Practical newcomer stuff

As I said before, I had to organise 3 things:

• bike
• gym
• american phone number

I’ll start with the phone, as that was a real pain in the lower back.

I went to Walmart, and asked one guy that I need a number with some data transfer allowance, and so on. Like a normal sim card, that in Europe you go to any store for, and buy it for £1 or 1 euro, or so.

Here it’s a bit more expensive (a number costs about $5-$10). He recommended me a Verizon kit. I went home and tried to activate it. They say you can do it online - it didn’t work. Or you can call them from a different phone and activate it this way. Very user friendly indeed.

 So I went to a public phone, but couldn’t really hear what they were saying to me. I decided to go back to Walmart and ask the guys there to help me with it.

I have to admit, they were really helpful. First, one of the guys helped me to activate it, what took him about 20 minutes on the phone. But it didn’t work. The card was activated, but my phone couldn't recognise it.

Then his manager approached (nice British guy named Richard, originally from Hull area) and it turned out that Verizon doesn’t work with British (and probably european as well) phones. But AT&T might work.

So another half an hour calling AT&T and trying to talk to an actual person. Finally we have all the stuff set up, I’m switching my phone on - and it doesn’t work.

Seems my phone is locked, as it’s on a contract. So I need to call my provider in the UK and ask them for a code to unlock this bloody device.

Fortunately I realise at home I’ve got my old phone with me, that shouldn’t have any lock. It’s slightly broken, but should be usable for those few weeks...

Gym was easier, I found out that there is a place called Flagstaff Athletic Club. They have two gyms, one about 5km from my place, the other one a bit further.

And they do short term memberships.

I went there, had a look and joined. This gym is absolutely awesome. It’s huge, they have fantastic weights room, a swimming pool, squash courts, jacuzzi, sauna, even a small indoor track. And they play good music in the weights room, not that shit you can hear in London gyms.

And it’s quite empty on top of that.

So if you’re coming to Flagstaff and need a gym, that’s a place to go.

I’m getting a bike tomorrow in Walmart, seems there are no second hand bikes on Craigslist at the moment (there were two, but are already gone).