First Breakdown Abroad

Attention: this post is about me being a bit of a princess. But I might have learned something, too.

French bureaucracy is somewhat legendary around the world for being the most difficult and inefficient system around. This summer, it took a total of four days of travel time and a flurry of faxing, scanning, copying, and finding documents just to get my student visa. The country basically becomes dysfunctional during the month of August because everybody has an entire month of vacation at the same time. And the customer service is notorious for being extremely un-serviceable.

So when yours truly woke up on Saturday morning and decided to reach over to the dresser for the iphone containing last night's muploads, and said iphone slipped of the dresser with great force, landing screen-first on the corner of a pulled-out drawer, leaving the screen a pixelated and striped unusable mess. I hoped a quick trip to the apple store would solve all my problems and leave me able to WhatsApp my mom and dad once again. But I was wrong.

There are two apple stores in Paris. One is by the famous Opera, and the other is underground, next to the Louvre. Of course, I didn't know it was underground. I thought it would be hard to miss. We kept walking back and forth along the line of stores outside the Louvre. I'd ask a shopkeeper for directions, in French, and for the first time they all seemed insistent on answering in French as well. I'd smile, nod, and be just as lost as before.

When we finally realized that there was an entire mall hiding out under the Louvre pyramid, I thought a repaired iPhone was a blink away. However, did I have an appointment? No. They next available appointment was for Friday. (six days later). I made the appointment and dejectedly treated myself to Starbucks to numb the pain

Luckily I was able to take a friends appointment for the next day,and after waiting thirty minutes, dealt with the nicest genius bar guy, Xavier. My new phone was in reach! He ran a bunch of tests to make sure my American sim card would work. Then, he said to come back Monday night because international systems are down on Sundays. So close.

Monday evening finally brought a new phone, at the bargain price of 199 euros, though I was left to my own devices to set it up. iMessage wasn't working, and I couldn't redownload whatsapp without receiving a text. A new apple employee told me there was no way iMessage would work without an international plan, even though it has been working perfectly for three weeks. Whatsapp wouldnt work either, because you need to receive a text as verification and i cant receive texts abroad It was the last straw.

This is what a bathroom that costs 1.50E looks
like, in case you were wondering.

I threw a princess fit in the middle of the apple store and started crying. (yes, because my iPhone didn't work. I know). The employee backed away slowly and left me to my tears. He came back over to ask if it was working which was really just a hint because the store was closing. I stood outside the store stealing their wifi for my nearly-functional new phone, complaining to my brother. He kindly informed that I was having "first world problems," which was entirely true and I calmed down a little. I still allowed myself some Starbucks and paid 1.50 to use some pretty fancy bathrooms in the Carrousel de Louvre. (they were pretty clean).

Anyway, I survived my first abroad breakdown, which is more a product of the wear and tear of living in a new culture than the technical difficulties I was facing. Luckily, employees at the apple store speak English, though the values of French customer service still show through. Thanks to the tough love of my brother and the efficiency of globalization, I realize my stressful problem could have been a lot worse. Now, I just need to find an otterbox so I can't break my phone again.