Stuck? What is Meaning of Stuck?

It’s great when you have family and friends that are able to come visit you in college. I know I always appreciate it when my mom and dad come up to watch me in a play or cheer at a football game, but it’s really great that my mom and sister get to come to Rome to visit me during my semester abroad!
I’d been counting down the days until their visit and the day finally came. I headed down to the train station to catch a ride to the airport. I stood out in the nearly silent station waiting for the next train with two hippies guys about my age with flowers. I assumed they were on the same mission, to meet loved ones in the airport. The train came and the ride went without incident.
When we arrived at the airport, I realized I hadn’t ever gone to meet someone arriving, and therefore didn’t really know where to go. It took a few minutes but I found the right place and waited along all the other anxious people to see my guests walk through the sliding glass doors. I finally saw them and waved the little homemade sign I made with their names. I hugged them both and we began to walk to the exit. We caught a cab and we chatted about the trip all the way into Rome.
The driver dropped us off at their hotel/apartment, and we began our real adventure. We entered the building and then the stairwell with the set of keys I had received during check-in earlier in the day with no problems. The elevator was small so we loaded the luggage and sent my mom up the six stories as my little sister and I jogged up trying to beat her to the top. We failed miserably in our attempt and ended up nursing our sore calves and our burning lungs. I had the set of keys so I stuck the big crazy looking one in the top hole, like I had seen the woman who checked us in. I turned it once pushed on the door with no luck. I turned the key one more time and once again tried to open the door and it wouldn’t budge. So I decided to try to take the key out. This is where our true problems began!
The key was stuck. It would turn less of a quarter turn each way and wouldn’t move at all in or out. I was at a loss. It was after midnight, I didn’t want to call our “virtual concierge” (as she called herself.) I finally gave in though because I didn’t want to bend or break the key and we couldn’t just leave it in the door and go to my apartment, so I dialed the number. She answered with the Italian, “Pronto” and I replied with my soft scared voice explaining that I was extremely sorry to call so late but the key was stuck in the door and I couldn’t get it out. We then went through a long conversation trying to explain how it was stuck, that yes I had put it in the right key hole, that I had turned it and it didn’t open, and now the key wouldn’t move a single centimeter. She couldn’t seem to fathom that the key was “stuck,” I think it was mostly because she hadn’t heard that word before, but mostly because the silly Americans had never managed that one yet. She finally said she would be on her way.
She arrived at the apartment and began to violently shake the door and the key trying to get it out. I protested saying that it would probably break something, but she didn’t seem to think twice about it. Soon another resident came up, she lived in the adjacent apartment and got out a tool kit. The two of them proceeded to take out the screws of the plate for the key hole and shine a light in and prod at it with a screw driver. The lady finally said she would call a technician to take care of it.
Thirty minutes later, an Italian man wielding a large black suitcase arrived and began to inspect the damage. They spoke in Italian, and the lady seemed to get really upset. He left and said he would be back in ten minutes to get the problem fixed. She explained that the key had been put in upside down and because I had turned it several times, it was now broken and he would have to get the key out and replace the lock. That sounds simple now, but the process (mostly because we were in Italy) lasted until about 2:30 in the morning. After a million apologies, my mom and sister finally got to go to bed and I left, feeling absolutely miserable about my idiotic actions of the evening.
On a positive note, at least she now knew the meaning of stuck!
Ciao Rigazzi…Arrivederci A Presto!