Time is a Modular System

8/3/10

Call it the math teacher in me, but I found several different ways to easily figure out the time change between you and me. You can just take your time and add 22 (19, 18, 16 or 12) hours. You could also subtract 2 (5, 6, 8 and 12) hours and then add a day. Or, you can add 10 (7, 6, 4 or 0) hours and then just add 12 hours (or switch am to pm or pm to am). As a last resort, I made a little excel time chart for the Marshall Islands, Hawaii, the west coast, Utah, the east coast and Germany. The colored times are times when I expect to be awake compared with everywhere else. I find it interesting that if I had the need to include more cities in the eastern hemisphere (i.e. Abu Dhabi, Calcutta, Hong Kong, Guam etc) the pattern of colors would be reflected accordingly. I didn’t quite realize before that the Marshall Islands are exactly on the opposite side of the world from Germany. Feel free to use whatever works best for you.


I am living with a family right now until the new housing units are completed. I was concerned about imposing on their resources. As it turns out they have three bedrooms in their home, even though the third room still appears to be more of a storage room than a bedroom. All the children (as many as 10) sleep in the largest room on the three beds pushed together in there, and the parents are sleeping in the living room for now. They claim that it’s more comfortable to sleep in a large room, and as long as it is okay with them I feel good about it. Plus, they have four children going to the Co-op school. Two of their children are on scholarship and the tuition of the other two children will be waived as long as I am living with them. That pretty much made the decision for me. Anyway, I have my own room with a nice little closet, desk, bed and air conditioning unit. They offered to move a TV into my room but I declined. I can buy wireless internet cards for $10 for 100 minutes and there are quite a few wireless spots around the island. I can use skype from my laptop probably on the weekends to talk to people. You can also call me but expect someone else to answer the phone (maybe in Marshallese): 629-625-4379. (If you call on skype it’s just a couple cents a minute). I might be able to use wireless for free at a few spots with a purchase of food or beverage; we’ll see. I can use the dial-up internet in the school library after school hours for teaching resources and to email. Honestly, this might be the greatest adjustment that I need to make, greater even than the heat, the food and the pace of life. Even at my “Walden Pond” in Park City, I was able to make nightly phone calls and use the internet a few times a week, high speed at least once a week. I actually have Emerson here with me; a quotation would be nice right here but for some reason my lights won’t turn on and (er…) the sun hasn’t come up yet.