::A Geek in Korea::

I don’t consider myself a very popular guy around time. Usually foreigners that meet me say, "You’ve lived here how long? I’ve never seen you."

When my phone rang this morning at 7:00 AM, and my wife and I were both asleep, something either had to be wrong or unusual. The phone, which doubles as our alarm clock on most days, wasn’t supposed to make a sound until much later. I was still groggy when I pawed the phone open and put it to my ear. I didn’t get an immediate click of someone hanging up, but I was about to toss the phone back onto the nightstand when I heard someone speaking English.

What the hell is going on?

Now, I’ve only received a single wrong number in Korea that was by a native English speaker. Either the person that was looking for "Brian" two years ago has a terrible time trying to reach them, or it was probably someone I knew. Since anyone I knew in Korea was more likely to sleep in than I was, it was a good chance whoever called me wasn’t aware of the time difference. I do happen to have friends and relatives that like to scatter themselves around the globe from time to time.

It turns out, my parents just got around to calling via Skype, and the call forwarding option I had paid for worked perfectly. The contact ID my parents tried to reach wasn’t available because my computer was off, so it dialed my phone. If I hadn’t answered the called, I would have been able to listen to their voice mail when I logged into Skype. My father was actually surprised it worked so easily. He didn’t expect to reach me on his first try. Had I answered the phone in Korean like I usually do when I know who is calling, he might have hung up.

What an absolutely wonderful piece of technology. Now my parents and I can actually stay in contact easily instead of worrying about the times when we are available. My parents are always working, and I have times when I absolutely can not answer a phone. Now that I can be reached for free (or next to nothing) at any time, by anyone, anywhere. That’s simply mind blowing.

It’s so convient, in fact, that I might need to train my parents to use another website, The Time Zone Converter, unless I want to get more early morning phone calls.