Recently my pal Elizabeth e-mailed me and asked me for some tips on moving overseas.  I know, I know. I’m only two weeks in on this Kuala Lumpur thing, so I shouldn’t be considered an expert by any stretch of the imagination.  Back in my golden years of 1998-2002, however, I traveled overseas frequently, and the longest stint was a year and some change that I spent in London.

In the 7 years since my last move, I’ve found two things have changed for me.  First, technology has improved.  Secondly, I am way more of a diva than I used to be.  I say this because I used to be the type of gal who was “air-conditioning optional” and “shower shoes mandatory”, and now, I carry around a giant bottle of hand sanitizer in my purse under the ruse of protecting myself from H1N1 but just as much liking it for the way it makes me feel on the inside.  And by that, I mean safe, warm, and protected from the general public.

After the jump, a list of my suggestions to my friend Elizabeth, who will soon be embarking on a move of her own.

1.  Get a Magic Jack.  Skype is so 2005.  Magic Jack is basically a USB drive with a standard phone jack in one end.  Plug it into your computer when it’s connected to the internet, and then plug a phone with a phone line into the other end.  Pick up the phone, and you can make unlimited calls to anyone in the US, Canada, and parts of Europe.  The cost for the first year is only $40, and $20 for each year thereafter.  The best part is, Magic Jack lets you choose a phone number with a U.S. area code, so your friends and family can call you like they would any other domestic number.  Plus, there’s free voicemail that forwards automatically to your e-mail whenever you haven’t plugged in Magic Jack to the internet.  I love this thing, whenever the Malaysian internet decides to cooperate with me.  It’s super useful for calling friends and family to gloat about the delicious, cheap food we’re eating.

2.  Call your credit card companies and banks.  Most credit card companies have something called “travel status” which allows you to continue to use your credit cards hassle-free overseas.  Fail to call them prior to your departure, and you’ll be standing at a street market in some nameless Asian city trying desperately to buy 70 batik paintings for your negotiated price of $4 US dollars using your AMEX, only to discover your card’s been frozen due to suspicious activity.  Not that buying 70 batik paintings wouldn’t have qualified for suspicious decision making on your part anyway.  60 would have been way plenty.

3.  Have your cell phone unlocked.  Before leaving the US, call your cell phone provider and ask them to provide you with your phone’s unlock code.  They’ll gripe and complain that you’re not supposed to have it, but ultimately, they’ll give it to you because you sound cute and not like the other jokers who call them when they sit on their IPhone and crack the screen for the 20th time.  Plug in the code before you leave the country, because when you arrive, one of the first things you’ll want to do is buy a SIM card (the small chip in the back of your phone that contains all the data specific to your phone) and pop it into your existing cell phone  so that your new friends will have a way to reach you.   Otherwise, you’ll be stuck paying US $400 to a shifty-eyed guy with a 1998 Nokia cell phone.  Only he won’t accept your Amex either, because it’s been frozen.

4.  Consider an international mail-forwarding service.  US Global Mail and APO Box (if you’re a diplomat or in the military) will give you a US-based address, then collect all of your mail for you, which you can review online, piece by piece, and then you can choose to have which items forwarded to you for a small handling fee and the international postage.  I didn’t learn about this service until after I arrived here in KL, so I’m still testing it out to see if it works for us.  I can say, however, that not receiving my US Weekly magazines on a timely basis must come to an end, stat.

5.  GPS, GPS, GPS.  Both the hubby and I were skeptical about its utility — until we moved here, we didn’t like the interruption of that robotic voice during our conversations in the car, like the one about who gets to die first so that he/she doesn’t have to live without the other one.  (It’s so morbid, but so telling about where you stand in your relationship.  Try it.)   Now that we’re here, Samantha the GPS sleeps right in between us, and we kiss her goodnight and tell her we love her all the time.  Check to see if the country you’re moving to has maps for the GPS, and if said maps are available, buy one immediately, even if you don’t plan on driving in that country.  We use it here to plot our coordinates, since streets here are a spaghetti jungle and house numbers rarely make any sense, if they exist at all.

I’m sure I’ll have more tips as, I don’t know, I actually start living here, but for now, these are the things that have consumed us in the last few weeks.  Now, when can I come visit you in your new exotic locale?