Communications

Another thing to consider: communication in Israel. My or my wife's phone usage is extremely expensive to use outside of US. Roaming charges in Israel for Verizon or AT&T are about the same: between $1.99 and $2.49 per minute based on the type of account. I can't believe there are customers that pay that much! Any way... I found out that there are at least 3 service providers in Israel. The best way is to purchase a pre-paid sim card. The call to US using the the pre-paid card is about $.25 or about 1NIS. The cost of the card needs to be considered as well, since it costs about $25 with no minutes. These sim cards have a Israel local number and all incoming calls and text messages are free. For short period, it's probably not worth it, but the card is good for at least 1 year if there is no activity.

It is possible to buy a sim card for Israel in US, but I am not sure what happens if the card is back or not working for any reason. So, since my daugter is going to Israel few weeks before us, her assignment is to buy a sim card there (she will have local friends that will help her, I am sure), use it and bring it back. The card is good for one year without any activity. We will re-fill it and use it when we get there. After that, if someone is going to Isreal, I am willing to part with the card.

Parents never have bad advice!

After my dad read my last post about ATMs, my dad told me I should look for a credit card that does not have international fees and use credit card as much as I can instead of cash. At least someone is reading my blog! :)

First thing I did was check with my current credit card. They told me that every international transaction will have an additional 3% fee!

Google to the rescue! Using Google, I found out that most of the credit cards do have international fees ranging from 1 to 3%!!! A little more searching revealed that there are few, not that many, that do not charge international fees. A little more digging and I found out that there are only 2 or 3 that in addition to not charging international fees, they do not charge monthly fees either! One was designed for the travelers. They were giving points that are good on travel related stuff (air fare, hotel stays, etc) and one was giving cash back. It could be that since our kids are old enough to stay home on their own, we may be doing more travel, but I think cash rules! So, the winner is Capital One Cash Credit Card. They have no fees (international, nor monthly) and they give 1% cash back with additional 50% of the bonus at the end of the year. I applied and should get the result at the most withing 15 days.

Foreign ATMs

As I keep thinking about what else I have to do before going to Israel or any foreign country, I realized that I do need to take some cash. And since we are going for more then couple of days, I don't want to carry too much cash. That brings up interesting point: where do I get cash. The good news: there is an answer: ATM. The bad news: I found out that my bank charges 3% fee on any foreign transaction. That sucks! Since I hate fees, I have to find a bank that would not charge me any fee in a foreign bank. Let's the search begin!

2012 USA Volleyball Boys’ Junior National Championships pictures

Here are some pictures from 2012 National Volleyball Junior Championship. Team: Pipeline Quicksilver. Libero:  Brian D.

Dallas, the conclusion

We are back home! Here is what happened since last post:

Boys did great on the second day as well as on the first: 3 wins and no losses. That has placed them into top 16! That means they are finished the tournament better then their placement. This was a goal!

The next day was not that good: 2 losses and 1 win. But the win came against number 1 seeded team!

The fourth and final day match was close, but not close enough: loss in 3 games and in the 3rd game, the final score was 13-15 :(

Over all, I think they had a good tournament and enjoyed themselves. The next year National Junior Volleyball Championship is in Reno, NV!

We did go to museum to learn about Kennedy assassination and all the conspiracy theories (no boys :). Interesting stuff! Of course boys had get on the street and stand on the big X (place where bullet hit JFK is marked by big X).

Travel home was not that exciting. Planes were on time and both (we were flying thru Houston) were connecting flights, so seating arrangements were not perfect, but we got home as expected (around 2am).

Stay tune for pictures.

Dallas: 2012 Junior National Volleyball tournament

Funny thing: We got A18,19, and 20 on the way from Chicago to St.Louis and A5,6,7 from St.Louis to Dallas. I was excited to get such a low numbers. Here is what happened:

On the way to St. Louis, it was great: we were 2nd in line and we could have gotten the first row. The problem with the first row is that all you carry-on must go to overheads. Since I have my laptop bag and was planning to get stuff out of it, we ended up in the second raw. Less leg room, but a lot quieter.

On the way to Dallas, we were first in line! That's the good news. The bad news is that the plane had passangers from previous flight and we ended up sitting at the end of the plane. At least it was a short flight.

It's hot in Dallas (the average high temperature for the days that we were in Dallas was about 96-97). I hear it's hotter in Chicago!

Boys did great first day: 3 matches, 3 wins. They cannot get worst then 36th place :)  The goal for the tournament is to finish better then the placement. The team rank before the tournament is 18. That's the goal!

Stay tuned!