Computer Troubles Abroad :(

Things go wrong! You must remain calm and flexible... Going abroad means money troubles, travel troubles, and those can only be the beginning! I have been so fortunate just being here... but realize things CAN go wrong...

So Nov. 9th I dropped off my computer at the Local Arnhem shop and have not had luck! I turned on my Dell Laptop one morning and the monitor was black. I could barely, barely see the background - it was EXTREMEMLY dim. I could see my welcome screen on the back and even got to my desktop but the bulb has been completely OUT. I have been really bummed out - not being able to skype with my family and friends and it has been tough with all of the group projects and things coming up as well with school. You realize you don't know what you have till it is gone :/ !

I have learned when things go "wrong" at home you have a lot of options/people to talk to and resources, but when abroad you must be open and flexible because when problems happen you must suck it up and deal with it (a lot of times in a DIFFERENT language than your own...). So today is the 22nd and I still don't have a laptop or gotten it back yet. The Arnhem shop (about 2 mins from where I live) only picks up laptops on Tuesdays and Friday's. I dropped it off on a Wednesday (thinking it would be picked up and taken to the store approx. 20 km away to get fixed). Well the man said there was a "mix up" and my laptop never even got picked up from the shop and all it had been doing was sitting in Arnhem - very frustrating! After I called multiple times to try and figure it out they said that they would get it sent to the next town to get fixed. This then took days and days just to get even a call back with cost...etc. The process here just hasn't been efficient and I feel as if I would have to do a lot of micro-managing just to understand the status of my laptop, what was happening and so forth. I feel like back home you would drop your laptop off, get a call the next day, get a quote and diagnostic - not necessarily here.

The Ede computer company (approx. 20 km away from Arnhem where they actually fix the computers) called me on Friday --- FINALLY! They said it would cost 140 Euros (Approx. 185 USD) to change out the backlight of the laptop. The man said this cost would NOT ensure that it would be fixed though. He said he could try but it wasn't for sure. He said it could have something to do with the motherboard or something that "turns on" the backlight and not necessarily the backlight itself (alone). Now I'm no computer genius by any means, but my entire laptop works, it is just so faint that I cannot see the mouse or what I am doing. When I showed him my laptop he said it was most likely just the light because everything else seemed to work - this is what I don't understand? I told the Ede company not to go through with the purchase of 140 euros, because I could not justify spending 140 Euros on something that I don't know would be fixed or not, especially because I could spend the 185 USD back home to go towards a NEW laptop. Make sense? I think if I knew it would be fixed for 140 Euros, I may do it -- but it was too much relying on luck more than anything, so I just couldn't. As I mentioned, it has been a frustrating ordeal being abroad without a laptop but I'm really trying to stay positive and learn from the experience. I hope that others who decide to study abroad will realize that being flexible is key. You get told "if things go wrong abroad".... blah blah blah, but NOTHING ever goes perfect while abroad and you never expect things to happen you just try to deal with them when they do. There are always occurances when things go wrong and you have to deal with things. My friend lost her I-pod and her camera broke after our first trip - i.e. things go wrong. TWO of my other friends laptops broke as well - i.e. things go wrong. My other friend took out 100 Euros from an ATM, and the money never actually came out - though she got charged for it. My other friend bought a bike - and it got stolen.... ALL IN ALL things go wrong. This is life :) You just think it is way worse when you aren't in your "comfortable" home country or home city.

My options now are going to be, picking up my laptop (un-fixed) in Arnhem and then take it to the city center to get looked at by some other shop with a different opinion. This was the first shop I went too and it looks as if it would cost me an outrageous 140 Euros so I am hoping if I take it to a different store they could give me a diagnostic and a quote and hopefully it can be a "quick" fix rather than something really intense or with the motherboard or what not. I went to the IT department at the HAN University and they gave me names of 2 other shops in the city center, but I am also trying to contact them more seeing if I could rent a laptop from the school in order to get me by 'till January. All in all, it comes at a bad time when school is starting to get tough and in depth and having group meetings day after day that I don't have the 2-3 hours to bike to and from the city center and try to meet with people to help sort out my laptop situation. Wishing there were more than 24 hours in a day!

A lot of my friends and teachers at school are saying - GO MAC GO MAC! I've never been a Mac girl, wondering what all of you out there think? I love my Dell laptop and my Mom ended up buying my sister a Dell a few months ago before she started college, and I love PC's but I'm wondering if a change is needed?

Lets just hope the best scenario comes out of this, I go to the city center - they can switch out the backlight and it won't cost me a lot. My friend Tad here from San Fransisco is really big into computers, and he said that I could order the backlight for my monitor directly from Dell - get it sent to Arnhem and then him and I could go online and look up how to switch it ourselves, I was also thinking of this option. I think I could do it. Why Not! I can do anything... right! ;)

And I'm wondering how much Dell would charge for a new backlight. As I said the computer works and everything is good and fine, it is just the bulb on my screen! Urgh!

I know I post a lot about great things, and the magnificent people I am meeting here and things I am doing - but this proves that Studying Abroad makes you such a better person just dealing with issues outside of your own country. If you would've asked me in September if I could function without a laptop in a foregin country I would un-doubtably say NO WAY JOSE, but now I am doing it and things are essentially fine. You realize what you can deal with and what you can deal WITHOUT. I've met amazing friends here who let me use their laptops at any time and even have sleepovers in their rooms so I am not lonely in my own room without movies to watch before bed :)

Always remember.... when things go wrong -- it honestly COULD BE WAY WORSE! I know there are others out there in the world with thousands of problems much, much bigger than mine :)

If I don't get my laptop fixed before coming home it'll be ok - and hopefully I can find someone at home more computer-literate to help out, for a cheap price :) I can have high hopes, right!

BK

** Stay tuned for the Prague pic's and blog from this past weekend :) It was a wonderful time! I am becoming IN LOVE with Eastern Europe now after Czech and Poland!