So I plug in the adapter and the charger cord, and the light comes on. I think, great! Then I start looking around on the camera for where the other end is supposed to be plugged in. I look, and look, and just as I am about to plug it into where I think it goes, I hear a POP and a small black cloud of smoke comes from the charger! A terrible smell starts to fill the room (much worse than when I accidently left my plastic spatula handle on a hot burner yesterday morning, although that was heinous as well). Abandoning all concern for my own safety (insert dramatic music here) I yanked that badboy out of the wall and flung it to the floor. I am pretty sure I fried the charger, although my dad sent me two, along with a fully charged secondary battery. (Thank God for fathers.) I plugged in a curling iron into the adapted outlet and it still worked, although if I would have plugged in my camera before sticking that thing into the wall, not only would I have lost all my pictures, I would have fried the crap out of a brand new digital camera too - and one I had to pay a $55 customs fee to pick up at the post office! (Not to mention that my dad paid for it, paid to insure it, and paid a lot to just send it through the post.)
Good grief. Word to the wise - if you are traveling, figure out what adapters and transformers you will need ahead of time. My bright idea before coming here was to figure that out later, once I got here. (This would not have been smart, because when I got here, I spent two weeks on a schedule, throwing up, not feeling comfortable going anywhere alone, and trying to figure out what value the money the PC doled out to me had.) At home, I had sold my car and was being lazy about spending money. I am so glad my mom drug me out to find a worldwide pack of adapters at Radio Shack, as well as a transformer. An adapter is just the little piece that fits in the outlet, that lets you plug in your appliances. But that doesn't change the voltage, and almost all countries have different plugs, not to mention voltages. My hairdryer converts automatically, as well as does my laptop, but things like my straightening iron or curling iron need a transformer. Well...maybe THEY really don't, but apparently with my camera it's no joke!
Previous digital camera adventures have involved walking on isolated dirt roads and hiding my camera under my shirt last-minute as wagons pass, causing a huge tumor-like bulge near my rib cage that evokes a concerned frown from whoever is on the wagon, running as fast as I could away from a rabid dog that I tried to photograph when I thought it was sleeping, and the mother of all adventures, sneaking blatantly into someone's yard to photograph their goat, which was on a tether and it got scared and made so much noise, the resident came out, and then invited me in for coffee.