We had off on Tuesday, Nov 11th because it was Armistice Day in France. I didn't have many plans, so I decided to go on a solo trip to Versailles. It took only a few hours out of my morning, so I basically ended up with the rest of the day to hang out and relax. I had some work to do, so Jenn and I decided to go to the Starbucks near Grands Boulevards to get some work done. It's only a 15 minute walk away, and the inside was really nice and cozy. We found adjacent tables in the corner of the store, and I managed to actually get a lot of work done. A few hours into our visit, my mouth was getting bored, so I decided to go up and get a muffin. I figured that Jenn would watch my stuff, and even if she didnt, I didn't have to worry because I was in a corner seat, and whoever came to my table would first have to pass by Jenn's table. Turns out, someone managed to lean over the 4foot wooden ledge that separated my table from the door and swipe my phone right off my seat.
Needless to say.. I was appalled. I had never had my phone stolen before, and I never imaged that it would happen so blatantly. I spent at least 30 minutes just devouring the muffin and casually searching around for my iphone. It was weird... I was upset to a point where I couldn't express my anger and was totally calm. I managed to lock my phone, and luckily I had a spare iPhone 4, so I just imported all my iCloud information onto that instead. My parents were super understanding of the situation, and my dad even ordered me and iPhone 6 (for me when I get back) the day I told him what happened. Super thankful for that.
Fast forward a few weeks, and I had decided to Facetime with Glenn. About three minutes into our chat, my computer suddenly blacked out and was replaced with a grey screen prompting me for a four-digit pincode. I called Glenn, and he told me out that the same thing happened with his computer too. Long story short, it turns out that whoever stole my iPhone got ahold of my personal information and hacked into my iCloud to lock my devices from the inside out. Apparently this is a really serious hack, and it took me over two weeks to resolve it. For two weeks, the majority of my day consisted of asking for extensions and reschedules on assignments and interviews, hours of being put on hold by Apple, and fruitless attempts to fix my computer at local computer shops. Since I didn't have a computer, I would purposely wake up at 6am to go to school early and leave at almost 8pm everyday just to catch up on internship work and homework assignments. I was really tired and down during this time, especially because this hack occurred at a time where I really needed my computer, and it was terribly inconveniencing on so many levels. I was also very disappointed that a random person would go out of their way to do this to me.
Eventually, I found a place that could help me fix my computer, and although there was a serious lack of communication and some delays, I managed to unlock my computer. It cost me 120 euros (that I cannot afford right now..seriously), but they were able to save all of my data, which is more than what I could've asked for.
I'm a lot poorer but much happier now, and my stress levels have dropped considerably. To end this post, here are some photos from the beautiful Versailles- the last photos I took with my dear iPhone 5!
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