Hola World! Remember us? Yes, we have INTERNET!! At long last, after limping along on our T-mobile phones with crappy international service, we are online. And we have super fast fiber so we’re beating everyone on the internet, while surfing all our social sites and what not.
Shopping online will actually render photos of things we want to purchase. And looking up restaurants or viewing potential things to do in Valencia? Well, we are all over it now. No DSL sharing for us. No sir. We’re on a dedicated line that is all our own at 150mb.
Was it easy to get? NOOOO! Linda, our personal assistant/savior, had tried for weeks before we got here to get it set up. She did research and then reached out to Vodophone/Ono to get it ready for our arrival. But they wouldn’t do it without our NIE #. And after we got that, they wouldn’t do it until we got our Town Hall registry. And after that, they wouldn’t do it until we got our immigration registration. And after that they weren’t sure if they could do it until we got the actual card in 3 weeks.
Linda sent me this funny video that so accurately depicts what we’ve been through over the last 6 months – including setting up internet service – that I had to include the link here. I just wish the girl in the video had a mic to drop.
https://movingtovalencia.lbiz.es/this-is-spain/
About now you’re saying to yourself, ‘That’s crazy! Its just Internet.’ And you’d be correct. It is crazy. And it is just internet. But everything in Spain takes a lot of paperwork and patience. Finally, Linda and I just went to a local Mall and stood in line for the Vodophone store. The guy that helped us was nice but again – click, click, click and head shaking, eyeing me with a squint, and then head down for more typing. It starts to make you paranoid. You wonder what information they’re looking at? Can they see your medical records? School transcripts? Should I start trying to explain that lost weekend in college?
Finally, he says we’re approved – and we even get a home phone and 3 SIM cards. All for 66 euros per month. Yes, you heard that right. Internet (150 mb fiber), three SIM cards and a home phone for 66 euros per month. It’s like free.
The guy came today and installed it. We’re set up and ready to go. Netflix and I are going to be spending a lovely evening together and I think I’ll go out and buy myself a nice bottle of something red from Rioja. I have no couch yet, but I can lay in bed and drink and watch something. Just like a lost weekend in college.
Viva Espana 