Short Circuit: Electronics 😭

    As I believe it to have been mentioned in a previous post, our first week in Spain had some electronic mishaps. (Phones failing to work. A pair of clippers making sounds like a chainsaw.) Now these minor problems had a minimal effect on our lives that some could even consider a positive one. For example, the nonfunctional clippers led to the "Best Haircut Ever." Also with functional phones, we wouldn't have gotten separated in a Corte Inglés (imagine a 6 or 7 level Walmart/Target) and then managed to obtain an insane step count while wandering around looking for each other. However, our encounters with troublesome technology did not end there, and here forthcoming is the telling of the Mashby Technology Struggle, in Spain, 2023. 

   For starters, it is relevant for you to know that I now have a new phone. This is my first phone and my parents have now taught me how to set up a phone so that it doesn't know your life story. As most people know, setting up an iPhone is a ridiculous and time consuming thing to do. Now, imagine doing this for the first time in a new country, with new phone numbers. Trying to get everything to reconcile took all afternoon and in the end, it all worked…except group texting. Why? Who knows, it works now (now as in when I'm typing this).

    As tech companies like to do, there were deals we could buy that combined to make my phone cheaper. In this case it was a TV soccer package (for those who don't know - we are soccer fans), and then on the side internet came with a Disney and Netflix package. This was great! We had entertainment we would watch, we had means to communicate with each other, we had WIFI showing up in a couple days... and we didn't have a TV. (🤦‍♂️Ok maybe the last one wasn't so positive) 

    Now our life of technology hunting has brought us to another superstore of Zaragoza (the one previously mentioned being Corte Inglés), Carrefour. Now Carrefour has only two floors, each the size of Costco but only one has food. The other floor is mini Amazon and has a little of pretty much everything including a large selection of TVs. While my dad picked out a TV, my mother and I grabbed some things that were needed in the new apartment (aka a pillow, some food, and pillowcases). 

    Back to the apartment in taxi with TV (I was going to say "in tow" but really it sat on my mother's and my laps in the back seats of the taxi) we went. The assembly was pretty easy. Only some minor hiccups with the attachment of the feet and it was time for my Dad to set up the TV. The initial set up needed internet, which we didn't have yet. So we started over and after a couple of hours, the TV was set up ready to roll with only a video game console (this was the only thing that worked without internet).

     The arrival of the internet came with the surprise that we would have to set it up ourselves (at least this was a surprise for me). Fearless, my mother and I sprang to action and came limping away 30 minutes later for a break. Four hours later, we came back with the aid of YouTube and made it to step two, before not being able to find the right plug. Another break ensued. Finally, we found the right plug (on the bottom of an outlet box with the internet company's name printed on it) and set up the internet. While it booted up we repeatedly tried to connect (using the 20 digit long password of random letters and numbers - I'm pretty sure I have it memorized) until it finally worked. With the availability of the internet and the TV chip box, my dad was able (over 4 hours) to finish setting up the TV. 

    In the end we realized that we didn't have the correct TV channels, though a quick phone call sorted this out. We had to wait for everything to set itself up. Back to the future (which is just today) all technology works. This is the end of the Mashby Technology struggle, in Spain, 2023... at least for now.