Je t'aime Magic Jack et YouTube

I mentioned a couple months back how much I love Skype and now I'd love to sing the praises of Magic Jack and YouTube, the latter I appreciate much more now that I live abroad. 


I'd seen a number of commercials on TV advertising Magic Jack and I it always sparked my interest, especially as I knew I was going to/wanted to live outside the US and this product seemed perfect for expats. So I was sure that I wanted to buy one once a friend of mine told me that her brother, who's in the Army, uses one while he's in Iraq, Afghanistan, and even Uzbekistan. He later told me himself how great it was and how he had requested an area code to match that of his mother, making it easier for her to call him. I knew I was moving to Brazil so this sounded perfect to me. Not only is the Magic Jack good for me, but it makes it easy (and free) for my family and friends to call me. 


We bought the Magic Jack about a month ago and started using it while we were still living in Florida. It turns out that a lot of Americans buy it and use it as a home phone, or for a second line. It's only $19.95/year (if I'm not mistaken). Very easy to use, even though you do have to plug it into the computer and leave the computer on if you're going to use it to make/receive calls. HOWEVER, if the Magic Jack is turned off, people can leave a voicemail which is recorded and sent to your e-mail. I can download the message in seconds and listen to it even if the Magic Jack is turned off. This is priceless. I can pick up the phone and call friends, family, Amazon, AT&T, and my bank back home in the US and the call sounds the same as if I were in Florida or down the street from my mom in New York. AND we requested the same area code as my mom and my older sister and a number of friends. They don't even need to dial that when they call me. It's WONDERFUL.


Thank you Magic Jack for creating such a simple product that has saved me money and let's me be in touch with my family and friends back home. I can also call any business I need to in the US to "handle business" and not bother my family to call on my behalf. I couldn't be any happier with the service. It's been nice to be able to give people in the States a "local" number.


Along with Skype and Magic Jack, I've found YouTube to be very convenient here as well. I don't know if you remember, but some time back I wrote a blog post about what I was watching on TV and I mentioned "Meet the Browns". Well, E and I love that show and yet we haven't been able to watch it on TBS.com here. I don't know if it's a location thing...? I tried at home and at school. No luck. We can watch the commercials (the previews), but not the show. But it's on YouTube; it may not be the same, but at least we can laugh out loud here in Brazil, too.


So thank you to these three companies for making my life easier and better. 

The post office and my Kindle

I don't know if I mentioned it on here, but my Kindle (the second one I got) is defective. This makes 2 for 2. Very bad, Amazon. The initial one I bought had to be returned because it wouldn't turn on after being switched off. I'd only had it for a month or so. So Amazon immediately rushed me a new one and I sent back the old one courtesy of them. Now I hadn't used the second one that much since I was trying to read my paperbacks before heading off to Brazil. I read maybe 2 or 3 books on it. You can imagine how unhappy I was when I discovered that both were defective.

I brought it my Kindle to Brazil in my carry-on and everything was fine - or so I thought. Once the plane landed in Brasilia I tried to turn it on. Not only would it not come on, but white lines appeared across the image of Jane Austen, the author, which was the screen saver and it progressively got worse to the point where instead of looking like Jane was in jail, it looked like she was on the other side of a mosquitoe net. Not cool. So I used my MagicJack (you HAVE to get one if you go abroad) to make a free call to Amazon. Since the second Kindle was also under manufacture warranty, they said they'd give me a new one for free AND reimburse me for the postage I'd have to pay since I'm out of the country (that I'll believe when I see it).

I asked Amazon to mail my new (the third one mind you) to my mom's address and I'll later decide the best way for her to send it to me. Suggestions? If my neighbor's mom comes to visit from Texas next month then she offered to bring it; that way my mom will just have to mail it to TX and then it'll be almost free for me to get it. Otherwise my mom will send it to me. But I still had to return the defective Kindle to Amazon. I was e-mailed the return UPS label (again, courtesy of Amazon) which I obviously can't use from here. But I went to the post office today with the label so that I'd have the address and I mailed it to Amazon for only (about) $22, and that's priority mail. It's supposed to arrive in 10-15 days so please cross your fingers. I don't want to be charged for it.

I'm relieved that my trip to the post office, or correio, was a success. A couple walked in right before us but because he didn't grab the ticket to be attended to, and I did, I got to go before him. I guess it paid to follow the rules. The woman at the counter was nice and helpful and let me take my time filling everything out. She explained everything to me and I was able to use my credit card from the States. I was a bit worried there'd be a problem using it in Brazil. All in all, today was a good day as far as running errands and going shopping. I finally found hangers for less than a fortunate and Havaiana flip-flops for R$8.50 instead of R$12 or more.