Phone home

I'm always surprised at the things that are difficult to figure out here in Vienna. Laundry. Dishes. The telephone.

Yes, I've been having problems with the telephone. You're probably wondering how on earth the telephone can be difficult. You just pick up the phone, dial a number and then hope someone answers (or doesn't answer) on the other end. But I've had a lot of trouble with the phone.

There are several issues involved here and I won't bore you with the details. I was able to use a cell phone without any problems, but up until a few weeks ago I could not get the land line to work. In fact, I had never been able to place a call from our land line. So I got the box that the phone came in and tried to figure it out -- like maybe the instructions would tell me there was some special code I had to use in order to place a call.

Well guess what. Lo and behold, right there on the front of the box there was a message that the phone was programmed to work with Telekom Austria -- one of the big phone companies, but not the one we went with. I still don't know exactly what it means to be programmed to work with Telekom Austria, but I did figure out that it meant I needed a secret code in order to get my phone to work. Well, maybe not secret since it was right there in the instructions. (Although, since the instructions were in German it was a bit like deciphering a secret code. And while I'm on it, why is it that every electronic thing I buy in the U.S. includes instructions in 20 or 30 different languages -- or at least 3 -- and everything I buy in Austria only has instructions in German? Or, if they do have instructions in other languages it never includes English. Come on, don't you think English should come before Dutch? Surely there are more people in Austria who speak English than Dutch. I think it's a conspiracy.)

Anyway, so it turns out that we have to hold down this particular key on the phone for several seconds until we get a different tone, then we can make a phone call. Not just once, but every single time we have to make a phone call. It's not difficult, but just the thought of it kind of annoys me. It makes me wish we didn't pick out the cheapest phone at the store.