Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Epic Time Zone Fail

This trip in Germany started out OK even though it is a very last minute trip. Other than a lack of sleep upon arrival it is going pretty well. On Tuesday evening I realized that the last time I was in a bed sleeping was on Sunday night/Monday morning. I slept 2-3 hours on the 7 hour flight. Then I had the pleasure of waiting for 4 hours in Amsterdam airport.

I leave Amsterdam and arrive in Germany but I need to wait 2 hours for a colleague to arrive. By taking the next flight 2 hours later my colleague saved $900. I think I got the last ticket at the lower price for the flight to Amsterdam to Germany... anyway, it would have cost him $900 to be on the same flight as me. So I get to wait... I had a snack and laid my head down on the table and took a 30 minute nap.

So best case scenario I had 3 and a half hours of sleep from 6:30am on Monday morning to Tuesday evening. That is pushing it a little bit for me but I managed. The 6 hour time difference is not too bad.

My cell phone is a global phone and works everywhere that I have been so far. It does not have the same problem as some blackberry phones when it comes to changing time. My phone changes time to the current local time where blackberry phones do not always change.

That is very fortunate for me because I always use my phone as my alarm clock. So on Tuesday night I go to bed around 10:00pm and set my phone alarm for 5:30am so that I can get in a run before work. My alarm goes off at 5:30am and I wake up and think I'll cut my run a little shorter than normal and sleep an extra half hour. So I set the alarm for 6:00 am and get up and almost say no, I don't need to run. I need to sleep. I went to the bathroom and then got back into bed. Then I started to feel guilty and got up and went to run. It is still dark and should start to get light around 6:30.

I am a little tired during the run and don't run very fast or very far. I finished 3.3 miles in 30 minutes when I normally finish 3.5 miles in 28 minutes.

The funny thing is that it is not even a little bit light. The stars are bright and there was not a soul on the road. By the end of the run it is still not even a little light.

I get back to my room and get ready to take a shower and start the day. When I decide to look at my computer. It was on with the screen shut. I opened it up and it said 7:45pm. My laptop does not change time. It is always the time it is at home. I was a little tired but I could still do some simple math. 7:45 pm plus 6 hours is 1:45 am. I immediately look at my phone and it says 6:45 am... I then look at my watch and it say 1:45 am. Lame.

I had the privilege or running in Germany starting at 1:15 am until 1:45 am. Who else can say that?

The last time I was in Korea I set my phone time zone for GSM as Seoul. When my phone changed to a GSM network after being at the hotel for a couple hours so the dumb phone changed to the time in Seoul. Which is all well and good but I'm in Germany. I fiddle with the settings and find the time zone I'm in and sure enough, I have Seoul selected. I change it to Berlin and wham bam, 1:45 am shows up. Well by now it is pushing 1:55 am.

So I go back to bed after resetting the alarm for 6:45 - I'm meeting the guys for breakfast at 7:30.

I still like my dumb phone.

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