Author: Rauf Aliev

January 18 2015, 07:50

What I saw reminded me of a bearded joke:

A guy goes into a tattoo parlor and says:

– Make me a tank tattoo across my whole back!

– Okay, lie down.

After ten minutes, the tattoo artist says:

– Done!

– How come it was so quick?

– Why fuss? It’s just four letters!..

January 13 2015, 21:57

Before traveling to the States, I imagined myself in the national parks somewhat like this (see the Snow White picture).

Reality turned out to be harsher. The fauna here is indeed rich, but cautious. We didn’t encounter any foxes, wolves, deer, or bears.

Over five national parks, the West Coast, forests, mountains, and walks along not always touristic trails, we didn’t meet many wild animals:

1. A little squirrel in Sequoia National Park (photo). Another squirrel we saw at the San Diego zoo doesn’t count.

2. Ground squirrels on the 17-mile drive near Monterey (photo).

3. A cougar that crossed our path in Grand Canyon National Park. Unfortunately, the cougar was fast, and we got no photo.

4. Elephant seals on the coast (photo). I do not count the seals in San Francisco; they are there 24/7 and are very accessible.

5. Pelicans on the pier in Santa Barbara (photo)

In the sky, hawks and other unidentified birds were periodically flying.

January 13 2015, 15:02

I just couldn’t refuel at ARCO because they don’t accept international bank cards, and the ATM installed at the station doesn’t recognize them either. Quite delightful, especially after driving the last forty minutes with the “gas running out” light on.

Overall, here are some observations about bank cards in the States (differences from Russia, purely based on my experience with Raiffeisen, Avangard, Promsvyazbank, Alfa-bank cards):

1. If you need to enter a PIN at a sales point, the transaction most likely won’t go through. That’s the case for all the listed cards. The right approach – claim that the card is a credit card, not a debit card, even if it’s not. Then they don’t ask for a PIN, and everything works (and the money is deducted instantly).

2. Some ATMs don’t “swallow” the card during the transaction. You pass your card, thereby giving the ATM your card details, and only then, without the card, you enter your PIN, what commands to perform, etc.

3. In restaurants, they take your card, swipe it at their register WITHOUT THE AMOUNT, and then you write down the total with tips on the receipt, sign, and go home. Technically, the restaurant could later charge as much as they want from your card after you leave, for instance, for any broken dishes they find. But naturally, no one commits fraud just like that.

4. Some automatic gas stations might initially charge much more than the amount of gas you pumped to then refund it later. I don’t understand why this is done – it seems not to cover any risks. For example, we fueled in Yosemite National Park for $20, but they charged $110. In the next transaction, the hundred was back in place, but the SMS alerts can be quite alarming. Note that this happens after you’ve already fueled for $20. That is, the system already sends the amount to the bank, but for some reason, the bank charges more.

5. All our cards are chip-based, but we encountered no point of sale that made a distinction between a chip and a magnetic stripe. The only question was whether it’s a debit or a credit card.

6. At gas stations, for amounts under fifty dollars, they sometimes don’t even ask for a signature on the receipt. They just say, the amount is small, no signature needed.

Konstantin Abramov, Artem Laskov – maybe you could shed some light on point 4 and the strange restriction on international cards at gas stations?