Time changes

Time differences are funny. At least half of the people we call, at least half of the time, manage to ask "what time is it there?" during a phone conversation.So that you all know, it's usually 7 hours later here than in the Central time zone. Except for right now. Since the US does daylight savings time on a different date than Europe does, it's now 6 hours later here until March 25th. Then it will spring back to 7 hours.

It's funny that time is so arbitrary that countries can just decide they will change it. There is no cosmic force regulating clocks, and no president of the world to keep them all in sync. And if you are in Arizona, you can just choose not to change your clocks at all.

I thought I had this down. Especially since I had to schedule a bunch of calls for my consulting gig. I didn't actually tell the people I called that I live in Germany. It didn't seem to be important except when I had to think hard about whether it was appropriate to say 'good morning' to them in order to not blow my cover. I had it all figured out until today.

My parents are coming to visit this week. Their trip was planned for March 20-30, so it was easy to remember the dates. They emailed me the itinerary and I wrote the dates on the calendar. Today I emailed them to say gute reise (have a good trip). Then my mom emailed back to remind me that they LEAVE on the 20th and arrive her on Wed. the 21st. Of course it was an overnight flight, of course it's 7 hours later here (or 6 but who's counting). I guess I didn't think that through. Oops. I could have been waiting and worrying at the airport tomorrow morning, not realizing I was 24 hours too early.

So now that I have cleaned up from the aftermath of the St Patrick's Day party, I have one extra day to get things ready for my parents and get caught up on my homework. The next time I call the US, feel free to ask me what time it is here, or there. Apparently I need more practice!