Phone Troubles......Good Garsh!

We love Switzerland. We really do. It has beautiful sights, wonderful cheese and chocolate, great fashion, beautiful language, and did I mention cheese and chocolate? We love it. But if you want to live in Switzerland for an extended period of time, it has it's pain moments. They like to make it a little difficult for non-citizens to live here. Getting visas and permits was quite the process, but getting a phone was nothing short of a HUGE victory for us! Now, we know that what I am about to vent about is what Andy calls a "first-world problem," so it really doesn't matter compared to other stuff, but we thought we would let you in on our little adventure this past Saturday, and FINALLY getting a phone.

Back up a little bit to my first day here. Andy and Jane Newman picked me up from the airport, lots of reunion hugs and kisses. We go back to Newmans, rest a little, eat a little, and then Jane offered to take us to a nearby shopping center to get a phone for me. We couldn't walk out with a phone that day because we had to reserve and order it. No big deal. I would be with Jane for the whole next week and somewhat connected. Then we find out we can't get the actual phone and sign a contract until we get my resident permit, which was at least two weeks out. Okee.

Fast forward two weeks later. I have my permit, YAY! I am a resident of Geneva! And the phone comes in, YAY! As much as I loved getting lost in the city a few times, and having to plan every detatil the whole day with Andy (which still is fantastic practice), I was excited to have a means  of knowing where I was going and being able to contact Andy. So, I meet up with wonderful Jane out by her home so she can drive me to the shopping center to get the phone. It's times like these when a car comes in handy. They write up the contract and start trying to activate the phone. They tell us it will take anywhere from 2 hours to 24 hours. Geez. We leave and then hear back a few hours later that our contract was rejected. arrrrgggg. Meanwhile, Andy and I are emailing back and forth trying to figure it out. We find out that because of our permit type, we have to lay down a $1000 deposit to buy a cellphone. Apparently, they are nervous about customers buying a phone and then leaving the country. Seriously?

It was an "I miss my country" day. On the train ride to Bern, Andy and I just commiserated about how we miss Tostitos, brown sugar, gooooood mexican food, and cheap stuff. We sound pretty pathetic huh? Anyways, we were able to make a money transfer to pay the deposit, and were told we could pick up the phone that following Saturday.

And now the adventure begins! We were unable to secure a ride, so we decided to take public transport. We took a train from Geneva to Coppet, where we would then get on a bus. We get on the wrong bus and realize that it was wrong when we get to the end of the line. Bah. We wait a half hour until the bus takes us back to the train station. We make sure we get on the right bus and are told that it would be a ten minute walk from the bus stop to the shopping center. We get off at the stop, and it is frrreeeeeezzzzing. We are not used to this "wet cold" thing. It cuts through every layer you are wearing. We walk ten minutes and then look across a farm field and see the shopping center. More than a ten minute walk.



It is kind of cold

the long road through the farm fields

 We find a farm road that cuts across the field and walk down that, with the wind blowing hard. We can't remember being quite this cold. I actually had a few layers on, plus a scarf and beanie, but poor Andrew was only wearing his coat. Plus we are starving. We finally get to the shopping center and practically walk out with the phone. YAY! We walk out and try to look for a place to eat. But the cell phone employee chases us down and tells us he forgot to have us sign paperwork. We were worried that he was going to take the phone away! But it wasn't so bad, we signed, and they helped us start up the phone, and we got to leave! I don't think I have ever been so excited about a piece of technology. We both do a little victory dance and then head off to find food for our hungry selves. We pick up some wraps from the grocery store there, and head back towards the bus stop (bus only comes once an hour!). This was even colder. The wind is blowing against us this time, and since we were carrying bags, we couldn't put our hands in our pockets. ohhhhhh chilly. We were just laughing the whole walk back. We get to the bus stop and bust open our lunch and wait for what seems like forever. Our fingers were so numb, but we didn't care because we were so hungry! The bus finally comes, we go to the station and then finally get to warm up on the train.

What a day! But we finally got a phone!

To my flip phones and my "dumb phone": The times we shared have been sweet. May you rest in peace. I caved and joined the iPhone world.