More Airline Fun

Today is a holiday.  But not the whole day (people still had to work), only tonight.  Tomorrow is the ‘recovery holiday’ so everything will be closed.  Tonight is Sant Joan, there will be street fires on the beach, people imbibing and making wishes over bonfires and swimming in the ocean at midnight.  I’m sure there will be some injuries, how can there not be with large, open fires and drunken swimming.

In honor of tonight’s festivities, my friends and I are going to walk down, swimsuits in tow, to the beach and have a look at what Palma does to honor the summer solstice.  This evening is the ray of sunshine on the hurricane that is today:

I’ve recently purchased my ticket back to the homeland, after many weeks (no exaggeration) of hoping, in vain, that the gods of all things aerial would take pity on me and pursuade AirBerlin (or any airline, or blimp, or Aladdin) to lower their travel prices.  However, when this dream was shattered, repeatedly, whenever I pulled up kayak.com, I bit the bullet and purchased a roundtrip ticket. 

The fun started today, when I received an email in Spanish (yay) from AirBerlin telling me that they were unable to charge my Visa and that I needed to pay my ticket fee by July 2^nd or I would be declined the pleasure to fly with them and would also have to pay a cancellation fee.  They included their banking information for me to go ahead and transfer money from my account to theirs.  How nice of them. 

On a tangent, this came after I had a nice chat with a woman hiring workers to teach English at a summer camp here in Palma during the month of July.  As I don’t have a summer job, I jumped at the opportunity.  I set up an interview for Monday morning and then received the question that I love most: do I have papers and/or a social security number to work here?  I took the standard approach and beat around the bush in broken, flustered Spanish, that, usually I work for cash payments (because THAT doesn’t make me sound like a hooker…), until we reach the inevitable: no, I’m here on a grant from the Government of Spain.  Well, she tells me, an interview would be pointless if I don’t have a Spanish SSN.  So, yay, America, you’re STILL not part of the EU.

Back to the AirBerlin issue.  After I read about the money wiring, I decided I needed to have a quick chat with US Bank; I recite my situation to them after which, they remind me that there’s probably a limit on how much I can spend per day.  Of course there is.  And of course I went over that limit on the day that I booked my flights home.  Either way, I need to pay AirBerlin money for my flight so I don’t miss my connecting flight in Florida, even if it involves wiring money (with the lovely transaction fee).  But, as nothing can be painless, I’m told that wiring can only be done in person and that I would need to come to an office and fill out paper work.  Not over the internet and ABSOLUTELY not over the phone.  Well, thank God there’s a branch of US Bank in Palma! (sense the sarcasm). 

Sometimes when I used to complain as a youngster about being given time outs (a rarity), my mom used to tell me she WISHED someone would tell her she was in timeout-it was usually when she was juggling about 5,000 things and I had just punched my brother.  And then blamed him for his own injury, and she needed a break.  At any rate, I now understand that sentiment and gave myself a timeout, after which I frantically called my mom.  I don’t care how independent you think you are (or actually are), sometimes you need help, which is not something I make a habit of asking for.  I should work on that.  Today I reached out.  And my mom saved the day.  She called the bank again and through the magic of Genie my ticket should be charged to my Visa.  I’m still waiting for a confirmation email, but we’re a step closer. 

So now, as I sit writing this long overdue post and drinking glass number three of cheap, delicious, Spanish wine, I think—life in Europe really isn’t that bad.  Granted the EU citizenship is a doozie, but it’s a cloudless afternoon and there’s a street fiesta tonight.  What more could I want?  Thanks, mom, for helping when I was ready to jump over the balcony of apartment 2A.  A less cynical post is promised for the future-maybe complete with photos of the past few weeks/Sant Joan!