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Using your Cell Phone Overseas

May 31, 2011 By 2 Comments

using cell phone overseasTake a look at your current phone and try to find out if it is one that uses GSM (Global System Mobile) technology. T-Mobile and some AT&T phones are equipped with this technology, among others. If you are buying a new phone make sure that GSM technology is integrated.

Most cell phone service providers electronically ‘lock’ the phone so that it can only be used with their service. There are obvious reasons why they choose to do this – in particular, to force you to pay what are usually very high roaming charges when you take your phone out of their network and use it elsewhere in the world.

Fortunately, this locking is reversible. With some phones, it is possible to simply enter an unlocking password code into the phone and it is immediately then unlocked. Other phones need to be connected up to a special unlocking data terminal.

For $5, you can get the codes from thetravelinsider.info.
You will need a country-specific SIM card to buy pre-paid minutes for the country in which you are traveling. You can buy pre-paid minutes from telestial.com. The company will send you a SIM card that you use to replace the current SIM inside your phone.

If you have valuable data on your SIM card you can get a SIM Backup and Saver Unit, this will help you transfer all your date safely from one phone/ one SIM card to another.

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Filed Under: Alaska, Belgium, Europe, Germany, Hawaii, Italy, Jordan, Korea, OCONUS, OCONUS States and Countries, Travel, UK Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Do you want to know about Aviano, Italy?

May 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Sometimes opening emails is liaviano ABF, Italyke opening gifts at Christmas time. It was like that today when I opened Kristie’s email. Kristie and her family are currently stationed at Aviano, Italy.

Though I have visited Italy plenty of times, living there is a different animal. I loved that Kristie shared her impressions with all of us about Aviano:

Aviano Air Base, Italy

We are here currently and have been since August 2010. Installation is nice, but the italians work in most all of the offices and they get siestas instead of what we consider regular lunches and sometimes it takes a while to accomplish things!

Housing on Installation:

There is no “base housing” there is GRP and BTL which are military but not on base, but those are slowly being phased out so if you move here, living on the economy is easier than trying to move in and then back out of those in a short time. The waiting list for those houses are long and long waits! We were #12 when we got here and it took until late march before they offerred us a house.

Housing off Installation:

Different towns are different! San Quirino is nice and its close to base. I would definately better to go with a house that uses city gas as opposed to gasolio (deisel type heating fuel) which costs about $850 for 800 liters, or bombola (a propane type fuel for cooking/heating). And you have to watch your electric usage! Living in Italy is very expensive! Most houses dont have huge yards or even what we would consider to be medium yards but there are exceptions to every rule I have a huge yard (footballfield big) but I have a stand alone house in the middle of fields that are used for farming. There are tons of vineyards and wineries no matter where you live! If you are moving here I would check out the AHRN website and also look at avianoclassifieds.com for rentals! Stand alones go quickly and so do most duplexes. As far as apartments a lot of the complexes do not have elevators so beware if you will be moving into an apartmaent that is on t he 3rd or higher floors!

Schools/Special Ed/Education options

My children are not in school yet, but I do know that the elementary school has a program called Sure Start for 4 year olds and it is a full day program. It is similar to headstart in the states. But they only take 18 children and E-4 and below has priority.
Activities for Kids

On base, they have the youth center that offers different activities and classes for the kids. There is a parent co-op, which allows you to drop your Child(ren) off for X number of days that week (depends on how many children you have) and they stay for three hours each time as long as you volunteer one day each week. I have not experienced much more than this so far!
On and Off Medical Services

Our Hospital does not have an ER, so you have to go to Pordenone hospital is it is after hours! If this happens, you want to be sure and call the base command post and ask for a translater prior to getting there! You can do this by simply calling the base operator and asking to be connected to the command post!

Best and worst/your fave links

Italy is beautiful and the atmosphere is very different! Living here is what you make of it! The base itself may annoy you a bit, but if you make sure to take the opportunities presented to you and TRAVEL!!!!!!! That is the way to make the best of it and make some amazing memories! It also can take a long time for a spouse to get a job! So be prepared to take up a hobby!
Aviano Air Base, Italy We are here currently and have been since August 2010. Installation is nice, but the italians work in most all of the offices and they get siestas instead of what we consider regular lunches and sometimes it takes a while to accomplish things!
Housing on installation?
There is no “base housing” there is GRP and BTL which are military but not on base, but those are slowly being phased out so if you move here, living on the economy is easier than trying to move in and then back out of those in a short time. The waiting list for those houses are long and long waits! We were #12 when we got here and it took until late march before they offerred us a house.
Housing off installation?

Different towns are different! San Quirino is nice and its close to base. I would definately better to go with a house that uses city gas as opposed to gasolio (deisel type heating fuel) which costs about $850 for 800 liters, or bombola (a propane type fuel for cooking/heating). And you have to watch your electric usage! Living in Italy is very expensive! Most houses dont have huge yards or even what we would consider to be medium yards but there are exceptions to every rule I have a huge yard (footballfield big) but I have a stand alone house in the middle of fields that are used for farming. There are tons of vineyards and wineries no matter where you live! If you are moving here I would check out the AHRN website and also look at avianoclassifieds.com for rentals! Stand alones go quickly and so do most duplexes. As far as apartments a lot of the complexes do not have elevators so beware if you will be moving into an apartmaent that is on t he 3rd or higher floors!

Orbitz Vacation Packages! (125x125)

Schools/Special Ed/Education options
My children are not in school yet, but I do know that the elementary school has a program called Sure Start for 4 year olds and it is a full day program. It is similar to headstart in the states. But they only take 18 children and E-4 and below has priority.
Activities for Kids
On base, they have the youth center that offers different activities and classes for the kids. There is a parent co-op, which allows you to drop your Child(ren) off for X number of days that week (depends on how many children you have) and they stay for three hours each time as long as you volunteer one day each week. I have not experienced much more than this so far!
On and Off Medical Services
Our Hospital does not have an ER, so you have to go to Pordenone hospital is it is after hours! If this happens, you want to be sure and call the base command post and ask for a translater prior to getting there! You can do this by simply calling the base operator and asking to be connected to the command post!
Best and worst/your fave links
Italy is beautiful and the atmosphere is very different! Living here is what you make of it! The base itself may annoy you a bit, but if you make sure to take the opportunities presented to you and TRAVEL!!!!!!! That is the way to make the best of it and make some amazing memories! It also can take a long time for a spouse to get a job! So be prepared to take up a hobby!

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