I have been trying to connect to the internet in my Holland House residence for the past five hours. At 21:35 EST, 2/24/2007, my response to a Write-On submission for the UR Writing Program is due. I must e-mail this response, and in order to do this, I need the internet to work. My integrity as a Writing Fellow depends upon this tentative connection. I have no way to tell anyone at the University of Rochester that I may not be able to complete this assignment in time, because all means of communication between me and anyone at that institution require the internet.
Have I mentioned that the English seem quite content to settle for less than they pay for? I find this to be overwhelmingly true with athletic facilities, but I have now found residential services to fir that trend, as well. Not only is there no internet provided in the dorm rooms (you have to go to the basement to get wireless access), but suddenly, even that internet access is temperamental—only occasionally available at best. Furthermore, I have only one electrical outlet in my room (into which, conveniently enough, the one lamp with which they provided me was plugged when I arrived), and the steam heater at one end of my closet-sized room is so ineffective that I had to request a small space heater from the porter (which, ironically enough, only fits underneath my desk and receives power only because I purchased a fifteen-quid power strip soon after discovering my room’s lack of outlets). Is this sub-standard living, or are Americans just spoiled?
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