You now have a wireless device. Do you have a wireless service?

*see above* Yes! We have wireless in our apartment I'm not counting on it being terribly fast, and it's likely that I won't use it, but I like to send emails home periodically throughout the trip.

Litefoot - start talking up your phone woes to everyone you know. Someone's bound to have one you can borrow.

look11, wi-fi and wireless are not the same. You probably have wi-fi in your apartment, not wireless. That's why greg asked the question. *see above*

Wi-fi is what you use to connect to the internet and send emails.

Wireless is actually phone (or voice) service. It also provides data service when you're not connected to the internet through wi-fi. Wireless is what you use to talk on the phone and send text messages.

Without a wireless plan, your phone is useless for phoning and texting.

If you have an old iPhone without a cellular wireless plan, you can phone and text as long as you have wi-fi. There are free text apps that only use wi-fi, and if you go to VoiceCentral at http://voicecentral.riverturn.com/ you can follow the directions and make free phone calls to your friend and to the US. You can also make free Skype calls to those who have Skype.