October 5, 2009

• Paperwork, paperwork...

  Went to open my bank account this morning, or at least to sign for it. I had forgotten that most of Italy is closed on Monday mornings...luckily Barclays was open. When I got there my account pack was all sitting waiting for me on the side. No idea whether they had already tried to call me or what, but I hadn’t heard anything from them, so I thought I might be going in to hear that they couldn’t open it after all, which wouldn’t necessarily have been such a bad thing...

  So basically in Italy you have to pay to have a bank account – either an annual charge, or a monthly. The average is about €9 a month. The one I was opening was only going to be €3 which seemed okay. But nothing else is free...it costs €10 to have a card sent to your account (so I assume I will be billed automatically for the arrival of my Bancomat (debit) card), it cost me €4 to make a transfer to pay my rent. It does say in the contract that if I do it in a self-service manner then it’s free, so I’m hoping that once I have internet banking and my borsa di studio (study grant) is paid directly into my account, I might be able to hopefully do the transfer myself for nothing. Otherwise having an account is fairly pointless as I found out I could have just withdrawn the grant in cash from the school bank. Oh well! It says somewhere that the Bancomat card costs €15 a year as well, so I’m expecting that will come out of my account too.... and apparently you have to pay to close an Italian bank account as well, so I’m looking forward to that in 9 months time.

  Anyway, at least the account is open and I have filled out the paperwork for the school. I have also paid my October rent, and know how to do it (well, if I want to pay her to do it every month...).

  Next stop was the transport office to get my bus pass. I was umming and ahhing about whether to actually get one. The school is a 40 minute walk away, and although it was a nice walk when I did it the other day, I didn’t have to be there at any specific time. I’ve got my timetable now and 2 days I have my first lesson at 7.50am, so really getting the bus is going to be a lot easier. It’s €27 a month for the Zone 1 pass which is nothing compared to what I was paying to get to work in England, so I’m happy. Had to fill out a form for that too, provide a photo (luckily I had one!) and a €5 deposit. The card is pretty cool though, it’s basically like an Oyster card – they call it Omnibus Card, which I quite like! I have to swipe it every time I get on the bus, and top it up each month that I need it. It works out a bit cheaper if you get 2 or 3 months at a time, but I want to see how it goes first.

  Third stop was a print shop to do some printing. It’s quite annoying not having a printer at home, but I’ll get used to it! I found a university bookshop/copisteria all in one (of the type we used to go to print and photocopy all our stuff in Trento) which had printers. It seemed a lot more expensive than I remembered, but at least it’s done. There are a few places around which do printing so I guess I can try a different one next time.

  My timetable looks pretty good. They’ve left me Friday and Saturday off, so I am working Mon-Thurs and school only takes place in the mornings.

  I am basically doing:
  Monday: 10.50-12.35
  Tuesday: 7.50-9.45
  Wednesday: 8.50-11.45 or 9.45-12.35 (alternate weeks)
  Thursday: 7.50-1.25

  Which means I can travel places from Friday-Sunday. I’m also free to do private lessons etc (if I manage to set any up!) in the afternoons. Yay!
  

  • 6:28 am
  • 1 Comment