Tuesday, May 15, 2012

eulogy to a cell phone

It took us a long time to finally get a cell phone plan when we moved here.  In retrospect, we should have got cheap cell phones in the states (Craigslist! Amazon.com!) with SIM cards, and then just gotten a prepaid chip when we were here.  Most bancas do jornais (the newpaper "stands" that you find all over in Brazil that sell everything from magazines to candy to cheap toys to parking passes to umbrellas...they deserve a post of their own...) sell chips that you can put in cell phones. You just pick the service (TIM, Vivo, Claro or OI...those are the major ones), and buy your pre-paid chip, which gives you a phone number and a limited amount of minutes to use.  You can recharge it as you go. Online. At the grocery. At the loteria (corner lottery stores where people pay their bills and buy lottery tickets). At the ATM machine.

But we didn't do that. We opted to wait until the orchestra got us signed up with the company plan. hen we got the free phones that came with the plan. The orchestra canceled this perk almost 9 months ago, but we got to keep our phones. But today, my phone is on the verge of dying. I can get calls. But my touch screen doesn't work anymore, so I can't make calls, check my texts, nor listen to the 15 Portuguese lessons that I saved on my phone to listen to on my commutes. 

Bummer.

So I'm now in the market to buy a phone.

Any followers have recommendations as to where to buy decent but cheap cell phones in Brazil?
And here is my eulogy:
Dearest LG, once Vivo then TIM
A long time you were with me, it did seem
But now your time is fim.

6 comments:

  1. check your points with your cell phone plan. I was able to get a free new phone with points and the one you borrowed before only cost me R$49 with points. That said, I go for the simple no bells or whistles kind of cell phone.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, if only we could live like "Heidi," high in the Alps listening to the goats, the bells on the goats, and the wind in the trees.....rather than the ring of cell phones. Oops, sorry....my mind is wondering!! Good luck finding a new cell phone, Shell!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Luiz has a couple of extra candy bar phones if you need to borrow an emergency one in the mean time. (One of them used to be mine from 10 years ago, hehe.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I wonder if the phone was actually still alive; only to falter and committ suicide after listening to the eulogy :-)
    Only kidding. I think my jokes and your eulogies are top notch. They should tour, with your eulogies being the opening act of course.
    We all know who the main attraction is . . .
    http://grittypoet.blogspot.com.br/2012/04/grittjokes-first-one.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh my Gritty Poet. You are too funny. I've often wondered if my cell phone would want to jump to it's death. Especially when I find it flying out of my hand onto the floor...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Shelly, what kind of cell service is there, I plan on bringing my iPhone 4s down there. Do you know or can you find out if it is: Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology, OR Global System for Mobile communication (GSM)

    Thanks,
    Chris

    you can post on my FB if you would like

    ReplyDelete