Contact!

It still took several days before I was able to work out how to get them to ring my apartment from Australia using a phone card bought in Australia – by far the cheapest way. No less than 40 digits to press makes it a bit of a challenge.
Still no internet connection in the flat, though.

The caretaker woman insists all we need to do is enter an IP address on our computer. When requested to do so, she couldn’t. It is an ongoing saga, and quite frustrating, as my reliance on the internet for so many things, least of all lesson preparation, is considerable.

Postscript: all is now working - persistence has paid off! Thank you all, for your messages of support - they are very much appreciated.