Super AG Strikes Again!

I quickly get online with my former carrier, Boost, who I've been using for years. 

Full disclosure, this is a great phone service. It's on the Sprint network and are no frills... You buy your own phone, but rates are low and there can be monthly discounts for paying on time. You can get monthly plans or pay-as-you-go... And you can go into a store for assistance in making the switch, or follow handy tutorials online. It's great, I highly recommend. 

So this is where the over-planning comes in... 

I cannot now log into Boost, because my account has been disabled and help is only through a US phone number... no online chat for turncoats like me. 

While in Super AG mode I had found a way to park my US phone number... 

(This is a great service! I pay them $5 per month, they remove my number from the current carrier, put it under their umbrella, and give a generic outgoing message... I can actually get voice messages via email... And my phone number is saved for me in case I want to use in when / if I come back!) 

I had scheduled my phone to be parked the day after I flew -- and they could only promise within a week of the requested date.  But this time they were super efficient. And I no longer had a relationship with Boost. 

So they were unlikely to help me unlock my phone... even if I could contact them somehow.

Telecom Protectionism


So we head back upstairs to handle the hardware tasks (clue one to the low cost option). 

We deconstruct a paper clip to open the SIM tray (works in all languages!). We pop out my US SIM and I carefully label and store it for the future. 

We examine the new SIM and scratch-off the pin number. 

We slide the SIM into my iPhone... and power him up. 

I enter my device password... 

And we're greeted with a Big Brother style message saying my iPhone is Locked and I cannot use the SIM for this carrier (Wind) unless my former carrier unlocks the phone. 

Damned American telecom protectionism!

My Wind transaction

Quindi, we went to the Wind shop in Cadorna, and Luisella  quickly explained in Italiano that I simply needed to get a SIM card for my iPhone, keeping the same phone number I have in my flip phone, and with enough data to be able to use Whatsapp to stay in touch with the US. 

I'm amazed to be able to openly disclose the details of our deal -- all without having to conduct the transaction on a dark street corner through a car window, or in the back of a dirty cafe catering to people with unidentifiable accents... 

  • 15 Euro to change to a different type of SIM (keeping the same number)
  • 40 Euro for a month of calls, texts and data 
  • No contract
  • Transaction completed within 10 minutes
  • And I only had to sign a single slip of paper

Easy peasy! Shhhhh, don't tell Verizon! In the US we are getting royally screwed!!! (Or should I say, You.)

Super Anal Geek


Anyone who knows me in any capacity can confirm that I am a planner. I'm a little Asperger-esque, and I plan my weekend errands most efficiently with as few left turns as possible. This is true, documented and easily verified. 

I plan my trips with triple anal-ality, creating an xls with times, confirmation numbers, street addresses, phone numbers... follwed by page after page of printed confirmations, Google maps, vouchers..... each slipped into plastic sheet covers and placed in a three ring binder... In my backpack.  

So, planning a move, not just any move but the biggest, most complex move of my life, has triggered emergence of Super Anal Geek (no costume designs available yet, but I sense a pocket protector is not off limits). 

Super AG spent months planning every tiny step to be prepared for every eventuality, and as loathe as I am to admit it sometimes too much planning can bite you in the ass. 

wtf

I've just been told (in a joking yet truthful way!) that only Americans and grandmothers eat out alone... And the grandmothers do it only because their hotel doesn't serve dinner!!!!!!!!!! 

 

Pranziamo

I headed for Cadorna stazione, where my friends work for FNM. The plan was to drop my long-term bag for storage, have lunch with my buds, swap my US SIM for an Italian SIM, and catch the train to Monterosso al Mare for tre giorni di sole e divertimento. This is where my first little glitch caught me. 

When I arrived at the door,  a friend was actually in reception escorting out his earlier meeting participants. Che fortuna! We went upstairs, gathered the gang, and headed out for lunch.

How is it that service people always know to speak to me in English? In this case the waiter came over, took my menu in Italiano from me, and replaced it with a menu in English! The guys all laughed because they know I want to read and speak in Italian if possible.  

We all had birra and I had pizza with prosciutto. We laughed and took pictures. 

Then on the way back, Luisella, Robbie and I broke off from the group and headed to Wind to manage my cell phone transaction.

Arrival 2

We apparently landed at an optimum time (we were, after all 30 minutes EARLY!!!) and only our passengers were in line at Immigration (is that what it's called, when they check your passport coming in?) And since I walk so quickly, and with purpose, I was actually second in line for my passport-checker. 

Whew! He didn't ask me the questions ... why are you here? Do you plan to work while you're here... blah blah blah... not sure what a poker face looks like in Italian.... 

And again, our flight was the only flight being handled in baggage area, and my current favorite Delta check in agent successfully checked my bags all the way through!! So there they were, riding around the carosel!! 

I love Milano's MXP airport. Clean, new, art installations... And it's a 30 minute, 13 Euro ride on a sparkling clean train to  two transportation hubs in Milano. (Compared with 80-Euro-PLUS for a cab ride... trust me... take the Express.) 

Departure 2


The international flight was delayed at the gate for 30 minutes, and then sat in line for takeoff for almost an hour. 

(I digress, but can you imagine if the pilots didn't respect and revere the queueing in making way to the runway... a Fokker, bumping its baby carriage into the calves of the 787 in front... what chaos!) 

This means that dinner was finally served about 11 pm EDT. As usual I ordered a "Special Meal", as suggested on the Today Show so many years ago... The food is typically much better than the standard fare, and the corn and chickpea salad in my Kosher meal was excellent... but the spaghetti with Bolognese not-so-much...  Maybe I'll try the regular menu next time.  

The lights were doused immediately after dinner and when I awoke I was in British airspace. 

what did she say?


While having a salad and Brooklyn beer for a late lunch, and later waiting to board, there were some crazy announcements from the speakers. 

At one point a Japanese airline cautioned passengers to visit the toilets before boarding X-flight to Tokyo, because they anticipated the Fasten Seatbelts light would remain on the first 5 hours (!!) of the flight.  

An Aeroflot flight kept threatening "this is the final boarding call" interspersed with increasingly plaintive requests for three (apparently very important) passangers to please please please report to the gate. The "final boarding" period dragged on for about an hour. I hope they were sitting in first, else there may have been a revolution in the very narrow aisles of cattle class.
 

TSA at JFK

Then it was time for my second TSA line of the day. OMG, the magnitude of the TSA in JFK Terminal 1. There are more lanes than I-85 in Atlanta! With so many people the lanes folded back on themselves almost double. And so many different languages it was mind-boggling. 

(I've learned firsthand that many cultures don't have the inbred reverence and respect of standing in line that those of us former colonists of the British empire enjoy (endure? suffer?).) 

Perhaps because it was the end of the holiday weekend, this was the most crowded I've ever seen TSA in any airport ever. In all honesty, it took my an hour and 15 to make it through. Thank goodness I always build extra time into my schedule. 

And, no hand checking of my cords and coins.

Arrival 1

I landed at JFK after being serenaded IN STEREO by two crying babies, only to find that my usual routine was disrupted. (And not in a good way, Richard Branson!! :-) ) 

Typically I've been flying Delta to JFK, which arrives into the same terminal as the Delta international partners depart from... meaning, I don't have to hit the air train, I just stay inside the same building. 

However this time I arrived into a different terminal. :-( But learned from some really helpful gate agents that Delta has a fabulous shuttle system between the terminals they utilize. So make sure to ask about the shuttle before following the herd to the main exit. 

Once there I did have to be rechecked for my Alitalia flight, no probs... and chatted in line with four young seminarians... they were flying from the midwest (some city, can't remember, I know, I'm bad!) to Rome for six months of study in the shadow of the Vatican. Wow, the history! the art!..... the religion??

Departure 1

Travel to my new life was barely worth mentioning, in the grand scheme of things travel related. 

My Delta baggage check agent was really helpful, and succeeded in checking both my bags through to Milano -- so I don't have to claim at JFK baggage and then recheck.  (Thank you!)

Two of my bags were held for hand checking at Charlotte TSA. I had too many power cords jumbled together in one, and too many coins all together in my purse. While the very friendly guy was looking through my things I learned that the TSA plans to implement a rolling list of screening requirements -- so that today everyone may need to remove their shoes, and tomorrow you may need to take out all your electronics (including phone). Not sure if the Pre-Check line will reduce some of these surprises for those travelers enrolled in the program. 

Also I was patted down.  Maybe my incredible smile of excitement triggered alarms........ 

Departure was delayed 30 minutes... no BFD.

what to do...?

Because I'm a little obsessive (ok, a lot obsessive, but I like to call it "being prepared") I've been thinking how I'm moving to a new city (in a new country with a language and culture totally foreign to me, but I digress)... moving to a new city where I have only a few friends. 

And moving there while the days are getting shorter and just weeks before the time change from Daylight Savings to Standard time. The dark and cold of winter is my least favorite season. 

Can you say SAD and alone!? 

While local television will be a great learning tool for me, active listening (plus simultaneously attempting translation!) will be exhausting.... and therefore not something to do for relaxation. 

So what to do to fill up the hours before I've built a social structure?

you gotta choose!

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”


― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

The Land of The Last

Sometime in the past week my raft fell down a waterfall and I found myself in The Land of the Last.   (Insert screaming here.) 

[Obviously much of these lasts are only last-for-now, or pre-adventure-lasts... So, we think... Dun dun DUUUUN!] 

There's The Last Time I Drive to My Hometown to Visit My Brothers; The Last Time I Got a Cut From My Hairdresser; The Last Time I Ate At Fuel Pizza; The Last Amazon Delivery (delivery free with Prime!) I Got (here!!). As my flight date gets closer these Lasts are coming at me faster and furious-er.

I think the only Sleestaks around are those voices trying to convince me that I should feel sad about these Lasts... or that I should mark them somehow... And I just don't feel that way. Because I'm facing an adventure and I damned excited to get the party started! 

So, Sentimentality of The Lasts be gone! Go bother someone who doesn't have the courage of conviction. 

[Click here to be transported to Saturday morning 1975!]

Covfefe!

I'm truly honored that Pres Trump scheduled the eclipse during my waning days in the US.