Can I Have Your Number?

Tired and jet-lagged from not sleeping on an overnight flight, myself and a few others finally arrived in Dublin. It ended up that there was a large group of us on the same flight, which made sharing a cab and getting to the apartments very easy. As I crawled into the left hand front passenger seat of our crowded taxi (this is where the driver typically sits), this is when our arrival in Ireland finally became real. I was then excited to experience other aspects of technology that are different from at home.

The sidewalks tell you which way to look for traffic. This is very useful.

Just as the cars are different, the cell phones are also different in Ireland. To some extent at least. The devices are the same, but the way they work is much different. For only 20 Euros, you can get a phone that will call and text with no limits, but will use the 20 Euro credit for calls outside the country or the network. And everyone here is on the same network. Then you top up you phone when if/when it runs out of credit.

You don't need to sign anything. There are no contracts or anything. This wouldn't be cool in the United States. Companies like AT&T make sure they have you legally bounded for two years to pay a fortune for messages.

I'm sure there are companies in the United States that offer simplified cell phones. Although no one uses them so they can't be that great.

Photo: Darin Boutet

Before I got my iPhone about almost two years ago, I remember the texting with t9. My cell phone here just has a simple keypad. Although I won't be texting that much, it is still interesting to use t9 again. And it's scary that I'm still good at it. Even though the phone doesn't do anything besides call and text, this has one benefit. It has an endless battery.

On a completely different topic, if I could go back to freshman year, I would change my major to marketing. My professor for digital marketing seems to be an interesting person. He works for marketing for O2, the cell phone company. This seems like it will be a good class.