Logistics
As you can imagine, I have already produced quite a robust list of things I have to do/sort out before the WAP can work. There are a lot of logistics. I also find that I worry about very silly things like how useful is it to bring shampoo, how many shirts to bring, what kind of bookbag I might need, how readily available school supplies will be, and are there any advantages to buying a laptop there? Yes, one: the pound sign on the keyboard. (£££ Is that a good enough reason?)
I have learned that my car has to be insured, even if it will be parked for a year. I can't take a year long educational leave of absence at work so I will have to quit and be rehired. Whatever. Hopefully the same bosses will be there and it will be somewhat easy.
My passport will expire while I'm gone, and will cost $75 to renew. Thankfully, they will return my old one with the new one!
My national registry expires next spring, but in a surprising and out of character gesture, they will allow me to renew this year so that I won't expire. I am shocked, the registry is accommodating!
Sending and receiving calls internationally is an expensive venture. Even with some sort of plan it is $1 a minute to call there. That's tricky. I haven't figured out yet what to do about that, other than suck it up, or get a sweet vodaphone or virgin mobile phone and probably pay the same to call the US.
I'm still looking for a debit card with no foreign transaction or ATM fees, any thoughts?
I have learned that my car has to be insured, even if it will be parked for a year. I can't take a year long educational leave of absence at work so I will have to quit and be rehired. Whatever. Hopefully the same bosses will be there and it will be somewhat easy.
My passport will expire while I'm gone, and will cost $75 to renew. Thankfully, they will return my old one with the new one!
My national registry expires next spring, but in a surprising and out of character gesture, they will allow me to renew this year so that I won't expire. I am shocked, the registry is accommodating!
Sending and receiving calls internationally is an expensive venture. Even with some sort of plan it is $1 a minute to call there. That's tricky. I haven't figured out yet what to do about that, other than suck it up, or get a sweet vodaphone or virgin mobile phone and probably pay the same to call the US.
I'm still looking for a debit card with no foreign transaction or ATM fees, any thoughts?
Comments
Stationary supplies are easy to get here but you will find the paper sizes different and line spacings may be different too. (iso216 - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size)
Things like shampoo are easy to get too and not worth using up your flight weight allowance on.
International calls from the UK are expensive, but you can buy pre-pay cards to use from a landline to make them cheaper. You can easily get a cheap pay-as-you-go mobile (cell) phone to use to call other UK based people.
Hope that helps!
Or make use of web based messenger services such as msn or AIM - they tend to have voice call options too
Wow, that sounded like a crazy sales pitch it was not intended to be since I'm not trying to make money :-)
found your blog BTW from your comment over at Maddog's about EMS Today.
-Tony