Where in the world is Caitlin Zandiego?: The Great Clock Crisis

Nearly three weeks into the program and one of the most complicated, time-consuming, exhaustive parts of my trip has been my epic search for... an alarm clock. Something that doesn't seem incredibly important during normal daily life, but when you have class at 8:15 each morning and prefer to wake early to exercise, this basic lack becomes very urgent. The hardest part of it was knowing that I had actually prepared for this and brought a clock from home. However, my clock didn't have the same voltage as the European outlets. Nonetheless, I tried it out. Exhibit A: my burned out clock.

My next line of action was a temporary fix- Olga's alarm on her phone. We made a system that ran pretty well, but I mostly had to adapt to her schedule. After nearly a week, I went to a flea market in Gronland. I stumbled upon an alarm clock for 10 kroner, the equivalent of about a $1.50. Not a bad deal, huh? Well, I should have known from the price. After plugging it in, I found that most of the lines in the display were gone. Miraculously after a few days, all the numbers returned. This wasn't the end of my problems, though. The clock has a functioning alarm- that only goes off if the volume for the radio is on at all times. So basically, in order for the radio to not be playing, the entire machine must be on mute which equals no alarm. Foiled again!