Today was NOT a fairytale

In what has been perhaps the most frustrating day in Beijing to date,

I had to traverse the city to find the elusive Apple Store. The reason?

I messed up my iPhone about as much as it's possible to mess up...

Once upon a time...

I thought I was really clever and awesome by taking my iPhone with me to China. Since it wrote in characters so well, I thought I could just stick in a Chinese SIM card and use it for my 7 months here in 中国. So, I went off and bought a nice little SIM card.

Too tame, let's add some conflict...

After finally getting the SIM card into my iPhone, I realized that it wasn't picking up any service. I took it to the student center on campus (called the "Friendship Store," quite the misnomer) and showed my phone to them to see if they could figure out what's wrong.

This is where there is a glimmer of hope...

The techie behind the counter told me he could unlock my phone for me. I was unsure but he said he was positive he could do it. So I left him my phone and came back in a few hours. Lo and behold, he had unlocked my phone... and erased its entire memory in the process. Luckily I had my entire phone backed up on my computer.

Now comes the temporary peace...

So now I was in possession of an unlocked iPhone that I would be able to use for the duration of my stay in China. Whether it would work with AT&T when I got back to the States was anyone's guess. Either way, I had the phone for another seven months, and didn't have to buy a new one. Life was good.

Until temptation arises...

I decided to start repersonalizing my iPhone, so I took the time to put some music on it. No problems there. But then iTunes informed me that my phone was due for a software upgrade. I thought to myself, "If I want to put on that Chinese dictionary app, it would probably be best for me to have the latest software." So, with the click of a button, I began to upgrade my phone.

And leads to the heroine's tragic fall...

The upgrade went through without a hitch, until the final step came around. The newly-updated phone had to receive a validation, of sorts, of its upgrade, which is done in iTunes through an internet connection. Well, since the techie unlocked my phone, he basically gave it a new identity, so iTunes (or whatever program is behind it) couldn't recognize my unlocked phone. No recognition, no completed software update. Now my phone is permanently urging me to connect to iTunes, and iTunes is permanently telling me that they cannot complete my upgrade.

She desperately looks for help...

Of course, in the rare instance that an Apple product has a serious problem, there's only one true solution: go to the Apple store. I took a good deal of time to prepare for my journey. I wrote down subway stops, street intersections, and necessary vocabulary words, like "software upgrade." After class, I took the subway to the stop nearest to the store, and set off to find my shiny silver destination. All I found at first, however, was street after street of embassies. I stopped to ask one of the guards if he knew where the Apple store was. Suffice it to say, I think a few things were lost in translation, namely the fact that I was looking for a computer store, not a fruit market.

And then when all hope seems lost...

I accidentally found where I needed to go. It turns out I had been going the right way the whole time; the distance was just farther than I had assumed from reading the map. After getting to the Apple store, I gamely tried to explain my problem in Chinese. The store assistant was getting frustrated though, so he finally insisted I speak English. And then, I broke the language pledge... Oh the shame...... the shame...... Ok, let's be honest, I didn't feel too awful. I tried my hardest and didn't give in until he really insisted I use English so he could help me. But then he couldn't help!! He innocently looked at me and said, "See the problem is, what you did is illegal." I innocently replied, "Oh. Really?" Both of our required roles fulfilled, he then told me I would have to get it looked at in the States; they couldn't help me with an American iPhone.

So the heroine must now lick her wounds...

I got some Starbucks. Managed to refuse the Cold Stone, though.

And bravely make the best of the situation...

I took the MOST CROWDED SUBWAY EVER back to the university and headed back to that darn "Friendship Store," to buy a cell phone. I explained to the guy that I broke my iPhone, and he informed me that if I just gave him the broken phone, he would give me a cell phone for free. I said I'd prefer to keep it, but he kept insisting that it was broken and useless to me, so why keep it? I told him, "Look, if I give you my phone, my dad will be 不太高兴 (not very happy)." So after finally convincing him that I wasn't going to part with my iPhone, I bought a cute little $35 Chinese cell phone that reminds me of the first phones everyone had in high school.

Lesson learned, kind of...

I guess I'll be using this tiny little phone until December. By that point, my contract should be in the renewal time period, so if I'm excessively lucky, maybe I can get the iPhone 4. Note, Daddy, that I said MAYBE.