myself a car (haha..don't really remember about the details...it happened about 3 months ago). It's a Mitsubishi Mirage 2001. I bought it from a dealer in Saginaw, MI, with 3100 usd cash, and i think it's a pretty good deal. The car is extremely good on gas. The only thing im not so happy about the car is that i can't use the cdplayer, because i don't have the access code for it (high-tech huh?) Of course, i can go to the nearest Mitsubishi dealer to retrieve the code, but doing that will cost my another fortune (about 68 usd). Hence i decided that i would be better off if i just sing and entertain myself in the car.

(i will post a pic of my car later)

my baby...

my baby...(rear view)