Travel Woes

In honor of my dead computer, I'm writing a post on travel woes. (On the family computer)

#1 - My mom was amazing and shipped me the home computer last week. I was supposed to get it on Friday and in fact I did get a phone call that day when I was told that I have to pay 241 Euros in taxes and duties. 241!!! WTF? I needed to talk to my parents about this (we are crossing our fingers that when I leave the country I will get this $$ back) so I told Fedex that I would call them back. I called them back in the early afternoon, credit card in hand. They said - "Great! But its already too late to deliver it to you today...and no....we can't deliver on Saturdays...and no...we can't deliver to you on Monday afternoon/evening it will only be in the morning (I have class then...)" I have class tomorrow all day too, so they said that they will try to deliver tomorrow am (stupid...) but that if I am not there to accept, I can call them tomorrow for a special evening delivery (no...I can't arrange this delivery today for tomorrow evening...it must be arranged same day.) Lets just say I'm going only mildly crazy without my own pc.

#2 Since we are on the subject of computers...2 of my friends computer chargers have failed while in France. Why? Because those thingies that change the plug from round pegs to rectangular pegs don't actually regulate the voltage. This means that your computer charger actually gets much more electricity than it is used to getting...and can fail... When I heard this, I rushed home to check my charger (for my then working computer) and thank goodness it actually accepted a higher voltage and therefore shouldn't fail. Nonetheless, if you plan on using your computer in Europe for any significant period of time, check the fine print on the charger to make sure it can handle the voltage (between 220-240 volts) and if it can't, splurge on a good converter and make sure it is also a regulator.

#3 Speaking of splurging...lets talk about cash. Most places here do not accept credit cards (it is actually amazing here, most people don't even have them!! they just use debit cards, but that is a subject for another post) so it is important always to have cash on you...something I never did in the US. But its not too frustrating since there are ATMs everywhere in Paris. But WATCH OUT! because most of them charge you a fee for using them and you don't even know how much you will be charged until you get your bank statement. (It is never written on the screen)I succumbed to the extra hidden charges last time I was abroad, so this time I asked Bank of America (my bank) if there were any banks I could go to where I wouldn't get charged. Indeed, BofA has a deal with BNP Paribas where they don't charge me any fees to take out $$. I thought I lucked out. Until I started using BNP Paribas....

In Europe, PIN codes are usually no longer than 5 digits. Mine is (secure) and over 5 digits long. Half of the BNP locations I have gone to do not accept my long PIN code. I get a message which states that my PIN is too long. One of my friends had her bank card eaten after this happened to her several times in a row. Since there are no BofA locations here, I can't actually change my PIN, but if you plan on coming to France and your pin is over 5 digits, shorten it to avoid yourself lots of pain.

The normal upbeat blog posts will continue when I get a computer...hopefully tomorrow.

Bissous!
Daria