Day 5

Today looks much like yesterday. Running errands for the apartment and figuring out some money stuff. If you are considering studying abroad, here is a number one important asterisk pay attention item that needs to go on your To Do list: go to your bank and sign a telephone wire transfer international permission form. Before I left, I called my bank to say I would be studying abroad and please don’t lock down my card when New Zealand charges start showing up. Yes thank you for notifying us, they said. I thought I’d done the thing with my bank that would be most important. I opened a bank account here. They gave me all the details I needed to have my bank at home transfer money into my account.

Then my bank at home says if you didn’t sign the international telephone blah blah blah form, there is no way to transfer your money unless you come in person to the bank. OH HA HA Larry you are so funny. We need to come up with a solution because I cannot spend all 5 months here constantly withdrawing money from the ATM and putting it into my NZ bank, and my landlady wants direct deposit for rent, and several small shops and independent restaurants so far have declined my card because it’s international and blah blah blah the machine doesn’t like it. And Larry, I know there are 4 Burger Kings on Queen Street that would probably happily accept my American card, literally 4, but Larry, I did not fly 8,000 miles to eat at the Burger King. What’s that you say? There are also 2 McDonald’s and 2 Subways and a Pita Pit and a Wendy’s? EIGHT THOUSAND MILES, LARRY. Oh okay. All I need to do is give someone Power of Attorney, and then they can go down to Bloomington and go to my bank and initiate the international transfer of funds. Oh is that all? Oh thank you. Excellent. Love you, Larry.

Anyhow, Day 5 was much like Day 4 with the apartment cleaning and flitting around town. Tomorrow will be a banner day though.