The Awkward Begins... or, The Porn Phone

Don't worry, this post is not explicit.

Today was an hilarious day. I stuck my foot in my mouth a lot (blech), and said weird things in Hungarian, and there was much cause for laughter. Wish you could have been there.

On our way to the Castle District for some sightseeing this afternoon, Elara and I serendipitously met fellow BSMers Edward and Joe on the same metro car. So, we changed our plans a bit – to go to IKEA! While technically IKEA is entirely less exciting than a castle, I needed to get a few things and we thought IKEA was just at the end of the red metro line on the Buda side of the Danube, so not too far from the Castle District. After wandering around looking like lost foreigners and consulting our telltale tourist maps, we screwed up the courage to ask for help. First, there's the obstacle of pronouncing IKEA in Hungarian. Spelling helps. The second obstacle was the blank looks we received - a sign that IKEA was nowhere nearby. Eventually we discovered IKEA is actually outside of Pest, so we made our way back to the metro. After all the built-up anticipation, shopping was rather anti-climactic. While at the plaza, we also took advantage of a T-Mobile store to purchase SIM cards for our Hungarian cell phones. Here is where my awkward day really began...

My apartment came equipped with one cell phone and SIM card left over from the previous semester's residents. When Fai and I originally tried using this phone, it didn't seem to work. So we transplanted the SIM card to her cell phone. However, I need a phone here as well, and I decided I could figure out how the cell phone worked well enough so I wouldn't have to buy a new one. The thing is, this phone is a little “sketch.” It's very beat-up, and whoever used it previously set the start-up screen as a set of pornographic photos of some lady stripping - completely. Seriously? Who puts porn on a phone??? No one I want to know very well. At any rate, I couldn't figure out how to fix this issue.

So I'm in the T-mobile store, having purchased a new SIM card, and the saleslady is helping me check to make sure it works with the phone. The phone starts up...

And the lady says... “Oh.”

I didn't say anything. I'd forgotten until that very moment about the porn.

And all of this was AFTER she had asked us if we were Italian and I replied, in Hungarian, “I don't know.” Oh, I represented my country well today.

When I returned home, I figured out how to change the start-up screen. Now my phone is happily adorned with butterflies and ladybugs. Edward and Elara have promised me that every time they see me using my phone, they will think I'm looking at porn. Thanks, guys. Really.