Today I had a mission. I like having missions. As stressful as it was to complete the mission, I got to know my neighborhood a little better and ended up with a story to tell.
My mission was to find a way to connect to the internet. An old classmate from High School who lived in Barcelona responded to my predicament after I posted it on Facebook. She told me to go to a phone store and buy a card that would connect me.
The other day when I went to my local Locutori, I asked the Pakistani guy working there if he knew what I could do. He said go to Orange, a phone shop up the street and they sold a USB thing that I could use. A Pakistani woman who was at the counter, confirmed this. He told me to go on Monday. This was Saturday. I knew it was because everything was closed until today.
So yesterday I dealt with my lack of internet by going to Locutori and the train station. Even this morning I went to a Locutori to kill time because I was out before the stores opened. It was another horrible experience with a guy in a cabin talking on the phone with the door open. He left his cell phone and fanny pack on a desk next to a computer and while he was on the phone in the cabin his cell phone started ringing. He was talking very loudly and saying things like, "I know, look, look, listen to me, look, look..." over and over again. It was really irritating. It seems that people in Locutori don't understand the reason they have a door on their cabin.
Anyway, after killing some time there, I went to Orange, but they were still closed. On the way I passed Vodofone, another phone store. There was a little group of people, mostly older Spaniards with a few immigrant-types mixed in, waiting in front of the half-opened gate. I knew Vodofone was soon to open, so I sat on a railing and waited. I knew I had a long explanation to make in Spanish and wanted to wait for the place to clear out before I went in and "performed".
I thought they were having some type of sale and expected the line to continue to flow, but in fact after the first group of people went in, only a few more people straggled in. I walked in and looked and saw that they did indeed have this USB internet thing. It looked really expensive 175 Euros - much more than I wanted to spend.
I walked out and walked back to Orange. It was still shuttered.
Back to Vodofone I returned. The crowd had thinned. There were two women working - one helping customers, the other on a computer. Even though they both helped customers at different points, one was always on the computer, so the line moved slowly.
Finally my turn came. The woman said, "digame caballero". She had just been saying "digame" to everyone else. I appreciated this little extra bit of respect (?)
I explained that I was here until Friday. I was renting an apartment but didn't have internet and wanted some way to connect my laptop to the internet.
She said they had USB modems for internet. She quoted me a price. It wasn't 175 euros, but more like 49 or something. I asked if there were something cheaper. She mentioned something maybe around 29 euros. She spoke really fast and I had a hard time understanding what she was saying. Even when I asked her to repeat, she would repeat really fast and not alter what she was saying for me.
We finally established (somehow) that I needed a "modem prepago" - prepaid modem, because I was not a resident. She arrived at this conclusion when she asked me for my DNI (National Identity Document) and I told her I didn't have one. She then asked for my passport and I told her it was in my apartment but I had a copy. Then she said I needed a modem prepago.
She was very kind in spite of her rapid Spanish. She wrote down an address for me and sent me walking straight ahead up Ronda Sant Antoni. I was liking this mission.
I walked up Sant Antoni and saw that the old Market Place which I had seen from afar the past few days, and from up close this morning, was now located along this pedestrian street. I could see inside and saw some fruit and vegetable stands and some clothing. I made a plan to come back and explore the market at some point, but right now I was on a mission.
I walked and walked and walked. I was looking for number 82. It was several blocks. Finally I arrived. It was another Vodofone store.
I took a number and waited. It was very hot inside.
Finally my turn came. I asked for a modem prepago. The girl asked me for my DNI. I told her I didn't have a DNI. She asked for my passport. I told her I had a copy. She told me she needed the original.
I was pissed. Why did this woman who knew I didn't have my passport on me send me to another store of the same company without mentioning I needed my passport? My apartment was in the other direction.
So I left, walking back alongside the market, past the first Vodofone and past Orange, which was now open.
I went inside and saw they had prepaid modems. There was one woman working in this tiny store and quite a line of people waiting. I wanted to ask if I needed my passport, but she was on the phone while all of these people waited. I figured I would come home, get my passport and return to Orange. If they didn't have what I needed, at least I was prepared for Vodofone.
So I came home, climed the 75 stairs to my apartment (I counted them last night), got my passport and went back. The woman in Orange still had a line. It was hot and her door creaked really loudly every time someone came in. It was not a fun place to be waiting.
Like in Vodofone, much of her business was people who had problems with their cell phones. Some didn't know how to work them, one old guy needed his battery recharged. Some people were picking up phones. Few were actually buying anything new though, most only had questions.
At one point she looked around the store and asked everyone what they wanted. My turn came. I said, "quiero un modem prepago" - she pointed to some cell phones. I went to say, "mobile no" thinking she had misunderstood mobile for modem (mobile is what they call cell phones), but my second had passed. She was on to helping other people.
So I stood there next to the cell phones I didn't want and waited for my next turn. She continued helping several people, the door kept creaking as more people came in with more questions and it became more and more hectic. She looked at me and said, "diga", but the woman next to me spoke.
More time passed, more people, more creaking, my turn again, "diga" - I don't want a mobile, I want a modem, I told her, then the woman next to me stole the ball again with a question. I lost my turn.
I was getting so frustrated. I was so close, yet so far.....
Finally, she asked me a question about the modem, I answered it, she told me it was 49 euros - that was the same as Vodofone. I pulled out a 50 euro note, ready to pay and get out. She had moved on. I had to wait my turn.
She was kind of like a lighthouse turning very slowly around the room. Her glance would reach you and you'd have a second to get in what you needed and hold her attention for maybe a minute or so before she moved on. I wasn't fast or aggressive enough to get even my minute.
Eventually she did help me. She took my passport, made two copies. Got the modem, entered all of my information in her computer (it seems that getting a gun in the US is easier than buying a phone or modem here) and then asked me if I knew how it worked.
Woman next to me asks another question. My turn lost.
Eventually I did get out of there with my prepaid modem. I wasn't exactly sure how it worked because the explanation was so fast, I missed most of it, but I thought once I plugged it in, instructions would come up and I could read more easily than I could understand fast Catalan Spanish.
And so now I am connected with this little device that I paid 49 euros for four days. Plus, tomorrow and every day after, I have to recharge it (I am still not sure how I will do that) for about 4 euros each day. But it is worth it. No more locutoris with loud people in cabins with their doors open, people who smell like smoke, guys looking at porn at the computer next to me, and the lack of privacy and security that comes with a public computer.
Mission accomplished!
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