Disappointment! But it could always be worse.

I was hoping to put up this post from my apartment here in Genoa. I’m writing it in the apartment, but I’m going to have to go find some place else to do it (probably the lobby of the hotel) because the internet doesn’t work. Of all the things that could have been wrong when I got to the apartment, this is among the worst – limiting myself to the set of things that wouldn’t make me immediately start looking for a new place. So I missed a chance to call my wife using the internet (sorry! So sorry!) .

This wouldn’t be so bad, except that I tried to buy a SIM card this afternoon for a phone a friend lent me before I left, and the response of the clerk at the store when I explained my situation was, “Do you speak English?” Sure, my Italian isn’t great. I probably didn’t have my game face on either, but I think there is no moment I dread more as a traveler than that one. After we switched to English, he gave me some line about how the phone was locked by the company or some such thing. It might even be true for all I know, but I don’t want to buy a phone for 40€ or more plus the cost of the minutes, and that seems to be what cell phones are retailing for around here these days. I guess $100 or so isn’t an unreasonable price for phone service for seven weeks, but frankly I’m not sure how much use it will be to me. We’ll see if I reconsider tomorrow (likely, particularly if the internet isn’t going to work).

So no phone for me today, or at least not until I get back to the hotel and try using Skype again. The program works fine, but I think there may be a hardware issue on the California end, because I tried to talk with my better half this morning / last night (depending on where you are) and it was all but impossible to hear her.

I’m not an expert in phones or technology. I’m a historian. But if anyone out there has experience with Skype and can help diagnose the problem we were having, I’d be grateful. Not monetarily, necessarily. But grateful enough. According to all parties, I could be heard just fine, although the built-in mic on my computer picks up way more background noise than I would like. When my wife would talk, however, I would hear what she was saying at first, loud (a little too loud?) and clear. After only a few seconds, however, the sound would cut out entirely and I would hear nothing. If we waited a couple of seconds and tried again, the same thing would happen. When a third party joined us for my first three-way call since middle school, they also had the same experience trying to hear my gentle companion. Seriously, if there are any technology wizards out there, I could use a hand. My only thought is that perhaps the microphone is set too loud at home, and this is causing some kind of problem. I will ask my wife to try and turn down the mic on the computer’s volume settings or with any program it might come with to manage the mic/webcam. But if that doesn’t work, I’m totally at sea. Hearing the frustration in her voice at it not working was almost enough to make me wish that we hadn’t tried. [Postscript - I just got an email that Skype from California has been troubleshot. Here's hoping for tomorrow!!]

The good news is that working on Italian this morning went relatively well. Even if I can’t converse as I’d like, just being able to talk to another human being for two hours was worth the price of admission. I don’t know that the present tense of irregular verbs or the definite and indefinite articles would have been my first conversation topic of choice, but oh well. This afternoon I meant to run more errands, but I went for a short walk after class, stopped back by the hotel for a moment to drop off some things, sat down on the bed and promptly fell asleep. I imagine this was on account of tiredness, itself a result of having been awoken last might at 2AM by a (false) fire alarm in the hotel. Still, I have been feeling fairly cold all day, which isn’t usually a good sign with respect to my physical health. At any rate, I didn’t have time to look for a watch / alarm clock, see San Lorenzo on the inside, or go to the archive and try to introduce myself there. This last task will be accomplished tomorrow, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t 110% terrified of having to do so.

P.S. - The apartment was a mess when I got there. It looked like four fratboys had been living there: empty and half-empty and full liquor bottles, dirty dishes piled in the sink, nasty toothbrushes in the bathroom, one girl's razor, dust bunnies strewn about, clothes hanging here and there, and a refrigerator and pantry filled with... er.. irregular contents. Nothing spoiled. But both too many and not enough foods to make a decent meal, if you know what I mean. I have a roommate ("Tom"), an Englishman whom I have yet to lay eyes on and who has (allegedly) been living in this apartment for a month. I can say with authority I have never been so glad to be married to someone with a neat streak 5200 feet wide as I was this afternoon. Also, my standards have no doubt changed as the first thing I did on getting there was begin to straighten up. Luckily enough, the landlady arrived shortly thereafter and she did a substantial clean of all of the apartment. Thank God!