Communication

Because of the time difference and the cost, I won’t be making a lot of phone calls home. I may get on AIM (AOL instant messenger) every once in a while, but for those of you who are more technically savvy there is a better option. I’ve downloaded a free computer program called “skype.” It allows you to make a phone call between two computers. It doesn’t cost anything from computer to computer (it only charges for telephone to computer calls). You can go to www.skype.com and download the program in about 15 minutes. Once you have it downloaded and set up an account for yourself (still free) then you can add me as a contact. My username is Valerie.Estes. It’s a fairly simple process (after all, I figured it out) so give it a try. Of course, you can always just check this blog or e-mail me (Valerie.estes@ttu.edu) to stay in touch.

On a side note, here is how the time difference works. Sydney is 7 hours behind and a calendar day ahead (or you can think of it as being 17 hours ahead). In other words, if it is 8:00 a.m. on Monday in Texas then it is 1:00 a.m. on Tuesday. Good luck figuring this one out, because I haven’t gotten the hang of it yet!