Communication (or the lack thereof)

I have had the worst luck making phone calls within this country. First of all I don't understand why you're phone number is different when someone is calling you long distance (you have to take away 15 and ad it somewhere else and then plug in a zero and some other code). Second of all it drives me crazy that most people do not have calling plans that allow them to call from their home phone to a cell phone. I can also send text messages on skype to cell phones in France and the United States but for some reason not in Argentina. It costs about an arm and a leg to make a call from a cell phone so about the only thing you can do is send text messages.

After having my first cell phone stolen I went in to buy another one in Buenos Aires. They told me that they were out of Rio Gallegos numbers but that I could switch from a Buenos Aires to a Rio Gallegos number within two months. But I can't go into one of the company's stores. I have to do it over the phone. In Spanish.

I'm now at Günes house (the Turkish exhange student) where, after running out of credit and trying to use her chip in my cell phone to send a message to a friend who sent me a message on my phone (we would use her phone but it's not allowing her to send messages right now), I have locked myself out of my phone without my friend's cell phone number. So I called my home phone (using Günes' home phone) to get my friend's cell phone number. I went online to my cell provider's website where you can send free text messages. I was told his number doesn't exist, although I'm not sure I used the correct combination of 15s. So we gave in and called his cell phone (using Günes' phone which you must remember can make calls which are expensive but cannot send messages (although it can receive messages (that's another story))). So his phone rang and rang and eventually went to voice mail. I left a voice message telling him that I was coming over later and to send me a text message to my cell (my phone chip is currently in another phone without any of my contacts). Meanwhile he sends a message to Günes' cell saying he can't answer the incoming call and wants to know who is calling him. Shortly after I received a message on my phone (not really mine, just unil I can unlock my real one) from him telling us to come over at 10. Did you follow all that?

So now I've got to go back to my house, write down my host parents' cell numbers and buy a phone card. Tomorrow I'll try to unlock my phone and change the number to a Rio Gallegos number. If you need to get ahold of me I recommend e-mail.